With such a lively cover and the mention of Malibu in the synopsis, I thought Speechless would be a funny, swoony rom-com; I wasn’t entirely wrong. It is swoony and romantic, but it's also deep, heartfelt, and tender.

Lucy’s life is in upheaval. She’s recently divorced, suffering from a chronic illness, and moving to a different state to help her best friend, who has suddenly told her she could no longer stay with her. She’s looking at a shit sandwich. The only thing that helps her, besides her adorable service dog, is the masterful music of Henry Turner. Who does she meet on her flight to LA when all looks bleak? The one and only Henry flipping Turner, who looks nothing like Beethoven but is a smoking hot thirty-two-year-old.

Henry has crippling anxiety and prefers to let his music talk from her. When he sees a beautiful woman at the airport and hears her humming his music, he must talk to her, which is a feat since Henry usually can’t speak to strangers at all. Still, there's something about Lucy that draws him in, and suddenly he’s inviting her to stay with him and his band/roommates in Malibu.

Speechless is a sweeping, slow-burn romance steeped in music, friendship, and finding your family. It is heartfelt and magical how the relationships in this book unfold and how the characters build themselves around each other into a deeply loving family. as the synopsis says, it’s about finding your people, overcoming your deepest insecurities and choosing to live your happiness

Cute! That's the first what came to my mind after reading. This story is so cute.

It is sometimes naive, have some important issues highlighted in and I spend a wonderful time with this book. That's for sure.

This is an example that sometimes we don't need a perfect book. We don't need to understand the characters, their decisions or motivations to just feel the story in our bones and be there.

Cool, easy-going, enjoyable book for long evenings.

A sweet & heartwarming friends to lovers forced proximity romance w/ a New-Girl-esque friend group, the cutest pup, all the drama & plenty of depth exploring chronic illness & mental health!

☀️Wow!!! This book hooked me from start to finish. I picked it up and could not put it down. I laughed, I cried and everything in between.

The character development is great. The two main characters are allowed to go on their separate journeys while providing support for each other and deepening their connection. I liked the awareness brought to invisible illnesses and personal struggles that are highlighted throughout the novel. I loved the supporting characters and overarching theme of found family. Such a heartwarming novel!

I also cannot resist a Taylor Swift or Throne of Glass reference. Love a main character with great taste! 🎉🙌

I could NOT put this book down- I read it in one sitting! I laughed and I cried. Then I laughed and cried at the same time. This was a beautiful love story that represented serendipity at its finest. This was a 5 star rom-com read for me for many reasons: I loved the story! I am a musical person, having grown up in a family of hobby musicians, and taking piano and voice lessons for nearly my whole life, so it was fun to see the musical passion consistent through the pages of this novel. It was, at times, angsty and touched on many different heavy topics that are becoming more and more prevalent in people's lives, such as mental health and infertility (just to name a couple) and I think it's so so important for them to be represented accurately. And Rowan. Oh Rowan. And Graham. The supporting characters in this story were top notch and they made me feel like i was a part of the family that Lanza created in her precious, debut novel.

I will recommend this book to any romance book lover once it hits the shelves in January!

Wow. I am Speechless. This is a debut!? First off, thank you so much for an eArc of this. I cannot be any more appreciative.

I loved everything about this and cannot wait for everyone to read this. I laughed, I smiled, I cried, I felt all the emotions. The way the author tied in music not only throughout the book, but within the "parts" themselves was so creative and worked so well. HAAAM was an absolute joy. I loved the instant relationship that Lucy had with them, as well as watching Henry's relationship with grow deeper.

*a likely spoiler*
I knew going into this that Lucy had an unseen disability. I learned quickly that Henry did too. I could relate to both of these characters. While my relatedness to Henry isn't as deep as Lucy's, I still felt it. Anxiety is so real and can affect all aspects of our relationships. My relatedness to Lucy's made me cry. I don't have the same diagnosis as her, but I have been battling infertility for 5 years now. I felt her emotions as I have felt them too. Never feeling good enough because you can't give your husband what they want in life. And then when Mary's story came into it, I felt it even more as we have been going through those treatments with "nothing" wrong.

The author wrote about these so real and authentically, that I am still in disbelief that this is a debut. This gave me Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkin Read, vibes. I cannot wait to read more from Lindsey - I hope she continues writing as I look forward to read anything she writes from here forward.

4.5 stars!
-
i want to thank lindsey for this arc 🤍 this is her debut novel and she did a fantastic job!

this book touched on so many important things that are close to my heart. chronic illnesses, mental illness, service dogs and more. as someone with all 3 of these things reading a book with them made me so happy!

“I hate hospitals. I should just wear a list of my medical history around my neck”

this book was amazing. i loved watching henry and lucy’s relationship develop. Henry being sweet, lucy being strong, the found family, the banter, rowan, the music, the taylor swift mentions, the romance, the steam. i loved it all.

“I’d sell my soul to see you smile.”

“What’s flutter tonguing?” Henry chuckles lustily. “Lie down. I’ll show you.”

the only thing is that i wish there was more where Rowan was being a service dog. more with him tasking and just life in general with a service dog. there were also a few moments that i felt were inappropriate behaviour for a service dog. those however don’t take away from the story line and anyone who’s not a service dog handler probably wouldn’t even bat an eye.

being a service dog handler and chronically ill this book touches on the struggles we have to go through on a daily basis. the people staring, the question asking how i could possibly be ill and more. this book made me feel seen and it will live in a special place in my heart.

i’ll be waiting for my henry who accepts me, my crazy dog, and my chronic illness.

Lucy's life has been really hard in the last few years. She decides to make a change and move to LA to live with her old college roomie, the one person she has left. Then, as she sits in the airport with her service dog, that friend bails. Thank goodness for the handsome stranger who talks to her, sits next to her on the plane, and then offers her a place to stay in Malibu. Oh, and did she mention that he is Henry Turner, her favorite movie score composer?! Good thing Lucy knows she isn't meant to have a happy ending and can ignore her crush on Henry. Yeah... that'll be easy.

This was such an easy read in a good way, which is to say I was captivated by the story and wanted to spend more time with the characters so I just kept reading. Add in disability rep with both MCs, music and book lovers, an adorable dog, dual POV, a cover by Sam, and an incredible found family? As a music and book loving person who lives with a sometimes disabling chronic illness, I loved it! I'll even forgive Jayce for not being a cat person.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. You can find my review in my story highlight called ARCReviews on my IG and the book when it is released Jan 17/23.

Lucy is on her way to move from Boston to LA to move in with her best friend after her divorce. But when her living arrangements fall through, Henry offers Lucy to stay with him and his roommates in his Malibu home. Henry is a successful music composer who has crippling anxiety that interferes with his everyday life. But after Lucy moves in, he feels the happiness he never thought possible. As Lucy and Henry’s relationship deepen, Lucy struggles with her past relationships and fails to see that Henry may be different.

I loved this book and the characters! Lanza had me hooked from the first page - which is hard to do! Henry’s roommates were wonderful and gave me New Girl vibes. Lucy’s relationship with Adamma was great. I loved seeing two women cheer each other on instead of bringing them down. The way the characters talked about anxiety and infertility provided real thoughts on their concerns.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #VictoryEditing in exchange for my honest review.

I adore this book so much. Speechless is the romance novel that I didn’t know I needed.
Lucy and Henry are truly a match made in Heaven. I am now obsessed with them. They compliment each other so well and are such likable characters!
I enjoyed the other themes present in this story like family, friendship, chronic illness, mental health, and more. Lindsey Lanza is truly talented at taking all of these topics and putting them into the story without making it feel forced nor just skimming over them.
Speechless is definitely one of my favorite books that I’ve read recently!

I LOVED this book! I literally could not put it down. It started off with what I thought was going to be cheesy rom-com story; her favorite composer's music heals her and she meets him on an airplane, and the rest is history, but it becomes so much more. I loved Lucy and Henry's playful moments and their vulnerable moments together, but I also loved the supporting characters and house dynamics. It felt complex, but not in anyway confusing. WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

A lovely slow burn romance. This is for the readers who enjoy fluffy romance, but it was such a lovely read.

Henry was so charming and his meet-cute with Lucy was adorable. I loved the additional characters and they all flowed well into the story.

This book focuses on some important topics and also explores friendship relationships as well as the romance.

I really enjoyed this book!

I finished this the other day. I was browsing through NetGalley, read the blurb and requested to read it. It started strong. I don't know the author or her writing style and so I went in blind.

Their meet cute wasn't that up there but you can feel the tension and the attraction between the two main characters. The story was like a story about fate or destiny because who would've thought that these two, would wind up together? Like I said, it started strong. It was riveting and exciting... but the momentum slowed down in the somewhere in the middle... but overall it was heartwarming, swoony read.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

Will they find love? you have to find out. this was a good book and my first from Lindsey Lanza. Love it all Hooked from the start.

This book was so cute and completely took me by surprise. This is Lindsey Lanza’s debut novel and I am so fortunate to have received an ARC from her and Netgalley. This book is 4 stars and I can’t wait to follow along with Lindsey’s career as an author!!
 
Speechless follows recently divorced Lucy as she moves from Boston to California to live with her best friend. When her best friend calls her at the airport bailing on Lucy, Lucy is stuck on her way to a city where she knows absolutely no one. When airport stranger Henry offers to sit next to her on the plan after her previous seat mate had an issue with her support dog, Rowan (yes named after Rowan from Throne of Glass), he offers her a place to stay at his house. It just so happens that Henry is the composer that Lucy always listens to, and his scores have gotten her through many difficult times in her life. While they both struggle with things I don’t want to spoil, their connection and support for each other is amazing to read.
 
If you love forced proximity, the cutest dog ever, great side characters, and music scores as much as I do, this is the book for you. I absolutely loved Lindsey Lanza’s debut novel and can’t wait to see where she goes from here!

Speechless
3.9✨
Yes. yes. yes. yes. I LOVED that this book was dual POV.
I usually like books where the guy main character is a little more rough and dominant so this was a little bit of a change for me but not in a bad way! I feel like there was a good amount of representation, which was nice.
I was so curious to see if Henry was going to make the first move and how he was going to do so and I was not disappointed with how it played out.
Until about 65% in, I was struggling to picture Henry. In my head at first he was sort of nerdy looking and thin. But once I got to the spicy scene, I had no problem picturing him looking like a jacked Ian Somerhalder 😂
This really was such a sweet book!

Spoiler
When Lucy got her surgery and all of the guys homemade her SOUP. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! My freaking heart.
Okay…Mary saving the day!!! I loved her story so much, it literally brought tears to my eyes. It really made me love this book so much more!!

Fav quotes
“Control the controllable.”

“‘Want me to hum a tune for you?’”

“‘Because you remind me of sunshine.’”

“‘I’d sell my soul to see you smile.’”

“‘You’re my perfect.’”

“‘Please be here when I wake up.’ He whispers.”

“‘You’re my fairy tale, Luzu.’”

“For the first time ever, I’m quite happy to be speechless.”

Thank you so much for the ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op!

This review will be available on Goodreads and Instagram. Posted review to Barnes & Noble

Thank you to Lindsey Lanza and Netgalley for the ARC of this absolute homerun!

I went into this book completely blind, and full disclosure it was because of who did the cover art. Is that cover now the cutest?

This book has so many wonderful things: starting over romance, close proximity, a faithful canine companion, and the most amazing group of found family/male roomies.

I laughed, I cried, and smiled so much whilst reading this book. Speechless is more than a romcom, though it certainly has comedic relief and romance (and a little steam). It also is a story of dealing with chronic illness, the rebuilding of life after divorce, the ever present effects of grief, and the falling out of friendships.

Don’t let this debut pass you by; it’s definitely worth the read!

TW: endometriosis, divorce, loss of a parent

Speechless wasn’t what I expected, but the summary itself didn’t give loads away, so whatever I got would be a pleasant surprise.

I loved Lucy and Henry was charming but also confusing. The way that they met wasn’t exactly unconventional, but being invited immediately to live with him gave them the opportunity to get to know each other.

The book was filled with lovely characters, though I have to admit I was relieved that they weren’t all perfect. By perfect I don’t mean they were ‘all gorgeous’ and ‘quick to love’ but ‘nice’. We had a few duds, including Lucy’s supposed best friend who, when she finally showed up surprised me a great deal.

I really enjoyed this book, the slow-burn love story between Lucy and Henry and the friendships that she built with all his friends, especially Graham, who was anything but cliche and for that I have to thank the author.

Definitely a recommended read.

I really really enjoyed this story!! Lucy and Henry are flawed, but so honest and earnest… you’re rooting for them the entire time! Obsessed with Henry’s housemates, especially Graham. The way that anxiety and chronic illness were both woven into the story was really special and added an added element of “realness”. The conflict felt authentic and I loved the addition of music!! Love Rowan forever, he’s a national treasure