There are so many things to love about Rebekah Faubion's debut romance, The Lovers. It's a page-turning second-chance sapphic rom-com with absolutely sizzling chemistry, as two teenage best friends — Julia the Wedding Planner and Kit that Mystic Maven Tarot Influencer — find themselves face-to-face for the first time in a decade at a destination wedding they're both working. There's an evil ex, millennial archetypes with surprising depth, and some seriously laugh out loud tomfoolery. It's sweet, it's warm, and it's sexy, sexy, sexy.

There are two things that keep this from being a five star book for me. The first is that Kit has never been able to accept her bisexuality and come out because of one simple thing: The Ideal Rom-Com Life Path that her parents apparently live in. She calls it that, her parents call it that. It might be something a 16-year-old would buy into, but no someone Kit's age, especially living in LA and working in occult spaces, both of which are super duper queer. She talks like there's no bisexual representation on TV and in movies, like she's never even seen a bi character before, but she's grown up in the GOLDEN AGE of queer rep. It's not believable that she wouldn't seek out every instance of it she could find, especially because her very best friend is also queer.

The second is the semi-break-up/forced distance in the third act. Faubion did the very thing she indicted Kit's dad for: she ignored the will of her characters to force a rom-com ending on them! There is no way those two were going to stay apart for a full month, for no real reason, with no communication after the weekend they spent together. It made the ending fall flat, which was such a bummer because the rest of the book really did soar.

I love a good rom-com, so I was so excited when I was approved for an ARC of this book and it did not disappoint! I had a good time reading this book and was genuinely sad when I got to the end. The characters were enjoyable and while the plot was simple it had me invested. The only thing I didn't enjoy was that at times the book told more than showed times. Over all a very good read that I will probably come back to when I need a pick me up!

4.5 stars. A charming second chance romance between childhood friends who haven't spoken since their young love blew up years ago. Kit is now a tarot reader and true believer. Julia is a no-nonsense wedding planner. When they end up working the same Joshua Tree wedding weekend, it seems like fate may have had a hand in pushing them back together.

I enjoyed this but it felt like there were too many characters. I got confused about whose ex-girlfriend was whose, and which character had what backstory. But overall it was lovely (and what a gorgeous cover).

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

This was perfection. I loved the elements of twin flames and soul mates, the cover is breathtaking and the rep in this is amazing and real.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the early arc of this book! This was a great read that I could not put down! The tarot cards were such a cute extra to the book. I love how fate is brought up in the context it was. I loved the writing, the wording, the love and the character building. This was such a cute read and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I loved the premise of this book and I felt like it was very well paced. The writing was pretty good but I had a lot of problems with the inner monologues. I love sapphic romances but I didn't liked how some topics where handled in this book. The romance was sweet but kinda fast? I mean, 3 days is kinda fast but for a debut I believe that it was pretty good.

I want to enjoy romance novels more than I do. There's a specific type of them that works for me, but more often than not they fall short. It's been a repeating theme in my reviews where queer romance novels focused on two women falling in love are always lacking something to hold my interest. I spend a lot of time analyzing what specifically bugs me and usually fall short. There's a specific style of romance writing that isn't my favourite and I prefer third person POV over first, which makes the basis of these books hard to enjoy.

The Lovers, specifically, follows Kit, a tarot card reader and influencer and Julia, a wedding planner. They knew each other in high school and reunite later on, some might say by fate, at a wedding, they're hired to work and plan respectively. There is no grey area in this book. People are bad or good; there's no room left to figure it out by yourself. I had trouble with both main characters. Kit's nonchalance about everything coupled with her fear of coming out felt clunky. The comparisons to her mother's newfound sexuality and Julia's ex-girlfriend's matching fear felt unnecessary. It's an obvious book and I don't think romance novels have to be obvious in every way. The expectation of a happy ending and a clear path to getting together can be enjoyable. But without a strong connection to either of the main characters or a true belief in their feelings for each other, everything else falls flat. The story is told through alternating first POVs of both characters and removes any sort of tension. It was hard to believe that their past would still be this affecting and Piper was so villainized that the lack of sympathy created for her made her completely uninteresting. The writing falls flat. The word "pecs" is used often and phrases like "two white, wealthy hotties", "She looks like she just stepped out of a Nike ad, but like, for the expensive kicks, not sportswear", "She's a magnet, my eyes are metal, and when she glances my way, for a split second, I see uninhibited interest sizzle in her grass green gaze as it lands squarely on my face", "dalliance with pussy", and "I'm not a person with a sixth sense. My five normal ones work great, but trying to stretch beyond those is like trying to dig up concrete with a shovel" made it hard to keep reading. The book reads like a YA novel, which rarely works for me. Some aspects of the plot baffled me, and the immediate "we are in love" after a maximum of three days of being in each other's presence after ten years didn't work.

There's definitely an audience who will love this book, who might find the conflict relatable, who love specific references to Taylor Swift songs, and who impart tons of importance on coming out. However, I struggled to get through the ending of the book and only wanted to finish it to write a fair review.

Thank you to Berkley for an eARC.

As a gay woman i immediately found this book offensive in the first chapter. Lesbians being presented as crass careless women and bisexuals are stereotyped and reduced to cheaters made for shocking passages in overall bland writing that does nothing to add to the romance genre and doesn’t do anything new or creative with the tarot premise. The two white leads are about as spicy as you would expect a rich valley girl would be and the authors biphobia really shines through in the writing. I personally do not understand the seething hatred of bisexuality in the text.

omg i loved the tarot mystical vibes it was so fun! i loved the writing style and the characters were so fun and amazing! such a great book

Halsey Alanis’ Interlude reference in this book was crazy. I enjoyed this second chance trope sapphic romcom! I am not really a tarot card girlie, so that was the only aspect I didn't care about. I feel like I learned more about Kit's backstory and it was a bit more focused on her overall, but the romance was cute and I felt like I was helping to plan the wedding going on and there with them

▪️𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦
▪️𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘺
▪️𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴
▪️𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴

a tarot card reader and a wedding planner romance like who thought this dream romance could ever be created .. welp apparently @rffaubion and THIS FCKING DELIVERED. ugh, perfect, sexy, angsty. all the beautiful things i love in a romcom and this was just so addicting. highly recommend for my romcom gang🩷💜💙
thank you @netgalley & @berkleypub for the eARC🫶

The Lovers is a magical book and an otherworldly romance. It's filled with intense chemistry, tension and amazing characters. I loved this debut and the author's writing was amazing. It's the second chance of my dreams and I can't wait to talk about this book everywhere!