Enemies to Lovers was unexpected for me. I received this ARC and forgot about it, and when I read it, I fell in love with the Greenbergs and Jamie. This books centers around Flo and the first holiday after her mental breakdown (CW) where she had to be hospitalized in order to find her way back. Laura Jane Williams approached the subject of the breakdown with care and didn't sugarcoat how rough this was for Flo. "Having a breakdown at twenty-four is part of who I am, and two years on, it's part of what's made me the resilient, hopeful phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes that gets to float in the sea and let her mind drift, happy to be alive." As someone who has been in that exact position, seeing Flo be able to live a normal life gives me some hope. Bring in Jamie- the family friend whose parents have passed so he is invited on holiday with them. After some tension and miscommunication, Flo and Jamie find themselves growing close in spite of their "brokenness." There are so many layers to this holiday vacation in Greece, and some parts are laugh-out-loud funny (trying to name all 50 states in America as Brits), where others are emotional and touch on some hard to talk about subjects. Enemies to Loves is well written and all of the characters have depth, they feel like a real family and I am nearly intruding on their vacation with lots of delicious food. I am hoping we get Alex's story next, he definitely deserves his happily ever after.

The book was okay, but not my favorite, I would say it does get better as you go on and the main characters are great. I would recommend as a quick beach read or an afternoon outside

I read Laura Jane Williams’s “Enemies to Lovers” as a palate cleanser. Flo and her family are in Greece for a vacation. Also on vacation with the family is Jamie, the best friend of one of Flo’s brothers.

Flo and Jamie had a falling out at Christmas and Flo was unaware Jamie would be joining the family on vacation. Pretty early on Flo decides the only way to survive the trip is to force herself to be around Jamie.

I found the details around the Christmas incident to be somewhat on the flimsy side. I also didn’t think they were enemies in the beginning as much as they could’ve been. That said, I adored the dialogue Flo had with her family members, as well as how they interacted with each other.

Overall, I recommend this book. It would be a good book to read on vacation or at the beach. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC.

Enemies to Lovers by Laura Jane Williams

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

4/5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. As someone who has a lot of anxiety and is a recovering overachiever and people pleaser, I can relate to the main character.

Florence (Flo) is recovering from a breakdown. Though it’s been a couple of years, her family still treats her like she’s going to break at any moment. She’s on an annual vacation with her family and her brother’s friend, Jamie, is there.

Jamie and Flo have history and his presence is a surprise. Throughout the two week vacation, Flo tries her best to avoid him - which is difficult when they are staying in one house.

Perhaps even more than the love story, I love the family dynamics. The author is so skilled at writing witty dialogue and crafting a believable family.

ARC Review: 3 stars. 3.5 stars? I liked it ok.

The Details:
Enemies to Lovers by Laura Jane Williams

Quick Summary:
Flo is ready for a nice relaxing vacation in Greece with her tight-knit and lovable family. Except she’s not ready for an unexpected addition - Jamie, her brother’s best friend and the guy who rejected her a year ago.

My Take:
yeah, this was cute. It actually got better as it went on, because I was expecting meh for most of it. There was a twist of two so that was fun. I liked the way they treated mental health and the dialogue was sweet. Flo was a likable FMC and Jamie was pretty swoon worthy. Would recommend for a cute and light beach read!

I struggled with this one a bit. The characters came off as very immature and unbelievable. It made the relationship hard to get into, because they didn't act like adults. I did enjoy the family on the trip as well, but it felt like more plot involved them then the main couple.

⭐️⭐️⭐️From Penguin Group Publishing: Ever since The Embarrassing Meltdown Incident, Flo has been on an enforced break from life. And the timing couldn’t be better, as her family sets off to Greece for their summer vacation. 

Enter Jamie Kramer . . . literally. Broad, sun-kissed, and fitter than ever. Jamie is Flo’s brother's best friend, and the person she wants to see least in the world. He’s also her family’s "adopted" son after he lost his parents at a young age.

Flo and Jamie hate each other. Except, Flo actually has a mortifying crush on Jamie, made infuriatingly stronger after The Christmas Incident. And nobody—least of all her family—can know. So, with two weeks of steamy outings, rocky boat trips, and sunshine on the horizon, Flo is going to have to fix the situation the only way she can think of: by spending time with him. What could possibly go wrong?
*********************
My review: I went back and forth with this book. Some parts were fun and some dragged . Flo’s family is definitely fun. Their dynamic, respect, support, and energy seemed real to me. But Jamie is the “adopted” son since his parents died and Flo knows relatively little about him. That seemed unrealistic. The book also lacked some of the lightheartedness of most rom coms. Flo’s background and Jamie’s fears cast a net on the story that was hard to get past. Also, I never saw Flo and Jamie as “hating” each other, they just needed to communicate (I know, big rom com trope), or stop acting juvenile.

There were fun parts of the book, and I loved Mum and Dad and Kate.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Publishing for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review

This was a miss.
And I'm not trying to point fingers, but where's the spark?

“Enemies to Lovers” is not the right title for a book without any enemies or proper lovers.
There's no easy way of saying this: books need more than be based on a single trope to work; narrative, setting, characters don't matter if the plot doesn't exist - or if it's built on a mix of random stuff that happens one after the after (a fire? really?).

Could I’ve looked away and been a little more forgivable? Yes, but there are so many stereotypes I can take in a single story.
First of all, I don’t know if the ultimate goal was to make fun of British people, but you nailed it, love. Or mate, whichever you prefer.
Second of all, we have the most stereotypical characters you can think of: Florence got a breakdown two years ago and she's still very fragile, don't talk to her about anything or she's gonna cry (and no, she's not hot, stop saying that, she just loves to exercise and doesn't eat because her brothers are brutes who don’t leave her anything); Jamie is hot with a sad past, secretly in love with her since always but she knew that, didn't she, it was so obvious; Laurie is a thirty-something, married man who’s still stuck in his older dick brother role from his teenager years, and he wants to move on with his life so he can't take care of two broken people in the meantime; and Alex is so sweet and nice to his little sister because, of course, he's gay. I won't comment on the mother because I don't have enough strength, but you can imagine what I have to say about her.
Cherry on top, I'll say we can draw a big line over a whole chapter, where Florence gets harassed by a “Greek god” (obviously a foreign man can only be hot, where's the point in the other case) and she gets mansplained by ANOTHER MEN that it's not her fault, she didn't do anything wrong, big breaths, Flo.

Besides the summer-y vibes, the only good thing about this book is the awareness of how fortunate I am to be an only child.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This isn’t a bad book, but it isn’t a particularly good book either. I think that overall, the book fell flat for me and I never felt connected or cared about the characters. I felt that this book tried to do some things but it didn’t go very deep and because it was all superficial I was frustrated.

This book went from "ugh, disinterested and disassociating we get it they don't get along" to "i will fight anyone on their behalf" in about 300 pages. this was the PERFECT beach read and truly made me want to be in greece with the whole family on vacation. if you like a good brothers best friend, vacation changes everything, overall good family vibes (with one crucial exception), then pick this book up this summer!

Just finished "Enemies to Lovers" by Laura Jane Williams and rated it 2.5 rounded to 3 stars. Flo's dramatic reaction to Jamie turning her down felt immature, and skipping family events seemed like an overreaction. I was puzzled by Flo's family mocking her for choosing teaching over becoming a doctor or lawyer—all are respectable careers! The title confused me too, as they weren’t enemies but more like awkward rejections to lovers. The jealousy between Adonis and Jamie added some stakes, but other than that, there wasn't much to the story.

I received an eARC in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group.

A great true enemies to lovers summer romance.
Set in beautiful Greece, with lots of family time including dinners and family competitions, this book is a great summer read. In true enemies to lovers fashion, there's a big misunderstanding between Jamie and Flo that we don't find out about until the last few pages in the book. But I won't give any spoilers.
There was a little bit of a language issue, only because this is the author's first US debut novel, and I assume she's from Scotland? (I apologize if I'm wrong.) There are some words and phrases that I had to look up, and once I did it made sense to me. Easy to read, easy to follow. There was a lot of hot and cold moments, and definitely a slow burn type book.
This is a great book to read if you're traveling to a tropical beach town or on a resort. It made me want to stay in my own Greek villa with a pool and on the beach.

3/5 stars

I felt the story was very predictable and followed the “enemies to lovers” trope very closely. I didn’t like that we never met the friend who was very important to the main character. Additionally, I wish I got more information and details on the main character’s breakdown that is referenced often in the book. There wasn’t much context given, but it was an important plot point so I felt like a backstory would have been helpful to understand the MC more. I did love that Greece was the setting of the story as it added to the summer beach read feel. I also enjoyed the main character’s family dynamic. Overall it was an easy read and I finished it quickly, but it left something to be desired.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the ARC in exchange for a review!

Enemies to Lovers was an easy beach/vacation read that just fell a little flat for me. The writing was ok and the story was ok felt like it dragged at times and there were some extra characters that felt like they didn't need to be added. We never really felt like we got to know the MMC character either and while I like the book discussed Flo's mental health issues it felt like it was only superficially done. Would recommend this book for people to give it a try I'm rating it 3 stars. I want to thank NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

while the story was adorable, i wasn’t a huge fan of this book. for me, i don’t think this was my favorite style of writing. i did end up reading most of the story and it had its cute moments but i was never totally hooked.

3.5 stars! Brothers best friend, check. Enemies to lovers, check. This is the first book I have read by this author and I enjoyed it. It was fun, didn't really drag and delivered an all of my expectations I have on romance books. I found the connection between Flo and Jamie believable. At times Flo was a bit frustrating, but I understood why. Overall really cute book and now I want to go on a Greece vacation!


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic advanced reader copy.

This was an easy reading romance book with a great family dynamic. But I felt like it was dragged out unnecessarily. You don't really get to know the MMC very well and the FMC's breakdown is referenced constantly but not in much depth.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me arc. Read this for an honest review!

This book started out really good for me, but around the halfway point it seemed to start dragging and things just frustrating. The fact that she couldn’t see, Jamie was actually into her and never questioned him about the note left under her door really bugged me. This book was basically a miscommunication trope!! I did really like how the family was very close to each other and that this book was set in Greece.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Putnam Group, and Laura Jane Williams for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I adored the Greenberg family vacation dynamic and vibes. This definitely made me want to go on a Greek Isle vacation!

I felt the tension and chemistry between Jamie and Florence. The gunshy mental health support from the family made this story very realistic.

The pub date on this sweet little summer-ish Grecian holiday is 8.13.24, so I declare you should get this book on the TBR into a high priority slot for the summer before it wraps up. It is a quick, easy, low stakes beach read.

DNF at 53% I loved the Greece setting it genuinely felt I was there. It felt like I read so much but nothing was happening. Although the title seems intriguing, there was no tension whatsoever. Instead, there was so much miscommunication between Jamie and Flo.

I felt like this book could have been way shorter than it actually is. I felt there were random tropes that did not add anything to the story. Otherwise, the setting was the only aspect of this book that kept me reading.