Unfortunately I had to DNF this book at 55.6%. There was no conflict and I was just bored reading. after over half of the book, the only event that had actually happened are what is written on the back. This book wasn't for me.

I did enjoy the narrator though. I feel like she did a great job and enjoyed her voice, unfortunately the material she was narrating just couldn't keep my attention.

I found the subject matter of You’ve Been Served by Kristen Alicia (which will be released on 6/27) so fitting as I’ve been pondering this question quite a bit lately. I have always wanted to work for a nonprofit and I’m trying to take steps to make that dream a reality!

Our female protagonist in this romcom decides to switch careers from the California restaurant industry and dive head first into law school in Michigan! I love a FMC who is focused on finding out what they want in life, and Simone is doing just that…with a little help from a magic 8 ball.

I hybrid read this one since @netgalley was kind enough to gift me the arc in both ebook and audio formats! I really thought the narrator did a tremendous job bringing Kristen Alicia’s debut to life!

All in all this is a pretty cute romantic comedy with some fun banter, low spice, and lovable characters. Some parts of it felt a little random/disconnected, but I thought it was a solid debut. Will definitely check out books from this author in the future!

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

#netgalley #newrelease

You’ve Been Served by Kristen Alicia was a pretty fun listen!

Changing your life plan can be scary and Simone Alexander chose a completely opposite path instead.

Law school, a new love interest, and a fun study group round out the story. While some of the details felt predictable at times, I still enjoyed listening to this ALC.

Thank you NetGalley, Kristen Alicia, and RB Media for allowing me the chance to listen to this new book.

This was a sweet romance about a woman in her mid-twenties taking a chance on a new career path, going back to school and meeting a fellow student, and falling in love along the way.
I like the audiobook it was very well done.
I would recommend this book to contemporary romance readers looking for a cute story.

tysm to netgalley for this audio arc !!
being a big romance lover and law student myself, i jumped on this the moment i saw it and im so glad to say i was not disappointed
seeing a book all about the struggles of first year law, i was simultaneously loving the representation and reeling from the ptsd of having just finished my own first year. it was interesting to see how simone, the mc, dealt wt the classes in contrast to how i had. her contract law class was the one she struggled wt most whereas it had been my best class. then she breezed through criminal law while i was legitimately traumatized lmao.
all in all i think this was such a fast and great romcom. the main couple was loveable, the side characters fun, the banter great. although, not to be one of those people, the fade-to-black sex scene was <b>so disappointing lmfaoooo</b>.
i will say tho my one qualm wt this book was that simone was often made out to be clueless and weak for the sole purpose of driving the plot forward. i found it rlly unrealistic that someone who was a chef in such a fancy restaurant wt a terrible boss for 5yrs would then go on to get emotional and leave campus after being called out by a professor.
regardless, i definitely recommend checking this out when it’s published <3

I accept this book isn't for me. I dnfed at 15% and mostly because FMC goes to law school because he magic-8 ball made the decision for her. She's unprepared and shocked that other people read the syllabus. She's shocked that she has to spend 2k on law books.

It me. Hi! I'm the problem, It's me. - Taylor Swift.

This was a really cute book, and I appreciated the closed door romance. It was a little anti-climactic to me though. I was hoping for more substance.

Thank you to NetGalley, KristenAlicia, and RB Media for the ARC!

DNF at 35% - I am not one to DNF pretty much anything but this was so painful. Silas was an asshole at every turn but just had to turn his curls on her and she wanted him ... But the real start of the end for me was when he wanted to go to law school bc his friend killed someone drinking and driving and, you know, those months in prison really changed him without good representation. MONTHS. IN. PRISON. As opposed to the dead one.

Also he wants to be a public defender but wants to be in the private sector for awhile for the trial experience -tbat is COMPLETELY backward.

Sorry, I can suspend my disbelief for a lot but not all that.

This was a sweet, simple and fun book. The life events the main characters are going through are relatable. Makes it easier to connect to the characters and enjoy the story. I was shocked that it was over because I got so wrapped up in it. I needed a couple more chapters.

This was a fun audiobook to listen to. I loved the narrator's speed and I was rooting for Simone the whole way. A very unique novel and fans of Legally Blonde will definitely enjoy.

This was definitely a swoon-worthy romantic comedy!! So fun and cute! These characters were so easy to love and this story was filled with great character development and romance. I am excited to read more books by this author.

Swoonworthy! This was such a sweet story. Honestly, it was really nice to read a book with minimal conflict between the two love interests. Of course there were challenges, but it felt natural and in line with the story.

Simone decides to quit her job as a chef in CA and start law school in the Midwest, or rather her magic-8 ball decides for her! The story follows her transition into law school and a new state; making friends, navigating through classes and professors, and of course love. Silas is a pretty perfect book boyfriend! I loved his honesty and his way of pushing Simone without being rude about it. Simone’s character growth progressed naturally and I was feeling proud of her by the end of the book!

I have no substantial knowledge about practicing law or law school, but I felt the author did a good job to make it part of the story without it being the whole story.

The narrator was great! She did a good job with different voices and really brought Simone to life for me!

3.5 rounded up.

This was a fun, light-hearted enemies to friends to lovers slow burn romance between two first year law students. I loved both of the love interests, the diverse characters, the swoony male lead and ALL the How to get away with murder (without any actual murders) vibes! Good on audio and definitely worth picking up. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: kissing only

You've Been Served is a quick read (or listen, in my case) about a woman starting over in law school after she flames out in the restaurant industry. This is a sweet, fun read - unfortunately, I had a really hard time connecting with Simone, and I didn't really buy into her relationship with Silas. I wanted to really dive into a story about someone reinventing herself, but I found Simone to be pretty clueless about a lot of obvious stuff, and she read a lot younger than her late-20s.

The narrator was good - I would recommend the audio book version, but ultimately for me it wasn't a great fit as a book!

This was a much better story than it was romance.

I’ll clarify- I really liked the characters and their representation, a strong black woman going back to college to become a lawyer?! Yes! 🙌 The idea and the characters themselves were so likable that I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately the chemistry really just fell flat for me. The conflict that was meant to come from our man man Silas being kind of a jerk in the classroom but sweet as the boy next door just wasn’t there for me. In fact, his actions in lectures really just rang through as slightly thoughtless at worst, and ended up explained away with (what I thought was) very reasonable logic. In terms of the romantic plot line that left the payoff feeling a bit sterile and unearned.

Still! Aside from just the romance being… not super romantic. I did enjoy this! I think it would have been even better if the growth had focused more on the back to school struggle than the relationship element, but oh well 🤷‍♀️ it was still good!

Audio- 3/5 not a huge fan necessarily but it definitely wasn’t bad. I thought the occasional switch in and out of southern twang was a bit odd personally but it wasn’t truly unpleasant.

Simone quits her job and has her magic 8 ball decide if she's going to law school(she shall). She leaves everything behind and moves across the country to start school, but it's not that easy with a professor who hates you.

You've been served is about knowing your strength, love, friendship, and not giving up. For me, this was an okay book. It was far from bad, but I didn't care that much about what would happen either. Some parts were more enjoyable, but it also felt a bit all over the place. I do think this could be enjoyable for many other readers, so I still recommend it.

The narrator for this book, Jasmin Walker, does a good job bringing this book to life. I like her voice, and it's easy to follow along.

A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher RB Media for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to love this one but it just fell flat for me.

The issue with this book is that there are no stakes. This is just a novel following Simone through her first year of law school as she falls in love with Silas. There isn’t much of a will-they-won’t-they, and any inkling of a rivals-to-lovers set up is stamped out pretty quickly after it’s introduced.

Silas is also pretty transparently firm in his desire to pursue her, so there is never any threat that he could change course and go after someone else, even when Simone herself begins to doubt his intentions. Because of this, the narrative lacks tension, especially in the romance department.

There are also a lot of allusions to Legally Blonde in this book and here’s what I’ll say about that: Legally Blonde works because there is a central conflict surrounding the homicide case Elle Woods and her fellow students are consulting on with their professor. This case provides tension and stakes which allows the narrative in the film to function properly and be compelling.

There is no such similarity in this novel. The closest thing to a central conflict is Simone struggling in her contracts class. Even that doesn’t feel convincing because, although she threatens to leave school after the first semester, you know she won’t since there’s still another 50% of the book left to go.

The last issue I had with this was the writing style. It felt underdeveloped and could have benefited from additional rounds of editing to add polish. Here’s an example of a line that feels emblematic of the writing as a whole: “The more I spent time with Silas, the more I wanted to spend time with him and learn what made him tick.” The repetition of the “spend time with” verbiage makes the sentence clunky and ruins the fluidity of the writing. This lack of fluidity kept occurring and I couldn’t help but think that more editing could have easily fixed the issue.

In the end, I really wanted to love this one but ultimately couldn’t feel invested in the story due to the problems outlined above, particularly the lack of stakes and tension.

On the note of the audiobook, the narrator’s performance was inconsistent. Her voice for Simone was well done, but her voices for Silas and some of the other background characters were flat and not very emotive.


Spice Rating: 1/5 🌶️ - Fade to Black

Overall Rating: 1 star

This book is a great palate cleanser. It was a really light hearted romance between two students who have gone back to school to study law. I wasn’t a huge fan of the main character, she sometimes bugged me with how clueless she acted, but I was a big fan of Silas. This was the perfect book to listen to while doing other things as the story isn’t hard to follow. This book is available everywhere June 27, 2023 - be sure to pre-order!

voluntarily listened and reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Simone Alexander quits her job and allows her magic 8 ball to help her decide if she should enroll in law school. Unprepared and unsure are the things that Simone struggles with in the beginning of the book. Meeting Silas the attraction is instant. But Simone’s struggles in school and the fact that Silas is what’s known as a sharpshooter she struggles to control her grades and her budding relationship with him.

At the beginning I did find Simone as irritating. Silas was clearly feeling her from the first meet and she just kept friend zoning him. I loved Silas. Hey was supportive, smart, funny, and when he let his little jealousy show I ate it up. The man flew across country because he felt like she need a hug. What else could you want. Pure swoon worthy actions only. 4.5/5 ⭐️ only because Simone was irking in the beginning.

The narrator in this book was ok for me. I did wish that the narrator would’ve changed their voice a little while speaking as Silas and the other characters . Although that did not happen I still enjoyed it.

Thank you RB Media, Recorded Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I DNFd at 30% the premise was cute but the execution was not working for me.

The FMC was a little frustrating with her quoting being a chef and going to law school on sort of a whim and then not realizing how hard it would be. In this economy who the hell is going to throw money away like that and not really realize how hard law school would be.

But outside of that there were some word choices that were a bit uncomfy and the exchange with her not thinking that the MMC was Black because he was lighter skinned. I mean it’s addressed and colorism is alive and well but it just felt frustrating.