This is my second Sophie Cousens novel and I’m happy to read another. Of the two I’ve read, this one is my favorite. This had a lot of details and side stories going on, but I felt they all were addressed and given enough “closure” that I wasn’t left wondering, “but what about ?”
I liked that the main character was in her late 30s, and while I am happily married, that felt more relatable for me as far as stage of career and life.
4/5

Favorite supporting character: tough one! Loretta or Noah

Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC opportunity.

This was such a fun read! Sophie Cousens is a favorite author of mine, so I was thrilled to get to read this book early! The character development in this book is spot-on, and I loved watching Anna go from a people-pleaser to someone who advocates and stands up for herself. I got very attached to Anna as well as her children, sister Lottie, and her love interest, Will. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Sophie Cousens as well as anyone who loves a good “second chances” story!

I have read and loved every one of Sophie Cousen's books so I was really excited to receive an advanced copy of this book! It more than lived up to my expectations -- I loved the main characters and everything about the book.

Anna is recently divorced when she decides to start writing about dating for her weekly column, After online dating is not what she hopes, she decides to have her kids pick dates for her -- which leads to some hilarious situations and truly sweet encounters.

I loved everything about Anna -- and I really love reading about an older main character, one who has dealt with real life situations and has children. She is someone who I would love to be friends with.

Will is one of the swooniest love interests I've read in a long time -- everything about him was so endearing and sweet and I loved seeing their connection play out.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a sweet rom com, and especially for fans of Sophie Cousens previous books. I had previously been a huge fan of her, and this book made that even stronger!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Just as soon as I receive my Real Simple magazine, I look for the current book recommendations. I always love to discover that I'm already reading one of their recommendations! This month Is She Really Going Out with Him? is one of Real Simple's recommendations. And I totally agree, this was a cute fun romance.

Many times a publisher advertises a book as hilarious and I never get farther than an eye roll; for example ...
Will does food reviews, Ethan is a seven-year old.
"Do you get to eat loads? How come you're not fat? Ethan asks, and Will laughs. ...
"Are you an expert on every food then?" Ethan asks. "Like, could you do a blind taste test with potatoes? I could do crisps. I'm brilliant at crisps."

Very cute coworker enemy to sweetheart romance; closed door.

Many thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons for approving my request to read the advance read copy of Is She Really Going Out with Him? in exchange for an honest review. 368 pages, publication date is Nov 19, 2024. 4.5 stars, rounding up.

Thank you to Penguin Group PUTNAM and Netgalley for the arc!

I love Sophie Cousens! She’s one of the authors I found when I first started my bookstagram and has a special place in my heart.

I’ve read all her previous books and was so excited to get approved of her new book.

Books this one reminded me of…
✨Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan
✨Paris is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinley
✨The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

I read this relatively quickly. It really was a fun fluffy read. If you’re looking for that I recommend.

This one is out next month!

4/5⭐️

5 Stars

I’ve always liked Sophie Cousens but her last three books (Before I Do, The Good Part & now this book) have blown me away! Is She Really Going Out with Him has been my favorite of them all so far.

Our story follows Anna Appleby, a freshly divorced, thirty-eight year-old mom of two. Anna is a journalist who is kind of forced into dating again for a brand new column at work—with a fresh idea of her children choosing her dates for her!

Is She Really Going Out with Him was funny, butterfly-inducing & entertaining. I loved reading about a later thirties mom trying to date, going on adventures & finding herself again after a long marriage. The chemistry & banter in this book was soooo good. I also appreciated seeing a mostly healthy but also sometimes annoying coparenting situation & Anna’s kids were funny and sweet. The title and cover are perfect, I love them both!

Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie is one of my top favorite authors! I’ve read all but one of her books and they are seriously always getting me right in the heart! I was so emotional about this book towards the end I just made dinner for my family in silence with tears in my eyes and a frown. Everything she writes is always so spot on with the emotional aspects of women’s lives.

Truly loved this story of a divorced mom who uses her job as a journalist to dip her toes back into the world of dating. Recently divorced while her ex-husband moves in with her new Swedish girlfriend, she is encouraged to start dating by her sister. Coincidently, her job needs her to branch out of her normal column pieces as they’re looking to reach a younger demographic. After trying a few dates through the apps, she swears them off. Wildly enough, her boss loves the idea of her last ditch effort to keep her job where her kids select her dates and she uses the experience to write a column. She’s in competition with fellow journalist, Will, who is mirroring her dates by going on dates using dating apps while Anna meets either people in person or by proximity through her childrens suggestions.

Will is this younger, handsome, office crush of every woman with eyeballs who joined the company only a short while ago while Anna has been there for 6 years. Their company has just been bought by an investor looking to revamp the company and while Will and Anna work their weekly columns, their jobs are both on the line to reduce redundancy. Will is looking for another job behind the scenes as he’s spent most of his adult life helping his disabled brother. With his siblings returning home after the many years of sacrifice, he’s looking forward to leaving the nest despite his longtime pinning over Anna finally coming to fruition.

Anna, still reeling from the aftermath of her divorce where she met her husband at 21 and is now 38, has no idea where to even start dating. She’s been with her husband half her life and the idea of juggling dating on top of being an amazing mother to her 2 kids, and working in her career is daunting. While she gets closer to Will, 8 years her junior, she can’t tell if there’s actually chemistry between them or if he just flirts with everyone in the office.

I truly loved watching this workplace romance unfold. It was so wonderfully done from start to finish. I adored the google searches between chapters! Felt like things I myself would google and had a wonderful laugh! I loved Anna’s kids and their contribution to the storyline. I loved Anna meeting new friends through research for her column. I loved Anna reconnecting with herself and finding hobbies she’s passionate about, making time for herself. The entire story was just wonderful. I’m definitely going out and picking this up on release day!!

Ugh I was so disappointed 😔 because I loved This Time Next Year. But I ended up DNFing. I read about over half and boy this was a struggle. I hated the characters. For me there was nothing I connected with and the personalities of the characters were annoying and nothing I enjoyed reading.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for sending me a ARC!

I so enjoyed getting to read Sophie Cousens’ newest release, Is She Really Going Out With Him?, which comes out on November 19. It’s a delightful, modern, and very real-feeling rom com, with lots of great banter and a truly likable, relatable female main character.

37-year-old Anna is divorced, a journalist with two kids, trying to find her way. She’s navigating her career, parenting, co-parenting, and finally, the dating the world. A work challenge finds her forced to go on a series of dates with men selected by her children, and she winds up in a number of adventures (and of course misadventures) going out with a variety of different men as she searches, reluctantly, for a new love.

Her younger co-worker, Will, seems to hate her, but sparks start to fly as Anna and Will compete to save their jobs. There is more to stuffy, “perfect” Will than meets the eye...

The book is not very spicy, but it is romantic and has many laugh out loud moments! My favorite parts of the book are Anna’s Google searches at the top of each chapter, which cleverly showcase what’s going on in her mind at the time.

Is She Really Going Out With Him? features enemies-to-lovers, coworkers-to-lovers, forced proximity, single mom, and reverse age gap tropes. It’s HEA and definitely worth reading for something light and refreshing. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loved Annabel Monaghan’s Nora Goes Off Script. I also think this would make a great movie!

Paul Hollywood is honestly not mentioned in romcoms often enough and I’d like to formally thank Sophie Cousens for remedying that. As if I didn’t love her books enough already!!!

IS SHE REALLY GOING OUT WITH HIM was an absolute delight! The premise is darling: a newly single mom allows her kids to set her up on dates in an attempt to spice up her online column.

I’m not going to say much about the nitty gritty of the plot because I loved the not knowing. In a very minor and wonderful way this reminded me of Beth O’Leary’s THE NO-SHOW where you don’t definitively know the love interest until you’re deep into the story.

On that note, I also can’t even tell you one of the details I liked most for fear of spoiling things, but I can say the ending was especially refreshing.

One of my favorite things about Cousens (other than her membership in the Paul Hollywood fan club) is her sense of humor and the way she writes banter. No one does it* better!

*cheeky British chick lit with so much depth and tension and heart 😏

This is officially tied with THIS TIME NEXT YEAR as my favorite SC book!

Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to be an early ready! All these gushing opinions are my own!

Cute book about a divorcé moving on by letting her children pick out a series of dates for her! I loved the different characters that come and go, and the way unexpected relationships bloom!

I absolutely adored this book. If you love the enemies-to-lovers trope, this one is definitely for you. Anna is a very likeable, very relatable heroine, and you find yourself rooting for her from the beginning. I loved all of the dates that she went on (I won't spoil them here!) and at times I was laughing out loud. I finished this entire book in 1 day, staying up past my bedtime, because I simply could not put it down. One of my favorite reads of 2024.
I HIGHLY recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC!

For fans of:
❤️ workplace romance
❤️ enemies to lovers
❤️ single parent romance
❤️ top-tier banter

Anna Appleby is still recovering from her recent divorce when the magazine where she writes an arts and culture column hits a rough patch. When a new investor comes in and shakes things up, Anna ends up having to write a dating column, which she feels ill-prepared for. Add in that her work nemesis Will Havers is assigned to write his own dating column as a complement to hers and Anna is fuming. Having no desire to online date, a flash idea to have her kids pick the men she goes out with turns out to be the golden ticket to make her column popular. However, as Anna and Will work together on their columns, Anna start to realize that maybe Will isn't the smug office heartthrob she initially thought...

Every Sophie Cousens book is better than the last and this one is my new favorite. Anna was so real, funny, and I just wanted to give her a hug. She was trying to balance so much and had kind of given up on love. After meeting her husband in uni and then spending over a decade together, Anna has kind of lost her sense of identity outside of being a mom, so it was fun to see her get back out there and rediscover herself as a woman. Will Havers, THE MAN THAT YOU ARE!!! I loved watching Anna and Will's relationship develop from office enemies, to tentative friends, to something more. The way that Will showed up for Anna and really fell first made my heart melt. I loved this story so much!

Love, love, love. This book is a love story not just between the MMC and the FMC, but also with the FMC herself. Anna is trying to find herself after a long, drawn out divorce and she is set up on dates by her kids while falling for her coworker. It’s laugh out loud funny and I couldn’t put it down.

I received an arc from netgalley and the publisher.

What a delightful rom-com! Sophie Cousens is officially an auto read author for me as of now! She gives me vibes of Katherine Center and I always need more great rom-coms. She writes with wit, closed door, and good moral to the story prose.

Anna Appleby is a journalist of a slowly dying breed. In order to save her job and the business the employees are instructed that they need to spice things up and get more creative in their writing. Anna decides to do a dating column where she goes on 1 date a week and then writes about it. Meanwhile, within her space is a complete annoying man who obviously is trying to steal her journalist spot. She is just so done with him and all the other women throwing themselves at him...

Darling, fun, sweet, cute and some great stories. The plot was strong and I'm now ready to go and read more of her backlist having only read The Good Part previously.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the advance e-copy of this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

-“Why do you want to know about my sister?”
“Because I like hearing you talk,” he says…-

This is the second book I’ve read from Sophie Cousens and I can confirm she is one of my favorite authors.
I don’t know how she does it but she has this magical way of explaining life very deeply and talking about serious topics while making you laugh.

Anna is a recently-divorced journalist with two children. She had been with his husband since college. One day, something changed between both of them and he left. She is trying to find her life again after this big change and she is focusing all of her energy in work. After a big change in her job too, she has to find new ideas for her column. She tries online dating but it goes horribly wrong. Her children suggest that they’re going to choose her dates for her so she can write in her column about dating “old school”, aka, meeting a person in real life. While she is navigating this way of dating, she has to deal with her coworker Will. Will is this cocky, handsome, smart, slightly younger man who she has hated for a long time. But their job makes them spend time together and finally get to know the other person for real.

I never thought I would love a book about a woman recently divorced with children so much. The way she starts having fun again after dealing with her husband’s attitude is so inspiring. I love how she learns to balance being a mother with being her true self too. This book really shows us that we live in a society where being older is seen negatively and that your life is “over.” Anna was 38 years old but she felt so done with everything after her divorce. Throughout the book, she starts discovering that her new chapter in life is just beginning.

I love Anna and Will’s relationship because they taught each other to be better people. He showed her how to ask for what she wanted and to never apologize when she didn’t have to. She taught him to put himself first and then, think of others’ feelings. They really wanted to be together despite society’s expectations.
I love a man obsessed with his woman and Will was that. He wasn’t afraid to communicate what he wanted. This is a one sided enemies-to-lovers and Anna is so funny when she “hates” on Will. But the slow burn is so worth it when they finally start acting on their feelings.

This book has everything: romance, life lessons, comedy and side characters to die for.

It comes out November 19th! Go preorder it!

Is She Really Going Out with Him was such a cute feel-good read! I loved that the main character, Anna, seemed to discover more about herself, her strength, and what she wants in life throughout the story. As her job as a writer for a struggling magazine is in jeopardy, Anna comes up with a plan to save her job. Her kids get to choose who she goes on dates with and she will write about it. The ups and downs and laughs that come along with this decision are hilarious and fun to read. Her co-worker, Will is co-writing the piece with her which leads to some interesting twists and turns.

I really enjoyed this story! Sophie’s writing is always wonderful and you truly feel as if you are right there alongside the characters through their journey. This story is a definite must-read!

Thank you Netgalley and Putnam books for my eARC! All thoughts are my own.

arc review!

This is not my first @sophie_cousens book and I have to say that I have enjoyed multiple of her stories.

Swipe 👉🏼 swipe 👉🏼 to read the synopsis.

Release date: Nov 19, 2024

🌶️SPICE INFO🌶️
I have no idea why, but I was expecting there to be some spice that I would of course have to skip. But I ended not having to skip anything. There were intimate parts in this book but they were not descriptive and they always fade to black- which I LOVED!

🗣️LANGUAGE🗣️
This book was not filled with curse words which is nice. I can’t even remember if I read any so if there was any cursing, it was not a lot! 🤓

❤️‍🔥IN THE FEELS❤️‍🔥
This book was so cute, it made me giggle and laugh out loud at some parts. This is definitely an adult romcom that I hope you will enjoy! 🥰

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.✨ 4.5

💬: what’s your perfect date?

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@netgalley @sophie_cousens
#netgalley #arcreview #romcomreads #isshereallygoingoutwithhim #sophiecousens

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Although the title is clunky, Sophie Cousens's latest book is another heartfelt, funny, romantic story that I think many people will enjoy. The main character, Anna, is so easy to root for as she navigates her life post-divorce; she faces realistic (and often comical) hurdles in her career, love life, and parenthood. The main love interest, Will, at first seems like a caricature but quickly morphs into a more nuanced character. Overall, this was a quick, heartwarming read!

Enemies to Lovers set in journalism world. Will is looking to get ahead and is trying to take Anna's column and Anna is just trying to survive after a divorce. The banter in this book especially the children is amazing. I laughed out loud reading it and never wanted it to end.

I highly recommend for fans of Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez.