I was so lucky to get an audiobook copy of Emergency Contact by Lauren Layne and Anthony LeDonne. A huge thank you to Blackstone Publishing and Libro.fm for granting me access to this title!

Emergency Contact was exactly what I needed in the midst of a particularly dreary week. The weather was blah. Work was blah. I was still counting down the days for my boyfriend to come visit, so also blah. Emergency Contact added quite a bit of sunshine and laughter to my blah!

Katherine is a driven lawyer, awaiting the "biggest" call of her life- making partner, but everything turns upside down when she is in an accident and walks away concussed. Under doctor's order, Katherine is to be monitored for 48 hours, Too busy to be bothered Katherine forgot to update her emergency contact... the person who arrives at her bedside is none other than her ex-fiancé Tom.. What ensues is a series of truly chaotic unfortunate events for these former lovebirds. Neither is particularly thrilled by the arrangement, but underneath the surface both start finding themselves remembering the good, the bad, and the what-ifs this scenario might offer.

I often wanted to shake Katherine and frequently wanted to tell Tom to grow a pair. Layne and LeDonne crafted characters that really made you root for them and find them so irritatingly relatable that they remind you of "that one friend".

The audio was enjoyable and made it a quick listen for me! I always listen on 2x speed, but as the end neared, I slowed down the audio to prolong the magic surrounding Tom and Katherine during the holidays.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audio copy of this title. When a high-powered lawyer gets in a car accident days before Christmas, she is horrified when her ex-husband arrives at the hospital. She never changed her "emergency contact" information. Due to her concussion, she can't be left alone. Her ex (reluctantly) decides to postpone his holiday plans, and take her with him to see his family, and propose to his current girlfriend. What ensues is akin to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. A light farce with a lot of heart!

3.5 stars

This was a fun and cute little book. It's a super short and easy read. Perfect for a quick read during the Christmas season!

Katherine is a successful lawyer who has little time in life for close friends. When she gets in an accident on December 23, her office contacts her emergency contact, ie her ex-husband Tom. Tom reluctantly agrees to care for Katherine and since she can't be left alone, he takes her to spend Christmas with his family in Chicago. But a blizzard makes their travel plans impossible and as they spend time together on a wild series of adventures trying to navigate through various modes of transportation, old sparks are rekindled.

I enjoyed this story. It's a sweet and clean romance, and while not all that realistic, it was fun to read. My complaint is that it is so short! I felt like the ending wrapped up way too quickly. After the whole journey to get there, I was left a little unsatisfied with how the story finished so suddenly.

Otherwise, it was fun and a good read for the holiday season.

Katherine, an ambitious New York City attorney, gets diagnosed with a concussion and must be monitored for forty-eight hours to make sure it doesn’t get worse. Unfortunately, she forgot to update her emergency contact, so the person they call is her ex-husband, Tom. Unable to be left alone, Katherine reluctantly agrees to travel to Chicago with him for the holidays. But thanks to a blizzard, what should have been a quick plane ride turns into an antagonistic overnight misadventure that stirs up old feelings even as Tom prepares to propose to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve.

This was a refreshing take on a second chance romance and was very enjoyable. Add in a holiday romance and this is a winner!

I was not sure what to expect when I read the description. It sounded a bit hokey and I imagined I already knew what was going to happen. However, what I love about audiobooks is that the narration draws you in and makes you want to keep listening, and this book did exactly that. I enjoyed the story, while far-fetched. I loved the details that emerged about their relationship and why it failed. Very well done.

I enjoyed this second chance romance. The Planes, Trains and Automobiles tie in was really fun and much appreciated. The main characters had great chemistry and their banter was super cute. I did not enjoy that Lolo was basically screwed over, but I get that it helps the plot resolve. I’d recommend this to patrons for sure!

📚Emergency Contact by Lauren Layne & Anthony LeDonne
Status: Available Now, not KU
Reading Method: ALC via @netgalley

🥰Enjoyment: If I’m being honest, this was a surprise hit for me. I requested it because it was audio & holiday (a combo I’d pretty much been giving myself free reign on) but only when I went to read it did I realize that the overarching trope was one that I hate in movies. However this book was such a freaking delight that I don’t even care,.

📖 🎧 Writing &/or Audio Style: Written in first person POV (excluding epilogue), this novel was super easy to get into and the narrators did a fabulous job. Once we start to get to know our FMC beyond her prickly shell, the female narrator truly embodies the character of Katherine, to the point that I could imagine the facial expressions the character would be making (usually my internal picture show is very hazy on faces).

👥 Characters & Relationships: Katherine the FMC is a type A-ish, prickly lawyer. The kind of character that you’re almost meant to dislike initially, but as you get to know her I absolutely loved this lil grinch. Tom, was our sunshine character and was equally lovable. You definitely find yourself cheering these two on as the story progresses.

⁉️Plot, Intrigue & Logic: Ok as mentioned in the enjoyment section, the whole premise of this story is one that I don’t love in media, the racing across the country with a real or perceived deadline, while the universe keeps taking hits… it stresses me out. There are also some smaller tropes that I don’t love (MMC has a girlfriend he’s about to propose to, though no cheating occurs, and that “rhymes with blitch” FMC type initially. That said, I came to love the characters so much that I was able to easily move past my consternation.

🏞️Atmosphere & Setting: We kick off on 5th Ave in Manhattan at Christmas time. I could practically smell the setting. Our characters were on the move a lot but I was able to keep up with them in my head.

🚨 For Reader Awareness: Clean Romance with the Hallmark Kiss. Here’s a weird call out that I never really thought about… because it was a clean story, I had it playing out loud in the car when the character references the “big lie” that is Santa. Its near the end of the novel, but moms be ware if you have little believer ears nearby.

📣Recommended for fans of: Fun fast pace holiday reads

Absolutely adorable! I loved the characters, the journey home for holidays, the conversations, all of it. This is the perfect easy listen for the holiday season. With just enough Christmas spirit without being overwhelming, this book does a fabulous job of being festive while still focusing on Tom and Catherine's relationship.

*Kisses only. Some innuendo and if there were any swears, they were mild ones

Thank you to Netgalley for my alc. All opinions here are my own.

A lovers to enemies and beyond forced proximity story set in the backdrop of Christmas. Absolutely delightful and an overall wonderful read!

Rating: 4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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When Katherine, a total scrooge, ends up with a concussion, she awakes to find none other than her ex husband Tom at her bedside. She has forgotten to update her emergency contact and now she will have to stay with him for 48 hours to be monitored. What should be an easy trip to Chicago turns into a massive headache for not just Katherine in this absolutely hilarious romcom.
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Look at me absolutely swooning over these Holiday romcoms. This book was absolutely hilarious and wholesome. This was such a fun read that I found myself not wanting this one to end. I dont think I realized how much I love a good second chance / forced proximity romance - but man, this one got me good.
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This is told in a dual POV of Tom and Katherine, which is amazing because you get both of their inner dialogues throughout the entire story. Tom and Katherine have so much chemistry. Their banter will have you laughing out loud, while simultaneously wanting to smack the two of them for being so blind at points. Their love for one another was completely infectious and had my little black heart fluttering with joy.
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I loved the adventure these two went on, from planes to trains to buses to even ubers - their entire adventure was one big jumbled mess one after the other and I ate that shit up like no other. I loved it. I’m going to need for this one to become a movie that I can endlessly watch during the Christmas season.
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I listened to this one via audiobook and it was narrated by Brianna Cohen and Tim Paige who played Katherine and Tom perfectly. I was immediately hooked to this story and flew through this in one sitting. Highly recommend the audiobook!
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Emergency Contact was released on 10/24 and its a holiday read that I am definitely going to be recommending for a long time. Also @netflix this is me telling you I NEED THIS TO BE MADE INTO A MOVIE. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Lauren Layne and Anthony LeDonne and Blackstone Publishing Audiobooks for the ALC in exchange for my honest review! This was truly a pleasure to read!

Audiobook specifically:
The narrators were awesome! Brianna Cohen was a new one for me and I love Tim Paige.

I was really excited for this book and it was the holiday romance I was looking forward to the most. Set in the Big Apple, Katherine gets in a car accident, landing in the hospital. She never changed her Emergency Contact after her divorce, so Tom is called in. When they find she can't be left alone and with no one else to help, Tom reluctantly brings her on his journey home to his family. Confusing feelings are brought up and Tom is in a race against time and weather to propose to his girlfriend, who is waiting for him (them) at his parents.

The flow of the writing and storyline read much more like a movie than a good novel. There's lots of transportation issues and other scenes that I think would depict well in a movie. The whole time I was reading, all I could think is I'd actually rather watch the movie than read it.

The characters didn't do much for me. Katherine was incredibly unlikeable to the point that I didn't enjoy reading about her. It felt like the only defining trait for Tom was that he is Kate's ex-husband, other than that, he was totally flat. You know what else was flat? The entire journey of their relationship. Over the course of a couple days (max of 3), they regret their divorce, realize they're still in love with each other, (all of this while his gf of 1 year is waiting at his parents house where he's going to propose), and gf actually decides to break up with him totally out of the blue...like not even mentioned any where else.

You also can't blame me for wanting to take a star off for them naming their child Gorby... after a truck driver that they met for a couple hours one night. I would maybe support the "naming after someone who helped bring them together" but the fact that it was Gorby is so far fetched to me.

I've seen a lot of people like Lauren Layne, but this book honestly didn't make me want to read anything else by her.

Layne has done it again! Truly enjoyed seeing the protagonist navigate her dilemma that she 100% created on her own. It was funny and relatable. I'm glad she was able to find love in the end.

3.4 stars.

This was so disappointing. The story of two people who are pulled together years after giving up on each other too easily hit me in the feels multiple times. I cried while I learned that she had still loved him when he asked for a divorce and she gave one to him without asking for anything more.

I had hopes that this would lead to touching honesty as well as relationship and character growth. Sadly, this early promise flattened out and the book never went deep.

This ended up feeling so shallow with them being attracted to each other and not much else. There's a moment that the heroine thinks "we're so good together"... but there's no evidence of that. They fight and fail all the way through the book. They do not seem good together or good for each other. At no time do they delve into their issues and truly work them out.

Add to that, there are several things that don't make any sense.

1. The info about law firms seems so ill researched, it's ridiculous. A lawsuit doesn't have "a defense attorney" nor does it have a prosecutor. Those are for criminal cases. And the prosecutor is a public servant, not someone in a private law firm.

2. The heroine is injured pretty badly with an 8-inch gash that needs stitches in her back and a major concussion. And somehow, she's running around the country (sometimes literally) and getting on planes, trains, automobiles, and semi-trucks. How she has the energy to do this and isn't laid up in bed is beyond me.

3. The hero is about to propose to his girlfriend of a year. He's moved on... but the heroine has continued to love him. Thankfully, we don't hear about him sleeping with her, and the heroine has slept with others since their marriage broke up... but it still makes me a little sad.

The holiday season has long-ago lost the shine and luster for Katherine. She's even been called The Grinch around her office at this time of year due to her penchant to want to work more than celebrate. It's just as well, she's got no one to spend the holidays with and nothing else to do. Then Katherine gets into an accident, and wakes up in the hospital with the last person in the world she wants to see: her ex-husband.

Tom is already running late to the airport. Hoping the weather cooperates so his flight can actually leave on time, the last thing he expects is to receive a call from his ex-wife's work saying that he's still her emergency contact. Showing up for Katherine means he misses his flight. Not only that, but turns out that Katherine is suffering from a concussion and must have someone with her for the next 48 hours. Regardless, Tom's holiday plans include more than spending time with his family. He's set to propose to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve.

Reluctantly, Katherine agrees to accompany Tom to his family's Christmas. Should have been an easy trip from New York to Chicago. But as they battle the weather, cancelled flights, and each other, feelings they thought were over come bubbling to the surface again.

This was seriously the perfect read (or listen) going into the holiday season. It evokes everything I look for in a rom-com and in listening to the audiobook it was so easy to "watch" it play out in my mind. I like that we got a narrator for each Katherine and Tom. They both did a great job of really getting into the emotions of these characters and the vulnerabilities, but also played well off one another when it came to the bantering. I could oftentimes feel the frustrations through my earbuds!

I'm a true sucker for the second-chance romance trope and it's played perfectly here. The deep feelings that are clearly still between Katherine and Tom are perfectly felt and the animosity they bring out in each other is full of many laugh out loud moments.

I liked how the story unfolded as it went along. You know, it starts out with Katherine being dubbed The Grinch but we slowly peel back the layers and see why that might be. Similarly, we peel back the layers of Katherine and Tom's failed relationship.

I know it's fiction and I know that some of the circumstances are a little heightened to account for that drama, but it really felt plausible that all these situations could happen. Nothing felt too over the top where it pulled me out of the story. The fact that the story takes place over the course of two days makes this a super quick read (or listen). Something you can start and end within the same amount of time. Honestly, if the story would have been longer, I wouldn't have been upset. I liked spending time with Katherine and Tom and seeing them figure out their complicated feelings for one another.

I've been a long-time reader of Lauren Layne. I think I've read almost all of her books, but this is the first where she's got a co-author and he just also happens to be her husband Anthony LeDonne. I think they write really well together.

If you're looking for a fun read to kick off the holiday season, Emergency Contact is the perfect fit.

This was a fun holiday-time second-chance romance. You get a nice mix of Grinchy FMC and Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - if you can think it, they try it. It was unique in that the even though the main characters are exs, it is a wholly clean romance. The only miss for me was the first 20% of the book was lacking depth and purpose, focusing mostly on adding mystery for readers, but overall I recommend this audiobook.

Great planes, trains and automobiles twist. I was rooting for the characters. Fun story. Great narrators. Would recommend.

📱 Second chance
📱 Divorcees
📱 Close Proximity
📱 Taking care of her
📱 Road trip
📱 Witty banter
📱 No spice
📱 Dual pov/ 1st pov

🤍 Katherine & Tom 🤍

First LAUREN WROTE THIS WITH HER HUSBAND, who's a comedian. How freaking cute is that! Plus a comedian writing.... You know there's going to be some laugh out loud moments and boy was there!!

I loved everything about this one. Hallmark Christmas vibes that brings the emotions (maybe even tissues) and making you fully invested in the couple. Katherine gets in an accident and oops she never updated her emergency contact from her Ex husband's number.... But also she has no one else.

Katherine is a lawyer and she is then more grumpy, scrooge, strong headed role. Her character development through the book was great, and it was nice to see older 30 something characters! Tom is conflicted and overall a sweetheart.

This is definitely one I recommend picking up this holiday season, especially the audio!

Thank you to netgalley and blackstone pub for this advanced listener copy.

OH SO WITTY.

The nods to Planes, Trains and Automobiles was absolutely at the forefront of this book and had my chuckling throughout. Not one thing going right in the midst of a divorced couple forced to hang out for the holidays is a romance combination I have never read and completely devoured. I love how unique this felt in the genre and it gave a sense of hope of reconciliation (in the right situations).

Reverse grump x sunshine was the most prominent factor and I liked the flipped script. Both Katherine and Tom had to come to terms with how their marriage declined and what were the truly important aspects of their lives. I feel like all of the traveling chaos allowed them to come together and realize what they both had been missing.

It’s a short book, filled with just enough holiday antics to call it a holiday romance and one I will definitely be recommending this year.

Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary Holiday Romance
- Language: a little strong
- Romance: kisses
- Violence: low
- Trigger/Content Warnings: divorce, car accident, loss of a parent (recounted)

I absolutely devoured this book and finished it in less than 24 hours. This Christmas-y rom-com is the gift that keeps on giving, with a perfect blend of second chance romance and hate-to-love antics. The banter between the main characters is *chefs kiss*. Second chance romance is one of my least favorite tropes but Lauren Layne executed it perfectly.

This story is also reverse grumpy sunshine and I’m not sure if the author intended to make Katherine Tate similar to Margaret Tate from The Proposal (my favorite romcom!!) but I was definitely getting those vibes from her entire character arch.

Please add this to your TBR and thank me later! I could definitely see this story being enjoyed year round.

I absolutely loved both audiobook narrators and they executed both POVs perfectly!

This as absolutely hilarious. I couldn’t put it down, once I got out the gate. Katherine, our heroine, is endlessly stubborn. Her character type is typically my pet peeve in books. I do not mesh well with obstinate misunderstanding MCs who are “girl bosses” and too strong to apparently understand basic emotions. So I honestly did not think I would make it through the book. It was our hero, Tom, who saved the day in more ways than one. The way he handled Katherine, the banter- seriously this banter was peak, the antics they went through. It was so funny when it could have been over the top. It somehow felt like something that could happen to me. The planes, trains and automobiles. I laughed out loud so many times and sobbed ugly happy tears at the end. Their relationship had so much heart and soul packed into such a short timeline. So well done, so sweet. 4 ⭐️

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this audiobook, in exchange for my unbiased review!