An unexpected breakup sends Melody reeling and back to her small hometown to live with her twin brother Parker. Melody is determined to recover from the ex and rebound financially with her life. Naturally she reconnects with her BFF, Summer and Parker’s high school bestie, Zac.

Zac, now the football coach at the local college, had an unrequited crush on Melody in high school. Some describe this as a second chance, but since Melody and Zac were not together in high school it’s really more of a deferred romance in my opinion.

This was my first read by Ellie Wilde and not my last. I definitely enjoyed the combination of sports, fake dating, flirtation and spice and I think you will too!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Marketing for the complimentary eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is was absolutely PERFECT! It’s everything I love about a romance book honestly. A second chance, right person wrong time, a guy who LOVES his girl, a girl coming home to figure out her life, two people who have LOVED each other, time apart to grow (even though it HURTS), fake dating!! Someone else to throw everyone off the fact that they were sneaking around!! I really loved this book so much, I was so pleasantly surprised!

Watching Zac and Melody really fall in love, watching everything all into place, was so beautiful!! Seeing Zac finally get what he’s been waiting for, but also knowing how much Melody’s been through and being SO thoughtful of her feeling and wants and needs was SO SWEET! She had really been through it with her ex, and since coming home she was having some really heavy realizations…and she was struggling to work through that. But the fact that Zac wasn’t going to let her go if he could help it all while giving her the time and space she needed??? It was perfection.

Also I could read a whole book on the little family that Zac, Melody, and Noah were!! Zac and Noah specifically were so sweet. And seeing them through Melody’s eyes made my heart SO happy! She wanted her own family and she found it!!

I cannot wait for Brooks’s book!! And I will be going back to read Ellie’s backlist and I’m already so excited for that!!

This book was magic and thank you SO MUCH to Atria for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Official rating: 3.5

Let’s face it, I am a sucker for a second chance romance. I will swoon and dive head first into on any chance I get. This was a good one!

It started out very strong. The prologue had me hooked. The forced proximity for the first few chapters, and the tension were great. However, at some point it felt like it dragged a little. It felt like we kind of lost the tension and stopped working towards the goal because we hit it but they just didn’t admit it out loud.

I like Melody and her growth. Her realizing everything she went through in her last relationship and taking back control of her life was great. Zac was definitely swoon worthy but the big secret of what happened 10 years ago was kind of anticlimactic and like “really..?” 🤷🏼‍♀️

Overall, I liked it though. It had me swoon, giggle, and get irrationally pissed (F you Connor). If you can get me to feel those, I’d call it a win 😅

Oh I absolutely devoured this book!!

This is my first book by Ellie and it is for sure not going to be the last with the way emotions, feelings, so much pain and reverence was shown between the characters.

I am a sucker for second chance romance and this book was just it.

I was touched with the representation of the sensitive topics that were dealt in terms of toxic relationship and the impact they can have on you even after parting ways.

This I believe is a must read small town sports romance for beginners as they will find it all in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I love me some sports romance. But what I love more is the sports taking a bit of a back ground to the growing relationship between the characters. While the sports background is of some importance in this book, I really loved how Wilde built the relationship between Zac and Melody. Or should I say rebuilt it since it's been 10 years since they talked, 10 years since Zac walked away with no explanation as to why. Did I figure it out early on? I did. Did I care? Nope. I needed to see how Wilde got us to where I knew we needed to be.
Melody is fresh off a rocky and abusive (though she doesn't realize it right away) relationship. She's spent six years twisting herself into a pretzel to please her ex. I'm just going to put right here that I hate this guy, and I'm sure that's exactly what Wilde was going for. The emotional and mental abuse this guy spewed was totally gross. But Wilde did a great job showing it. And showing how easy it was for him to manipulate Melody into believing it. I will say her realization of the abuse was a little to quick for me, considering she endured it for six years. I feel like this would have been a slower process given the time she spent in the relationship. But I do understand it took getting out of the environment for her to be able to look back in and see what was wrong. I love her relationship with her twin. They banter and cajole each other in the most loving way. Parker is super protective of Melody, which comes into play with how she was treated in high school by all of Parker's friends (the football team). I enjoyed how she reconnected with her best friend but I truly enjoyed how she reconnected with Zac. Her slow burn realization that her crush from 10 years ago really never went away held up against her anger for him just leaving her and never looking back is a great dichotomy.
Zac is so sweet. I love how he's held out all these years for Melody. Knowing he screwed up but feeling like he could never really do anything about it for fear of losing Parker as a friend. But I also find it a little unrealistic that he would truly wait all those years hoping she'd come back when he knew she was in a committed relationship for so many years. I truly felt for him, though. I cannot imagine the pain of watching someone you love be with someone else and hoping beyond hope that one day you'd have another chance. I love how he rebuilds his relationship with Melody even with the idea that it may never turn into what he truly wants. And he not only has his heart set on her, but he has his heart set on protecting one of the kids he coaches: Noah. This relationship is built so well. Zac opens his home and heart to this kid because he sees he needs it. Is he trying to rescue him? Maybe a bit. But I jut think his heart is just so big he needs an outlet for all he wants to give. He creates a found family. I was swooning for him.
The pacing and writing style is well done with this book. I didn't feel there was unnecessary plot inserted that stalled the story. Every element moved things forward. I enjoyed how Wilde wove so many elements into the story. I laughed at some parts. Fanned myself with the spice. And definitely shed a few tears with the emotional gravity underlying the relationships between the characters. The chemistry between Zac and Melody is off the charts. They fight, they banter, they can't avoid the pull to one another. And how he helps her heal, even knowing she will at some point leave him, it's just so sweet! It has all the right elements of a romance. I didn't want to put this one down.
Does this book have great supporting characters? It sure does. Summer, Melody's best friend, slowly sneaks her way back into Melody's heart. They reconnect on that level only best high school friends can. And Brooks? OOF! I adore him. He and Zac has this bromance going that is so much fun.
Gold retriever, cinnamon bun guy? CHECK! Second chance love? CHECK! Brother's best friend? CHECK! Forced proximity? CHECK! Fake dating? CHECK! Slow burn? CHECK! And, a fun, quick, easy read? CHECK! No third act break up? YES! This book hits a lot of tropes which all work together to create a great story. I'm really excited for the next book in this series because BROOKS! Wilde will definitely be a go to author for me in the future.

I enjoyed this book way more than I was expecting. The way Zac loves Melody is everything and more! The way Zac acted towards her was swoon worthy, he had it bad for her and showed it and I loved the black cat x golden retriever. This was a nice easy read, and I loved the banter between all of the characters!!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Small town, brothers best friend, and sports romance??? Count me in!!! Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this early!
I really enjoyed this book!

This was my first foray into Ellie K Wilde's books - and I actually loved it! I would give this a solid 3.5/5, and here's why...

I loved the returning to your first love aspect, however I do wish there was more healing for Mel between her breakup and her reuniting with her first love. It was a little hard for me to suspend my disbelief in that aspect, but I know how difficult it would be to pace that. I also felt like Zac holding on to her for that many years was a little wild, and unhealthy. And holy cow - the spice in this book! Well written and just enough of it.

This just wasn’t well developed enough for me. I liked the premise a lot but it felt like the storyline and the characters need a little more work. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book but I felt like the being was very rush and did not fully flesh out what has happening in the rest of the book. It just seem like a really basic, middle of the line book.

oof. this one was a hot mess… so let me start with the one redeeming quality, there was no third act breakup!!! slay.

now let’s move on, this book is an absolute rollercoaster. the first 20% is full of every single trope under the sun that she could squeeze in. so much so, it genuinely did not make any sense. it felt like i was reading someone’s sporadic notes on a book they had hoped to write one day and were just writing down a million ideas. speaking of the first 20%, it felt like i was reading a completely different book. genuinely, the whole first section could be removed and you’d miss absolutely nothing.
the plot became mindless, and a bit redundant. which made getting through this book quickly, difficult for me. while i felt like i was reading the same thing over and over again, i also felt like i couldn’t process a single word because the writing felt a bit messy to me.
i think there are times that authors will fixate on certain phrases or words, and it becomes such extreme overkill. so much so, that it will actually ruin a book for me. IN FACT, the words brat, p*ssy, and cl*t are now traumatizing to me. so read at your own risk.
and FINALLY. melody was supposed to be running from a toxic ex, but respectfully, zac had SO MANY red flags…. miss girl needs to travel abroad, experience life, and just be single. 😵‍💫

A sweet, finally-getting-together story between Mel and her brother's best friend Zac. While the two pined after one another when they were younger, now is their chance to finally try a relationship. Zac is quite obsessive with Mel which was a bit disconcerting, but otherwise they were an easy couple to root for.

This book was fun! It was a very easy, quick read. I also really appreciated the way the author incorporated Melody’s recovery from her abusive relationship.
It was clear that Melody and Zac really cared for eachother, and I really loved their dynamic together. I think I would have appreciated their relationship even more if I didn’t find some of Zac’s pining a bit extreme, and that I’m not sure his grovelling/apologies necessarily matched their initial miscommunication.

Overall, it was a very good read, and I was definitely engaged and will for sure read the rest of this series.

I REALLY wanted to like this but I didn’t :((( idk the second chance trope didn’t make sense to me since they were never together before. Not really a second chance. I reread the first chapter over and over & it took me forever to get through this book.

This was a fun book I really liked. The story was cute, I enjoyed seeing Melody and Zac reconnect. After getting out of a manipulative relationship it was great to see Melody’s confidence grow over the course of the book as she bounced back and worked on herself. I especially loved seeing how Zac worked to quietly support Melody as she was getting out of her relationship and working to regain her confidence and independence- he was patient and ready to meet her where she was at, while still showing her how much he cared about her.

This was a fun small town sports romance, I really enjoyed getting to meet all the characters and seeing them grow, and getting to know the side characters- I’m excited to see what comes next for them.

there is nothing i love more than a sports, slow burn, second chance romance baby!!!

this was my first book of ellie’s and it certainly wont be my last. i adored every minute of zac and melody 🤭

brb gotta go find me a man as down bad and obsessed with me as zac is for her

This is a small town second chance romance with a little bit of sports thrown in. I really liked all of the characters Ellie created. Zac and Melody made the cutest couple and I enjoyed rooting them on as the reconnected after ten years. One of my favorite parts was the relationship they built looking out for Noah, the college quarterback who came from a rough family life. He helped add an extra dimension to their relationship. At the beginning of the book, Melody had recently gotten out of a 6-year relationship with Connor who had spent most of their relationship manipulating her and I loved watching Melody's character grow as she gained her confidence back and re-discovered herself. I wanted to be upset with her brother Parker for the chain of events he helped set in motion back in their high school years, but the twist at the end helped redeem his character for me. Summer and Brooks where both excellent supporting characters as well I can't wait to read Brooks' book which will be the next in the series!

ARC Review:

The FMC regrettably experiences the perfect example for why you should not “put all of your eggs into the same basket” and is grieving a breakup from a toxic ex.

Details: Second chance romance, brother’s best friend, fake dating, being sneaky, camping trip, waitress at a small town diner, number cruncher, dual POV, one tent 😆, “brat”, Friday night football lights, coaching, lip balm, WAG flag football, MUD, 🌶️ ☘️

I think the title of this book should be “The Playbook”. I experienced a lot of what this FMC experienced, personally, but I think a lot of her “problems” have easier solutions (no spoilers). I wish there was more character development through her spending more time with her best friend, Summer. I also really did not like the real reason to why it ended (never started) in the first place 😭

I really hope that there will be more books to come about the side characters in this story!!!

Only in Your Dreams has a lot of tropes, yet somehow makes them work together in a way that doesn’t make you feel like it’s everything but the kitchen sink. There’s brother’s best friend, childhood friends to lovers, sort of second chance romance, forced proximity, sports romance, and small-town romance to name a few. They work together quite well and made for a story I thoroughly enjoyed (and absolutely blew through).

Melody has been around Zac since he moved to her hometown to start high school. He quickly became best friends with Melody’s twin brother, Parker. While Zac is happy to attend their local university to play football, Melody always wanted to move to the city and try out a life there. The night before she leaves for college, Melody asks Zac to kiss her. When he doesn’t, she moves on and moves out, but his rejection followed her for years after. Ten years later, Melody finds herself reeling in the aftermath of a six-year relationship. Dumped and unable to afford her apartment in the city on her own, she moves home to crash with her brother until she can get back on her feet. Back in her hometown, she is quickly forced to confront Zac and her questionably resolved feelings about the last time she saw him.

This book flowed for me. It was hard to put down, and when I did, it was never for very long. I had fun reading it, and I’m hopeful that some of the side characters will get their own love stories in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

This slow burn was worth the read and I cant wait to get to read more by this author. Thank you so much for letting me read this book.