Pining, friends to lovers, reality dating show tropes? Count me 100% in. I was instantly sucked into the Marry Me, Juliet verse from the first chapter. Murray and Lily, co-producers on a Bachelor-type franchise, have been in love with each other for ten years but both timing and self-sabotage prevented anything from happening. When Lily turns up after a year of no contact on the latest season of Marry Me, Juliet, they are both forced to confront their feelings (over and over). I loved the format of the book, with flashbacks from Lily that showed how much this was an idiots in love story.
The chemistry the characters have with each other is excellent, and not just Murray and Lily. McAlister builds the stakes higher and higher until writing in a very satisfying conclusion that got me a little choked up. This is a book I would read again on a rainy day. I realized about halfway through reading that this is the third romance set in this universe so if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read the others.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

this book was a lot of fun. I had to go get the first two and read them first, as i had never heard of this series before. I hope that this author writes plenty more books, and even with the satellite characters, because I really enjoyed this. Getting to know the story behind Lily Fireball, and why she was such a bitch, was enlightening. The pace of the story was great, and it was interesting having the three different perspectives with the three different books. I'll watch for more !

Okay, so in college we had a thing called trash talking Tuesdays where we would eat trashy food (take out- the bottom of barrel crap) while watching trashy reality TV and talking trash about it. It was a fun semester making memories with my suitemates and started my love for reality TV. So you can imagine my trashed up little heart almost thumped out of my chest when I saw that this book was based on the Bachelor. What I did not expect was that the two main characters had been in love with each other since day one, but one was engaged and soon to be divorced while the other was married and the spouse was killed off in the first chapter of the story. How convenient! 😑😡

I could not get behind the main character Lily no matter how hard I tried. For instance she spews lines like this that make my skin want to crawl off. “He was still my best friend. He was still my partner. A ring on his finger affected none of that. I had lost nothing.” That’s truly messed up and I’ve seen a lot of trashy TV to stand by. So I just would recommend that you watch the most recent episodes of the Golden Bachelor followed by their TV special wedding and then google your heart's content about what happened afterwards rather than reading this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

Fans of The Bachelor and Unreal, this book is part of that universe! While I love those shows, this book felt like there were too many storylines happening all at the same time. The choice to name two main characters Dylan made the story confusing. So much of the book focuses on fighting racism, but calling the woman “girl-Dylan” felt like a step backward with sexism.

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and Jodi McAlister for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is book #3 in the series but I didn’t read the first two and felt fine without more backstory.

Lily and Murray meet as production assistants for a reality tv show. They quickly bond and become work “partners”, working side by side as they advance in reality tv production.

Despite their bond and unspoken attraction, their personal lives only briefly overlap.

After being in each others lives for 10yrs, Lily suffers a heartbreaking loss when her husband passes away suddenly. Immediately after the funeral she pushes Murray (and almost everyone else) away. Completely no contact for a year.

Fast forward to the newest season of their show and Lily shows up - as a contestant - and throws Murray.

I have watched the bachelor franchise for years so this was interesting to me but difficult to root for their happiness since they weren’t always acting ethically or in anyone’s best interest - just their own or for the show

I enjoyed the writing in this one, I wasn't aware this was book 3 of a series but I didn't feel too lost. The reality TV setting was fun! My biggest problem was that I could not connect with either of these main characters. They have been in love with each other for ages, but both married other people and basically emotionally cheated with each other. I didn't know the full scope of their past and their relationship with each other going in, and I wish I had. That whole situation is just not for me, I don't like when the main couple emotionally cheats on their spouses with each other. Otherwise this was a good read!

I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I didn't. With the storyline being another "The Bachelor" rip-off I thought it would be a home-run, but it turned out to be a strike-out.

I liked the concept of the story, but I just couldn't get behind Lily, and how she acted. Her love for Murray was clear BUT she had a very messed up way of showing it. Passive-aggressive much??

I did enjoy the 2 love stories that resulted from the season she hijacked though. They were sweet.

I don't think I'd recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this! The reviews were absolutely correct; this was a hilarious love story with witty, fun characters. I love reality TV and dating shows, and this was the perfect book for anyone who's a sucker for those type of shows.

Okay so I'm a big bachelor fan, so I was very intrigued about this one. It's the third in the series but can definitely be read without reading the others. I haven't read the first two, but went back and read about them. Turns out all 3 books take place during the same season of "Marry Me Juliet" but focus on different characters. I kind of like that I went into this without reading the first two.
First of all I am loving the rom-com turned reality television genre that seems to be becoming more prevalent lately. Mixing my two fav things together is bound to get me excited.
What I Liked: The behind the scenes and focus on the production of the show, rather than the show itself.
Overall the first half of the book was enjoyable. However I just wasn't a fan of the romance between Lucy and Murray. I found the last half of the book just wasn't for me. I didn't care for the characters and because of that didn't feel invested in the love story.

Started out strong, but fell a little flat for me.
I would recommend it to any fans of the bachelor franchise. If you don't like the show, this book definitely isn't for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

If you are a reality TV fan, you’ll likely know exactly what this book is going to be about based on the title alone, and it feels like a guilty pleasure in the same way that the TV franchise does.

Producers Murray and Lily have worked together for over a decade on a show where one contestant dates a large group of women or men, depending on the season. After a horrible event in her personal life, Lily stepped away for a year. This year, she shows up as a network plant, playing the villain on the newest season and flipping the show upside down.

I found the premise to be juicy, fun entertainment, and would definitely place it in the guilty pleasure category. The characters are honestly so unlikeable that I didn’t really care if they got their HEA in the end, but it was fun to be along for the wild ride along the way. Lily comes in as the villain, and she actually still feels like a villain even when she isn’t playing one. Her personality and character are just turned up times ten to be on the show, but she clearly loves drama and manipulating people and thrives on chaos. Murray isn’t much better, though at least we know via his POV that every once in awhile he does feel bad about the craziness he causes.

We get all the drama that you might see on the bachelor- racist contestants, a contestant maybe falling for another contestant, bad behavior and drama, and all the behind the scenes producer manipulation. It was an entertaining read, but probably not one that will stick with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC. All opinion are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

This was a funny, light and fluffy rom com. If you are looking for a cute romance to pop into your beach bag, look no further than this book. It is a highly enjoyable read, and a good escape from the stress of every day life. Definitely recommend this book!

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Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

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DNF 10% - I’m not loving the overall tone of the book and I don’t like that they killed off Lily’s husband just to set up this book.

Note: I received this book free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this advance readers copy! This book was very interesting, it was fun getting a sneak peak into what it took to produce a reality tv show and what would happen behind the scenes.

This was a very fun romance with morally grey characters although I didn't realize it was the third in a series and was a little confused by all of the MANY side characters. I enjoyed how twisty and turny this is and I will for sure be going back to read the others!

There are not words to adequately express how much I loved this book. I had not read the first two books in the series, but I’m almost glad I hadn’t. Getting to know Lily and Murray organically through THEIR story, while still getting to see the couples from the other two books just means I have two other books to read now.

My ONLY complaint was that Lily’s Big Event that happens at the start of the book was almost too shocking to happen so soon at the start of a new book. Other than that, the pacing, the characterization, the dialogue, the plot, everything… it was perfect.

I wish it had a LITTLE more spicy action but I’ll take what I can get.

Lily, as both herself and Lily Fireball, was a lovable and hate-able character, and you still cheered for her. I will forever go down with a friends to lovers trope, so this one had me by the neck.

Thank you to Simon and Shuster and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This book was hard to follow, and honestly lost me right at the sound of pandemic, covid, etc. I lived it and don't need to be reminded of the hard times we all experienced in 2020+
The concept of reality TV set is hard to consider when you are either fully gullible into reality tv or use it to escape reality yourself much like books do for so many people.
I wanted to enjoy this book and romance but the plot was lost on me trying to follow along with TV characters, other participants on the TV show and the producers and writers of the show. etc. It was very overwhelming.

A poorly written attempt to mimic the bachelor franchise however the author refused to use the characters actual names and everything was Juliet-Dylan, juliet-Amanda.

This book is hard to review, because to some extent it is a relief of COVID protocols that are understandably hard to write around. Leaving those side, this book dragged a bit--it was very internal and flat. Really couldn't stand Lily, but sure was weirdly not much of a presence in the book. I want to try something else from this author, though, as I think she's a good storyteller.

Thank you for the ARC!

I liked the idea behind the book more than the execution of it. The pacing of the story was really slow and it was really hard to connect with the characters. I probably will not be reading the rest of the series, unfortunately.

I loved this book's behind-the-scenes peek at shows like the Bachelor franchise and I thought the Murray character was complicated and generally likable. I did not feel the same about Lily. I honestly wished the ending had been where it was left about 90% in rather than how it actually ended. Overall, the story was interesting because of the setting and situations and I'd recommend to fans of the Bachelor/ette franchises! It was fun.