An irresistible contemporary romance with a charming storyline and relatable characters. The author captures the essence of modern love with humor and sensitivity. A delightful and an uplifting read!

Who would’ve thought a tarot card reader and a wedding planner would be the perfect friends to lovers for me? I usually don’t read this trope as it’s not particularly one of my favorites but Rebekah delivers! Gorgeous cover, amazing characters and a beautiful story! I can’t wait for it to be out to add it to my shelves!

Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for a review!

4 ★ A sapphic second chance romance about a closeted tarot reader & a Type A wedding planner? This book was so far up my alley, it’s wild. I loved Julia & Kit’s so much! I resonated so much with this story. It was so, so beautiful and I loved every second of it. I don’t have many critiques, other than a few grammatical errors and misuse of certain words. I hope everyone will pick this up when it comes out in September!

The Lovers is a swoony romance novel told from the dual points of view of Kit and Julia, one struggling to come to terms with her identity and one healing from the emotional wreckage brought on by a toxic ex. The two MCs find safety and refuge in each other as they take a leap of faith to reconnect with their once foretold twin flame. The connection between the two is genuine and sweet and this second chance romance features forced proximity as Kit and Julia find themselves working at the same stylish and trendy wedding in the California desert.

An adorable second chance romance! I love the characters and how the author allows them to work through their anxieties and mental blocks around their relationship instead of love magically making them better.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC via Net Galley

When they were 12, Kit and Julia had a tarot reading that revealed them to be twin flames who'd part and come back together. At 18, they grew closer as more than friends, and after one night together, Kit ghosted Julia, went away to college and later became a paid tarot card reader who only dated men. Julia, heartbroken, came out and later became involved with a woman who she later realized was manipulating her for her own purposes. A year after that breakup, Julia, now a wedding planner, is in charge of a long-weekend wedding celebration in the Joshua Tree desert, a wedding in which her recent ex has become a bridesmaid and Kit has been hired to read tarot.

In this entertaining and engaging (for the most part) book, the author walks the line between satire and true believer of, not only tarot, but all the other spiritual practices integrated into this wedding. I'm not a big fan of rom-com romances (as opposed to rom-com films, which I love) mostly because the comic, satiric voice of these books usually irritates me. But I soon got over this here and decided to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Both Julia and Kit have issues to overcome and grow from, notably living as their true selves. Kit seems to have grown up thinking that she had to follow some kind of Meg Ryan rom-com script that only included relationships with men that led to a perfect ending. I found this a bit hard to believe at times, but the author really tried to make the case, placing responsibility on Kit's parents and their seemingly storybook marriage and her father's determination to sell a rom-com script. It kind of worked. Julia's arc had to do with loosening up and letting go of her controlling instincts, returning to the more easygoing, punk-like version of herself from high school.

Overall, this is a solid second chance romance. The crisis conflict in the last few chapters doesn't quite rise to the level of a crisis as one would expect in a romance, but instead serves as an opportunity for Kit to have to face her fears on her own.

I'm going with 4.5 stars rounded down to 4, though I highly recommend this book.

This was such a fun stubborn sexy romcom, I found myself on the edge of my seat in excitement, I loved the dynamics of all these characters especially our wedding planning and tarot card reading duo. This was, again, hot and sexy! I was giggling and blushing behind my kindle screen, perfect for romcom lovers! Thank you Berkley Pub and NetGalley for this ARC!

I almost DNF at 80 pages, I gave it one more chapter and I was glad I stuck with it. That said I thought there could've been more character development for Julia and Kit. They were formed sure but there was something lacking in differentiating their chapters since it was told in first person.

I did love that there wasn't a third-act breakup. It was a refreshing choice the author made for the romance story arc. Ultimately, I'm glad I did finish it to see how she wrapped up their love story.

* loved the premise
* loved learning about tarot cards and fortune, twin flame, etc,
* loved the wedding vibes
* didn’t feeling the connection as a second chance romance
* romance felt like subplot to wedding until the second half
* The reconnection was better then when they initially met
* There were many moments that felt long and dull
* The second chance was good but the first half of the book felt dragged on
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️

this book was too good! i loved the tension, insane chemistry, and sweet moments between the characters. it was also written so well??? such a good second chance romance!!!

I was really obsessed with the premise of this one: like sapphic and tarot, hello? but I just could not get behind the narrative voice of this one. It was just really annoying to me for some reason.

I am typically not one to read romcom novels (even though I do enjoy a good romcom movie from time to time. I mean who doesn't love Meg Ryan!). The Lovers by Rebekah Faubion was a light read that gave you all the feels of watching a romcom on a rainy day, getting lost in the emotion of the characters and rooting for them. There were obstacles that laid in the characters way, but not as much as I thought. Which honestly was pretty refreshing. I always hate watching the main characters fall in love and then hurt each other and then come back together. This seemed healthy and mature when handling their feelings and what they wanted and that was refreshing!

The Lovers was a sweet second chance romance between two lovers who were bound by fate. The way fate with intertwined into the story by tarot cards was cool as someone not too familiar with tarot. I think the setting of a crunchy granola wedding being planned also left for fun high-jinx. I think there could have been even more tension between the two love interests and a bit less plot focused on the wedding planning but other than that I had fun with it! A great start for a debut author!

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.