While I love a past/present storyline, THE SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE LOVE LIFE OF AMANDA DEAN took me all over the place as it follows Amanda through her life. Each chapter jumped around, making it hard to catch up.

What begins on Amanda’s wedding day as she ponders whether this is her true love, and from there keeps you guessing on who Amanda will end up with.

I paired the book with audio and loved the narrator!

*many thanks to Berkley, PRH audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

I value the opportunity I was given to read this in advance, but I still haven't read this. With so many books ahead of me, I cannot return to this title.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a refreshing and captivating experience, and I found the writing to be both engaging and accessible. The story flowed smoothly, making it easy to stay connected to the plot and characters without feeling lost or overwhelmed. The author struck a perfect balance, keeping things interesting while still making the content feel approachable. Overall, it was a wonderful read, and I would definitely recommend it to others who are looking for an enjoyable and easy-to-digest book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean by Ann Rose!

Amanda has had her heart broken many times and kissed a lot of frogs. Her fast and deep friendship with Marissa and her time spent focused on her painting have allowed her to navigate the many ups and downs of dating. Today is her wedding day, and while nothing can seem to go right, she knows she's marrying the right person for her. But who is the love of her life?

As a messy, lover of love, bisexual myself, I adored Amanda's story. The scene opens on her wedding day and through various time jumps and flashbacks we (the readers) get a picture of her past loves and experiences. Some readers might not like the non-linear timeline, but it adds to the mystery of it all and allowed the formative moments of her childhood/youth to parallel what she experienced as an adult. We don't know who she chooses until the very end of the book and I liked how the various love interests leave breadcrumbs for the reader to decide if they are the chosen one.

Amanda's journey covers lots of ground and many important topics poignant to modern dating - finding someone that loves you for you, navigating intimacy, discussions of sexuality and preference of partners. Rose does a good job of showcasing how Amanda works through these situations with her best friend and family. The book breaks conventional romcom vibes but showcasing more than the fun parts of romance and centering the bittersweet and challenging moments too.

Tough topics of death of a loved one and abortion are addressed.

Vibes:
Coming of age
Friends to lovers
LGBTQ+ representation
Dating experiences
Wedding prep
Non-linear career
Artist

I loved the premise of this novel! LES AMANDA GET MARRIED was my intial thoughts. This has lesibian representation, contemporoay, and romance through the roof of every person you know whose love life is a dumpster fire which Ann rose illustrated beautifully! Thank you to Ann Rose, Berkley (you always send me book that make love again), and Netgalley!

Thoughts:
This is a charming and heartfelt romance that explores the complexities of love and relationships.
We follows Amanda Dean, who has had her heart broken multiple times, but now as she prepares for her wedding day she starts reflecting on her past relationships, while she’s also grapples with the question of whether her current fiancé is truly "the one."
The author does a great job tying together the heartwarming and bittersweet
Aspects to this romance, story.

The idea of this was cute and the mystery of which person did she choose. What didn’t work for me was the timeline was all over the place with so many ages/characters that I found myself lost quite frequently. Chronological would have been so much easier to follow.

I really enjoyed this story, despite the somewhat challenging of the book's structure, which bounces back and forth in time. IMO, the bouncing around mirrors the back and forth that exemplifies Amanda's life beautifully. Amanda and her friend Isa are well developed and very human; in fact Amanda's flaws are part of what drives the plot.
As a bi woman, Amanda has been in and out of relationships with people from both sexes, which is great to see in a mainstream book. On the eve of her wedding, she reminisces about her life and relationships over time. (This is where the time jumping comes into play.) I like that the story breaks some rom-com rules, like taking the reader through the bad parts of relationships rather than skipping over them to a happy ending. There is a lot of hope and heartbreak, as well as a friends-to-lovers plot which kept me engaged until the big reveal at the end - who Amanda is marrying.
This was a fun read with deep insights into the main character's development over time and how her relationships contributed to her trajectory. Add in some humor and some love and you've got a winner.

Amanda Dean has had a complicated love life, but now she is finally ready to tie the knot with the "one". But is Edmund really the one? The book flashes back to all the important relationships in her life as Mandy tries to decide whether or not to actually marry her groom. Rose does an astonishing job of telling a whole life's story in the space of one beautiful love story. The formatting and writing of this book is fresh and I found myself really connecting to Mandy at every stage of her life.

Very sweet and heartfelt! I enjoyed the flashback style (though it took me a few chapters to get into) and appreciate how we were able to delve into Mandy's entire life rather than a few casual mentions about the formative events of her childhood. The mystery of her spouse-to-be kept me invested; even though it was fairly obvious, there were some red herrings that gave me pause.

What a whirlwind!!! An absolute joy to read with complex characters and even more complex paths of life leading them all to each other but also exactly where they needed to be? And that cover is just gorgeous!

This was such a cute and unique read! I fell in love with Mandy- she's adorable and made the perfect heroine for a book like this! I can't wait to see what the author writes next

This story was incredibly unique in the way it was told. We start on Amanda’s wedding day, where she begins reflecting on past loves, and wondering if this one will stick. From there we jump around to various moments from her past, and glimpses to the present. In the chapters we meet her past loves, learn more about the relationships, and what went wrong, the whole time trying to figure out which of these lovers is the person she is going to marry. I started with the audiobook, and that format did not work for me. With the timeline jumps, I needed to read with my eyes to be sure I fully registered the time period and the lover for each chapter. Once I made the switch, I LOVED this book. I loved watching Mandy grow throughout her relationships. I also appreciated the bisexual representation and both men and women were viable contenders for her forever partner. This was a sweet story and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this early, sorry for the late review. This is a cute LGBTQ+ tale about finding out who are while also finding those you love along the way. The only tricky aspect of this coming of age story is that there are many different time lines and I had to write down the years to help me keep track of who was being discussed. Still a fun read though a little confusing.

4 stars!! This book was really good! The characters were really nicely developed and the plot was super interesting!!

This was a super cute romance with a unique take on the story layout and the relationships surrounding the characters. I loved following along Mandy’s life, especially as her friendship grew with Isa and when she experienced love and loss. Mandy’s character growth was refreshing and witnessing her finally stand up for herself was such a breath of fresh air. The character development was definitely the highlight of The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean. I do wish, however, that Mandy’s past was told in a more chronological order, as the ending reveal felt a little rushed and I was slightly caught off guard. I surprisingly didn’t realize who Mandy was getting married to until right before the reveal - and I applaud the author for being able to surprise me like that. Overall, I think this was a great contemporary romance with unique elements, great characters, and a lovely story.

Thank you to Berkley, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early copy!

I loved the description of someone flawed who tries to get better overtime. We get insight from her post, and it really helped build understanding of her as a person/character. I did love the constant changing of times, but if you weren't careful enough to check dates, it did get confusing.

I absolutely loved this one!! The timeline jumps kept me on my toes the entire novel. Though I did know who Amanda ended up with pretty much from the beginning it was still great to get the glimpse of all these times in her life that made her who she is at the end of the novel. I loved every second of it and you’ll love getting to go through life with Mandy.

2.5 stars (rounded up).

I have to say, I absolutely haaaaaaaated the narrative style of "The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean" by Ann Rose. The chapters flip from past to present with no rhyme or reason. The timeline spans years in a non-linear fashion. One chapter will be in 2009, and the next will be in 2019, then the present, then 2015, then 2019 again. It was confusing, and it contributed to my lack of appreciation for and caring about the main characters. I found the reading experience frustrating at best. Luckily, there is good bi-representation here, so that was a massive plus. Unfortunately, this did not grab me like most romance novels do. I found myself struggling to push through reading this until the end. Amanda Dean was very stubborn and didn't listen to anything anyone said. I like the "bi-disaster" commentary, but liked little else. Still, it is a mostly cute if predictable romance with a few laughs here and there.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ann Rose, and Berkley Publishing Group for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.