This one could have had a little more character development but overall it was a fun ride that was funny and sweet. The story is great to curl up and read in the cooler weather this holiday season. This is a great read for the lover of cozy reads with a badass heroine and a cinnamon roll guy. A+

It was cute, but I felt like there were a lot of loose ends. Why didn't the asshole who stole the money get brought to justice? It's still a great rom-com, I just wanted more closure.

What a fun adventurous romance read. Both of the main characters were very likeable and the banter and chemistry between them was enjoyable. The adventures they end up on kept me on my toes as I was reading and really, can not go wrong with some fake dating sprinkled in.

Alex Stone is trying to save her father’s Belize touring company. So when desperate Bo Ferguson hires her to find his ex-fiancé at an archeological dig site Alex agrees. As Alex and Bo learn about each other as they sleep in the jungle, enjoy local villages and hike ancient ruins they can’t deny their attraction. Problem is Alex thinks Bo is still hung up on his ex and Alex never lets a man get too close after her ex. Will she get Bo to the dig site and their Belizean adventure turn into a fond memory?

I enjoyed this adventure romance but wish Alex and Bo could have gotten to the archeological dig site faster. It felt like the third act conflict should have been sooner. Also the resolution between Bo and his ex didn’t seem completely finished to me. Nevertheless this book was still an enjoyable escape!

M.C. Vaughan snared me on two fronts, the first being my love of Romancing the Stone and the second being my love of traveling through Belize. I’m certain I’m not the only romance reader who got my first taste of romantic adventures with Joan Wilder and Jack Colton, and I’d like to say that Vaughan carries the torch with great success, but this story fell a little flat for me.

On the surface, Vaughan sets a jaunty pace with a dramatic, exotic setting, and deep character development. But when you delve a little deeper, you’ll realize that both characters are a little whiny, focus too much on introspection, and suffer from poor communication.

That being said, Romancing Miss Stone is the first book of Vaughn’s that I’ve read, and I will definitely be back for more because I’m all about adventure. Life, and romances, can always use more adventure!

*Read the full review at All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/romancing-miss-stone-by-m-c-vaughan/

Cute but nothing to write home about. But would not rule out reading more from this author. Seems very similar to some other books releasing at this same time.

Spoke it me a romancing the stone vibe except it’s gender reversed, and in this case, female character is the guide who is trying to help the male character find his ex, but of course along the way they find that they suit each other better. There is band galore in this book and it’s a fun book from start to finish. it’s a book that once you start you won’t be able to put down and I highly recommend

Heat Factor: Can’t say, but they are super horny, so I’m assuming at least some on page somethin’ somethin’

Character Chemistry: They’re both ridiculous, so they deserve each other

Plot: Bo gets text-dumped by his fiance, so he goes after her in Belize, where he hires Alex at an absolutely exorbitant sum to be his guide, and she’s cool with overcharging because it’ll solve her business money problems

Overall: DNF at 30% due to extreme irritation

If you like characters who need to get out of their own way, and you have no problem with them being completely irrational and kind of rude and stupid in the process, then you might not be exceptionally irritated by this book. I am not that person, and I eventually absolutely could not with these characters.

Bo is a chucklehead who has been telling himself that he was his fiance’s first choice all these years when it is extremely clear from the jump that she’s been using him as her back-up plan since high school, and now that he’s thinking of marriage, she’s ready to bolt. Alex is a chucklehead who swore up and down that she could handle running her dad’s business during his illness and after he died, but she couldn’t (and there were places where she also didn’t want to), so the accountant/her boyfriend ran off with all the money, leaving her with more determination not to give up than reasonable ways to save her business. Bo shows up at the resort where Alex works (in addition to running a whole adventure tour company?) and asks her to guide him to where the fiance is doing an archaeological dig. Alex gives Bo a once-over and sees dollar signs, so she charges him the total debt for what was supposed to be a one-day ride up north. (What?)

So when I started this, I was like okay, we’re dealing with a formula here, and I was prepared to discuss the execution of that formula. The problem is that the characterization was ultimately so inconsistent that I couldn’t focus on the plot. Bo is supposed to be methodical and prepared—he has every survival item he could research along with him—except that he didn’t research what kind of survival gear he would need in the jungle? Or the fact that he’d pay for stuff in Belizean dollars, not US dollars? Like, he’s unworldly, sure, but someone who goes to the trouble of ordering a butane stove and MREs isn’t going to fail to research the most basic aspects of where he’s going.

Alex is even worse, though. She’s supposedly the best tour guide available (which could just be a buddy touting her, to be fair), but she is an absolutely terrible tour guide. My credentials in staking this claim are that I have backpacked in 27 non-Western countries, including independently, on single-day tours, and on multi-day backpacker tours. Bo is paying ten grand American to get a private ride to this isolated dig, and Alex needs that money to dig herself out of a hole. Bare minimum, as a tour guide, she knows how to handle tourists. There is literally no way that she hasn’t dealt with some kind of Karen while doing this job. There is absolutely no reason, therefore, for her to consistently antagonize Bo. Everything is a discussion with these two.

"“What’s wrong?” Bo had folded the hammock tent as crisply as one fresh off a sporting goods store’s shelf.

"“Flat tires.” Alex thatched her unruly hair into a french braid, the easiest style to fit under a bike helmet.

"“Oh. Need help changing them?” He shoved the tidy tent package into the back of Betty, then dusted his hands together. “I’m handy with a jack.”

"“Flat tiresss Bo. Plural.” She gestured toward the sad, deflated rubber in front of her. “I have one spare. The last time I checked, AAA doesn’t serve this area.”

"“Fix-a-Flat?” he suggested.

"If Bo’s optimistic suggestions didn’t annoy her, they’d make her laugh."

I have been on multiple adventures where something went wrong, and do you know what my guides literally never did? Leave the problem open-ended. Why would an experienced tour guide not say, “Two of the Jeep tires are flat, so we’ll take the dirt bike to my friend’s shop, and get a new vehicle there or get replacement tires and come back if they don’t have a vehicle available”? I’ll tell you why, because this cutesy back-and-forth that highlights the differences between Bo and Alex and ups their antipathy is supposed to make the arc of their relationship more satisfying in the end. Unfortunately that doesn’t work (for me, at least) if they already have huge boners over each other and the antipathy is centered on thinking the other one is stupid/irresponsible.

Alex is also bent out of shape because much of the time she feels like Bo thinks she’s incompetent (this was not aided by his assumption that Alex Stone was a man when they first met), but until she pulls out her jungle hammock tent, she does almost nothing to actually demonstrate to him that she is, in fact, competent. In the first place, she’s late to pick him up. Should he probably be aware of Island Time (or whatever version of “yeah, we’re all late” she’s on) because he supposedly did research? Yes. She drives like a local, so he doesn’t feel safe in the car. Then, when a sinkhole prevents them from taking the highway, she drives him through the forest reserve, swearing up and down that there’s no way they’ll have to stay overnight, only to have to make camp. They eat the food he brought for lunch. A lot of Bo’s problem is that he’s a control freak (because his Dad made his childhood scarily unpredictable, which is a him problem, but understandable), and he should have had a basic understanding of Belize before jetting down there. But Alex is trying to secure his money, so possibly being less flip and condescending with him, especially after she has consistently not proven to be completely reliable (yet) would help with that.

Add to all of that back and forth a bunch of, “Mmm, what yummy muscles,” and “Mmm, those legs are so distracting,” followed by “but I shouldn’t” and I’m over here with whiplash. It wasn’t good.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

Romancing Miss Stone is a fun adventure filled novel, in the vein of The Lost City minus the people trying to kill Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Bo flies down to Belize because his fiancé randomly breaks up with him via the phone while she is down in Belize on an archeological dig. Bo is not the kind of person who can move on with his life with no closure so off he goes. The problem is, he needs a guide, and that is where Alex comes in. Alex has had her confidence in herself shaken tremendously because her ex embezzled from her family company and left her in pretty dire straits. So the two of them team up to get Bo to his ex in exchange for Alex making a significant dent in the amount of money she owes to Mr. Sleaze-ball Loan Guy.

Along the way there is dancing, intense conversations, more nature than I would ever be comfortable dealing with, and a lot of internal assessments trying to figure out who each of them are. The self-reflection was well done and overall made for a very compelling storyline. Did I occasionally want to yell at the two of them that they were already in love and just didn’t recognize it yet? Yeah, absolutely. Overall though, the pacing of this story was quick and it was such a delight. I had so much fun with it.

loved this romance and getting out of your comfort zone and finding love. loved her friend and that he did something different and found love and had closure.

Romancing Miss Stone by M.C. Vaughan reads like a perfect millennial, opposites-attract, romcom & I absolutely love it. We are served up a Belize jungle adventure with vibes of the early 2000s Tomb Raider movies, Jungle Cruise, The Lost City, &...obviously…Romancing the Stone. We have Bo Fergusen, the seemingly uptight & straight-laced man who is unceremoniously dumped by his fiancee of seven years…via text. And she proceeds to ghost him while she’s working at an archaeological site in Belize. So he decides to do something out of character & go to her to explain (& possibly win her back?). Enter Alex Stone, the only tour guide willing to take him off the beaten tourist track, through the jungles, & to his ex, Density (I mean, Destiny).

What ensues are a handful of days packed with adventure & revelations that prove to turn both of their lives upside down in all the best ways. Y’all, I read this in one night, it’s so good. And to be honest, I was surprised by just how much I loved it! I started reading it on a whim one night & was sucked in almost immediately - a credit to Vaughan’s pacing & storytelling.

This book has some of the best banter I’ve read in a while; not just between Bo & Alex, but amongst all of the great side characters, too. The chemistry between Bo & Alex is palpable - no imagination required to fill in the gaps - & I legit experienced ‘butterflies’ more than once while reading. In fact, while going back through my annotations of this book, I kept stopping to reread whole sections of the book to re-experience them & I still got butterflies just from re-reading some of the quotes, despite already knowing how it plays out.

I want to write so much more but I don’t want to spoil anything. So instead I will say, if you are looking for a perfect, quick romance with plenty of spice & summer vibes, PLEASE pick up Romancing Miss Stone! (I hope this becomes a series because I absolutely need more from this universe of characters!)

Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Afterglow for providing a digital advanced copy of this book for review. All thoughts & opinions expressed are my own.

When I saw Romancing Miss Stone on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. I loved Romancing the Stone, and I was hoping this would share the same campy humor. I really enjoyed it, and found Alex and Bo’s adventures fun. I loved the juxtaposition between Alex’s leap first and maybe, just maybe look after, and Bo’s anxiety ridden, plan everything to a T personality. It’s no wonder they clashed at first, as Bo’s complete lack of derring-do had Alex counting the minutes until she could dump him off at his final destination.

Alex is at one of the lowest points in her life. Her scumbag of an ex has drained her bank accounts and disappeared, a loan shark is threatening to ruin her reputation if she doesn’t come up with a sizeable payment on the loan she owes him, and she’s still grieving the death of her father. When Bo approaches her to guide him across Belize to the archeological dig his ex fiancé is working at, she thinks her prayers are answered. If she can put up with his uptight attitude, she just might be able to crawl out from under her massive debt and get her tour company back on solid footing.

This was a lot of fun. Alex and Bo are complete opposites, and they both get on each other’s nerves. Bo was so relatable for me: he is anxious, plans for every contingency, and finds comfort in his boring routine. He is shocked when his fiancé dumps him via text and promptly blocks him, and he’s bound and determined to figure out why. He uncharacteristically hops on a plane to Belize, determined to discover what he’d done wrong and to win Destiny back. I kept wondering why why why would he go to so much trouble for such an unworthy person, but that’s part of his personality. Even his sister pegged Destiny as selfish and hardly a suitable partner for her brother.

I loved how Alex constantly needled Bo at the beginning. She is hardly one to worry about a plan when she has a goal in mind. She focuses on that, and just makes things happen to force the outcome she wants. When she initially takes advantage of Bo’s misunderstanding about which currency they are negotiating in, she feels just the teeniest twinge of guilt. He is going to get what he wants, and she is going to be able to to make a payment against her loan. However, as she gets to know him, she starts to feel bad about taking advantage of him.

One thing that did frustrate me was the lack of communication between them further in the book. I get that Alex is still smarting after she’s been swindled, and Bo still wants to find out how he erred with Destiny, but he started to realize he didn’t want her back. I wish Alex had leveled with him about her outstanding debt and her hesitancy to trust again after the fiasco that was her previous relationship. And that Bo had been upfront about his reason for wanting to speak with Destiny.

That nitpick aside, this was a fun read, with an interesting setting. Alex’s devil-may-care attitude in the midst of the dangers of the jungle was a refreshing change. This leaned heavily on Romancing the Stone, but with the female lead playing the intrepid explorer. Her lack of fear and quest for adrenalin rushes was the perfect foil for her less than enthusiastic travel mate. I really enjoyed this road trip romance.

What would you do if your fiance left a voicemail message calling off your engagement? Would you drop everything and head out into the jungle to understand why?

Bo Ferguson won't move forward until he sits down with his fiance, rather ex-fiance for an explanation. A split-second decision will take him into the jungle of Belize where he meets Alex Stone a local guide to take him to his fiances archeological dig site.

Alex Stone is working to clear her family name, build her business, and perhaps find love. A bold, strong, determined woman not willing to take no for an answer will face her biggest challenge. Can she find a way to help a stranger without falling in love?

What transpires is a wild adventure with plenty of laugh out loud moments taking a predicatable guy and turning his world upside down.

I love Alex Stone, the vibe, and the plot. I can't wait to read more from M. C. Vaughan.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a fun, cute and fast paced rom-com full of adventure. It is the perfect summer read! I loved that is gender bent version of its name sake Romancing The Stone. It was a little insta-love but our main characters do endure a lot together over a short span of time so I was honestly ok with!

M.C. Vaughan's first book in the Belize Dreams series was a like a quick refreshing dip in the pool. Low angst, insta love tale between a home body and an adventuress. Definitely going to check out the rest of the works.

Thank you to Harlequin - Romance | Afterglow Books by Harlequin and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

A sweet adventurous romance set in Belize that is perfect of a quick vacation read! It took me a minute to get into the book but I was hooked once I started.

While the book could have used a little more character development, the writing was good, the characters were fun, and the Belize setting was awesome! The banter was funny and so great between Bo and Alexandra.

It is a bit of a slow-burn which no actual action taking place until about 50-60% into the book. It's very insta attraction as soon as the characters meet - which isn't usually my jam -- but as they journey through the jungle and get to know each other, you see the love bloom.

Thank you to NetGalley, M.C. Vaughan, and Harlequin for the eARC of this book!

Romancing Miss Stone was so much fun to read! I selected this one because the title reminded me of Romancing the Stone. The book gives those vibes, but with a twist. I am loving this genre of Adventure Romance, and I can't get enough.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced digital review copy.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin for access to this arc.

When I saw that this is a take off on one of my favorite movies, “Romancing the Stone,” I got a little giddy. The book is great! I had a blast reading it. There isn’t any suspense or danger though, just a very character focused story.

So yeah, I have to agree with all the characters who say that Destiny not even mentioning their cat Lorelie in the breakup text, says all we need to know about her. Her scene late in the book just cements my feelings about her. Alex called it when she says that Density (Alex’s name for the woman) is a tool.

Alex and Bo couldn’t be more opposites attract if they tried. Bo, as Alex tells him, reads owner’s manuals like bestsellers. Alex has general-ish plans, a knowledge and love of Belize that lets her (successfully) improvise, and a reason why she doesn’t trust in love.

But in the process, the two will end up questioning a lot they thought they knew about themselves and discovering what really makes them happy. The banter is delicious – more witty instead of nothing but snark and best of all the two MCs act in ways that make sense given how their backgrounds and personalities are presented to the reader.

The changes that Bo realizes about himself are quick but he sees that he can let loose a little and that this feels fun. Climbing the Mayan temple and just taking in the glory of the place awes him. Alex tries the “just for one night, no strings attached sex fest” but is stunned to find out that with Bo it’s better than better and that he’s truly a deep-down nice guy through and through. I also loved Alex’s friends who help her while showing her that it’s okay to occasionally ask for help.

Yes, the story is fairly predictable, some of the circumstances caused a touch of eye rolling, Alex’s emotions flip-flopped just a bit too much, but dang it, it is so much fun. It’s a hang-onto-your-hat fast read that had me smiling. I just hope that Lorelie the Cat is enjoying her new oceanfront resort home, too. B+

You guessed it - I am on my Mummy/Romancing the Stone kick and this hit the spot. I couldn't tell if I wanted to be Alexandra Stone or with her...

Romancing Miss Stone 🗿

“Alex knew she was a lot. But unlike everyone else, Bo didn’t demand that she be less… And that scared the hell out of her.”

First things first. This cover. Amazing. I love it. It’s what pulled me in and caught my attention, and then I read the synopsis. A gender flipped Romancing the Stone inspired romance? Color me intrigued.

Bo Ferguson is a strait-laced, kindhearted, computer engineer with his entire life mapped out. Alex Stone is in trouble with a local loan shark, struggling to keep the family adventure tour company afloat, and still fuming after her ex ran off with all her money. The two meet when Bo’s fiancée dumps him via text from a dig site in Belize. Bo, never one to be considered adventurous, hops on a plane to win her back. He hires the best tour guide around, Alex, to get him to the dig site and sparks fly. But are Bo and Alex willing to be adventurous in matters of the heart? ❤️

🏍️Adventure Romcom
🗿Starchy hero
🏍️Messy heroine
🗿A broken engagement
🏍️A chocolate festival
🗿A jeep named Betty
🏍️A bike named Veronica

I loved the premise of this book, and there were times where I was genuinely invested in the characters and their lives. There were a few moments that had me laughing and some where I went, “aww 🥹,” see quote above. ⬆️ But I couldn’t help but feel as if something was missing.

Alex was a character I struggled to like, and I think that was the point. She didn’t like or trust herself, so how could she let Bo in? Over time, I began to enjoy her more, but I felt the book was too short and focused on other things to really show her character growth in the way it deserved. The ending was rushed, though there was an epilogue, but I would have liked more of Alex’s community, Bo’s family, Alex and Bo’s relationship, and future plans for the tour company. All in all, this was a fun read even if it was missing something to make it 5 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the complimentary arc. All opinions are my own.