Forced proximity + enemies to lover = home run. So good it made me giggle. I adored this, Mia Summmers is criminally under rated

A beautiful small town romcom a little bit cliché but overall lovely , great characters dynamics and just a fun read

This is one of my favorite Hollywood romance books. I like the story where Olivia has a dinner date auction with the Hollywood heartthrob, Ryan.
A very sweet and entertaining story.

I would like to thank the author for the arc

They say never meet your idol. But never don’t get handcuffed to your childhood crush - who happens to be a Hollywood heartthrob - and lose the key.
If this book was made into a movie in the early 2000s, I would have been all over it.

YA
Dual POV
Childhood crush
He fell first
Forced proximity

FMC Olivia moved to LA with her then boyfriend who declared he was settling by being with her, cheated on her, and then stole her business idea. She moves back home, and is working towards a fresh start. Her best friend conspire in her favor to reconnect her with a former elementary classmate/Hollywood crush…

MMC Ryan is a movie star finding himself in the tabloids and wanting a break from Hollywood. He quietly sneaks back to his hometown despite it being filled with unkind memories of his childhood, with the exception of his 4th grade teacher and a dance he attended in 4th grade.

Olivia and Ryan find themselves in their hometown of Ocean Springs, handcuffed together, and navigating the small town life while dodging paparazzi.

Ryan may be a leading man in Hollywood, but Olivia was never one to be center stage. Gaslit by her ex, he found her passion and creativity to be an annoying trait of hers. She steps up to the plate and pitches ideas to Ryan and his manager to make the best of being handcuffed, while Ryan scrambles to save his career and brings his new movie premiere to Ocean Springs.

The sock hop calling on Back to the Future with Earth Angel… kicking and screaming!!

The themed appetizers and cocktails post Cops and Robbers themed performance were creative. It made me want to plan a themed party… actually the theme of food throughout had my mouth watering. Was the author a food critic or a CIA trained chef?!

Overall, incredibly descriptive of all things food in this book. Wish the dialogue was a bit more connected.

Man, I am so glad that any handcuff mixer we did in college never involved actual handcuffs.

There are plenty of holes in this story: is Olivia a cop or a robber?, being so stubborn and unwilling to compromise, successfully hiding your handcuffed wrists from the entire town and paparazzi, leaving the hotel after the premiere empty handed - girl where are all your clothes/toiletries?, not knowing where your phone is, no closure around the resurgence of her ex boyfriend Taylor, but again, if this was a 2000s romcom, I would have been all over this because we know how unrealistic these movies were and we just didn’t care.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Loved this book from the moment I started reading. The banter had me laughing out loud, which caused others to ask regarding this book. Would highly recommend this book!!

Okay Hooked on Hollywood was such a fun read! Mia Summer does such a fantastic job making me laugh out loud to this Hallmark like novel. I’m telling you, this read so perfect for a sweet romance I would watch on tv. I absolutely adored the banter between Olivia and Ryan. It really made their chemistry come through on the pages.
Some parts did feel a bit rushed but if you are looking for a light, cute romance, this book is perfect for you!

This one, unfortunately, just fell flat for me. Olivia's friends conspire to "win" her a date with her childhood crush/elementary school classmate/now movie star, Ryan. The two end up handcuffed together and have to traverse several days of hiding from the paparazzi until they're able to get a replacement key.

The unbelievability of this one bothered me most. Olivia is hardheaded and MUST sleep at home in her twin bed rather than at a hotel with a large, plush bed. The two try to sneak around in public hiding handcuffs under scarfs and shirts. The mom is an expert seamstress who can sew Ryan into clothes. And it all just leads to the predictable places.

I like an easy love story, but this was too far fetched even for me.

Overall: 3 stars

I'll tell my students about: language, alcohol

**Thank you to NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Overall, I enjoyed this book but didn’t feel anything special from it. It was really fast paced and a good book to read in between heavier and more difficult books seeing as it is pretty light and fluffy. It had some really good comedic parts and banter between Olivia and Ryan.
He is a Hollywood big time actor who recently got filmed in an altercation with a producer and is dealing with the aftermath. Olivia used to be the biggest fan of him but not so much given the recording. Also they happened to somewhat know each other as kids and went to a sock hop together. I think it was a cute idea to have the auction and be handcuffed together, but some of the execution was not great.
I feel like in the beginning there was a lot of telling and not showing, especially in the theatre/auction part. Even throughout the book we get a lot of paragraphs just describing stuff and no actual dialogue or anything about what’s actually said. And I understand at times doing this for the less important things but a lot of things were skimmed over that I felt could’ve helped me connect to the book and characters. There were also a couple times I forget they were even handcuffed together because they didn’t act like it in certain scenes or just due to how the scene was written I just forgot. The timeline of this book was pretty speedy given it basically all took place while they were handcuffed which was just for 5 ish days. This to me always makes a book hard to believe their feelings for each other are real.
I did enjoy the overall plot of the book and how they learned to get along given the predicament they were in. I liked the banter that we got between them. I liked Olivia and Ryan’s friends a lot and how we got to see parts of them. The twist at the end was predictable but I don’t think it was supposed to be a blindside. All in all, I did like reading this book and will probably read more from her.

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

I thought this book was cute, well-written, funny, and overall enjoyable to read. I liked that the pace was not slow, but was just right and with all the banter, I was eating up the words and wanting to know what happened next.

To have two different people come together after years apart and on top of that to have one of them that is a Hollywood hunk and the other that just had to move back to her hometown because of her no-good ex cheating. Finally get to have a chance at what might happen if they can put aside their hurt, uncomfortableness, their own issues and of course the what if’s; they just might have a chance at a great love.

I thought the author did a great job with the characters. She made them likable and relatable. I know that I found myself thinking the same things that Olivia did about a hotshot movie star, even if he was one that was from her hometown as well. Then not only to make it a dinner date with her childhood crush but to have them handcuffed for the dinner and then to lose the keys. I was dying of laughter and dying to know how they would handle certain situations, and to my surprise I loved how those moments went down, it made the characters more real for me. I did find myself getting a little angry with Olivia and Ryan because man their miscommunication was the worst and I wanted to shake the heck out of both of them, but to finally watch the “Oh moment” was beautiful, and I might have teared up a little at it and saying it's about time you dummies lol.

I loved all the different tropes that were in this book: fake relationship, forced proximity, small town, slow burn, celebrity crush, and some great scheming by friends.

This was my first Mia Summers book, and it will not be my last one.

I want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This was a sweet and fun read...not sure how believable it is that 2 people can be handcuffed to each other for that many days with zero way out of it though.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC! All views are my own.

I stopped reading at 18% I simply lost interest. This reads like your "stereotype" romance. She "wins" a date with her celebrity crush but he has a celebrity embarrassing moment.


******************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley***************

Mia Summers writes a delightful and lighthearted book which is quick and easy to read. The entire storyline flows nicely from beginning to end.

The premise for the book is simple to follow - Hollywood star (Ryan) returns to his small town home for a special event - then, he just happens to be handcuffed to a former fan (Olivia) - obviously the key is lost and the fun starts right there.

Olivia & Ryan have a very interesting situation in front of them - finding ways to maneuver everyday routines and activities being the handcuffed together. The situations are laughable. Although, there were times when I had difficulty constructing the images in my head for some scenes.

There are a number of themes presented such as dreams lost & new dreams formed, misjudging a person, opposites attract, enemies to friends and romance.

In the end, once the handcuffs are off & with all the things they have learned about one another the question that remains is whether Ryan will return to the Hollywood spotlight or might the spotlight shine on Olivia for him?

Such a fun Hollywood romance. I love a good celebrity trope. This is a simple and quick read that had me smiling and laughing.

This was an easy quick read. Some things in here just didn't make sense and some were a lil frustrating to be honest. It had potential, with more depth, structure and some more background to the character's life, this would have been much enjoyable. Some might like it more than me so I would recommend it.

This story was so fun! It had me hooked from the beginning. I absolutely loved the setting. The romance was so enjoyable!

Fans of Hallmark movies will probably like this book.

It has all the makings of a Hallmark movie (minus the holiday setting) - a cozy PG-rated romance set in a small town, cheesy and predictable plot, cartoonish characters with stereotypical personalities who spout unrealistic dialogue, and forced chemistry.

Overall, it was a really easy, quick, and unmemorable read as the story was quite formulaic and the characters lacked depth and development.

Cute story following Olivia and Ryan. It is a small town romance with Ryan being a movie star who is in trouble from bad press. He goes to his hometown where he had a crush on Olivia after a fateful Sock Hop event when they were children. He is auctioned away and Olivia’s friends buy him for her. hijinks ensue as they are forced into close proximity and then they fall in love. Slow burn, clean and sweet with cute characters. Olivia was a little irrational in her behavior, in my opinion, so there were a few moments I felt that were overdone but otherwise, I’m happy I read this! Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for a copy.

A fun , and entertaining the story of Olivia and Ryan. I liked how it is told from both points of view. Looking forward to reading Lucas's story next.

3.5 stars!

This sweet tale of a small-town girl finding love with the now Hollywood hunk/once fourth grade cutie she danced the sock hop with is absolutely adorable. Olivia had to return home after her fiancé was caught cheating on her, and Ryan happened to have an event in town- and with a few friends from both parties scheming about, the two end up handcuffed, on a date, and without a key in sight.

Over three days of bonding and connecting, those fourth grade feelings are trading in for real adult feelings- but are they brave enough to act on them?

This book was very simple, very sweet, and a good quick read! The development of feelings could have been fleshed out a little more thoroughly but you can see it growing with the banter between Olivia and Ryan. Some of the feelings did seem a little juvenile, but hey, what can you expect from characters that started their crushes on each other at age nine?

Thanks to netgalley and Mia Summers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was a very sweet romance, I enjoyed the romcom style premise. It’s enemies to lovers of a sort, and the banter between the characters is very good. I personally prefer spicer romance stories, but I think if you don’t then you’ll really enjoy this. I still loved reading it and would definitely recommend to people who do t enjoy spice or aren’t bothered by the lack of it.