let’s just say it was an easy 3-star read. It had potential but didn’t fully hit the mark for me. The plot was a bit all over the place at times, and the characters didn’t *quite* connect the way I’d hoped. But here’s the thing—it was still a fun, light read, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

If you’re into drama-filled office romances and love a dash of scandal, this one might be for you. For me, though, it was a cute distraction but didn’t leave me desperate for more.

I found this book a little slow at starting and hard to get into. But once I did I enjoyed it. I felt it was a little repetitive in parts. It was a quick & easy book to read once you get to know the characters more.

This book was beautiful and emotional and heartbreaking and had such amazing tension and really good banter. The connection between the two main characters felt so real and not forced there was so much chemistry. As someone who has also lost a dad I do feel andies pain and it really sucks but I do love her healing journey as well

Not quite the four star maybe 3.75 to 3.8. Bad publicity is a fun read with forced proximity and friends to enemies to friends to lovers within a professional relationship along with second chance romance makes for an engaging story. I love when book and publishing world play a role in the love story, or maybe how it is interwoven in the story.

The book does not waste any time in setting up and throwing us in the middle of the things. Told from the POV of Andie, we get to know about Jack and her feelings towards him. I could not help myself but compare it to Emily Henry’s romance vibe since I very recently read Book Lovers set in a similar world. However it is good to see that Gillan does not fade to black with intimate portions.

The writing is good, fast paced and spends no time in getting into thick of things. It keeps you hooked without exaggerations and a will they-won’t they approach. The tension between the two is played well and is felt. Also so good to see how self aware the leading lady is but not without her blind spots.

However at times though you want to scream at Andie to get her head out of her own ass and face things. I am with her best friend on this one. She needed to face the things and have those deep dark conversations coz she’s a grown woman, but seems to be stuck on the high school teen tantrum stubborn ways not wanting to move on from things and running away from them. The book stays with this and revels in it a tad bit too long. Credit to the writing style that it doesn’t make it seem overdrawn.

The reveal of what Jack did, by the time we go into flashbacks and know what happened, as horrific as it was, it lost that steam and gut punch impact. It needed to be woven in a tad bit earlier while having those feelings played out later. Because from the start, Jack has been implied to have done something unthinkable that he is not forgiven, and is so long drawn, I had my feelings like that till after things were explained from both POVs. A bit of restructuring could have solved that coz Jack was hated since beginning and I was on that ride but it came across as rather harsh (coz words have power) and unforgivable thus making their re-reunion rather necessity of genre than an organic progression (which again was done brilliantly on how they warm up to each other but for a Pisces who can hold grudges, he needed to put in more work to prove things for what he did, but that might be a me problem ) .

It is the Promising Young Woman but where everything works out and people overcome and work through their traumas. It releases next year so don’t know how much would it change but a definite tbr to have on your list for next summer Romance

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury ANZ for the eARC in exchange for a review

Story had promise but felt it could have had some tighter editing. It was repetitive in parts and took quite a while to get to the backstory. There was good character growth and the flashback scenes filled in a lot of blanks.

Landing just under 3 stars (let’s say 2.75) for this one. The premise has me super interested as books about books are my favourite. Unfortunately I didn’t connect with the characters and I would’ve loved a bit more backstory into Jack and Andie - my favourite chapters were the flashbacks! I also found this a bit repetitive at times. That said, I did fly through it in one sitting so it is definitely an easy read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. They

Bad Publicity

Tropes:

Second Chance
Forced Proximity
Grief
Miscommunication (lack of communication)

I thought this story was well written, with slow and repetitive pacing but story wise I think it took too long to get to the reason why she hated Jack so much.

I found Andies character unlikeable and that was due to the lack of communication and her hatred of Jack - I think if we were given a bit more information earlier or even throughout the book I would have enjoyed it more instead of skipping a chunk in the middle.

I did like the authors weaving of grief and the past relationship and how the past experiences were so closely entwined, it affected her relationships with those close to her in the present. I thought this part was well written and understandable.

I received this ARC from Netgalley.

I found this really hard to get to into initially. It seemed like a really drawn out story before we got to where we were going. I think Andi and Jack were great characters but I found the friendship with her and Sara a bit overdone. I think there was good potential in this book and whilst I still enjoyed if I just found the themes were a bit mixed and not what I would typically want in a romance read