A great HEA Enemies to Lovers Romance. Juliana is a single mom after her husband died. She had been a stay at home mom with two kids but after her husband is gone she must downsize her home and return to the workforce. She gets a good job with a great company and finds the handsomest man by spilling coffee all over him on her first day! She is so embarrassed but also hopeful. She thought Ben was cute and is very aware of him and thinks he is interested as well until she has to leave work due to a call she receives from her daughters school and ,must cancel a meeting with Ben. Before she leaves, she overhears him complaining to her boss about her inexperience and the possible issue with her kids! This starts a war! She is hurt and mad and determined to make him sorry for his unkind words and opinions of her.

Some ironic and funny circumstances occur with her keeping score - and winning the war! Then things begin to change. He is friendly and brings her coffee. She's so puzzled then very surprised when she finds out he has a daughter named Paris who is in her daughter class! Paris and her daughter are besties. Life is ironic. How can Ben think so little of Juliana as a parent when he is a single parent also!

Ben begins to pursue her but she still has feelings from her former marriage. They finally call a truce and have a pretty exciting romance going on. Everything looks great and she finally decides to give him her heart but of course that is the exact moment his ex-wife returns and blows up everything.

They attend a work conference and she receives a job offer in another state. Should she take it? Should she stay at her current job and see if she can reconcile with Ben? It is a very stormy time for them both. Can she offer her heart twice and take the chance?

Join Juliana on her journey to find happiness for herself , her kids, friends, family, her company and Ben.!

Let’s Call a Truce had the enemies-to-lovers down pat. The secret and not-so-secret glances, the office politics and a great cast of characters made this book so enjoyable. There is a decision that was made in the third act that really annoyed me and made me lessen my liking of Ben a bit. However, he does redeem himself a bit when more of a background story is revealed and the grand gesture was sweet enough to grant him a chance to be listened to. Props needs to be given to Juliana, as her character endured a lot and I loved her strength and willingness to be honest with herself and to others about her concerns and what she wants.

Narration by Charlotte North kept me hooked on the story and her character’s voice differentiation was great.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🔥🔥🔥

Quick Breakdown

Grumpy x Sunshine
Workplace Rivals
Single Mom
Widowed Heroine
He Falls First
Single POV
Open Door - Moderate

Juliana first meets Ben on her first day back in the workforce after her husband unexpectedly passed away months prior. Then she accidentally hears him venting about her inexperience & scheduling conflicts with her kids. For the next two years the pair butt heads, constantly needling each other. But now she’s up for a well deserved and much needed promotion & a large joint project with Ben is her ticket to showing the higher ups that she’s ready for the responsibility. Can they come to a truce?

Overall, this was a really solid debut. The rivals to lovers aspect was done very well. All the playground vibes I love. The banter and sparing as föreplay worked for me. While this is written in a single POV, you can easily tell that it’s Ben who falls first & I was 100% here for it. Given her recent tragedy & continual work to keep her head above water it makes sense that she was hesitant to starting over again romantically. It was almost like he was romancing / dating her on the sly. The kids in this one were written incredibly realistic and helped our MCs with their growth throughout the story. I just loved their blended family so much.

Then, the conflict hit. I understood it. I understood the logic, but then it felt like too much of a downer with all the grief already suffered in the beginning. I was forced to face my emotions too much & for too long. If you are prepared going in & can appreciate some sad, you’re going to love this one.

I am really excited for what comes next from Amy! Thank you to @smpromance for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Giving Let's Call A Truce 5 stars was an easy decision for me! Debut author Amy Buchanan hit it out of the park with this modern day romance. This book features second chances at life and love, grief and the family dynamics related to it, a workplace romance, a spin on enemies to lovers, spicy romance and hilarious and witty banter. Juliana is a widowed mother who is re-entering the workforce and wading through life as the sole earner and caregiver for her young daughters. When she begins working she meets a handsome coworker named Ben but they have a rough start and quickly become sworn enemies. As the story unfolds the complex history of both Juliana and Bens pasts will have you laughing, crying, and a few times wanting to shake each of them to wake up and see the obvious things that they are missing. The supporting characters of friends and family are so well developed and loveable, especially their sweet daughters.
I listened to the audiobook version and I want to especially praise the amazing narrator, Charlotte North. The emotions she conveyed with her reading were incredible and I felt like I was a fly on the wall throughout the story... Especially during the steamy parts!
A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of Let’s Call A Truce!

4.5 stars

Let’s Call A Truce is Amy Buchanan’s Debut Novel & it did not disappoint!! It has everything I want in romance novels. Enemies to lovers, second chance romance, love after loss, office romance, humor, angst, heartfelt moments, and so much chemistry!

The story is centered around Juliana Ryan, a mother and a newly widowed wife trying to juggle the everyday challenges of single parenting and a demanding career. The last thing she needed was to be judged by her office nemesis, Ben Thomas😒

This would have been a great read, but I’m so glad I listened became the narrator truly brought Juliana & Ben’s story to life. She gave it so much love and depth. You could really feel the emotions coming through her voice. Juliana & Ben’s story is beautiful. It’s one that you could see being 100% real. You cannot help but to root for them for their HEA💖

Absolutely amazing !
So thoughtful and emotional in all the emotions she feels in grief and navigating the children’s emotions with all the changes. But still keeps the hopeful tone that keeps the listeners at the edge of their seats and to when they will finally just commit to each other.

This book started off with your typical enemies to lovers trope throw in a workplace with lots of witty banter? Love it! This book was everything I expected it to be. Single Mom Juliana is a widow and has 2 young girls. Forced to get back to working after losing her husband, first day back and anxiety ridden she runs into Ben, the gorgeous grump. Sparks are flying and she's not ready to move on, yet work brings them back together over and over. This book had more depth to it that your typical steamy grumpy boss tropes. Emotional at times and witty, I very much enjoyed this advanced copy audiobook. Narration was spot on, thanks NetGalley!

This romance follows a widower jumping back into the workplace and juggling her two daughters, their activities, and her new schedule. She meets a male coworker and overhears him frustrated about how well she can perform her job since she has kids to divide her attention. What follows is a two year enemies to lovers romance that has plenty of ups and downs. There is a LOT of spice, mainly in that sex/sexual attraction is constantly alluded to, not that the door is wide open on the actual sex scenes. What worked for me: older MCs who have gone through rough times and trying to balance parenthood with a romantic relationship, the very real difficulties of parenting after losing a spouse, the friendships, the narrator, and the female MC killing it in her job. What didn't work for me was the spicy content and the conflict between the two MCs towards the end of the book. What he chose to do "for his daughter" was soooo stupid and devastating to the romance that I was actively rooting against him and not cheering for their happily ever after. For that reason alone, I didn't love it and wouldn't recommend it.

Amy Buchanan does a great job of revealing the heart of this story layer by gradual layer. At the beginning, all we know is the harried, distraught life of a recently widowed single mom, trying to make it in a competitive workplace while maintaining a close bond with her kids, whose lives have been turned upside down by their father's unexpected death. At work, Juliana is often forced to work too closely to the annoying Ben, who seems to think parental problems and responsibilities have no business crossing the company threshold. The key word in that sentence is "seems," and over time, both Juliana and the reader get to know a different Ben, himself pulled in different directions while trying to achieve professional success. This is a lovely book on many levels, and my only criticism is of the somewhat overblown crisis not long before the end. My overall sense at the conclusion, however, was complete satisfaction and a desire to read more by this talented author. Round up to an enthusiastic 4.5 stars.

(3.5 stars)

This was so different from many romances I read - it focused on grief and second chances and was touching and beautiful!

Both single parents Juliana and Ben had a rough start in their relationship when Juliana overhears something he says at work. After two years of being sworn enemies, they might put the past aside and admit their feelings while working on the future together.

I will say that while I enjoyed this audiobook and story, I had a very hard time staying engaged in the middle of the book. I thought at times that Juliana was childish and behaved - honestly - not the best. I was ready to rip my hair out anytime she spoke to Ben.

What redeemed this story for me was the 3rd act breakup - crazy! I know! But I thought that it was such a unique situation that didn't leave me upset, and I thought it was a realistic issue they had to work through.

ɴᴇᴛɢᴀʟʟᴇʏ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ || LET’S CALL A TRUCE [thank you to @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my #gifted ARC & ALC!]

Title: Let’s Call a Truce
Genre: Romance
Format: Audio
Star Rating: ★★★★☆
Narrator: Charlotte North
Narration: ★★★★☆

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ:
Widowed and rebuilding her life, Juliana Ryan battles her dismissive coworker-turned-nemesis, Ben Thomas, until a career-defining project forces a truce. As fiery arguments evolve into undeniable chemistry, Juliana faces a choice: risk her heart for love again or protect herself from the shadows of Ben’s past.

ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
I absolutely love a good older MC, second chance at love romance story. As a mom myself, it’s always a treat to see issues and problems that I run into shown in romance novels (needing a babysitter to do anything? Check. Feeling like you’re always behind or doing it wrong? Check).

My only true complaint with this book was the third act breakup. Something about it felt kind of off and weird…but also understandable? I don’t know, I just wish it had come about a different way maybe. But I still loved it!

Can’t wait to see what Amy comes out with next!

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
Widowed FMC
Second Chance at Love
Adorable Children
Catch & Keep
Workplace Romance
Enemies-to-Lovers

ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟꜱ:
GR: 4.00 ⭐️
# of Hours: 10 hours, 45 Minutes
Pub Date: January 14, 2025

This was a really fun read! I listened to it in two days, and it kept me interested the whole time. I love a good happy ending :)

Widowed and struggling to restart her career, Juliana clashes with her condescending but attractive colleague, Ben. Their intense feud unexpectedly blossoms into romance, but Ben’s past threatens their fragile happiness.

This book has a strong voice that drew me in right away. It’s the best kind of enemies-to-lovers: bad first impression, strong attraction, and annoyance until they really get to know each other. The banter is delicious. Juliana is a strong character and a good mom—playful but never malicious. She and Ben have a ton of chemistry, and the little girls are adorable. The audio narration is a perfect match to the book.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

3.5 stars. I liked it but didn't love it. Amy has a great voice and I enjoyed reading it but the impact of grief on both Juliana and her daughters felt incomplete. We would see Juliana refer to her grief but never really working through it. Amy created an A+ MMC in Ben...up until the conflict and then it felt, despite everything we've been led to believe about Ben, poof- gone.

Excellent choice on narrator!

I'll absolutely be on the lookout for what Amy does next. Thank you to SMP for the opportunity. All thoughts are my own.

4.0⭐️ 2025 will be my audiobook year mark my words… 🖊️

workplace romance? check. single mom x single dad? check. super cutesy romantic gestures? checkcheckcheck ✅✅✅ this book was such a fun workplace rivals to lovers and the banter and tension was top tier AND THE KIDS WERE ADORABLE (paris my queen💕💕)

juliana was such a dynamic character and i loved her relationship with her friends and her kids. her development through this story is so perfect for her and bens relationship and i loved how career driven she was. she was so funny and real and i loved the narrator. my only problem with her was how indecisive and back and forth she was LIKE GIRL PLEASE 🙏 (alexa play hot n cold by katy perry)

ben was such a perfect book guy and such a good father (HIM AND PARIS HAVE MY HEARTTT❤️💗💝) his little teasing and quips with juliana made the banter so so entertaining and funny. his kindness towards juliana and his SAINTLY patience as he waited for her to make up her mind was so so adorable like this man was really obsessed you could not pry him away from her. i wish this book was dual pov so i could get his thoughts especially since i listened to the audio book #justiceforben😔😔

overall such a cute workplace romance and if you like good family dynamics between single parents then read this!! thank you to netgalley for the audio ARC!💖💖

Admittedly, I almost gave up on this one very early on. Hang tight. I swear, this book is great. Ben seemed like an irredeemable misogynist and Juliana's grief had me crying in, like, the first half hour of the book. 1) Ben is NOT a raging misogynist and 2) I'm a big crier. Crying at a book is pretty much my MO. 3) It turns out I was just in one of my judgy moods at the time. I get like that occasionally.

So, what's my point in even saying all this? LCAT is one of those books and Amy Buchanan is one of those authors that are going to make you FEEL things right from the start. Obviously, this is a good thing in a romance novel.

I was convinced that Ben was awful because Juliana was convinced that Ben was awful. His character is revealed to the reader layer by layer just as it is to Juliana. (Is this an undressing pun? Possibly.) Juliana's grief over the loss of her husband is honest and open. Their relationship is complicated because grief is complicated and parenting is complicated and there is no getting around that. The couple has to go through it. LCAT is a classic office rivals to lovers based on an early miscommunication that is rooted in the baggage each of the MCs carries with them. (I'm a firm believer that miscommunication is not a trope, it's a plot device-it's how it's presented that can make it tiresome.) They each have to unpack that baggage in order to see the other for they are.

Lemme move on from the emotionally heavy stuff and say that Ben and Juliana's chemistry is Heavy and Hawt. The 🔥 starts when the couple is still in the rival phase and oh d-mn...Ben's got this ability to see the kind of lover Juliana needs him to be at that exact moment in order for her to feel comfortable amidst her complicated emotions.

So, yeah, I'm obsessed with this book. Charlotte North is perfect for Juliana's sass. She's incredibly talented and I think I love her more with each audiobook I listen to of hers.

Thanks to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the ALC of Let's Call a Truce.

Thank you SMP Romance for my #gifted ARC and thank you Macmillan Audio for my #gifted AL of Let’s Call a Truce! #smpromance #macmillanaudio #MacAudio2024 #LetsCallATruce #AmyBuchanan

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐀 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐞
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐀𝐦𝐲 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐧
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟏𝟒, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

This was an absolutely adorable and steamy debut by author Amy Buchanan!

Quick Summary: After her husband dies unexpectedly, Juliana is forced to go back to work to support her children. Her new (attractive) colleague, Ben, feels she is a liability as a single parent, and Juliana sets out to prove him wrong!

Juliana was such an amazing FMC and I loved her from the very start. I thought she was such a strong character to deal with everything she went through and I just loved her and her character. This book had so much humor and the best banter too! The feud between Ben and Juliana was something else, filled with so much tension. Buchanan is an amazing writer and I look forward to reading whatever she writes next!

💕Enemies to Lovers
💕Workplace Romance
💕Second Chances
💕He Falls First
💕Open Door Romance
💕Single Parent
💕Debut Novel

🎧I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Charlotte North. North did such a fabulous job bringing this story to life. I always love listening to books narrated by North, and this was no exception. This one was absolutely perfect on audio and I would highly recommend listening to this one on audio if that option is available to you!

Posted on Goodreads on January 15, 2025: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around January 15, 2025: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on January 15, 2025
**-will post on designated date

Dual POV
Single parent
Workplace romance
Strong female character
Enemies to lovers


I really liked the storyline of Let’s Call a Truce, Amy Buchanan’s debut novel. It was nice to read a book about characters in the 30-40 year old age range.

Julianna is a widow with two daughters who has gone back to work in an HR department for a company after her husband died in a car crash. She runs into Ben, who works in another department of the same company, on her first day. They work together for two years under the assumption they both hate each other. They eventually find common ground and start a workplace romance when they get assigned to work in the same project.

Julianna is thriving at her company and has received multiple promotions while being the mother to two tween age daughters. I like the strength of her character and could understand the real complications of being with Ben that she was mentally working through in the book.

Ben turns out to be a dream MMC. He says some things that kick off the hate portion of the relationship, but redeems himself later, but then messes up, but then realizes he was dumb. So basically a realistic “dream” MMC.

Overall this was a great story, I found myself giggling at the inner commentary as well as the banter. There were also some steamy portions of course. If a book makes me laugh and turns me on it gets 4-5 stars from me!

This was such a great read!

After losing her husband Juliana struggles to rebuild a life for her and her two young daughters. She finds herself back in the work place after being a stay at home mom for 7 years. She quickly finds herself in a workplace feud with the office hot guy, Ben. After antagonizing each other for 2 years they find themselves getting to know each other better while working on a project together.

I enjoyed the banter between Juliana and Ben. I also loved the portrayal of strong female friendships between Julianna and her besties. The topic of losing a spouse was handle was such care, and the book provides a realistic and touching view of parenthood, very through extraordinary circumstances

Rating: 4.5/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

This book is perfect for book lovers that like the following tropes: Workplace romance, Enemies to lovers, Single mom/single dad, he falls first, second chance romance, great chemistry with the characters and great banter. This book is about Juliana, whose husband has passed away and is back to working full-time. She loves her job and is excited to work there until she meets Ben. Yes, he is attractive and when she hears hurtful words about her from Ben, because she must leave work to handle a situation with her kids, she is determined to have nothing to do with him. Until the day that she is forced to work with Ben on a career-making project, when other feelings other than anger start to show up. Will her nemesis end up being her knight and shining armor?

I really liked this contemporary romance, with it being a workplace romance and all the right feelings to go with it. I found the plot to be something fun, but at the same time the author did handle topics like grief, death, abandonment and being a single parent very well. I can’t believe this is a debut book, because the way that this author writes, she knows how to keep her readers engaged throughout the book, giving us what we need and want in a contemporary romance. I found this book to be fast-paced, and I honestly couldn’t believe that I finished it in one day, because I couldn’t put it down. I also liked that the twist that the plot took was needed because let’s be honest when you have children everything changes, and I could understand that being a former single parent. I found the characters to be well developed, and the side characters were great.

I enjoyed getting to know Juliana, you can see that she loves her children and understands what is needed to make sure that their lives are not just turned upside down. I liked the fact that she was understanding, fierce when it came to her children and friends, and she understood that she needed time for herself. I liked that she was flawed, that made it easier for me to connect with her characters and to understand her better. I loved the banter that Juliana and Ben would have at work and outside of work and can we talk about that chemistry between those two… it was written so well that it had me screaming silently. For Ben, at first, I didn’t like him but the more that I got to understand his character, he started to grow on me. I soon found myself swooning over things that he would say to her and the things that he was doing to her… HOT!! There was a 3rd act breakup but the way that the author handled it I could completely understand and didn’t mind at all.

I received the audio for this book as well and I found Charlotte North to have narrated this book so well. I liked the fact that she helped to bring the characters to life, and I felt as though I was watching the scenes happen rather than just reading about it. I would recommend this narrator to all my bookish friends and of course this book.

I want to thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s and Macmillan for the opportunity to review this book.