Thank you Putnam and NetGalley for the eARC of Old Flames and New Fortunes! All opinions in this review are my own.

I liked the set up of this one at first. I love the magical shop run by the three sisters and how each one has a specific section of it. I also liked Romina and Alex's banter in the beginning. However, her stubbornness not to reveal that her relationship with Trevor is fake got old and I wasn't a fan of the turn the plot took in the second half. I still want to read the other books in the series because I'm hoping I will like a different trope more.

I ended up enjoying this at first it was a little slow but I hung in there and I glad I did. Thank you netgalley

Thank you so much netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

Sara Hogle is an auto buy author for me. I love her past work, but unfortunately this didn’t work for me. I did love Romina and Alex’s chemistry but it wasn’t memorable. I think the sex talk wasn’t written well and it was just too long.

Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle had well-developed characters and a plot that was engaging. This book was a great read. I highly recommend!

**Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions expressed are voluntary and my own.**

3.75⭐️

don’t get me wrong, i thoroughly enjoyed this book. i loved the romance, the history the 2 main characters had and the fact that it’s based just 30 minutes away from where i live (and i’ve been to the Moonville Tunnel). the only thing i didn’t love was that i felt like it could be A LOT shorter. i feel like there were certain points where i was getting bored. within the last 2 hours, i wanted to stop listening to it because it felt like the story wasn’t progressing anymore. if there were parts cut out from before the 2 main characters got back together, then we could’ve seen a lot more of their life as a family which i would have appreciated more than just hearing over and over again about how she was fake dating a friend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc!!

This is a really cute story and I loved the concept of magic within! Romina is talented with flowers and creates floral fortunes for people using specific flowers that are believed to have certain magical properties. For example, a specific flower may make someone’s passion for their partner increase, etc. The flowers cannot make someone do something they don’t want to, but can nudge someone in a certain direction if it is truly how the person feels. Romina’s sister, Luna, has a similar talent with candles, and together they run a magical shop of sorts with the building owner and their friend, Trevor. The building used to belong to their grandmother, but their mother sold it upon the grandmothers death, which devastated the sisters. They dream of one day owning the building again, but Trevor has no interest in selling. Trevor is a budding entrepreneur, and when his father decides to come to town, he’s hopeful it’s to invest in their business. However, things take an unexpected turn- Trevor’s father is not there for the business, but instead to marry Kristen, the mother of Romona’s ex boyfriend from high school, Alex.

On top of that, Romina and Trevor end up in a fake relationship stemming from a joke and now must keep the farce up to save face. Alex, who is in town for the wedding, is immediately suspicious of the relationship and doubts its validity, doing what he can to prove it’s not authentic.

Alex and Romina are thrown together more and more during wedding festivities, which makes it increasingly obvious that they aren’t over each other.

If I’m being honest, this book would have been rated higher if the magic played more of a role in the book and if I didn’t find Alex so insufferable. For about 90% of the book I felt like Alex was overly obnoxious and condescending, and I just didn’t understand what Romina saw in him. I’m also not a huge fan of the high school sweethearts reunited trope, but Alex’s character just didn’t help.

This is still a cute read, and others may not have the same feelings about Alex! Many of the other characters were very charming to me, and I would definitely read stories about the other sisters if the author ends up doing that.

This book was so fun and so magical. I enjoyed hanging out with this friend group, but I honestly could have used a little bit more magic! Some of the powers felt like an after thought. Though, the way the male lead used flowers to communicate with her was SWOONY. Overall, I very much enjoyed this one!

This was a fun book, and while I enjoyed, it didn't really bring anything unique or fun to the table. It just kind of rests in my mind alongside all the other similar books I've read! If you're looking for something to spend time on, you will probably enjoy the story/book...but, if you're looking for something unique, this book is not it.

What a sweet story of second chance love. The descriptions in this book were so detailed, it made me feel a part of the story. I hope there is more to this series

This was a cozy read with Sarah’s signature silly banter. And also the most awkward not-sex scene ever.
While some may strive for hyper sexy over realism, Sarah gives her readers that clumsy awkward feeling when we overthink a moment we’re really excited about and then rewards her reader with a surprising sexy quirk that we did not see coming but actually yeah that does make sense now that I think about it.
This wasn’t my favorite of her books, but I had a great time reading it all the same. I know any book she writes will be a comfort read and I’ll be ready to pick up her next one.

While I eventually ending up enjoying this book, it was a really hard book to get started on. I was about to quit reading but am glad that I stuck with it, there are a lot of characters to sort through and keep straight. In the end Romina and Alex are the leads and after having to sift through them all I didn't really connect with them.

The story was of to a good start, but couldn’t hold my attention.

I liked the. Characters and the plot of the story. Each chapter starts of with a flower and the meaning behind it. I wasn’t feeling the connection between the main character and the ex like the author intended.

This book wasn’t for me, but I may ry it at another time.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Sarah Hogle may easily be my favorite author of all time... With You Deserve Each Other in my list of top 5 favorite books of all time and Just Like Magic being my favorite Netgalley find and on a shortlist of 5 star reads for me I was so excited to see that she was releasing a new book! While this one was less my style than the other two that I have read, Hogle is such an incredible writer and I always find her main characters super relatable and this release was no different! I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to read her novels and hope that she keeps writing!!

The story was sweet. I had a hard time getting into it at first. It had a somewhat slow start. Apologies for the delayed review.

Sarah Hogle is one of the only authors who will convince me to pick up a magical realism book. This book (set in Ohio!) told a uniqye love story between flora fortunist Romina and her first love, Alex.

Things I enjoyed:
- TREVOR was the funniest character ever
- The fun magical element
- A beautiful Ohio town filled with quirky and lovable town folks

Things I didn't like as much:
- Alex was mean at points to Romina and it rubbed me the wrong way
- REALLY hated the secret kept from Romina. It was an unnecessary part of the story.
- Trevor would have been a better love interest than Alex IMO

*I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher; the review is my own.*

This book is kind of like a teeter-totter, in my opinion. Sometimes it was really cute and funny, and then it would swing into the strangest and most awkward scenes in compete opposition to the rest of the book. The highs of this book were enjoyable and entertaining; the other parts were like finding a hair in my food.

I liked the banter between Romina (29) and Alex (29). And I loved seeing Alex pursue her with such fierce determination, even when she tried to evade him. Romina's close relationship with her sisters, Luna and Zelda, provided her with much needed stability and support--and lots of giggles. Trevor and Morgan were also quite funny. (I have suspicions about Morgan, btw.)

Overall, I think this book could have been much better if certain things had been omitted, and not only because I prefer my books without them. I also feel like they interrupted the flow of the book and just made it . . . weird. I wouldn't even call it "steamy" like GoodReads does; it was more cringy. Like I said earlier: teeter-totter.

Note: Language, including f words. Two cringy sex scenes.

The NetGalley book description did not say "steamy" like the GoodReads description does, and I wish it had. I wouldn't have requested it if I had known.

I liked Old Flames and New Fortunes but I didn’t care for the dynamics.

Alex kept pushing Romina to spend time together even though she was “in a relationship” with Trevor. I know Romina and Trevor were just faking it to stop Trevor’s cousin from making fun of him, but as far as Alex knew they were together. He pushed to try and prove they weren’t actually together. This part of the story rubbed me the wrong way.

Overall, I liked the story but if the push from Alex hadn’t been as strong this would have easily been a four or five star read.

so so so fun! you deserve each other is one of my favorite romances of all time so of course i was excited for this. and it did not disappoint

This is a great second-chance romance with magical aspects. The Tempest family is rooted in a witchy upbringing. Before their grandmother died, she prophesized that her three granddaughters would find love at the time, but each under slightly different circumstances. Though Romina hardly believed it, she was the one who was already in love but was hung up on it not working. As Romina and Alex's story unfolds, we understand what happened before and how they fix it now.

Bouncing between a 2.5-3 star read.
A cute, barely witchy, romcom that couldve been much shorter. Truly might just be a "me thing".

It had the fake dating (which I usually like) and miscommunication (not so like) tropes. Though I was hoping for more whimsy and less whiny. The characters were all very much stuck in high school, except no they weren't. They were adults.
I feel like I had a hate-love-hate relationship with, the ever mature, Trevor (intentional?). He had some of my favorite one-liners AND the worst, also how was this manchild running any kind of business? The witchy bit was more New Age Hippy running a flower shop than anything. However I did enjoy the chapter headers with a nod to various flowers. I thought the love story was wrapping up nicely until the 3rd (or was it the 4th?!) act twist. I was kinda over the story by that point, yet I trudged forward and made it to the actual wrapping.
Overall, it was cute, like just cute, fine, good. Maybe I was in a mood? I dunno, I might give Hogle another try.

Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the eARC!