Alternate title: Me and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Time

The writing is decent at best (Mackenzie's POV) and miserable at worst (Jackson's POV). I was tired of the brand name mentions. Reading what felt like a ChatGPT handbook. Mackenzie deserved a better love interest because he was dragging her down. Now that doesn't take away from the fact that she actually went willingly along with his some of foolishness.

Every moment with TrashManJackson isn't fun at all. He's a whiney brat that doesn't respect women. He's supposedly a former cop but doesn't seem to understand logistics of crimes and the criminals themselves. Makes terrible jokes regarding women being assaulted and a person being stupid means they're on the spectrum?? Yikes. Oh, and I can't forget that on one occasion, Mackenzie got so wasted and couldn't even walk by herself or hold her head up, he kept thinking "I definitely should've hit that when I had the chance" afterwards.

He's a creep.


Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a copy for an honest review.

DNF @ 9% the MMC is extremely misogynistic and sexist, and in reading other reviews, it doesn’t seem like he gets any better. i was really excited to receive an ARC of this book, it seemed like a fun read, but I will not be finishing

I like the plot of the book. I like the main characters were so opposite but they came together at the end. I love the writing style and the wittiness from both characters.

A fast paced read. Jackson and Mackenzie are rivals PIs who team up when it looks like they are the ones being hunted down. I liked how it was told from both points of view.

I DNF’d at 46%.
Jackson was the main problem. He was giving major misogynistic vibes, which made reading even this far in difficult to tolerate. The real deal breaker though was including a joke after Mackenzie was sexually assaulted. Even “joking” that she actually wanted it caused me to have a visceral reaction. And with Mackenzie’s history of being raped, this scene was incredibly disgusting and I can’t believe so many people in the production of this book allowed it to pass. I continued reading just a little more, but stopped because there was no way this book was going to make up for how much I was hating it for the first half.

This was really unfortunate because I did enjoy Mackenzie’s POV. I loved that she used her trauma as fuel to learn to defend herself and that she was such a bad ass. She deserves way better than Jackson.

I was extremely excited to dive into this story about two private investigators joining forces. Specially since it’s written by two authors.

However, could not get pass the Krav Maga line. Feels insensitive for it to be placed on a book in 2024 when the character could have been proficient in any other self defense.
Aside from this, the story was at a great pace, yet not something I can overlook due to the nature of what’s occurring at the moment by those who invented Krav Maga.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

The misogyny of the male character really ruined this book for me. I was looking forward to reading rival Black private investigators working as reluctant allies to lovers. I also did not love how he talked about Black women specifically, nothing egregious, but it did rub me the wrong way.

DNF at 10%. I saw another review that called out the male character perspective as being very misogynistic. I decided to still give it my own shot but found the same and decided to not continue. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

I really liked this. Love when I can’t tell how the story is going to turn out! Listened to this in audio. Was not a big fan of the male narrator, but it wouldn’t stop me from listening to that next book…. If there’s a next book…. 👀

I wasn’t really a fan of this book even though i wanted to be. There were parts that i was like “YES” but the majority of the book unfortunately fell flat for me.

Gah I wanted to connect to his book as I love romantic suspense books. I found the MMC's POV sections to be overly cringe worthy and honestly it ruined the book for me. I set it aside and attempted to pick it back up a second time, and just couldn't not stay interested in the mystery or believe in the connection or chemistry of the two main characters. I ended up DNF'ing the book around 46%.

This book gave me similar vibes as the Janet Evanovich series Fox and O'Hare. Two people thrown together by circumstances who learn to respect what each brings to the investigation of a missing young woman. As their investigations move forward, they find that nothing is as simple as it seems.

Thank you to Atria Books for the advanced reader copy and the #GoodreadsGiveaway win. These opinions are my own.

In Sounds Like a Plan, two private investigators are both hired for the same case, but they don't know each other or that the other was hired. The book included Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes in the marketing, but for me, it was a miss. It didn't have the funny banter I anticipated. The dialogue was stilted, and I didn't really feel a connection between the protagonists. I didn't particularly care about the mystery and had to force myself to skim the ending to see how it turned out. Worst, I found it incredibly misogynist. I kept waiting for the reveal that the MMC was just acting, but he really was that awful.

This wasn't for me, as it missed the heart and humor I wanted.

CW: rape (off page), breast cancer, suicide

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a FUN read. Jackson Jones and MacKenzie Cunningham were hands down two of my favorite characters of the summer. And it isn't even over yet! Their chemistry as rival private investigators lit the pages on fire. Also, non-stop action made this book very hard to put down.

Not my typical read BUT I enjoyed every second of it.


Publication Date 09/07/24
Goodreads Review 11/07/24

DNF @10%

Yeah...this sounded fun but the guys perspective is insufferably misogynistic. I went to check other reviews to see if I should just push through, but based on what I'm seeing my issues are not going to improve. Which is unfortunate. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

This story follows two PI’s who hate each other but realize they are working on the same case. This was a fun, thrilling book that captured by attention from the beginning. I loved the author’s writing style and how easily the story flowed. I did realize that some of the pov chapters felt repetitious, confusing me often as I wondered if I read the same chapter again. I’m not sure how PI’s lives are in the real world but from the movies, this was completely different. I liked the storyline and the pacing was fast. This book is told from both Mac and Jackson’s pov.

Jackson is a PI who needs a case in order to make due and when he receives an offer he takes it. He’s a great character but compared to Mac, we don’t know much of his background. He does development and I still enjoyed his character. Mac was a fun character and I loved seeing her side of being a PI, especially as a black woman. She’s strong and we learned so much about her. There are side characters who are great and make the story interesting. The romance was okay as it felt like the mystery took the entire story and it’s a slow burn, enemies to lovers.

The ending was well done and overall, I really enjoyed the book. The mystery was fun and I loved following this story. It felt like a movie while I was reading this book. I recommend checking this story out especially if you love investigation themes stories.

*this arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*

Two private investigators are forced to work together and happen to stumble upon a murder mystery.

While this was fast-paced action packed read it needed more. The drama wasn't intense enough. The punchlines and jokes were not connecting.

There was the occasional flirtatious banter. I could see them being really good friends that could possibly lead to a relationship.

This one started off strong for me. I really enjoyed both of the main characters, but around 60% the story line just got too far fetched for me. Overall, I thought it was a fun read. I would like to see this brought to the big screen.

2.5 stars.

At first sight, I knew Sounds Like a Plan would be a great read. Sadly there were some elements that made this less enjoyable.

The story is action packed with good twists and turns in the missing persons case. It is the dialogue and inner thoughts of our characters that were not so great.
My biggest gripes were:
- A joke claiming someone had to be on the spectrum because they “look” stupid
- Weird stereotypes about Black women from the MMC Jackson
- Mention of perceived Blackness in the workplace, classism.
- Objectifying women from MMC
-Multiple paragraphs about using Chatgpt and how it works???

The budding romantic relationship between Mackenzie and Jackson is slowly and very lightly sprinkled in throughout the chapters.

Overall I could not put this down but the end results left a lot to be desired.

Note: there are mentions of sexual abuse, domestic violence, racism from other characters, and Cancer

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. All thoughts are my own!

Thank you Atria and NetGalley for the arc of Sounds like a Plan, I was so excited to start. Unfortunately the book included things I was not comfortable seeing portrayed so nonchalantly like fat phobia, misogyny, and the belittlement of people on the spectrum. I loved the idea of the story, but the way it was written out, decreased that excitement.