Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Last Call for Love opens up with our FMC, Maeve, finding out her estranged father has passed away and has left her an inheritance. In order to collect it, she must travel to a remote Irish island. When she gets there, she finds that her inheritance is a pub, The Moorings. One of Maeve’s defining characteristics is that she is very organized. This is brought up so many times that it feels like the only part of her personality. At one point, Maeve is shopping in a store on the island, starts to rearrange and color code the whole store and is the confused why the owner is upset with her. It was a bit much.

We then meet our MMC, Briggs, who runs a rival pub on the island. Briggs and Maeve’s families have been feuding for generations, just like in Romeo and Juliet. Or at least that is what those on the island want the tourists to think. At the open, Briggs receives some news related to his health that has him in a bit of a personal spiral. He has been diagnosed with the same heart condition that killed his father 10 years ago. (Side note: let’s make a drinking game for the amount of times Briggs and his friend/roommate Hugh refer to the size of women’s breasts by comparing them to cantaloupe, cabbages, and grapefruit. You will be sloshed by chapter 5.)

Irish romances are really popular at the moment and I was excited to read this and hopefully get swept away. However, this was a little too “insta-love” for me. The MCs meet once and almost immediately make out. From that point the MMC is obsessed with the FMC. I wish we had seen or been given some more development on their relationship. Give me a little build up and tension. WHY do they connect? Is it just physical? Or is there something there? When the idea of the two pubs pranking each other came up, I was excited and expected pages and pages of hijinks. In the end, we had two pranks. I wanted MORE. Give me the shenanigans!

The premise for keeping Maeve on the island is this fake feud between the two families. Apparently, the whole island will fall apart if she sells the pub? On top of that, if she wants to sell the pub, her estranged father had set up some strange list of impossible tasks for Maeve to complete first. But this premise also seems to go to the wayside before it even gets a chance to begin. I found it all to be a bit outside of reality, even the warped and stretched reality that is a romcom.

The overall writing style left the characters feeling rather juvenile, even though they are almost all in their mid to late 20’s. I also found Briggs to be a rather unlikable guy. At the start of the book Briggs is happy to be sleeping with every tourist who walks into his pub, leering at the women, and making crass jokes. But we don’t really get to see him be “redeemed” from that behavior. And why are there so many dang Americans on this small Irish island? Maeve is from Chicago, Hugh is from Detroit, and Barb and Linda from the knitting store are both from New York.

When the writing switches to texts between characters, or online Yelp! reviews of the two pubs, I found it difficult to follow who what saying what and to who. Then in the middle of the texts it would switch to the character’s internal monologue. Very confusing. The book could benefit from formatting the type differently to flow like text message boxes (left or right justified) or some other style.

Around 3/4 of the way in, the story seemed to better find its footing. But I am not sure it was enough to balance out the rest. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. I wavered between 2 and 3 stars and ended up on 3.

4/5⭐️

A jolly good time!

This book follows Maeve and Briggs who are rival pub owners on a remote Irish island. Briggs, with his own struggles, is not looking for love. But he cannot help himself. The question is, can they afford to mix business and pleasure?

Firstly, I really loved the writing. It was funny, romantic and emotional as well. Also, the ending was so heartwarming and wholesome! I teared up reading it.

Although there were no explicit scenes in the book, there were quite a few highly suggestive scenarios. Personally, I wasn't bothered by it.
I also loved the setting and feel of the book. It made me feel like I was living in that world. It was a very picturesque and well written book overall!

I received an ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Even though I read this book in three hours, I didn’t enjoy it like other books of this nature.

First, I want to talk about the interests of the characters. This book felt a little too fast for me, leading to characters without a fleshed-out or cohesive background. It deals with grief, yes, but not much of the writing or reactions of the characters really clicked with me as a person. The characters made irrational decisions, which may just be a part of them, but they felt far too stereotypical for me to enjoy reading about them.

Another part is that there was way too much talk of sex. It was like every other word was an innuendo or directly referencing it! I couldn’t fall into this book because this kept bringing me back to reality. I feel like there was a much more tasteful way this could have been achieved, keeping it steamy while still being a piece that readers would want to consume.

Also, this should not be rated YA. Seeing the amount of sex talk, and the fact that YA is such a large range (12-18! A topic for another day), there’s a big chance that a 12-13 year old could have picked up this book and started reading it. While I’m against censorship, there are definitely more tasteful ways these concepts could have been portrayed. I think this book deserves an Adult rating, at the very least.

A lot of this boils down to readers going in with very different expectations, and I don’t completely fault the author, I just think that there were better ways to advertise, categorize, and describe this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, Skyscape, and Rebekah Crane for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I have one huge concern for this book is the explicit scenes. This was marketed as a YA novel. I would feel extremely uncomfortable know my teenage daughter was reading this. Also, 3rd person POV was a hindrance to the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Skyscape for the ARC opportunity.

I would give this a solid 3 stars, while I found some parts humorous and one of the predicaments the FMC found herself in was actually interesting—it was a bit too insta-love and seemed the only things the MMC loved was that she was organized and hot physically?

I loved the FMC and dad situation but it droned on about elephants for 4 solid paragraphs and I honestly skipped it bc it was too much unnecessary info and too predictable.

FMC was a crappy friend and I didn’t love how that was just suddenly OK, I would’ve loved for her to have some character growth in that regard.

The 3rd person POV was weird in this? I’m not sure if it was how it was written or what but it felt odd & I normally like 3rd pov.

Lastly, I know it’s an ARC but the texting and dialogue was formatted very poorly.

I flew through this book and appreciate this ARC from NetGalley, the pros here are that this is an easy, lightweight read. The cons are that I couldn’t connect to the romance - there wasn’t any chemistry or build up. Maeve and Briggs were not a couple that made it easy to root for them. I felt like I didn’t care if they ended up together or not.

Overall I was really excited to read this book after seeing the premise. I thought the plot was strong and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. However, I felt the romance was lacking. I didn’t really feel the chemistry between the two main characters

3*

First I want to thank NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to enjoy this one, and of course, there were some bits that really got to me. Especially the found family aspects and the underlying tones of grief and how everyone deals with it differently.

Unfortunately, the romance just didn’t hit in the way I wanted it to. There was little to no chemistry between Maeve and Briggs and I found myself very disinterested in their relationship and whether or not it would work out for them or not.
There were also a lot of time skips in the novel itself to the point where it felt rushed in places and not very fleshed out character-wise. The romance was too insta-lovey as they went from not liking each other one minute to wanting to rip each other’s clothes off the next.

Overall it was a fun read, but it really could have done with being 50 pages longer in order to flesh the characters out a little more.

Maeve is called to go to Ireland to see what her biological father is leaving her in her inheritance. She’s struggling after trusting the wrong person. She is taken to a place she’s never been to before and is told she is being left a pub, The Moorings. She meets Briggs the owner of the only other bar on the island. There’s a legend their families are enemies so any romantic feelings they have are off limits. This rivalry is silly, funny, and i like the lore of their familiar feud.

Briggs insta love was not my cup of tea because they didn’t really know each other and barely had interactions by the time he was admitting to himself he liked her. I think from his first meeting with Maeve to being confused why he feels this way. It’s pretty typical for the mmc who is unavailable emotionally and loves being distracted by a new woman every night.
Also I felt like we lost a bit of the plot of her worry of being in debt and the person who did her wrong.
I do think the plot of figuring out life on this island. Figuring out who her dad is and what this place met to him and to her later on was all good.

I am absolutely head over heels for this book! The relationships between all of the characters was so perfect. Someone please make this a movie! When Maeve finds out her biological father left her a pub in Ireland, she is thrown for a loop, especially after her life had already fallen apart. She thinks she’s heading there to get whatever inheritance there is or sell off whatever she needs to then head back home. No way! She finds so much more, not just love but she finds herself. The way this story was written was so well done. The intimate moments were subdued and tasteful so it never took away from the story. I absolutely loved this book and I cannot wait to own a physical copy. My only suggestion is to change the font when the characters are texting and break it out from the narration points as it got a little confusing at times.

I loved this book!! At first I was skeptical but I was totally surprised by this book! I loved Briggs and Maeve and the feud was so good. This book made me feel all of the emotions…I even shed a few tears. If you love enemies to lovers, small town romance, found family then you need to read this book!

Another gorgeous gorgeous read from Rebekah Crane, featuring family rivalries, a beautiful island in Ireland, handsome men and PUBS! More books should be set in pubs. This is a lovely story, stunningly written and full of charm. Highly recommend.

I went into this book thinking it would be a fun, upbeat romcom -- and for a fairly good portion it was. However, this book does discuss heavy content, i.e., grief and health issues.

This book is extremely fast paced and falls into the 'insta-love' category, this made it a struggle for me to really connect with the love the two main characters shared. I found the rivalry between the two mc’s to be the main plot point of the book, so much so that there were a few loop holes (the debt and her relationship with Sonya) throughout majority of the book that had to be closed very quickly at the end. I don't enjoy a third act breakup at all, however, this one was well done as it was really needed to bridge the gaps.

I was pleased by Maeve's growth throughout the story. Her insecurities did not rule as much of her life by the end of the book which was great to read. Her relationship with her father and Irish heritage was also touching.

I loved the relationship of the side characters with the main characters, they felt really apart of the story - for such a fast paced book -- without delving into a long winded recap of their past. I loved the relationship between Hugh, Briggs and Aofie.

At times, the book felt a bit silly but for a romcom it works. If you are in need of a quick love story pick me up - this is the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!!

The cover and setting are what drew me in to this book.

I could not really connect with the main characters. The personality traits that were described throughout the book did not feel very well written and felt a little bit cliché to me. However, I did enjoy the characters growing together and I would still read other books by this author.

I’m not comfortable with how this is marketed as YA, as it most definitely is not in my opinion. So many innuendos and explicit scenes were written in this story, which is fine for me! But it should not be marketed to people as a YA book if there’s explicit scenes, even if they are not detailed.

This story did have a lovely epilogue that I felt really tied the whole thing together, which was nice.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this in advance in exchange for my honest opinion.

Last Call for Love is about Maeve, who inherits a bar in a small town in Ireland from her deceased estranged father. I enjoyed the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ plotline, as there is a rivalry between her family and another who own a bar next door, owned by our MMC, Briggs.

Going in, I was very excited to read this book as the premise sounded very interesting. However, I did not like the way the story was executed and I felt very detached from the characters.

I think the main factor in how I felt about this book was the writing style. It felt disconnected from the storyline, possibly due to being written in third person (personally, I do not enjoy this style of writing) and it was not engaging. The book focused more on the rivalry between the bars rather than on the romance between Briggs and Maeve and I felt that events were often rushed. (For example, the scene where the main characters met was very insta-love, and there was not much build up to the big plot reveals). I wish we could have seen more backstory for both characters, in order to allow me to feel more connected to them.

Furthermore, their relationship felt very physical, rather than a genuine emotional connection. This leads me to disagree with the ‘YA’ label placed on this book. Because of this, I believe this book should be catered more towards adults rather than teens.

Despite this, I really enjoyed the way the setting of Inishglass was described, and the nature of the people there was very refreshing to see. There were many funny moments, whilst there also being an emotional side to this book.

Overall, this was not a very enjoyable read for me, although I think others may enjoy it more than I did.

Maeve is a control freak and in a financial pickle when she finds out that her biological father, whom she has never met, left her a substantial inheritance. To find out what it is, she has to travel to Ireland.
She is her father’s only heir and finds herself involved in a feud with another family on the island off the Irish mainland. Or does she? A Shakespearean unfolds.
- [ ]
I sincerely enjoyed this book. All characters (except one) are likable and I found myself wanting to go to Ireland to get to know everyone. The story, while repetitive at times, is entertaining and captivating. I really liked that it is told from two POV’s which gave it a different perspective. There is room for a sequel???

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy of Last Call for Love.

Irish romances are REALLY having a moment right now, aren't they? I'm not mad about it, but the problem I'm finding with them is that they are all kind of the same. American woman shows up and falls for the Irish pub owner. Over and over I'm reading these. Guys I know there are a lot of pubs in Ireland but....?? Is that all we can come up with?

I mean, I'm still gonna read them but ya know.

Anyway - so this is a story about an American girl whose life gets upended and right then, her biological Irish dad dies and leaves her an inheritance that she has to come to Inishglass to collect. Fun!

Then it turns out, her family and another family in town have this ancient "rivalry" which is actually really just done for fun and to bring tourists to the island. It's basically the Montagues and the Capulets of Irish pubs. They play pranks. They do a kickball battle. They pretend to hate each other.

So when Maeve shows up and has a chance encounter with her Romeo (Briggs) they're off to a fun and flirty start where they prank each other back and forth. It's a little bit like two elementary kids picking on each other. But it's fun.

I wish we got MORE pranks. Like, I wanted to see more of the silly, ridiculous side of things. There's a couple, but I think this book could have been stronger if we got a good chunk of these two taking the piss out of each other, but too much of it is mixed with them becoming actual friends (which is not something I often complain about). Basically I just wish we would have leaned further into the competition while they became friends. Or had a moment where they were battling, but then they had to rely on each other or something. I just wanted a little bit MORE of everything I was given. I also didn't love the dialogue. There are some stories that have great plot, and some that have great dialogue, but rarely do I find books that have both. This one...the plot was fun, and great (though I wanted it punched up a bit) but the dialogue wasn't doing it for me.

Anyway. 3.5 stars. Hooray for Americans falling in love with Irish boys.

4.5 ⭐️

Listen, this book has everything. Good banter, a good plot, amazing diversity and characters, and it's a fast read. AND has dual POV, which is something I love.

It's somewhat a Romeo and Juliet kind of book, even though it's not forbidden love, but more of "we are from rival families that have had a feud for years that is helping the tourism on this island and I can't betray my family or the island like that". But it's sooooooo good.

It's such a good book that not only makes you laugh with the antics of the characters, but it also makes you reflect at times, and can be sad, but not full on crying, with the backstory of some of them.

I picked this book up because the pitch is great. Buttoned Up Maeve inherits a pub on a remote Irish island and has to complete a list of tasks set by her dead father before she can sell the pub-something she’s desperate to do to get out of credit card debt brought on by her ex boyfriend. There she meets a handsome and charming man who happens to own the rival pub- a very important draw to the island for tourists and a reason they keep up the ruse.

It just…didn’t do it. It tried so many things but just didn’t stick the landing. Every trope (enemies to lovers, fake dating, something about how women love accents, small town) and every side character (the bumbly chubster side kick , the wise innkeeper, the gorgeous best friend) felt tired and incredibly cliche. The debt portion of this story didn’t feel fleshed out enough. The spicy bits were good but some of the language gave me the ick.

I would recommend this to a friend who specifically like Irish Romances, but probably would not recommend to other romance readers. I think they would find it too cliche, too long, and too just okay.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early copy of this book!

I absolutely loved this book! Such a cute sweet love story! Based off Romeo and Juliet and set in Ireland!