The flirting was level 100 with Lucy and Fletcher. The mental health rep was very helpful, written with lots of knowledge on the subject. Lucy and Fletcher were very cute together, supportive and flirty. I enjoyed their online and offline interactions had lots of funny bits to lighten the subject matter of the book.

This books was a fun take on a modern “You’ve Got Mail” while also showing how easy it appears for some to mask their mental health. Really highlighting that none of us really know what each other are going through.

There is a lot of slapstick comedy which can be a struggle for some. The Jewish representation is a plus as is the mental health representation.

I enjoyed the back and forth between the main characters and the secret identity trope is always fun.

For a debut the author really tackled a bit of topics (mental health, parenting your parents, teacher emotional labor, sense of belonging, and online friendship). Overall I thought balancing some of the tougher topic with comedic relief broke up the story even though it was a bit jarring at times. But it made me think of how masking mental health conditions can be that way sometimes. Yes, I was spiraling 20 minutes ago but let me make you laugh.

LOVES:
- The millennial references: I counted 5 🙃
- These are quirky, lovable characters who are fun to read about
- The accurate representation of how awful professional development days can be 🙄
- And the differences between private vs. public schools (as a person who has worked in both, the author represented the struggles accurately)
- The FMC’s family is so supportive and wonderful 💜
- “Plan B money” 😵😂😨
- The sexting and all of their flirting is adorable 🥰
- The grand gestures ☺️

“You’re a man… in a home improvement store. Don’t you want to assert your masculine prowess by doing everything yourself and not admitting you need help, even if it takes hours longer?”

This story is so real. These are characters who are dealing with real life issues and just doing their best. It’s a sweet love story, but I really loved the journey to loving herself.

Thanks to @netgalley for the eARC. The book releases on March 18th.

Lucy is a high school guidance counselor who has ADHD, anxiety, and depression which at times makes her job hard. She created an online persona where she posts inspirational words and advice that is followed by many. Fletcher is one of her followers. He is the son of a billionaire and has a lot of family drama that Lucy’s online persona has helped him through. Fletcher is a high school history teacher that just started teaching at the same school Lucy is at. Neither know who the other is online. Fletcher and Lucy start to get to know each other and through a series of events they realize who each other is online and it doesn’t end well, or does it. Join Lucy’s journey through self-discovery, while balancing her mental health and her feelings for Fletcher.

I really identified with Lucy. It is sometimes hard to explain why something simple as a doctors appointment is hard to make or crying over literal spilled milk. Fletcher is such an understanding male character but at the same time has his own issues of avoidance. There were multiple places I was laughing at her sisters and Brodie, he is someone I would like to see a story on. Georgia's attitude, 2/3 through the book, was the big surprise. Some storylines felt a little incomplete. The Lucy & Fletcher characters were developed pretty well. There is one lightly spicy scene. This book isn’t for everyone. Some find it a bit annoying since Lucy seems to do a lot of crying, but they may not understand the underlying emotions associated with them. The author is a very respectful job portraying the reality of anxiety/depression and didn’t make a joke out of it. Thank You!

There were multiple places where the book needed some editing. I’m not sure if it was my copy but sometimes the same text was on two consecutive pages.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.5⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: contemporary romance 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A sweet workplace romance but I liked but didn’t love

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Workplace romance
Great secondary characters
Teacher/ guidance counselor
Friends to lovers
Embarrassing meet cutes
Pop culture references
Romantic comedies
BIPOC FMC
You’ve Got Mail vibes

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Jewish rep
Mental health rep
The inclusion of the Instagram DMs was fun

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Very predictable and it was just a little too coincidental for me
Idk why but the book annoyed me as I was reading it lol

DNF @ 23%. I wanted to like this, but I couldn't get into it from the start. The first chapter is the slapstickiest romcom material -- Lucy, the FMC and guidance counselor, accidentally spills her tea on Fletcher, the MMC who is the hot new history teacher at her school, and of course it spills on his crotch. And her brilliant idea to fix it is to take her scarf, get on her knees, and attempt to wipe her tea away. Which is ridiculous, and leads to a lot of dick talk within the first 10 pages.

From there, it kind of only gets worse. Fletcher is new because he's returned home to take care of his mom who is spiraling because his (already) shitty father left his mom for her secretary, who is now pregnant with his kid. Lucy is secretly a famous Instagram guidance counselor influencer (who seemingly only posts platitudes), and unbeknownst to either of them, Fletcher follows her on Instagram. But not just follows her. He DMed her at some point (from basically an anonymous account) for advice, and now they're super close and sharing lots of personal details with each other to the point that she's giving him advice about dealing with his mother. Which, sorry, but as an Online Woman, I feel like she wouldn't have done that??

The kicker for me is that Lucy, in addition to being the guidance counselor, also runs an after-school program to "build self-confidence" for teen girls. But the program and curriculum is school-mandated, and Lucy apparently follows it to a T, even if she has some qualms about it. Because not only is the curriculum ineffective (and abstinence only, which why? and also, what does that have to do with building self-confidence?), but it's called the Konfident Kids Klub. Sorry, but that doesn't make for a funny joke. I'm willing to suspend disbelief up to a point, but not to this point, and also... I'm not here for joking about this club sharing a name with a hate group.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for providing me with an eARC of Flirty Little Secret in exchange for my honest review.

Online, Lucy is confident running the popular TheMissGuidedCounselor account, but in real life is battling anxiety and depression as a school counselor. But her online and real worlds threaten to merge as her hot new coworker is unknowingly the man behind her mystery online friendship.

This was a fun romance a la You've Got Mail or Christina Lauren's recent novella The Exception to the Rule. We get a mix of in person interactions (and a meet-disaster) between Fletcher and Lucy, but also get to see their online exchanges. 

The author did a great job balancing humor and banter with more serious mental health topics, and I loved seeing Fletcher support Lucy through her ups and downs. Lucy also grapples with her identity throughout the story and I appreciated the representation of her Jewish culture and Mexican/Moroccan family.

Overall it's a great debut and I look forward to reading more from Jessica Lepe! Thanks Forever and NetGalley for my advance copy - it's out March 19.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Abbot Elementary AND You’ve Got Mail? Immediately count me in. I was excited to read this book just from that short tagline, not to mention I can never say no to a cutie cartoon cover. In the end, I am so glad that I was able to read this book.

Lepe’s debut novel tells the story of a school guidance counselor, Lucy, and history teacher, Fletcher, who have unknowingly been building a friendship online for months. After a disastrous first meeting, the two begin a real life flirtationship.

The modern epistolary element of their story through Instagram DMs was super cute and I enjoyed seeing behind the curtain.

I also loved the characters. I felt that they were both incredibly real and their faults made them all the more lovable. The mental health representation as well as the blended family was done really well. It made me feel like I was catching up on family gossip and I loved it.

Another aspect of this book that really kept me entertained was the side characters. They made our main characters all the more well rounded and I really liked the little snippets of their lives that we got to see outside of being in a relationship because of these characters.

Being a teacher myself I thought this one was absolutely hilarious! The staff drama was spot on although Georgia's change in the book was a little far fetched! I loved the diverse representation in the female main character along with her real struggles with depression, and anxiety! The sense of family was a big theme throughout the book which I also loved.

Read if you like:
🍛 Multicultural Characters
🧠 Mental Health Rep
🧩 ADHD Rep
💬 DM’s back and forth
🤫 Secret Identies
✡️ Jewish Rep

All in all, this is a pretty light and fluffy romance with some more deep topics sprinkled in, but ultimately handled in a way that kept the book feeling like a lighter and relatively fast paced read.

I enjoyed the multicultural aspects of our FMC and the exploration of her struggle with her heritage and not feeling as if she belongs and the mix of her mental health and that further making her feel “other” and that exploration of those feelings.

Similarly I enjoyed the exploration of the mental health and anxiety for our MMC too.

The plot is quite predictable but ultimately it gives you the vibes of a comfort romance read.

To be slightly knit picky, I wish there was a different name used for the club with the school as it didn’t add any value to the plot and just felt like a weird way to utilize an acronym tied to a hate group.

Thanks so much to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Lucy and Fletcher were too immature to believe either of these characters in their profession. The relationship went from one awkward interaction to insta-love, yeah NO! There were bits of this story that were too cringe worthy to salvage the romance.

Thank you, Forever

There was so much I loved about this book! The depression, anxiety, and ADHD rep was absolutely on point and it's clear that the author was a social worker given the care that was taken in representing mental health issues as well as issues facing guidance counselors and teachers. The book made me laugh out loud multiple times - Lucy as a character really jumps off the page and is so vibrant! I loved how Fletcher was so supportive of Lucy and genuinely wanted to know how best to help her and be with her.

My biggest issue with this book is 100% a me thing - I HATE when a character finds out a secret (in this case, Fletcher finds out that he knows Lucy from her online persona and they've become friends via DMs) and doesn't tell the other character because they think it will change their relationship. I hate this for two reasons - the lying and the fact that I already know what the third act breakup is going to be about. Unfortunately this book was no different so I ended up reading the last little bit super fast to get through that.

Thanks to Forever and Netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book! I love Lucy’s family dynamic and how supportive they are. They embrace her as she is and love her flaws and all. They accept her mental health struggles and reassure her that she is loved. No one tries to change her. Her sisters are funny and annoying and it’s just a really fun familial bond.
There’s a really cute moment when Lucy’s family sits on lawn chairs in the front lawn waiting for her to get home from her first date with Fletcher. 🤣 I could practically picture it and it made me smile.

I love the premise of a school guidance counselor/online life advice “influencer” who most decidedly does not have her life together. Lucy has a lot going on in her life and is so great at guiding others through tough times, but really struggles to take her own advice.

*The most awkward and cringeworthy foray into sexting ever.*

Unfortunately Fletcher is really bland and there is a lack of sexual/romantic chemistry between the two main characters that made it hard to see these two as anything other than friends.

The interest for me lies in the family and friend connections throughout this book. That’s what kept it fresh for me. Other than that, it was a fairly generic and sometimes clunky romance.

Tropes- workplace romance, secret identity, mental health representation

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the digital ARC.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this book at 25% it wasn't for me.

Lucy is a guidance counselor with a secret identity: @TheMissGuidedCounselor. Lucy's alter ego has all the answers, but the real Lucy has ADHD, depression, and anxiety. When she spills tea on the hot new teacher, she's so embarrassed that she thinks about switching schools. However, Lucy and Fletcher become friends, and over time Fletcher eventually realizes that Lucy is @TheMissGuidedCounselor, the woman he's been friends with and crushing on for a while.

This plotline is definitely one where you have to suspend disbelief - it's hard to believe that Fletcher would run into Lucy, even more unbelievable that Lucy wouldn't realize who Fletcher was sooner, and their relationship moved FAST. Like, dating for a few weeks (?) and talking about marriage and kids. However, I don't think most of us read romances because we want something believable.

The story was cute and had some interesting representation: neurodiversity, mental health, Mexico and Morocco, Sephardic Judaism... Overall, I had a fun time reading this book and I'd recommend it to people that like romance stories about teachers, mental health, close-knit families, and secret identities.

Such a cute, real and important book, honestly! sweet, funny, swoony, while also bringing up important, everyday topics, such as mental health (anxiety, depression and ADHD) rep, family issues, self image issues and so much more.

Jessica, as she says, is speaking from personal experience, and she portrays everything so truthful and real, it was salt in the wound but refreshing at the same time😂

Lucy and Fletcher are navigating through adulthood with a lot of different struggles and carrying different weights, and they find solace in each other and help each other cope.

I really like the whole secret identity/pen pals who also know each other in person, but this one was, in a way, different from the usual premise (in a good way), idk how to explain it. Maybe because their friendship as MissGuided and BraveGuy was so deep and solid way before they had even met irl as Lucy and Fletcher.
I also love the whole falling in love with the same person twice!🥹

Totally worth it read! Thank you so much NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!💜

Appreciated the mental health representation but the romance didn't do it for me. As a you've got mail lover this just missed the mark. Also, trigger warning: miscommunication.

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 3/19/2024. There is a very familiar romance trope that I find can either go really well or really NOT well. The Bookshop Around The Corner, You've Got Mail, etc. You know. The anonymous connection, the real life meeting, the discovery by one or the other, then... The drama of tell or don't tell. Flirty Little Secret takes this trope and runs with it, mixing in the world of social media (clever and timely) and high school staff where you have Lucy Galindo, sweet but constantly struggling guidance counselor, and her secret life as online Super Counselor Who Never Is At A Loss. To my delight, author Jessica Lepe raises the trope to its best levels with charming main characters and a lot of communication. No endless estrangements here! Fletcher and Lucy are actual damn adults who have actual conversations, both good and bad, despite their emotional and mental baggage.

And, believe me, they both have plenty. Fletcher brings a very messy family history to the table as well as extreme confrontation avoidance. (I feel you there, boy) Lucy has a checklist of neurospicy issues that she struggles with - ADHD, depression, anxiety, and a very timely feeling of "I'm not enough." (Again, feeling all of this, new bestie) With the story being told from both POVs, Lepe gets the chance to really explore Fletcher and Lucy as people and thought processes and emotionally complicated beings. She handles it all very well with sensitivity and a clear understanding of how hard and alienating being neurodivergent can be. Of course, there will always be moments with such characters where you want to shake them but that is because they are so human and, chances are, you're going to recognize something of yourself in them.

The story has the obligatory HEA but it is earned and Lepe does not cheat to get there. When a character messes up, they acknowledge it and then figure out how to fix it. It is refreshing. Go and read it please. Soak in the emotional moments and I dare you to avoid setting the book down at times with a big "phew." Because sometimes Lucy's inner monologue is so very raw and real that I felt myself caught in a mirror.

This book has so many pluses - strong characters, neurodivergence, a mix of religions and races, family connections and disconnections. Seriously. Enjoy it!

Full disclosure, though, I might have wanted to strangle one of Lucy's sisters more than once. There's teasing and raunchy and then there is... her. Woof.

Initially I liked the voice of the story but as time went it became so outlandish I had a hard time believing it. There are like a million public schools so what are the chances that their paths would cross? Also, the ex felt like a flimsy way to add tension instead of actually allowing the characters to engage on their own. The mental health rep was nice to see but also wish there was more encouraging therapy. The back and forth extremes between the two MCs was annoying and felt like stop and go. I enjoyed the dynamic and diversity of Lucy’s family but overall the story had awkward pacing and felt too far fetched to really get into.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.