So so funny. I could not stop laughing during this story. Is this going to be a piece of literature that goes down in history to be studied? Probably not. Did I have the best time reading it? I sure did!
The banter and sarcasm, the quick retorts. It was so entertaining!

Holy shit, Mazey Eddings, who are you and where have you been all my life? Sometimes I finish a book and I am just truly in awe of how it made me feel. Well, Actually was hilarious- I laughed out loud multiple times to the point where my husband looked over at me and was like what is wrong with you. Nothing is wrong with me- but Eva Kitt is my spirit animal and soul sister. Her character was so relatable and snarky and it actually did make me think about how we view things over all as a society. I mean it’s true, we are so mean to women, because they are used to it? Because they can handle it? Well they shouldn’t have to. This book was a love letter to this prickly black cat girlies- the ones who are snarky and mean but secretly soft and tender. For how funny the book was Mazey did an amazing job of also making it real and balancing the humour with real world things. Painting the picture that sometimes people suck but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be better and can’t be better. This was a second chance romance for the ages and I loved every single second of it.

Second chance romance isn't normally my cup of tea, but Mazey Eddings knocked it out of the park! This book felt like a perfect blend of romance, humor, and emotional moments and the pacing and timing was spot on. I fell in love with Eva and Riley from the start. Their sharp and witty banter never missed a beat, and I could FEEL the tension between them and I was rooting for them from beginning to the end.

I really enjoyed Eva as a FMC. I feel like she was truly justified in not trusting Riley, considering how he hurt her in the past. I admired seeing her independence and dedication to her craft and career, which are qualities that don't always appear in FMCs in this genre. I was happy to see her character development and her small steps to heal from her past trauma.

Riley Cooper --- is now immediately one of my new book boyfriends! He's so charming and is definitely golden retriever energy. His loyalty and unconditional love for Eva is heart-wrenching and hearing his side of the first "breakup' made me tear up, honestly.

And if you're wondering about spice: Yes, there is spice. Yes, it was SPICY. And yes, highly recommend! :)

Without spoiling too much, this book was such a fun journey and I couldn't put it down! From a disastrous "first" date to a happily ever after, the story of Riley and Eva was the NYC summer romance that I didn't know I needed.

4.5

Their connection was undeniable but it doesn’t mean
They start off disastrous but turn their relationship into the sweetest and loving relationship ever.

I absolutely adore Eva Kitt. Her shield of sarcasm and her snark. I understood her so much - she felt so relatable to shielding her heart and keeping people at an arm’s length. I was yelling at everyone in that book at her defence!! She needed people that could reassure her and uplift her, and Rylie was exactly that.

Rylie Cooper!! Like with Eva, he had to work to get me to like/trust him. I wanted to know everything first before passing my judgement, I needed to know he wouldn’t hurt Eva again 😭 but goddamn he was so adorable and such a ray of sunshine. Love a man who can take accountability and be open about his feelings. He gave Eva the safe place she needed to be vulnerable and to challenge her to be more upfront on her feelings.

The banter was top tier!!! She never held back and he took it and then some! Loved when he would shock her with his comebacks. Their dynamic kept each other on their toes.
As they opened up about their past and reasonings behind their actions - you really feel for them. They may come off as confident or strong but beneath it they’re human beings that are struggling. They are exactly what the other needs and are such a light for one another.

I loved that it wasn’t just about how Eva and Rylie would fall in love but also about learning to love yourself. No one’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes, everyone is a mess in some way, and everyone deserves to feel loved.

This book was such a fun read!! I got "chicken shop date" vibes from this book, but with its own twist!
The FMC Eva has dreams of being a journalist, but is stuck in a rather unconventional job to work her way up! I love her development through out the book, and I love her humour!
Our MMC Rylie is just the perfect little golden retriever who has his work cut out for him to make up for his past!
I found myself laughing a lot with this book, but also swooning at their relationship! You know it's a good book when you get butterflies!
I loved this book, and now have a new author to read all their books!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this.

Mazey has done it again! I loved this story. I loved the characters. I really love that there wasn’t a 3rd act breakup! I was scared but thankfully they spoke like adults! This book was so fun and flirty and really hot! Bravo! Also love the cover!

My first time reading Mazey Eddings and I’m hooked!
A contemporary love story. It is a perfect example of a rom-com with modern themes.

Eva’s a struggling journalist, filming segments with low level celebrities instead of writing the hard hitting pieces she’s dreamed about. The main plot of the book starts out with a drunken stitch filmed by our FMC, after finding a video of the man she had a short lived and quickly burnt out toxic relationship with. See Rylie, the MMC, is a popular internet podcaster, with segments about breaking down harmful masculinity and how to be a good partner. But our girl Eva knows the truth-and films a video calling him out. After the video goes viral all over social media her boss wants to capitalize on the insta-fame, by making Eva and Rylie film a segment together on her show. But then Rylie decides to break the script and ask Eva to let him make up for his past treatment of her. He asks her to go out with him for a set number of dates and in return she can “rate” their dates on his show. Eva agrees, thinking this is her chance to expose Rylie for what he is and also gain some traction in the world of journalism. But after a couple of dates and meetups, things begin to feel a little too real for Eva and she will have to decide whether she can move on from the past or not.

Our FMC Eva is mean and witty. She’ll tell it straight to your face- and I love her. She’s tough on the outside but with an inside that’s anxious and unsure of herself. She is a breath of fresh air in terms of main characters. I can relate to her in ways I’ve never have with other books. How she struggles with never feeling good enough and thinking people couldn’t actually care about her. I could see how her “unlikeable” personality could turn some people off but for me i see myself in her and how she thinks. I suppose if she’s unlikeable I am too!

Our MMC is Rylie. I could best describe as a needy sensitive golden retriever, whose vulnerability and at times shyness is refreshing to see in a world where the MMC is usually stoic and closed off. I enjoyed seeing the open conversations between him and Eva.

If you love banter between characters, good mental health and queer representation, and a romance with modern media mixed in, then this is the book for you


Some tropes:
Black cat x golden retriever
Open door spice
She’s mean but he loves it
Lots of praise talk
“I hurt you in the past but I’m going to prove I’ve changed”
Second chance romance
Queer rep
Mental health matters! Rep

I loved itttttt. I wanted to shake Eva sometimes but she was so real and had so much depth. I loved seeing into her head and I loved how Rylie wanted to get in there too and refused to back down. I was so happy there was no third act breakup and that they worked through everything together and she finally let him in. And that he finally let her in after so many years of her feeling rejected. When she said she deserved someone soft I sobbed. What an emotionally mature story that was also so fun and so hot. Going to recommend this to everyone I know.

it’s giving “stop being so mean to me, or I swear to god I’m gonna fall in love with you!”🤭🌭❤️💋👓
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•••

Looking for your next spicy, hilarious, fast-paced romance? Look no further 🌶️🥵

My first book by Miss @mazeyeddings and certainly not my last! Wow! I’m so happy this has the “read now” option on @netgalley! It’s not officially published until August 5th… (which I will be doing a reread then) but this novel was EXACTLY what I needed. I was laughing out loud from the start, giggling and kicking my feet, freaking panting like a dog at some chapters, and was just in awe at the character’s chemistry and complexity. I also thoroughly enjoyed the unfair workplace plot line, as well as the inclusivity of the queer youths side plot! I loved every single aspect of this book! It was as sinful as it was sweet. My forever favorite trope is someone who thinks they’re hard to love, and someone who loves them as easily as breathing.”🥹 this is for my angry girlies, the ones who always are called “tough” when they just want to be allowed to be soft, the ones who need reassurance and comfort. Omg RILEY COOPER the man that you are. Perfection of a mmc. With his slutty little glasses and just being a walking green flag.

🌭 golden retriever x black cat
🌭 she hates him, he’s obsessed with her
🌭 so much praise 🥵🧎🏻‍♀️

While I didn’t dislike the book, I also did not love it either. This is not the book I would reach for after reading it once.

I’ve read a few reviews and many readers have had an issue with Eva’s personality. I didn’t. I liked her. She’s a badass who owned it and I love that for her. However my issue with her character is that she kept self-sabotaging herself and my biggest issue is that she kept bringing Riley down with her. She essentially did the same thing Riley did to her in college but like three times. Even after Riley tells her that his feelings are real, she finds a way to not believe him. And when things go bad, her first instinct is to again, self-sabotage her relationship. I honestly got whiplash from all of it. I felt bad for Riley. I agree with a few comments mentioning how Eva did not have any character growth, and that’s true. She could definitely have benefited from therapy like Riley did.

Another issue I had is the toxic friendship depicted in the story. Aida was not a good friend. The way she blamed Eva for everything while she was literally breaking herself apart for their job was so incredibly selfish. They do make up towards the end, but it was a very toxic friendship.

Which leads me to the extremely toxic and abusive workplace environment. The things that Evan went through, the things she had to do, and the things that were done and said to her were so incredibly abusive. My problem with that is that Eva kept embarrassing herself, becoming a doormat, and literally begging for a job that treated her so poorly. And what pisses me off the most is that she still believed her boss to be someone to look up to. I wouldn’t want other girls reading this and thinking that it is acceptable to be treated that way just because it may be someone “successful” or someone to look up to. And even though it is resolved, this happens quite literally at the very last page of the book.

And finally, the story felt like it drags on for too long. At the 80% mark I just didn’t know what else could be said or done to develop the story.

I have read other books by Mazey and I’ve loved them. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading her books. Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me.

Holy, good lord.

Up and down, up and down. I couldn’t stop!!

I love that this book made me feel every emotion possible. I love that it touched on themes of identity, sexuality, work place harassment/bullying, and many more while also showing character development for both Rylie and Eva.

It was such a wild ride and I hope Eva’s career takes off to the starts!

Well, Actually was full of spice, laughter, anger, self awareness, humour, playfulness. Man, I just couldn’t get enough.

Sometimes irreverent, often hilarious, always deeply moving. “Well, Actually” is an honest look at how the experiences of our youth affect us in unforeseen ways and shape up into who we become. Eva Kitt is a sharp-witted black cat FMC desperate to feel safe enough to retract her claws. Rylie Cooper is an influencer made famous through his thorough deconstruction of toxic masculinity. He also happens to be Eva’s college situationship.

Witty but heartfelt, with poignant looks at identity and mental health, “Well, Actually” ranks up there with Julie Soto and Jessica Joyce. An unexpected delight to start the year.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

3.75/5 Stars

I am so glad that I got to read this book and discover Mazey Eddings as an author! In “Well, Actually,” we meet Eva, who has always felt like she is “tragically average.” She hosts “Sausage Talk” (think “Chicken Shop Date” but with hotdogs) but she really wants to feel like a respected journalist. One night, in a drunken and lonely state, she calls out her ex, Rylie, on social media, for being a dick to her in college when he now presents himself online as a good guy who helps other guys deconstruct toxic masculinity. She doesn’t expect him to then publicly ask her out on six dates that they will discuss on his podcast. Does she want to agree to these dates? No, well maybe yes because he is still very hot, but also no, because she doesn’t trust that he is the good guy that he seems to be now. But will it help her potentially advance her career? Yes. So she agrees and hot banter, golden retriever x black cat energy, and tension ensue.

When reading this book, I became obsessed with the way that Mazey Eddings writes. Her banter is actually laugh-out-loud funny. Her similes and metaphors and analogies capture feelings so perfectly, it feels addicting. We read the book from Eva’s point of view and the way that Mazey describes Eva’s feelings of not being good enough were so heartbreaking and so relatable. Mazey describes the juxtaposition of wanting people to think you’re amazing and brilliant and then dimming yourself to be palatable so people will like you because you’re afraid to be yourself and how that puts you in a lose-lose vicious cycle. She captured that sentiment in such a visceral and real way. Because of how sharply and descriptively Mazey writes, you can understand why Eva acts the way that she does.

For me, between the halfway mark of the book and the three-quarters mark, Eva and Rylie’s dynamic just felt repetitive and cyclical and a tad frustrating. I know how hard it is to change patterns that are so deeply ingrained in your psyche so I get why their dynamic was that way, but my brain wanted to read something different for that section of the book.

And while Rylie is swoon worthy and lovely, he felt almost too perfect. Maybe because we read it from Eva’s POV, we didn’t get to see his messiness as much. While he did have flaws, it felt like he was actively working on all of them and that Eva was set up as the messy one while he was the knight-in-shining armor. I just wanted a little more equality between them.

All of that being said, I am so glad that I read this book and discovered Mazey as a writer. Her writing style scratches an itch in my brain that I didn’t even know was there. I am so excited to go and read more of her books.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this eARC! All opinions are my own.

I wasn’t even one full chapter in before I knew Mazey Eddings had done it again. After hearing Eddings tell a book festival audience about her newest project last year, I was hooked! I’m so pleased that the book turned out even better than I could’ve hoped for.

Spoilers:
On a more personal note, I found Eva so relatable. From her anger-fueled doomscrolling, The X-Files watching, and the fear of not being enough, she is, like all of Eddings’s characters, immensely lovable and relatable. Neither her, nor Rylie, are perfect, but their flaws make them believable characters with a beautifully earned happy ending.

Side note: the Harper AND Lizzie cameos! I could not stop grinning!

Overall, a fantastic, five-star read. The best rom com I have read in a while!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

‘"That wasn't a compliment," he murmurs. "You terrify me." My heart does a little flip as if he just told me I'm the most beautiful girl in the world ‘

The way that I am obsessed with Rylie and Eva. As a fellow “I show you love by being a little mean” girlie…I love Eva so much. Rylie is the perfect little simp golden retriever that reminds me of my husband.

I think I laughed no less than 20 times reading this book. Mazey Eddings has this incredible ability to write a story and make people feel seen in her characters while also giving us temperature rising smut and hilarious little quips. I can’t wait to read more from her.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

This book was such a fun and heartfelt second-chance romance! The slow burn kept me hooked, and the dynamic between the leads was both charming and hilarious. Their banter had me laughing out loud, but there were also some really touching moments that gave the story emotional depth.
I loved how the author tackled themes of grief and rejection in a way that felt natural and thoughtful. Eva’s journey, especially in processing her past with Riley, was compelling, though I wish her family struggles had been explored a bit more—one particular scene gave so much insight into her character, and I wanted more of that. That said, the pacing was smooth, the romance was swoon-worthy, and I was so happy to see it skip the usual third-act breakup. A light yet meaningful read!

Im not sure I even have the words for how much I loved this and how important this book is???

A mean girl ( cannot be overstated that she's MEAN and I love her for it) with a soft heart and insecurities so deep she doesn't think she'll ever dig herself out of them.

A man so down bad he gets turned on by how mean she is. A man who did the work and continues to do the work in therapy to better himself. A genuinely good guy with a dirty mouth and endless support.

The best quick witted banter I've ever had the pleasure of laughing through. Emotional moments that had me clutching at my heart. A scene in the rain that had me kicking my feet. Honest and hard conversations. A man who keeps showing up and doesn't let her run away and shows her she's worth it every single day. The way Mazey made sure to soften Kit but never made her lose her mean girl qualities.

This one will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you SMP and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5!!

i LOVED late bloomer by mazey, so when i saw the cover & read the blurb of well, actually i knew i wanted to pick this up!!
now, this is how you do a second chance romance 🤩 i’ve always been into grumpy/sunshine but it’s always a sweet treat when it’s reverse grumpy/sunshine ☀️ eva is what i want to be when i grow up!! (as if im not already over halfway to 50) she’s boldly herself no matter who is around. she can also be a sweet, loyal cupcake. take her as she is or hit the road 💃🏻 she’s very cautious of our mmc riley - and for a good reason. riley is (now) a little angel baby & so down bad for eva I ATE IT UPPPP. he loves her meanness, & never wants her to change 😩 there’s nothing better than reading about a man who knows he needs to better himself actually taking the necessary steps to do so. i loved loved loved the banter between the two of them. i could read about 500 more pages of them together & never get tired of it. riley could have charmed me right out of my pants saying things like “but you, eva kitt, are not just a woman. I’m fairly certain you’ve a bit of the devil in you. but don’t worry, i’ll win her over as well.” LIKE ARE YOU KIDDING PLSSSS. well, actually was just what i needed. i would like to say thank you to netgalley for the chance to read early ☺️

this book is an absolute gem. from the moment that I read LATE BLOOMER by Mazey Eddings, I was hooked. (and she became an auto buy).

Eva is the black cat FMC of your dreams—i wasn’t sure whether to adore her, hate her, or laugh with her. but my complicated relationship with her kept turning page after page.

as a sarcastic girly, the banter between these two was unmatched. i swear every time Eva was a little mean, Riley lit up with heart eyes.

the only thing i wish is that Eva continues to seek therapy to help her resolve her past so she can have a well-rounded and happy future 🤍

4/5 ✨

It's a great book, another hit by Mazey. She knows how to give each character a unique voice, which I love. I definitely recommend it!