4ish stars

Unlike some of the recent reviews, I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit. I liked the plot, appreciated some of the identities being represented, and felt that many of the reactions to conflict were understandable. Some of them were a bit overdramatic, perhaps, but I enjoyed seeing the protagonist ultimately succeed both personally and professionally. And, as a side note, I love the cover art!

i really wanted to love this book and i had a good time reading it but i just couldnt connect to the characters. it wasnt a bad book i just dont think it was the book for me personally. i had many moments where i was laughing and enjoying the story i just couldnt connect to it to keep me drawn into it

When Lark finds herself out of work, she takes up a job as a “sexter”, hiding her new sex based job from her best friends Toby. But when her feelings for Toby become too hard to hide, Lark has to decide whether or not to come clean about her new career.

This book was not for me.
The writing, the story, the characters, everything fell flat.
Like most stories of this genre it followed the same pattern.
Girl pines for boy, girl gets boy, has a falling out, gets back together- stronger than ever. The “falling out” was so ridiculous and irritating, that I was almost hoping for poor Toby to dodge the Lark bullet and for everyone to end up alone.

I just finished reading Text Appeal by Amber Roberts, and I have to say, it's a daring debut novel that I highly recommend. This book is perfect for fans of Olivia Dade and Kate Stayman-London.

The story follows Lark, the only woman programmer at her firm, as she lands an account for a huge client. But things quickly go wrong when she accidentally projects a scandalous picture from her phone onto the screen during a presentation. Her coworkers jump in to steal the account, leaving Lark jobless and broke.

Desperate for money, Lark turns to text message-based sex work. At first, she's skeptical about carrying out sexual fantasies with strangers. But after a few false starts, she starts to enjoy it--especially with one nerdy client who keeps popping up in her DMs. As she continues on this journey, she has to figure out how to balance her work with her personal life, including her feelings for her longtime friend and hopeless crush, Toby.

This book is a celebration of women in STEM, friends becoming lovers, and finding lasting love in the digital age. I loved how the author portrayed Lark's struggles and growth throughout the book. The characters were well-developed, and the storyline was engaging and kept me hooked until the end.

What I appreciate most about Text Appeal is the way it tackles sex positivity. It's refreshing to see a book that embraces the idea that women can enjoy sex and explore their sexuality without shame or judgment. The author does a great job of showing how Lark's experiences in sex work help her become more confident and comfortable in her own skin.

Overall, I would highly recommend Text Appeal to anyone looking for a fun and steamy read. It's a great debut novel from Amber Roberts, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

The story itself was okay, but unfortunately I couldn't really conncet with Lark's at all. Partly, the story was a bit cringe and somehow I just expected more from it.

I am a big fan of Ali Hazelwood and her books and thought that this could be similar and that I would love it. Unfortunately, this was not the case. It really wasn't a bad book, it was just not for me I guess. I did like some parts but overall it fell flat for me.

At times I had trouble reading the text bubbles on my Kindle. I hope that's not the case in the published digital version, because otherwise that would be really annoying when you can barely read/ not read at all large parts of the story.

Thank you and NetGalley and Alcove Press for this EARC!

The book itself isn't bad, the problem is that there is a moment in the story that it feels like the romance connection between them was left behind and it wasn't as big as it supposed to be.

DNF @ 42%

I thought a lot of the sexting was funny, but I didn't feel any connect to Lark or Toby. Their few interactions at this point in the book have not shown that they have any interest in each other.

This book was a bit difficult to rate because there were things I enjoyed and things I really disliked. I did like that we got to see a woman in STEM, and how rampant misogyny is in that field. Readers also were given insight to a female sex worker's daily life and what she has to deal with during client interaction (spoiler: men are pigs). Those aspects of the story were unique and fun.

However, the main plot of this story, the romance, fell a little flat. The two characters didn't seem especially enamored with one another until late in the book. Apparently they've had feelings for one another for a while, but that didn't really come through. The romance was bland and uninteresting, for the most part. The other factor that I heavily disliked (maybe even hated?) was the best friend, Teagan. She was unbearable. Full stop. Throughout the story, she was condescending and tried way too hard to be "quirkyyyyy" and "not like other girls" and "blunt/honest" when really she just came across as annoying and an asshole. And I really did not like how, during one of the climactic scenes, Teagan turned everything around and made it seem like SHE was the victim and that she had it so hard, etc. etc. I'm sorry, but I did not feel sympathy for her at all because of her behavior towards pretty much everyone throughout this book.

Thanks to NetGalley & Alcove press for the eARC. Being behind on book reviews, I decided to buy the audiobook with one of my credits.

Text Appeal
By Amber Roberts

Narrated by C.J. Bloom

New Release (August 8th)! Available now in all forms!!

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 3.5/5
Audiobook Rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Overall Rating: 4.25/5
Steam: My notes don’t say, yikes. I think 🔥🔥🔥 or 4 (0-5) I usually bump up for self-pleasure.

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 C.J. Bloom saved me on this one. I’m behind on ARC reads and stressed and exhausted from the start of the school year, so physically reading books has been a struggle. Audiobook for the win.
🤩 Laugh-out-loud funny and all the smirks you can imagine.
🤩 Adorable and fun friends-to-lovers.
🤩 The blurb, or just know it’s good romcom fun.
🤩 Bisexual MC representation & ARO side character.
🤩 All the texting fun.
🤩 The steam—how much they enjoy each other.
🤩 The self-pleasure representation.

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 Comic Sans ribbing—my youngest kid does that, and I love comic sans. 
💫 The secrets. I still love Toby and Lark. Just be ready.
💫 I wish there was steam at the end with the cuteness and sweetness.

When Harry met Sally for the digital age!! This friends to lovers, secret identity sexting romance sees two besties falling in love when one starts an online sex work job and the other slides into her DMs anonymously.

Full of heart, humor and all sorts of millennial angst, this was perfect for fans of You've got mail with great bisexual rep, and aspec side character rep. It was also good on audio read by CJ Bloom - a fav narrator! I love how strong the romance debuts have been this year! Amber Roberts' Text Appeal will definitely be a standout for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review! I will be first in line for whatever this author writes next. Recommended for anyone who loved You, again by Kate Goldbeck.

Interesting concept in a rom com. Heroine gets laid off, decides to try her hand at “Sexting” for money, similar to an Only Fans account. Her long time best friend and secret crush decides to make a move and she has to decide which route to take.
Something I didn’t love about the book is that there’s very explicit scenes involving banter and dialogue but when it comes to our couple, it’s pg-13.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amber Roberts for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t actually read the text bubbles on my kindle which wasn’t ideal for a book called Text Appeal.
The story was ok and I can’t not, not finish a book so I finished but not my favorite!

Thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Amber Roberts for providing me with an eARC of this book. This is my honest review.
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I’m always down for a STEM romance. One that was shrouded in sex positivity sounded like an immediate yes. Unfortunately Text Appeal wasn't exactly what I thought it'd be.
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For a book whose premise (and title) hinge on the texting aspect, I feel like it took forever to reach the sexting portion of this story. And even when we did, it felt a bit anticlimactic. I expected more deep dives into the Lark's experience as a sex worker, but the snippets we got were more for comedic purposes than anything else.
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On top of that, Lark and her friends were hard to invest in. I don't know how else to phrase it other than everyone in this book felt like an approximation of a person instead of an actual person. All of the friendly dialogue and history was there, but it didn't quite hit the mark it was supposed to. Even the romance between Lark and Toby felt lackluster. It felt a bit like running through the motions of a rom-com without any of the romance.
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I did appreciate seeing an aromantic character. I'm pretty sure this is the first book I've read where being aro was discussed. Funnily enough, I also enjoyed Lark's conversations with CosmicKismet. Ironic considering the You've Got Mail of it all.
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I wanted to love this book desperately. While I'm sure that there are several people who'll enjoy this book, it simply wasn't for me.
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Text Appeal is available for purchase now in ebook, paperback, and audiobook format.

I liked the idea of this book but I couldn't get into it. The characters lacked a lot of chemistry and the relationship just wasn't believable. I also couldn't STAND Teagan. I think she was meant to help move the story along, but I just found her obnoxious and a pretty shitty friend.

I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Alcove Press. All opinions are my own.

It’s not often that a book ends up in my DNF shelf on Goodreads- actually there’s only 1 other on there, but that’s where this one lives now. I just couldn’t. I wanted to like it. I thought the premise was good and it had such potential but I just couldn’t force myself to finish it. I’ve slogged through some books and this one… well I just couldn’t. Maybe it gets better at the end? I don’t know but 44% of the way in I just couldn’t do it anymore. I’m not even sure I can pinpoint my issues except to say I found the narrators voice (the main character) unlikable. I kept thinking something must be about to happen! And then, it didn’t. I just wanted it to end and just kept going.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was just not for me. I really struggled to finish it, as I couldn't connect to the characters or the plotline.

Text Appeal was a fun story about Toby and Lark who were long time friends and both secretly wanted more. I thought the set up moved a little slow but the ending was good and I ended up really rooting for them to work everything out.

This was a first time read for me by this author. The story was entertaining and unique and was a fun and enjoyable read. The characters were well-developed and interesting and I enjoyed getting to know them and following their story. The story was creatively written and very entertaining. A charming story with fun, humor, romance and also a little vulnerability, which definitely brought a sense of realness to it. I would definitely like to read more by this author. Overall, this was an enjoyable and entertaining book and I am glad to have had the opportunity to read it.
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

3.5 stars.
I liked it and thought it was a fun time. It gave sexy You've Got Mail vibes. It wasn't the most amazing book ever, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Lark falls into sexting as a job after she loses her programming job where she was the only woman. Then she starts getting closer to her friend Toby, while trying to hide her new job.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I…. This one’s just a no from me 😅😅😅 I just can’t with the secret identity betrayal trope…. It upsets me on a visceral level and I can’t sign off on them riding off into the sunset like nothing happened lol sorry