I enjoyed this book, but GOD I didn’t like Olivia…! It sort of felt like drama was being created for the sake of it sometimes which I found a little frustrating, but I did overall quite like this. I enjoyed the mental health representation (always so important!) and I enjoyed the relationship dynamics and how they changed throughout - I’m just not convinced it was my favourite romance ever. It was giving Gossip Girl vibes!

I had the chance to read an e-ARC for this book through net-galley. First of all, the cover is fall coded, and the perfect fall vibes read. I thought that the toxic relationship focus of the story was interesting, and there was certainly DRAMA throughout the story. I enjoyed the text conversations that were featured throughout the book, and I felt that they really added input into the characters personalities and development. I felt as though the story was predictable, but it was comforting at the same time as I was reading to have an idea of how it would end. Thanks for the read!

The story follows Olivia, whose life is turned upside down following the unexpected death of her lifelong best friend. A couple of years later, she finds herself still struggling with the grief but holding herself together as an accomplished student journalist and girlfriend of star basketball player, Will. However, when Will’s older brother Ben returns to college after a prolonged and unexplained absence, Olivia is forced to put herself first and face some realities she has been trying to avoid.

I loved this book — it is an easy five stars for me. It feels like an injustice to Sydney and Madison’s work to only label Astor Hill as a romance book. Don’t be mistaken; the romance is masterfully executed. It is slow burn, captivating and engaging throughout. Ben’s hard-earned emotional maturity perfectly accompanies the discomfort that Olivia feels when diverting from her preplanned life, and this makes for a love that you can’t help but root for. However, there is so much more to this story. There is a focus on love outside the romantic kind that results in such dynamic, well-rounded characters. The prestigious college setting puts an emphasis on how status can impact your self-worth. Olivia depended on Lily, Will depended on his position as team captain, and it’s clear that many of the supporting characters — who I cannot wait to learn more about in the future. I’m looking at you, Gen — would be lost without each other. When something like loss forces you to get to know yourself as an individual, it can be messy and confusing, and this book captures what it means to be a human in this way.

I could not recommend this more! thank you to Sydney and Madison for the ARC and for talking to me for an interview on The Romance Report — https://www.theromancereport.com/articles/wa5m0n4dcsa3qlnkldod5dflxgrv5y . Releasing 7th February!

"Life is filled with realization after realization that the people we love the most have an immense capacity for being shitty to us".

'Astor Hill' will hopefully become one of the most popular contemporary romance series of 2025. Grief, a love triangle, a story of self-discovery and moving on with life within a college setting—readers will find lots of relatability within the characters of this book. The romance is good and steamy, with the right amounts of smut.

For fans of the 'instant-love' trope, Ben will be an absolute favourite. The authors took time to build the characters' psyches and make them more human and approachable, as opposed to the entitled, sort of bratty behaviour they depicted in early chapters.

*Arc provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*.

Book Review: Astor Hill by Sydney Madison

Rating ⭐️: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spicy 🌶️: 🌶️

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review 💖

🚨Spoiler Alert 🚨

This book was a love triangle between two brother and one girl. He falls first, for his brother girlfriend, while he might have loved her first before they got together. This book was sow at the start and a bit confusing but once I kept reading I was hooked because of the plot twists.

This story is about Olivia who lost her best friend Lily and became trauma bonded with Will who loved Lily but didn’t tell Olivia that they had been a couple. There is loads of secrets and Will is not faithful and treats her like shit, when his brother Ben come back to college after two years off due to his mental health and he hates the way his brother treats Olivia.

Olivia is the newspaper writer for her school and has to write a story of why Ben left school two years ago and because of this they fall in love.

I found this book well written, there was a lot of flirting and banter that kept me hooked. Highly recommend.

Astor Hill is an impressive debut novel by two best friends. The story delves deeply into the emotional weight of grief and its profound effects on young people, exploring how loss can drive us to act in ways that feel both strange and deeply human.

One of the standout aspects of this book is its portrayal of family dynamics. From the outside, the families in Astor Hill might appear picture-perfect, but as the layers peel back, we see the fractures and struggles that make them so relatable.

The relationship between Olivia and Ben is an absolute highlight, balancing witty banter with heartwarming, tender moments. Their dynamic feels natural and vibrant, drawing you into their every interaction. Meanwhile, the connection between Olivia and Will remind me of like Magnolia and BJ, but in many ways, it feels like a more refined, emotionally resonant version.

I look forward to reading the rest of the series as it unfolds and seeing the stories of various side characters develop further.

Thank you NetGalley & Sydney Madison for the ARC.

Astor hill is a kinda sports romance but with a gossip girl twist IMO.

You definitely won't like all the characters but you will def like Ben. Olivia is stronger than me, that's for sure haha. If my man did half the stuff she had to go through I would've dumped his a$$ real quick.

If you like secrets, that's a story for you!
I'm giving this book 3,5 stars because i saw the plot twist coming from miles away, but it is a good story with good writing. I liked to growth of the characters even tho I still hate Will. Ben is chef kiss tho.

I would recommend, it's a quick and easy read.

I did not vibe with this writing. I felt like the jokes didn’t land and it was just confusing jumping from one thing to the next with no explanation. It’s just did not work for me.

Beautiful. the depth of conflict and issues in this book was written so well. At the surface it's a romance story with some heartache, once the story opens up you become attached to these characters on such a deeper level. While the FMC is dealing with the grief of losing her best friend, she also has to learn how to let go of who she was before and after the grief. There's such a pivotal moment in this book, near the end, when she's speaking with her dad and he points out that while Olivia feels as though there were immense pressures on how she should act, what expectations did she put on others around her that made them feel like they should keep secrets or act a certain way. It was just a whole 360. Made this book tangible to daily pressures as a woman or just a human. When this book is published it will take booktok by storm. Such a great read & a story you want to keep coming back to. I hope there are more coming and can't way to read them!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sydney Madison for this arc! This book reminded me so much of an early 2000s teen drama and I mean that in the best way possible! If there’s one thing I love it is messy, misunderstood characters and this book delivered that! Was this book a hot mess? Absolutely, and I loved that about it! But it wasn’t all mess and I genuinely enjoyed the connection between Olivia and Ben, as well as side characters like Grant and Sloane. There were a couple tropes in here I don’t typically enjoy, but overall I enjoyed the book and can’t wait for the next one!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
Astor Hill is a new adult romance set against the backdrop of elite college life, marketed for fans of Magnolia Parks, Gossip Girl, and One Tree Hill. While it delivers on complicated relationships, romance, betrayal, and a magnetic bad boy, it ultimately falls short of capturing the emotional depth I hoped for.
Olivia, the protagonist, is compelling at first but frustrating in her choices. She remains in toxic relationships, valuing them as integral to her identity. Despite recognizing that her best friend treats her poorly and her boyfriend is emotionally immature, Olivia continues to cherish and pursue them. Things take a controversial turn when she develops feelings for her boyfriend’s brother, Ben, but the execution fails to make this love triangle feel meaningful or make the protagonists worth rooting for.
Ben, however, is a standout character—thoughtful, self-aware, and actively working on himself through therapy, which reflects in his actions. His dynamic with Olivia is electric, and the book does a good job exploring grief and its impact on relationships.
Overall, Astor Hill has its moments of intrigue and passion but doesn’t quite live up to its potential. 3 out of 5 stars – a solid but unremarkable addition to the genre.

Okay if you are a fan of gossip girl, One Tree Hill, and Magnolia Parks then this is for you. From the start I would so hooked, I mean colleger romance and mysterious new man on campus sign me up. Olivia is a character that is constantly overshadowed by her friend lily and seems to be okay with that until something tragic happens and fast forward a few years and that tragic events not only still haunts her, but also the people around her. She sees happy enough with her boyfriend, Will, but then the true love interest enters the scene and does it get good!!!!! like the chemistry between Ben and Olivia was on fire from the minute they were in the same room as each other. I loved to see Olivia starting to grow more of a back bone and standing up for herself to her absolutely horrible boyfriend. Seeing her grow in herself with Ben was so sweet and to see that he genuine cared for her and her believing that she he did was truly deserved. The banter, the romance, the slow burn was just so good. Like literally a single sitting read. Was truly a joy to read. Thank you Net galley and PS Published for this e-arc.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to review this book. The story started off really strong. I loved Olivia and absolutely hated Will, which I believe was the author’s intention. However, I feel like I’m not the ideal audience for this book, as the "dating my ex’s brother" trope isn’t really my favorite. That said, the writing was great, and I especially enjoyed the multiple points of view!

If you enjoyed Magnolia Parks then Astor Hill will definitely intrigue you. I enjoyed the book but I didn't necessarily enjoy Olivia (the fmc). She rubbed me wrong pretty quickly but I did warm up to her throughout the book, but I still don't understand why everyone was obsessed with her. I did enjoy reading Ben's chapters though and I enjoyed him as a character but his possessive side started to annoy me.

I wish there was more about Lily's and Olivia's relationship, I didn't feel that loss as much as I think I should have. I was more upset about Will and Ben's relationship with their family than Lily.

This book has toxic relationships and deals with loss. It is the ex-boyfriend's older brother trope. I don't necessarily enjoy when there is insta love between one of the characters so that took me a while to move past. I was relieved that Will and Olivia were able to move and I am interested in reading more about the side characters, I think the next book in the series was set up nicely.

Overall I did enjoy this book and I am giving it 3.5 stars. If I liked Olivia a bit more as a person than I would have rated it higher. Thank you Netgalley and PS Publishing for providing an ARC for an honest review.

This book was great! The romance was done perfectly and I really appreciated the depth this book had and the grief represented in this book!

4.25⭐️

Astor Hills is promoted for fans of Magnolia Parks and Gossip Girl! And even though I haven’t read Magnolia Parks (yet) it does truly give similar vibes as Gossip Girl, which I really enjoyed!!🩷🎀

✨ i had good time while reading this book
✨ it was really fast-paced
✨ i really liked Ben and how he treated Olivia

🍁 boyfriend’s brother
🍁 grief of a best friend
🍁 he falls first
🍁 secrets and lots of college drama
🍁 toxic relationship
🍁 sports romance

❄️Thank you NetGalley and PS Published for the advanced reader copy. This review is entirely my own opinion.❄️

I was really struggling about what to rate this book - I was going between 4🌟 and 5🌟 but eventually decided on 4🌟; I'll explain why I chose this.

I personally loved this plot, it was so incredibly well written and I had a great time reading it. My main issue was that it felt like it was dragging on at certain points, but then there were other times where it felt too fast.

I loved the main characters, especially our main girl Olivia. I loved how she developed throughout the story and realised she deserved so much better than her ex-boyfriend. I also enjoyed Ben's character, our male main character - he seemed really caring and I loved how he developed his hind with the other characters in this book.

This book speaks about grief and learning to overcome the loss of a best friend, I wish it went into more detail about what happened to the best friend but I did like learning about her.

I'm really excited to read more of the author's works in the future & I'm looking forward to the next book already!! Grant is one of my favourite characters and I want to learn more about the female main character that'll be in the next book (can't say considering it'll be a spoiler.)

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book - I will be reading this author's work in the future and I am so grateful I had to opportunity to read this as an ARC. Thank you again to the author and publisher, also Netgalley for providing it.

Such a cute read, but can be a headache. I’m not a big fan of second act break ups, let alone a third. I felt like this book was really trying to fit in a lot when it didn’t need to. I wished it stuck to one main trope instead of a bunch of tiny ones.

This was intriguing! I'll admit it took me a minute to get into it, but it was pretty good once I got into it! The chemistry between the characters was decent, even if it was a little insta-lovey. While I know the cheating trope can be iffy for a lot of people, I think it actually worked well here. I would say go into this looking for the general vibe and setting of Gossip Girl, but not expecting the same level of scandal and drama.

For some reason, this was a little confusing in the beginning, like you were just kind of expected to know things that hadn't been explained to you yet. It all was explained by the end, and if I were to re-read this, it would probably make a lot more sense, but there were more than a couple times that I was a bit confused.

I also felt like the character development was a bit lopsided. Olivia is a very complicated character, and that was executed fairly seamlessly, but Ben could've used a little more development. Until the last few chapters, I felt like I had a far better grasp on his brother and his parents as characters (which, to be fair, Olivia is dating the brother first, so maybe that was kind of the point). However, it's clear that Ben's mental health plays a huge part in his part of the story, yet it doesn't really get talked about extensively until the end. Going back to Olivia, I appreciated how her struggle with grief was depicted! I think grief can be a hard topic considering how different it is for everyone, but as a fellow emotion suppresser myself, I felt very seen by Olivia. There were many times I wanted to shake her and tell her to stop defending people that treated her horribly, but I realized my friends have had to do the same thing to me, so unfortunately I get her.

Congratulations to Sydney Madison on their debut novel, I can't wait to see where this book goes when it's released and where the Astor Hill series takes us next! (this is me begging for Grant's book...... please I am obsessed with him!!!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Sydney Madison for this ARC!! (Review will be posted on Instagram closer to the release date!)

A novel that promises much but delivers only partially. Olivia and Ben's story moves through an interesting terrain between collegiate drama and psychological exploration, without fully reaching its potential.
The strengths lie in the representation of trauma and complex relational dynamics. Ben, in particular, emerges as a multifaceted character, with a mental health representation that feels authentic and touching. His personal story provides some of the book's most profound moments.
Unfortunately, Olivia feels less convincing. Her growth path appears fragmented, and some of her choices seem more driven by plot necessity than true personal evolution. The dynamics with Will and then with Ben suffer from a certain superficiality that weakens the emotional impact.
The writing has interesting sparks, with some lines that truly touch the depths, but it suffers from irregularity. The narrative rhythm oscillates between moments of intense participation and flatter ones, making the reading occasionally discontinuous.
The settings and "university elite" dynamics recall Gossip Girl, but with a more serious attention to emotional themes. An experiment that only partially succeeds.