Krystin and Lauren are both on the new season of Hopelessly Devoted, but they're there for the wrong reasons...

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a huge fan of Love Island, so when I saw this novel I knew I had to read it. I was not disappointed. It definitely gave me Love Island vibes, but without the really over the top drama. It almost felt like a peek behind the scenes, in all the right ways. I'm really interested in reading more by Annabel Paulson & Lydia Wang in the future.

Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang's Here for the Wrong Reasons is an FF romance where the main characters are participating in a MF reality dating program. I've only seen one such program myself, and it was with queer women, so this book actually rang true for me. Some of the motivations for these participants aligned with the folks in the TV show I saw... and that really worked for me.

The audio version of Here for the Wrong Reasons is nicely performed by the marvelous Mara Wilson and Lindsey Dorcus. These two do a really nice job with this vast cast of characters.

*Here for the Wrong Reasons* by Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang is a fun, funny, and drama-filled sapphic romance about what happens when two women vying for a man’s heart on reality television fall in love—not with him, but with each other.

> ❤️ What I loved: This is an entertaining story with some genuinely funny moments and unexpected turns for a reality dating show-based plot-line, topped off with great audiobook narration! It is interesting to classify this book as a romance, because our love interests do not begin their romance until almost halfway through the book—a plot which was unique, but may be frustrating for some. The lead male character is actually a pretty prominent part of the story as a result, but I appreciated that he wasn’t made to be a villain in the story and instead the focus was on how the two women came to realize how they felt for each other, regardless of their relationships with him.

> 💔 What I didn’t love: This story, to me, felt like it started in a place too far from where we ended—we covered too much distance to feel satisfying from beginning to end. At the beginning of our story, one of our FMCs is a lesbian determined to never come out, while the other has no awareness that she likes women at all. For these two people to end up together by the end of a 350ish page novel would be ambitious, and unfortunately I think we needed more character development for it to seem somewhat believable to me. This is not helped by the fact that our two FMCs literally do not seem capable of any sort of normal communication about feelings or emotions.

If you like sapphic romances that include coming out stories, multiple perspectives, and a whole lot of “will they/won’t they?”—*Here for the Wrong Reasons* might be for you!

**Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5 (3-3.5)**

**Acknowledgments & Disclaimers**
✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang, and Dreamscape Media, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book.
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

I absolutely love the sapphic representation and the tv-show theme. The duet narration kept me engaged and I was rooting for their love story! I do think, with a story set on a reality show of this scope, it’s really hard to give personalities to your supporting cast of characters, and they all kind of blurred together.

I am not a huge romance reader, but I am trying to branch out read more of this genre. As a dating show/bachelor fan I thought this would be perfect for me! The premise and set up of this story was so fun! Especially because typically after watching Bachelor seasons, the female friendships that develop are normally my favorite part--so I loved the concept of what if they fell in love! However, I didn't like how some things played out and I felt like some things didn't make sense with the story. For example, when the two MC were falling in love and were clearly not into the Bachelor, it felt unbelievable that he wouldn't pick up on their disinterest. Also, since the Bachelor was portrayed as such a sweet guy, it was hard to read them lying and playing him.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ALC.

Likes: the steam, Mara Wilson & Lindsey Dorcus telling this story, and the nods to Mean Girls and Taylor.

Disliked: How closely this story is to Sophie Gonzalez’s Never Ever Getting Back Together.

In 2018 two contestants on the Bachelor: Vietnam fell in love with each-other, instead of the male love interest. And ever since, I’ve been longing to hear wedding bells for them. Well, that’s not what this book is, but it’s the next-best thing: a drama and spice-filled Bachelor-style romance novel!

Krystin has every intention of winning and getting married to Josh, the lead of Hopelessly Devoted. She’s ready to get married, and he seems like an okay guy, and all she needs is an okay guy, right? Conversely, Lauren is just there for a bit of fame, to help get her company off the ground. She’s very sure of her homosexuality, but only a few people (mostly exes) are in the loop, making hiding on the show easy. All she’s got to do is…pretend to be into men.

The spicy scenes are well-done and pretty frequent. There’s about half-a-book of buildup to the first one, but there’s plenty of tension beforehand to keep readers antsy. Not overdone, but a perfect appetizer.

I had a great time with this one. The setting is familiar, and the leads are likable. Which is surprising, in Lauren’s case, as a closeted clout-chaser. But she’s not haughty, merely ambitious, and has every intention of backing out before comp-het wins.

Mara Wilson and Lindsey Dorcus put lots of seduction and humor into the reading. And, ooo, goodness, I’m never gonna look at Wilson the same way again…

This is a great vacation listen. Just make sure you’ve got your headphones connected!

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

I'm always a sucker for books with a reality show setting and this was no different. I really enjoyed how it showed all the behind-the-scenes ways that production twisted the narrative. This was definitely a very accurate representation of how shows like The Bachelor go too. It reminded me of a wlw version of The Charm Offensive but between two contestants instead. I liked the split POV and the dual narrators really added to the audiobook and made it easy to follow. At times, it felt like things developed very slowly and very quickly at other points so around the halfway to two-thirds mark I wasn't sure how invested in the characters I was. But I did enjoy the last third much more than I was expecting to and found myself invested again. Overall, this was a fun and light read.

3.5/5 stars

This was pretty cute. I don’t think I loved it, but it was entertaining and I was really invested in the storyline.

I do wish that more of the story had focused on Kristyn and Lauren. Because the book takes place on a dating show, the dating show part was really big part of the plot and I didn’t really care about that part.

The narrators for this audiobook were both really great.

I received an ALC of this audiobook from dreamscape media in exchange for a review.

This is the sapphic bachelor-nation book I've been waiting for! I loved every second of this romance. Queer consumers of the Bachelor franchise will absolutely devour this!

This was such a cute and fun read!!!
I absolutely love the idea of a twist where two of the female contestants on a bachelor style show fall in love! This audio book was so well done and the characters were portrayed greatly. It’s an easy listen and the story is truly fantastic. This is a fun and quick paced book that’ll have anyone excited to read more, I highly recommend!!

Here for the Wrong Reasons is a sapphic romance in which two women on a dating show fall for each other instead of the bachelor. I've read a book similar to this one's premise, however this book still stands on it's own. I had a few issues with this book, such as the way that Krystin and Lauren led Josh on and how fake so many of the contestants were and how pessimistic that felt, but other than that I really loved this book. Lauren and Krystin's chemistry was so uniquely perfect. It's the sapphic dynamic I didn't know I needed. Mean lesbian influencer falls for the closeted all-American rodeo queen. Yes please! Lauren does come off as very fake at first, but it's because she is a closeted queer women scared of exposing her heart and being rejected as the real her. Krystin is your classic, all-American, country girl. She screams basic straight girl, but she's actually gay as well and has a heart of gold. I loved seeing Lauren slowly shed her mean girl persona to pine for and protect Krystin. And on the flip side, I loved seeing Krystin push Lauren to be her real self. I also loved seeing Krystin comes to terms with her sexuality. I found that all the discussions regarding queer identity and sexuality were very well written. (Also the smut scenes were very good hehe). Overall, I really loved this story. Sometimes I got stressed out by all the secrets and the girls leading Josh on, but Lauren and Krystin's chemistry and relationship was everything I could have asked for, and outweighed any real faults this book had.

This book gives the Bachelor in the best way, it's every bit as cringey and fun as a reality dating show. It took me a little while to warm up to the main characters who seemed a little one dimensional at the beginning but I definitely came around and I loved the ending. I wish things had gone a little smoother for Josh, but he was such a good sport about things. Also his door puns were ridiculous and corny in the best way. I listened to the audiobook and they did such a good job with the performance. I loved every minute of it.

I enjoyed the book a lot! A fun, easy sapphic romance for everyone who is interested in terrible reality TV.

Two contestants on a reality TV dating show for the chance to marry some guy end up falling for each other. It's a concept that happened in real life before, and I had wanted to read it as a novel for some time.

I got to say that even with that premise, the romance is not completely the center of the story, as I exprected. Instead the plot follows the TV show filming pretty closely, which I had fun with too, and then the sapphic romance was a nice extra.

This book was fun and overall fairly enjoyable but I wanted more of a focus on the romantic leads and their romance and less focus on their individual relationships with the dating shows leading man and on the other women that were on the dating show. I found that I got bored at times with these side plots and that what was supposed to be the central romantic relationship didn't get fully fleshed out or feel believable because so much else was going on.

Another year, another bachelor-inspired romance book… In all honesty, Here For The Wrong Reasons did not bring anything new to the table. It relied heavily on the reality show premise and not enough on the development of its characters and their relationships. I suggest reading The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun instead of this title as it has a similar storyline and is well written.

I liked this one, bachelorette/bachelor vibes for sure, but make it queer.

It was a cute fun read, but the character development wasn't exactly what I was looking for, a few of the characters were quite forgettable, and the plot was mainly focused around Krystin and Lauren falling for each other (which works!) instead of the "main character" of the show. I read this while listening to the audio and as much as I wanted to love it, it just fell into the "this was good but I probably won't read it again" category.

I may update this with a longer review this weekend, but all in all it's a super quick and fun/flirty read with just enough drama and silliness to keep it entertaining.

Thank you to Alcove Press for letting me read (and listen!) to this one early!

I wanted to adore Here for the Wrong Reasons on audio but instantly got confused on the different points of view and felt I had to constantly pay attention. Although both narrators are fantastic on their own, I found the writing to be lackluster and more of a "show and tell" versus letting me picture the story in my mind. I ended up "not finishing" at the 15% mark.

OVERVIEW
Here for the wrong reasons is basically the story of what would happen if two contestants on The Bachelor (or any other dating show, really) fell in love with one another. There’s lots of drama, lots of romance, and entertaining characters. I genuinely really enjoyed the premise of this book. Although I don’t watch any dating reality television, I found Krystin and Lauren to be relatable and their circumstances to be incredibly entertaining.

CHARACTERS: 7/10
I generally enjoyed these characters. True to the dating show formula, they are quite archetypal. I can’t say that they stood out dramatically, but were more comfortably familiar.

ATMOSPHERE: 9/10
I LOVED the reality tv setting. At times, I felt as though I was in the house (or chateau) with those girls! The writing style blended well with the setting.

WRITING: 7/10
The writing style is fairly conversational, which works in this audiobook. Despite there being two authors, I could not hear their individual voices very well. The narration was pretty good; there were some moments when I was pulled out of the scene due to the way something was read, but overall there were few problems.

PLOT: 8/10
Again, I love the reality tv idea. Some of the romance felt a bit rushed, especially at the end. I’m not personally a fan of the third-act conflict. Still, the uniqueness of this plot shines through!

INTRIGUE: 7/10
I can’t say I couldn’t put this book down, but it definitely made my morning commute a lot more enjoyable. I finished the last two hours in one sitting because I wanted to know what happened!

LOGIC: 8/10
I haven’t been on reality tv, so I don’t know how it all works. Most of what happens seems pretty plausible.

ENJOYMENT: 7/10
I generally enjoyed this book, and I’ll definitely keep it in my queer romance recommendations.

FINAL SCORE: 7.5 = ✰✰✰✰

This is the perfect book for people, like me, who have had a hole in their heart since reading The Charm Offensive. The forbidden element to this, with it being between two of the show’s contestants, was *chef’s kiss*. This book would be perfect for fans of sapphic books, forbidden romances, and especially queer awakenings.

My one negative thing to say about this book is that it was confusing more towards the beginning when all of the contestants were talking about themselves. It took me a couple times to get into this as an audiobook because of that. It felt like an info dump which is hard for me to process, even if it made sense to the story.