♡ quite possibly the best small town romance i've ever read ♡

4/5 ⭐️

thank you to @ashleydetweiler_author and @risingactionpublishingco for an ARC of this book!

abby jimenez lovers.. this book is for you! this truly is one of the sweetest love stories i've ever read. it makes for a good one sitting read at 217 pages & the plot keeps you ENTICED!!

📖 plot & pace: medium/fast paced with so many lovely layers that keep you interested! i absolutely fell in love with the small town of Sloane, Kate and her inner circle and the blooming romance(s)!!

👥 characters: i LOVED these characters! yes.. Kate & Jase can be seen as "childish".. but i think they're just reliving their childhood love that they never got to finish!! and in a small town like Sloane, what else can you do?!

🤩 tropes: small town romance, second chance romance, (slightly) forced proximity, love triangle

⚠️ content notes: there are brief mentions of verbal domestic altercations/alcohol addiction. nothing graphic descriptions & very low spice.

i really do wish this book was longer! i felt Kate and Jase's storyline was perfectly paced but i wish Nick had a bit more depth in the story. he was SO CUTE!!

overall, i loved this book and it made me feel so understood. this is the kind of love i've always dreamed about 💕

release date: 06/04/2025

3⭐️
(ARC review) — Thank you to author Ashley Detweiler and her publisher Rising Action. I received an Advanced Reader Copy for the JUNE 2025 release of THIS KIND OF LOVEin exchange for my honest review.

This is more family oriented and the emotional hardships along the way as life happens with a second-chance romance along side it. There’s a lot to unpack for this FMC.

I liked the dual timelines seeing how the past shaped the future. Friendship, Family, love & healing. The characters were well developed and you connected with them. Nana was an absolute hoot!

I’m a sucker for small town romances, and this was no exception. I loved all the characters, both timelines (though the past was my favorite), and that this book didn’t shy away from heavier subjects. It was a love story about a couple but also family, friends, and the quirky town.

DNF @ 14% unfortunately this one isn’t for me - the plot felt really random and disjointed and I struggled to like any of the characters.

This Kind of Love is a sweet, second-chance romance that isn't afraid to tackle tough subjects and pull at your heart. The characters are easy to relate to and I'm, 100%, a sucker for romances that feature the one who got away.

Despite my enjoyment of this book, I did have a couple of issues with it. I loathed the miscommunication between the two main characters. Yes, it added drama, but it made it hard to root for Jase because I knew he was hiding something, and a simple conversation with literally anyone she knew could have cleared everything up. I also felt like the writing was choppy at times and could have used a little more fleshing out.

As far as debut novels go, I thought this one was good. I adored the characters and the setting. The secondary characters stole my heart and I'd love to see more of them in future stories.

Most people know the feeling “There’s no place like home”, but sometimes going home is the last thing you want to do. Especially if you are running from the past and it tries to collide with the present. This book has heavy topics including alcoholism, abuse, anxiety, cancer, & death. But it is also about healing, and forgiveness.

Kate returns home after 6 years away and expects that nothing has changed. And in many ways that is true, but in a few ways- everything has changed. Leaving Kate to navigate through how that makes her feel, and what it means for the life she has built.

The story has a dual timeline that flashes back and forth between Kate at six years old, to Kate in her mid twenties. You experience family dynamics, trauma, love and loss in the span of the book.

Jase was Kate’s safe space and person for most of her life, until one accident changes everything. Kate believes Jase lived a very different life after she left, so when he keeps showing up telling her they need to talk she avoids him at every opportunity.

But eventually all things reach a boiling point- when confronted with past hurt can Kate forgive and forget?

I am rarely a fan of the miscommunication trope, and it did frustrate me that Jade, Nana, or Kate’s Mom didn’t tell her that Jase never dated anyone else or built a life with them. In fact Nana was negative to Jase and snubbed him for literally no reason. They were kids when his Dad died and all he did was break up with her. I would have enjoyed the second chance romance more, if it hadn’t been built on the miscommunication.

Thank you NetGalley and Ashley Detweiler for opportunity to read and review this ARC!

When I saw this book being recommended for fans of Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid I just knew I needed to get my hands on it. While I would agree that this is a good blend of both authors writing styles, it was missing that addictive quality that the aforementioned authors deliver. However, I will definitely be picking up more from this author in the future.

Mostly easy read. At times the writing felt choppy and like it didn’t have a good flow. There was also some inconsistencies that made it confusing to follow the story. I appreciated how the author addresses toxic relationships with family and the conflicting emotions one might experience. There was a lot of potential for this book but it didn’t quite make it.

This Kind of Love by Ashley Detweiler

I really liked the representation of toxic parents in this book and the emotional turmoil it can cause. When Kate’s father is rushed into hospital, she heads home to support her family. Going home means Kate is forced to confront her painful past. Every inch of Sloane is filled with memories of Kate’s alcoholic father, and the heartbreak her childhood sweetheart, Jase, inflicted on her. Can Kate put the past behind her and reconnect with her family and her past love?

While This Kind of Love is a romance, there’s also a lot of talking points around family dynamics. It’s interesting to unpack the emotional baggage Kate has from her childhood. The romance is sweet, and I enjoyed the flashbacks.



Thank you Net Galley and the Author for an ARC copy. All thoughts are my own.

An easy-to-read second chance romance. Kate and Jase both were friends since childhood turned into teenage lovers. They fell apart, and now, decades later, they are getting a second chance at love with each other again. There was also an underlying theme of alcoholism and its negative impact on the family. Characters are relatable. It's told through Kate's perspective alternating between now and past timelines. In the end, everything is tied up neatly with happily ever after. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I couldn't finish this. Maybe it wasn't for me and others might enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Dnf @ 27%

Was not feeling connected at all to this story. I was annoyed by all the characters. I didn’t understand this conflict at all.

I absolutely cherished every page of this book. It was just darling! I could not get over how sweet the characters were, and how relatable they could be. If you like Emily Henry, you will like this book! Wonderfully done!

In all honesty, I just couldn’t get into this book. The characters all had golden retriever personalities Nd were just too hyper on the page.

The book/plot also didn’t have a good flow. It felt choppy as we would go from scene to scene and dialogue to dialogue.

I couldn’t connect with the FMC because when we first meet her she just slept with a one night stand, then she starts dating this nice guy Nick, only to go home and reconnect with Jase. It rubbed me the wrong way.

The FMC’s Nana and Mama drove me nuts. So did the friend Amy.

I really wanted to like this one, but it should have been a pass. I hope other readers who like very active characters and fast plots like it.

*An ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.

Such a sweet story. I enjoyed getting lost in the pages of this title. The self-discovery that Detweiler writes about is delivered authentically. I appreciated that so much. I was entertained and invested in the characters. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I recently read This Kind of Love by Ashley Detweiler, and it was a heartwarming contemporary romance! The story follows Kate Dailey, who has built her life around three beliefs: Taylor Swift's music is the ultimate cure, Happily Ever After doesn't exist, and Jason Cole is the last person she wants to see again. Growing up in a small town, Jason was her first everything—kiss, friend, and beacon of hope through her darkest days. But when Jason broke her heart, Kate left everything behind and built a new life in NYC. Now, six years later, family duty calls her back home, and she must confront her past, including Jason. Facing Jason again, along with her complex family dynamics, Kate is torn between the safety of the life she's built and the allure of a second chance with Jason. The story beautifully explores themes of love, loss, and the possibility of healing. Overall, This Kind of Love is a touching and beautifully written novel that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page. If you enjoy contemporary romance with emotional depth, this book is definitely worth picking up!

I was enjoying how the book started, but ended up turning in a direction I wasn't a fan of. At one point i felt like i missed a chapter because we jumped ahead without going into detail and was confusing.

I love Emily Henry which is why I requested the ARC but comparing this book to hers is just not it.

I tried so so hard to keep going but at 47% I had to give up and DNF.

The first chapter was nice to read and had a fun pep to it, but when they leave New York it just all goes downhill. This book is just not ready. And I know it says that this is an uncorrected version that can contain typos and stuff, but the typos are not the problem here (and there aren’t even that many).

The problem is that it is full of inconsistencies. I first assumed no one but the author had read it but I looked at the acknowledgement section and it is full of people who helped with the book and editors yet no one could point out any of the glaring issues?

Emily Henry has such a beautiful way of writing that inspires a certain feeling, but this book just feels dull. It is just action after action, no ambiance and little feeling, the characters are 2D and not fleshed out and there are so many that could be cut. Having the best friend Amy there feels redundant, she brings nothing to the story and seems very “how do you do fellow kids” about their friendship. Every five sentences she has to remind us that she is Kate’s best friend because apparently that’s her only personality and she just feels so out of place with all the other characters of this small town.

Kate as well gives me very immature vibes for a 24 year old. She literally runs away from any unpleasant situation instead of facing them and talking it out like an adult. The drawing out of her and Jason’s thing/fight by ignoring him even though she bumps into him every five minutes was getting really annoying. I’m guessing that a lot of the conflict is going to revolve around a big misunderstanding.

There’s also a weird sense of time (?) in this story, like time passes so quickly between two actions. And not in the sense of ‘I woke up, went to work and then came home’ that’s just fast story telling. This is more about actions that shouldn’t be as fast as they are. In the first chapter, she orders 4 complicated starbucks coffees and she barely has time to say one sentence that they’re already ready to be picked up. It’s jarring and happens a few more times as well like when she’s playing tag. I’ve noticed that a lot of the plot revolves around actions getting interrupted by other things.

The things I liked the most were the flashbacks to several years ago when kate’s 6, 9 11, 14 et. She somehow is more mature and likeable there than in the present. The things that happen in these snapshots actually feel relevant to the story and isn’t just filler. Also so far, Kate unfortunately feels like the bad guy in the broken relationship just because of how she is written and all that running away stuff. Even in the first chapter she goes on about how amazing her mother is, yet when her mother calls her about a family emergency she hangs up and repeatedly ignores her calls because it hurts her? Fine, you can hate your dad, but don’t ignore your mother who is in pain. That did not make her likeable.

The characters also seem out of character? There’s a huge cast with a variety of ages yet they all behave the same and speak in the same #girly way which is very off putting. The only interaction that felt natural was between Kate and Jack and that was barely five paragraphs. As for the inconsistencies, a major one was when she gets into bed to sleep, someone is throwing pebbles at the window, she gets up and climbs out the window while she’s wearing ripped jeans and a t-shirt. No issue there, she could have changed out of her sleepwear offpage, but no, it’s explicitly mentioned she thinks it stupid not to change because now she’s wearing inappropriate clothes for outdoor stuff. So she went to bed with jeans on?

I really don’t like giving bad ratings, so I’m going to give it a three even though I feel like I should rate it lower.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 ⭐️
The description seemed interesting, kinda drew me in, absolutely flew through the first 25% and I kinda had a suspicion of something but wasn’t exactly sure if I was right. Then it just felt like around the 30% mark I was like some of this is just not believable just not realistic in the slightest. I just didn’t understand how literally everyone in the entire town knew about something and it just stayed a secret???? The FMC’s mother and grandmother like knowing v well that the FMC’s believes something to be true but it’s not. That just didn’t sit well with me. Anyways the further I got into the book my suspicion was confirmed but it just angered me the entire town knew and she didn’t???
Despite all of that I did enjoy the book, it was a nice story. Kinda felt bad for the other love interest, he did seem like a really great guy!!
I also thought the FMC was a bit immature at times about situations.
Took a brief break after hitting 30% was thinking of DNF but stuck with it and ended up being a good story.
Could’ve been 5 ⭐️ without that whole big misunderstanding. But it also quite realistic as communication issues and miscommunications are big issues in relationships.


Thank you to NetGalley and Ashley Detweiler for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Really happy to have been chosen to review this book, this is the authors first book so I’ll be keeping an eye out for her future work!!

Thank you netgalley for this eARC!

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it. I DNFed at 20%. The writing was great, but the storyline and the characters just felt underwhelming to me.