Book Review: On Her Terms by Amy Spalding

On Her Terms is a solid, well-written book. The writing is smooth, the story flows well, and it gives a really realistic look at the struggles of building a career. I can see how a lot of people would really connect with it, especially if they enjoy stories about ambition and self-discovery. That said, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t dislike it, but I also wasn’t totally hooked.

Overall, it’s a good book with a clear message and a well-developed world. If you like contemporary fiction that focuses on career growth and personal reinvention, it’s definitely worth checking out!

I really enjoyed the last instalment in this series, Clementine as a MC was one of my favorite things about the book. I love her personality, i understood her worries & insecurities and i related to her anxieties and her tendency to overthinking.

Coming out is usually a hard thing to do, and coming out in a age were you should have figured it at all sooner doubly so.

I really liked seeing Clementine and Chloe learn to open up themselves and that many things were different than they thought.
There were some moments that i just wanted to yell at them to communicate. I really liked Clementine and Chloe together, I wish we had seen a little more of them and the end.
The friendship were a big highlight of the book & I hate Greg a lot.

I really enjoyed this book and seeing all the characters from the other books.

Definitely recommend checking On her terms (out February 26th) & the Out in Hollywood series if you feel inclined to do so

Clementine was with the same man for twenty years. She has always been bisexual but has never tried queer dating. She meets dog groomer Chloe who offers to show her the ropes. They set up a fake dating arrangement where they can be each other's dates for Chloe’s friends wedding or for Clem’s parents wedding anniversary party. I like how coming out later in life is handled. This story covers other things including found family and a truly obnoxious real brother relationship. The main relationship is non conventional from the beginning. And I like that the characters don’t change who they fundamentally are for the HEA. This is the third in the Out in Hollywood series but the books can easily be read as stand alone novels. The wedding in this book is for the MC’s in “For Her Consideration” (Feb 2023), so if you want to see their beginning start there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: February 25, 2025

A sapphic love letter to found family, true friendship, and coming out later in life. A fun fake dating trope, with good banter and the requisite 3rd act conflict—the friend group really shines in this one. I enjoyed that in the end, they did things on their own terms.

This was a pretty quick read and I’m always partial to a sapphic romance, but I found some of the characters (in particular Chloe) really didn’t do it for me, I hate to be negative in a review but her treatment if clementine ruined the whole book for me. I know some people enjoy reading about dysfunctional/unhealthy relationships but this just wasn’t it for me ! I can see why some people really enjoyed it though !

This is my first Amy Spalding book I didn’t finish. It didn’t took me into the story like al her previous books.
Gregg’s behaviour is so bad and I literally can’t stand it that the FMC don’t call him out. I know this will happen at the end of the book (I read other reviews) but I don’t want to wait for that moment.
I will definitely read Spalding’s next books because I really liked her previous books.

Rating: ⭐⭐½ (rounded to ⭐⭐⭐)

On Her Terms had all the right ingredients—fake dating, sapphic awakening, found family—but somehow, the final dish was a little... undercooked.

Clementine dumps her long-term boyfriend, decides she’s finally ready to explore dating women, and her friends react like she’s announced she’s moving to the woods to marry a tree. The sheer audacity of them treating her like a cautionary tale for singlehood was honestly more unhinged than any fake dating scheme. Speaking of which, Chloe—tiny, charismatic, emotionally unavailable—had all the makings of a swoon-worthy love interest, but her hot-and-cold routine got old fast.

There’s great rep (plus-size MC, ADHD, late-bloomer queer journey), and Spalding’s writing is sharp and funny. But the romance? Less of a slow burn, more of a whoops, we’re suddenly sleeping together. The chemistry needed more build-up, and Chloe herself remained frustratingly opaque. Also, why did so many key moments happen off-page? Let me see the emotional beats, not just hear about them in a recap!

All in all, this had potential, but between the insufferable friend reactions, a romance that lacked real depth, and the relentless Diet Coke worship, I just wasn’t fully on board.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

This is a very authentic reflection on the queer LA life brought to us by a wonderful up-and-coming YA author. Just the first chapters alone will immediately immerse you into Spalding’s world, the character’s day-to-day emotions, why she likes hanging out in some of LA’s eclectic gay pubs, and what kind of future she is aiming for.

I promise you, this book will definitely make you fall in love with Spalding’s dynamic and diverse world.

This was a fun, coming of middle age, bisexual awakening Sapphic fake dating romance featuring a recently single plus sized woman with ADHD who is exploring her sexual identity. It was cute, relatable and honest had some good spicy moments and lots of honest conversation between the leads. It was also good on audio narrated by Lori Prince and perfect for fans of authors like Meryl Wilsner. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

After ending a long-term relationship with her boyfriend, Clementine decides to try to date women. She's identified as bi for a long time but hasn't had the opportunity, until she meets Chloe who needs a date to her friends' wedding events. The two agree to a fake relationship so that Clem has some experience with a woman before she looks for a real girlfriend. Thus begins a round of meeting friends and family with Clem beginning to realize how much she actually likes Chloe.

So here we have another fake dating romance with the added "only one bed" trope. The book's best quality is the cute and funny dialogue. Otherwise, as a mainstream published Sapphic romance, it doesn't differ in overall quality from similar books that are self-published or published by Sapphic presses (see The Love Lie by Monica McCallan for a good example). I also thought Clem's periodic references to the very romance novel tropes she was experiencing felt a bit too meta.

On the whole I would recommend this well written book.

I was provided an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley.

On Her Terms (publication date February 25, 2025) by Amy Spalding is the third book in her Out in Hollywood series, but could easily be read as a standalone. I found it to be a cute sapphic romance between the “baby gay” bisexual, plus-sized Clementine and experienced queer Chloe.

Clementine meets Chloe on her first trip walking to a gay bar near her work, when Chloe confronts some men who are catcalling her. Clem has known she was bisexual since college, but shortly thereafter met Will, and they stayed in a relationship for nearly twenty years. When Clem finally breaks up with him, her primary reason was that they didn’t want the same things–she never saw herself as getting married and having kids, and he clearly was wanting to go that direction.

Clem forgets that she has met Chloe at a work party, when she was with Will, and Chloe helps make her first trip to a gay bar not terrible. Chloe is a dog groomer with her own business, and Clem works for a Hollywood marketing firm in a mid-level position. She loves her job and has maintained strict work-life boundaries up to this point. But Chloe suggests that they try fake-dating to get Chloe through a friend’s wedding, as it would benefit both of them! Chloe gets an automatic plus one, and Clem gets an ex-girlfriend she can talk about so her first real girlfriend isn’t scared off by being the first girl she’s dated.

Clem thinks it a crazy idea, but her parents’ milestone wedding anniversary is coming up, and no one seems to understand why she broke up with Will. Bringing a girlfriend along certainly will solve that issue, so she agrees against her better judgment.

There goes her work-life boundaries, as Clem’s boss and owner of the company is part of Chloe’s friend group, who have weekly Sunday brunches and a very active group chat. And she can’t read Chloe very well–she says she isn’t good at relationships which is why they’re fake dating, but sometimes it feels real.

Chloe did not always treat Clem very well, but Clem stood up for herself and what she wanted, and I really loved how they worked things out. Clem’s feelings about coming out later in life hit home for me, as I had a similar experience. Spalding also wrote the novel to be clearly fat-positive, as Clem acknowledges some of the experiences fat women have, especially in L.A., and Clem is not the only fat character.

I was given this ARC by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It is so good to be back in the Out in Hollywood world created by the amazing Amy Spalding. I stumbled upon ‘For Her Consideration’ a couple years back and fell in love with Spalding’s characters and the way she treats queer and plus size characters. I was finally seeing myself in literature and seeing how to love myself through other characters.

I loved At Her Service as well, and this was a fantastic way to loop all three books together with a new couple (and pets!) to love while reuniting with old favorites. There are so many good lines, lessons, and advice woven throughout and multiple passages had me underlining with a happy vengeance and smiling at the page in real time. I also cannot get enough of a book where two characters do a fake dating plot while talking about how only characters in books partake in fake dating and that it always ends the same way. Very meta. Very queer. Very fabulous. And absolutely recommended.

I went to order a physical copy to complete my set mid-read and was delighted to find that I’d already pre ordered it months ago. You should absolutely as well!

I absolutely loved this book!! While I didn’t love that the love interest was introduced on what felt like page one, I loved Chloe and Clem’s journey and the slow burn was very gratifying. It was so fun to read about somebody coming out later into adulthood, and I LOVED the friendship storylines. Clem’s struggles with changing friendship dynamics hit very close to home - are you in my brain, Amy Spalding?? I couldn’t put the book down and I could not wait to see how it resolved. The ending was perfect for these characters!

Amy Spalding does it yet again! I really enjoyed “On Her Terms”. I cannot get enough of this interconnected series that gets better and better with each book. It isn't a requirement to have read the first two books, but it does provide more context because a lot of the characters in "For Her Consideration" and "At Her Service" are in this book. If you want that familiarity, I would read the first two books before this one. Chloe is a part of Ari's friend group in "For Her Consideration", and Sadie from "At Her Service" is also in this book. I was so happy that we were back with the whole friend group and got to spend a significant amount of time with them. The storyline is engaging and the characters have such a fleshed-out feeling, making each character feel like their own. The one thing I can always count on in Amy Spalding's books is the effortlessly funny dialogue. Her cultural references and love of pop culture shines through but not in an annoying way. This book had me laughing out loud on multiple occasions. I loved Clementine’s dynamic and chemistry with the relationship-phobic but clearly smitten Chloe. The strength here is Clem and Chloe's slowly growing chemistry and their witty banter. It's a wonderfully realistic exploration of not just queer relationships, but queer friendships as well. And the found family group of queer friends was fantastic, and I desperately wish I could join their weekly brunch. The pets were so cute! I want to adopt both Small Jessie Pinkman (the cat) and Fernando (the dog). Thanks to Netgalley, Amy Spalding and Kensington Publishing for an e-arc in exchange for my thoughts. I can'twait for Amy's next book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Five stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Amy Spalding for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amy Spalding is back, and as brilliant as ever with On Her Terms, the third instalment in the Out in Hollywood series. When I heard that the next book would feature Chloe Lee as the love interest I was over the moon. I love the original brunch group from For Her Consideration, and Chloe and Fernando were two of my favourite side characters, so getting to read more about them sounded like a dream come true to me. While we don't get Chloe's POV in On Her Terms we still see her at her best—and, let's be honest, at her worst—and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

On Her Terms follows thirty-six year old Clementine, who has just broken up with her boyfriend of more than a decade after realising that they don't want the same things in life anymore. Will wanted marriage and kids. Clementine wants a cat and a girlfriend—or at least she doesn't want to die alone. She has a great job, and a profitable side-hustle, but her brother doesn't take her seriously, and she feels like she's growing apart from her best friends who have more conventional life goals.

On her way to Johnny's—yes, that Johnny's from At Her Service, and yes Sadie makes multiple appearances—as part of her 'new gay plan', Clementine is harassed by some creeps on the street, only to be saved by none other than Chloe Lee, lesbian extraordinaire. After realising that this isn't their first time meeting the two women talk about their lives and Chloe proposes a scheme: Chloe needs a date to her friends' wedding and weekend brunches, and Clementine needs a practice girlfriend so she's no longer a 'baby gay' when she meets someone she actually wants to spend her life with and a date to her parents' surprise wedding anniversary, so Clementine and Chloe should fake date each other. While Clementine is hesistant at first after a catch-up with her friends she leans into the shenanigan and drama ensues!

We all know how fake dating schemes play out in romcoms, but this one has a lot of heart, and is delightfully queer. From kitten Small Jesse Pinkman, to red alerts, a celebrity wedding, and cameos from all your favourite Out in Hollywood characters, On Her Terms has everything you could want in a contemporary romance. Friends to lovers, only one bed, forced proximity, plenty of references to The L Word—it's an Amy Spalding book, after all—and a whole lot of ABBA too.

Like the previous Out in Hollywood books, On Her Terms will have you laughing along with the characters from start to end, and its capacity for emotional growth is fantastic too.
Overall, this book is a great expansion on the series, and I can't wait for the next book.

I wanted to love this, but I just couldn’t 😭 the book contains 3 tropes: fake dating, found family and forced proximity and I love a good trope but I really struggled with this.

The book itself is really well written and Amy Spalding is a fantastic author but I just couldn’t get past the way Chloe treated Clementine and the fact all was forgiven in the end. It felt forced and unrealistic to me.

I will say though, I couldn’t just pick one quote to start with as there was some ICONIC lines in this. I also love the fact there was a curvy MC and good ADHD representation. Also, Clementines gay awakening was Gillian Anderson, I feel that.

I do think this is a good book and I do recommend to all the sapphic readers out there who love a good trope!

Overall, I rate this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-arc of this book!

I read the first book in this series and then missed the release of the second, so I was very excited to get an arc of this one! Chloe and Clem were such a great couple who both felt behind their friend groups and communities as they didn't want marriage or children yet wanted to be treated as full adults by those who claimed to love them.

As a fake dating romance, these two are immediately down-bad for each other, and everyone accepts their fake relationship. Chloe wants to be taken seriously with her decisions, and Clem is nervous about this being her first queer relationship after twenty years with her college boyfriend. As they plan to attend Chloe's famous friend's wedding and Clem's parents' 40th-anniversary party, they get more serious with each other while still telling themselves it is fake.

Clem is a plus-sized bisexual woman, and Chloe is a Korean lesbian; both experience society in different ways and have to communicate their different experiences to each other. This book has surprisingly good communication throughout the fake dating, even as they don't tell each other the ultimate truth.

This series is so fun and looks at different queer communities in Los Angeles fantastically.

This is all about finding your true self and the family we make. Clem has left her last life and now she's expanding her world. Chloe needs a date and so proposes that the two of them. well, you know how this goes. That's a simplistic explanation for a big hearted sapphic romance between women in their late 30s. And their friend group. I enjoyed this for the characters and the positive outlook on life and love. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Amy Spalding’s *On Her Terms* is a delightfully witty and heartfelt sapphic rom-com that expertly balances humor, romance, and self-discovery. Clementine’s journey of breaking away from societal expectations and embracing what truly makes her happy is both relatable and refreshing. Her chemistry with Chloe is undeniable, and their fake dating dynamic leads to plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and slow-burn tension. Spalding’s sharp, engaging prose makes Clem’s inner conflicts feel authentic, and the novel’s blend of humor and emotional depth keeps the story compelling from start to finish.

The book explores the theme of love and independence. While the fake relationship trope delivers all the swoon-worthy tension readers expect, the novel’s heart lies in Clem’s personal growth and realization that being single doesn’t equate to being incomplete. Chloe, with her confident, no-nonsense demeanor, provides the perfect counterbalance to Clem’s evolving self-awareness, making their dynamic all the more rewarding. 

Based on the first two books, I expected to enjoy this one, and I'm happy to say that I loved it! The MC, Clementine, is in her mid thirties, bisexual & recently out of a very long term relationship with a man where she was strait passing & not out to some people, so now she wants to explore & expand the queer aspect of her life.

She ends up in a fake dating situation with Chloe (friend of the leads in the book 1 & regular patron of the bar in book 2), whom she's met before at work things but doesn't really remember & now encounters during her first solo trip to the gay bar. Chloe needs a date for a wedding, as she's the only single one in the friend group & feels looked down upon, so she proposes that she'll be Clem's practice girlfriend, someone to refer to as her ex when she starts dating women for real. The problem is, Clem likes Chloe from the start.

As usual, there's great found family in Chloe's friend group (one of whom is Clem's boss, which she didn't realize), and I had that that cozy, warmed-chest comfort feeling I got from the rest of the series. Both women have ADHD and it isn't a huge part of the story but is part of their lives, and I love to see disability rep like that. It's all from Clem's POV, and as much as I often prefer dual-POV, I think this was how it should be & I benefited from not knowing Chloe's inner workings in real time.

But what meant the most for me, a queer woman in her mid-30s who came out a few years ago, was seeing a "later in life" queer woman exploring her identity, actively going after the life she wants, and experiencing many of her firsts. I also appreciated the author's note where she said she wanted to write this story for those of us who hear 17 year olds saying they're late in life queers, and that no matter what age you are, it's never too late because we're all continually becoming the new version of ourselves (heavy paraphrase).

So, thank you to Amy Spalding for this story, and to Kensington Books for the ARC.

•Queer rep: lesbian and bi "baby queer"
•Disability rep: ADHD
•Korean-American rep
•fat rep
•3rd in series
•Release date: Feb 25/25