A second chance at love between high school best friends with a marriage pact? It sounded so good.

This is told in dual timelines, so we got to see Theo and Emerson’s friendship when they were younger. They reconnected after ten years apart when the reminder about their marriage pact went off. And it was so cute seeing them fall in love again. There was angst, drama, a lot of miscommunication, and love. The ending, when they both realized what was really important, was probably my favorite part.

It's a fun second-chance romance by Betty Cayouette. I enjoyed Emerson and Theo's story. Close when they were teenagers, they made a marriage pact for ten years later. Fast forward those ten years, Emerson is a model and Theo is a photographer, and they are both working in romantic Italy on a photo shoot. It's a cute story and a great HEA.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy. All opinions are my own.

3.5 ⭐
Friends to lovers? Sign me in!
This book has everything I liked just in its blurb: a photographer, a model, and a long lost love that had to be rekindled. And even though I really enjoyed myself reading the book, I wanted the end to be a just a bit more exciting. It kind of fell short at the end and the miscommunication with these two almost got the best of me.
I was not expecting the topics this book discussed and felt like they were kind of superficial to the story.
Overall this book had me reading nonstop till I finished it so I guess that's a good thing!

One Last Shot by Betty Cayouette offers an interesting premise but falls short in execution. While the central romance is sweet, the pacing often feels uneven, and some character development feels rushed. The story has its moments, but the emotional depth and tension I was hoping for didn’t fully materialize.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of One Last Shot by Betty Cayouette!

I was so excited to read this book based on a location that I visited over 20 years ago in college, Cinque Terre, Italy. I liked the premise of the book and I also liked how we had flashbacks to Emerson and Theo's high school days, however, there were some aspects of this book, that did not track with me. For one, Emerson was ashamed that her mother was a hoarder and she was never there for Emerson. I can relate to this on a personal level because I had a parent that was the same way. But it seemed like all of a sudden out of the blue, her mother was supportive of her long enough to tell Theo to leave Emerson alone when she came back from the shoot that she had in high school. One of the tropes that I despise in books is the miscommunication trope, or the 'I'm not good enough for you' trope, even though both characters are madly in love with each other and each character thinks they are not good enough for the other. This is a love story, so there was no spice, which is not a good thing or a bad thing, just something to note. I prefer spicy books, but I know that others do not want to read about spice.

Short synopsis: International Superstar Model Emmerson is surprised when her iPhone reminder goes off reminding her of a marriage pact she made with her teenage best friend Theo (a fashion photographer). So she books herself to be on his next fashion campaign.

My thoughts: Okay, this was such a sweet one. I loved watching the characters growth through the past/current chapters, and learn to actually communicate with each other. The beginning is filled with a bunch of miscommunication, but it makes sense. Teenagers don’t know how to communicate, but they grow up like they are supposed to!

I really enjoyed watching Emerson and Theo reconnect with each other. I could tell from the very beginning there were definitely sparks still between them. I’m always a fan of friends to lovers and second chance romance, so this was a home run for me!
Also, the grand venture at the ending was absolutely adorable!

Read if you love:
- Celebrity romance
- Best friends to lovers
- Second chance
- Miscommunication to great communication
- Dual POV
- Flashback scenes

Supermodel Emerson gets an alert on her phone about a marriage pact with Theo, her best friend from high school. They agreed that they'd get married if they weren't married by 28. Unfortunately, they haven't spoken in almost 10 years. So she talks to her manager and arranges to be on a photo shoot in Cinque Terre with Theo, who is now a hotshot photographer. Unfortunately, he's not as happy to see her if she thought.

I enjoyed this debut romance. It was told from Emerson and Theo's point of view, going between their friendship in high school and their current day photo shoot. I liked Emerson and how down-to-earth she seemed, despite being a supermodel and having a crazy life. It was a friends-to-lovers romance set in a photo shoot in Cinque Terre, so I loved it.
I'm looking forward to more from this author.

Thanks to @stmartinspress, @netgalley and the author for this arc.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. I made it a couple chapters in and was just not hooked. The chapters that I read were well written, and I liked the characters, but I just found myself not interested in their story. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

I LOVED THIS ONE - I'm already looking forward to Betty Cayoutte's newest release. This was wonderful....thank you for my copy!

I enjoyed this glimpse into the worlds of professional models and photographers. Emerson and Theo met as teenagers and made a pack to reconnect in their 30s, but misunderstandings abound. Things bogged down a bit for me with the amount of interior dialog the two main characters engage in - we spend a lot of time in their heads and I found that frustrating at times.

I really liked this one! This is a second chance romance between a famous model and a photographer and it's set in Italy. I thought it was the perfect summer romance and loved the setting so much. For a debut novel this was really impressive to me! My only complaint was that the miscommunication trope was leaned on heavily and it's one of my least favorite tropes so that is mainly a me problem

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to be able to read and review this book!

3/5

A swoony second chance love story of a model and photographer with Italy in the background! Fans of People We Meet on Vacation would also probably fly through this book.

I'm a sucker for anything set in Italy, and was so excited to read this book. Upon first glance it seemed to fit the bill for romance books I like as well which is what put it at the top of my list.

The second chance romance/friends from the past storyline was so fun, and I feel like there was solid development and history given to create a believable storyline between the two characters. The plot was extremely modern/current, and I loved all of the scene description. Such a fun read

I enjoyed the beginning but found myself overly anxious for the fall apart between the main characters and it’s one of those situations where you think “why don’t they just talk to each other?!?”. Didn’t love the ending, it felt forced.
Nice writing, good characters but I needed more from the plot.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started ONE LAST SHOT, but enjoyed this debut romance between Emerson and Theo, that featured friends to lovers, second chance, and celebrity fiction.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-friends to lovers
-dual timelines
-second chance

*many thanks to SMP, and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

I didn't quite like this, the communication between the main characters felt off and they weren't people I particularly wanted to be in the heads of.

This book was a DNF for me. I got to 30% and decided it was not for me. Hopefully it will be a good fit for someone else!

The premise of One Last Shot intrigued me. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by this book because of the heavy miscommunication trope. It's one of my least favorite tropes because communication is so important for me and my relationships. I bet others would enjoy this book, but it wasn't for me.