First Time Caller
By: @authorbkborison
5 stars

Endless forehead kisses to @prhaudio for this ALC and thank you @berkleyromance for this early finished copy!

I am DOWN BAD for Lucie and Aiden!!! This story was everything I could have ever hoped for and more for a story inspired by Sleepless in Seattle! I am a HUGE fan of Meg Ryan and knowing that more books inspired by her characters within Nora Ephron’s books are coming has me absolutely THRILLED!

Lucie is an auto-mechanic (how hot?) who has given up on love until her daughter, Maya, calls into a local Baltimore romance hotline because she wants her mom to stop being lonely. There, she speaks with radio host, Aiden Valen(tine) and they have an honest conversation about Lucie looking for the magic that comes with love. The radio show has been in a ratings funk and after Lucies on-air confession has fans wanting more from her! The radio show brings on Lucie to co-host with Aiden as they try to find callers for her to go on dates with. What neither Lucie nor Aiden realize is that their time spent together in close proximity of the small recording studio will lead them to their person.

Lucie is probably the best single mom character I’ve ever seen. Having the platonic love of her life baby daddy living next door with his husband as they coparent their 12 year old daughter was beautiful. I loved that her family unit was so loving and supportive of her throughout this book.
Aiden, having his own heartbreaking experiences with the fragility of loving someone is jaded about love and doesn’t see it as something he can ever have. He can’t get Lucie out of his head though and despite wanting that deeper connection with her, tries to maintain a professional relationship despite constantly throwing that away any time Lucie needs him after a series of awful dates.

These two were simply so cute! Their banter and their sizzling chemistry was off the charts! Lucie’s courage, kind-heart, and infectious laugh breaks through Aidens cold and sarcastic exterior allowing him to once again believe that he can want love and have love at the same time. My heartstrings were definitely pulled for this book and I cannot WAIT for the rest of this series!

Let’s start out with a major positive and that is the cover. 10/10 obsessed with it. Will purchase this book for the cover alone!

Now I know I am going to be in the minority on this one because I have seen nothing but five star reviews so far. I’m still not 100% sure on my rating because there were parts of this book that I absolutely LOVED, but there were other parts that had me not wanting to pick this up. It took me 13 days to read this book 🙈

For the things that I loved - Lucie as a FMC and a mom, Maya (obviously!!!), the family unit that Lucie & Maya have, the chemistry between Aiden & Lucie, the transcripts from the radio show at the end of each chapter, and Aiden’s parents.

I think my biggest complaint is that I felt like this book moved so, so slow. Like snails pace. I had no desire to pick it up between sittings and it just felt like it lasted forever in my opinion?

BUT!!! I will say that I found the writing a delight. There were so many quotes that gave me chills and think YES! who doesn’t want that?! Going to share my favorite below. It was from a caller to the Heartstrings show and made me 🥹

“I’ve been with my husband for sixty-five years. Every day isn’t a fairy tale. We’ve worked hard for our relationship. To build it. To maintain it. I’ve become so many versions of myself and so has he, but we’ve found a way to fall in love with one another over and over again. Every time.”

You probably have whiplash from me going back and forth about things I love and things I didn’t to things I really loved again. This one is out now and from every other review I’ve seen, you probably want to add this to your TBR! 💖

First-Time Caller is well loved on Bookstagram and the hype is deserved. This book was a joy to read! The two main characters have great chemistry! Lucie is a single mom looking for romance and Aiden is a radio host disillusioned by love. Ironically he is the host of a romance radio show that ends up trying to find a partner for Lucie. I loved the banter between the characters and especially between Lucie and Aiden. The secondary characters were great and I enjoyed the writing style. Definitely add this to one to your TBR! This author has a popular series that I keep hearing about that I am now really looking forward to reading.

- This was so good! It was one of my anticipated reads and it did not disappoint.
- I know this is inspired by Sleepless in Seattle, but I need this to be turned into a movies because this was *chef's kiss*
- Loved Aiden and Lucie, but I also loved the side characters. I was a little iffy about Maggie in the beginning, because I thought she just wanted ratings and didn't have Lucie's best interest in heart.
- Loved that Aiden was pretty much a goner for Lucie from the beginning. That boy was in love the moment he heard her laugh.
-Love Lucies coworkers! Love how even though she didn't have experience with cars, Dan took one look and just took her under his wing.
-The mention of cruffin makes me want a cruffin
-Would have preferred if this had no spice or fade to black type of spice. It would have been 5 stars without it. Actually it might still be. Cause the spice was easily skippable and its more of a personal preference.
- Miscommunication usually bugs me but it didn't as much with this one. I think Aiden needed a wakeup call and the miscommunication lead to the conversation with his dad. Which I think he needed to have in order to heal.
-Maya is smart for a 12 year old. She is the perfect combination of Lucie and Grayson, and you can tell she was raised with love with how she carries herself.

Okay so I’ve never seen sleepless in Seattle? Haha. Butttttttt this book WAS SO FREAKING SWEET. The banter, the cuteness, the romance. 🥹😩 I loved that lucie voiced her concerns 🎙️

Aiden you almost had me when you know you started acting a fool haha. But I understand he had to get it together before moving forward.

Lucie felt so mature and ready to grab relationships by the horns. She was just so authentic? She’s one of few FMCs I like!!

So overall, VERY cute and very romantic. A classic rom com.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! This dual-POV, slow burn, banter-filled book inspired by Sleepless in Seattle is going to be a staple for the romance readers in my library. Can't wait for the next book!

As a lifelong Sleepless in Seattle fan, I was so excited for this book and it did not disappoint! This book tugged on all the heartstrings (pun intended) and also had me laughing out loud. I read this one on vacation and it was the perfect read!

I need Goodreads to allow for more than 5 stars because this would be it.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC.

I think my kindle highlights are more happy I'm finally done with this book than the people around me who had to keep hearing about it.

Lucie's daughter, Maya, calls into Aiden Valentine's romance hotline one night asking for advice on how to get her mother out of a dating...slump would be the best word. After some back and forth, Lucie ends up joining Aiden in the radio booth to find love with the great men of Baltimore. Thing is, Aiden can't stop thinking about Lucie. He thought he wanted her out of the booth. Thought their chemistry on that first phone call was a fluke.

This is my first book by Borison and I wish I had focused on her books instead of Chloe Liese's. I wasted so much time reading shitty romance when I could have been reading this??

I think what got me obsessed with this is the fact that Lucie is looking for love, but understands that she is surrounded by love in her own family and that could be enough. That could be enough. She has her daughter, she has her best friend, and she has a job she loves with coworkers who love and respect her.

The side characters in this are what sent the book from great to life-changing. Jackson is, god's honest truth, one of my favorite characters ever. I love him. Maya, obviously I love her and I really wish I could have a visual of her Indiana Jones of Colonel Mustard costumes. Grayson and Mateo are lovely and wonderful.

I love the movie Sleepless in Seattle, so I was very excited to read this book once I found out it’s inspired by the movie! And I loved it. While it felt very long in some places, I so enjoyed my time with these characters. Lucie is one of the coolest heroines I’ve read about in a while. She knows her worth and she knows that she’s created the perfect life for herself. She’s got the cutest daughter, Maya (who I adored), and she’s found more family in Maya’s dad, Grayson, and his husband, Matteo. I love that Lucie and Grayson stayed best friends after discovering they weren’t a love match and that Matteo loves Lucie and Maya just as much as Grayson does. The four of them have the sweetest familial bond, and I want to adopt them all. They live next door to each other, with a gate that links their backyards. They are together all the time, loving each other, supporting each other, and laughing together constantly. Lucie works as a mechanic at an auto shop and works with some of the sweetest father figures, who are all protective of her and have her best interests at heart. She knows she doesn’t need anything else to complete her life, but it would be so nice to have someone to share it with. When Maya phones in to a late-night radio show devoted to love and romance to ask for advice on finding a boyfriend for Lucie, she sets in motion the cutest love story ever. And this love story goes viral. I was riveted right along with the greater population of Baltimore, Maryland as I watched these two lovebirds try to deny that Lucie found her one true love the night Maya called him.

Aiden is very jaded and grumpy and doesn’t believe in love. He hates his job and he’s a loner with a small social circle. Maya charms him (and his boss, Maggie), and before he knows it he’s sharing his tiny booth with Lucie herself as they try to find her “road to love”. His and Lucie’s banter is fantastic. She’s the sunshine to his storm cloud, and he can’t help but give in to her call for a friend. As she goes on crummy dates and is harassed by the public, he realizes more and more how much he cares about her. And he’s not too happy about it at first. lol. But we can all see what’s happening. Everyone listening to them on the air three nights a week can feel the tension and hear the sizzling chemistry these two have together. And it was so much fun watching them figure it out. There’s some speed bumps along the way, and some deeper issues that they need to work through (Aiden in particular), but the romance feels so realistic. I loved watching Aiden’s character develop and change from who he was at the beginning of the book to who he became at the end. B.K. Borison is so good at weaving humor in with more serious issues. It’s a lovely balance, and keeps her stories rooted in reality while also providing the magic that I crave in a romance novel. The spicy scenes were a bit more than I’m used to from this author and, as I said at the beginning, this book was longer than it needed to be. But other than those two things, this was such a great book for me. I’d love to see it adapted for film someday! B.K. Borison is one of my favorite authors, and I’m so happy that the Lovelight series wasn’t a one-hit wonder for me. I can’t wait for her next book!

𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙄 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙩.

How do I even describe the magic that is First Time Caller? Do you know that feeling when you get home after you spend the evening with your favorite people, change into your comfy clothes, and curl up on your couch and the whole time you simply cannot stop smiling? You chest is filled with so much love that it feels like a balloon is ready pop? That’s what reading First Time Caller is like.

It’s a slow burn romance filled with enough tension to make a rubber band snap. Lucy and Aiden have a certain magic about them that had me giggling and kicking my feet while also crying??? It’s rare that you get two characters that are so different and yet so similar, that it is only by coming together that the two of them are able to grow into the people they need to be.

First Time Caller perfectly captures the magic that is a Norah Ephron movie and I cannot wait to see how this series continues

This was such a sweet book. I adored the characters. This was the first book I’ve read by B.K. Borison. I can’t wait to read more.

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for an advanced copy of First-Time Caller by BK Borison. I am a huge stan of Sleepless in Seattle, so I was very excited for this book!

I loved these characters. I thought it was such a fun book, and I was really invested in the whole cast of characters. It was like reading about one big, sometimes dysfunctional but always fun, family. Holy steam, Batman, this book has some seriously spicy moments! I thought it was well-written and so so good.

Two thumbs way way up!

I genuinely appreciate this author's writing style; it's both witty and engaging.

In First-Time Caller, I found the premise to be quite interesting, and I thought Lucie and Aiden had strong chemistry together. I enjoyed their individual characters and particularly liked how their romance developed throughout the story.

The plot itself is sweet and endearing. I thought the idea of Lucie's daughter calling into a romance show to encourage her mother to start dating again was clever. It nicely set the stage for Aiden to invite Lucie to discuss her dating life, which seamlessly led to their eventual romance.

That said, I did notice that the pacing could be improved. While I enjoyed the characters of Lucie and Aiden, there were moments when the story seemed to drag a bit. The author occasionally shifted focus away from the couple, which took some attention away from their developing relationship. A tighter focus on their romance might enhance the narrative flow and engagement for readers.

A love letter for those who fell in love with Sleepless in Seattle. B.K. Borison writes a compelling love story, giving readers hope as Aidan Valentine slowly opens his heart to Lucie. Told in dual perspectives with chapter breaks of the what is happening on the radio, readers will have an easy time getting submersed into the world and love story.

Aidan and Lucie are two very relatable characters. We have Aidan who is on one end of the spectrum and Lucie who is on the complete other side. Together they find a common ground and slowly meet in the middle.

First Time Caller needed more On-the-Air banter.

Single Mom Lucie Stone gets quite the surprise when she catches her young daughter calling into radio station 101.6 LITE FM, more particularly to Aiden Valentine, host of Heartstrings, Baltimore's Romance Hotline, asking Aiden to help her mom find a date. Now the whole city knows that Lucie hasn't had a decent date in...years. Yes, okay, it's been years.

After so many people called into the radio station to ask for more information about helping Lucie, she was invited to the station to get a date on-the-air with Aiden himself. But what was supposed to be an evening interviewing dates, showed how well Lucie and Aiden played off each, and their on-air chemistry turned into several weeks of co-hosting Heartstrings. Suddenly the city's desire to set up Lucie on a dream date has turned into the city just turning in to hear Lucie and Aiden flirt live.

But it appears the host of Heartstrings doesn't believe in love and isn't looking for romance for himself, except trying to find Lucie the perfect date isn't as important as it used to be.

THOUGHTS:
First Time Caller had a lot of great characters. We love Lucie and her daughter, Maya. Lucie's gay BFF from childhood (also Maya's father) and his husband. Honestly, Lucie has quite the full life.  She has wonderful family group who care for her, it isn't surprising that her dates don't measure up to the love and support of her made family. Although I did like Aiden, his constant "no romance for me" kept taking the fun out of the by-play between Lucie and Aiden. I can understand the initial purpose was getting Lucie a date, but when they were spending so much time together and their time in the booth showed what great chemistry they had, why was he still dragging his feet and denying his interest in them being together. It kept jerking all the fun to a stop.

While we do have a lot of time spent with Lucie and Aiden, I didn't feel like we had enough of the on-the-air banter which all of Maryland was tuning in for. I don't know if that was a we only get so many pages in the book and the author wanted more scenes in person, but when the whole premise is the co-hosting that the city can't get enough of, we are only left to suppose it is awesome. There wasn't as much of that on page as I would have liked.  Don't tell me they are amazing together, show me.

My jaw is still on the floor as I type this.

First Time Caller blew me away!! Such a unique love story. While reading this book, all that was playing in my mind was a romcom movie and I loved every second. I love a good slow burn and a grumpy man. 😩💗

What am I supposed to do now? I need more. 🥹

4.5 stars!

• when lucie’s preteen daughter calls in to a romance hotline with a story that makes lucie go viral, she finds herself co-hosting the show alongside its grumpy host, aiden, in an attempt to find love for herself. but maybe that love will come from someplace she won’t expect?
• the unconventional family structure lucie has with her baby daddy, his husband, and her daughter, maya, is beautiful, & added a layer to this story i wasn’t anticipating.
• this is a SLOW BURN to the MAX! and i ATE IT UP! the chemistry between lucie & aiden is palpable in every scene (we love a grumpy x sunshine trope), & the payoff towards the end was so worth the wait.
• that said, this probably could have been about 50 pages shorter and still hit the same, if not better.

I’m so grateful to Berkley and NetGalley for providing access to an advance copy of this amazing book!

Aiden is the host of “Heartstrings,” a Baltimore radio show that provides romantic advice for the lovelorn and those struggling to find or keep love. But lately, he’s not been enjoying his job, and that’s been reflected in the ratings. He’s just over the whole concept of love.

One night during his show he gets a call from a 12-year-old girl named Maya. She tells Aiden that her mother never goes on dates and that she is lonely, and asks Aiden to help her. When Lucie, Maya’s mom, discovers who her daughter has been talking with, she unexpectedly bears her soul on the radio. And of course, the show goes viral, so people all over the world are rooting for Lucie to find love.

“When the whole world tells you you’re silly for wanting the things you want, you start to believe them. You start to think you’re not worth it. That if the things you’re waiting for do exist, they’re not for someone like you.”

The radio station’s general manager invites Lucie to join Aiden’s show in the hopes that he can help her find her happily ever after. As listeners follow along, Lucie starts dating again. But will she find her soulmate this way, or are the feelings sparked behind the microphone the ones she wants to pursue?

I absolutely fell in love with B.K. Borison’s Lovelight Farms series, and while I’m sad that she didn’t continue with that, this is the start of a new one I love already. She is such a fantastic storyteller, and the characters she creates are tremendously memorable. They’re the kind of people you want in your life.

First-Time Caller was such a fun, charming, and witty romance that had me giggling like a kid! Aidan and Lucie were so easy to fall in love with, and they had such great banter. Overall, this was such a feel good read!

B.K. Borison does it again! *First-Time Caller* is the perfect blend of heartfelt emotion, sizzling chemistry, and the kind of swoon-worthy romance that lingers long after you turn the last page. The connection is electric, and the late-night radio call-ins add a touch of magic to their love story. Borison always outdoes themselves, and this one is no exception—absolute perfection!