If a book is marketed as enemies to lovers, you bet I'll be reading it!

There was a few things I really loved about this book. More specifically the MMC Lucas, who was a grump with a big heart and a secret softie. The banter between Lucas and Izyy was also funny and I liked the email format of the book too! They're both exhausted, hurt, and struggling characters who are very misunderstood. I also loved the hotel setting and all the customers and sweet moments we get.

There were also parts I didn't love or just couldn't connect with. The book heavily relies on miscommunication and not talking to each other but instead just assuming things. It was fine in the beginning but got old fast. I also didn't love the "ring" storyline.

Overall, this was precious and sweet and I definitely recommend it to anywho looking for a semi festive read!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC <3

Review will be posted on 10/12/23

Izzy and Lucas both work as concierges at the Forest Manor Hotel in southern England. They don't work well together, thanks to an issue they had last Christmas. Izzy wrote Lucas a letter confessing her feelings for him, and he promptly kissed her roommate. Cue the awkwardness and the resentment from Izzy. Since then, she has avoided him until the hotel assigned them both the same task of going through the lost property room and selling the items to raise money. The hotel is going bankrupt and selling the items is their only hope to not only save the hotel but also their jobs. They find a lot of junk, but then they come across five wedding rings. Izzy reunites one of the rings with its owner and receives a hefty reward. Let the competition begin! As they spend more time together, readers can't help but hope they get past the miscommunication from last Christmas and take a chance on love. Beth O'Leary's The Wake-Up Call is a delightful rom-com that would be perfect to snuggle up with this holiday season.


I really enjoyed the relationship between Izzy and Lucas in The Wake-Up Call. I liked their witty banter and their backstory, especially as readers find out what actually happened between them last Christmas. O'Leary has a way of making her romances feel like such a fun rom-com, the kind with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Just like the older rom-com I grew up with, her books are charming, have cute settings, and will sure to make you laugh. Needless to say, I was rooting for Izzy, Lucas, and even the charming hotel.


That leads me to the setting of Forest Manor Hotel. I absolutely adored it! I stayed at a hotel in southern England once and I still daydream about it. O'Leary brought it to life beautifully and there were many holiday moments in The Wake-Up Call, which would make this a great read for the fall and upcoming holiday season.



Are you a fan of Beth O'Leary's novels? Is The Wake-Up Call on your fall TBR list? Let me know in the comments below.

I very much enjoyed this latest Beth O'Leary title! A dual-POV workplace enemies-to-lovers? Yes, that's the good stuff. I loved Izzy, I loved Lucas, and I loved the whole cast of characters working with them at the hotel. I could even tolerate the fact that our lovely leads are enemies because of a miscommunication. This book wasn't heavy the way The Road Trip and The No-Show were, and I loved it all the more because of that. If you've enjoyed any of O'Leary's other books (specifically The Flatshare), or if at any point in your romance journey you read and enjoyed The Hating Game, I think this will scratch that itch quite nicely.

Izzy and Lucas work at a hotel and have a complicated relationship. Last year, Izzy confessed her romantic feelings in a card and he ignored it. They don't often work during the same shift but when the hotel needs renovations and suffers financially, they are forced to work shifts together. In an effort to recoup money, Izzy and Lucas go through the lost and found items, hoping to sell them. When Izzy finds 5 wedding rings, her goal is to reunite them to their owners. As Izzy and Lucas compete to reunite the rings, they get to know each other better.

A cute rom com, Izzy and Lucas work together and seem to hate each other. Due to a misunderstanding, they spend a year arguing and being nasty to each other until they realize they have feelings for each other. The miscommunication is drawn out a little bit too long, but the setting of the hotel and the secondary characters added to the story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Oh my gosh I love Beth O’Leary and this book was too cute! It had me hooked and I didn’t wanna put it down!

Another fun and sweet romance from Beth O'Leary. It will have you laughing and swooning in equal measure.

This was good! It was like an updated The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, but better. I thought that the hotel was such a great setting and I loved the cast of characters there. It was so sweet and a great read.

I really enjoyed this book - the enemies to lovers plotline really worked for me.

Izzy is a perky, enthusiastic holiday elf that you can’t help but love. The enemies to lovers banter made the book really fun. I could tell Lucas was pining and agonizing over Izzy and loved that part of the story.

Although Izzy and Lucas are the stars of the story, the other characters who were staying at the hotel provide some colorful backdrop to the setting of Forest Manor Hotel.

4.5 rounded up

I had a fun time reading this book… but most of it was just ok.

The romance was cute, they had a lot of chemistry together. However, there was way too much miscommunication for me. So many problems in this book would have been solved (including her hatred for him) if there was less miscommunication. I know it was to add conflict towards the end of the book, but I think it was overdone.

The setting was very unique, I’m not sure if I’ve read any books that are set at a hotel during Christmas. I also enjoyed the plot, but I don’t really understand why they would return the rings. One person gave them a large amount of money, so that’s enough reason to try to find the owners of all the other rings?? I think that selling the rings would have gotten them way more money, especially the ones with jewels on them.

This was definitely a cute holiday romance, but I had some issues with the plot and romance aspects of the novel.

Oh, Beth O’Leary, I love your books. I have been a fan ever since I read The Flat Share. I was over the moon when I got approved to read this! The Wake-Up Call had all the things I liked. Grumpy and Sunshine. Witty banter. Hate to love. I loved the chemistry between Lucas and Izzy. Of course, it wasn’t all about the romance. I enjoyed reading about why they cared so much about the hotel, their family and coworkers, and their backstories.
Now, to be fair in my review, I didn’t like the pacing. I felt it had been slow to start. The plot didn’t pick up until about halfway. However, the ending was sweet and made me feel cosy. Overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.

Beth O’Leary’s The Wake-Up Call is a pleasant enough read (a cleverer choice of title than at first appears, btw), despite carrying recent romance trends I don’t enjoy, first-person present-tense narration and closed-bedroom scenes. Truth be told, there’s a trend in romance, like the Center I read this summer, that reminds me of the chicklit years: first person narration, rom-com vibes, pixie-girl heroines, and physical humour. It’s fine and I enjoyed The Wake-Up Call for the most part, but this trend lacks the genre’s intimacy (and not because the bedroom door is closed); rather there’s so much going on, so much of the cute, so convoluted the plot, and the romance is buried in there, embedded, not primary.

O’Leary’s romance trope is enemies-to-lovers; her premise, unique and compelling, if contrived. The publisher’s blurb will fill in the details:

Two hotel receptionists—and arch-rivals—find a collection of old wedding rings and compete to return them to their owners, discovering their own love story along the way.

It’s the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel’s front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it through.

The hotel won’t stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest’s lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management that this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in the lost & found, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel—and their jobs.

As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there’s more at stake here than the hotel’s future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?

If there’s one thing I give O’Leary it’s her funny grumpy-sunshine pairing. Izzy refers to Lucas as Robot-Man and he’s always side-eying her sunshiny ways: “THE HOTEL IS SWARMING WITH FIREFIGHTERS. IZZY IS BEING unprofessionally flirtatious with one of the particularly handsome ones. I am in a very bad mood.” Lucas is staccato-blunt and scowly. It’s amusing as Izzy and Lucas verbally spar, banter, and take digs at each other. Izzy flits, flirts, charms, and hugs; Lucas scowls and digitizes the hotel’s booking system. She glues his mouse to the front-desk and he neatly arranges everything in her snack drawer.

O’Leary takes stock romance characters, grumpy-sunshine, and uses their “stock” as a mask to hide their vulnerabilities. She uses the romance narrative to slowly let the masks drop revealing their true selves to each other. The catalyst is their physical attraction. We learn that Izzy runs with carpe diem because she lost her parents. What else is there but to live for the moment, given life’s fragility? She collects friends to stave off the loneliness. Being with the sombre, serious Lucas sees her question her need to constantly be on the social scene. Lucas, in turn, lost his father when he was young; saw his family, sister and mother, be beholden to a harsh uncle-brother-in-law, is hyper-conscious that security and stability are the most important qualities to live by. Izzy helps him loosen up, tell his story, and yearn. Yearning suits Lucas. Teasing each other mercilessly makes for a funny first half, but getting to know each other upends their assumptions.

What didn’t work? O’Leary’s romance drags on with many secondary characters: the hotel guests, the loveable owners, Lucas’s family, Izzy’s many friends, but the worst of it is the narrative’s episodic nature. The romance is central sometimes and at times, it isn’t; least appealing is how the romance hinges on a misunderstanding. Oh no, the Big Mis: she is here. Nevertheless, there is tenderness to Lucas and Izzy falling for each. And they’re lovely people: they admit to the other’s qualities and grow to love them. The Big Mis carries them along for too long, but their declaration is magnificent, reminiscent of quite the Christmas movie. Then, this baby goes on and on and on…there’s even an HEA to the HEA. Miss Austen and I agree, Beth O’Leary’s The Wake-Up Call is “almost pretty,” Northanger Abbey.

Beth O’Leary’s The Wake-Up Call is published by Berkley and was released on Sept. 26. I received an e-galley, via Netgalley, from Berkley. This does not impede the free expression of my opinion.

An enemies-to-lovers romance that' s full of sparkle and sparks!

Beth O’Leary’s books are always full of quirky, offbeat characters and situations, and The Wake-Up Call is another treat. While there are some more serious plot elements about family loss, grief, and mourning, the overall tone is cute and full of humor, and the chemistry between Izzy and Lucas simply sparkles.

The Wake-Up Call is a great pick for when you’re looking for something light and cheerful, and would also make a terrific choice when the winter holidays roll around.

Smiles guaranteed! Don’t miss it.

I have enjoyed so many of Beth O’Leary’s books, and they always put a smile on my face when I finish reading them.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙖𝙠𝙚-𝙐𝙥 𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙡 was such a feel-good enemies to lovers and arch rivals story with such great characters. While this is low on the steam, it was full of all the great banter, and I didn’t even mind the miscommunication because it fueled their rivalry and made the story fun without being the only focus of the plot.

I also loved the setting at the Historic Inn at Christmas that felt so heartwarming and cozy, and reminded me so much of a holiday movie.

🎧I really enjoyed the alternating narration by Jessie Cave and Lino Facioli, and how it really brought the story to life, and would love to listen to more audiobooks performed by them.

*many thanks to Berkley Romance, PRH Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This story is the cutest! I could totally see it as a Netflix series or a Hallmark Christmas movie, it has that vibe. Charming, fun, with lots of banter, quirky characters, adventures and the most beautiful setting. I loved it, it's a feel good kind of story. Just the kind of break you would need.

Lucas and Izzy work at this whimsical hotel and all their back and forths, pining and hate to love shenanigans were fun and sizzling. Then there's the whole ring backstory, which was original, mysterious, heart-melting and kept you guessing as the characters followed the trail, the hotel itself and the cast of supporting characters that make this story so wholesome and multidimensional.

There is a charming, light, addictive quality to Beth's writing, I liked her stories before too. And the fact that she writes from the English countryside, which always hold a soft spot for me, makes it more special and personal.

It's a closed door romance but with lots of passion and tension, so I could easily recommend it to anyone.

Perfect Christmas RomCom!

*arc provided by the publisher Berkley in exchange for a honest review, thank you so much!

Izzy and Lucas staff the front desk at a charming, but struggling hotel and do their best to avoid each other. When circumstances force them to spend time together, will they be able to overcome their past grievances in order to save the future of the hotel? This contemporary romance is a predictable, easy read with characters that are a tad frustrating.

Thank you Berkley for the gifted e-copy.

The Wake Up Call is a workplace enemies, grumpy sunshine romance set at a forest hotel/inn in England. It has good banter, I really liked both main characters, Izzy and Lucas, and they were trying to save the hotel from being shut down for financial reasons AND looking for owners of lost rings from the hotel's lost and found. What's not to love, right?

*SPOILER ALERT*

Izzy hates Lucas because of a freakin' misunderstanding. And that is my LEAST FAVORITE TROPE that I saw coming from a mile away.

The Christmas card that Izzy sent to Lucas last Christmas in which she professed her feelings was, in fact, NOT delivered to Lucas, but to Louis, a smarmy weasely man that gave me an icky feeling. AND, Lucas kissing Izzy's roommate under the mistletoe was NOT to take a crack at Izzy's feelings, because Lucas had NO IDEA how she felt, because he NEVER GOT THE CARD.

In summary, they hated each other for no reason.

BUT - when they do finally get together, sparks fly, and it's everything I love in an enemies to lovers romcom.

This is why I need 1/2 star ratings. 3.5 stars for this one.

This book was a little like the cover for me. I didn’t dislike it but I didn’t love it.

Izzy and Lucas work together at the front of the hotel. Or well, they purposefully don’t work together at the front of the hotel. Last Christmas Izzy wrote Lucas a card professing her love (or crush) and Lucas laughed at the card and then kissed her roommate under the mistletoe. Since then they have been only hate and haven’t been able to work the same shift. This Christmas however, in order to save the hotel they have to. While doing so, they decide to sell items that have been in the lost and found to raise money in hopes of saving the hotel. When Izzy finds some old wedding rings, she is determined to find out who they belonged to and give them back, while Lucas thinks it’s a waste of time.

Look, I love me an enemies to lovers story. And I did love Lucas and Izzy and their banter, even though their basis for hatred was a bit flimsy to me. I don’t know what it was about this book that didn’t grab me because on the surface I enjoyed it. I don’t have anything specific to say negative about it. It just took me a while to read it. I never got sucked in and it was easy to put down.

I liked the cast of characters. With the setting being a hotel, there’s always a fun and quirky guest hanging around. I also enjoyed the hotel owners even though they might not be the best business people.

This story is told in dual POV, so you get Izzy’s side of the story and Lucas’. It was cool to have a main character who was Brazilian and I lied how they brought his culture into the story. O’Leary’s novels usually have some heaviness to them so they’re not your typical romance novel. This one had some heaviness but nothing the same as her previous books.

This book is definitely more of a 3.5 star for me. It was enjoyable and Lucas and Izzy had good banter. The characters were enjoyable and I liked the story. I just wish there was something more, but I don’t know what the more is that I want. I would recommend The Flatshare and Road Trip before I recommend this one if you’re looking to get into O’Leary’s books, but if you want something a little lighter this might be a good spot to start for you. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

YES YES YES! Beth O'Leary is an incredibly talented writer that has yet to disappoint with a unique story, incredible characters, and really satisfying endings .The Wake Up Call is a great novel that I could not put down. I thought nothing could live up to her last novel The No-Show, but The Wake-Up Call was so incredible.

In this delightful romantic comedy, rival hotel receptionists Izzy and Lucas must set aside their differences and work together when they stumble upon a collection of lost wedding rings.

As they compete to return the rings and save their struggling hotel, their rivalry transforms into a love story that might mend more than just the business.

While set over the busy holiday season, this hotel book isn’t too heavy on the Christmas backdrop. This is one of the new Christmas books of 2023 that could be read any time of year! #gifted