Trigger warning: Sexual abuse survivor
Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Work it Out is a small-town romance that deals with family issues, including a sexual abuse survivor and a chronic illness rep. I loved the all the characters, the banter, and the way all the trainers are like family. Rayah is the owner of Explosion gym, and she is tough as nails, her only weakness is Jake and Jake’s only weakness is Ryah.
I like Rayah, she had been through so much, and yet she had accomplished a lot in her young life. She was tough because she needed to be but she was also caring and sensitive.
I enjoyed how Rayah and Jake slowly got to know each other. They both had a lot going on; Rayah needed to keep her gym from closing and Jake needed to keep his chronic illness a secret for the sake of his career. He also needed to keep a low profile and in a small town that proved to be tricky. The story of Jake’s illness and the daily complications he has was very interesting. I liked that the story with a team of characters is all relatable. There is friendship, family, forgiveness and love.
I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Jake is up for a role in an upcoming superhero movie, but needs some help getting the physique to fit the part. Rayah owns Explosion, a very impressive and secluded gym resort.
Jake and Rayah both have secrets of their own that they’d rather not share with one another. But as any good contemporary romance novel does, we get to see their relationship develop and see how their pasts’ are affecting their futures.
I enjoyed the representation in this novel from chronic illness to sexual abuse survivors that gives further dimensions to the storyline.

To get the movie role he's after, Jake needs visible abs—and to get visible abs, he needs a plan. Luckily, that's what Rayah offers: since the end of her gymnastics career, she's opened Explosion, a resort with a focus on helping clients meet their fitness goals. It's perfect...as long as Jake can hide his health concerns from Rayah. And as long as nothing else goes wrong...

What worked for me: this is a high-energy and fast-paced read, with likeable characters and a bit of quirkiness to keep things interesting. Readers who like to follow characters through a romance series might find some satisfaction here—I can't be sure that there are more books to come, but there's enough setup for a few characters that I wouldn't be too surprised if this isn't the last we see of Explosion. For some inexplicable reason I am fond of gym-setting romance, and I love that we see a health condition that doesn't show up much in fiction (and that the author is writing from her own experience). It's also a book that runs high on big feelings and emotional conversations, which, while not entirely my thing, is better than stoic heroes who are determined to be the manliest men who ever did manly-man (and will likely be an unreserved plus for those who are in it for the feels).

What didn't work so well: there's a *lot* going on. In addition to Jake's health, there's Rayah's backstory, which is pulled from real-life USA Gymnastics stuff and sometimes becomes the...frontstory? Is that a word? There's drama with Rayah's best friend and with Jake's costar and with Rayah's father; there's a subplot regarding the small town where Explosion is located and a subplot about a skeevy insurance agent and at least three love triangles that I was sure of, but possibly more. (Oh, also, Pierce should have been fired, probably more than once.) I was left thinking that the least exhausting thing about Explosion would be the exercise, and...I wouldn't have minded a significant trimming of subplots to calm things down a bit.

What was overdone: The use of 'cupcake' as an endearment could have been dialed back 50% and it still would have felt frequent. And...I read or heard something recently talking about the emphasis some romance novels put on tiny heroine + big hero, and that is here in spades. It's not a new thing—skim just about any romance novel from the 60s and you'll find plentiful descriptions of the heroine's tiny waist or slim build. And here at least it makes a certain amount of sense; Rayah is a former gymnast, and it's unusual at best for an elite gymnast to be anything other than compact. But when even the heroine herself is thinking "The bed's a king, and I'm ever so little" (loc. 1335)*, the description has become a caricature of a caricature. 80% fewer references to how little she is and we'd still have gotten the point.

The positives outweighed the negatives here, and I sped through the book in a couple of days—it was one where I suspected from the cover alone that I'd enjoy the story, and I did. But I hope that if this turns from standalone to series, the next books will get a bit more streamlining.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Jack desperately needs to get in shape for his next action-packed movie role, Rayah is the owner of the gym where he trains and is in financial trouble to keep the place afloat.

The plot really caught my attention, I don't think I had come across anything similar and it was quite interesting, but there was something that didn't quite fit in my opinion and the story didn't captivate me in the way I expected. I think it has potential, it just loses its rhythm at certain times and there's a lot going on with the characters.

— 2.5⚝

this book started out rlly well for me. the dialogue was great, the humour was too notch and so was the setting and characterization. but all that quickly fell apart for me. the pacing is very off and rushed and it feels like the book is trying to pack in too much to the point where it becomes very perplexing. around the 20ish% mark, the dialogue starts become too cheesy and some of it feels thrown in there just because it can be and not because it's deserved. paced differently, it could have made this a much better read for me. i also feel like the things the main male character said were very unbelievable to me because it doesn't flow with the rest of the story. 24% in, he says things like "i see you for who u are" while he's having a crisis physically. it doesn't make sense to me at all.

additionally, sometimes it was very hard to follow the pov because it was unclear who's pov we were getting. third person doesn't bother me much and i quite enjoy it even but in this situation, it could have been written in a way that gives the reader more clarity, even adding something as simple as a name at the beginning of the chapter would help imo.

i definitely do see potential in the author because her humour is delivered excellently and the plot of the book is also great. but this one was sadly not for me.

thank you to netgalley and Entangled publishing for an e-arc of this book. all thoughts are my own and not influenced in any way.

Work It Out turns up the heat with a charming small-town love story featuring Jake, the charismatic actor, and Rayah, the ex-gymnast. The pacing was just right, and I appreciated how the supporting characters added flavor to the love saga. The book skillfully navigated tricky subjects—present but not in your face.

The connection blossoming between Jake and Rayah was a highlight for me. I loved peeling back the layers of Rayah's backstory, understanding what shaped her and the fears that haunted her past and future. Yet, in the mix, I found myself craving more of Jake's own journey. Despite a challenging childhood, he grew into an amazing and caring man, and I wanted to dive deeper into the experiences that molded him.

Surprisingly, I'm not usually a fan of third-person POV, but this book did it right. The narrative style clicked for me, adding a unique flavor to the story that I found quite enjoyable.

*Thank you to NetGalley, Eva Siedler and Entangled Publishing for providing the eARC in exchange for a review, but all thoughts are my own*

Jake has to get in shape to grab a huge action film. He hires a new cute trainer, Rayah but he continues to suffer from his health issue that he tries to hide from everyone. Rayah needs to suceeds for herself and all her staff....

I love Jake and Rayah together. I wish that Jake has told everyone his secret earlier. Rayah is terrific. Love their chemistry together.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

I pretty much picked up this ARC as soon as I received it. The premise is great and I love the small town atmosphere. The story was strangely convoluted, though, and it made connecting with the main characters difficult. I do think that this author has potential and has created a great setting for future books. This one just didn’t quite work for me.

Work It Out is a small town, forced proximity, celebrity, found family romance. This book has solid romance tropes, an enticing premise and repped a lesser known health condition. The characters, both the main characters and side characters, were likable and relatable. That being said, I did struggle with this one. It took a while for me to get invested in the story and the writing style was hard for me to follow at times. This was written in third person, which admittedly is not my favorite, but I feel like it really compounded the problem of whose point of view we were reading. This one also had very cheesy dialogue and phrasing, was repetitive at times and omitted details that could have been helpful. (I was never quite sure why Jake went by Jake when his given name was Christopher other than it was most likely a stage name.) This story had A LOT going on… too much in my opinion. There was Jake’s fitness, health issues and desire for privacy, Rayah’s financial struggles, other man AND other woman drama, Rayah’s family issues and secrets, small town and found family shenanigans, and the hunt in addition to the standard will they or won’t they relationship drama. I was impressed that most of these were satisfactorily resolved but the story seemed long and did seem to drag at times. Jake and Rayah both made mistakes but Jake loved Rayah enough to put her comfort and happiness above his own. In the end, I got the hard fought emotional and satisfying HEA that I wanted.

Thank you for giving me an arc of this book!

I’m so torn about this book, so torn. It feels like it’s one draft away from perfection. The premise is so good, the characters are really good, the banter is great… I just found the flow and dialogue difficult at points. At times there was so much going on I couldn’t keep up. I enjoyed this book, and k loved the cover too… it’s a 3.75 stars for me. I’m excited to see this author evolve with future projects too!

Work it out is a very enjoyable small-town romance between a famous actor,Jake, and a former gymnast, Rayah. I liked the pace of the book for the most part and the way the surrounding characters are portrayed and contribute to the story. I also liked the way the more sensitive issues were addressed, it was subtle but not superficial. I would have liked to know some more things about the MMC’s past and how he grew to become the man he is now, it felt like the FMC had more attention by the author in this part.

I guess the thing that bothered me the most was Rayah’s tolerance of Jake’s attitude towards her in the beginning of their acquaintance- I mean she was portrayed as strict, how could she not complain when he started calling her “cupcake” out of nowhere?


-Written in 3rd person
-Spice: max 2/5 🌶️

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️ for me.

I received an advanced free copy of this book via NetGalley & Entangled Publishing and I’m leaving a voluntary review.

This was such a fun read. At times the story got a little crowded, with the fallout from her gymnastic history and his medical/celebrity history. But the world created here - the town, the gym, the fascinating secondary characters - makes me want to revisit Bigbone, AZ again and again.