A sweet story that focuses on second chances in life and love. Riley and Max made choices that sent them in separate directions years ago, can a hit song and a retirement home in need bring them back together?

I absolutely loved this book! If you like Tis the Damn Season by Taylor Swift you’ll absolutely love this book. The story alternates between rising pop star Riley Wynn, who just released an album of breakup songs each dedicated to an old flame, and Max Harcourt, the inspiration between the best song on the album; Max joins her on tour, and their feelings for each other start to reignite. This was a fascinating look into the lives of pop stars and what a tour looks like, and the authors did an excellent job of portraying it. I was rooting for Riley and Max the whole time, and loved seeing their feelings for each other develop. I also loved how deep the book got as Riley and Max separately struggled with their own identities, careers, and the choices they made and the lives they want to live. Perfect for fans of slow burn, second chance romances, and anyone who wants a fun, sexy, and thoughtful book.

DNF- OMG CAN YOU SAY CRINGE? I really wanted to love this book but it was just so disappointing & not enjoyable. The dialogue was cringe. The main characters were extremely unlikeable!

I’ve done it again - Gone and requested too many galleys with not enough time to read them. I will absolutely read The Breakup Tour at some point, but I’ve definitely missed the window for an advance review. I’m sorry:((

i am no taylor swift fan, and even i think this is a pretty unfair depiction of her.

it is very weird to profit off of the most famous person in the world in what you claim is a love letter to her by perpetuating the meanest stereotypes about her — that she profits off her breakups on purpose and wouldn't be famous without them.

i have a lot of criticisms, beginning with carbon emissions and ending with fame chasing, but even i can't deny she's talented

on top of that, this book is just bad. in some silly ways — the lyrics; the number of adjectives; escaping a crowd of rabid fans by (check notes) walking away down another street and putting sunglasses on; wearing your wedding dress onstage; making our male main character do a fashion show to determine his new rock star look, which is (again let me check my notes) a "rakish bow tie" and "glasses" like a "lounge pianist," because nothing screams hot bad boy like theater kid chic; the idea that our love interest could just open his laptop and buy a ticket the day of the final show of a tour we've been repeatedly told is sold out — and in some not as silly ways — this couple had less than no chemistry, to the point that i assumed we were still early in the book until i was flabbergasted by a surprise kiss and looked to see we were at the halfway mark. the only thing more surprising was the sex scene.

so much of this book is just STRANGE. our love interest's tragic backstory is that his family's retirement home is closing. our heroine is dragging around her newly divorced mom on a pop concert tour she doesn't seem interested in. why were these choices made???

riley is one of the least likable protagonists i've read in memory: completely selfish, fame-obsessed, describes "what she does" as "reaching everyone with her music," listening constantly to her own songs, inviting her ex husband to events "for inspiration," and unable to understand why everyone doesn't immediately kowtow to her in a scenario where basically everyone already does. i don't really know how to describe how unrealistic and unfeeling and borderline sociopathic this character is, but it certainly isn't a flattering portrayal of taylor swift! so i just don't know who this book is for

so many sentences like "I snuff the rogue indignation" or "She endeavors to smile." However, now they only feel like the forces that will pull us apart. Inevitable. Painful, yet without cruelty. “Can you honestly ask me to stay when you’ve practically said we can never be more than another breakup song?” "inquisitive disappointment"

imagine playing piano and asking the musician how they want it to sound and they go "like sunrise after sleepless nights." i'm putting in 2 weeks notice

this is a second chance romance, and it seems like all of their love story is predicated on the idea that one time they had chemistry and that they share musical talent. but neither of those are on page so i don't know what we're doing here

and i just can't stress enough how if your retirement community is failing, i don't see how dating taylor swift for the publicity is the best way to handle that. last i heard geriatrics weren't her primary demo. it's one thing to sell jerseys to teenage girls, quite another to try to convince them to put their grandparents into a home in the rural south. and the book just ends without resolution on this so who knows!

the way all of her exes talk about her is also disgusting: “So you’re the first to go in for two rounds,” he finally says." "the girl loves drama. she feeds on it."

they get back together ONSTAGE lol. i read justin bieber fanfiction better than this

Yeah.... no thank you. Wow this book should not have been dedicated to Taylor Swift fans. That felt like a cheap shot in order to get a lot of reads/downloads. To fully dedicate a book to one of the most popular artists right now and then completely trash on her character while insinuating that she sabotages all her relationships just to be able to write a breakup album? That's not cute and I don't appreciate that at all, especially as a Swiftie. This could've been a totally fine book if it weren't geared to the completely wrong audience.

This is a must-read for all my fellow swifties! I really enjoyed this author-duo's previous work, and THE BREAKUP TOUR did not disappoint. I loved all the nods to Taylor Swift, and the romance had me on the edge of my seat! Loved it.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗨𝗣 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥 *. °•★    
by Emily Wibberly available now!  
 
r e v i e w  
I was thrilled when I discovered this book as a devoted #swiftie! It revolves around superstar Riley, renowned for her breakup songs. The story unfolds as she writes a song about her college sweetheart, Max, reigniting their connection during a worldwide tour. It’s a second chance for Max to rediscover his music passion and for both to revisit buried emotions. While some aspects didn’t resonate with me, overall, I think it’s a good book. I would not say that it’s inspired by Taylor Swift having read it. I actually don’t like her association at all with this book for many reasons. I would say it’s more Paolo and Lizzie McGuire- especially the ending. And I would advise going into this not expecting it to be inspired by Taylor Swift. The FMC and Taylor aren’t similar in the slightest aside from her being a popstar.

The audiobook enhanced my reading experience- I enjoyed Riley’s narrator.

4 stars and I recommend the audiobook!

✨ 𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗦 ✨  
•Second Chance Romance
•Character Discovery
•Musician + Pop Star  
•HEA
•Found Family
 
Thank you to #partners @berkleypub @berkleyromance @prhaudio and @netgalley for the arc of this audio/ebook 🎧

I’m honestly shocked at how low of a rating this book has because I thought it was beautiful 🥹

This truly shows how complex life can be and even if something seems right, sometimes it’s just not the right time or place. Sometimes you need to fight hard for what or who you want in your life. Making yourself vulnerable is so difficult but what can come from that could make everything worth it.

I was not expecting anything in this book. I thought “ooh a Taylor swift inspired romance, I’m in” but this was so much more than that. I’m speechless.

These two authors are officially on my watch list! This is the second book I’ve read from them (thanks to Berkeley) and I’ve not been disappointed. I look forward to reading more from them!!

Exactly the kind of emotional, swoony story for this Swiftie's soul. The duo nails it again, creating magnetic characters who feel so real and irresistible to root for through the very last page.

Did not finish. this was a huge miss for me. I made it about 9 chapters and... yeah I am just going to protect my peace with this one.
if you're a swiftie and you're going in thinking this is going to be a love letter to swifties and to taylor swift, then you will be sad. TO ME, this is like bad TS fan fiction written by people who have maybe seen 4 interviews 10 years ago and think they know taylor swift. it's too close to not be taylor swift, but also it's not her at all??? it's a very confusing and weird experience.
im not going to lie, 1 was very excited about this book. but my bestie read this arc in october or november and told me that the vibes were off and so maybe that colored my experience a bit. but im not kidding you, the similes and metaphors in the book were tooooo much. like I get it, they are musicians, but be so for real, they are not using musical language THAT often (at one point, she says that the MMC is sight-reading her... im like yeah it's just called looking in normal human speak).
who knows. maybe I'll finish this another time? maybe when the audio comes out? if I have nothing to read?

I was apprehensive going into this one, and ultimately it was not done well enough for me.

While Riley and Max's second chance relationship developed a little too quickly for me, I did still enjoy their interactions throughout the story, particularly when they got past their initial awkwardness of being back in each other's orbit after so many years. I also enjoyed the setting of Riley's tour, it added a fun element, and I loved getting to know her band members and seeing the way she brought her album to life.

The story follows a Taylor Swift-type of pop superstar named Riley Wynn as she embarks on a world tour for an album filled with breakup songs dedicated to each of her exes. In taking on a story that is heavily inspired by Taylor Swift, I feel like you have to have a really good knowledge of her, and I didn't get that feeling from this book. It seemed to me that Riley as a character was just the embodiment of the image that Taylor has spent years trying to dismantle and fight against.

Another big miss for me was the writing style. I read Do I Know You last year and utterly adored it, but the way this book was written did not work for me. It was clear to me that the authors were trying much too hard to make the writing sound lyrical, but the result was an excessive use of long-winded metaphors that took me completely out of the story. By the end, I was skimming through the pages, blowing past paragraphs to reach the dialogue.

Both Riley and Max felt relatively underdeveloped as well. They have so much baggage between the two of them, and they didn't seem to work through it in any satisfying way, especially Riley.

Overall, this book was unfortunately a miss. What could have been a wonderful second-chance romance that paid tribute to one of the biggest pop stars of our generation ultimately ended up lacking depth and development.

This was just... not it.
Call it what you want, but this was billed as the "Taylor Swift" romance so I was ready to be enchanted. However, it took a stereotype of our girl as a main character, but added in a huge ego, a penchant for writing cheesy and cliche song lyrics, and a shallow one-dimensioned personality. I'll admit, the first few chapters I was into the story before it became treacherous. But once it you hit the mid-point, there was still zero chemistry between the MC and her second-chance love interest, and all of the things listed above about the MC were getting on my nerves. So it goes, this book also did one of my biggest writing pet peeves -- it "told" instead of "showed" major plot points. If I'm supposed to believe these two characters are having this epic love story, SHOW me. Don't just give me the tl;dr in a single paragraph and expect me to believe their relationship and root for them. Don't set up this story about how this man's family's business is in trouble but then is miraculously saved in a passing sentence by his identity being picked up by the tabloids. You're losing me. There were so many issues with this book that I ended up just skimming the last 15% (Is it over now?) to be sure nothing interesting happened, like these two actually realizing that their relationship was a sham, but I guess they'll just tolerate it.

Dnf 65% in. I promised myself I wouldn’t read another adult romance by these authors but then they just had to do a Taylor inspired one. I wasn’t offended by the Taylor references or anything I was just bored. It was boring. Listening to Riley talk about herself and her breakups was infuriating. I do not care dude. Max was just a dude who forced himself onto her tour. So I will for real not be reading anything by this author duo anymore I swear.

2.5⭐️
Thank you so much to Berkley Romance, Netgalley, and PRH Audio for the advanced copies of this book. All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

Holy melodramatic 😅

I'm starting to think that this author duo was a one hit wonder for me. While I loved The Roughest Draft, I haven't enjoyed anything since. And this one was definitely my least favorite to date.

I know a lot of people are upset over the Taylor Swift comparisons, but that has nothing to do with my rating. I can see the parallels but my feelings are about this book alone.

This book follows a second chance romance between college sweethearts years after one of them becomes world famous. They fell in love over their mutual love of music and the hero's lack of interest in fame and the spotlight tore them apart.

Now they're touring together to perform her high breakup song together. One that's actually about the hero and not her recent ex-husband.

I LOVE forced proximity. It is my absolutely favorite romance trope and it's very rare that a book centering it isn't one I end up loving.

But I felt like this book didn't utilize it at all.

Instead we got pages upon pages upon pages of dramatic internal monologues from both characters with little to no on page plot or development.

These characters lacked any semblance of personality beyond what's in the synopsis. The heroine is a famous singer. The hero plays piano and wants to run his family business. The end. I couldn't tell you a single personality trait for either of them. Because they didn't have any.

Which meant that nothing they did felt impactful. Their first kiss? Who cares. I don't even know you or why either of you like each other.

But not only were the constant internal monologues annoying and repetitive, but they were so. damn. dramatic.

There is a scene where the heroine is on stage singing. And she goes on a 4 page monologue about lord knows what, and when we return to the song, she's only sung like a single verse.... Does time move differently in this world?

In the end this book was just boring, melodramatic, and completely underdeveloped. I think the synopsis would have to be exceptionally intriguing for me to pick up this author duo again...

This second chance rockstar romance is full of angsty moments and what might have been. Fortunately for Max he grabs the opportunity to explore what the road not taken could've looked like and goes on tour with his superstar former love Riley in exchange for publicly coming out as her muse for her current hit song. I didn't feel a strong romantic chemistry between Max and Riley, but the caring and friendship was there. I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at going on a music tour and that the words to a couple of songs were included at the end. While the audiobook was entertaining, the voices didn't quite work for me in this story, although I've enjoyed both narrators often in other projects. I'm wondering if I would've connected with the characters and story better if I had read a physical copy? Worth the read, but there's a little something missing for me..

Let me start off by saying that I am not a Swiftie but what I am is a fan of romance so I decided to give this a try.  I knew going into this book that it was heavily influenced by Taylor Swift.  I mean, the character Riley Wynn is well known for her breakup songs so it was really hard to separate the singer from the character.
If you love Taylor Swift, then I would highly recommend this.

Ever wanted a book inspired by Taylor Swift? Then this is the one! This had all the makings of a great romcom: second chance romance, a million easter eggs, a moment where the main character sings her song about her awful ex in her wedding dress! This was a fun ride!

Sadly, this one did not work well for me.

I have high expectations for this book knowing who the inspiration is but the narration felt flat for me. The scenes that should be swoonworthy sounds the same with the rest of the novel. I love the songs and the songwriter aspect plus the second chance element however it felt like when all of these are combined, it was not as unforgettable as what I was expecting.

2.5stars!

Calling all Swifties... this book is dedicated to you and inspired by Taylor herself! With a new album dropping in April and living in KC, I couldn't think of a better time to read a love story for a superstar.

Light and fun, THE BREAKUP TOUR is the third book for the wife and husband duo (@wibbs_ink & @austins_b). I loved that they included lyrics to the songs mentioned throughout at the end of the book.

For this one, I mainly listened to the audiobook. The dual narration with the two POVs tend to make great audiobooks and this one lived up to that expectation with Brittany Pressley (one of my faves) and Dan Bittner narrating. With the slow burn, second chance romance, they were both easy to follow and pulled you into their story.

Gifted: @prhaudio @netgalley @berkleyromance