Love this book! Fun read. Characters are interesting and spot on. Can’t wait to read the next book in the series. I was given an advanced reader copy of this book by NetGalley and I am freely sharing my review.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. I loved it! Heart break = a hit book. No hits since. Guess will have to get heartbroken again for another hit. Loved watching this relationship play out and seeing both sides of it. Super fun read.

This one just was not for me. I liked the idea of the book, but I could not connect with the main character. I will probably go back and give another try, maybe I am in a reading slump and the review is biased. Based on others reviews they have loved it.

Thank you for the opportunity of reading this book! I’ve rated it 3 stars for me. I think the story was cute, the grumpy/sunshine thing I love, I loved how much Brick wanted Aspen and once he let his guard down how much he showed her. I did however find it cringey in some places and some references I just found a bit random (Disneyland rides etc) overall it was a good read and a cute storyline

This book was a fast paced spicy read, the chemistry between the main characters felt a bit too forced and over fictional (too good to be true) however I really like the relationship between Aspen and Sierra (FML and her sister), it felt organic and true. The whole hate club thing was very cringey as it was built on nothing and a few chapters felt unnecessarily written.

I enjoyed this read! It is a bit cringy and predictable at times, as most romance novels are. Overall, a quick lighthearted read. I enjoyed the tropes, grumpy x sunshine, fake dating, and small town romance. The MCC was the best and I even thought his side of the plot (saving family business, saving the local wildlife) was the most interesting. There’s definitely some hints at storylines for other books, which I would be interested in reading.

I had a hard time buying into the premise of the book, but I really like the characters. I think this might be a winner for fans of Abby Jimenez or Tessa Bailey.

3.5 stars! This book was a lot of fun and a super quick read! The story is about Aspen, a best selling author who is looking for a way out of her current writing slump. She decides to get out of the city and visit her sister where she meets Brick (not my fave name) and there is this insta-sizzle. They strike a deal for him to save his business and her to get the “heartbreak” she needs to write her next bestseller. Lots of great tropes here, “fake” dating, city girl/country-ish guy, nosy neighbors, others’ happiness and expectations vs. your own. I enjoyed the witty dialogue and sexual tension but couldn’t give this more stars because the ending was too rushed. I needed it to have more depth and more time! Def recommend this book for a vacation or beach read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Blue Box for this ARC!

This book was so refreshing as I’ve been in quite a reading funk lately. It was such a sweet romance, and I will think about these characters forever.

•grumpy vs. sunshine
•fake dating
•small town romance

The main character, Aspen, is such a BABE! She is so empowering, and you all know I love an empowering woman character. She is an author of a best selling book, but her past few books have been duds and can’t compare to her first romance novel. She moves to the beach at her sister’s house for the summer, and makes a deal with a grumpy local to help him remodel his touring business in exchange for a heartbreak so she has the heartbreak to finish a sequel to her best selling story.

Aspen and Brick fall head over heels for each other, but in the end it’s not enough for Aspen. She wants to finish her book, which results in the biggest heart break for her and Brick.

You will fall in LOVE with their relationship… the sex scenes are STEAMY! 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

ALSO, CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK WITH SIERRA AND KANE!! Bonus points for another story in OBX with these characters 😎🏖️

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this ARC!

This is a heartfelt romance between author Aspen and local heartthrob Brick. These two flawed but likeable souls and the unique plot make for an enjoyable read. What starts out as a business arrangement turns into something more. It is an emotional ride with drama and steam, humor and charm, sexual tension and chemistry, twists and turns, and engaging secondary characters. Entertaining.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Valentine PR and am voluntarily leaving my honest review.

Read this one as an ARC (thanks NetGalley!) but ooooof I wish I liked it more. I’m not sure if it was the characters or style of writing but the whole book just came off kind of cringey to me? I’ve read this trope many times before and have loved it, so that’s not the reason I didn’t like it.
There would be moments where I would start to like the characters and then the story would progress and I would get the ick from them.
I think the main issue is that it didn’t feel real to me. Obviously romance books tend to be on the more on the unrealistic side so that’s expected. However, I’ve read billionaire-mafia-marriage for convenience books before that have felt more realistic than this. The chemistry just wasn’t there for me to overlook other aspects of the book
2/5 ⭐️
2/5 🌶️ spice wasn’t terrible but since I didn’t have that chemistry it made it “meh”

This was a very cute and different romcom. At first I loved the way Aspen and Brick were written falling in love. It got a little cheesy towards the end but overall I liked it. I will probably read Kane and Sierras story!

I’m not quite sure I completely believe that fake rumors could go on so long in such a small town, so the whole thing where Brick’s reputation is that he’s such a bad boy heart breaker was weird to me buuutttt I digress.

I thought these characters had chemistry, which was good. Sometimes in shorter books, the chemistry feels forced, but Aspen and Brick seemed to have good chemistry from the start. I just felt like there seemed to not be that much happening in this book. The stakes didn’t feel high enough. And i kept forgetting the plot lol.

It was okay. I got through it but it did drag some.

Loved this romance and really loved all the characters. It was an easy read that wrapped everything into a nice neat bow the way a good romance should. My only complaint is that some of the NC references were incorrect. Marijuana is still illegal in North Carolina and Duck Donuts is found all over the world just not in Duck.

4.5 🌟

I was obsessed with the premise of this -- Lourde, an author who's struggling to live up to her first book and fears that her career is all but over if she can't write a sequel she desperately does not want to write, devises a plan to get out of the city and stay with her sister in the Outer Banks so she can get some inspiration - namely in the form of the town "bad boy" Brick, who everyone promises will chew her up and spit her out, providing the perfect amount of heartbreak to get her her next bestseller. The business that Brick has inherited from his grandfather is going under, and so they come to an arrangement. Lourde will give him the money he needs to save the business, and all he has to do is sweep her off her feet before bringing her world crashing down around her.

I can see this being turned into a movie and despite us being told numerous times that Brick has dark hair I have already fancast Glen Powell. The tornado taming reference in chapter 21 only solidified it for me.

There are some things that didn't work for me - the spice was very meh and I would have preferred fade-to-black rather than basically having to read "his fingers lightly brushed me and then I screamed" over and over. It almost felt like a chore to read when I enjoyed reading their banter while out on a tour or staying up all night to watch the sea turtle eggs. The third-act breakup, which is of course, a given in a book like this was a bit tedious, you kind of want to grab Aspen by the shoulders and give her a little shake. Like if you don't want to break up just don't break up ! Change the rules ! You're the one who made them ! Gah !

But aside from those few nit-picks I did overall enjoy and now I miss my sister. Texting her to tell her we need to move to an unfamiliar coastal town ASAP and let hijinks ensue x

This books plot was very unique and I was hooked from the beginning. The chemistry between Aspen and Brick took a little time to build, but once it did…it was intense. I enjoyed it quite a bit!

This book!!!! I absolutely fell in love with Aspen and Brick. Their story was too cute! The grumpy x sunshine dynamic was so well done and the way they grew over time was just chefs kiss. It’s been a while since I’ve read a romance book that I’ve genuinely enjoyed from beginning to end.

3.5. Stars. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book. Really the plot was intriguing, a “one hit wonder” best selling author trying to find her inspiration and write another hit. And it was delightfully spicy- didn’t expect that but I loved it. I also loved some of the more outlandish, romance novel level moments. It felt like it was trying to straddle the line between romance and women’s fiction and that fell a little flat for me. I also struggled with the 3rd person POV which kept me a little bit on the outside of the story. It took me longer than I hoped to get through the book because it wasn’t one of those “can’t put it down” kind of stories. Overall, I think it was good, not great. But I did come to enjoy the characters and side characters and will continue to read the next book in this story also.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Cute story but the FMC became a bit unbearable by the end. The MMC saved the story but ultimately the FMC kinda ruined it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! Aspen, having having one extremely successful novel, wrote two other so-so books and has writer's block. She decides to live with her sister for the summer in OBX. Enter Brick -- the so called heartbreaker of the town. The two strike up a deal to get them both what they want (or what they think they want).

This was a very pleasant read. I liked the character development (though Aspen did bother me from time to time) and characters learning from their past. While the plot was little bit predictable, it worked well.

Interested to read Sierra's story next!