I’ve read two romance books back-to-back about dead family members and traveling to spread their ashes—a dark way to close out 2024. But in spite of the tragic circumstances surrounding this book, I really did enjoy it.

Maddie is a feisty, puzzle-loving, sarcastic introvert and she’s quite angry at her brother, whose last request is to have her team up with his best friend, Dominic, to spread his ashes at all the states he didn’t get to travel himself. A request made much harder when you learn that Maddie and Dominic have a shared past that ended in heartbreak.

I found the journey these two take to be cathartic and emotional. Even as Maddie struggled to grieve and cry, I did enough tearing up for both of us. The mix of loss, love, anger, abandonment and self-doubt/self-destruction, plus the strong themes of friends as family and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone—there is just a lot to unpack here. I thought author Lauren Connolly paced it all wonderfully. I almost didn’t want it to end, while also anxiously awaited to see what each adventure had in store for them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Josh's passing has Maddie wondering why she can't mourn her brother like others seem to be able to. He was the best part of her life and now he's just gone. At his funeral, she discovers an unexpected letter that leads to adventure and the possibility of being with her brother's presence for a little longer. The only trouble is that she's forced to do the tasks with Josh's best friend and her nemesis, Dom.
Lauren's writing is easily devour-able. I couldn't stop once I started even though I also couldn't stand the MC for a good portion of the book. I really struggle with anger in characters. Lauren really focuses on the anger stage of grief, which is such a different place to sit in within a novel and I have to give her kuddos for embracing it. It's hard for me to sympathize or love on them when I just so badly want them to look for their blessings and see their character growth. The ending, however, is so beautiful. I love that Maddie finds a way to grieve for Josh in a healthier way. Josh stole the show for me from the first page. I've never loved a dead character more!
Thank you to Berkley Besties and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Following the death of her brother, Maddie fulfils his wish to scatter his ashes in 8 states he never got to visit. The only catch is, he assigned his best friend Dom as her partner to complete the mission — the same guy who broke her heart years earlier.

Brother's best friend is one of my favorite romance tropes, so I was excited to pick this up even with its heavier premise. I loved the adventurous quests to visit places Josh never got to see, and getting to know Maddie and Dom as they reminisced on their childhoods and memories of Josh. We follow along their healing journey and the author did a great job blending grief and humor.

If you like found family and slow-burn romances (with a little spice), I'd suggest picking this one up!

Tis the season to be griefy. I get that not everyone will understand Maddie's approach to grief, but I did and I was so quick to connect with her anger and disappointment but also have great hope for her.

Lauren showed great care in approaching all elements of grief and mostly importantly that time doesn't heal all but it makes it different.

Thanks to Berkley Romance for this gem, my blue Christmas heart is warmed a bit more because of this book.

What would you do if you lost the one person in the world who meant the most to you? When Maddies brother died he left her one gift she never expected. Now, she'll have to find a way to honor his wishes with the one person who broke her heart.

8 letters will take Maddie on an unexpected journey to re-discover her purpose, family, and friendships.

Life is a puzzle and when you don't have all the pieces it can be a challenge to complete it. One moment changed Maddies life but when she finally uncovers the truth will she have the courage to leap and give love a second chance?

Readers should take note that this story deals with the loss of a loved one

This one is for the girlies with complicated family relationships and/or the girlies who didn’t have any other choice to go no contact with a parent and by default have some ✨abandonment issues✨

Read if you like:
😭 Sad/Emotional Reads
🥺 Healing Plots
✈️ Adventure and Travel
🥈 Second Chance Romances
💌 Letters that Make you Cry
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Found Family
❤️‍🩹 Healing from a Loss

I absolutely loved Maddie, and I think that honestly characters I relate the most to are complex, loving and give a lot to others but also push those they love away, are a little too focused on work, have family trauma… and that’s probably because feeling seen is something validating, especially around deep traumas. If a book makes me sob while making me feel like I’m not alone I feel like stories are written for me, and are usually an automatic 5✨ read, and this story did just that for me!

I think honestly that’s all I want to say, because the book is perfection and going in blind made me love it more, so ppssse take my advice and pick this one up!

Thank you to Berkley for my ARC and PRHA for my gifted audiobook! I listened to this one and gosh, Karissa Vacker’s narration absolutely wrecked me in the best way! Also, if you loved Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez, read this book!

First and foremost, if a book about grieving is not your thing you may want to take a pass on PS: I Hate You. If you are okay with characters going through grief and loss this book is a solid read. So emotional and heartfelt. I did struggle with Maddie in the beginning, she was just a mean and impulsive hothead, but I think her growth through the novel was well done. The romance was secondary to the story and a bit too much smuttiness for the vibe of the story (just my opinion, I have a low tolerance for gratuitous sex scenes and that is how they came across in the story). A bittersweet story that does pull at the heart. There were some great secondary friend characters that I would have loved to see make more of appearance to the story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review and advanced digital copy.

Brothers bff, road trip, puzzles! Loved this one. I really liked the way grief was handled as well. It was very well done while not taking away from the romance! Great debut!

This was a fun romance to read! I enjoyed it and I recommend if you want something quick but fun! I will be looking for more books by this author for sure.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Maddie sets out to fulfill her late brother’s final wish…by visiting every state he never made it to with his best friend (and the man who broke her heart).

There are no words for how much I loved this book, or for how much it now means to me. By complete coincidence, I had already started it when I suffered the unexpected loss of a family member…but I’m so glad fate chose to give me this book at exactly the moment I most needed it.

Maddie’s insecurities were almost painfully relatable at times, and Dom is instantly one of my all-time favorite book boyfriends. This book was hilarious and sweet and poignant and made me sob so many times. It’s a plot that keeps you on your toes but is also all of the familiar comforts you want in a romcom.

In short, I can’t say enough good things, and I implore you to pick this one up. The audio production was also STELLAR and I’m so glad I chose this format!

CW: Death/grief; terminal illness; child abuse/emotional abuse

When Maddie’s brother dies he leaves a final wish for her to scatter his ashes throughout the 8 states he never traveled to. The catch? Her travel buddy is his best friend Dominic who Maddie can’t stand. Dominic broke Maddie’s heart years ago by proposing to another woman the night after they hooked up. Now the two spend time together, dealing with their grief, as the follow Josh’s final wishes and get letters from him throughout the process. As they spend time together, old feeling emerge as does the truth about that one night years ago.
This is a story more about grief with a side of romance. This emotional and raw portrayal of two people finding love through their grief journey is a beautiful one. This is a book that stuck with me long after I turned the final page. I loved the inclusion of the letters from Josh and his detailed instructions for his sister and his friend. While there were heavy themes, this book did have many moments of humor and fun. This is a book I couldn’t put down!
Thanks to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the advance copy.

Utterly heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time. Lauren Connolly is not one to miss! I really look forward to what she writes next.

This was an emotional, and heartfelt romance. Our two main characters, Maddie and Dominic, have lost their brother, and best friend, Josh, to cancer. They are on a road trip to scatter his ashes across the states that he wanted to visit, but never got the chance. They are both dealing with immense grief. The grief aspect hit me hard as I lost my own dad to cancer and all too well how the grief is always there, lurking in the background. This road trip isn't easy for these two. Dom had broken Maddie's heart in the past. She still feels hurt about it. You still get to know who Josh was as a person even though he's gone through the characters sharing stories about him, and his own letters to them. So this one is definitely very sweet, but also pretty darn spicy too. I ended up really enjoying this one. I loved seeing how tragedy brought these two people back together.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

PS: I Hate You by Lauren Connolly is why I've been awake since 3am. I couldn't put it down. It's a book about second chances, grief, adventure, and self-work. It's also the only book of the year that made me cry real tears.

While I don't relate to the coping mechanisms Maddie utilized - I've never avoided a confrontation a day in my life - PS: I Hate You was written believably, and was just a great read. Plus...you know...it was hot.

This book. Ugh. It was perfect. I will for sure be picking up other books by this author.

What worked for me:
- Maddie's grief journey was so beautifully written. It felt very authentic.
- I loved that Josh was such a central character in the book, even though he was gone. I loved that his story was told through memories and the notes he left.
- The romance arc. I loved it. Maddie and Dom's connection was felt throughout the entire book.
- While Dom's journey isn't quite as prominent as Maddie's, I think his growth throughout the story was also great, even if only shown to highlight Maddie's journey.
- The traveling aspect of this was really great. Even though Maddie and Dom were traveling for a sad reason, I loved the authors descriptions of the places they visited, and it made me want to visit some of those places, as well.
- Maddie's overall character growth by the end of the book was wonderful. Her realization that she had some deep rooted issues and chose to find a therapist to help her work through her childhood trauma was great to see.

What didn't work for me:
- Honestly, I loved this book so much, so I have nothing here.

What you'll find:
- Brother's Best Friend
- Forced Proximity
- Dealing with Grief
- Some spicy moments
- Great banter
- Found family

Everyone grieves differently, and this rom-com captured grief beautifully. The book starts with Maddie at her brother’s funeral. She’s sharp, sarcastic, and prickly and I love her. Her brother left letters for all of the most important people (and some petty ones for some deserving folks, I like him too), but Maddie doesn’t get own letter. Maddie has to share with his best friend Dom, which would be fine if Dom hadn’t broken her heart years before. To make things worse he gives Maddie and Dom a mission to travel to the states he never made it to. If he weren’t already dead she would have killed him. The book was about love (it is a romance) but more so it was about grief and healing and the family you find along the way. The writing was good and I really enjoyed the characters. The lack of communication made the story drag just a little, but I think it worked since the two main characters were dealing with so much more than romance which is ok.

This should be marketed as contemporary fiction not romance. The entire book centers around grief and it’s so real. I loved the scavenger hunt twist at the end. I sobbed through the last 20% of the book.

Maddie and Josh were as close as siblings could be. His untimely death has left his friends and family devastated, especially Maddie and his best friend Dominic. Josh leaves letters behind, and he wants Maddie and Dom to divide his ashes and leave them at places he wanted to see.
Maddie is still angry at Dom over something that happened in high school and she can’t stop obsessing over it, which got tiresome for me.

The depictions of grief are real and honest, everyone processes the death of a loved one differently. I think the plot device with the letters from the deceased and the corresponding small trips is inspired, and I love the way the romance unfolds along with the journeys.
I also loved the different cities and attractions, I’d never heard of most of them and they sound fascinating. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Happy pub day to @laurenconnollyromance and PS I Hate You!!

Wowza, this book did a number on my heart. I laughed, I ugly cried, I got angry at the unfairness of some of the situations, and I really thought about how fleeting time is. This story reminds you to take the trip, eat the dessert, hug your loved ones extra close, and live for the moment because it may not come again.

Maddie and Dom’s dynamic was incredible. Their backstory pulled at my heartstrings, and their current love-hate situation cracked me up. The snark from Maddie is perfection, and the banter is 🤌! I also appreciated how they worked through so much together ❤️

My favorite part though, was the found family that surrounded Maddie when she needed them most. I adored Adam, Carter, Tula and Jeremy, and Maddie’s realization that she doesn’t have to be perfect to have love was such a relatable lesson.

This may not be a holiday read per se, but it gave me the cozy Christmas vibes and heartstring-pulling writing that I crave in a holiday romance. I also flew through it because this book is so bingeable and hooks you from the first chapter!

An exploration of love in its many forms, as well as the complex nature of grief, Lauren does an incredible job of tackling so many heavy topics in a beautifully heartbreaking and healing way. And goodness, did @karissavacker slay the audio on this one. She’s always been one of my favorite narrators, and she destroyed my heart in this one with the palpable emotion ever present in her voice. What an absolute rockstar!! Give me all the @karissavacker audiobooks!!

I could gush about this one all day, but the TL,DR gist is: Pick this one up today because you won’t want to miss it!

This is easily one of my favorite books of the year! This book is the lovechild of You, With a View + The Ex Vows + P.S. I Love You. I wasn’t expecting to cry actual tears just a few pages in. I’ll be honest though, I found Maddie to very annoying and bitchy in the beginning. I really couldn’t understand why she was so rude and mean to Dom, but it all made sense as the truth unfolded. I thought that following the characters through 8 destinations was going to get boring real quick, but the plot and pacing were perfect. I absolutely loved getting to know Josh through the letters. The surprise at the end of the journey had me in a chokehold. Lauren Connolly owes me a new sweater—mine was filled with tears and snot by the end of the book.