Some books are MEANT to be read aloud and Mia Hutchinson-Shaw gave an outstanding performance reading for Katie and Wil. I’m not sure I would’ve felt this way about EIKSYGF if I had only read it with my eyes because it’s all the little nuances, breaths, pitch changes, and drawn out syllables when Wil says Kaaaaaaatie, that made me an enthusiastic listener. To be sure, Mae Marvel has written something different with this famous-person romance by taking Katie Pierce and Wil Greene, friends from their Senior year of High School in Green Bay, WI that haven’t connected in years and thrown them back together when Katie visits Green Bay for a writing retreat. Each is famous in their own right—Katie for acting and directing in L.A. and Wil for making viral 60 second TikTok videos where she kisses a stranger. The thrill of seeing one of your closest friends from you teen years and realizing they’ve changed but are still the same person starts the story off with underlying tension. It doesn’t take long for Katie and Wil to start envisioning each other in a new light as MORE than friends, and I appreciated how it just naturally unfolds instead of one person feeling too scared to take the next step.

I loved the various plot lines in this book. Will and Katie have always assumed that their awful high school English teacher had a secondary family and they do reconnaissance on him out of both curiosity and an excuse to spend time together in Wil’s old Bronco. When a bet is made involving Katie as the next subject in Wil’s kissing video, the stakes become even higher for these friends who know what kissing each other would mean.
This romance is super sweet, sapphic, and swoony and dual POV. There’s a mutual masturbation scene that is so so hot and Marvel’s written dialogue combined with Hutchinson-Shaw’s narration takes this to a new level. I felt like I knew Wil and Katie and wanted to be friends with them. Even the side characters were so thoughtfully written. I received an eARC from St. Martin’s Griffin and an ALC from Macmillan audio. You can believe Mia Hutchinson-Shaw is now a narrator I will seek out. Give her a listen. All opinions are my own.

CWs: gaslighting, probable sexual assault off page, death of a family member mentioned, Huntington’s disease mentioned and off page

Rating (ARC) 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (ALC) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭🪭🪭
Number of cat children: 4️⃣ (Phil, Trois, Sue, Almond Butter)

I requested this book through NetGalley, having read one half of this writing duo years ago I wanted to read her again. Without reading the description and just guessing from the cover it appeared to be a love story of two women. I’m thrilled to tell you it’s more than that. It’s best friends finding each other again, it’s a goal challenging story, and it’s quite funny. Katie’s cats talk through pushing buttons, like the Instagram video of the dog. Katie and Wil (Wilifred) have a cute relationship, one is the actress/director and the other has lawyer instincts yet to be used. They have a sort of shorthand way of talking, sometimes I had to read a conversation over again because it seemed stunted by their own language. It’s a book that will engage readers, and it’s quite lengthy, but worth the read.

Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous

By Mae Marvel-new to me author

Publication 6-11-24, Read 6-12-24

Genre: Adult/Women's Fic, Contemporary Romance

Tropes: sapphic romance, 2nd chance romance, celebrity romance, friends to lovers, small town, Christmas

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC and ALC. I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Setting: Green Bay, Wisconsin

Format: e-book and audiobook

Run time: 13:34

Narrator: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw does all characters with a dual POV. The voices fit the characters perfectly with Wil's the most distinct because of her sensuality, but I could tell the difference between all characters. The reading style brought the story to life especially with its slow pacing . The narration and the author were in sync, but it could have been one hundred pages lighter. The narrator paused and announced every time a new chapter came. The book had a table of contents which helped me follow along with the e-book and audio.


Summary: Katie Price is an A-list actress turned producer/director. She returns home for the holidays hoping to see Wil Greene-her BFF from senior year of high school. They rode around in Wil's Bronco until they graduated. At eighteen Katie hooked up with Ben Adelsward who took her to Hollywood to become a famous actress. He was thirteen years older, a leading man, and left her heartbroken three years later. When Katie and Wil reunite sparks fly, and both have to confront past hurts and grief.

Thoughts: I'd recommend the audiobook just to move the story along. It was pretty long but nostalgic with "the one who got away" trope. Katie and Wil re-entered each others lives like no time passed. I felt Katie's pain about Ben, and she really did the work to get over the trauma he caused. Wil's YouTube channel fame for kissing a new person twice a week was pretty strange, and she offered no real explanation so I'll move on. Their mothers Diana and Beanie were sweet and motivated them to be together.

Im so glad I read this! Two beautifully nuanced women, learning more about themselves and accepting the good things that they deserve- plus cats. I may or may not have purchased talking buttons for my own cats after finishing this one!

This was a cute, entertaining read. I enjoyed the humor and the overall tone of writing. The characters were well developed and the scenes played out beautifully in my mind. I highly recommend!

As a lesbian lawyer who is born and raised in Wisconsin, I loved all the Wisconsin touches! However, I found Wil and Katie's relationship to be quite odd and unrealistic. They were only ever friends in high school, but immediately jump into sexual banter without addressing anything between them? One of the first times they see each other in 13 YEARS they dry hump and just continue their friendship? I wish they had more of an opportunity to rekindle the friendship before jumping all in.

ok LOVED this.

• high school best friends reunited, but one is an actress & the other is tiktok famous
• the slow burn was so well done
• the struggles of both MCs added to the romance plot
• could have been a tad shorter (closer to 300 pages)

I am withholding my review until St. Martin's Press denounces Islamaphobia and pinkwashing and identifies and enacts ways to support and protect BIPOC authors, readers, influencers, and employees.

I love the premise and setting of this book, but found the style (both prose and structure) to be juvenile to the point of distraction.

This was a mixed bag for me unfortunately. I really enjoyed the steamy scenes and some of the development of the characters internally. All that to say, I didn’t think the relationships felt authentic. I was confused with a fair amount of dialogue and emotions behind it and I’m not sure there was enough to bridge that gap between the flashbacks and the present. Still, I had a nice time reading which is always important.

Thank you @netgalley for this ARC of Everyone I Kissed Since you got famous. Boyyy let me tell you this was indeed the slow burn of the century. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed this book I thought there was some very sweet real moments between Katie and Wil in this book that had me swooning, but I felt like I was never all the way into this book. At some moments I was reading and truly enjoying the book, but a lot of the time I felt confused and was wondering what I was reading. I think there was just a lot happening in this book and even though this book was about 360 pages I felt like I was reading a 600 page book. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for LGBTQ+ reads, Katie and Wil were both amazing FMC’s and I fell in love with them. Also if you love a healthy communication story then this one is definitely for you.

Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous by Mae Marvel
Contemporary sapphic romance. Diverse. Dual POV. Second chance troupe.
Wilifred Greene and Katie Price were best friends during their school years. But Katie left for Hollywood at eighteen and the two haven’t seen each other in person for thirteen years. Katie is coming home for the year-end holidays. While they haven’t talked to each other in person, they have kept behind the scenes. Both have millions of followers. Katie as a famous actress, and Wil as a famous TikTok influencer with a goal of kissing two new people every week. Maybe now they are both home in Green Bay, Wisconsin they can actually talk about their feelings for each other.

🎧 I alternated between an ebook copy and an audiobook which was narrated by Mia Hutchinson-Shaw. The performance was engaging with two distinct voices for the two main characters though it did seem a bit slow to me. I increased the speed a point or two from my usual. The banter in the narration was fun and the sex was steamy. There is a lot of the characters questioning themselves and their relationships so there isn’t a lot of “jolly” in the audiobook other than a few select passages. Certainly the ending and family holiday time was more upbeat. I did love the mid west setting of the women and their families.
The narration gives you action and distinctive voices but the print or ebook version gives a little better definition between the two POV’s. There is also a lot of background and more subtle feelings giving the audio a bit of an edge for the more visual or action oriented reader.
I can easily recommend either format for reading this book. Or do both together which is my preferred method if I have the time.

Overall a touching and happy romance. It was great that the mothers knew about their feelings when they were teens and didn’t interfere. I loved the cat buttons so Katie and Sue and the rest of the cats could talk to each other. 50 language buttons. I had no idea it was a thing. Sure, I’ve seen the dog and bank commercials but thought it was just a gimmick.
A heart happy romance.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley and publisher Macmillan Audio.

This one was fine but I felt weirdly disconnected from it. I found their conversations weird and there was little conflict or chemistry

This is a hard review for me to give. Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous sounded promising from the beginning. A sapphic romance of old friends reuniting after years of separation, a reconnecting that promises to be instantaneous and palpable. Unfortunately I set the book down at 28% and just can't convince myself to pick it back up. Honestly I don't think I'm the target audience for this story and I struggled with relating it even liking either of the main characters. I suspect they grow and fall in love and all that good stuff but I was so un-invested in any of the story that I couldn't hang on to find out.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

A sapphic celebrity romance between two childhood best friends who get a second chance when they reconnect as adults. Wil and Katie grew up as best friends because both their moms were life long best friends... until Katie went to LA to get her chance to become ab actress. While Katie became an actress, Wil remained in their hometown of Wisconson and has gone viral on Tiktok where she kisses random people. When Katie returns home for Christmas both of them reconnect and pick up where they left off all those years ago. Yet Katie is still dealing from the aftermath of her toxic abusive past relationship and Wil is dealing with the grief of losing her father. Can they both work past their problems and find a way to be together or was this second chance never meant to be? Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I really wanted to like it but found the actual book to be so hard to read. There were so many instances where I just wanted to DNF this book but pushed myself to finish it just on the principle of finishing books. The romance between the two characters just didn't feel believable and I just didn't really care all that much. I adore sapphic romance stories and a friends to lovers with a touch of celebrity romance sounded right up my alley... only it just missed with the execution. The first 20% of the book was fine but then it began to drag and slog a bit more with every chapter. The book was just boring unfortunately. If you like sapphic romances with second chances, I'd say give this a go, maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did!

Release Date: June 11,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I was so excited to read this book. I love a second chance/unrequited love story. Katie and Wil were best friends in high school, but they had such a deep connection. Their relationship might have gone beyond friendship, but neither of them acted on any feelings at the time. I liked the dynamic of having a close friendship and not knowing if it's more than that.

Katie has gone on to become a famous actress and director, and she and Wil haven't spoken in 13 years. Their mothers are best friends, and that was such a fun part of the story.

Parts of the story felt rushed and other parts felt so drawn out. I found myself unable to connect with the characters, and I struggled with wanting to root for them in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly, I was so so presently surprised by this book. I absolutely adored every moment and every aspect of this book - the writing style, the characters, the plot, the structure, the setting, and the cast ensemble. The poetic and lyrical quality to the chapter perspectives and writing style is my absolute favorite in contemporary fiction and this book executed that so effortlessly. In addition to that, it has some of the most beautiful descriptions of what it means to love, to have a best friend, to be a daughter, a woman, etc. Honestly, it just encompassed all of my favorite things and introduced me to new literature things I didn't know I loved.
This book is an emotional roller coaster because the characters feel things so deeply. It is long, which at first felt exhaustive because of how I deeply I resonated with their dilemmas, but you're so quickly and permanently won over by the grace of their stories and their established personalities. Despite taking place over just barely a few weeks, it felt liked I'd experienced months and years within this world. The love I have for this story, for Katie and Wil, is so immense. I loved reading this novel, it's such a beautiful sapphic romance but it's also so much more than that. And of course, I loved the love for cats <3

Struggled to finish this one. Kept waiting for sorting to happen but it never quite got there. The title sounded so intriguing. Missed the mark for me.

A tender, moving, slow burn, second chance, friends to lovers Sapphic romance between a Hollywood star and her a struggling small town tik tock famous high school friend who fall in love over the holidays. I absolutely loved this beautiful story of friendship, love and second chances that was great on audio read by new to me narrator, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw and had unexpectedly AMAZING emotional depth! Highly recommended for fans of authors like Elizabeth Luly, Meryl Wilsner and Melissa Lendhart. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

TW: intimate partner emotional abuse

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this early ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of this read.

First of all, I'm a sucker for cute sapphic rom-com literature. This novel checked all the boxes! The witty and playful banter/dialogue between the two characters was such a joy to read, and the tension between them was INSANE. I would highly, highly recommend this to anyone that wants to enjoy a fun and sapphic rom-com to delve into!