This may be the first romance I’ve read that I was thinking, “You know what guys, maybe take a beat and think about if dating each other is really the best idea.”

Would you like to read a book about two people with questionable chemistry who almost immediately fall in love? What if I told you the remainder of the book was full of drama that could have easily been mitigated through basic communication?

Nate is an absolute mess who probably needs to take (at least) a year to figure himself out. He just got out of a serious relationship, only to fall ‘in love’ with Shelby after less than a week of knowing her and a handful of surface interactions. Shelby is not in a great place herself, having just lost her father, but at least she knows who she is and what she wants, something that can’t be said for Nate. They don’t communicate well as business partners and they don’t communicate well as a couple. Yikes.

I hate being so harsh, but both the writing and characters felt immature. Parts were clunky and didn’t flow well. The book is set in the US, and the majority of the characters are American, but there are several British English words and phrases used. (‘Blag’ comes to mind off the top of my head.) The real low point, however, was when the phrase ‘road users’ was used instead of the word ‘drivers’.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. I wish I had enjoyed it more!

I love the cover and the premise of the book! The characters, however, felt like caricatures of real people. Shelby Armstrong seems perfectly quirky and petite while Nate Durant is sophisticated and thinks partially in French phrases. I agree with other reviewers-- it is awfully stream-of-consciousness, so if you're into that, this might be a good fit. I didn't finish this book.

i was really excited to read this by the little blurb on the back but i fear it wasn’t my cup of tea. i did finish it in case it turned around but i think the authors writing style just isn’t for me.

This book had a promising idea, but unfortunately i did not fall in love with it. The pacing was off, and it lacked a bit of depth in the characters. I couldn’t really take the main characters seriously. It’s a great idea of a book though! Perhaps if it was thoroughly thought out a bit more! Thank you for the chance to read it!

This book hooked me in from the first chapter. I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

Book Stats:
Rating:⭐⭐⭐(2.75/5)
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️(3/5)
Tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, Miscommunication, Hallmark
Publisher: One More Chapter(Harper Collins)
Review:
*Thanks to One More Chapter publishing and the author for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange for a honest review*

When Shelby's father passes, his winery starts to fall apart. Shelby, who is the only sibling left, hires a investment firm to help pull the winery out of the funk. Along with that, comes Nate, a man just out of a long term relationship with a specialty with wineries, whose father also is dying from cancer and refuses treatment. Can they make it out of this mess together?
So, let's start off with the positives, shall we? It has very cute hallmark vibes, and the plot felt very well thought out-miscommunication trope isn't one of my favorites but I think it was very well played out. The pacing is also very fast, so if your NOT looking for a slow-burn, this may be right up your ally.
Now on to the negatives, to me it felt like there was A TON of trauma dumping. Like right off the bat. I understand the need for worldbuilding/context, but it was like a punch in the gut.
I don't feel like the characters had a good enough chemistry. It felt very forced. The character's personalities were just too mismatched to me. I was questioning the relationship in general.
The Spice...... I didn't feel was written well at all. It felt like a teenager was writing it on Wattpad/AO3. Which is okay if your in to that kind of thing, but I was expecting a little bit more....

Thank you for the publishers and the team at netgallery, for letting me have early access to this book.
Shelby needs help getting her fathers wine business going
Nate is assigned to help bring the company to the 21st century.

Was very corny at times, had to find out the end.
Unfortunately it wasn't the story for me. Sorry

I devoured this read, like stayed up half the night reading it and I haven't done that in a while. I really enjoyed the story and even though I get some of the other criticism like the FMC's aversion to cussing, and how quick the romance happened I was able to over look it because of how enjoyable I found the story.

Shelby was working double time looking for an investor to save her family business after losing her father when she finally meets JP, a savvy business investor looking to give his last investment of his career some soul but there's a catch. He doesn't believe that Shelby has the business experience to turn the winery around, so agreeing to working with Nate is non negotiable. Shelby instantly dislikes him and thinks he's nothing but a Harvard snob who's going to ruin her family business but she learns quickly that there may be more heart to him than she originally gave him credit for.

I can't wait to read the rest of the series and I just hope there's a Jordan and Brendan book in our future.

This was really hard to get through. He fell "in love" way too soon it didn't feel realistic. Also the main girl calling sex "the boinky- boink"... why? I don't really have a lot of good things to say.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and One More Chapter for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shelby Armstrong has been struggling to keep her family’s winery open after her dad’s death. She has finally found an investor, but there’s a catch - she has to work alongside a business manager to turn the winery around.

Nathan Durant has been hired as the business manager for Flora Valley Wines. He has returned home from France, where he was working with his fiance’s family at their winery after his relationship imploded. Shelby can’t stand what Nathan represents to her livelihood, but Nathan can’t help but to be drawn into Shelby’s aura - but he’s finding real life getting in the way.

Oh boy this one was a doozy. I really wanted to like this. The premise sounded right up my alley, but I had a lot of issues with the actual book. Both the FMC and MMC were painfully annoying, like good they deserve each other. I hate them both. Shelby refuses to swear (fine), and calls sex boinky-boink (absolutely not fine). It also had absolutely wild pacing. They hated each other day one, by day 3, he was in love, by day 4, they were banging, and by day 7 they had had 14 fights and finally got together. Then they got engaged after like 4 weeks! This dude had a whole other fiance in this calendar year!!!

Just an absolute skip.

This was a nice read. It is an enemies to lovers. But they do not stay enemies for very long. It was a cute romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for providing me with an ARC of Corkscrew You by Catherine Robertson. This is a opposites attract, enemies to lovers story of Nate and Shelby. Her father died and her mother wants to sell the family winery out from under Shelby. Shelby scrambles and gets and an investor who in turn hires Nate to come in and manage the winery. And my gosh everything just moves so fast after that. First Shelby resents Nate and he is a jerk to her, then he apologizes. Then they are a team, but then he gets mad again. Then they make up. Oh and Nate's father is dying, which is why he is back in town. There are certainly parts where the banter is top notch, but honestly, enemies to lovers feels super weird when the couple is really instalove as well. It feels rushed. There is steam, which is great. but again, that the couple has smexy time RIGHT after Nate has been revived from an unexplained faint. I wish that the author had slowed down, maybe paired back on the number of tropes that she wanted to explore. I am reading the next in the series, and am hoping it is better paced.

*ARC review thanks to Netgalley and the publisher*

After her father’s death, Shelby is trying to keep the family vineyard alive. Thanks to an investor, she can keep it for now, but the business needs a good overhaul to become profitable, so her investor hires Nathan, management consultant, to overcome the business side. Shelby and Nathan are two very different persons. She is a down to hearth, open hearted person, and good at making wine, but not so much at making money. He’s an experienced consultant who’s already managed a vineyard in France, but he is closed off and defensive. He also doesn’t have a very sympathetic approach to the business. Despite their differences, there is attraction from the beginning, and the physical quite quickly turn into an emotional connection as well.

All in, I quite enjoyed the book. The scenario was nice and Shelby and Nathan felt relatable. I’ve seen a few comments complain than Nathan is an asshole, I think he is just a very realistic management consultant (it’s not him, it’s his job). The side characters, especially Shelby’s two best friends, brought a touch of fun to the story. The subject of grief for Shelby and Nathan’s dealing with his own personal issues both felt quite well done.

Downside of the book - native French here and all those little French sentences and words were very badly used. It was irritating.

Oof. DNF this one at about 50 %

The synopsis sucked me in, but it was just too slow for my liking. The relationship between the characters felt forced and not at all convincing.
I really wanted to love this, it has a cute name and cute title. I wasn't able to finish it, but maybe you'll like it.

When I read the synopsis I had such high hopes for this! It had enemies to lovers written all over it and I was ready for a whole lot of tension and slow burn.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t really call it an enemies to lovers - the two main characters are enemies for all of 2 seconds. The chemistry between them wasn’t convincing and I just couldn’t buy into it - I wasn’t invested!
I didn’t particularly connect with the characters as I felt like we didn’t get a deep enough look into them as people. Also, Nate’s description of other women and how beautiful they were just gave me the ick!

Thank you NetGalley and One More Chapter for offering me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wish I could have liked this. I really wish I could have. Shelby and Nate just had...zero chemistry. Their relationship had no buildup, no realistic reason for them to be interested in each other, and just no platform to build a genuine connection. The asshole trope is getting a little old for me, when it's kind of all his personality consists of. The writing was also jarring, and frenetic to no end. Both of the POVs like to have conversations with themselves in their head, which is so unnecessary to have CONSTANTLY.

Shelby is trying to keep her father’s winery in the family. After her father’s passing, Sheldy has been struggling financially to keep the winery up and running. The business needs some much needed updates. Enter Nate who is what Shelby needs, but is strictly business and tough love. Will the two be able to work together and rebrand the winery?

Unfortunately I DNFed this book at 54%. Shelby and Nate’s relationship became too insta lovey. I felt like they needed to get to know each other more before deciding to move forward with their romantic relationship. As a reader, we also knew more about Nate and his family compared to Shelby. She was more standoffish and closed off, in my opinion. It was difficult to connect with her. I had a soft spot for Nate and his tough exterior. As a broody character, he was written well.

The premise the story was intriguing but was missing pieces to make the characters fully developed. I absolutely love the cover art and could picture the charcters while I read. Thank you, NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and One More Chapter for an ARC of this book for an honest review.

I did not realize going into this that it was instalove, which if you know me I am not a fan of, but the premise of the story was cute. I loved Shelby and Nates banter but I could not help hoping she would end up with Cam. I really hope his book is next... with a certain headstrong lady. I'm also interested in seeing what happens with Jordan and Brendan.

The character development is lacking, absolutely flat. I did not feel a connection between Shelby and Nate. And Nate thinking he’s fallen in love 20% into the book aka like 3 days into knowing her but not actually getting to know her? Yikes. I didn’t find either character all that likable.

While promoted as an enemies to lovers, they were enemies for about 3% of the book, and were just really immature and poor communicators. They’re both late 20s (but kind of remind me of early 20s in terms of emotional intelligence and maturity).

This may be an instance of where a movie is truly better than the book. The writing is childish. It’s not connected, doesn’t flow, and it’s so immature for what is penned as an adult book, with adult scenes.

Thank you to Chloe at One More Chapter/Harper Collins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5
This book has such a fun premise and I did enjoy Nate and Shelby. They fell for each other pretty fast but did have to work for it and communicate.
I enjoyed meeting all the characters and am excited to see more of them.