Hailey Harris a successful life coach with a hefty social media following is single and a bit career obsessed and doesn’t have much of a personal life, that is until her ex Liam comes back into town. He’s looking good, she’s thinking perhaps a second chance until awkwardly meeting his fiancée, gorgeous wealthy hotel heiress Sonia banks. After only dating for 6 months she felt it her place to step in and “save” Liam from a terrible future after seeing a vision of divorce papers.

Things don’t go according to plan when Liam’s best friend Warren, long time enemy of Hailey thanks to awkward meeting in an airport which resulted in the two getting banned to travel. She was trying to save him from a career ending sports injury, he thought she was pranking and got her into trouble as well and the two have been at odds ever since.

This was an interesting story, with a fun psychic twist. I wish the ending had been a little more thought out, but the journey of self discovery was a good one.

I loved this book! Yes, it is a romance with an enemies-to-lovers trope, but there was something about this one that touched my heart. Maybe it was Hailey's life before this moment, the lessons she learned, or the realization that we all have potential within us, we just need someone to push us in the right direction.

While we don't have a deep background in the characters, I found them charming in their own way. I enjoyed the banter between Hailey and Warren while they fought their attraction to one another. There was more to them than just the surface that we see; they have feelings and care about more than just themselves.

There is conflict and resolution throughout the book. This also shows how society reacts to someone making a mistake and wanting to "cancel" them.

I enjoyed reading this book and give it 5 paws up.

I enjoyed reading All Signs Point to Malibu by Jennifer Snow. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

All Signs Point to Malibu was a really fun, uniquely premised read I zoomed through!

The banter between the enemies to lovers characters was great and I loved the forced proximity aspect.
Hailey’s job was so much fun to read about and meeting her clients was interesting and fulfilling. Warren was really passionate with a big heart, if a little clueless.
The magic realism aspect was unique and added an interesting twist to the story.
I enjoyed that all the characters seemed close in their own way, whether they were friends or had just known each other most of their lives. It made things feel more personal.
The ending wasn’t really what I was anticipating (in some ways) and I really liked how things were pulled together.

Overall this was a fun read that I enjoyed!
Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing/Canary Street Press, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 9/17/24

All Signs Point to Malibu is a sunny romance following, Hailey, a life coach and undercover psychic, and Warren, her exes best friend. The story flowed easily and the setting was so warm and inviting. I loved the little dash of magical realism and how it unraveled the plot and romance. Hailey and Warren were so fun and sweet together, I loved that the two were always at odds and bickering. The way their relationship developed because of their chemistry and subsequent attraction was just perfect.

Read if you like:
🌴Enemies to Lovers🌴
🌴Forced Proximity🌴
🌴Magical Realism🌴
🌴Tension and Banter🌴
🌴Open Door Steam🌴

Fun read. Big enemy vibe. Funny witty banter between MCs. 
I really enjoyed the overall plot it was fun and entertaining.

This is a fun quick read. I love a hint of fantasy in romance novels. Hailey is a life coach in LA and has had a variety of famous and up and coming clients. She has been trying to break into the sports industry because she feels that athletes need life coaching, too. In the midst of setting up for another event, her ex shows up with his fiancé and then his best friend Warren, who was her nemesis in high school and is even less happy about seeing her again after an incident that happened two years ago. The story flows well and has a satisfying ending.

I sped through this latest speculative fiction enemies to lovers, forced proximity, dual POV romance that sees Hailey, a psychic life coach somehow roped into helping plan her ex's engagement party with his best friend, Warren who hates her after she derailed his plans to play in the NFL.

The banter between Hailey and Warren was top notch, and I really, really enjoyed this newest from Canadian born author, Jennifer Snow. Highly recommended for fans of authors like Rebecca Serle. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
All Signs Point To Malibu
Author: Jennifer Snow

Thank you Netgalley and Canary Street Press for this ARC! I adored this one! Hailey Harris is a life coach / psychic and uses her “gifts” to help further her career goals. Her ex Liam is newly engaged and she catches a glimpse of him and his Fiancee having a not so happy marriage. She ends up starting to meddle in their wedding plans to try prevent them from making the biggest mistake of their lives! Shes stuck now planning their wedding, and trying to sabotage it at the same time. Liams best man Warren may prove a problem though.. since he seems to be on to her. Warren and Hailey have great back stories, and their connection as the story progresses is adorable. I don’t like subjects of infidelity / cheating so that was one thing I didn’t love about this. Overall though I really enjoyed it and want to read more of Jennifer’s books. Great ARC!

ALL SIGNS POINT TO MALIBU – Jennifer Snow
Canary Street Press
ISBN: 978-1-335-99395-3
September 17, 2024
Romantic Comedy

Los Angeles – Present Day

Hailey Harris is a much-in-demand life coach and social media influencer. But she hasn’t let on what is really the secret to her success: she sometimes has visions of the future while working with the people who hire her. And sometimes, they don’t even have to be a client but someone she knows. Years ago, she warned former high school schoolmate Warren Mitchell not to attend a football tryout because she had visions of something terrible happening. He didn’t go and blames Hailey for missing out on an opportunity with a top-tier football team.

An earthquake happens and, in the aftermath, Hailey needs the services of a pool repair person. She calls her usual pool repair company, but it is the son of the owner who arrives. Liam Jensen is her ex-boyfriend, and they broke off years ago because he didn’t approve of her plans to become a life coach. Liam is back and sparks are seemingly sparking between them—until Liam introduces Hailey to his fiancé, Sonia. But Hailey has a double vision in which Liam is unhappy, and Sonia is crying. What does that mean? Then Hailey is asked by them to be part of the wedding planning and party. Which means she will be working closely with the best man, Warren Mitchell.

Hailey believes she should break up Liam and Sonia but how can she do it without appearing like a spurned ex in ALL SIGNS POINT TO MALIBU? She isn’t sure that the visions she saw are true but what if they are and the now happy couple end up making the biggest mistakes of their lives? Sonia appears to be a nice person, and she has latched onto Hailey and asks her in secret to be her life coach. Hailey knows Liam won’t like it because he hates her choice of work. Meanwhile, working with Warren turns out to be a pain in the rear. He thinks she is a fraud and now they are forced to plan an engagement party together. How well will they work together? Yet, the more they are forced together, the more they begin to respect each other. Are readers watching a future Hailey/Warren hookup?

Hailey and Warren are good together even if they can’t see it. But there are soon sparks flying between them in ALL SIGNS POINT TO MALIBU. Neither wants to admit it, but it can’t be denied. She doesn’t tell him the truth about what the future holds for Liam and/or Sonia, or that she has visions of the future. Warren stands by his best friend Liam, and Hailey continues to get to know Sonia, whom she discovers is a nice person, though she lacks self-confidence. While the foursome rarely is in the same room together, they are a big part of this tale. Hailey and Warren continue to bicker off and on, but he soon grows to admire her work as a life coach. He may not need one in his job as a football coach, but that doesn't mean others don’t. Things soon come to a head when not only does the engagement party experience some rockiness, but the wedding is soon moved up. How will everything be handled? Readers suspect something will happen to disrupt it all.

A cute and funny tale with an intriguing couple, don’t miss ALL SIGNS POINT TO MALIBU.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

Hailey is 29 years old, a social influencer and life coach who is helped along by her psychic ability. Warren, who went to high school with Hailey, is a former pro athlete turned high school football coach. They have an antagonistic relationship stemming from a past psychic incident between Hailey and Warren, as well as Hailey's role in breaking up her ex-boyfriend's (and his best friend's) wedding. I think the book description covers things pretty well, so I won't rehash things too much. This book has an interesting concept, channeling one's psychic powers into life coaching. And we see a lot of inner conflict as Hailey struggles to help those around her in a way they'll accept, all without exposing her secret. I just felt like the main source of tension (stopping Liam's wedding to avert potential future disaster) was just kind of 'meh.' I liked the premise but the execution felt superficial. And although Hailey's intentions were good, her actions were manipulative and I had a hard time warming up to her. In fact, I had a hard time caring about these two together, and I wasn't really invested. They're technically enemies to lovers, and there was growing physical attraction but it doesn't feel like enough to want them to be together. The high school connection and their mutual friendship with Liam seems tenuous upon which to base a relationship, and it didn't seem like they tried too hard to get to know one another before they headed to the open-door sexy times. Things just seemed to happen to move them along without a lot of interpersonal growth. There is a dual 1st person POV, which normally I prefer but it wasn't labeled in the ARC when switching back and forth between their viewpoints within each chapter. This was a bit confusing/distracting to follow, so hopefully this is fixed before publication. Overall this book seemed like it would be my cup of tea, and I was invested enough to keep reading, but ultimately I don't think it was the book for me. The story didn't move as fast as I would have liked, it drags but picks up towards the end. Ultimately an HEA and Hailey appears to have grown and understood herself better, but it was a slog to get there. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this story, this was my objective review. Publishes 9-17-24.

DNF. This is probably a me issue but although I adore enemies to lovers in a fantasy novel, I strongly dislike it in a romance. What reason could someone realistically have to actually have a real like *enemy* if you’re a regular person in contemporary society? Usually the characters are just mean to each other and it’s not for me. I never got invested in the story or the characters to continue.

Recommended: sure
For a fun premise that's well executed, for characters who each get their side shown and keep the story from being flat, for hate-attraction in spades

Thoughts:
This delivered what it said, and was fun in the process. There were some tropes that felt a little weak or that made me shake my head in resigned annoyance (just part of the genre sometimes), but overall it was entertaining and an easy read.

The initial instigation of the premise brings in pretty early that Hailey is not romantically motivated for interfering with their wedding. This made it a lot easier for me to settle in and watch her go than if she was trying to break them up so she could try to get him back. That sort of revenge / "steal him" scenario probably wouldn't have worked for me, so I'm glad the approach was more like her genuinely caring about a friend.

Every character is a friend, too. They become more than just props, though not by much. Each person has some motivations and goals and feelings of their own. They're still mostly foils for the main characters, but there's enough else there to keep them being too flat. The mystical element was pretty gentle too so it was easy to accept it and just move on with the story. Details didn't bog this down.

For the romance... oh boy. It's not my favorite kind, where they're "enemies" and they "hate each other" but also when they are mean they get turned on and think the other is super hot. 😅 That's not my favorite vibe, but if you like it, they've got it in SPADES. Bickering and then being aroused is like 75% of their connection through the story, propped up by a few actually meaningful conversations. It was also weird because it didn't seem like either of them ACTUALLY disliked the other, and the inciting incident seemed minor to both of them despite it's impact. It was like they were both just playing the game and at no point did I ever believe it was real. That made the "enemies to lovers" aspect a little weak because I was mostly just confused about why they pretended to dislike each other. 🤷‍♀️

Kind of a side note, but I also appreciated that the main characters are both successful and rich on their own, and independently secure. It makes it feel more balanced when neither of them is spending crazy money on stuff the other could never afford; they're both aware the other is doing just fine so there's no financial disparity at play.

And of course the conflict leaned heavily on the barrier for them just being neither of them being honest or actually saying what they wanted which made me sigh in annoyance a lot. All the incorrect assumptions instead of asking or telling can get a bit wearisome. It's pretty standard for the genre, so I'm not holding it against too much, but I promise you that's all this conflict is for them.

Overall this was a fun read that lived up to it's promise and had a few interesting side plots to beef it up.

Thanks to BookSparks and the Harlequin for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was good, but not great. Cute, but not gorgeous. Funny, but not hilarious. You get it, right?

If you want a rom-com with a little kick, give this book a try.

Haylie is a life coach that has the ability to see glimpses of people’s futures when she touches them. She’s used this to help steer her clients in the right path and build her career and success.

Warren is not Haylie’s number one fan because she ruined his football career by pulling a prank on him at the airport… to save his life.

Their mutual friend and Haylie’s ex boyfriend is getting married after dating his girlfriend for 7 months and moving back home from New York.

Liam (ex boyfriend) and Sonia (new girlfriend) want Haylie and Warren to plan their engagement party and be in the wedding. But what happens when Haylie gets glimpses of what will happen if they go through with the nuptials? Does it all implode, you bet!

This was a fun enemies to lovers, slow burn, with the added psychic twist.

You gotta give points to a novel where the characters acknowledge that they're engaging in tropes! Hailey and Warren - frenemies, forced proximity- find one another even as Hailey is fussing over Liam's impending marriage. See, she's got some paranormal powers that allow her to understand, if not entirely see, the future. But does she see one with Warren? This isn't insta-love and it's not too spicy. It is, however, fun. Thanks to the publisher for the arc. An easy read.

The premise of this book was intriguing and sounded promising to me, but overall it unfortunately ended up falling mostly flat.

I liked the concept of Haylie’s ability to catch glimpses of people’s futures and using that to help guide their lives in a positive direction. It did open up the wonder of if this was something someone could genuinely do, is it possible that it’s better not to interfere and let things play out how they’re meant to?

I didn’t connect to the romance between Haylie and Warren. I never felt the pull or tension of attraction between them. The rivalry and antagonism between them early on was well done but it felt like being told more than seeing when things shifted to attraction. Some of this may have been a result of having a hard time following the changing POVs in the book. It was first person dual POV, but it would shift from Haylie to Warren and back within the same chapter with nothing to note the shift. Sometimes this happened multiple times in one chapter. It was so distracting and jarring to me as I was reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Infidelity (minor); references to cancer; death of a sibling; grief; veiled references to suicide

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of this book when I started reading it. It didn’t hook me right away, and there were a few things that didn’t necessarily work for me. But I’m so glad I didn’t put it down, as I ended up invested in the romance between Hailey and Warren.

The romance was definitely the standout feature of All Signs Point to Malibu, as it was giving some rom-com vibes. I loved that Hailey and Warren have a bit of a complicated relationship dating back to high school. They’re definitely not fans of each other at the start of the story, but you could feel the underlying sexual tension in their arguments. I wouldn’t say they had banter, but they definitely knew how to push each other’s buttons and get enjoyment out of it – I truly loved the dynamics of their relationship. The romance developed at the perfect rate for me and felt natural. I loved that they both were wrestling with their attraction toward each other and the potential deeper feelings there. The romance was perfectly balanced with the main plot of stopping Hailey’s ex’s wedding, and I loved how that inherently added tension and conflict to Hailey and Warren’s relationship. My one complaint with the romance was that I wanted one extra scene at the end as the resolution to the romantic conflict was wrapped up so quickly! I think an epilogue would have worked really well here to show that and make the ending feel a little less abrupt.

Now, when it comes to the characters, I have mixed feelings about them. Both Warren and Hailey felt a bit one dimension to me – I feel like we’re told a lot about them, but we don’t actually know them? I also really struggled to connect with Hailey, and I think some of that is just on me as I couldn’t get over her being an influencer life coach – that felt so superficial to me, and I kind of hated being reminded of that was her job. I did enjoy her psychic abilities, and I thought they worked really well in the story and didn’t feel out of place. I appreciated that Hailey felt like she had emotional growth throughout the story. In the beginning, I was frustrated that she felt like she was entitled to meddle in her ex’s love life (she justified it very, very poorly to me), but I felt like she learned her lesson by the end that sometimes you have to let fate take its course in some things in life.

I liked Warren and felt he was a very empathic character, which made him a little easier to initially connect with. However, I felt like some things in his past – like what happened with his brother – weren’t fully fleshed out. I wanted to know about him, what motivates him, and what has shaped him, but some aspects of his character felt very surface-level.

One area I struggled with in this book was the writing. It’s written in first person present, alternating from Hailey and Warren’s point of view. I find present tense to be a bit awkward in romances and definitely noticed that a bit in this book. Sometimes the writing felt a little choppy, and I feel like this book suffered a bit from too much telling and not enough showing. That made a lot of things, especially when it came to the characters, feel surface-level. I also wished that when we switched from Hailey to Warren’s POV, it had labels above it, as I definitely got tripped up a time or two, especially in the beginning.

Despite some of the issues I had with the writing, I did really enjoy the plot. I liked the framing of the story and how it opened with Hailey ruining a wedding, but we don’t know exactly what she did. I was very curious to know what she did and uncover the journey she went on to get to that point. As I mentioned, I also really liked the romance as well. Once I got invested in that, the book picked up speed for me, and I flew through the end of it.

All Signs Point to Malibu was a bit of a mixed bag for me – I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it. It’s a true 3-star read for me. That being said, it was a cute romance and a fairly quick read, so if the premise intrigues you, I think it’s worth picking up. Plus, that cover is so cute – perfect end-of-summer vibes!

Thank you to Sparkpoint Studio/Canary Street Press for the ARC! All thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to Harlequin for the review copy of All Signs Point to Malibu by Jennifer Snow. This book had a lot of potential, with some fun tropes and plot devices, but it never quite came together for me. Part of my disconnect may stem from a growing disinterest in main characters who are influencers—I struggle to connect with the inherent fakeness of that lifestyle, and I found it especially hard to relate to a protagonist with a background in psychology choosing this route as a means of enacting support and change.

The magical realism element also felt out of sync with the standard enemies-to-lovers storyline. While intriguing on its own, it seemed misplaced here, and underdeveloped. Had it been the main focus—something more akin to a Heather Webber-style plot—it might have worked better. Instead, it muddied the character development and detracted from the romance.

Overall, I found it difficult to get into the rhythm of the book. The plot felt sluggish, the pacing uneven, and the writing a bit clunky, leaving me unexcited to see what would happen next.

2.5 stars.

Unfortunately, this book was a not a hit for me. There were quite a few things that I did not enjoy that just kept surfacing. It took me much longer to read this book than I should have because I just wasn’t enjoying it.

The characters were juvenile to the point that I had a hard time relating to them. A successful career coach derails someone’s plans by telling airport security that they have a bomb/drugs? Seriously?

The title was pretty misleading. There was no real focus on Malibu or getting a main character to stay in Malibu. And while there was some “fortune telling”, the title just missed.

The beginning of the book that shows a glimpse of Hailey running away calls the bride a bridezilla…but she wasn’t. We only saw one scene in which she became demanding, but she was under a lot of pressure. I was expecting more on this front and it didn’t deliver.

And I thought the conflict at the end was ridiculous. Hailey gets kissed by the groom and everyone is mad at her?! Even the cop said that if you watched the video, you could tell that’s what happened…so millions of people are just roasting her for no good reason…and no one really ever comes back around to apologizing to her for that.

I really appreciate the ARC of this book even if it was miss for me. I will not be posting this full review on Goodreads, as I really do value authors and their works.