I was really excited about this premise but I felt like the execution fell flat. I didn’t feel gripped by the story or the romance unfortunately. Particularly the story about Luce’s job as a florist. With Henry and the romance, I just wasn’t feeling it. I just think the cast of characters was interesting, focusing mostly on group dynamics rather than the romance. But it just wasn’t very interesting to read overall. Bonus points for nice friendships.

I was really intrigued by the troupe of this book. It was original and something different from my normal read. I ended up liking the ending. However, the book's pacing was very slow and the storyline had far too much back and forth. The burn was a little slow and never really sparked too much. The side characters all added to the story and made things more well fleshed out. Like I said, I ended up liking the ending but I do not know if I could recommend the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own. Weekends with You is a story about growth for the female main character and the male main character. Lucy is a florist who moves into a large warehouse style living arrangement with a friend and 6 other flatmates. They spend one weekend together each month, where we get to know some of the characters more. Henry is a traveling photographer and spends one weekend in the home each month.
There is a romance story, but I felt as if there were more disagreements and fighting than romance throughout the story. However, this is part of the growth of the characters. I enjoyed the London setting, and the experiences the characters had each month, however I wanted to read more connection in the story between the 2 main characters, and less about alcohol, as it was mentioned often throughout the entire story.
Overall, I enjoyed the premise of the story, however I was missing more of the characters’ enjoyment of each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige. If you have and love your own "found family," you will love this book.

Weekends With You was a fun romance with a whole cast of quirky characters and a protagonist who was adorable. I loved the premise, the scenes with all the roommates, and the banter between them. I also liked Lucy’s relationship with her elderly boss.

Unfortunately, I hated the love interest. Lucy was such a sweet character with so much potential and I just couldn’t get into her on again off again romance with immature and boring Henry. Oliver was 100 times better. I was rooting for Lucy to make a go of things with him. Though he was a minor character, it was Oliver who helped Lucy on her path to growing in her career. He got on well with her roommates, treated her well and with respect, and was an amazing cook who appreciated her artistry with flowers. Henry didn’t really do anything for Lucy except cause her stress and make her feel constantly rejected.

Though I didn’t like the way the romance turned out in this book, the writing was lovely and the other characters were interesting enough that I’d read another book by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for an advance copy of Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige in exchange of an honest review!

My favorite part of this sweet story was the roommates. 8 roommates living together in one warehouse flat was the sweetest thing. my least favorite part unfortunately was the main characters, Lucy and Henry. Lucy and Henry get to spend one weekend together a month due to his work schedule. For me personally there wasn't any chemistry so her head over heels feelings for him didn't feel natural or believable. I did not like Henry one bit, I felt like he completely used Lucy during his stays in London. To me, the lack of information into their characters and why they are the way they are and why they are interested in each other - made me not be able to root for this couple.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Things I really liked: the “each chapter covers the next month” format, the interactions of all of the roommates, and the story overall. Things that were disappointing (in my opinion): the fact that Lucy did not seem to communicate clearly with anyone in the book (bosses, romantic interests, friends), and the high priority of drinking by the characters did not appeal to me. I realize that this may just be personal preference based on my position in life (early 50’s), and that this may have resonated more when I was in my 20’s and trying to figure things out, although I was never really into the “party scene”. I absolutely LOVED the scenes in Ireland – the descriptions were amazing, and it made me want to visit and go stay with Finn’s parents. I also thought the descriptions of the flowers and plants and what they stood for were an interesting “layer” for the read. I appreciated that this was basically rated “PG” in terms of sex and language, as well. A good debut from Alexandra Paige – I’ll watch for more by her to see how her writing evolves!

This debut novel was a delightful romance. The story explored the lives of a group of young adult flat mates who were at different stages of life. I loved how the story was told in chunks of time - over 12 different weekends called "Warehouse Weekends" where all the roommates come together to catch up on life and invest in each other. At the core of the story was a relationship between two flat mates and whether or not they would find romance, but I found it to be about so much more. I rated this one, 3.5 stars because it was an easy and light read, perfect after a couple of denser reads.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

This was an adorable and quick read. This is the story of a girl and her friends told in 12 chapters. Each chapter is a weekend in their life. I thought this was a fun concept so even though you don’t get full character development, you certainly still get to know them I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun and fast read with a bit of chaos and a bit of romance.
Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

📚Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm torn. I don't know how to write a review for this book. I read this book in two evenings. I enjoyed the author's voice. I loved the secondary characters and their cute banter. But I was rooting for the other guy instead of the one Lucy picked. I may be old and wise (lol), and I know that in the long run, she would be happier with the other guy because who she picked has issues, and in the future, he will break Lucy's heart. She will never be his first choice. The book ended the way it ended due to his work and not because he changed something in his life for her.

But I can't rate the book too low because I'm unhappy with Lucy's choice hence it is 4/5.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

I appreciate being able to read the ARC and give my honest feedback. This book was a tough one for me. I read the description and thought the concept of going month by month was super intriguing. I found the first few “months” of the book to be exciting and fun to follow and then it all kind of fell a little flat for me. I didn’t love the Lucy/Henry storyline and had a hard time rooting for them. Not one of my favorites but I still the idea of going month by month was a good concept.

#netgalley
#weekendswithyou

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the ARC for Weekends with You. Lucy is a florist who works in a London shop and finds herself going from a solo apartment to a warehouse with eight roommates. The story chronicles the misadventures of the ensemble in monthly installments, always a “Warehouse Weekend,” where one flatmate a month has to organize a Friday - Sunday outing for all the cast to hang out. The romance aspect of the book centers on Lucy and Henry, a traveling photographer who coincidentally, only comes in town one weekend a month, always aligned with the aforementioned Warehouse Weekend, and he and Lucy hit it off from the start.

Page is a good writer, and the bits of the story about the roommates and their banter and weekend adventures are the highlight of the tale. I enjoyed getting to know all the different personalities as they revealed themselves through their quiz nights, axe throwing, all the empty beer bottles, and revelry that found families get into when they’re young. The set-up of the novel is really solid. The only problem I found with the book was Henry and the relationship the two had. It was evident the characters had a spark, but he was overwhelmingly selfish, immature, and constantly screwing everything up, and THEN he asked for forgiveness, over and over. It leaves her looking like a doormat as she really didn’t even hesitate to take him back, other than giving him a few words to show her anger, then she just agrees to reconcile. I feel like most readers won’t see him as a redeemable character.

I enjoyed the book and finished it quickly. I would love to know more about the roommates and their lives, rather than focusing on Lucy waiting around for Henry. If he had been more grumpy than selfish, the romance would have been charming but with how it played out, I wanted her to kick him to the curb and go running after Oliver (or anyone else!)

Stunning cover!
Beautiful London back drop
Found family

I've never been to London, but after reading this book, I definitely want to go! It's kinda the perfect rom com backdrop.

While this book is a love story, I enjoyed the friendships and found family that was built along the way. I will say Henry was not my cup of my tea. and I perfectly would have been happy if Lucy ended up with someone else or decided to not be in a relationship at the end. I could definitely see this author focusing on some of the other flatmates in a future book and I would absolutely love it! That was what was missing for me, more info on these roommates who also had way more to give than what was portrayed in this book. I get it, a book can't be so long, so again, this is why I am hoping for spin off books!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Good story about how a romance doesn’t always run smoothly and that the characters don’t always react the way you expect. This story has potential to become a series of the relationships between the characters in the loft and thier individual searches for happiness. I liked the details of London, despite having never been there, the author painted great pictures of different places and experiences.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Avon for a copy of this e-ARC.

In this, we follow Lucy, an easy to love florist, go through the motions of loving someone that she knows she shouldn’t, but can’t help falling deeper each month that she gets to see him. Henry, a photographer, is only in the flat they share with a total of 8 people for about one weekend every month, which is designated Warehouse Weekend. Let me tell you, I adored the roommates and honestly wished we got more of them. I feel like we just barely scratched the surface with them and their dynamics by only reading about the one weekend a month when Henry was in town. If this book had been solely about that, I think I would have ADORED this. But, it is a romance, so it obviously makes sense why we focused on Henry and Lucy. (but if the author wanted to do a connecting book all about the roomies, i wouldn’t argue!)

As for our main character, I couldn’t help but root for Lucy throughout the novel, whether it was for her to be promoted at the flower shop she worked at, or if it was to find the love she deserved. While she found love, I desperately think she deserved SO MUCH more! There was supposed to be this intense “spark” (per the explanation of one of the characters describing Henry and Lucy), but I just didn’t see it. If maybe we got to start out with Henry being home longer than a weekend, I think I would’ve believed their love a lot more. However, Henry was just not it for me. He switched back and forth between being head over heels and then treating Lucy like garbage, dragging her along for months! He would do a few sweet things, like towards the end of the book, but with everything else, I couldn’t really stand him.

With all this to say, I enjoyed my time with this. It was a quick read that was fun and bittersweet. The dialogue flowed very easily and was believable and it thrust me into the story every time.

#weekendswithyou by Alexandra Paige
Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced copy.
Lucy lives in London and works at a flower shop. She lives with a group of 7 other young adults in a building they call the “Warehouse”. Each month, they collectively gather and do the weekend together. She has and on the off relationship with Henry, another resident, who is only in town for the weekends. I hated their relationship.
I had to push to finish, but I don’t care for anyone in this book.

3.5/5 stars
I wanted to love this book. The writing was great, and I enjoyed the love letter to London. The characters were slightly insufferable at times, and brought me back to an angsty confusing time of my 20s where people were selfish and shallow. However, I would read another book by this author, because it kept me turning the page.

Weekends with You is a story of two 30 something friends turned lovers who share a warehouse apartment with 6 other roommates and build a family among friends. Though not many people would willingly sign up to live with 7 strangers, Lucy takes the risk and decides to rent a room in a warehouse apartment where she becomes friends with 7 unique individuals. What she finds is that although she is used to being on her own as an only child, that sometimes you can build your own family late in life. Weekends with You is also a love story, but I rather enjoyed the friendship that was built along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes you just need a light hearted, easy read. This was definitely that. While I enjoyed getting to know the characters in the story I struggled with Henery. He was just not what I wanted him to be and therefore took from the story some for me. Overall a fun read.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC!
*Note: this is an HONEST SPOILER FREE REVIEW*

---

“Flowers have always been the best communicators…They’ve mastered falling over one another in the perfect way to announce exactly what they need…They let us use them again and again…They do not rush. They do not take without giving in return.”

My rating: 2.75-3/5 stars ⭐️

"Weekends With You" by Alexandra Paige is a good debut novel for the spring time for my besties who love found families and flowers. As someone who absolutely adores both, I ate up all the banter and flower symbolisms.

I will admit that this book was not exactly…my cup of tea? Theoretically, it should’ve been because it had all the elements I usually love. But something about the writing style just didn’t click with me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun, quick read, but the element that I relied on to get through the story was the found family. Not the actual plot or the romance. With that being said, I think the underlying issue, for me personally, is that the characters didn’t feel “alive” until they were all together. I didn’t really find myself caring about them individually. Yet, they worked as a group, aka I loved loved loved their energy, how the character dynamics played off of each other (i appreciated the diversity/diverse rep and how everyone was inclusive), the banter, etc. I am 100% a sucker for anything found family related.

Okay so now addressing the romance part…of a romance novel…For the first time in a while, I actually wanted the fmc to either end up alone or with the secondary love interest (who, by the way, was the much better option. justice for him). I would’ve actually been satisfied if Lucy took charge of her best interest and stopped letting Henry walk all over her like a doormat. I was kind of taken aback by Henry’s behavior and how unlikeable he is. Overall, there was just a huge lack of chemistry. In my personal opinion, the secondary love interest could’ve had much more potential.

Lastly, I loved the fact that this book included flowers, a flower shop (we need more fmc/mmc florists!!), and the language of flowers. I loved their symbolism and usage throughout the story. Additionally, as someone who absolutely loves photography, I appreciated how the power of photography was represented throughout the story.

So, with all that being said, I can’t talk about much more without spilling the beans, but I definitely encourage everyone to give this book a try. I hope all of you find something inspiring from this story.