I was really excited to dive into this one! I love a book publicist storyline and was happy to read a real, emotional portrayal of parental grief and how that filters over into other relationships. I really loved both characters and was rooting for them and thought the ending was realistic and lovely.

had potential but unfortunately didn’t work out. The pacing was off and the characters lacked depth that I couldn’t get into this book.

Bad Publicity was a well-written book and I did thoroughly enjoy myself, but I was a little turned off by it feeling more about Andie figuring out her grief than finding love. I do realize that the stories are entangled and her growth with her grief is a key point of the story and her ability to face the troubles of her past with Jack... But, it just didn't feel quite right for a romance book. Not to say I didn't like the book, just wasn't exactly what I was expecting or looking for.

Damn this book for making me cry on an airplane. But seriously, it was really good.

I feel like Bad Publicity is an advertizement for therapy. If the main character, Andie, just had a mental health professional or support group, she could have avoided a lot of problems. Instead, she buried things and compartmentalized (or at least tried to) and dumped everything on her best friend, whose advice she did not even heed! It was definitely frustrating at times watching Andie make poor decision after poor decision, but at least she had some growth in the end. I still wish she realized she needed a therapist and started going by the end of the book, though!

The pacing is a little bit choppy, especially in the beginning. I love a short chapter- it keeps me reading and was part of what allowed me to read this book in 2 days! However, some of the jumps between scenes in the beginning there were a little whiplash-incuding. I think about 40% in or so it was much better and the pacing evened out a great deal. This book has a lot of great tropes- slow-burn enemies to lovers, forced proximity, just one room- but it is a bit more serious than other romances I've read. I wouldn't describe it as a romcom as Andie has a lot going on she needs to deal with and there is a good amount of angst and tension to work through. Trigger warnings- body/sexual shaming, some violence, grief and recent death of a parent. I liked the inclusion I saw with the mention of a trans person, but other than that there wasn't a ton of diversity.

Overall, Bad Publicity was a lovely read. Besides being a jerk and making me cry, which in hindsight was possibly the author's intent, I liked the bookish main characters, the descriptions of the places in Europe they were visiting, the slow-burn, high-tension romance that made me want to keep reading, and the overall plot. I would absolutely pick up another book by Bianca Gillam.

Unfotunately this book would serve as a perfect example of how NOT to write an engaging enemies-to-lovers romance. It starts right up front with Jack wanting to apologize and Andie cutting him off. That means no fun banter that gradually brings them together, instead Andie is an angry jerk refusing to sit down for five minutes to clear the air, while Jack tries so hard he is difficult to believe. The reason for the break comes close to the END of the book, so the reader is shut out along with Jack.

There's some good writing here, and the secondary couple were very much more engaging, but the main couple never convinced me; I won't review this book at Goodreads as I don't like putting negative reviews out there and hurting a book's chance. Tjhere will surely be some reader who will connect with it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I absolutely adore the main character, Andie. I would recommend this book to other romance lovers. There was so much to love about this story, but the most touching parts to me was her relationship with her best friend and the memories of her father while she dealt with processing her grief of losing him.

However, I left feeling like I wanted MORE from her relationship with the main love interest. I felt more connected and invested to her relationship with her best friend than I did to him. Based on what happens in the story, I don’t know if their foundation is believably strong enough to overcome what transpired. I just am left wanting MORE.

Again, I would absolutely recommend this book to someone who reads a ton in the genre already, but it might not land on my go to recommendation list of books I’m obsessed with. I am also 100% sure I would read another book by this author because as a whole, I enjoyed her writing style.

Jack is an actual angel, and the one that really kept me pulled to this book. It was difficult to follow Andie, especially starting out with having so much anger, and not truly finding out why until the end of the story. It made her pretty unlikable at first, but then once you understand the reasoning she was a little easier to follow.
All in all, great story!

Super cute and fun! It wasn’t my favorite writing but I enjoyed it and really connect with books that tackle romance with other emotions, like grief and loneliness. Can’t wait to recommend to friends!

3.5 stars

In Bad Publicity, we follow Andie, a book publicist who has found out that she will be promoting a book written by the man she never wanted to talk to again, Jack. While the book seems to be marketed as a romance, I found that wasn't the main focus of the story. Instead, it is mostly a journey of a woman who has avoided facing the grief from her father dying 5 years ago and now must face it.

Honestly, I don't think I ever fully connected with Andie's character. She felt very self-centered which was often frustrating. The "enemies" aspect was one-sided, with Andie being very hostile toward Jack and often not acting professionally. We don't find out about the events from Andie and Jack's past until about 70% of the way through the book - I think I would have preferred to have the context earlier on so I could understand where all the animosity was coming from. All of this did allow for some good character growth, but even at the end there were aspects about Andie's actions that I found hard to explain.

All that said, the book did keep my interest well enough while I was reading it, and I think there's some valuable insight about processing grief. I especially enjoyed the frequent setting changes while the characters traveled to different cities in Europe.

Thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the advance review copy of Bad Publicity! All opinions in my review are completely my own.

Bad Publicity deserves all the good publicity. This novel had everything- forced proximity, hidden past, enemies to lovers, second chance, and an endless sprawling European backdrop. I loved everything about Andie- her struggles with grief and her past were palpable as she worked to find herself and determine who Jack both was and is. I enjoyed this novel immensely although I do wish there had been more present-day build up between the two.

3/5

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an okay experience. It had a lot of potential, but it fell a bit flat for me. I was expecting more romance, but it felt like there was a lack of relationship development and chemistry between the characters.

I appreciate that grief was discussed in this book, but it felt like there was more of that than the romance.

I did enjoy them traveling and getting to go on the book tour. I do think there was room for them to spend more alone time together to let the relationship to develop over the course of their trip.

I enjoyed this book. I thought the plot and characters were very charming. I thought the constantly moving location was great to move the plot forward as well. I was tripped up a bit about whether Andie could commit to her feelings, it was hard to understand at times if she even understood herself. The interweaving of the stories with the families was nice too. Would rate this book 3.5.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. While the premise seemed fun at first glance, the execution was unfortunately…not great. This read like a first draft in need of a deep developmental edit. Considering this is an ARC, maybe there’s still work in progress…? I’m really not sure, it was my understanding ARC’s are mostly done…regardless my rating is based on whatever version was distributed to advance readers.

I found the book cover and tagline to be a little misleading as well. For marketing purposes, it appears to be a second-chance rom com - with its bright pink and yellow covers and a promise of two exes stuck on a business trip together. First off, there is little to no comedy. Second, while the characters do have a complicated history…calling them exes is a bit of a stretch. However, this was not obvious until halfway through the book when I surprisingly realized that Jack was *not* Andie’s long time college boyfriend, but rather a guy she slept with once at uni (there’s more to it, but I won’t spoil). This revelation…was disappointing and I felt kinda hoodwinked by the synopsis.

Other comments:
- Pacing. The first half of the book is incredibly slow with very little progress. When things finally shift between the characters in the backhalf of the book, it feels very jarring. I think it was intended to be a slow burn, but unfortunately by the time anything happens between them I found it all very contrived and unnatural feeling. I think the buildup needed more depth, meaningful dialogue, quality interactions, and tension. Andie was so hung up on the past that it detracted from the present. There are only so many cold shoulders and brush offs you can insert before the reader starts to lose interest in the mystery of the friction.
- Wordiness and repetition. Honestly, the first half of the book was a transcription of the most boring parts of a real-life work trip (stuff that authors typically skim over in favor of focusing on the interesting bits when telling a story). The taxi rides, the airport security, waiting at the gate, boarding the plane, the baggage claim, another taxi, checking emails, the hotel check in, checking more emails, texting mom hi, texting bff hi, getting dressed, check emails again, another taxi, a work event with random people we never see again, back in the taxi, awkward one-word goodnight…rinse and repeat 20x. It was exhausting and I am legitimately curious - what editors let this happen?!
- The secret. This probably was my favorite aspect of the book, but it was revealed way too late. By the time we get around to learning the truth, I was already checked out. As explained above, I was also really surprised to find out how little time Andie and Jack had actually spent together in college, as it’s insinuated they had a serious romantic past/relationship that was shattered by a big betrayal. But no. They didn’t know each other very well (a verbatim quote). It was just odd. I understand why she had stressful feelings toward him due to the “thing that happened”, but felt hard to believe they’d both harbored longstanding residual feelings for each other over 5 years. Would be more understandable if they’d spent proper quality time together back then.
- Jack was actually a sweet character, but unfortunately he fell flat and was too two-dimensional for a romance love interest. I feel like the author tried to make him too many things at once. It didn’t help that he barely speaks in the first half (Andie doesn’t let him).
- Andie did dig deep into her grief (which was more thematic than the romance), but once again the stream-of-consciousness and inner monologues around this felt long-winded and circular. She was also quite unlikeable in her treatment of Jack, which made it harder to empathize with her as a character to root for / care about her struggles. I also thought it was strange that someone in their late twenties would complain about missing their best friend while in Paris after being separated for less than a week. And how things ended up with her job? Even after her boss gave her praise? After going on and on about how much it mattered to her the whole book? I didn’t understand her actions, motivations, decisions, etc.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I would recommend a few more rounds of edits and plot development before publishing.

What if….you get your dream job as being the publicist for a world famous author, but that author is Jack Carlson, the cause of a great betrayal.

That’s what’s happening to Andie. Would you be able to compartmentalize? Maybe I could….for the travel alone. We’ll see if it’s worth it or if it’ll be a big mistake for Andie.

I loved the intentional writing, it made me feel the ache of grief, of a strained friendship, and the ache of withholding your struggles and thoughts while trying to hold your life together.

Bad Publicity by Bianca Gillam was just such an absolute brilliant read. It had everything and more I want from a romance novel: forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, and a second chance romance that left me swooning. This novel is a perfect amount of angst, humor, and emotional, heartwarming moments.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. Bad Publicity follows newly hired book publicist Andie who discovers on her first day that she’ll be representing Jack, an author with whom she has a fraught past. While the premise sounded intriguing, the execution was unfortunately severely lacking.
While the majority of the novel takes place over a month, the pacing was irregular. Andie and Jack’s relationship moved too quickly, which was highlighted by their complete lack of chemistry, but the plot was way too slow and was weighed down by Andie’s grief and indecision.
Any personality Andie may have had was overshadowed by her all encompassing grief for her deceased father, which she hasn’t addressed in therapy or with her mother, and her absolute lack of care for anyone else. Andie’s interactions with her mother and her best friend are overshadowed by her extreme selfishness. Andie doesn’t routinely call or text her very loving mom back and hates her best friend’s boyfriend for “stealing” her best friend from her. She’s also incredibly unprofessional, both in her treatment of Jack and her attention to her job.
Jack, on the other hand, has no personality. Despite reading the entire book twice, I know nothing about him other than: he has daddy issues, he loves Andie despite her mistreatment of him, and he’s generically hot.
We also don’t find out about Andie and Jack’s history until 70% of the way through the book, and though the reveal didn’t make me agree with either of the characters’ actions; I could’ve understood their motivations better if I’d known what occurred during their time in university. I also felt that the events that transpired at their university were a bit far-fetched and the villain might as well have been twirling a mustache on page. Additionally, I can’t in good faith believe that university students would allow themselves to be blackmailed into illegal acts just because they thought they’d lose their scholarships, instead of consulting faculty or the police.
Unfortunately, despite my initial excitement, this really missed the mark. Structurally the writing was fine, but the characters, plot, and execution left a lot to be desired.

I really wanted to like this book but the main character's internal monologue was really annoying. She is supposed to be a professional but feels too immature for her position.

Bad Publicity by Bianca Gillam caught my eye by just the name and it did not disappoint! It's a cute romance, slow burn book with forced proximity, enemies to lovers, and second chance romance. I love the tension and banter between Andie and Jack. The grief that Andie has about her dad was done well and adds some emotion to the book.

I love slow burn (the tension!!!) and enemies to lovers, so BAD PUBLICITY by Bianca Gillam caught my attention from the start and I absolutely loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the advanced copy!

Andie is a book publicist. Jack is a best selling author. They are about to go on a multiple city book tour together. Problem is they have a past together that ended badly. Andie is so upset by this but still attempting to be professional in her role. Jack seems along for the ride and wants to clear the air with Andie but she won’t give him a chance. There’s a lot of good in here. Super easy to read and great pace. Love the forced proximity of the book tour and the travel involved. It’s tough to root for Andie when she is constantly upset and always shoving her feelings away and maintaining her very thick walls. She holds on to a lot of grief from losing her father and “the incident” that happened in college with Jack. We don’t find out what the incident was until 70% of the way through in a flashback. It’s a bit frustrating when so much is secret and Andie is perpetually holding back and referring to the incident we know nothing about. All that said it held my interest and I overall enjoyed the book. It was much better than the previous book tour ARC I just read, “The Perfect Rom-Com”. The book was a good debut, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for this author.

Thank you NetGalley, Bianca Gillam, and Penguin Books for an advanced digital copy of this book.