This was a unique romance with great queer representation. The book jumps around in time a lot to show you the path of Amanda Dean’s love life. It was a little hard to follow at times as characters or situations would be shown before they were explained but near the end when it came together it all made sense. I’m still not positive it was the best way to tell a story, but I did like that it was unique. In some ways it broke the rom-com rules because you don’t go through the problem that tears the lovers apart you get to skip those parts and get to the end. Amanda Dean, or Mandy, is an artist who is about to get married. As she gets ready in between calls about bumps for the day she reminisces about her past and thinks of all of the people she has loved and how she got to be where she is today. It was a sweet story with a predictable but satisfying ending. Overall I gave it 3.5 stars rounded up for the creative way the story was told.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
I definitely had fun with this one, and especially appreciated the "bi-disaster" representation (it feels good to be seen). I loved the structure- starting on the wedding day and moving backwards through past loves and breakups- and have not seen it before, so that was a fun touch.

Finding out who Amanda ends up with at the end made the book feel like a little scavenger hunt of sorts, picking up pieces of the puzzle as you read, and I absolutely loved the ending.

Overall, this is a fun, quick read that explores the complexities, trials, and realities of love in an honest and beautiful way, and I think that readers are going to really enjoy it!

4.5

I really enjoyed this one! Going in, I had no idea what to expect. I kinda just had it and the premise of a wild love life and honestly being in chaos just sounded fun - so I picked it up... Then suddenly... I read it all. In a day... HOW?! No clue, but that just goes to show how easy to read and entertaining it was.

This book follows Amanda Dean (obviously?) as she navigates her relationships. She always thought she was unlucky in love and we get to follow different times in her life and relationships that led her to think that way. From the highs of romance starting and the lows of how they ended.

The reality and rawness of this book was so real! Amanda was very relatable and while she proclaimed herself to be "a self-proclaimed bi disaster", I feel like everyone will be able to see a little bit of themselves in her.

Watching Amanda grow up and mature throughout her different relationships was so much fun! The balance of all the emotions were so well done. I loved the storytelling and how the author got you to love Amanda and all the side characters as well. Even the platonic relationships that Amanda forms throughout her life was so important.

I loved that there were lessons in every relationship. You always left the relationship learning a little more about Amanda and seeing how she became the woman on her wedding day. I couldn't stop rooting for Amanda to find the happiness she deserved - even when she felt like she didn't deserve it.

I genuinely couldn't put this book down and it was so easy to read! I was nervous with the jumping of timelines that it would've been hard to follow but I didn't feel that way at all. I always knew where we were and who we were with. The format going between timelines also just made sense.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this one!

felt extremely mid. self described chaos bisexual who is not chaotic at all? very predictable slice of life, not a bad read but just quite forgettable.

It's Amanda Dean's wedding day, but who is waiting for her at the altar? Is this going to be her happily ever after?

Amanda loves being in love. But it seems her heart gets broken almost every time. As she makes her way to her wedding, we get flashbacks of her relationships that lead to this moment. For me, the back and forth non-linear timeline was a bit distracting, and it made it hard to get into the story. But the story was told we'll enough that I did find myself interested in the outcome and was rooting for Amanda, even when she occasionally got in my nerve. It is a novel about love but also about family, friendship, and finding oneself.

I received, read, and reviewed an advanced copy from netgalley and the publisher.

I don’t know how to feel about this book. I have a lot of mixed feelings because I didn’t like the changing timelines. It often took me out of the story where I had to do math to figure out how old she was or even what state/country she was in. I didn’t mind not knowing who she was marrying until I got to 50% in and it was still not revealed. I think it would’ve been better had everything not been a mystery. Plus this “thing” she does to Isa isn’t revealed until almost 80%?! That’s way too long. This is a contemporary romance, not a murder mystery. Had this story been told in order, I think I would have given it 5 stars. The writing and storyline was great, but the stuff I mentioned just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the free book and to PRH Audio for the complimentary audiobook. These opinions are my own.

This romance is such a unique format. We first meet Amanda Dean on her wedding day, as she is wondering whether this love will truly stick. But she never mentions who the love interest is. From there, we skip through different times in her life and different love interests. As we go, we learn a lot about her and guess who she will marry.

I found I really needed to pay attention to the dates at the start of each chapter and to focus. Otherwise, I wasn't able to follow the chronology and know which relationships ended when. I was especially pleased that the tracks in the audiobook included the dates in the title, as they facilitated my reading.

I really liked Mandy and loved seeing how she grew over the years. I quickly determined who I wanted the love interest to be and how I wanted the story to end. And I especially loved that she was bisexual, and both female and male love interests seemed to have equally plausible chances at a long-term relationship.

I think this book is great for people like me who are especially interested in the character aspects of romances. It's quite a unique format and one that I enjoyed. I found it contemplative and fascinating.

Victoria Villarreal did an excellent job narrating throughout the audiobook.

CW: death of a loved one

In the Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean, we are privy to the rollercoaster love life of a woman, Amanda Dean. The book starts in present day getting ready for her wedding (without knowing to whom) and then flip flops all around a crazy timeline to explain how she got there. Childhood best friends, crushes, first loves, bad boyfriends, acceptance and love, all of it is detailed in a sweet, romcom way. Including a stint in Europe where she desperately misses the Mexican food from her home in Southern California. This was just a very entertaining, heartwarming story about finding true love and finding yourself along the way. About being true to yourself

As she prepares for her imminent wedding, a series of small mishaps (no hot water, no bacon with the room service breakfast, a mishap with the catering) make room for the bride-to-be reflect on the various loves of her life. The reminiscences are vivid vignettes strung together in a way that is not apparent by 25% through the book.

Consistencies are that Mandy has superficial parents and a Latinx best friend; Mandy aspires to be an artist; Mandy is likely queer, and is refreshingly accepted at her small magnet arts high school in 2002.

The writing is solid, but the mystery of what happened with Mandy and bestie Isa was not compelling enough for me to power through the disjointed narrative, and I made it halfway through, and put this one down..

I received a free advance readers review copy of #TheSeemingly ImpossibleLoveLifeOfAmandaDean via #NetGalley, courtesy of #Berkley.

It’s the wedding day for Amanda Dean, and she feels like everything is going wrong. Some of it is nerves. Some of it is rain where they’re supposed to get the pre-ceremony wedding photos taken and the fire alarm going off at the hotel where she’s getting ready. Fortunately that turns out to be a false alarm, and her hair stylist is able to make up for that lost time.

But that still gives her time to think. To run back through the important people in her life, and the times she was in love.

There was her first love, the one she met as a kid and who became her best friend. Marisa and Mandy were inseparable through school, and fell in love in high school. They dated other people, went to school functions with boys, but finally Isa decided to be honest and tell Mandy about her feelings. And Mandy said she felt the same. They were inseparable until the summer after graduation, when Mandy was going to Europe to study art.

Mandy had wanted to be an artist her whole life, and spending the summer in Europe, taking some classes and visiting museums was an opportunity too good to pass up. All Mandy had ever wanted was to be a doctor. She’d had been offered a full-ride scholarship that would take her far on her journey. Mandy wanted Isa to come with her, but they both new Mandy wouldn’t be back in the states after only three months. So they went their separate ways, broken-hearted.

In Europe, Mandy eventually started going out again. Sophie, an aspiring fashion designer, took her out and introduced her to a London Mandy had never known. And after Europe, when she went back to the States and went to college, just a couple of years behind most of the other freshmen, there was the boy who got her pregnant and then disappeared.

And finally, after college, when she’d settled into a job at an ad agency, using her graphic design skills to create mesmerizing billboards, she met Edmund. Edmund was a successful finance manager, steady and strong. He had proposed to Mandy during her first art show, a huge success where her paintings were adorned with signs marking them Sold.

And now it’s Mandy’s wedding day, and she’s hoping that just because things are not starting off well, that it doesn’t mean the whole wedding is jinxed. Because she is marrying the love of her life, and all she wants is the chance to walk down the aisle and start her new life.

The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean is a powerful love story, told in fits and starts, as we travel through time putting together the puzzle pieces that lead to happily ever after. Bouncing back and forth in time and around the world, this story reveals the joy and the heartache of opening yourself up to being in love.

Rich in family relationships as well as friendships and romantic relationships, The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean was like an emotional roller coaster, as there were the beautiful highs of falling in love and the lows of losing a beloved family member. I loved how diverse these relationships were, and how they let Mandy thrive and find success throughout her life. I will admit that the amount of bouncing through time gave me a little vertigo from time to time and I had to stop and reorient myself to when and where we were, but I also thought it was a successful way to tell this story. More than just a love story, this novel is one I’ll remember for a long time.

Egalleys for The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I also won a copy through a Goodreads giveaway.

Happy Pub Day to The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean by Ann Rose!

Amanda Dean is a self-proclaimed bi-disaster. On her wedding day and we don't know who she is marrying. As she's getting ready the memories of her past loves start going through her mind. As we learn about her past loves we see different sides of Amanda and how she got to where she is.

This was a different style of romance but I liked seeing the different sides of Amanda through her 4 relationships and seeing her grow. I wished the different time periods would have had her age and not just the year, since it jumped around a lot.

I enjoyed reading this one last week on my adventures!

We are following Amanda Dean as she gets ready for her wedding, going back and forth from the present to the past as we go over her past loves to discover who she is getting married to. Um.. I didn't really care for the past timelines at all. They felt all over the place, and I just didn't care about her past relationships. I did enjoy the bits from the present, as Amanda slowly panicked more and more as things began going wrong. I thought this timeline was endlessly more entertaining, but this was a small part of the story compared to the past sections.
Normally, I don't gravitate towards books marketed as women's fiction, so don't let the fact that this didn't work for me deter you from picking it up. If this sounds like something you would enjoy I definitely recommend checking it out.

This was a great spin on a reflective romance novel, but I didn’t feel invested in Amanda’s story. I didn’t care to read about her journey all the way from childhood and I found myself skimming quite a bit.

dnf at 21%.

There aren’t enough words to describe this book… but, if I had to choose a couple I’d say it’s a must read!!

Ann Rose has outdone herself, and has written a stellar and charismatic debut novel! It’s such a unique book and each page is so captivating. There’s so much going on and it truly was such a roller coaster of emotions. However, I smiled a lot and was so excited to see who Amanda married. Trust me, I wasn’t disappointed at all!!

Before going into this book, I hope readers know that this book is so much more than a woman and all her failed relationships. It’s about healing and listening to what you need in life. Mandy is an incredible heroine and I’m so glad we got to follow along on her journey!
Again, it’s seriously a must read.

Amanda Dean is getting married and it’s supposed to be the happiest day of her life. But Mandy is used to things going wrong, and with the doom phone calls already starting, Mandy reminisces about her past, hoping to ensure that she is making the right choice for her future. Mandy might have thought she had it right before, but if she was wrong then, it’s possible she’s wrong now too.

This book sounded all kinds of intriguing, with a flashback to all of Mandy’s past relationships to figure out who she was now marrying. But it didn’t work out that way for me, as it was astonishingly clear from the first chapter who Mandy was marrying, so the impact of the book deflated before it even started.

The book is told in a non-linear style, which is fine for me. However, even though the chapters are clearly date labeled, it wasn’t clear in some scenes where we were in her life. I didn’t find Mandy to be an intriguing character and there was a general malaise to her that permeated all of the scenes. Mandy has a best friend who is a huge part of her life and we see some of that. We also see Mandy’s past relationships and she knew they weren’t right for her, and I knew she thought they weren’t right for her, and she seemed to just go along with things because she didn’t know how to say no or stand up for herself in important aspects of her own life.

Many of the scenes cannot be discussed in detail, because that would supposedly give away who Mandy ended up with at the end of the book. The allure of this story was supposed to be seeing Mandy find her HEA, but I put this book down many times because her life and the people in it were not at all interesting to me.

The author Ann Rose also writes as A.M. Rose, so if you have had success with either author name, Mandy and her life might be a better fit for you.

Thank you Berkley for providing a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Read if you 🩷:
• ⏳ Non-Linear Timelines
• 🌈 LGBTQIA+ Representation
• 🏠 Found Family
• 🍋‍🟩 Margaritas for Breakfast

Amanda Dean has always been great at one thing: falling in love, even if it’s left her heartbroken more times than she can count. On her wedding day, memories of her past loves flood in—the water polo player, the fashionista, the hedge fund manager, and the one where the timing was never quite right. Now, with everything going wrong on what’s supposed to be the biggest day of her life, Mandy must decide if she’s ready to take one last chance on love or make a run for it while her heart’s still intact.

Ann Rose’s debut novel is a great reminder that in the blink of an eye (or the turn of a page 📖 ), people grow and change because of their experiences. As we journey with Mandy into her past, we see her and her partners at different times in their lives, often out of order. I found myself angry with one character in one chapter, then feeling sorrow for them in the next.

I expected a lot of typical romance moments from this novel, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of raw emotion throughout. While there are some lighter scenes, it definitely leans more toward contemporary fiction.

If you’re a self-proclaimed bi disaster wondering what it would be like if you had your own Hallmark movie, look no further than “The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean”!

The Seemingly Impossible Love Life of Amanda Dean by Ann Rose was such a fun and entertaining read! I loved the way the book starts off and that you don't find out who Amanda is marrying until the end of the book. It felt very original. The story had so much emotional depth and it was well written. The character development and relationship growth was fantastic, too. Overall, a very enjoyable and entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley, PRH Audio and Berkley Publishing Group
for providing me an advanced copy of this book and audiobook for free in exchange for my review! @prhaudio #PRHAudio #PRHAudioInfluencer
All opinions are my own.

This was a delightful book. I loved the flashbacks to all the different love interests that Amanda had in her life leading up to her getting married. I thought this book was very unique and I enjoyed how it blended romance with women's fiction and a dash of magical realism.
On the audiobook side of things, I enjoyed Victoria Viarreal's narration. She seems to be a great up-and-coming narrator for audiobooks as I have already listened to 4 or 5 audiobooks narrated by her this year. I think she has a lovely and soothing voice, and I can't wait to listen to the next audiobook she narrates.

I thought this was a delightfully charming rom-com and I think anyone who is a diehard romantic like myself (especially if you love the hallmark channel), will enjoy this book.

Thank you again to Netgalley, Berkley and PRH Audio for the ARC?ALC!

I absolutely loved this debut queer romance featuring bisexual disaster Amanda Dean and her many failed love affairs. What made this story so unique is that it starts off on Amanda's wedding day but we don't find out who she's marrying until the very end of the book. Told through alternating timelines, this story jumps around from past to present and is as much a coming of age female friends to lovers story as a breakdown of Amanda's various major romantic relationships. Full of heart and heartbreak, this had so much emotional depth and nuance and I loved the narration by Victoria Villarreal. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review! Perfect for fans of authors like Mazey Eddings.

Out on September 17, this book follows “bi disaster” Amanda Dean and her many stories of falling in and out of love. It is both a romance and a look at Amanda as she figures out who she is and what she wants in life - all while keeping the reader guessing who she will end up with in the end. The book bounces around in timeline, so I recommend reading a physical or e-copy over audiobook.

I enjoyed this book and flew through it while traveling this summer! I more loved the coming-of-age, discovery story, than the romance she ultimately ends up in. It was fresh, you had a great cast of characters, and it was fun to guess what was happening next.

(CW // grief; death; abortion)