Chloe’s books will always be ones I have a soft spot for. The way she brings a reader into sensitive voices and allows a glimmer of recognition in her love stories for OWN voices and/or disability voices.

With her 3rd book of the Wilmot Sisters, we have Juliet and Will. Shy, sensitive Will and Juliet who loves love but has sworn it off, create the fake dating romance that turns into something a little more.

It slowed up a bit for me mid way.. I wanted to push both MMC and FMc along but maybe that’s what happened in the Shakespearean “12th night” that this retelling is about.
Maybe I should have been more familiar with that one, but I didn’t know it at all so maybe I didn’t get the best parts of this one because of it.

For me, it’s my least favourite of the 3 books. I connected the least with Juliet but still enjoyed it. Honestly I’ll read anything CL writes because I think she writes beautifully in the gentlest of way (and a kicked open door! *wink)

3.5 stars rolled up

With a beautiful finale to the Wilmot Sisters series, Chloe Liese has delivered a fantastic and soul-sweeping story between two characters that you could easily see as yourself or a loved one. Their dynamic and situation at hand fits perfectly into their approach toward love together. With Juliet coming off a bad relationship and learning how to love fearlessly again and Will expressing the interest in finding a partner who is a missing jigsaw piece to his puzzle, it makes sense why they have decided to practice dating in private. Learning of Juliet over the past two books helped flush out her character already, but Will himself was wonderfully drawn in the eye’s mind despite meeting him for the first time in this book. Liese writes her characters to be full-bodied humans, from their inner thoughts to all the dialogue exchanged between characters. The reader will look forward to flipping each page because every word is chosen with so much intention behind it; no idea or notion is misplaced in this book.

Will and Juliet meet on a night out in Scotland, and while their attraction is instantaneous, they part ways expecting never to see each other again. Until months later after a chance encounter in her mother’s greenhouse, Juliet discovers that Will is actually her brother-in-law’s famous college friend.

Reunited, it becomes clear that their attraction is still very much there, but neither is ready to embark on a relationship. Instead, they decide to “practice” romance, and agree to go on fake dates strictly as friends.

Watching Will and Juliet’s foolish attempts at denying their growing feelings until ultimately admitting what is obvious to everyone was delightful. I actually enjoyed the slow progression of their relationship and their countless honest discussions about their physical and emotional challenges. Their communication and flirting skills were also top tier.

Chloe Liese continues to write romance heroes that are kind and charming and make me swoon. William Campbell Montage Orsino was no exception. Once Smitten, Twice Shy was a wonderful love story and the perfect end to The Wilmot Sisters series.

i love chloe liese's books so much!!! if there ever was an author that writes the book equivalent of a warm hug, it's chloe liese!

this was such an incredible conclusion to the wilmot sister's trilogy. juliet's book has been a long time coming and i loved the amount of care that went into writing this story.

this is a twelfth night retelling (with a little bit of she's the man easter eggs) and i just ate it up!! juliet and will warmed my heart and their romance training sessions were so charming and cute (esp when it bled into real feelings hehe). it was so cozy and sweet and so hot?????? like ok gag me

and farmer will????? he is the actual gentle giant man of my dreams!!! he's so attentive and caring and SO HOT wow. a classic chloe liese man if i ever saw one!

thank you berkley romance and netgalley for the arc! it comes out 1/14!!

eARC Review: Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Chloe Liese
Pub Date: January 14, 2025

Thank you to @berkleyromance for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Listen, I've long been a Chloe Liese fan and I'm not stopping anytime soon! Her books have something so special to them - the representation, the romance, the spice, and the swoon - it's all just utter perfection. I particularly love just how kind her characters are to each other and how much they remind us that communication is, in fact, super sexy! This book also gets bonus points for not having a third act breakup!

Juliet and Will both are such well rounded characters and I was rooting for them the entire way! Their relationship was so sweet and that epilogue in the end?? Just destroyed me in the best way

If you haven't read these books yet, what are you doing???

5/5 stars

I absolutely loved this book AND this whole series.

I didn't think anything could compare to the Bergman brothers but this one did. I will be buying copies and rereading this series along with the Bergman brothers. Liese's books are so easy to read and are such a comfort to me. She writes characters that make me feel seen, loved and the endies are so wholesome. Can't wait for her next series!

Once Smitten, Twice Shy is a slow-burn romance with excellent writing. I loved hearing their inner thoughts so I could be inside Juliet’s and Will’s minds. Liese writes vulnerable Juliet with her celiac disease and her stiff joints, but Will, sweet, autistic, sensory-issued Will, is the real star of this story.

Read this book if you like:
-fake dating
-meet cute stories
-big families
-steam
-authentic and neurodivergent characters
-cinnamon roll male main characters

Another charming, sweet Shakespeare retelling from Chloe Liese! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every book in the series, and Chloe fans will eat this latest one right up. It’s got all the elements we know and love—the amazing consent and spicy steam, the commitment to writing love stories for *everyone*, and the tender ways she writes about her characters. Juliet and Will are both such good people, and watching them fall in love is a treat. Will’s a total green flag guy, and it was delightful to see cameos from the first two books in the series, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh what a fun end to this Shakespearean inspired romance series! As always, Chloe knocked it out of the park! Filled with romance, love, steam, and such emotional connections! She is such a talented write and ensures that every fictional story is treated with such tenderlove and emotions. It is clear that she cares for representation and this book was another solid example of how to do so beautifully

This hit a lot of the points of a romcom, but the retelling aspects felt forced to me at places. Also, the romance novel loving protagonist here felt like a less exciting redo of the last Bergman book.

New favourite romance author! So sweet and love the Shakespeare inspo. Nice to read about the other couples.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This book was pretty cute but didn't hit for me like I thought it would. There were many cute moments and I liked the fake dating in it. The neurodivergent and chronic illness representation is as always, wonderfully done.

Will was absolutely adorable and both Juliet and Will had major character growth of the course of the book.

Also, the beginning dragged on and the last maybe 15-20% of the book felt rushed and then all of a sudden it was the epilogue that flashed forward a year.

I'd say I would still recommend this book to Chloe Liese fans, especially those who have read the previous books in the series and want to finish it out.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Chloe Liese for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love this author! I have read all of Liese's books and this one definitely did not disappoint! I was sucked in from the beginning! The characters were developed very well and I loved the pacing of the story.

This was a delightful conclusion to Chloe Liese's Shakespeare inspired romance series. My heart went out to painfully awkward but big hearted Will who had been taught that his love wasn't worth fighting for. I still love the sister dynamics between Bee, Kate, and Juliet. They always have each other's back even when they don't know what they're supporting each other in. Highly recommend this book for folks looking for a quite romance that will warm your heart and make you smile.

Juliet and Will are beautifully matched. Each of them are sensitive to the others needs. They are a love story to warm hearts and souls.

This is now the third Chloe Liese book I've read and I'm slowly starting to realize that this author is just not for me.

I'm sure many people will enjoy this. I didn't like the characters as much as in Two Wrongs Make a Right and found them more annoying like in Better Hate than Never.

They're extra and too much and just not my cup of tea. Like, we'd never hang out in the real world. And the romance between these two was so sudden and insta... I really didn't buy the whole thing at all.

I just haven't gotten on with the last couple of books from the author - I find them boring, and the inner monologuing drags on forever. I just didn't understand why Will and Juliet couldn't just be adults and date, so the whole novel didn't really work for me.

It's this ick I get from the characters. They're supposed to be adults but they act so immature.

🎀Cinnamon Roll MMC
💗Disability Rep
🎀Neurodivergence/Anxiety/Chronic Illness Rep
💗FMC Gives Dating Lessons to MMC
🎀No Third-Act Breakup
💗Second Chance Romance
🎀Fake Dating

Anticipated Release Date - 01/14/25

A huge thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced digital copy- all thoughts and opinions are my own. 💐

4 stars!
This book was so sweet and comforting. It truly made me feel so giddy and hopeful, a feeling that many romances never give me anymore! Chloe Liese does an excellent job of writing real characters that are diverse, strong, and wonderful. Her writing is so entertaining and easy to grasp, it makes me fly through her books!

I loved getting to know Juliet and I was looking forward to reading her book from day 1! Juliet has celiac disease and chronic pain associated with stiff joints while Will is autistic. These two have found themselves crossing paths twice and they decide that it truly must have been fate that brought them together. Juliet needs to practice embracing vulnerability and trust in others while Will needs a lifelong partner who will help bring himself out of his shell. Together, these two decide to fake date to help each other out with their issues. Of course, this leads to lines becoming blurred and feelings erupting between the two of them. This was fake dating at its finest and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Together, Will and Juliet were so sweet. They did a great job of communicating their feelings and being vulnerable with each other. This kind of communication is so important because it really makes you believe in their love story. It was so wholesome to see these two find comfort in one another, accepting and loving every part of each other. I LOVED how there was no third-act breakup!!! My only gripe was that there wasn't much of a plot and I found myself getting bored at some points throughout the book.

Overall, I loved this fake dating romance. It was sweet, slow-burn, and funny. If you're looking for a fluffy romance with little to no plot, this is for you! I really enjoyed this series and I think Chloe Liese did a great job of creating this little world with lovable characters.

4.5⭐️ Thank you so much to Berkley & NetGalley for the ARC!
Rep: autism, connective tissue disease, celiac disease
This was such a great conclusion to the Wilmot trilogy! I always love Chloe’s books so much for the beautiful love they show as well as the representation and this was exactly the same. The writing and romance was written absolutely beautifully, and this is the type of romance that is so sweet, tender, and wholesome. I loved both Juliet and Will as independent characters and together! Getting to see her sisters and the other characters again was also so fun. I’m sad this trilogy is over, but as usual I will read whatever Chloe writes, and can’t wait for whatever’s next!

I'm thankful to NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to review this ARC.

Chloe Liese is the romance author that really got me into romance. The Bergman Brothers was a series I turned to again and again during the end stages of my FIL's cancer journey and death. She is very nostalgic and comforting for me because of this. I share this because I wanted to LOVE this book.

Juliet has sworn off love; Will is autistic and awkward and bad at making it past 3 dates. They meet in Scotland and have chemistry, but do nothing. Then they run into each other again in the USA because -- SURPRISE! -- her childhood best friend, almost brother who is dating her sister is BEST FRIENDS with Will! They decide to start practice dating because Juliet wants to open herself up to romance post-terrible break up and Will is looking for a wife to enter into a loveless marriage with because he wants a business partner to schmooze for his whisky business. (You can hire schmoozers for your businesses, you don't have to marry them and enter into a loveless marriage.)

They are insanely attracted to each other, but decide they cannot possibly act on this and actually try dating because... it would be bad for their relationship with their close mutual friend IF they broke up............. even though they've never crossed paths/overlapped in any social situation before now and live decently far enough away from each other they wouldn't run into each other.

STRENGTHS
- the sexual chemistry between the characters worked for me; their banter, their silliness was cute
- the loose references to Twelfth Knight and She's the Man were fun
- family relationships; I love that family and sibling relationships center in Liese's works

WEAKNESSES
- pretend practice dating is such a flimsy reason to put these characters in proximity with one another and the reason for not actually dating for so long was also really really dumb; it's not like Will was a regular at their friends game night, Juliet literally didn't believe he was friends with their mutual until she searched his phone for the contact detail while holding him at shovel point (he gave her a frighten in her greenhouse)
- the very purple prose of characters internal monologues started to get to me after a while; it's a Liese thing in all of her books for sure, but typically I've consumed Liese on audio -- this is one of the first times I've had to take in the flowery monologues with my eyes and it was A LOT
- Will wanting a wife to be a business partner and do the socializing parts of the whisky business that he finds difficult is absolutely ridiculous; just hire an extrovert; so many people working in alcohol sales hire people specifically for this role (I know several people who do this work, which is maybe why this idea of legally binding a woman into a loveless marriage so she can be your sales person drives me bananas?)

OPPORTUNITIES
- Juliet is another bisexual lady in Liese's oeuvre that ends up with a man; that doesn't make her any less bisexual obviously, but I'd love to see Liese write a sapphic love story in the future

Overall, not my fave from Liese. I think, in part, because I love her other works so much I had really high expectations going into this story. This novel feels comparatively weak. I'm glad I read it. I'd pick up the next thing Liese writes in a heartbeat! But this was definitely not the conclusion this is series I was hoping for. Alas!

the most perfect ending to the most perfect series!! my heart feels so warm and melty after this book i adored this story! i adored juliet and will so so much! and i adored all their invisible strings more than anything!!
chloe’s books are full of so much heart and this story is no different! and hands down my favorite in the series. these two sweet sweet bruised babies were just so gentle with eachother and so supportive of each other and watching them grow through their struggles together made my heart grow a hundred sizes. love love love a two people who have sworn off love but are clearly meant to be date as practice and pretend they’ll be able to NOT fall desperately pathetically in love book.
these sisters have all my love too! and this entire little found family they’ve built out over the past 3 books! like omg SCOOCH OVER!! i’m joining the friend group!!
such a tender, precious story. couldn’t have dreamed up a better final book to this series if i tried.

Fabulous romance and heart felt love story about two people who find the person who understands them and loves them. Chloe Liese has written a series of wonderful love stories about neurodivergent people. I adore her for adding this facet to her characters so that it enhances the story by including them. The details are one part
of a beautiful story about loving and being afraid and taking a leap. This story retells Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with enough modifications that you don’t have to know the play. I enjoyed the characters and the plot because you feel like the characters are people you know.