Keep This Off the Record is an enemies to lovers romance. And while it was interesting and cute, I felt like Abby and Freya's relationship happened out of nowhere. They literary barely interacted, had only a couple scenes together and then suddenly they're kissing and are apparently in love. It seemed thay went from enemies straight to lovers, without any character development.
I still liked it, I had a lot of fun reading this. It's perfect if you need to catch up on reading to reach your reading goal, like I do.

** Thank you to NetGalley and Rising Action Publishing Co. for providing me with an eARC of Keep This Off the Record in exchange for my honest review. **

I tried really hard to finish this book because it was an eARC. I got 22% in and was unable to do so, but I will give my review of the first 22%.

To start, I don't think that that writing was for me. There were descriptions that just brought me out of the story right away (a cherry is the color of ... a cherry-- really?).

The characters were basically all insufferable. I am a huge enemies-to-lovers trope gal, but this was petty and juvenile for what one would assume is supposed to be adult characters.

I just couldn't catch the plot/story at all. Maybe I just wasn't enough into it (but based on summaries I've read.. no?). There was nothing that made me even remotely interested in finding out what happens with one of the characters.

I did read an overview of the rest of the story and I won't say that I am upset that I missed out on it.

To be a little fair to this book, the first book I read after Iron Flame was always going to pale in comparison. But I almost DNF'ed it, and I skimmed the last 25% and things went even more off the rails, so I think this book did that all on its own.

The main two characters, Abby, a therapist, and Freya, a hot shot journalist, are high school enemies who are seeing each other for the first time at a high school reunion (10th? 15th? Not sure). Why are they enemies? I think just normal high school drama. But their first interaction in at least a decade results in Abby throwing a drink at Freya and Freya's girl squad from high school acting like teenagers. I always have a hard time with childhood enemies in books, because why are you still so hung up on this so many years later? Why have you kept thinking about how much you hate the cool kid in high school when you are several years out of college? That is extremely weird!!

Unfortunately for Abby and Freya, they can't seem to avoid each other. And that's because Freya's associate producer Will, who went with her to her reunion, is smitten with Abby's best friend from high school, Naomi. But Abby doesn't trust Will because he's friends with Freya, and Freya doesn't trust Naomi because she's friends with Abby, so when they go on their first date, obviously Abby and Freya try to hide to see what's going on. And somehow, Abby brings along Riley, her other best friend, and Becca, her sister.

A sidebar about Becca -- she's introduced as someone who is married but continually unfaithful, and then when her husband calls her out on it, she is all of a sudden remorseful and wants to fix things with him. Which, fine, but it was the weirdest subplot to have Becca constantly showing up on her way back from trysts with a different person every time.

Abby and Freya keep not getting along, which OBVIOUSLY (to their friends) means they have feelings for each other. Which, it's not clear as a reader that they do. The POVs alternate, and at no point up until now do either Abby or Freya think something like "ugh she's so annoying and so hot and that's even more annoying." Naomi and Will and Becca and Riley engineer absolutely batshit wild scenarios so that Abby and Freya separately "overhear" them saying that the other one is in love with them. And all of a sudden, Abby thinks Freya is in love with her, and Freya thinks Abby is in love with her. This is such a stupid way to get the characters together. First of all, at no point has Freya ever indicated that she's interested in women. Second of all, at no point did EITHER Abby or Freya voice this to their friends. Third of all, even if their friends wanted to set them up, their first instinct was to engineer scenarios, including a fake pocket dial, for them to "overhear" this conversation.

The plot continues as eventually Will decides to propose to Naomi. But because of how he proposes (Freya helps him propose "on air"), the network decides to make a whole story of it, and they offer to pay for the wedding if they get married in one month and let them film everything. Which is a dumb idea, but for some reason, Naomi and Will go along with it. And a note about the network -- the network is "traditional," whatever that means, but Freya continually thinks about what her image is and how she needs to seem. And this is a dumb plot point too -- in 2023, I don't need to be reading about how a news network isn't interested in having gay people be out and on camera.

At this point, the plot goes completely off the rails, and I will save my spoilers for Goodreads, but suffice it to say that it only goes downhill from here. All of the characters were annoying and made dumb decisions and the scenarios they found themselves in were absolutely bonkers and not fun to read about. The only points I will give this book is that there's good Jewish rep (Abby and Naomi kiss her mezuzah when they enter her apartment. That's fun to read in a book!). But really... that was the only good thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rising Action Publishing Co. for providing me with an eARC of Keep This Off the Record in exchange for my honest review (and boy was it honest).

The writing is definitely funny and witty, its strength is in the banter and the ride or die dynamic between the characters. The fact that there is only two characters on the cover is a bit misleading, because the side characters have a huge part in the book they deserved to be on the cover. They are fun and very colorful but not very realistic and a bit immature. Now let's talk about the romance side between Abby and Freya. The blurb was a promising enemies to lovers but in the end, the romance was barely existing for me. By 50% of the book, they had 4 tiny interactions and the way they are brought up together reminded me of what 12yo would do. Then, they go from 0 to 100 without barely real interaction or talk. My problem was I barely knew the characters and the lack of background prevent me from getting attached to them or see any character growth.
If you are looking for depth like me, romance wise, this book might not be for you. If you are in the mood for something light, fun, a bit crazy not really emotional with some twists, romcom style this book is for you. It's fast pace and easy to read.

There was a lot of potential in this book, but I felt a bit overwhelmed by the abundance of characters and lengthy stretches of dialogue that seemed to veer off course. Juggling conversations with four or more people is no easy feat, and at times, it felt like a lot of the dialogue was just filling space. The pacing of the romantic storyline could have been smoother, especially considering the complexity introduced by numerous characters. It almost felt like there were three different stories trying to coexist in one narrative, making it a bit too much to handle. I think if these storylines were given their own space to develop, they could have been excellent, but merging them together seemed to dilute their impact. The interactions between the main characters lacked the depth I

A heartfelt thank you to the publishing company and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reader, you are in for a treat with Keep This Off the Record, a masterful, modern, and queer retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. I am not overstating it when I say this book had me giggling and kicking my feet with joy and anticipation. With strong narrative voice (which adds another layer to arguably my favorite Shakespeare play), Arden Joy weaves a dynamic story filled with hijinks, drama, and lovable (and lovably annoying) characters. Trust me when I say ‘do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars, immediately read this book’ if you’re looking for an engaging and laugh out loud read. A very unapologetic 5/5 stars from me and I cannot wait to see what Arden Joy has planned next!

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I stayed up so late last night to finish this! Worth every moment.
I enjoyed this book so much - it was just the right time in my life to read it. A need for something light, a little low brow humor and high school drama as adults.
This group of friends - where can I find my own? The support characters of Becca and Riley - massive need!
The romance, the HEAs, the drama - loved it all!

The plot initially intrigued me but some of the author’s choices made me really not enjoy the rest of the book about halfway through.

"Keep This Off The Record" by Arden Joy is a delightful LGBTQIA+ romance novel, with a fun cast of supporting characters that keeps the reader and engaged even if the two main characters are less than lovable all the time.

Joy explores the complexities of love and attraction in the face of intense rivalry through the eyes of Abby and Freya, two women who have despised each other for a decade, but that now are finding themselves falling in love. This sets the stage for a classic "enemies-to-lovers" plot, as their friends attempt to play matchmakers and uncover the underlying passion that may be hidden beneath their rivalry.

Their encounters are filled with sharp-witted barbs making for an entertaining and tension-filled read. Joy's writing keeps the story fresh and engaging, with alternating points of view providing insight into the emotional worlds of the main characters. The book maintains an excellent pace, ensuring that you'll be hooked from start to finish.

Thank you NetGalley, Arden Joy and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think the only reason I came out of this book with a positive opinion is that I really wanted to like it. But the characters fell flat, as soon as they stopped going at each other they lost all chemistry, their friends were plotting and it never got revealed in favor of a third act breakup that was thrown out just as fast with no resolution. The straight side characters had a significantly more tense and interesting relationship and the comic relief characters had half flesh out plot threads thatched have been interesting but were brushed to the side. This book feels like the skeleton of a better book. All the parts are there but nothing has been fleshed out enough to feel satisfying.

This book was fine. The story was interesting enough. The characters were okay. The pacing was fine. That's where I will leave my review. Much love!

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review. This was such a fun read and I really enjoyed it! The characters were so lovable and I really appreciated the friend group dynamics. The only issues I really had were a lot of small grammatical mistakes or misspelled words and the development of Freya and Abby's relationship. It's hard to get the pacing of a rivals-to-lovers relationship right and this was definitely the biggest pain point in the book. It felt like they went from hating each other to being in love in almost no time and I think some clarification of how quickly time passed would definitely help with that. But overall, a great read that I would definitely recommend to my friends!

Another lesbian romance that felt too juvenile for me to be able to enjoy it. I don’t mind “enemies to lovers” but it didn’t feel worth caring about in this case. Everyone felt like a caricature and I couldn’t take any of it seriously. If the writing was different, it might’ve been able to carry the plot better, but I couldn’t keep reading when a cherry was described as being the colour of a cherry. The beginning was hard to get through and I lost faith in the writing when someone’s accent was compared to “a stripper slowly, seductive sliding down a pole”. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me.

I really appreciate all of the representation in this book! Having a non-binary person as one of the main supporting characters is wonderful, especially with the way it’s never questioned or made into a big deal. I think that sort of normalization in media is very needed. The representation of having Jewish main characters is also fantastic, and I appreciated the casual integration or their faith and culture in the story. Other than that, I will always love the enemies to lovers trope, especially when made sapphic! I really enjoyed the writing style, it was engaging and easy to follow. The only thing I do wish is that a little more time was spent on Freya and Abby’s progression to lovers. It felt a bit sidelined with the wedding plot overshadowing it.

Abigail and Freya Jonsson can't stand each other. It started in high school, and they've managed to stay out of each other's way for years, but at the high school reunion, they run into each other again. While their respective best friends are hooking up with each other, Abby and Freya still can't stand each other.

This was a quick and entertaining read. I'm not a big Shakespeare or classics fan, so the Much Ado About Nothing plot didn't really resonate with me. I felt like there was too much time spent focused on the friends and not enough time spent on the main characters, but some people enjoy that, so your mileage may vary!

It was fun to watch the dynamics between Abby and Freya shift and to watch the relationship develop. Overall entertaining read if you enjoy sapphic enemies-to-lovers romances!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

I truly, fully enjoyed this book!

Such a fun and easy read. The development of both main characters was well written. The LGBTQ+ representation was amazing written through the entire book. I also loved the friends that surrounded the main characters.

This was a cute and fun read. I overall enjoyed the characters and the plot. Thank you for allowing me access to an arc

I read this book and desired to sit with it awhile before posting a review. I went into it really wanting to enjoy it and I enjoyed all the potential I thought it had, but it just wasn’t a winner for me. I think my main complaint is that the side characters and additional story lines played such a big role that the romance seemed to take a back seat, and while that’s totally fine and was still written well, it just wasn’t what I expected. I still gave this book 3 stars because it wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t the book for me. I would give this author another chance and, who knows, this might be just the book for you.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for and honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book. Loved the development of the friends since they can play such a big role in our lives. I don't often like the enemies to lovers trope, but enjoyed this one. It was a quick, easy and fun read. Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this title early.

Friends to enemies is one of my favorite tropes. This was a quick read. The plot was okay for the most part. Abby and Freya don’t like each other. They reconnect at a reunion. Their friends develop a quick romance that forced Abby and Freya to spend more time together.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.