This was a cute read. Jack and Raine were fun and charming and I loved that they were so open with each other about everything.
I wish we had seen more with Jack and therapy though. But over all super cute fun read.

Raine gave up her life in Boston as a med student to become a traveling musician. When in Ireland, some of her belongings were stolen and she ends up at the Local.

Jack has wanted to make his dad’s pub his own since it changed hands. His OCD forced him to give up his previous life, but he’s doing the best he can. When he encounters Raine, his world shifts and his perspective becomes a little more clear.

This was a fun rom com full of wonderful banter and disability rep. I really enjoyed that both characters had ADHD and it presented differently in each of them. This is the case in the real world, and it was wonderful representation. I also enjoyed learning more about how OCD can present itself. I think that mental health is important to highlight in books and I am really enjoying that more are presenting it, and fairly as well. Despite the characters being immediately drawn to each other, they didn’t get together for quite a while. I like how Raine was feeling burned out by her life and recognized that she needed to make a change, so she did, and even though it was scary, she was pushing through and flourishing. It’s nice to read about life being messy, but ultimately working out, and that’s what was done here. The ending was enjoyable.

This was my first book by this author, but this was a great read, so I would definitely pick up another. If you are looking for a book with some great neurodivergent representation, then I recommend you give this one a shot.

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley for the advance review copy. All opinions are my own!

LAST CALL AT THE LOCAL is a tender, healing hug of a book. Raine and Jack are two of the dearest characters I’ve ever met, and their affirming, compassionate love was a joy to read.

brb, moving to cobh to start a new life running a pub with a hot tattoo artist cat dad ✌️🇮🇪

okay but for real though, this book's strength lies in the wonderfully nuanced portrayal of its two neurodivergent protagonists. raine and jack are both so real and resonant as individual characters and they have terrific banter together as well as a palpable connection from the start. it's easy to root for them both as a couple in the making as well as people on their own separate journeys and I love them with my whole cold dead heart 💜

As someone who has ADHD, I really liked how the main character was represented! This is an amazing contemporary romance that highlights the struggles of being a 20-something, but also mental health issues. Definitely something I will be purchasing and adding to my physical shelf!

I’m so here for this trend in contemporary romance where we have main characters with mental health representation. Especially if it’s done well. That was my favorite aspect of this book. I’m a huge fan of romance with heavier themes and SGR became an auto-read author for me after I read Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships. This one was definitely more whimsical (I mean hello, traveling musician in Ireland having a small town romance?!) but if you enjoy her writing, you’ll like this one.

You do see some returning characters from SGR’s previous books since the MMC is Ollie’s (from Luck and Last Resorts) younger brother. I WILL say that Nina was criminally underutilized in this story.

Highly recommend if you’re looking for a well-written, feel good romance featuring two characters who are finding themselves and find each other along the way. Beautiful book!

This book was just meh all the way through. Two neurodivergent people meet, impulsively become co-workers, and fall in love in the process. Both the leads and most of the characters felt like caricatures, and the plot was Hallmark cheesy. This wasn’t “so bad I can’t finish” but still also very boring and something I won’t think about ever again.

Last Call at the Local was a sort of sweet and spicy romance with incredibley well-developed characters that readers will absolutely adore. I love Jack, a tattoo artist and pub-owner who is living with Obsessive-compulsive disorder and Raine, a musician whose ADHD has defined her life more than she likes. Supporting characters' roles were kept to a minimum, but the characters had just enough fleshing out to make them loveable. I might have disagreed with some of the plot choices that author Sarah Grunder Ruiz made but it didn't matter. I was attached to those characters from the beginning and I was not about to close the book until I knew how everything turned out for Jack and Raine. Writers who can give us that feeling of connection to their work may never achieve perfection but readers will forgive them pretty much anything - except maybe a sad ending. Last Call at the Local did not disappoint! And it gets bonus points as well for a sensitive and meaningful portrayal of a person who lives with the intrusive thoughts of OCD.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher's for this Advanced Readers Copy of Last Call at the Local by Sarah Grunder Ruiz!

4.25 stars.

I LOVED THIS! I've never read OCD rep like this before and it was informative, relatable, and hopeful. I loved seeing the past characters from SGR's previous book. I loved getting to know Jack and Raine. They're perfect for each other and I loved how this book wrapped up so realistically while still giving us a happy ending. SGR is a new auto-buy author for me!

After having everything stolen on the pier, Raine decides to drown her sorrows in a local bar. When she accidentally tells the owner Jack all the ways the bar could be improved, he immediately asks to hire her to redesign and improve the local. The only problem? Both Raine and Jack were insanely attracted to each other. He has promised to be the most professional coworker ever though. Will they be able to keep their hands off each other?

Ahhh we finally join Ollie and Nina in Ireland to learn more our brother Jack! I absolutely loved the setting in this book. I went to Ireland a few years ago and it was so fantastic! Both Raine and Jack were fantastic characters, and the sexual tension between them was off the charts. I loved that they both had their own issues and that we dove into this a bit and learned more about how they effected their lives. I just adored the way this one ended! Sarah Grunder Ruiz has always been a favorite and this one is no exception!

Actual rating is a 3.5

Last Call at the Local is a heart-warming romance following wandering musician Raine and pub owner Jack who meet at Jack's pub, The Local. Jack hires Raine to help bring new life to the pub while Raine saves up enough money to replace her stolen gear. The story was told in a slice-of-life style where we follow Raine and Jack as they work at the pub, adorably flirt with each other, and grapple with their own interpersonal challenges with other characters in the story. Through this format, the reader gets to see how the characters grow over the course of the story and the things they bring out in each other, which was really sweet.

I would've enjoyed a bit more romantic tension or stakes in the plot as I found the middle of the book a bit slow at times but that's just personal preference. This is a cozy, sweet story (with some steamy scenes, don't worry!) that I'm sure will be perfect for readers who want to read about two incredible characters who bring out the best in each other.

I really enjoyed both of Sarah Grunder Ruiz's prior books (and was excited to see familiar characters showing up here), but this may be my favorite? As a person with obsessive compulsive disorder that has presented very similarly to the male main character, Jack Dunne, I appreciated the representation - there were a few moments that were maybe a little TOO real for me, though I think that's just because of my personal experience with this. Our female main character, Raine Hart, is neurodivergent as well, and living with ADHD. At the start of the novel, she has just been robbed of most of her belongings - including her grandfather's guitar that was really her livelihood as a busker making her way through Europe's major cities. She's in Cobh, Ireland now, definitely not a major city, and she finds herself in The Local, a pub that happens to be co-owned by Ollie Dunne (from the first two books). She thinks she's going to have to call her parents to get her a ticket home to Boston, which she really doesn't want to do, knowing that they'll chalk the theft up to her ADHD, which they definitely don't seem to understand. Jack Dunne, Ollie's brother and the co-owner of the Local, spontaneously offers her a job as the pub's new entertainment coordinator, complete with a place to stay for at least four months, or until she's able to get her stuff back. They become friends, and then more, each navigating their own challenges but still finding their way back to each other as they do. This was very sweet, charming, and at times intense (at least for me), and I loved the way it extended the universe from Sarah Grunder Ruiz's earlier books.

Lorraine (Raine) Hart, quit university and left Boston to become a travelling musician, escaping her loving, but overbearing parents and her much loved, perfect little sister. An incident in Ireland leaves her stranded with little to no money and a lack of musical instruments (minus her foot tambourine). Fate would have her entire a pub and meet Jack Dunne, a part owner of the pub. Her ADHD often leads her to trouble because what she thinks usually comes out of her mouth. When Jack asks her opinion she gives it and lands herself a temporary job with her very professional coworker.

Raine warns Jack that she struggles with a variety of things (focus, attention to time, occasional impulse control, etc) and that she's used to having no boos, no schedule. Jack, is super accommodating, having his own troubles managing his OCD. He wants her to help him achieve his dream for the pub, despite his OCD working against them.

So What Did I think?

I quite like this one! This book has pretty good representation of people with ADHD and OCD with intrusive thoughts. It is so tactfully done. It's a romance but these two people just so happen to have [insert condition]. That's just Jack and his brain and that's just Raine and who she is as a person. The fact that they are just so accepting of each other and the conflict in the plot isn't a silly fight or misunderstanding but rather circumstance is just so refreshing. Huge bonus. And how they work out the issue...heart melting. I guess the saying is true. If you love someone, let them go, and if they return, they are yours...or however that saying goes. Even in real life, it's a rare thing to find and it makes it so much the sweeter.

But this isn't just about Jack and Raine! It's also about Jack's brother Ollie, Raine's sister Claire, Jack's sister in law Nina, fellow coworkers such as Róisín, the two nieces and of course, Princess Ugly aka the cat Sebastian . Nothing would have happened at all were it not for that chubby back cat and his affinity for only two people. lol I would say that while Ollie and Nina took up more of the support character roles, I was secretly hoping to hear more about Claire and Róisín.

But seriously, how these people accept and try to help both Jack and Raine is absolutely heart warming. The feeling of acceptance and family cannot be understated. And Jack was just so sweet to Raine!!! Pinterest Bad Boy vibes indeed!

I honestly can't find a fault with this book. I will definitely be recommending it to other people!

Raine Hart is a musician who has been working her way around Europe as a traveling musician. Allowing her to give in to her wanderlust and love of music, and escape a life that felt unsustainable with her ADHD and constant feeling I being too much and yet not enough. She’s passing through Cobh, Ireland when she finds herself in a tough spot.

Jack Dunne is a man with troubles if his own. He owns a pub called The Local in Cobh, and finds himself struggling more than usual with his OCD. Luckily for them both, fate makes a meeting possible and they both have something to offer the other to move forward.

There were so many things that called to me about this read. I’ll start with the cover art, because it’s the first thing you’ll see and it’s gorgeous and fits the vibe of the story so well. The main setting was an easy win for me: Cobh, Ireland? I have longed to visit Ireland for as long as I can remember - this was a lovely way to live vicariously, though it only made the urge stronger for me.

I think the bit that struck me most, was once again Ruiz managed to give a book that had personal journeys for the MCs, a lovely romance tied in, and most importantly wove some real life subjects / grit in.

In this case, the real life ‘grit’ came to life via the MCs each having their own neurodivergent experiences they were learning to live out and accept: ADHD for Raine and OCD for Jack. I think both were compelling, though I have to say Jack’s experience in particular was heartbreaking- you could feel the struggle and pain of what he was experiencing. I really liked how it didn’t shy away from the fact that this is a lifelong experience and that there are ups and downs. How it can make one feel so alienated.

I really enjoyed both MCs and their journeys, together and individually. I thought the slow build of their romance was beautiful and loved the beetle 🪲 (you’ll know it when you get to it). The secondary cast was great as well, it was lovely to see Ollie and Nina again - though none can come close to competing with Sebastian 🐾

Overall, a beautiful story of finding and accepting yourself as well as one of finding the one that fits you as you are. I enjoyed it immensely and read it in a day, one I’ll recommend as well as the rest of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley Romance for the opportunity to read an early copy!

An enthralling, and wonderful story about two people who have issues of their own working through them and still living life on a daily basis. This book was awesome. The way that OCD and ADHD was portrayed through the main characters was done so well and it added icing to the cake that it was stressed multiple times that it is normal. I have a husband that has OCPD and two boys that have ADHD. I felt like I was reading their stories through this book.

Mandy Harris
Angel Wings Bookstore

I loved the well-plotted storytelling and could not put the book down, wanting to find out how they would get and reach their HEA as this couple who seemed fated to and for each other. The story was heart rending, and I came away feeling like I intimately knew the characters. The mental health rep was done so well. I cried after finished reading it.

The mental health rep in this was phenomenal, and one of my many highlights of reading this book. It was such a sweet and a tender romance!

Sarah Grunder Ruiz's latest novel is a story about identity and love. Raine's struggles with ADHD caused her to drop out of med school and pursue her passions: travel and music. After most of her possessions are stolen, she meets Jack at the bar he c0-owns with his brother, The Local. He offers her a job on the spot and it doesn't take long for sparks to fly between them, or for Jack's at-times debilitating OCD to influence their relationship. The mental health struggles depicted in the book are done so with great care. I was fully absorbed in the story.

The build-up was there but the execution was slightly lacking. I just felt like the fireworks could/should have been... bigger?