This was actually the perfect romance for me, it was a really fun read.
I love a good rom-com, but my preferred types of rom-coms are the ones that are also going to make me sob and really connect to the characters' backstories, and this very much did that. Both of the main characters are absolutely flawed individuals, but they come together and make each other better just for being part of each others' lives, and that is the best sort of romance story in my personal opinion. There was so much character growth, both individually and with the relationships in this book whether they be romantic, platonic, or familial. I absolutely loved it.
The chemistry between them was palpable from page one, and the banter was great.

Fans of Emily Henry/Abby Jimenez/etc will love it. I am sure I have several high school girls that would enjoy this book. It ticks all the boxes for a romcom read. This is my first read by Clare Gilmore and I will definitely look for more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the digital arc.

Will and Josie are very fun, likable characters that you want to root for! The backstory of a long ago shared kiss just adds to the fun of the story. A bitter sister, even more of a fun twist! The fact that it's set in Austin just was the icing on the cake for this Texan. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, the opinions are my own.

🎧Audiobook Review 🎧
Thank you SMP Romance for the gifted physical copy! Thank you NetGalley and RBMedia for the audio!

Perfect Fit
Clare Gilmore @claregilmorewrites
Publishing Date: October 29, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Narrator: Katherine Leonard 🎧

This was a really enjoyable romance! Some tropes you can expect to find here:

🩷 Second Chance Romance
🩷 Workplace Romance
🩷 (Ex) Best Friends Brother
🩷 Forced Proximity
🩷 Small Town
🩷 Cinnamon Roll FMC
🩷 Successful and Driven FMC
🩷 Strong Female Friendships

I really loved the dynamic between Josie and Will. Will is high quality book boyfriend material. Josie is a super driven and successful business owner who is still learning balance, priorities, and what’s really important in life. The friendships throughout this one were really nicely done. The communication between characters was so so good, and the absence of a miscommunication/lack of communication was a breath of fresh air. And can we please get a round of applause for NO third act breakup?! 🙌🏻

This was my first book by Clare Gilmore and it definitely won’t be my last.

🎧 I read this one mostly with my ears and Katherine Leonard was fantastic!!! She really did a nice job making the characters dynamic and the listening experience a pleasant one!

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for the ARC of this audiobook for my honest review

A really cute romance. Definitely a light and happy one cause I was smiling the whole time. The business side made it extra interesting. The characters were lovable and the plot was cute and simple. I recommend.

I'll be publishing my review on Goodreads and StoryGraph 5th January and on Tik tok most likely will add to a monthly wrap up post with review the beginning of February

I received an early edition of this audio book in exchange for my review. The narration was smooth and easy to listen to even through character changes. This is a perfect lighthearted story and was just the respite I needed from my typical thriller genre. I appreciated the writing and the imagery Clare Gilmore supplied. This is definitely up there on my list of great easy reads

As a girl who sews, and is a part of a generation very aware of mental health issues and burnout, as soon as I heard the premise of Perfect Fit, I knew I would enjoy this book. What I didn't anticipate though, was how much I would fall in love with this author's writing. From page one, I started falling in love with these characters, as I found them to be written with such sincerity. And while I really enjoyed the romantic plot line and the all the yearning, I also loved Josie's individual arc regarding mental health. I found that Clare Gilmore perfectly balanced the tone of this book, including both heartwarming, and realistically sad moments. In that sense, this story reminded me of Emily Henry's writing. I definitely recommend picking this one up!

This book was so swoony! The MMC was the epitome of a man written by a woman, and the love and support he gave the FMC was just so heartwarming to read. The whole thing felt like a warm hug, and that FMC really deserved a break. There were some really poignant messages about work/life balance and self love and burnout that all felt like they resonated, even though I’m not a startup CEO.

5 stars

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the story for this one and could relate to the female lead through our the story and I think s lot can do that

Loved getting to know Josie and follow her growth throughout this book. I felt like I was listening to a real life story. Thank you for keeping it real Gilmore!

Clare Gilmore writes the way I want to write! I loved her first book and found Perfect Fit to be a delightful second book! I found the characters to be wonderfully complex and lovable. There was something so comfy in watching this second chance blossom. I really enjoyed the narrator too!

I feel like this book is going to be my personality for the next few months cuz I freaking loved it, and I'm gonna keep recommending it!!

Josephine Davis takes the crown of being the craziest workaholic I've ever seen! She cannot stay without doing anything work related for even a moment, and also happens to be her worst critic. Because of her people pleasing and overthinking nature (so relatable), she's constantly getting anxious even for small things. But all this anxiety seems to stem from the thought of not letting her business go down the drain, and I can definitely understand why she feels that way. She started her business when she was going through a hard time and has worked her ass off to bring it to the current position, so the thought of losing it because of a small misstep terrifies her.

Even though Jo is heavily focused on her work, she doesn't forget to spend time with her friends. She's the sort of person who'd even die for their friends, and that made me admire her so much cuz we all know that such friends are hard to come by these days!!! And it was so heartwarming to see her make amends and reconnect with Zoe, the twin sister of Will Grant.

Will freaking Grant!!! - the man who has made me lose sleep, and the one who has officially taken up his spot among my top book boyfriends. It's so obvious from the start that he has fallen hard for Jo back then & hasn't moved on even now. But he tries to keep distance between them because Jo asked, and is such a man of manners! But what I liked most about him is his quietness!!!! Whenever Jo is going through a hard time or having an anxiety attack, he doesn't bombard her with questions rather he stays quietly by her side, offering her comfort and assuring her that everything will be fine. He's also the staunch supporter of Jo, he hypes her up during every step of the business and keeps reminding her of her worth.. it's so rare to find a guy who doesn't feel inferior to a girl boss, much less support her through every step!!!

Not to mention the fact that Will is a reader, cook, a great listener, and a man who's taken acts of service to the next level, tell me what more can anyone want from a partner?!!! He makes Jo feel at ease with him, and gives her the space she needs to make up her own mind and doesn't pressure her at any point of the novel. That's what made their slowburn of a romance more beautiful!!

The audiobook narrator has done a wonderful job of portraying the characters, I don't think I would've become this connected with the characters & their feelings if it weren't for the narrator. There were moments where I had to look at the ceiling to stop myself from tearing up, and that shows how good of a job the narrator has done!!!

This book made me realise that I'm an absolute sobbing mess for second chance romances!! Also, Clare has become my new favorite author and I cannot wait to read her backlist now!!

Huge thanks to NetGalley & RB Media for the audiobook Arc!!

4 ⭐
1 🌶️

second chance, best friend's bother, workplace

Josephine has been focused building her company. An old crush becomes a consultant for her business. They reconnect and reminisce. Emotional journey as they deal with the downfall of their past, rebuild their friendship and establishing a romantic relationship.

This book took me a little while to get into, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It's not my favorite romance of the year, but after a string of so-so reads, this one was a refreshing change.
Josie was a relatable, driven heroine, juggling ambition with the challenges of burnout. And Will? Sweet, funny, and ridiculously good at his job. It’s impossible not to fall for him.
Their relationship felt so real : open, supportive, and free from unnecessary drama. It was just a solid, feel-good romance. Plus, the audiobook narrator was actually fantastic, which made the experience even better.

🪡I absolutely adored this book! I was hooked from the start and devoured it - going back and forth between the wonderful audiobook and reading the gorgeous physical book.

👗 I loved Josie as a protagonist. Her voice was clear and relatable - how much empathy she has for others, how much pressure she feels and puts on herself to constantly prove herself, how she puts her all into everything she does, and how she doesn’t allow herself to fall and be held and stand still. I loved watching her learn and grow and love; it all felt organic and beautiful.

🪡 I loooooved Will Grant, the man that he is. The way he was so patient and tender with Josie, the acts of service he constantly did for her (I can’t even begin!), and how he was there to catch her when she fell but also supported her standing on her own. I can’t, I loved it.

👗 I also adored the emphasis on female Freud ships throughout the book. Josie had such a good support system, and her friendship with Camila brought me to tears. It was such a highlight throughout the book, shining just as bright as the relationship between Josie and Will.

Overall, I loved this book, and I definitely recommend it! I’m also obsessed with the epilogue - particularly the last line. So good!

Thank you so much to st Martin’s press and NetGalley for the audiobook - I adored it! The narrator was so clear, added emotion, and was overall fantastic.

Unfortunately, I DNF'ed this audiobook at 36%. I've heard amazing things about Perfect Fit so it might have been the narration, but it just didn't hold my attention.. The FMC was not relatable and the narration was a bit overperformed. Maybe I'll end up going back to it someday, but for now I'm giving it two stars.

Josie has spent years building her fashion brand. When one of her biggest investors orders her to hire a consultant, she never expects it to be her ex-best friend’s brother, the boy with whom she shared a kiss with lasting repercussions.

While I have yet to read Clare Gilmore’s debut, 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵, I was ecstatic when both the physical and audiobook versions of this one made their way to me. And it did not disappoint.

I am such a sucker for second chance and workplace romance, both of which Gilmore executes well. My interest was piqued when it came to their history, and I found myself fully invested in figuring out what exactly had gone so wrong that it impacted so many relationships. And yet, I was equally intrigued with the present day storyline and how Josie and Will are able to reconnect as they work to help her company. Of course, the witty banter woven in throughout was the cherry on top.

🎧 I went back and forth between the physical book and the audiobook. While both formats work well, Katharine Leonard’s narration really helped to bring the story to life for me.

Read if you like:
▪️second chance
▪️workplace romance
▪️forced proximity
▪️ex-best friend’s brother
▪️he falls first
▪️Texas setting

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies.

** spoiler alert ** 5 Stars!!!!!!
I didn't know what to expect with this one but I was so so so happy and loved this book. The main character, Josie, showed so much growth from being a severe workaholic who defend her self-worth by her work productivity to being able to take a break from work and enjoy life (with will grant). Such a deep story, I loved the flashbacks to the past and the relationship between Will and Josie and how it had developed. A fantastic book about the realities women face in work, love and in friendships. Would strongly suggest you pick this book up and I don't think my words can do it justice. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ALC :)

👗Book Review👗
*
Summary- Josephine Davis has spent her entire twenties building Revenant, a fashion brand headquartered in downtown Austin. When her biggest investor orders Josie to hire a consultant, the last person she expects to be working with is Will Grant – the twin brother of her ex best friend.

Sure, Will and Josie may have shared one mistake of a kiss during senior spring break nine years ago, but they’ve never been friends. She remembers him as moody; he always thought of her as shallow. Romance isn’t on the table for either of them until they blink, and realize there’s a reason they can’t stay away from each other.

But there’s Will’s sister to consider, whom Josie hasn’t spoken with since their falling out. Not to mention, Will and Josie live seventeen hundred miles apart. And it’s not like she has time for a boyfriend anyway when she’s an overworked CEO. As Josie’s burnout looms while she falls deeper and harder for Will, she contends with the fact that eventually, she’ll have to make a choice: stay alone to be productive, or slow down to be in love.
*
Rating- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
*
My thoughts- thank you @netgalley and @stmartinsgriffin for the advanced audio copy. I liked this one but I didn’t love it, my main issue was a pretty unrelatable character. The author kept emphasizing how much of a girl boss self starter Josie was but her family was rich. They mentioned her family being loaded at least a dozen times. I liked the romance and connection in this story but I didn’t love how quick Josie was to give up her life style. Overall it was a good romance but not such a great message in my opinion, the narrators were fantastic though.

Note: I gave this book 5 stars on goodreads and will post it onto my blog in two Mondays!

I adored this sweet romantic book. It dives into the complexity of woman entrepreneurship. What I most appreciated was that the relationship develops in very positive ways and isn’t toxic.

I loved Clare’s first book and she just keeps getting no better. The relationships in this book are fantastic, both romantic and friendship. And Will is absolutely amazing. An incredible book boyfriend.