This was a cute enjoyable romantic comedy. It was predictable but still a comfort read. I listened to it quickly and enjoyed the narrator a lot.

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙚, 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩. 𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙡, 𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙄’𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙩𝙤𝙤. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙄’𝙢 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙤𝙬.”
___

Reminiscent of Mhairi McFarlane, I absolutely loved The Last Word and I highly recommend experiencing it in audio. The narration was absolutely fantastic! I can’t tell you how many times I laughed out loud while listening to this. The constant back and forth between Ryan and Harper was hilarious. Even when it got ridiculous, I still found myself grinning from ear to ear.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks that carefully unfolded Ryan and Harper’s past relationship and fall out. It really helped me to understand Harper better. I really related to her organized chaos and I love that she was the exact opposite of Ryan. Harper was a little difficult toward the end, BUT after experiencing one meeting with her parents, I totally understood why she acted the way she did and put up so many walls. Imagine going through that scenario repeatedly, every few months. No wonder Harper’s self worth was so low. I truly understand why she did certain things to protect herself, and I’m so glad Ryan stuck it out to be there for her. He was the perfect man to balance her out. What a doll. I just loved him so much!

This story is filled out so much heart, humor and hilarity. I really enjoyed Harper’s friends, and some further reconciliation that takes place at the end. This story is filled out so much heart, humor and hilarity. I’m so excited to go back and read Katy Birchall’s other books on my backlist after loving this so much!!

Thank you to Macmillan audio for an ALC and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy. My thoughts are my own.

When her new boss begins to sideline her as Celebrity Editor, Harper Jenkins sees red. But things go from bad to worse when he promotes her arc-nemesis and former love, Ryan, to be Features Editor.

Right from the start, I knew I was going to enjoy this second chance, enemies to lovers, workplace romance. With wit and banter along the lines of Sophie Kinsella, Birchall does an amazing job at bringing these A-game tropes together in a really fun and entertaining way.

One of my favorite aspects of this story was the wonderful cast of supporting characters. I think Birchall found the perfect balance between the overarching romance and the importance of the inclusion of these deep and meaningful friendships. And of course it’s London setting made it that much more fun for me.

Thank you SMP Romance and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copies in exchange for my honest review.

*** Thank you to Netgalley, Katy Birchall, St. Martin’s Griffin and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook***
Release Date: 05.02.2023
Tropes: Second Chance Romance / Enemies to Lovers

Harper is a well trusted journalist working in the entertainment industry. She has a boyfriend, Liam, whom she likes but does not love and spends much of her time with her coworkers turned friends. When one of Harper’s coworkers leaves the company and the replacement is announced Harper’s world turns upside down when she sees no other than her former co-intern whom she shared a “magical” weekend with over a decade ago, Ryan. Ryan quickly earned the trust and love from his new coworkers except for Harper, who refuses to let go of the past. As the two are forced to work close together and even attend the same events, Harpers walls come down and she learns Ryan has been interested in Harper … well, forever. After Harper breaks up with her boyfriend and agrees to take things as they are with Ryan, things start to get … weird. Life happens. Work happens. But also, love happens.

Karen Cass was a great narrator for this audiobook, I felt her voice was calm, exciting and easy to keep my interest. I always enjoy work place romances but I felt as though this one was relatively … generic, but well written. There are some parts of the story which made me laugh out loud. It was a nice listen while I was working. I definitely would recommend this for a light beach read.

Harper is the celebrity editor at The Narrative and loves her job. She has a couple of great friends who support each other at work with the only pain being Cosmo, their boss. When one friend leaves for a promotion with another publication, the new hire is a face Harper has been avoiding to great lengths. She can't stand stick-in-the-mud and neat-freak Ryan. They've only gotten on well for a short time years ago but she'll never forget their big blow up. It's more than infuriating that the sparks persist between them.
I loved the tension and chemistry between Harper and Ryan. Their constant bickering and need to have the last word was relatable even when it got to be a touch too much. I wanted to have Ryan's POV because he was such a sweet cinnamon roll even through Harper's less than positive viewpoint.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book

I always enjoy a good enemies to lovers story and The Last Word didn't disappoint.

Harper and Ryan have history. They met roughly ten years before as interns and their potential love story fell apart dramatically then. Now they are working together again. No one knows about their past and Harper has decided it's easier that way. So when the barbed comments start flying, their co-workers can't help but watch their antics and wonder what drives such intense emotions. As time goes on, their old emotions surface and the hate starts looking more like it could be unrequited love. But what is Harper supposed to do with those feelings after all this time?

The chemistry between these two is off the charts. I loved their banter and back and forth bickering. It was sometimes frustrating that Harper couldn't ever see the good in Ryan even when he went out of his way to do nice things for her. She'd acknowledge it for about a second and then become side-tracked by some other work related drama where she felt slighted.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:: The narration was perfection. I loved the way it pulled me into the story even more that reading it, if that's possible. Also, I felt as if I could hear Harper's snakiness when she was giving Ryan trouble. Likewise, you could hear Ryan's cool and calm responses. It was quite enjoyable. 5 stars

This is definitely one of those books where a lot of time and energy could have been saved if they'd only talked things through but then we wouldn't have had a book. And I wouldn't have been able to become so invested in Harper and Ryan's potential HEA.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

I love the enemies to lovers trope and adding in the work place was definitely fun. This was a fun slow burn romance which made you really root for the two main characters. Their history definitely added a good spark to their timeline.

Actual rating 3.5

Last Words was… fine.

It starts off strong, perfectly believable, establishing our heroine Harper as a career obsessed and slightly bitter towards love journalist. She’s been burned by love in the past and wants to focus on what’s important in her life with few distractions, her passion? Celebrities. She’s well known is the business for her ability to put her interview subjects at ease and her focus on treating celebrities like real people. Rather than hunting gossip, she want to tell people’s stories and lift them up. Queue Ryan, the man who betrayed her 10 years ago when her career was just kicking off.

I thought this book was really solid and I enjoyed the writing. The set up was fun and I was invested enough in the plot lines that it was an absolute breeze to finish the book. Unfortunately as the book goes on it becomes a little less and less realistic. There weren’t any plot twists I didn’t see coming, but I found some of the choices that our main characters make in the third act to be… odd. Not in anyway that upsets me or truly negates character growth, it just really hit me as a a strange wrap up all around.

Still, this book is a very quick and entertaining romance. I did enjoy and would happily recommend even if it’s not getting a spot on my favorites shelf.

Audio 4.5/5

Easy. Clearly read and acted, no complaints about this performance whatsoever.

🎧 New Audiobook Review🎧

The Last Word by Katy Birchall
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this enemies to lovers rom-com. Former colleagues turned current colleagues are working together at a glossy newspaper. Harper is the Celebrity Editor who is known to get the good scoops because of how kind and ethical she is. Ryan comes on as the Features Editor and she remembers interning formerly with him. Ryan is a neat freak who is no nonsense. Working in close quarters causes a lot of arguments between them.

I enjoyed the banter in the story. There wasn’t really a high level of spice and that was a bummer but the story was really great. I loved Harper’s character who is someone who pursued her passion despite what her parents thought about it and was going through some transitions in her career. I also like how she stood up to her dousche of a boss and advocated for herself. It’s really the story I needed to read right now.

The relationships were great and developed well in the story. It was a fun read that I’d recommend. The narrator did a great job with it as well.

Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for a ALC of this story which publishes 5/2.

The Last Word by Katy Birchall
4/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

This was such a cute and funny listen! If you like a good workplace slow-burn, this ones for you. Told in flashbacks between their 2012 internship at a newspaper and current day careers at the same magazine, Ryan and Harper have clearly never gotten along. They are complete opposites and can't stand each other, (except when they are getting along and having chemistry filled interactions). When they are put on the same assignment and everything they've felt for the past ten years comes to the surface, they will be forced to confront their feelings and decide how they can ever go back to being indifferent rivals.

Read this book if you like:
- rivals to lovers
- stories told through flashbacks
- workplace romance
- opposites attract
- British romance

The Last Word will be released May 2nd and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
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Special thanks to Macmillan Audio for sharing a free copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC. 💖

I've been a Katy Birchall fan since her debut adult novel, The Secret Bridesmaid, so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of The Last Word.

This book was so much fun! It has some of my favorite tropes: enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract, forced proximity, and workplace romcom. It's clever, witty, charming and has fantastic banter! I also really enjoyed the depth here, as in addition to the love story, there are subplots of tumultuous family relationships, workplace issues, and a great deal of character growth.

I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook format, narrated by the talented Karen Cass. I've listened to Karen perform others, but this may be her best! Excellent work! 👏🏻

Birchall is such a reliable author. I always know I'm going to enjoy whatever she writes! Can't wait for the next one. 💕

**IG review post coming tomorrow**

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the free ALC in exchange for honest review. I completely expected this book to be an absolute 5 star for me but didn't enjoy the narrator or story seemed like a family drama and expexted it to be more romance. The characters were both annoying and irritating and was screaming at them the whole time.

4 stars!

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Last Word" by Katy Birchall. The story starts off a little slowly, but it gradually blossoms into an intriguing, compelling enemies-to-lovers, second-chance workplace romance that I was invested in all the way. I liked the main characters, Harper and Ryan, both together and individually. They both grow tremendously as people by the end of the book, and they have terrific character arcs from start to finish. I found their bickering to be funny and silly, but I can see why others might be put off by it. There is also a fabulous supporting cast of characters here. My one complaint is that this is a fairly predictable story. It doesn't deviate from the winning enemies-to-lovers formula much, but it's written so well that I didn't mind at all. Author Katy Birchall made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion with her quippy, entertaining writing. I also loved Karen Cass's audiobook narration! I thought she had a fantastic wit about her, which gave authenticity to these characters and made them feel more realistic than they may have otherwise. She's a fabulous narrator! Overall, I liked this book way more than something like, say, "The Hating Game," perhaps because the characters are so much more enjoyable and so much less toxic. Give this one a read ASAP!

Thank you to NetGalley, Katy Birchall, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

For some books, it is easy to gush about what you love. Others are so "meh", it is hard to say anything. This falls into the other trap- my brain automatically focuses on the elements that kept me from LOVING it. (Note- I liked it, I just had a few recurring hang ups that prevented me from liking it even more)

Actually, now that I was thinking, I really have only one issue- people treat Harper like crap and she takes it. Her boyfriend, her parents, her boss. Not only does she not stand up for herself, neither does anyone else. Harper seems too strong of a person to put up with all of that all the time.

I can say that I related so much to Harper's alarm setting habit. While not a late person like she is, I do have a tendency to sleep through alarms (My alarm clock used to be in my bathroom- so I'd have to get up to shut it off). Setting a new alarm every few minutes is something I do, lol.

I listened to the audiobook. It is narrated by Karen Cass. Overall, no problems. However, this is going to sound weird, at times it sounded like she had a stuffy nose and it distracted me. I am currently sick myself (thank you, pollen), so maybe I am just hyper sensitive to that at the moment, lol.

I received an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

I normally like enemies to lovers but this one wasn't my cup of tea. The arguing felt so kid like. Would adults really argue over bald eagles at their work place? I did enjoy the majority of the characters and the narrator of the audiobook so overall it was ok.

Harper and Ryan. Classic enemies to lovers. Maybe. They profess to hate each other. But do they?

I really enjoyed Harper being a celebrity columnist. Her job clearly was very important to her and I enjoyed the behind the scenes of that.

The romance part was juts okay for me. I kept wanting something more. It dragged on so long until we got the them actually being together. But I liked both characters and their storyline outside of romance was very interesting to me.

I had both ALC and ARC copies. I found the audio more engaging for sure. I enjoyed despite the slow start and would read this author again.

Many thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for the ALC and ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Listen if You Like:
🥈 Second Chance Romances
🔥 Rivals/Enemies to Lovers
💼 Workplace Romances
✨ Celebrity Gossip
✍🏻 Writer MC’s

This one felt like a departure from Katy’s prior books and it just missed the mark for what I was expecting based on the way she wrote her prior books.

I found myself lacking being invested in Harper and Ryan’s story of a second chance at romance. I truly hated that the reason for their first break up was repeated into their second and felt like neither character had experienced any growth.

I did enjoy the ending and was so happy to see Harper taking control of her life and finding her place for success.

If you are looking for a solid second chance/enemies to lovers in a workplace setting I would recommend this one for that. Thanks so much to the publisher for my ALC in exchange for my honest review!

The sexism was a bit too much, especially in the beginning. It seemed to overtake the story and I started to lose interest for the first ⅓ of this book. Going into this, I was expecting a romance and when workplace toxicities seemed to take over the story I almost didn’t finish it. But I’m so glad this book didn’t solely focus on that as the main subject because this author writes one hell of a romance book. Once the book started focusing on Harper and Ryan I completely fell in love with this book.

I really enjoyed the narrator for this book. She matched the tone for this book and she provided unique voices for every character.

I was hardcore crushing on Ryan from the moment I met him. I’m such a sucker for a pseudo enemies-to-more workplace romance, especially when it’s clearly obvious the guy falls first. He brought a sweetness to this story that made this romance book stand out from the rest. Though it was a rough beginning, when the story picked up I couldn’t help but devour this book. Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for this ALC

The Last Word by Katy Birchall
Pub Date: May 2, 2023 🗓️

I absolutely LOVED this book! This was my first book by Birchall and will not be my last! I felt such a strong connection to the main character, Harper, and just want to meet someone like her in real life, because I feel like she would be my best friend. The character development was so strong and I cannot recommend this book enough!

The description of this book compares it to The Hating Game and I feel like this is SPOT ON! I loved The Hating Game and I love The Last Word! I felt like I flew through this book because I could not stop reading it. Harper, the main character, is a journalist, who is well liked by all, except her boss. She does her job well, despite being messy and usually late. What I love about her character is that despite her flaws, she gets her work done and does it WELL. When she finds herself working at the same publication as Ryan, a co-worker/love interest from her past, she has to decide if she can trust him again after their past working relationships turned sour. I loved Ryan almost as much as I loved Harper.

I also loved the background related to Harper’s parents/sister. I felt like this added so much dimension to the story and felt it added so much!

The narrator, Karen Cass was just perfect for this role and I felt like she really was the perfect voice for Harper. I absolutely loved listening to the audiobook just as much as I loved reading the physical book!

Read The Last Word if you like:
💙Enemies to lovers
💙Second chance romance
💙Amazing character banter
💙Perfect supporting characters
💙A perfectly imperfect main character

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Katy Birchall, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Last Word audiobook!

Posted on Instagram on April 28, 2023 (Currently Reading): http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
Posted on Goodreads on April 10, 2023: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram (full review) on May 2, 2023: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Instagram (mini review) in April 2023: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on May 2, 2023
**-will post on designated date

3.75 stars

Harper and Ryan are serving enemies to lovers, and while that's not my most sought-after scenario, I enjoy this author so much that I thought I'd go for it anyway. The gamble paid off for me, even with that incoming barrier, and I am certain that folks who enjoy this trope and/or this author will also leave this read feeling satisfied, particularly if they, too, go with the audio version.

One of Birchall's greatest qualities in writing romance is that this is never ALL that's going on with her characters - even the women! LOL. Harper is fun to read not because of what's happening in her love-hate-love life but because she's skilled, driven, and round. The romance is intriguing, but the best parts of the book, at least for this reader, are the insights into Harper's family relationships and the connections she sees between her work and who she is at a fundamental level. These elements will be extremely relatable to many readers and perhaps even more impactful - or at least a pleasant surprise - to many readers.

This is my third Birchall novel (for grown folks), and I continue to enjoy these works. I'm looking forward to whatever she produces next.