An entertaining concept set in the podcasting world. I liked the meet cute (and dog) and the conflicts that arise when her job puts the cute guy on hold for a bit. I enjoyed Holmes’ first novel and this one hit a similar sweet spot of having smart, real-feeling characters with interesting problems without the conflict feeling overly ponderous or lame. Enjoyable!
Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

I liked the characters and the podcast world that Back After This is in. It felt more like a slice of life book rather than a romance. At times it was a bit predictable, especially based on the chapter titles. Overall, it was an interesting book.

I loved this book! All of the characters were great. I actually really liked Eliza and would've liked more of her! Overall, a sweet easy read! Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

love this author and she nails it again with a story about looking for love publicly on a podcast series; it feels like an authentic tale of complicated career goals, what’s actually important in life, what love really looks like, and how to live life fully with joy and possibility

Thanks to Ballantine Books for an advanced copy of Back After This by Linda Holmes

I'm not a podcast person (too many audiobooks) but this book sounded interesting and I've enjoyed the other Linda Holmes books I've read. Cecily is a podcast producer and when her boss asks her to host a new podcast about modern dating with an influencer/dating coach, but the catch is she needs to go on dates for the podcast.

I liked that back after this was set in the Washington DC area so it was fun to see places I recognized. Cecily was a little bit of a doormat and I wish she had been a stronger character. The podcast stuff was interesting, and I did enjoy the story. This is more women's fiction than romance.

A podcast producer becomes the subject of a podcast series when she agrees to use a dating coach to find love. Although this was a cute story, I expected more substance, especially because it felt like a little bit of work to read. I'm still hoping for another Linda Holmes book that I liked as much as Evvie Drake Starts Over.

“We kept looking at each other, and it kept feeling more and more like this bank vestibule was the center of the world, the only place where there was any gravity, and I’d be sucked out into space if I opened the door.”

I read this book in one setting because once I fell into the world of Cecily, William and a mischievous Great Dane I simply didn’t want to get up until I knew how it all ended. I laughed out loud so many times reading this, there was some much appreciated cheese, amazing character banter, and such real life drama that I truly felt like this was a world of people I could be friends with or have interacted with to some extent in my own life.

The nods to podcasting and audiobooks were icing on the cake, they were the through line of the book but sprouted off of its base were the lives of so many characters I simply adored and didn’t want to leave behind with the last page. I knew Linda Holmes could write, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed but MAN did she deliver in a way that still felt unexpected. And the interwoven serendipity that is love was *chefs kiss*.

I loved how dorky Cecily was and how much Will GOT her, I loved reading about all her dates - each one was described perfectly without going into too much detail because let’s be honest, we weren’t rooting for any of those guys anyway. And I especially love how Holme’s writes female characters who are strong and independent, but instead of leaving it at “needing no man” (because they don’t) she acknowledges the fact so beautifully that while maybe they don’t NEED a man, it would still be nice to have one. To have that safety, stability and comfort that I myself know how lucky I am to have.

More than just a love story, this was a story about accepting yourself and the path your life is on and realizing that while it may look incomplete or “less than” to others, that doesn’t mean it’s not exactly where you’re supposed to be. And of course, there was a big, goofy Great Dane who made me think of my own big, goofy pitbull and I loved to see his paw prints throughout the story.

All in all this was a refreshingly unique, lovely and humorous story that brought me so much joy I was literally wiping a smile off my face.

3-3.5 stars. This was an up-and-down reading experience for me.

I’m a podcast listener, so all of the insights into how a podcast gets made were fascinating. There is so much that happens behind the scenes to make one episode that I wouldn’t even think about as a casual listener. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.

Other things I enjoyed were the meet-cute between Cecily and Will — and Buddy. I really liked Will and his confidence in who he was. He may not have had everything figured out with life, but he was ok with that and ok with being himself. I also enjoyed when Cecily finally found her own voice and began to make choices for herself and what she wanted.

I struggled with the flow of the story. There were so many times where weeks and even months were just glossed over in a few short sentences. The twenty dates Cecily had to go on were one-paragraph summaries. I would have rather had her go on far, far fewer dates and actually witness the dates than a quick recap of so many. Everything felt rushed. Even the relationship between Cecily and Will. I definitely felt the attraction and chemistry between them but the pacing of their interactions and progression felt disjointed at times.

This book held my attention for the most part but it was more of a passive read that I never really felt myself get very invested in. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a major fan of Holmes’ debut, EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER, and consider it one of the books that made me a romance fan as an adult. And luckily BACK AFTER THIS was a gem, too!

Our leading lady here is Cecily Foster, a hardworking and talented audio producer who finally gets the chance to host her own show. The catch? The show will follow Cecily on twenty blind dates under the instruction of a dating coach/influencer. Throwing a wrench in the dating plan is the man she keeps running into in the most serendipitous of ways.

I LOVE a character with a fascinating career, and all of the podcasting BTS details were really fun— and I’d assume some (of the good parts) are pulled from Holmes’ own audio career?! I also appreciated that the book delves into the hard parts of a “successful” career, too, though. This messy mix of emotions felt really true to life. And I’d 100% listen to this fictional show!!

While the career thread was my favorite part of BACK AFTER THIS, the romance was really lovely— a quieter, grounded story that still had me internally squealing at a few little plot turns.

This story felt a bit less original than EVVIE, but I think Holmes’ writing and voice still make this stand apart from the slew of other rom coms releasing this year. It was smart and funny (a line about a man who broke up with Cecily on Tax Day because it was a day he always spent thinking about the future had me giggling), but also captured a complex mesh of deep emotions. Cecily’s journey of reevaluating what she wants out of life was resonant, but also a plain fun read— a rom com sweet spot IMO!

🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Thank you @randomhouse @netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own. Publishes 2/25/25!

Linda Holmes writing continues to be a delight. With fast moving dialogue and banter. Quirky and fun characters finding themselves and finding love. I read this one in a day and there was something so captivating about it. It’s easy to feel stuck in of a victim of your own life, especially in your late 20s/early 30s because there is so much change and so much pressure to be something or do something or find success. When sometimes it’s helpful to learn to just be and recognize good things and happiness when it comes along.

3.5⭐️ Another sweet rom-com from Linda Holmes. She writes great banter, and Buddy the dog was my fave. But I could have used a little less plot around podcast production. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy!

Holmes low spice and low stakes romance is a take on the “bachelorette” style romance book.

Cecily edits podcasts and the company is looking for something new. They hire Eliza, a dating guru, who will find dates for Cecily to go one. Cecily tries them all out, but also finds Will in her search. Will is a photographer who just so happened to rescue a dog that Cecily had found. Will Cecily continue to date these men or will she have a connection with Will, whose life plan isnt for certain.

This was a low stakes romance with work drama and the drama of dating 20+ men! I did tend to zone out in some parts, but it was an interesting storyline.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This cute little rom com was such a fun read. I enjoyed the plot and most of the characters too. I definitely liked the author’s writing style too!

Cecily works in audio, so I liked that we got a “women in tech” novel! Overall, I thought this book was cute and a cozy read.

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

*Back After This* is about Cecily Foster, a podcast expert who spends most of her time working on other peoples’ projects. She works at a production company and pitches a lot of her own ideas, and would love to get to produce or host her own podcast.

Her boss makes a deal with her—if she collaborates with an influencer and makes a podcast about a woman getting her shit together, her boss will finally let her produce the pilot for a podcast of her own making. Despite her reservations, Cecily jumps right into making this podcast with influencer Eliza who insists Cecily will be able to find her true love through a rigorous and methodical approach.

But, like always, life has other plans, and it turns out the right guy for Cecily might not actually come from these careful, purposeful dates. Even though Cecily doesn’t buy into all of Eliza’s ideas, it does turn out that, by the end of the podcast, she actually has, somehow, gotten her shit together.

Before I give you my review for Back After This, let’s do a quick run through of my rating system.

- One star means that I could not finish the book.
- Two stars means I struggled to finish, but I did.
- Three stars means I enjoyed it, it was okay.
- Four stars means I really liked it and I would recommend it to a friend.
- And five stars, which is my highest honor, means I would read the book again.

Back After This gets a four-star rating from me because I liked it and would recommend it to a friend, but I probably wouldn’t read this one again. My favorite thing about this book by far was the comedy—it was laugh-out-loud funny, to the point where I was often pausing so I could interrupt my partner and tell him about what funny thing had just happened, or how the voice of the character had framed something to be particularly hilarious.

I thought this book did a good job of toeing the line between quirky and cheesy and downright cringy, and that really elevated the humor and made it fun and easy to read.

If you read Back After This and enjoyed it, these are some other titles you may enjoy.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Back After This isn’t exactly clean or sweet, as it does have some mentions of sexual intimacy, but it is definitely not a full open-door romance, and if you’re into that kind of level of spiciness, you may also like The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center.

Katherine Center has a very similar kind of funny, quirky writing style, and highlights a lot of the same humor in dialogue between characters.

One thing I appreciated about Back After This was the focus on the main character’s passion. Forget Me Not, while definitely being more explicit with the intimacy, has the same vibe with the character’s wedding planning and florist careers.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

In Expiration Dates, the main character receives little slips of paper that let her know how long each of her relationships are destined to last. Reading that book gives you a quick overview of the people she’s dated, which Back After This does as well. It feels like each of them does a good job of examining the process of dating, and how you know if something will work out or not.

We are now entering the spoiler-filled part of the video. If you like the sound of this book and want to read it, click away from the video, go read it, and come back for the deep dive.

Back After This opens with Cecily suffering her way through managing the audio for a podcast. She begs the host not to make mouth noises and mess up the audio, but he doesn’t listen. Luckily—or maybe unluckily—she’s called to her boss’s office, where he starts to make her a deal.

The production company isn’t doing well, and they need a knock-out hit to keep from going under. The boss thinks this hit is going to be a podcast in which one hapless woman gets her shit together with the help of a life/dating coach—and he wants the woman to be Cecily.

She doesn’t want to do it, but the boss promises to let her produce a pilot for one of her many podcast ideas. Cecily also sweetens the deal by ensuring both she and her best friend will get to keep their jobs at the company.

It’s important to Cecily that she start a new project, as her last one was slipped right out from under. She started a podcast with her ex-boyfriend, and did most of the research and work for the project. Convinced he was going to propose any day, Cecily was shocked when he abruptly told her that he wasn’t in love with her anymore, and took the podcast with him when he left.

Right away, there are things about this new show that make her uncomfortable. From the questionable advertisements—food for single people, cat products, and a gym membership—to her interactions with the influencer, who has an all-white living room and strict rules about what can and can’t be consumed in the space.

Cecily is walking out her door one day when a dog goes flying past, a leash trailing behind him. Intrigued, she watches as a man also runs past, a cape flapping behind him as he chases after the dog.

Interested in the whole scene, Cecily follows, discovering the man has been chasing the dog for blocks, and the dog runs the second he gets close enough. Cecily pulls a jar of peanut butter from her bag and tempts the dog with it, getting him back.

We find out that Buddy—the dog—doesn’t actually belong to this man, and he was in the middle of a haircut when he saw the dog get loose, so he jumped up and started chasing after it.

They exchange numbers, and later he texts her to let her know the dog is safe and sound—and the person walking him was actually a volunteer, walking him for the shelter.

Cecily doesn’t carry on a long texting conversation with the dog-chaser—whose name is Will—because she has her podcast and dates to focus on. It’s on her first date that she sees Will again—he’s the waiter at the nice restaurant.

She has a hard time reminding herself to pay attention to her date, and not the waiter, and when the episode airs, the listeners are obsessed with Will, whom they name “Hot Waiter” and praise for his quippy remark about the guy Cecily was on a date with.

Eliza, the influencer, is quick to dismiss the idea that Cecily should go after the hot waiter from the episode, saying it’s far more important for women to be intentional in their choices when it comes to men. And so Cecily continues going on her dates with some perfectly fine guys, and some guys she could take or leave.

Meanwhile, the meet-cutes (or meet-agains?) just keep happening with Will. He turns out to be the photographer taking her new head shots. Cecily discovers he adopted the dog and officially renamed him Buddy. Will and Cecily get along great, and find it easy to talk to one another.

After her initial dates, Cecily chooses just one guy to see again—a doctor named Michael. The podcast is going well, and when she attends a podcast party at Eliza’s house, she’s surprised that Will shows up, invited for his role as “hot waiter” in the first episode.

Eliza finds her during the party and makes it clear that she doesn’t think romance should be spontaneous—that going for the chemistry is a mistake.

Later, Cecily sees Will again when she ducks out of the rain and finds him doing the same just inside the doors of a bank. While there, Will asks her to dog sit Buddy for her, and she agrees. When he comes back, they have food and Cecily shares what she likes about podcasts.

They’re getting along great, except Cecily is still dating Michael the doctor, and she needs to focus on that. After their chat about podcasts and audio, Cecily sends Will a file she uses to help train new editors, asking if he can figure out what’s wrong with it as a little test.

Days later, it’s pouring down rain when he shows up at her door, dripping wet, to tell her he figured out what was wrong with the file—no breathing.

The tension between them finally snaps, and when Will comes inside, they fall into each other. Cecily and Will continue to see each other. Cecily meets Will’s sister. They talk about their exes and what brought them to D.C.

Then, one morning when Cecily is leaving his place, Eliza comes across them kissing on the sidewalk. She’s obviously upset—this could stand to ruin the podcast, and specifically her approach to finding love.

In her panic of the moment, Cecily makes some comments about Will that she shouldn’t. He turns around and goes inside, and things just continue to go downhill from there. At work, lay-offs still happen despite the success of Cecily’s show.

She finds out her best friend, Julie, is leaving the production company for a new job in New York City. And then, as the crux of it all, Eliza accidentally forwards an email chain to Cecily that shows Cecily’s boss and multiple other people have been talking behind her back, manipulating the situation, lying to her.

Cecily apologizes to Will and her horrible ex shows up outside her building. She finds out he’s going to be involved in the company through a merger, and that’s when she decides to quit, for the first time in the book taking her own life in her hands and going after what she wants, rather than going along for the ride.

Will helps her with her things after she quits her job, and the story ends with Cecily deciding she doesn’t want to let the podcast’s finale go up without telling the truth. With help from her best friend and the other people working on the show, they manage to re-work the final episode to tell the truth—that Cecily managed to fall in love with a man she met all on her own.

Okay, now that you’re caught up on what happens in this book, let’s get into my thoughts on it. When I started reading *Back After This*, I was coming off a few DNFs—books that had me heading in a dangerous reading slump territory.

Luckily, Back After This was immediately enjoyable. I loved the main character’s voice. She managed to walk the very fine line between funny and cringy, giving us jaded comments without seeming overly pessimistic or Millennial.

I enjoyed Will’s introduction, and thought again that the book did a good job of making their first meeting interesting, but not too unbelievable. We also have the subtle conflict between Cecily and Julie—something that felt very realistic, a true account of how best friends can sometimes not understand exactly what they’re doing wrong.

But that’s not where this went. Like with the initial meeting between Will and Cecily, the book managed to balance certain details about Eliza—the fact that she only drinks white wine in her house to protect her pristine white furniture—with the fact that despite that, she is definitively still human.

Back After This managed to surprise me in a lot of ways. When we first meet Eliza, the influencer, I was fully prepared for this book to give me a caricature of a person—that’s what a lot of books do when handling the subject of the influencer.

Capable of wanting to help others and making mistakes in pursuit of it. By the end of this book, we’re able to see that Eliza is smart and right about a lot of things, and still manages to be mean. Just like, I’m sure, many of the women we know in real life.

This is less of a criticism and more of an observation—the parts of the book I enjoyed least were those with the sister. I’m not sure if that’s just a personal preference, or if the sister needed more development as a character. They were far from being bad, but I felt they lacked a certain sparkle, especially compared to Cecily’s interactions with Will and Eliza.

Before getting into this review, I recommended that you check out Forget Me Not by Julie Soto. There’s a certain element I love in books that’s kind of hard to describe, but basically, it’s when the main character is *really* into something, and I get to sink into their knowledge and experience when reading the book. I love to really feel the passion for whatever that thing is, and when a book has it, that’s what really makes it sparkle.

It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll give a few examples to help. Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of those books for me, following a retired tennis star as she re-enters the game to protect her record. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and the world of video game design. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde and flowers. Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto and orchestra. There are a lot of food-related fiction books like this, including Sourdough by Robin Sloan and The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston.

Basically, I love reading a book in which it’s clear the writer has a passion—or at least an interest—in something, and that gets passed to the main character. Which then gets passed to me.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t really categorize this book that way. While there were a few moments in which we saw the main character’s love for audio coming through, the bulk of the book definitely focused on her interaction with Will, Eliza, and her dates, and there wasn’t as much of the podcast or production specific stuff.

Which isn’t necessarily bad—I may be in the minority of having this preference, but I would have liked the book to be a bit longer if that meant more content about podcasting, editing, and everything else our character is clearly passionate about.

All in all, I really enjoyed Back After This. It was a super easy read and actually made me laugh out loud. I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a lighthearted romance. If you enjoy meet cutes and rom coms, you may like Back After This.

Well, here I am again. Visiting Outlier Island.😎

I did enjoy the beginning of this book, but found Cecily to be a frustrating character. Here are three things I did love about this new title:

🥰The Meet Cute between Cecily and Will was delightful. I also loved their banter and that they kept running into each other at random times. He is so much more than "The Waitor."
🐕‍🦺Buddy, the Great Dane. He has spots like a cow and a mind of his own. Peanut butter is a favorite treat as are bully sticks -- just like our dog. I can just see him hogging Will's couch.
🎧I learned many things I did not know about producing a podcast. Cecily is most certainly good at what she does, but is she too bossy?

Be sure to read the reviews of other readers as many have liked this much more than I did. Perhaps Linda Holmes just isn't the author for me. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Cecily is a producer in DC recovering from a breakup that also screwed up her career trajectory. After being dumped and having her podcast idea stolen, Cecily's feeling pretty low. It's just at that moment that her boss dangles a great opportunity in front of her: her own show. The only catch is that it's going to be a show about her love life and she's obligated to go on dates for content.

As a huge fan of Evie Drake Starts Over, I worried Back After This couldn't live up to the hype but it absolutely does. Linda Holmes writers main characters that are so alive they jump off the page and I always want to be their friends. I loved Back After This and in a world full of lots of bad things, it was a joy to live in Cecily's world for a few days.

I loved Linda Holmes's previous two novels, and this might be her best yet. I loved learning about all that goes into being a podcast producer. Well-written characters, and everyone in the story communicated well, which is always a plus! A great concept and excellent execution!

Cecily is a very hard working dependable team player in the podcast world. She is still bruised from a past relationship where her boyfriend left her but basically took the podcast that she had helped to create with him. She wants to create her own podcast but her employer presents her with a different challenge. If Cecily will go on 20 blind dates set up by an influencer looking to break into a matchmaking/counselor role, she will get the opportunity to start her own podcast. To really force Cecily into the blind-dating show, he also lets her believe that it's the only way that her dear friend will get to keep her job.
Of course as Cecily is working on this podcast, she meets Will, a local photographer serendipitously. Cecily is instantly attracted to Will but is not sure whether it's a valid response or whether she should be picking a potential partner using the influencer's suggestions instead.
This story delved a little too hard into the world of podcasting at times which dragged down the plot but it was a really good story. I loved reading about Cecily's growth and how she dealt with balancing her own desires with those of others.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publsher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Back After This, a contemporary romance, is set in the world of podcasts. Cecily is a thirtysomething producer in Washington DC at a company that creates podcast content. Her work takes up most of her life, especially in the 4 years since losing her boyfriend and the successful podcast that they co-created. Her boss guilts her into creating a podcast series that follows Cecily on 20 dates set up by influencer Eliza.

I loved the behind the scenes of the creation of a podcast as well as the representation of the world of an influencer. I really enjoyed the main character Cecily and was really rooting for her. She seemed very down-to-earth and, to me, seemed to represent the typical single woman who would love to find love.
I also loved Holmes' novel Evvie Drake Starts Over and so I was eager to read this when I discovered it. I'm thrilled to report it did not disappoint and I blew through it because I wanted to find out what happened.

Many thanks to #RandomHouse #BallantineBooks and #NetGalley for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Long time fan of Linda Holmes, and this book doesn't disappoint. Charming, realistic, and romantic. Highly enjoyable!

ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.