A fun book perfect for fans of slow burn romances and Ireland!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was heartfelt, romantic and charming. I really enjoyed the characters. They felt very real. The romance is sweet and felt realistic.

I loved the setting here. As someone who loves to travel, it was great to be able to visit Ireland (Eve if it’s through a book). I liked the descriptions.

A good book!

"Last Call at the Local" is my first by Sarah Grunder Ruiz, but it most definitely will not be my last. This book had me grinning from ear to ear at the beginning, and clutching my chest at the end. Grunder Ruiz made me feel ALLLLL of the feelings, and I love and hate that she did.

Raine and Jack are exceptional characters. Not knowing anyone with severe ADHD or OCD in my personal life, I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this novel. While I know these characters are fictional, they're representative of real humans with real, deep, authentic emotions, and by the end of the story my sympathy and empathy were pouring out of me. Grunder Ruiz wrote what I believe to be an emotional, heartwarming story about people who make accommodations for themselves and their needs and that's a beautiful thing. I think we should all aspire to being more accommodating, to ourselves and to others. The only criticism that I would maybe mention is that Jack's intrusive thoughts could be disturbing for some who weren't expecting them.

I also wish there was more of a description of the tattoo that Raine gets at the end of the novel because I would have loved to visualize it from her perspective. She sees things so differently than others, and I would have liked to lean into that a little more.

I hope whoever reads this book falls a little bit in love with music, with wanderlust, with Ireland, with chaotically beautiful musicians, and emotional boys who fall first.

Read if you like:
🇮🇪 Books Set in Ireland
🍻 Pub Settings
🎶 Buskers
🥃 Workplace Romances
🔀 Opposites Attract
🧠 FMC with ADHD
🧠 MMC with OCD

This book! I absolutely adore Sarah’s writing and will continue to read whatever she writes as her writing and settings always captivate me! Also, any book set in Ireland is basically an auto-read for me so this one was set to be a winner from the start!

I absolutely adored the messy vibes of the book with Raine struggling with self-confidence issues as she runs from her problems and fears with a nomadic life busking in new cities after dropping out of medical school and running as fast as she could away from her home in America until her guitar is stolen forcing her to stay in one place for a bit and to figure out another way to make money to buy new equipment or admit defeat and go home.

When Jack offers her a job and a free place to stay their immediate connection and banter gave me all the warm and fuzzies! I loved that with this unconventional workplace romance that it was a slow burn- especially with these two characters with significant disabilities as we explore the impact of Raine’s ADHD and Jack’s OCD and intrusive thoughts that come with it.

I felt like the disability rep and messy characters were done so well and love how by the end, they weren’t changing for love, but embracing love in a way that works for them.

All in all, this was another well done romance by Sarah Grunder Ruiz and I truly can’t wait to read whatever she writes next (hopefully Claire’s story!) and thank you to Berkley Romance for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is absolutely phenomenal.

Sarah's ability to do the research and capture the truth behind mental health in a way most aren't ready to discuss even in 2023 leaves me speechless.

I have been waiting for this book for awhile, but I know Sarah was waiting to give it to us until she was sure it was right — and after reading it, I'm truly glad she took the time she needed for it.

This book stars Raine, a nomadic busker who enjoys living life to the fullest, is unable to sit still due to her ADHD and preference for traveling, and wishes more people understood mental health and stopped trying to put her and her unique process in a box. And then there's Jack, who we briefly meet in Luck & Last Resorts as Ollie's younger brother. Jack, who struggles with both ADHD and a severe case of OCD, feels as though everything he does, says, and thinks is wrong and that no one could truly love him or understand him because of it.

Sarah did a phenomenal job of incorporating these mental health conditions into her book without them taking over. They added to the story the same way they add to the characters, because people (and characters) are not "less than" for the conditions they may have.

I love how Sarah depicted these characters, how she showed the depths and difficult truths of these conditions, and how she gave her characters a chance to live WITH these conditions rather than in spite of them. We should all learn to embrace our imperfections from Sarah's books. I know it's something I'll be working on.

Tropes:
- mental health rep
- Ireland setting
- musician
- artist MMC
- forced proximity
- friends to lovers
- boss/employee
- found family

🍻🎶🍻
Book Review
4🌟🌟🌟🌟
📚94/100
📖Last Call at the Local
💚Genre: Romance
✍️Sarah Grunder Ruiz
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📝Synopsis 📝
Ms. Raine Hart, a beautiful red headed busker yet a hot mess with ADHD lands at a pub one night after getting mugged. Little does she know that she’s about to get a like changing job offer by Jack the Irish hottie with OCD.
🍀🇮🇪🍀🇮🇪🍀🇮🇪🍀🇮🇪🍀

💭My Thoughts 💭
I couldn’t put this one down for the life of me!!! The writing still is amazing and Raine, Jack, and Sebastian had me head over heels. As a person who has both ADHD & OCD it’s so heartwarming to read a book with characters that I can relate to. Jack’s OCD is very different though, but I just loved how I can relate, learn from, and empathize with them both. But Raine, omg she’s my girl 😆 She’s a hot mess and so am I, so I was able to understand her thoughts and decisions so much.
This book pulled every string of my heart and mended them back beautifully at the end. Their relationship and chemistry was just perfect, and I just couldn’t stop gushing on how they complemented each other. All the characters well written and the story flowed so beautifully.
Read if you’d enjoy a raw and honest slow burn, with instalove, and forced proximity at the work place.
✨I would have loved to have read more at the end or epilogue about Clara, Ro, and the others.

✨Thank you @netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

📌Publication Date:
January 02, 2024
✨✨✨✨

I did not realize going into this that it was the third book in a "series", but as with most romance series, you can jump in without really missing much at all. This was really charming, with a lovely Irish setting and great community of characters. However, the thing I appreciated most about this was the heartfelt description of two characters with neurodivergency and mental illness that are authentically dealing with their own and each others diagnoses with compassion and understanding for each other- even when they might not have the same compassion for themselves.

The author did a wonderful job describing what it’s like actively living with ADHD and OCD through Raine and Jack. These characters were the perfect vessel to show the readers through an understanding lense the daily struggles one might experience with ADHD and OCD, but it never once felt like a soap box. You truly felt what it was like to be in their minds without having it overtake the whole story.

Though this was a slow burn romance, it was a little too slow for my liking. I genuinely enjoyed Raine and Jack and their chemistry together and the pace at which the author wrote them made me crave for more romance. There was such an instant connection and it felt that the inevitable was dragging which made it hard for me to enjoy the romance aspect of the story.

Overall this was a fun read. As a general fiction novel it had a great story with wonderful characters that had authentic representation. As a romance novel it was a bit slow to the point where I would get a bit frustrated at the speed of Raine and Jack's progression.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC

Last Call at the Local was excellent. I loved every second of the book. Raine & Jack were immediately so cute together. The depiction of ADHD and OCD was really well done. Definitely would recommend!

I had no expectations for this book. I’d never heard of the author before; I didn’t know much about it—all I knew is that there was mental health/disability representation.
And it was so good?! I was completely absorbed in the book. From chapter one, the chemistry and banter between Jack and Raine had me hooked. I loved their characters, and I related so heavily to them both. Not to mention Sebastian? Best kitty ever. I love him. I would die for him.
On a serious note, the representation of both OCD and ADHD were wonderfully done. There was obvious knowledge and care in the handling of the subjects. I’m not sure whether either representation was #ownvoices, but regardless, I highly recommend it for that alone. I really appreciated the depth of discussion and exploration of intrusive thoughts. It’s so rare to see that aspect of OCD represented, and it was so meaningful, as someone with OCD, to read about a character with those experiences. This is a beautiful love story, and I could read about these characters falling in love and finding themselves a dozen times over. They were real, they were flawed, and they were so easy to love and root for.
Even the side characters felt truly alive. I loved them so much and wish I could read an entire additional book for each and every one of them. This is the third book in a series (though they are standalones), and I’m really looking forward to picking up Ollie and Nina’s book, but I desperately wish Roisin, Clara, and Aoife had their own books as well. I loved Sarah Grunder Ruiz’s writing, and I can’t wait to pick up her backlist.

I am a massive fan of Sarah Grunder Ruiz's books (she's an auto-buy author for me), but it had been awhile since I read them, so it took me a hot minute to connect the dots and figure out how this one tied into the previous titles. But once I did, I loved Last Call at the Local even more than I had before I figured out the connection.

Jack Dunne is Ollie's brother, and together they co-own The Local, their family's Irish pub in . Jack is trying to revamp the outdated pub, but his OCD is currently making life pretty difficult. Then one day a beautiful American musician plops down on a barstool and completely upends his life. Jack hires Raine to help update the pub, since she confesses she's stranded and in need of a job. Their unlikely partnership grows into more, despite their lives being so completely different. She's a free-spirited traveler, impulsive and diagnosed with ADHD. He's a homebody, whose intrusive thoughts keep him tethered to his small Irish village.

Despite their third act breakup, I liked how Ruiz resolved their romance--sometimes a break or time apart is necessary for love to really take root and grow. Usually third act breakups feel like they could have been avoided--but in their case, it made sense. Raine needed to continue to travel to realize that she really longed for a home, and Jack needed to go back to therapy and gain the skills needed to really cope with his OCD and learn to thrive in spite of it before he and Raine could make a real go of it.

I loved the ADHD and OCD rep in this one. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and I related so much to Raine's struggles and insecurities. And if a MMC has a cat? I'm immediately obsessed. Cat Daddies are my catnip.

Thank you Berkley for my ARC and PRH Audio for my ALC. The audiobook is narrated by Gary Furlong and Karissa Vacker, and both of them deliver excellent performances.

Sarah Grunder Ruiz has done it again. She gave us yet another amazing book.

While this is a standalone I do suggest you read the other two. It’s nice to see familiar faces. And the other two are just as amazing.

The mental health representation OCD and ADHD was so beautifully done. I obviously don’t know enough about it but I felt like I learned so much.

I loved all the characters. I loved seeing Nina and Ollie together (and their girls). And also the whole crew at the pub.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Last Call at the Local. It was sweet, funny and a little bit spicy. It’s perfect if you’re looking for something quick.

Sarah Grunder Ruiz writes these incredible romances that strike such an impressive balance between love story and real life issues. I thought both characters here were so realistically and thoughtfully portrayed. Sometimes it made the book hard to read, but that's only because their pain was so authentic. I really enjoyed watching them come together and find love for each other and themselves.

This is the first book I've read by Sarah Grunder Ruiz, but it leaves me wanting more! This was an adorable, heartwarming romance set in a cozy Irish town.

After Raine Hart dropped out of medical school in Boston (which she was only enrolled in as an attempt to please her parents), she adopted a nomadic lifestyle, and has been traveling around the world with her guitar, playing on the streets in various cities and enjoying her adventures. But when all her gear gets stolen, stranding her in the small Irish town of Cobh, she is forced to stay put while she earns enough money to replace her equipment. Fortunately, she meets local bar owner Jack Dunne, who immediately warms to her energy and offers her a job helping him revamp his outdated pub. Raine throws herself into this new challenge, quickly becoming part of the community, and finding a kindred spirit in Jack. But will her love for adventure lead her to leave Cobh, like every other place she's been before?

This was an utterly delightful book. Raine has ADHD and Jack has OCD, and both are treated sensitively and (as far as I can tell) authentically. The characters talk about their struggles but there are other facets to their personalities that make them feel well-rounded. There's lots of fast-paced banter between the two, and the cozy pub setting was delightful. I was surprised to learn that this is the third book in a series--there are some enjoyable secondary characters, but I didn't feel like I was missing out on any context at all. The book is pretty narrowly focused on Jack, Raine, and their respective mental health challenges, so we don't get to see enough of their relationships with their families. I think there could have been a bit more depth and development with each of their siblings and parents, but that's overall a minor quibble with what was a really heartwarming romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

SGR has done it again! It continues to amaze me how, now after three of her books, I manage to find a piece of myself in each of her characters. For this one, while I'm not OCD, I understand the intrusive thoughts Jack suffers from that rule the way he lives his life. And I've thought for a very long time that I have undiagnosed ADHD...Raine may have convinced me to seek help.

I absolutely adored these two, and how much they came to love each other in spite of the chemical imbalances of their brains. I highly recommend everyone read this book for a wonderful look into the minds of two neurodivergent people.

This book surprised me in all the best ways. I absolutely love this book.

The mental health representation of two people who OCD and ADHD was so beautifully done. Both Raine and Jack were so nuanced and complex characters, but I also felt that their struggles were so universal that I think everyone can see themselves in them, Their relationship as well as their personal growth was so well done and natural. I felt like I had two friends I was cheering on by the end of this book. I appreciated that there was the underlying themes that you don't need to be perfect to be happy (or find/deserve love) - both characters struggled with their mental health and love didn't cure/fix them, but instead supported them through which I find to be a much more realistic and healthy outlook. I love a book that shows that you don't need to change or fix inherent qualities to find happiness.

This book tugged on my heartstrings but also made me laugh. It felt like the biggest hug from an old friend - warm, cozy, and safe to be vulnerable. I cannot recommend this book enough.

I L O V E D this one. I listen and read and either way you cannot go wrong. The narrators did an amazing job bringing these two to live.

There is a strong mental health rep in this one. Raine is a traveling musician, with ADHD. Jack is bar owner, who has OCD, that manifests in different ways than the norm.

This is a stand-alone but previous couples appear in the book.

Raine helps Jack to make his bar into something special, and along the way they find they both feel something special for each other.

I just loved these two together, how they helped each other, how they loved each other. It’s really something special.

A must read for 2024.

Jack and Raine make this book so special. Their chemistry and compassion and friendship are so well done. Handling a tough topic like ocd can be difficult, but it’s handled so gracefully. Such a well written and fun read.

Give me a tattooed golden retriever hottie & I am in 100p!
(Who am I even kidding, I am actually all in because of the sweet black cat)

Thank you Berkley & NetGalley for the arc of "Last Call at the Local." Mark your calendars down for January 2nd because you're going to want this romance on your tbr!

*insert facepalm here* Not me realizing just now this is the third book in a series. Typical Dani move, right? Honestly, ain't no thang because this could easily be a perfect stand-alone novel. There was zero confusion BUT I will say the story most definitely hit harder if I read the other two (because duh, characters show up again and we L O V E that)

I adored Raine & Jack. Their relationship was perfection. I can't get over how gentle and patient they were with each other. We stan being open about our lives! Can we get a hand for Ruiz writing this couple who wants the healthiest relationship!!! I seriously appreciated Raine taking the time to understand Jack's OCD. It made my heart glow.

Big shout out to Ruiz for helping me understand how complex OCD and ADHD truly is. Getting to step into Jack's mind was very eye-opening. I didn't realize there was more to it than having a regimented day or doing a task until it feels perfect. I appreciate when authors create characters to help us understand the world. I can tell you I have never read a book with these represented & I am beyond glad I got to read "Last Call at the Local" solely for this.

I wish we had more Ireland! The cozy pub setting was delightful but I wanted more traditions, sights and customs. Don't get me wrong, we do get a few fun standout's like "Lock-Ins" which HAI SO FUN! I am moving to Ireland now. Being Irish I love when fiction can sneakily teach us something about history or traditions but this felt lacking but it did not take away from the swoony romance.

Seriously, check this out solely for the tattooed bookish hun...I mean the sweet bean kitty hehehe.

- Black cat fur buddy
- Tattooed heart-throb
- A dreamer & bold female MC
- Habanero HAWT
- Ireland
- For the music lovers
- OCD & ADHD Rep
- Found Family

This book was great. I loved the honesty and portrayal of the characters in regards to mental health, adhd, ocd, and intrusive thinking. It had so much depth, but was light and enjoyable. Highly recommend for all library collections!

Down on her luck, Raine wandered into The Local to try and formulate a plan. While speaking with the resident pub cat, she met the charming Jack who offered her a temporary job to help her get back on her feet. Who knew that a temporary position could result in something permanent in their hearts.

Will I ever tire of the Love, Lists & Fancy Ships world? The answer is NO! Once again, Ruiz crafted a story that made me laugh and tugged at my heartstrings. She always does such an incredible job with these slightly broken characters who never fail to embed themselves in my heart.

Raine may have given the appearance of a free spirit, but she was running from the pressure of her family. Trying to fit in with a group of doctors was not easy for Raine. Her family saw her as a mess, impulsive, and essentially, a disappointment. Then she met Jack, someone who loved those parts of her and how they contributed to the whole of who Raine was. That loving her as-is was one of the most precious parts of their romance.

Like Ollie from the previous book, his brother Jack bore the mental scars of their father. One result of this past trauma was the emergence of Jack's OCD. Jack had been struggling with intrusive thoughts and other symptoms of OCD for several years. Some of this story was about Jack working to take back the parts of his life he had lost to his illness. It was an uphill battle, and I appreciated Jack's journey. But, as Jack had loved Raine as-is, she also loved Jack as-is. That unconditional support they had for each other was a beautiful thing.

There was quite a bit about not trying to change the other person in this tale. Raine was a wanderer who embraced a nomadic lifestyle while Jack needed the security of routine and roots. I loved that they did not set out to change themselves or sacrifice parts of themselves to make this work, but rather, they worked together to find a way for them to have it all. Their love and unflinching support had my heart bursting, and I just couldn't help but want the sun, the moon, and the stars for these two.

Jack and Raine was obviously amazing, but this story was made even better by the presence of some fabulous supporting characters. Obviously, I was overjoyed to spend more time with Ollie and Nina. This story started five years after the last book, and it was a pleasure to see how things were going for Nina and Ollie. But the real scene stealer was Sebastian, aka the pub cat. As with most pets, he stole the show, and I have zero complaints about that.

Overall, it was a special treat to be part of Jack and Raine's story. I loved rooting for them while they made their personal journeys, and I welcomed all the warmth and joy of their friendship and romance. Fingers crossed that Ruiz brings us back to the Love, Lists & Fancy Ships world soon!