Biggest movie star of the romcoms has been cancelled. What does she do? Run back to the home town she has not been in 6 years and sister and best friend she has not see. She finds a love letter sent to her. Her bright idea was to see which of her exes sent the letter to get back into good graces of her public. Her best friend assigns her brother, journalist who is Pulitzer Prize finalist to go with her and chronicle the journey. Will they explore the spark that always existed between them? Can they get over their differences? Well I am not going tell…they might or they might not…..

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for my complimentary eARC and to PRHAudio for my complimentary audio book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Let me start out by saying I loved The Rewind. The 80's flashback to college filled me with warm memories.
But......Take Two, Birdie Maxwell is one long miscommunication trope and I just needed it to be over.
While the premise sounds fun, America's Favorite RomCom actress receives a love letter and travels the west coast in a run down RV hoping to reconnect with the writer, in reality, it was a long drawn out mystery which did not endear me to any of the MCs. I had a hard time believing Birdie and Elliot were 35 years old.

The grand gesture at the end had all the makings of redeeming this one for me, but ICK, even that was ruined for me.

I had such high hopes for Take Two, Birdie Maxell, but sadly it fell flat for me.

I paired the audio with the arc, Helen Laser and Dan Bittner did a great job with their respective characters. I was so excited to see Andrew Eiden listed as a reader, but he only had a few speaking parts.

Highlights:
Celebrity romance
Second-chance romance
Childhood friends
Road trip
Forced proximity
Miscommunication trope

Birdie Maxwell is the biggest rom-com star and American Sweetheart. Her career and stardom are at the pick until an on-set confrontation with the director of her new movie threatens to destroy her reputation. Birdie returns to her California hometown to hide. While at home, she finds an anonymous love letter, possibly from one of her exes. She decides that finding the person who sent her the letter and reuniting with them will help her prove to everyone that she deserves a happy ending, just like one of her heroines. Elliot O'Brien is a renowned journalist and Birdie's childhood friend. He had a crush on Birdie for the longest time, but they had a falling out seven years ago. Elliot is back in their hometown at the same time as Birdie, so he offers her to help find the ex who wrote the love letter.

I liked the premise because I enjoy second-chance and celebrity romance. I was invested in Birdie and Elliot's relationship from the beginning. As the book progressed, I started losing my patience a little because the narrative relies too heavily on miscommunication. Elliot and Birdie had a lot of chances to clear their misunderstandings, but both chose to ignore them time and time again. I liked the mystery of the love letter and Birdie's quest to find the author. The book is written in dual POV, which I appreciated because we get both Birdie's and Elliot's perspectives. Overall, I enjoyed Take Two, Birdie Maxwell. I recommend it to romance readers who don't mind the miscommunication trope and enjoy second-chance or celebrity romance.

Just an okay read for me unfortunately. The premise was cute, a famous actress in need of a PR makeover gets her old high school crush/boyfriend turned journalist to write a feature story on her trying to track down the author of an anonymous love letter.

What follows is a cute road trip, forced proximity romance with a love triangle between her famous actor ex. There was nothing wrong with this per se, I just wasn't wowed by it. Still an entertaining if predictable read and good on audio. Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Romance for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

In Take Two, Birdie Maxwell, Birdie was a famous actor who returned to her hometown after some bad PR, only to find an anonymous love letter written to her. In an attempt to rehabilitate her image, she embarked on a journey to confront all of her exes to see who wrote it reclaim her spot as America’s sweetheart. This was such a cute second chance romance. Full of charming characters, witty banter and pop culture references, it filled my heart. There was some frustrating miscommunication which is always a pet peeve of mine but it wasn’t too much and didn’t spoil the book at all. Overall just a fun, lighthearted romcom.

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley for the eARC.

I dnf'd this book at 34%. Both main characters were annoying and the miscommunication was through the roof.

Y’all. This was enjoyable even on top of the straight out mess of miscommunication (and lack of communication) trope that was happening. This sweet romance had some hiccups that I wasn’t expecting, but I still got my HEA that I was after. I have to say the big reveal of who wrote the letter had my jaw on the floor. I was not ready. But I absolutely adored it.

❤️ Tropes ❤️
💋 celebrity romance
💋 best friend’s brother
💋 it was always you

Birdie Robinson is running home with her tail tucked between her legs. She may have laid into her director (for being handsy with literally everyone, but no one talks about the why) and the movie she was doing is dead on the water. The press is crucifing her after the ill advised apology video she did, and she just wants to go home only to find her sister slamming the door in her face, and classmates at her best friends bar uploading unflattering videos of her to pile more on. But she’s found the best way to turn everything around. She found an anonymous love letter from an ex, and she’s going to track the letter writer down. But going with her is her best friend’s brother who happens to be a journalist, but also most notably the guy she could never have. This could get interesting.

This one follows Rom Com star Birdie Maxwell, as she seemingly falls from fame when a viral video is released of her. Heading to her hometown to recover she stumbles upon a letter from an ex, saying they wanted another chance. And as fate would have it her childhood crush and best friend’s brother, Elliot enters the picture.

Elliot and Birdie go on a quest to find who could have sent the letter. Both Elliot and Birdie have feelings for each other but aren’t letting the other know. This one is full of forced proximity and unrequited love.

What would you do if you discovered a love letter asking for a second chance…but you didn’t know which ex sent it?

If you are Birdie Robinson in TAKE TWO, BIRDIE MAXWELL by Allison Winn Scotch, you hit the road looking for answers- with your unrequited first love, of course!

I LOVED this entire story. It had all the tropes I crave:

Rom-Com
Second Chances
Best Friend & Sister Sidekicks
Celebrity Status (and the power of being cancelled)
A Road Trip (one bed!)
Friends to Lovers
Swoon Worthy Love Interest

I’ve always been a fan of Allison’s books but this one is at the top of my heart! (Plus Allison is a fellow Swiftie so she scores extra points in my eyes 😁)

This book is funny, uplifting, and you’ll want to race to the end… but at the same time, not want it to be over! Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley and Allison for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating: 3.5/5

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Birdie Maxwell (Robinson) is frankly, a bit of a mess and facing the PR disaster of the lifetime.

There was a lot, A LOT, going on in this book. At its core, it was a great romcom, one I would watch. And as an audiobook, narrated by Helen Laser, Andrew Eiden and Dan Bittner, was a great listen. There was so much great banter in this book, it had me laughing out loud. I appreciated the premise and that I really didn't guess who wrote the letter.

However, I found myself frequently frustrated with the characters, particularly Elliot and Birdie. Birdie, in particular, struck me as self-centered and oblivious to those around her. Although her journey of self-discovery eventually addresses these flaws, the process felt somewhat tedious. Additionally, I struggled to reconcile the characters' behavior with their purported age, as some actions seemed more fitting for individuals much younger. While Elliot's perspective was a welcomed addition, I wished for more depth to his storyline, especially given the insight it provided into his thoughts and feelings.

Overall, Take Two, Birdie Maxwell, left me with mixed feelings, leaning more towards positive. While it didn't quite reach the heights of my favorite AWS books, it still offered an enjoyable reading experience.

I’m a hater. I don’t care about any of these characters and I don’t like the writing. The Rewind was one of the worst books I ever read and I refuse to go through that pain again.

Birdie is an A-list Hollywood actress but when a feud on set goes viral, she runs away to her childhood home to stay away from the paparazzi. At home she finds an anonymous letter from one of her old boyfriends for a second chance at love. Birdie has no clue who it’s from so she joins forces with Elliot, her best friend’s brother, a journalist and the guy who she had a huge crush on in high school. They jump in an RV to find Birdie’s ex-boyfriends to see who wrote the letter and to salvage both of their careers.

This was such a charming read. Told via dual POV’s of Birdie and Elliot, and it was fun following along on their road trip. I loved their banter, the flashbacks to their high school days, and the big gesture at the end made me swoon!

Read if you enjoy:
Celebrity Romance
Second Chance Romance
Best Friend's Brother

Birdie Robinson was America’s Sweetheart, a star everyone loved, until she called out the director of her latest movie. Their feud has the press hounding her, so she goes back to her small California hometown.

While she’s there, Birdie finds an anonymous love letter. She comes up with the idea of finding the author by talking to her exes, maybe her search will improve her image. Who can resist a love story? Her best friend’s twin brother Elliot is a hotshot reporter, back from his latest scoop, and he’s going to write a multi part story.

Elliot and Birdie have history. He’s been in love with her since he was a teenager, but the one time they got together it ended in disaster. As they track down her exes in an old motorhome, they find a lot more than they bargain for.

I enjoyed this funny romcom, 4 stars.

Thanks to Berkley Publishers and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I don’t know what it was about this novel, but I just could NOT get into it at all. The characters fell kind of flat for me, and there were a LOT of curse words. Like, unnecessarily a lot.

It was just bleh and I felt like they kept traveling in circles in this old motorhome not really getting anywhere because neither character TRULY talks to each other…

Oh yeah, did I mention that miscommunication is NOT my favorite troupe?

Yeah, take a hard pass if either of these things frustrate you.

I enjoyed following the adventure that Birdie and Elliot took us along for! Following a public melt-down, Birdie returns to her real home in search of sanctuary. What she finds instead is a sister who doesn’t want her company and a love letter from a secret past love. Birdie decides this could be her opportunity for redemption by finding her happy ending and taking the world along with her. Elliot (her lifelong crush and journalist) puts his on the line to document the journey as they set out to find which of her ex’s wrote the letter. Adventuring from place to place brings memories and disaster for them both that keeps readers giggling and invested in Birdie’s happy ending.

Take Two, Birdie Maxwell by Allison Winn Scotch
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Birdie is a huge Rom-Com star. When an on-set dispute goes viral, she is desperate to reclaim her place as America’s Sweetheart. She embarks on a road trip to track down the author of an anonymous love letter and win back her fan’s hearts.
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What I liked:
-Birdie is the type of character that despite putting her foot in her mouth several times, you can’t help but still want the best for her.
-Books with road trips are always fun and I loved that this road trip was actually in an old RV.
-Nothing like laying everything on the line at a magic show, of all places. 😂
-I was genuinely interested in who wrote this anonymous love letter and very invested in getting the true story here.
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3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I liked this book. I think what kept me from loving it was that the miscommunication trope was slightly overplayed here.

This was so fast paced and entertaining!! When I first started I was immediately sucked in to this celebrity FMC and her complicated family and love life. I was so interested in all of these characters and how they interacted.

The use of dual POV is so pivotal to this story. We have a childhood best friend and one night stand 7 years ago (haven’t spoken since) thrown together on a quasi-work roadtrip in a clunky RV running from paparazzi while also trying to secretly and not so secretly save each other’s jobs. But the thing is they have pined for each other for basically 20 YEARS! Without the other knowing! So we have her perspective saying there’s no way he remembers (blank) and then next chapter it’s him absolutely remembering (blank) and I was going to die if these two didn’t end up together. I was not so patiently waiting for them to figure it all out while all her exes interfered.

Okay I must be honest, about halfway through I was desperately trying to like these MCs. Until I realized, they are Messy with a capital M. It was like a lightbulb moment and I totally got with the program. These are unique, fleshed out characters and you are not always going to relate to them or their choices. Which in hindsight makes absolute sense, she’s a literal celebrity at the peak of fam and he’s a globe trotting journalist. Yes they have moments of humanity and relatability but overall they will act selfish or reckless and in the context of it all that makes sense. This has that second chance romance angst where they still don’t always make the right moves with each other but it makes the hard fought HEA that much sweeter. What they may lack in relatability they make up for in compatibility with each other. Also there’s a certain twist around 80% which made this book un-putdownable so be advised.

Thank you to Berkley for this ARC! 5 stars.

I generally like Scotch's books and this one was a mostly enjoyable romance novel.

Birdie Maxwell is America's sweetheart romcom actor, until she calls out her director for bad behavior and everyone turns on her. She retreats to her hometown where she finds a letter sent a while ago wanting to rekindle a romance. Birdie hasn't had many romantic relationships, so when she shares this information with her childhood best friend Mona and Mona's investigative journalist twin Elliot (with whom she actually does have romantic history) it is decided they need to find who wrote it. Elliot will chronicle the search and he and Birdie take off traveling in an RV in order to speak with all of her old boyfriends.

Chapters are alternated between Birdie's and Elliot's points of view, and it's obvious from the get-go that the two long to be together. Yet there is something in the way of them confessing their feelings for one another. Honestly, this got a bit old, as it is the critical factor of the entire book. If the two would have just actually talked (with each other and with others) and had an adult conversation for once in their lives, they could have solved everything pretty quickly. Yes, that would make for a kind of boring book, but as it was it was frustrating.

I did like the ultimate resolution of the love letter mystery, but it took SO long to get there I nearly gave up. There's some fun banter and cute side stories, but overall I just got the feeling that Birdie was so immature that actually taking ownership of her own mistakes and shortcomings were almost beyond her.

Overall, I wanted to like this second chance romance a lot more than I did. I think with character growth and communication I would have liked it much more.

This book is so fun! Birdie Maxwell is surprisingly relatable as a character, despite being a mega-star. The premise of the book is timely too, that a video captured without context was shared and set off a chain of events. The risk of being filmed and that video shared in public during a less-than-ideal moment is real and the downside of everyone always having a video camera in their pocket (and often their hand!).

Birdie Maxwell (stage name Robinson) is one of the most popular actresses in the world, and often referred to as America’s sweetheart due to her status as the rom-com queen. Unfortunately, it’s hard to keep the title of America’s sweetheart after she was filmed onset of her new movie throwing a tantrum and screaming at popular director Sebastian Carol. Birdie is in a bind, and it seems whatever she tries to do only makes it worse. Her PR team asked her to film an emotional apology video, but the video came off insincere and caused a new wave of social media calling her fake.

“Well, you know Birdie. She never met a dramatic arc that she didn’t want to make one scene longer.”

Birdie is the first to admit the video was insincere. She isn’t sorry for calling out a director who has inappropriately touched countless women on his sets and crew. She’s sorry that she wasn’t able to provide the context for why she told him off and stand up for the women he’s assaulted, but her team won’t let her share that. With few options but to lie low, Birdie heads to her hometown in Barton, CA. Birdie will be hard to track down, mostly because in addition to going by a stage name (Birdie Robinson), early in her career Birdie lied about her hometown to get a part. Birdie liked the idea of being from a crunchy town in Oregon so much, that she let the lie continue throughout her career.

“Bird, you realize this isn’t an actual rom-com, correct?”

Being back home means more complications, though. Her relationship with her sister Andie is on the rocks. Her parents are on a year-long trip. Luckily, she has her best friend Mona to take her for much-needed drinks, but Mona’s hot twin brother Elliot joins to Birdie’s chagrin. Birdie and Elliot have a past that they’ve told no one about. A decade of attraction led to one blissful night and then a sea of hurt feelings too vast to overcome.

“That implies that my life is literally a rom-com, Elliot. I think the past few weeks have clearly disproven that.”
“Well, you never know until the closing credits.”

When Birdie is going through her boxed-up belongings at her parents house, she finds a love letter addressed to her real name and her real address. The love letter purports to be from a paramour from her past, and Birdie’s list isn’t too long. She definitely won’t include Elliot nor a movie star she had and on-and-off relationship with on that list, which leaves hot chef Ian, tennis-pro Carter, and British hotelier Simon. Elliot is also in need of a career repair, despite being a Pulitzer-prize nominated (twice!) journalist. At Mona’s encouragement, Elliot agrees to go on a road trip in her RV with Birdie to find her ex-boyfriend’s and determine who wrote her the letter (while Elliot chronicles it for some much-needed buzz). Will Birdie find out who wrote the letter and maybe a happily ever after?

“You deserve a happy ending, Ms. Robinson.”

This book is adorable. Birdie Maxwell’s fall from grace and search for love will have even the most skeptical among us rooting for her to find her happily-ever-after. Birdie is funny and it’s impossible not to be charmed by her. The meetings with her three exes (well, five exes) all provide a different lesson for Birdie that culminate in her clarity at the end of the book. It’s clear from the beginning that Elliot is her man (don’t we love that about romance books?), but it won’t be straight forward to get there. Birdie and Elliot both throw hurdles in their own way, but if they can clear them perhaps they will be even stronger together.

An upbeat and laugh-out-loud rom-com with a fun twist at the end!

What kept me reading was the the second-chance childhood friends of it all. Other than that, this book missed the mark for me. I ended up skimming the last third or so.

I never really felt the chemistry between Birdie and Elliot, and I had a hard time liking Birdie for most of the book. The book didn’t flow for me - like I could feel the author trying really hard to write a compelling story.

I really liked The Rewind by AWS, so a lot of what didn’t work for me here surprised me. There felt like too many elements in Birdie’s backstory, or the story structure made it harder to understand than it should have. The Rewind had a back-and-forth element and I thought she executed it so well. This story doesn’t have time jumps like The Rewind, but it felt clunkier. The Rewind was also all nostalgia vibes - Birdie Maxwell didn’t give me any kind of atmosphere to sink into.

I really wanted to like this one but it just really wasn’t it for me.