Cate Summers’ Take All The Time You Need offers a heartfelt, if somewhat predictable, exploration of love, loss, and the complexities of moving on after grief. The novel follows Riley Chase, a New York City painter still grieving the death of her fiancé, Grant, three years after his passing. The story has the makings of an emotional journey, but while there are moments of charm and genuine connection, the execution leaves the reader with a somewhat lukewarm experience.

Riley’s grief and reluctance to move forward in life are immediately relatable. Summers portrays her as someone stuck in time, unsure how to let go of her old life, until a rent hike forces her out of the apartment she once shared with Grant. This change, paired with encouragement from her therapist, sets up a promising arc for Riley as she slowly takes steps toward healing.

Enter Jae Cho, the charismatic chef who now lives in Riley’s old apartment and hires her to paint a mural for his new restaurant, The Red Kettle. Jae’s introduction brings a spark to the story—he’s witty, supportive, and offers the kind of easy banter that readers expect in a light romance. The chemistry between Riley and Jae is enjoyable, though it feels underdeveloped at times. Their "practice dating" plotline, where Jae helps Riley get back into the dating scene, is fun but predictable. It's the kind of rom-com scenario that could have been deeper but instead stays mostly on the surface.

One of the novel's strengths is the setting. Summers paints a vivid picture of New York City, with its winding streets, cozy restaurants, and vibrant culture. The long walks through the city that Riley and Jae share add warmth to the story, giving readers a sense of place that enhances their connection. Jae’s culinary skills and the food scenes involving dumplings are another nice touch, bringing some sensory delight to their interactions.

Where Take All The Time You Need falls short is in the pacing and emotional depth. Riley’s struggle to move on from Grant is central to the plot, but her grief never feels fully explored. The internal conflict of balancing past love with new possibilities is glossed over at times, making her emotional journey feel incomplete. The practice dating setup, while cute, doesn’t allow for the deeper exploration of Riley’s feelings that could have made the story more resonant.

Similarly, Jae’s character, though charming, lacks significant depth. He serves primarily as a supportive figure to Riley’s growth, but we don’t get much insight into his own backstory or motivations, which would have added another layer to their relationship. While there’s chemistry between the two, their relationship follows a very predictable path, lacking the tension or emotional stakes that could have made it more compelling.

The novel also struggles with some pacing issues. The early chapters take time setting up Riley’s grief and new life, but the middle section drags as the focus shifts to the more lighthearted practice dating, and the conclusion feels rushed. The resolution, where Riley finally begins to move on and consider a future with Jae, happens too quickly to feel fully earned, leaving the reader wanting more depth from the characters and their journey.

Final Thoughts:
Take All The Time You Need is a sweet, if somewhat formulaic, romance that touches on themes of grief, healing, and new beginnings. Riley and Jae’s budding relationship provides a pleasant distraction, but the story lacks the emotional complexity needed to truly stand out. While the setting and charming moments make for an enjoyable read, the novel ultimately feels too light to fully deliver on its premise. A solid 2.5-star read that may appeal to fans of cozy romance, but falls short of making a lasting impact.

I thought that this was a cute read about working on coming to terms with losing a loved one. Riley has trouble accepting that she deserves to find love again and be happy after losing her fiancé Grant as quickly as she did. Jae just so happens to be the one that's moving into her old apartment and hires Riley to paint a mural in his new restaurant. I love that she was able to develop a friendship with Jae though and he was so understanding with her feelings and helped her with her guilt. He becomes protective over her at the start because she's still unsure of getting back out there into the dating scene again and Jae makes a deal that he'll help her by doing practice dates. It was at this point I knew Jae was already falling for Riley, but he didn't want to pressure her which was really sweet. He knew she needed a friend first and that's exactly what he did until she was ready.

I did find some grammar issues throughout my copy of the book as well that I had to take a second to reread at some spots so hopefully those can be fixed.

OBSESSED. I read through this book so incredibly quickly because I was absolutely HOOKED. I loved this story so much and it gave me everything I wished for.
Work romance, grief therapy, slow-burn, strangers to coworkers/friends to lovers, banter, second chance at love, and MORE!
Highly recommend as a buffer read, or if you're just really craving a feel good romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Cate Summers for the opportunity to read and review Take All The Time You Need!

e-ARC from NetGalley.

Some books just work for me, and this is one of them.

This is a story about grief and healing. Our protagonist lost her fiance to an abrupt and brutal kind of cancer just three years ago. Since then, she's been both drowning in grief and guilting herself out of trying to find even a modicum of happiness. Now, rising rent has forced her out of the apartment she shared with her fiance. On the way out, she meets the new tenant: Handsome Korean-American chef, Jae Cho.

From the moment they meet, there's some very obvious chemistry. And, as the story continues, I fell in love with their dynamic. Riley felt so relatable to me, and Jae was so sweet. Their interactions were funny, and the way Jae would randomly act like a middle school boy talking to his crush absolutely sent me. There were moments they had together where the constant synonyms and metaphors were a bit much, but the things these two made me feel? Let's just say I was grinning like an idiot.

This isn't a perfect book. There were elements of Jae's story that were introduced but never explored, chief among them being his mother's lack of support. There were also a few very obvious inconsistencies in the story - despite Jae knowing about Riley's loss before they even meet, there are times when it seems like he isn't aware of it - and we had three separate conversations about where he learned to cook with three different answers. While distracting, though, these did not pull me out of the story enough for it to truly bother me.

In the end, this is a wonderful story about learning to love again. If you love strangers to friends to lovers as much as I do, this will be a hit. And, if the love interested uttering the line "I'm her best friend" does something to your heart? Prepare accordingly.

This book beautifully combined the processing of grief and guilt with a sweet love story that had me smiling as I read (and pumping my fist in the air at one point). Jae and Riley are so lovable which is a huge factor for me. A new restaurant owner and a painter, and they’re so much more. I read this book in less than 48 hours, I loved it!

Overall, this was a sweet story of a woman finding love after loss, However, some of the pacing and style felt a little bit clunky. I felt that this book was entertaining and had some great elements, but it didn't 100% do it for me. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for honest feedback/

Take All the Time You Need has great bones for a wonderful story. Starting out, I really loved the voice of the character as she navigated grief after losing her partner three years prior. I just found the pacing from there to be pretty wonky. She was unbelievably rude and hateful to the new neighbor for no real reason. It didn’t make sense why he cared so much in return. Then the fell in love alarmingly fast? Some parts dragged on while I felt like a lot of the important points could have used more texture and development. Overall, I felt like this book has what it takes to be a great read, it just needs a bit more editing.

i dig this book. first off the cover is super cute and the plot was super fun! i loved the characters and the writing style was really good. definitely gonna add this to my collection

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review!

This book starts off with Riley moving out of her apartment after her fiancé passes away a couple years prior. As she's leaving, she finds the new tenant, Jae, moving in. He's handsome and charming and she freaks out and leaves. The story progresses from there, as she ends up accidentally applying to paint a mural for a restaurant he's opening. She then stumbles through grief and moving forward with her first romantic situation since her fiancé passed away 3 years ago.

All in all, it's a cute story and probably does a really good job of covering what it's like to love after the loss of a romantic partner. Their dynamic, in general, was really sweet, and felt very comfortable and sweet. Jae is perfect leading man material for sure. It's very cool to see a story like this because I haven't seen this concept for a romance before, and I'm sure it would be really relatable to a lot of people.

Unfortunately, I found some things to be a bit misaligned when it came to Riley's grief and some of the things she was saying to Jae. Like I just think some things were either not explained well enough, or just felt a little forced into the story. It's also a bit on the insta-love side of things where they both fall very hard very fast, and he cares way more about her than he should in literally 10 seconds of meeting her. I think the book could genuinely bump up a whole rating for me with like one more round of edits/trims because there were areas I definitely felt it dragging a bit or felt a bit added in because "that's what romance books have in it," even if it didn't 100% fit with what the characters might have actually done or said? generally though, I had a good time reading the book and found both characters to be fun and loveable!

If I went into this thinking it was YA, I would have loved it. It was written a little clunky, but I really love books of love after loss. If I didn’t love that trope, this book wouldn’t have been for me.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 3

——————————————

Take all the time you need is about finding love after loss. One of my favourite tropes, if done right.

Everyone deals with grief in their own way, and you can clearly see Riley struggling to find her way back to life after her loss.

Jae, our MMC also has his own struggles with familial expectations and the story brings both of them together to do what exactly - I’m not sure.

Yes, to find love since it’s a love story at the end and all but I struggle to see this. The premise of the story is great but the execution was lacking.

Perhaps that’s to do with the fact that this book is less than 200 pages, but the pacing was a little wild. The characters could have used a little more development to add more colour to their personality. For example, as the story progresses, you are told Riley is finding other aspects of her personality apart from grief but is it clear in the way she acts? Not so much.

There were quite a few inconsistencies and the dialogue was choppy. It felt a little too high school in the way both the characters were acting and this is not YA! The intimate scenes felt like they didn’t really belong and were there just for the sake of it.

I really hate writing negative reviews but eeek. It was easy and quick read but does it do what it promises to? I’m not so sure. A little more editing and it has the potential to be so much better than it is.

I was hoping this would be a really deep read but it felt a bit surface level to me. I didn't connect with the characters at all. I'm not sure if it was the book or just me so I'm giving it 3 stars

This was an ARC from NetGalley, thank you!

I really liked the bones of this story but I felt it came up short. I never fully connected to the main characters...mainly because I felt like the dialogue would change too much, or it just got too choppy. I really liked parts of the book and give it 3 stars. I just feel like some things felt rushed, there were several typos which really throw me off, and it just kinda fell off for me. I also know that grief is shown in the book to come up quickly, often out of nowhere etc, but maybe it just wasn't written or explained well at times, but I felt that to be frustrating and confusing at times. I really kept picking my kindle up to read this book, the want to LOVE it was there, I just felt a bit shortchanged in many facets of the book.

Thank you for the ARC.

I'm not sure how to explain how I feel about this book. I was enjoying it up until Riley and Jae started getting physical in their relationship. The sex scenes are very immature and almost unbelievable, especially the dialogue happening between the main characters as they're going at it.
 
I enjoyed reading about Riley's journey of moving forward instead of on and learning to accept that she deserves to be happy, although I will say the girl has a lot of anxiety, which is partially understandable, but I was slightly annoyed with how much she worried about Jae up and leaving or dying on her. The romance itself was also very quick-paced and, in my opinion, very much instant love at first sight. Jae himself, while I loved him for being sweet and patient with Riley and her grief, he's very pushy and seems a tad obsessive over her, especially early on in their friendship turned relationship.

In the end, I was left with mixed feelings, and while I enjoyed their romance, I don't think this book worked that well for me, and that's okay; I wish the author nothing but the best in their writing career.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘦-𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺.

Thanks to Netgalley and Cate Summers for the opportunity to review this book.
Tropes: 1st person single narrative, love after loss, forced proximity, neighbors, annoyance to friends to lovers. I think the plot had potential, but I wished for more character development. It was a little difficult to read past the typos and the unnatural dialogue, but overall it was a good story.

I'm not sure where to start with this one. I feel like it had potential to be a great story but the writing was juvenile and really stiff. There were sentences that sounded completely unlike how people actually speak. Hardly any contractions.

Riley had no friends. Literally none. That was weird.

Her super was in her business and pushy.

Jae was okay but seemed flat. He went from an alleged player who dates all the time to wanting a relationship and getting mad at Riley going on a date that he set up.

Take All the Time You Need by Cate Summers ARC Review

After losing her fiance to brain cancer and grieving for 3 years, it's finally time for Riley to move on with her life. The first step is moving out of the apartment they shared. As she's leaving, crying, she meets the man who is moving into the apartment. Embarrassment and grief make her lash out at him, but he still offers to be her friend. Jae is a chef, and he's opening a restaurant nearby. Riley is an artist, but hasn't painted in far too long. Jae commissions a mural for the restaurant from Riley, and they start to spend each day together as she paints and he cooks.
Riley has decided she deserves love again and wants to start dating and Jae offers to help her practice.

These two have a sweet little friendship with mutual admiration. Riley breaks down over and over due to her grief, and Jae is there to comfort her. He's perpetually patient, understanding, and encouraging. He's also a smoke show! I definitely have a crush on this man. (And I'm not the only one.)

The story takes us on a journey of loss, grief, guilt, self discovery, friendship, and love. It shows the intricacies of life after loss. The ups and downs, the one-step-forward two--steps-back of it all.

Overall, I liked this book. However, there were many places in the book that had confusing imagery/flowery writing that I felt didn't make a lot of sense. I had a few problems with possible inconsistencies and errors, but this was an advanced copy, so they may have been fixed for the final copy, so I won't hold that against the author.

Tropes: 1st person single narrative, love after loss, forced proximity, neighbors, annoyance to friends to lovers.

4⭐️ 2🌶

I read an advanced copy of the book, and these are my honest opinions. Thank you to NetGalley and the author.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

What a good book! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. This is a first by this author but will not be my last! I read this in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down.

Take All the Time You Need is the latest book by Cate Summers. It was a solid read that I enjoyed reading.

There was a lot of inconsistency throughout the plot and the characters weren’t fully developed. Good & interested in seeing more from the author. Not my favorite storyline.