This was a super cute read!! I loved the book elements in it and the enemies to lovers!! at parts it felt like there was just a touch too much detail where I would get lost for a bit, but that didn't take away to the book to much.

Definitely would recommend :)

Book Boyfriend by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub Date: February 25, 2025

I read and loved The Roughest Draft by this author duo, so I was excited for another new release! However, I don’t think I’m the right reader for this book. Many will love this story and its setting, I just had trouble vibing with it.

The FMC attends an experience on a college campus that brings her favorite fantasy series to life. On the surface, this seemed like a fun and quirky story that I would enjoy! It was just too much for me. Fans of cosplaying, immersing in fantasy worlds, and enemies to lovers will enjoy this more than I did!

Perfect for you if you like:
Hate to love/enemies to lovers
Work nemesis
Romantasy fiction coming to life
Competition with riddles + clues
Introvert FMC channeling her main character energy

Rounded up this was a 3 star read. This was a cute enough romance that just didn't quite pull all together in the end for me. I loved the setting and the idea of all this fun around their favorite series - this is a romance for romantasy readers! I'd even read more books about the other characters. I kept trying to get into the main characters and I couldn't - neither was quite likeable enough and so I couldn't love them together. Maybe this particular enemies to lovers just made the romance too far fetched for me - as in they were too unpleasant to each other for me to root for them. And then once they stopped hating each other - boom! the romance was too quick. Read it for the setting! And the cute twins. Thank you for this ARC!

📚 Calling all romantasy lovers!
Book Boyfriend is a love letter to every reader who’s dreamed of swoon-worthy fictional men and immersive fantasy worlds.

💖 Plot Highlights:
• Jennifer Worth: A devoted fangirl of the romantasy series Elytheum Courts—where heroes are brave, chivalrous, and winged. Escaping heartbreak, she heads to an immersive convention celebrating her favorite series.
• Scott Daniels: Her work nemesis who has no interest in Elytheum… until now. At the convention, Scott appears in cosplay, determined to win Jennifer over by becoming her perfect book boyfriend.
• Enemies-to-Lovers Magic: Forced together by the immersive activities, Jennifer and Scott discover there’s more to their chemistry than animosity. But can their romance rival the fantasy worlds they love?

🔥 Why You’ll Love It:
• Fangirl dreams: Celebrate fandom life, from cosplaying to convention adventures!
• Enemies-to-Lovers: Sharp banter turns into irresistible sparks.
• Bookish vibes: Perfect for anyone who’s ever fallen for a fictional character.
• Sweet and swoony romance: This is escapism at its finest!

📖 Perfect For Fans Of:
• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
• Romances featuring nerdy characters and heartfelt connections

💬 Have you found your book boyfriend yet? Share your favorite fictional crush below!

✨ #BookBoyfriend #EmilyWibberley #AustinSiegemundBroka #EnemiesToLovers #RomantasyFans #FandomLove #BookishRomance #SwoonyReads #RomanceBooks #FictionalCrushes #Bookstagram

I’m sad to say it but unfortunately this one was a miss for me. The romance these authors write is usually top tier but this was severely underwhelming. I was questioning if Scott was even the love interest until about 50%. There’s enemies to lovers and then there’s this.

4.25/5 stars.

I have to say, Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka have pleasantly surprised me with this one.

Right from the start, the tone of this book reads very different from their other works. I found myself laughing out loud at Jennifer’s funny inner dialogue, which is not something I could have said about their previous books due to their more serious narration style.

They also wrote this book entirely from Jennifer’s POV, which I think was a smart move. The reader not being allowed in Scott’s head helps build the will-they-won’t-they tension that is, in my opinion, essential to create a good romance.

After being really disappointed by the lack of connection and longing between the main characters in The Breakup Tour, I am glad to say that I really enjoyed Jennifer and Scott’s chemistry in this one! Their banter and palpable attraction left me giddy after their every interaction. I was rooting for them to get together from the start.

I also loved the underlying celebration of fandoms and the solace that one can find amongst people that love the same thing they do. I think any avid reader can easily empathize with Jennifer and appreciate the setting of this book because of it.

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***mild spoiler following***

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My only complaint is one particular scene about a lecture on a certain feminine subject that happened off-page that I really wish we got to read and experience with the characters. I think it would have been a great way to keep growing the tension between Jennifer and Scott, and also just a lot of fun to read.

I have to admit, I got really excited when I felt like it was leading up to something great, and then felt extremely cheated out when it happened off-page.

You cannot come up with such a good scene concept and not carry it out! But, I guess that’s just me being picky.

DNF’d at 10 percent.

The tone is off on this. The MCs inner voice is annoying. Like, not unlikable but overly sassy, maybe?

I just didn’t connect with it and it makes me so sad.

this is such a sweet, hopeful, fun story!

I loved Jennifer’s fangirl persona! it’s so fun to find art that you love so much you want to get as close to jumping into it as possible!! the way she protects what’s important and fun to her was so satisfying to read. I love the way she and Scott couldn’t help but flirt a little with their sassy pettiness at the beginning. seeing them both come out of their protective shell to really see one another and thus really love and another was so special to read.

this book felt like such a love letter to fandoms and books and the excitement stories bring us. I loved the whole fantasy convention being the setting, I loved the side characters and all the joy they brought, I loved loved LOVED the parallels between real life love stories and the “book boyfriend” fantasy. it was so special, fun, and truly lovely to read.

thank you for the arc!!!!

I had high expectations for this book. Just from the premise, I thought this book was going to be the one. Unfortunately, I have to say that Book Boyfriend was a letdown. I didn’t enjoy it as much. I found it a bit annoying and boring at times. And it didn’t get better as I kept reading. It wasn’t terrible; it just was okay. Two rivals who aren’t really rivals when one of them really likes them but didn’t communicate with them. Make it make sense. Like, why? Why can’t you communicate?

Book Boyfriend is every fangirl’s dream experience. Jennifer Worth lives to escape into her stories, especially her favorite romantasy series Eltheum Courts, and now that she’s newly single, she travels to the fan experience for the series only to run into her work nemesis Scott Daniels. And the more these two run into each other and the more they compete, the more Jennifer sees there might be more to her coworker than she thought. Conceptually, I was all in for this. But I wish Scott’s POV was in there, because I love an enemies to lovers but I didn’t totally get them. They had chemistry, but as far as Jennifer knows, he hates the series, so it didn’t super click why he was at this week-long fan event. He feels really condescending and I was conflicted on who I wanted the love interest to even be. And Jennifer felt really immature at times with her search for a fantasy man. When Scott and Jennifer connect, I loved their vulnerability and their first date and the gentleness and support between the two of them—which made the third act breakup so frustrating. I saw it coming and I just didn’t like that it took from the growth of both. I will say the event and the love of reading throughout—it felt like a love letter to romance readers, and the end with it felt really emotional and heartwarming and I wish more of the story had that. As a whole, the friendships built are really lovely, and the banter is fun. There’s a heartwarming love of romance reading throughout it and for that, along with the banter and the friendships throughout, it’s a really solid three star for me.

This was so cute it actually made me cry! Our heroine Jennifer is a huge fan of the fictional book series "Elytheum" (clearly a thinly veiled ACOTAR reference.). She measure her boyfriends to the impossible standards set within those books, and hasn't had much success in real life dating. When a friend ends up in charge of event planning for an immersive Elytheum experience week, she jumps at the chance after a recent breakup and runs into her rivals-to-lovers coworkers.

Things I loved:
I immediately related to Jennifer's obsession, a romantasy girlie myself.
Her connection to the love of the books and the friends she makes through fandom was incredibly charming and relatable.
Scott and Jennifer's banter - top tier.

Things I think could have been a touch better:
It's never reallllly explained why Scott is at the experience. I felt like the author couldn't come up with a good reason and that fell short. Personally I feel he could've had nerdy friends who were ACTUALLY getting married during the experience and that would have been more believable.
The end - why did there need to be so much driving?!

This was a cozy and light workplace nemesis to lover’s romance. I am a sucker for this trope. It’s like baby enemies to lovers, not quite that intense, and it just works for me more than enemies to lovers does. Add some workplace drama and it just hits perfectly. This one was fun because it had some fantasy elements as well. Also, win for being a book about books. What’s more fun to read than books? Nothing in my opinion. I did struggle a little with this one on the pacing, it was a little uneven at times. I also felt that the romance was a little off, but in that way that is hard to explain. It was just off a little and wasn’t exactly believable for me. This book reads more like a new adult novel than an adult novel. I felt that the characters were in that new adult age, and their actions met their age. Nothing wrong with being early twenties, but I think that it’s easier to get in the right mindset if you go into it expecting that.

If you’re a romantasy lover and want a romcom about books, then you need to check this one out.

3.5 rounded to 4

I can see what this book was *trying* to do but it just missed the. mark on execution. The parts I liked the most about this book have more to do with fandom and finding a community of people with a shared love of one very specific thing and bonding over that. Unfortunately, due to this being a romance, the actual romance between Jennifer and Scott was vastly underwhelming and I didn't really like either of the MCs that much, especially when they were in each other's orbit. It's funny but Jennifer seemed much more interesting to me when she was in the dorm, hanging out with her friends. But whenever she was with Scott, that's when things got messy and not a good kind of messy, more like an immature kind of relationship that felt really underdeveloped for the most part.

I think this book would have worked better as a YA novel. It read as immature to me, like characters who lack life experience (such as young adults). I was also bummed to discover that the book is told from a singular POV. I’d grown accustomed to dual POVs from the authors, and I think it would have better served the story, especially Scott. Without knowing his inner dialogue, he was very difficult to get to know/sympathize with. That said, it was an easy read - not at all a struggle to get through. Thanks to Berkley for the ARC.

Book Boyfriend by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka is a delightful ode to fandoms, fantasy, and unexpected romance. Jennifer Worth, a devoted fan of the romantasy series Elytheum Courts, finds herself begrudgingly spending time with her work nemesis, Scott Daniels, at an immersive fan event. As Scott attempts to transform into the ideal "book boyfriend," their playful banter evolves into undeniable chemistry. The novel cleverly intertwines the allure of fictional worlds with the messy, heartfelt connections of real life, delivering swoonworthy moments and plenty of laughs. This charming enemies-to-lovers tale is perfect for readers who believe in the magic of books—and love stories.

Far from immune to a cute cover or a book about books, I obviously had to read this story. Full of belly laughs and both fantasy and contemporary romance references, this is my favorite story by this married author duo to date. Add it to your 2025 TBR list if you enjoy light, entertaining enemies-to-lovers romance stories.

This romcom romantasy features a fun storyline that has a light, fun vibe to it. It packs some fun banter, some spice and enjoyable characters. I think the pacing was a little off in places and I find that happen with duo authors, but it didn't really pull me out of the story.

A cozy workplace nemesis to lovers with the backdrop of a fun interactive fantasy experience? She’s trying to learn how to be a book boyfriend and turns all his moves on her? They grown together? Yes please and thank you. This was a great one.

Thank you for the free book, @berkleyromance #Berkleypartner #berkleybookstagram #berkley

In this rom com geared toward lovers of the romantasy genre, Jennifer is broken up with by her boyfriend publicly. Her colleague, Scott, hears the entire thing, much to her humiliation since she was once rejected by him. In order to move on and give herself much needed time for self-discovery, she goes to a book event that brings her favorite romantasy series to life. It promises a contest in the form of a scavenger hunt where the prize is a date with her dream book boyfriend. However, when she arrives, she finds that Scott is also attending the event. Will they put their animosity aside and take the risk of a new relationship?

I really enjoy this author duo and this book has a fun and unique concept. It reads like a love letter to fans of romance and romantasy. Because of this, it’s a bit of a niche book and may appeal more to fans of those genres. Because I only read romantasy occasionally, I didn’t relate to the main character quite as much as avid fans might, but I could certainly relate to her love of books. The supporting characters were funny and charismatic and helped bring levity to the story. Overall, I think this one will really appeal to fans of romantasy, comic con- type of events, and those who enjoy solving clues or puzzles.

Jennifer Worth is having a bad week. Her boyfriend broke up with her and of course her workplace rival, Scott Daniels, was there to witness it in all her embarrassing glory. But, lucky for Jennifer she has something to escape to, her all time favorite romantasy series Elytheum Courts. This time she gets to experience it in real life as her bff whisks her away to a week long Elytheum Courts live experience. She is swept away as her fantasy world is brought to life. However Jennifer is forced to face a harsh fact, that the fantasy world she has run to for solace and comfort is just that, a fantasy. Can she embrace her reality and fight to make it just as magical? Or will she run away and escape to the series she knows and loves?


This book is an ode to the ACOTAR girlies. It captures beautifully the balance between using fantasy books as an escape from reality, and a crutch to avoid dealing with reality. It's a slow burn with a ton of great banter. I wouldn't totally call it enemies to lovers although technically it is? I don't think however that is the main plot line here. Overall it was a cute easy read with some great tension and 1-2 spicy scenes that were pretty tame! The thing that really kept it from 3 stars for me was the pacing. The book builds really slowly and then feels a bit rushed at the end. I did love that a lot of the side characters were more fleshed out and had backstories to them which is a little atypical for a standard romance and really added some depth to the book!

Thank you to @berkleyromance for the advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily #berkley #berkleypartner