Cash is a wonderfully complicated character who has a lot going on that keeps her from figuring out herself. Between having a daughter, not having a partner for a while and having sex dreams about her best friend she has enough on her plate. But now, she must fight to keep the doors open at the local bar she works at, starting a war as a new franchise tries to enter the town. Overall a really cute story about how sometimes it can take a while to figure yourself out.

A quick, engaging book of queer awakening. The community aspect, in terms of how they embrace Cash, teach Cash, and also rally for Joyce's, is incredible and heartwarming.

Slow burn sapphic friends-to-lovers queer awakening cozy romance. This was well written and I enjoyed the characters. It did feel like there was a little too much going on but overall it was a quick fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dell/Penguin Random House for the advanced copy!!

I really enjoyed this!! I loved being back in Ridley Falls. I adored Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review and this one had that same found family, small town feeling.
We follow Cash as she is trying to save the small town bar from the big corporation chain trying to take its place. The feeling of a close knit small town was really strong and it was so sweet to see them all work together. The author did a great job of making all the characters feel so human. They felt so real with all the things they had to deal with. The side characters were all so great and added so much to the story. I flew this one because I was so attached to the story and what would happen. Highly recommend this one!!!

Thank you again to Netgalley and Dell/Penguin Random House

Can this book be ANY MORE amazing, the sense of community, and acceptance is literally the best thing about this book, aside from Cash finally coming out of her shell, her daughter Parker being the cutest thing ever, or Cash best friend/coworker Inez being literally the best person EVER, this book was awesome. The steam was steaming between the characters and like I said before the sense of community gave this book all the life it needed, I almost cried, the ending was “tears” worthy for sure.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I will admit, it took me a little bit of time to buy into it.

Cash's life as a single mom and manager of a small-town bar is "fine". She's content. That is until her ex-coworker and fling waltzed back into town with plans to bring a big franchise and essentially shut down her bar. Spoiler alert: he's the worst. The situation only gets more difficult to handle when Cash finds herself having *dreams* of her best friend, Inez. She had a wonderfully real journey to figure out who she is, while trying to save her job.
I'm not a huge fan of children in books, such as single mom or single dad tropes, but as I read, I found myself enjoying it more and more. Parker is an A+ kid, so she makes it easy to enjoy her part of the story.

A solid read. 3/5

This took me slightly longer to get into but once I was fully invested, I thought it was a good story! It’s definitely a slow burn romance but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

Quick Summary- Cash is a manager of a bar and is trying to save bar and her hometown from being gentrified all while figuring out who she is.

I enjoyed the storyline of this book and getting behind the small town fighting to keep the cooperate business out. I also think that this a great story to understanding the struggle of finding yourself and being confident in who you want to be. Cash goes through a lot of struggles in this book and I did enjoy reading how she learns about herself and takes matters into her own hand. On the flip side, she did annoy me as some of the choices she made and how she acted in certain parts made me roll my eyes and feel disconnected.

3/5 stars because I did enjoy the side characters and the overall plot, but I also felt like it was a bit rushed and because there were so many plot lines and it was a shorter book, it was hard to give them all enough attention. While I am here for Cash's struggles to find out who she is, I also had a hard time connecting with her and some of her choices. I would recommend this book to my community because it was an easy read and there were parts that I enjoyed reading!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group, Tehlor Kay Mejia and NetGalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a tough time getting into this one. Cash is the manager at a small-town bar and a single mom. Inez is her best friend and colleague. When the town is threatened with chains moving in and putting the locals out of business, can they rally together to defeat corporate giants? Overall, the story just seemed to move slowly and was a tad predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts <3

Cash Delgado is my dream (woman)! As usual, Tehlor Kay Mejia completely wrecked me with another book! I love Cash Delgado is Living the Dream so much! It follows the titular FMC who is a bartending, single mom fighting to keep a major corporation from taking over her small town and falling in love with her best friend. It's just so up my alley.

Cash's later in life exploration of her sexuality is so real LMAO (the am I gay googling is iconic!). The romance is so soft and steamy and won't leave my brain ever. Cash's mental breakdown-inspiring dirty dreams got progressively more hilarious and when she and Inez finally got their moment I screamed. So hot 🥵

Read this if you like sapphic romances, single mom romances, friends-to-lovers, quirky small towns, and queer friendship groups.

This is as much about finding your truth as it is a rom com. Cash and her daughter Parker have built a good life in their small town, a life that is threatened by the possible arrival of a competitor for the bar where she works. But then there's Inez who walked in and blew Cash off her feet. This has all the feels, with a smart mouthed (in a good way) kid, a supportive town and best of all, two women who discover one another when they weren't looking. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Cash Delgado lives in the small town of Ridley Falls, WA and manages the local bar. She is the mother to six year old Parker, who manages to steal the scene every time she is on the page. Her best friend is Inez O’Conner who is gay. When a franchise bar chain is looking at opening in town Cash knows it will be the end of her business. It is an extra tough fight as the person representing the new bar is her last hook-up and used to work for her. The story has two main storylines. One is rallying the town to save small local businesses and her bar. The second is Cash realizing she may not be as straight as she has always thought. And she can’t keep Inez out of her many dreams.

This is a nice slow burn romance, although I thought more time was actually spent on planning events to save the bar and keep corporations away. It is Cash’s story and told from her POV and I missed knowing more about Inez’s thoughts and feelings. I was also a little distracted by going to such efforts to save the bar when it belonged to someone else. This does take place in the same world as the author’s previous book, Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review (July 2023). But it isn’t a sequel and can be read as stand alone although the MCs in the previous book make an appearance. (3.5 Stars)

this was a fun read, and if you know me, three stars is a "good" rating in my books. it was a light and quick read and I finished the book in two days. I honestly love stories about queer (sapphic) awakenings especially because society tends to impart a comphet framework on women in particular. the book had plenty of witty and fun moments, and I liked the inclusion of the side characters / cast. Parker was a sweet addition, although I found that her dialogue was a bit mature and unrealistic as a six-year-old.

i'm not a big fan of small town romances but i found that it was done well here. i actually enjoyed the save-the-bar subplot quite a bit, and oddly enough, the romance was the weakest part of the book. i liked inez's characterization, and it was a cute friends-to-lovers plot, however, i thought that cash's feelings for inez sprung out of nowhere. i also didn't think that cash's intimate dreams of inez should've been the catalyst for her queer self-discovery journey. that felt a bit cheap to me tbh.

overall, it was a solid 3 stars and it's a cute beach read!

thank you to random house (dell) and netgalley for the ARC <3

Just like Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review this book was absolutely fantastic. I forgot how much I loved Sammy Espinoza until I was reading this?? This little town that Tehlor has created is full of so much LOVE and being back was such a treat! The whole cast of characters was diverse and full of life lessons and LOVE and I loved watching them all rally around for Cash and the bar!!

First and foremost I LOVE PARKER. That little girl has my whole entire heart. The way she is so well adjusted and so wise for her little years makes my heart SO HAPPY. I loved her and Cash’s relationship so much.

I loved Cash so much. This was very much about her finding her place within her home and it was done so well. And watching her grow and flourish was so beautiful. I was rooting for her in every way the entire time. Between her figuring out her sexuality and her trying so hard to save the bar, I wanted her to get everything she ever dreamed of!

And I loved Cash and Inez. I loved that they were the endgame. They were the perfect match. And I loved that, once *some of* the self doubt was out the way, it was so easy for them to be together!! I would have loved to see more of them together, as always, but the epilogue was so so sweet!

AND I loved seeing Sammy and Max again!!! And even Brook and Willa! It was such a TREAT!

Thank you so much to Dell for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Cash Delgado is Living the Dream follows the story of the titular character, a single mother who manages a bar in a small town. When her former hookup, Chase, returns to town with plans to open a franchise that will likely put her bar out of business, she must fight to save it, all while grappling with questions about her sexuality when she begins to have sexual dreams about her best friend, Inez.

I was under the impression that this book was a romance but it read far more like general fiction with a subplot of romance. The primary focus was on Cash’s struggle to save the bar as well as her exploration of her sexuality. Yes, that exploration was driven by the fact that was developing feelings for Inez, but the romance between them barely existed until past the 60% mark. Not only that but the majority of the romance that was present felt far more told than shown. Cash’s inner monologue went on at length about how attractive Inez was, how much Cash wanted her, and how deeply Cash felt for her. However, the interactions shared by the two of them did not exhibit those things at all. I never believed that these two felt anything for each other besides friendship. The chemistry and tension were nonexistent and, as I said, the only development between them happened internally. Given that we did not get Inez’s perspective, almost everything we knew about their relationship was just told to us in Cash’s head which made it very difficult to care about this couple, or Inez as a character. It felt like she didn’t exist as her own person outside of her role in Cash’s life.

That said, I did enjoy Cash as a character. Her motivations, desires, and feelings were always clear and she felt like a fully fleshed out person. I also loved her relationship with her six year old daughter, Parker. Parker was sweet and funny and acted in a way that felt believable for a child her age. The mother-daughter relationship they shared was my favorite part of the book.

This book wasn’t for me, but I do think it was well-written. The pacing was a little slow in the middle but decent otherwise and, as I said, the romance was underwhelming, but if you’re looking for a very introspective story about a single mother figuring out who she is and what she wants in her 30s, I would recommend giving this one a try.

CASH DELGADO IS LIVING THE DREAM is a small town, friends-to-lovers sapphic romance that is, quite honestly, one of my new favorite books. cash is a single mom, a bartender, and straight. she's straight!! except she starts having recurring sex dreams starring her best friend, inez, which force her to wonder if she's actually as straight as she thinks she is. as if that weren't stressful enough, her old manager/past hookup is back in town with plans to open a bar that could mean the end of joyce's bar, where cash and inez work. as they work together to come up with a way to save joyce's, cash can't keep ignoring the attraction she feels toward her best friend.

i loved this book so much that i wish i could read it again for the first time but i already know this will be one of my rereads because that's how much i enjoyed it. single parent is one of my favorite tropes, even more so when it's a single mom. and seeing the relationship cash and parker have and how cash was raising parker was so beautiful. parker is officially one of my favorite fictional children and i would read an entire book about her.

and we all know i'm a diehard friends-to-lovers girlie, so combining that with a single mom AND it's a sapphic book? the perfect book of my dreams tbh. cash and inez's relationship was so special from the beginning and i loved seeing them fall in love. of course, it's a bit of a slow burn because of cash's journey of self-discovery, which was wonderful on its own, and the love story is absolutely worth the wait.

read if you like:
- later in life queer awakening
- best friends to lovers
- spunky six-year-olds
- quirky small towns

thanks to netgalley and dell for the advanced copy! CASH DELGADO IS LIVING THE DREAM is out july 2nd.

Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream was a wonderfully sweet and steamy friends to lovers sapphic romance about sexual identity and exploration, as well as sticking it to the man! It was fantastic.

I received an advanced copy of this book for honest review.

Cash Delgado is Living the Dream tropes/microtropes:

💜friends to lovers
💜small town
💜saving a beloved institution
💜late in life queer awakening
💜adorable quirky kiddo
💜lots of funny small town characters

This was such a cute, fast read! Perfect for a summer weekend.

Cash's life revolves around her kid and her job, and she likes to use her kid especially to avoid dating. But when she starts having spicy dreams about her best friend Inez, ostensibly straight Cash has some reevaluating to do. An ex-fling shows up in town, trying to bring a shiny new bar to town, threatening Cash's job and new home. Cash and Inez work together to stop him, growing closer and closer in the process, until friendship lines are blurred and they venture into a whole new era.

I think my absolute favorite thing about this book is Granny O'Connor's farm! The descriptions are gorgeous, there are mini donkeys, and a cool old house full of queer people. Sounds like heaven on earth to me.

I'd like to note that while there is technically on-page sex in this one, it's not descriptive at all. So if you're not into super descriptive spicy scenes, this one is perfect! This book is great for fans of Anita Kelly or Allison Cochrun.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House | Dell, and Teylor Kay Mejia for the ARC!

This was a great coming of age story featuring a single mom and her best friend! Best friends to lovers, wlw, lovable characters, and boss lady energy. This was a fun, heartwarming story to read. My only complaint is I wish I had more of an epilogue, I wanted more time living in their happily ever after.

This was perfect! It was nice to read about an adult woman learning about and coming to terms with her sexuality. As someone who came out in her 20s this was quite refreshing and hit home!