Lucy Chalice’s Fundamentals in Flirting is a delightful exploration of love and self-discovery, featuring two wonderfully flawed yet relatable characters, Hannah Havens and Teddy Fraser. Hannah, a dedicated veterinarian, navigates her insecurities and social awkwardness with humor, while Teddy, an outgoing architect, grapples with the complexities of living in the shadow of his seemingly perfect twin.

The story beautifully captures the essence of reconnecting with someone from your past. Hannah and Teddy's childhood friendship blossoms into a heartwarming romance that is both hilarious and touching. Chalice's sharp wit shines through in her dialogue, creating moments that are both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving.

What makes this book stand out is the authenticity of its characters. Hannah’s struggles with low self-esteem and Teddy’s friendly exterior hiding deeper vulnerabilities make them relatable to anyone who has ever felt out of place. Their journey towards understanding themselves and each other is a testament to the power of love and acceptance.

As a standalone sequel to The Hot Henry Effect, this book not only captivates with its own story but also leaves readers eager for more from Chalice’s world. If you’re looking for a romantic comedy that balances humor with heart, Fundamentals in Flirting is a must-read.

Overall, Lucy Chalice has crafted a charming narrative that reminds us of the beauty in our imperfections and the joy of finding connection amidst life’s chaos. I can’t wait to dive into The Hot Henry Effect next!

Fun, snarky, totally relatable to any grown-up STEM girl who still recalls that one unexpectedly perfect kiss from a high school jerk fifteen years ago.

Of course he promptly spoils the moment with the most back-handed compliment possible. Mocked by the mean girls who can't believe a hot guy like him would ever be interested in her, Hannah's happy to put the whole incident behind her and concentrate on her education. She’s far more at home with animals than with people, and on her way to becoming a research vet.

Once her first seriously lousy adult relationship is out of the way, Hannah's learning to be content with her horse, her vet practice, and her village life, if not with her poky flat and limited social life. Then comes the eruption of said high school jerk into her orderly existence. He's still devastatingly hot, and still prone to foot-in-mouth ‘compliments’... and he's bought the fixer-upper Victorian rectory next door..

The flawed humanity of these characters is far more appealing to me than the glossy perfection of some stock romance characters. We still get the klutzy met-cute and the stirred up memories of past passion, but their issues with each other and themselves are firmly in the story’s present. The writing is crisp, the pace comfortable, the chaos well tuned to the modern village atmosphere.

I had a good giggle when she compared him to a real life romance novel antihero: utterly imperfect in every way, if you'll allow me to misquote Mary Poppins. Give him a millimeter and he ends up moving a damaged cat into her place.

Inevitably, there is a point where they both need each other, and both have ulterior motives for agreeing to work together: her to get help leashing her inner hedgehog and learning to be charming before the clients complain again, and him with the renovations that are too much for one man alone, however handy he is about the house. Both motivations are plausible and both lead us to foresee many complications of a romantic nature ahead, interspersed with chaos that's alternately funny and deeply psychologically consistent.

This novel is believable and healing, the very model of a healthy modern relationship..

Lucy did such a fantastic job on her first book, I just had to read this one, and I was NOT DISSAPOINTED.

I loved seeing Teddy’s love story come to fruition and seeing the growth from both of them. 10/10 absolutely go give this book a read!

Hannah is not great at talking to people, and being a vet means bedside manner is very important. She clearly struggles and Ted who she kissed once in high school pops in back into her life and tries to help her. I really liked the cover it was cute. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and the writing was good but as it went on I found myself struggling. The main issues I had were the characters I know Hannah is meant to be an "ice queen" but she was just mean and didn't make any progress as the story went on. Teddy was okay I didn't really care much for him. This book was just not for me. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

"Because I really wanted to kiss you. Didn't you want to kiss me too?"

My feelings about this one are a little bit torn but rounding to 3 stars.

I found it really easy to get into the story and it was good as a character focused and led story. I enjoyed the scenes between the two main leads, they were cute together and I enjoyed how the main male lead was written. I enjoyed how their scenes didn't just rely on the connection between the two of them but the side characters also provided some humour and progress as well. The dialogue between the two of them was, overall, fun and engaging. It was good in how it built up the tension between the two main characters.

The only challenge I had with liking the story more was the characterisation of the main female lead. Whilst I can definitely relate and understand feeling insecure and not sure of yourself, I wanted both a mixture of more of a foundation of why she reacts to situations as she does, not just a quick explanation, and more progress in her character. I just found that I wanted more from the main character, I wanted her relationships with others to develop better and especially her preconceived notions of others.

Overall, if you are looking for a quick, fun romance read with flirting and some spice this might be the book for you.

Thank you to One More Chapter for this eARC, I am voluntarily leaving a review.

3.5 ⭐

Un grumpy sunshine au cœur de la campagne anglaise, avec le grumpy qui pour une fois se conjugue au féminin.
On a deux persos qui se connaissent depuis le lycée (not so spoiler alert : ils ont échangé un baiser lors de la soirée de fin d'année (c'est au tout début) et suite à un malentendu, ils se "quittent" fâchés) et se retrouvent à l'âge adulte, lorsqu'Hannah revient y vivre après des déboires personnels.
Elle bosse au cabinet vétérinaire de la ville, il est architecte et tous deux vont se voir de plus en plus;, au grand dam de Hannah, la ronchon de service. Elle va devoir apprendre à se montrer lus aimable et patiente avec la clientèle du cabinet (et plus largement les gens en général) et devinez qui va l'aider dans cette "mission" ?

On passe un bon moment avec ce roman, surtout grâce à l'humour, un humour typiquement britannique dont je raffole, mais aussi grâce à certaines situations cocasses (Teddy et Pierre Richard , même combat) ou un personnage secondaire particulièrement touchant, Agnes.
J'aime beaucoup quand on a des personnages âgés comme Agnes, souvent cela apporte de la profondeur et une pointe de gravité au récit, et j'ai trouvé qu'ici c'était bien fait (et c'est un bon moyen de montrer que derrière tous ses piquants, Hannah a en fait un grand cœur, même si elle est la première à ignorer ce fait).
J'ai apprécié aussi la façon dont la réconciliation finale est gérée (car oui, le traditionnel third-act breakup ne nous est pas épargné), c'est sympa cette façon de twister les choses.

Néanmoins, ce n'est pas un roman qui m'aura fait vibrer, du coup c'est typiquement le genre de livre que j'oublierai vite, si ce n'est tout ce qui concerne le personnage d'Agnes.
Ça se lit vite et bien, c'est sympa sur le moment, et parfois on n'en demande pas plus. :)

In this book you follow Hannah. She’s a vet and recently left her ex boyfriend who cheated on her.
She meets with Teddy. A man she kissed at school 15 years ago. The story is about how they are reconnecting, how their opinions about each other are changing. But also about a lot of situations they are experiencing. Like Hannah’s ex boyfriend trying to get her back and a confused but very friendly neighbor.

I had so much fun reading this book. There is a bit of spice, but not too much. I think this is a good read for spice and non spice readers. I laughed out loud a couple of times. It was a very funny story. It’s a quick and easy read with a good plot! Highly recommend this!

I posted my review on Goodreads and TikTok.

This reverse grumpy sunshine was adorable and fun! I loved how awkward but herself Hannah was. Teddy is the guy who always wanted a girl but thought he couldn’t have her and just love that dynamic!

Featuring an excellent cast of a lovable elderly neighbor, a blind goat and her kids, an identical twin, a jerk of an ex, and meddling friends, this book had me giggling and rooting on this couple.

Was the miscommunication miscommunicationing? Sure. Did it stop me from enjoying this reverse grumpy sunshine? Not at all!

This was a new author to me, so I am very grateful for the ARC.
I very much enjoyed Hannah and Teddy's story and I particularly like the way Hannah was written. She's so far from perfect, it's perfect. She's insecure about her looks, due to her very negative mother and some serious bulling at school as a child. She's been cheated on by her awful ex, so she doesn't feel able to trust emotionally and She can't seem to connect with her patients owners. God save all woman who have been told to "smile a bit"
We follow Teddy and Hannah as they reconnect and slowly learn that maybe things are worth putting in the effort it want it badly enough.
I liked the supporting characters, though I did want Hannah to have a come to Jesus moment with her mother.
I know off to have a look at this authors others books.

This book was such a cute and easy read, the plot to me felt nicely paced and I was able to easily follow along with it.
I connected a lot with the main character
the doubt, the spiralling, the social anxiety. Also being a blunt kind of personality and having people tell you you should smile more. I enjoyed the growth and depth of the characters.

This was a no-frills yet pretty enjoyable rom-com. No major drama, plot twists or massive character development, but decent chemistry between our two heroes made this an easy and quick read. Bonus points for the epilogue. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone looking to give their brain a quick respite, especially I've you've already enjoyed the Hot Henry Effect. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This was a cute & easy read! I really enjoyed the re-meet cute scene, how charming Teddy was, and the love they showed towards Agnes. The writing style was great, making the story flow easily. Given the things Teddy went through with his family, I wish we got a few chapters from his point of view.

I found it hard to like Hannah, although I do relate to her insecurities and her prickliness, I felt like her inner character development was minimal. She guarded herself a lot, literally running away from anything good happening to her when it came to Teddy; which made me wonder how she was able to stay in a relationship with Jonathan for so long. I wish we saw her learn/believe her worth.

I did really like seeing Hannah’s ‘bedside manner’ grow with her patient’s owners, and how she was able to relate to the young girl at the fair; that compassion showed that she wasn’t all that ‘prickly’, just someone who let her being bullied define her.

Overall, I did enjoy the Hannah & Teddy’s story! There are just a few things that I wished were different.

I received an ARC from HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Henry Fraser who?? Sorry Ted but Hannah is right, who could ever hold a candle to you? I was lucky enough to read an arc for 'The Hot Henry Effect' and I was doubly lucky to get accepted to read this one too. And yeah, Henry was nice and all but dear Edward, I basically highlighed every single thing you said to Hannah.

I liked these two so much, the banter, the butterlfies, the miscommunication, which was painful to read but it was oh so well written and executed that I had to breathe in relief when these two started to communicate better. But unofrtunately, when your insecurities are so deep within you, it's very difficult to start trusting other people you are not like you see yourself, or how other people perceive you.

And do we want to talk about how sweet that grand gesture was??
If you want to know what I'm talking about and basically spend a few hours with butterflies in your belly, just pick up this novel when it comes out on November 7th, you won't regret it!

Thank you @NetGalley and @lucychalice.author for giving me the opportunity to read and ARC for this novel. All opinions are my own.

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This was a really good book, I mean the FMC was kind of annoying at first, but she got there 😂 also was a very tense story! Was starting to think there was no happy ending 😂

Fundamentals in Flirting was such a cute story! This book hooked me in from the very beginning. I could relate to so many of the issues that Hannah was going through. The author made it so relatable and genuine. I really loved the MMC Teddy! They had some great banter and Teddy had some really fun dirty talk/innuendos! It was definitely a slow burn but there was a good amount of angst! I could have done with some more spice but I'm all about the spice so that's just me haha
I highly recommend reading this book especially if you love a good slow burn with witty banter!

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for the opportunity to read this ARC and leave an honest review!

I just finished finished Fundamentals in flirting, and while it wasn’t a personal favorite, I found it to be an enjoyable read. The romance between the Teddy and Hannah was sweet, with some truly heartwarming moments. The chemistry between them was clear, and their journey together kept me turning the pages.

The writing style was smooth and easy to follow, with lovely descriptions and banter that felt natural. The charters and small town feel was charming and likable. There were some fun, lighthearted moments, I laughed quite a few times and I really enjoyed Agnes and her storyline.

I think this story would appeal to fans of feel-good romance looking for a pleasant, lightly spicy read. It’s a solid pick for a cozy weekend.

The cover absolutely made me request this one it sounded so cute after I read the premise. It just did not work for me, from the start I could not relate to the main characters, they were so immature and not likable at all. It was seriously hard to root for Hannah she was a plain b*tch.. and I just can't handle when characters are just mean for no reason it's annoying. I also thought the story would have more depth and the characters more growth. For me it was a miss.

Thank you to HarperCollins One More Chapter for my Arc copy of Fundamental in Flirting

This book is such a fun and easy read! We follow Hannah as she moves back to her hometown after a breakup with Jonathan.

Upon her return, Hannah bumps into an old schoolmate named Teddy, who is quite the flirt and with whom she has some history. Hannah is working in veterinary surgery and is known for being a bit of a grump; her bedside manner definitely needs some work. Fortunately, Teddy comes in to help her improve.

The book had me laughing and smiling throughout, with plenty of mishaps and humorous banter. I really liked the chemistry between Hannah and Teddy. There was a good amount of angst, and Teddy was swoon-worthy at times. Overall, this is a really enjoyable read!

Hannah has no self esteem and does not know how to relate to others. Meeting up again with schoolmate Teddy, they plan to improve her social skills to save her job as a vet. A wonderful rom-com with numerous laugh out loud moments. Brilliant.

3.5 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book! My opinions are my own.

At the beginning of this year I read and reviewed the first book by Lucy Chalice, The Hot Henry Effect. I enjoyed that one a lot, so when I got the invitation to read book two as well, I couldn't be happier!

This second book is about Hannah, a veterinary scientist who due to circumstances has to return to the place she grew up in. That is where she quite literally bumps into her childhood crush - Teddy. He's also the most annoying, biggest flirt ever to exist on this planet. Not someone to start a lasting relationship with...

Teddy also happens to be the twin brother to Henry from the previous book. While it's fun to see an update on how things went after book 1, it's not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second one.

I very much enjoyed the writing style and read this book in just a few days! It's easy to read, with likeable characters. They all have their own issues to work through, which adds some layers to the story.

If you want to read an uplifting romantic story, go check this one out!