⭐️: 2.5/5

I wanted to love this book so much. The idea of 8 flatmates living together, then one new one comes in and falls for the one who is only there one weekend a month sounded so good and had so much potential but this just felt super flat for me.

My favorite part was the friendship the 8 flatmates had and then when I turned to the last page and realized I was finished. I was incredibly bored through the entire book and the chapters were painfully long 😩

Henry and Lucy had absolutely zero chemistry. Like literally none. They flirted back and forth and laughed but that’s all we got to see, we didn’t get to see them fall in love on the page which made me absolutely not root for them at all. They had absolutely nothing in common at all and they were both on very different paths, their paths crossing was just so random it almost felt forced.

It was so annoying how Lucy kept trying so hard to make it work just for Henry to run the other way, change his mind after Lucy made an effort to move on, act all hurt and sad when he saw she wasn’t hung up on his rejections and then rope her back in to his childish game asking for time and communication when he was the one that couldn’t provide Lucy with either.

Like cool dude you’re trying to find yourself, that’s awesome and super understandable but don’t drag this poor girl along who is also trying to find her way in her career and make her feel bad for wanting to be there and then tell her your excuse is you’ve never done relationship before when you’re the one who initiated the whole thing. 😡 He just seemed very immature and after Amsterdam I couldn’t get past the mind games he was playing.

The writing style was nice, I loved all the dialogue, it made the long chapters more bearable! If you read it I hope you enjoy it more than I did!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the eArc and Harper Collins, Avon Books and author Alexandra Paige for sending me a finished copy of Weekends With You in exchange for my honest review.

I thought the concept of this book was really interesting. Like trying to fall in love with someone on just the weekends. However, after a while, the book gets a little repetitive with each chapter starting with Lucy at work with Renee and a story with that and then Lucy going out with her friends. I would've liked a little bit more variety but I understand why it was like that.

Also, a little hater moment but I don't like that Renee calls Lucy "pet". I'm sure it's a term of endearment but it feels really belittling and grates on my nerves every single time she calls her that.

Anyway, overall, I did like the book. It was interesting enough and it kept me fairly well hooked. My biggest problem with the book was the love story. I feel like Lucy and Henry are definitely a book couple that broke up after the epilogue. They do not seem well suited for each other at all. I know the whole premise of the book is how it's hard to have a relationship with each other because of their schedules but they act so childish about it. If they really wanted to, they could've made things work forever ago. I just didn't really like them together at all which was annoying because they are obviously a big part of the book (if not the whole book).

Again, the book was interesting and kept me reading it but I think it could've been done better.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Semi spoilers ahead:

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I really liked Alexandra Paige's writing style and the premise of the story was really cute. I loved the found family that the FMC got with her new roommates but I did not like the romance part of this romance book. I ended up realllyyyy disliking the MMC and almost had to stop reading because he upset me so much. I didn't think that the FMC and MMC had any chemistry together, only physical attraction. I could go on like a fifteen minute rant about the MMC (which I did at home when I had to pause reading) but the bottom line is that Lucy deserved better. He never was invested in the relationship or her. They spent, what? 15 days together? And half of those were ending things between the two of them.

On the other hand, I was invested in Lucy. I felt her triumphs and rooted for her personal successes. I loved the new friendship that we got to watch turn into family. I enjoyed reading about Lucy with her boss. And I loved the inclusion of all the flowers. It was nice reading about them in a way that was more than "fLoWeRs ArE pReTtY". I will be adding more Alexandra Paige to my TBR.

Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige was a fun romantic debut!
My goodness this story was absolutely delightful, and a captivating page turner!
Alexandra‘s writing is a perfect mix of character, setting, love and laughter. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these characters.
I just found the whole book really interesting and charming. 

Thank You NetGalley and Avon for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I breeeeezed through this one in a day!! 4 stars ⭐️

📖 The Details
Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige

⏱️ Quick Summary
As Lucy Bernstein works to make ends meet at The Lotus, a local flower shop in the UK, she moves in to a converted warehouse with a whole cast of characters - including her old college roommate, Raja, and traveling photographer Henry - who she instantly feels a connection with. The only issue - he's only home one weekend a month. She spends the next year or so getting to know and falling in love with the city and everyone she lives with.

💁‍♀️ My Take
This was pretty cute and interesting and easy and light. I was definitely getting Beth O'Leary and maybe Emily Henry vibes throughout - relatable and flawed characters, great dialogue, unique storylines, and fun but deep side characters. I was rooting for Lucy, though she made some questionable choices, and I felt like I wanted to be a part of the friend group. As far as Henry goes....I wanted him to be better. He was a bit immature and strung Lucy around too much - but honestly, that feels like real-life to me? Overall, entertaining and satisfying. The perfect read for springtime!

I LOVE a debut novel, and this one was very cute. It gave “FRIENDS in London” and was the sweetest found family trope.

I really loved that this was told in a month by month format. It really added to highlighting the difficulty Lucy faced in trying to navigate her relationship with Henry throughout one weekend a month, even if it made for some long chapters.
I’m not a big “will they won’t they” person, it stresses me out, so Lucy and Henry definitely gave me some anxiety here. I found myself so frustrated with Henry especially.
I absolutely adored the warehouse residents and their lives/relationships otherwise. It was so wholesome and sweet and I genuinely found myself sad when someone moved out. The concept of Warehouse Weekends was so fun and exciting I found myself looking forward to what each roommate had planned as if I were attending as well.
Lucy’s tenacity and resolve were so inspiring, especially in her career, (I love a florist job in a book) I loved seeing her get what she wanted and deserved from everything. She was so relatable in her big and real feelings.

The roommate/found family storyline absolutely took the show for me here. I never wanted Warehouse Weekend to end! I’d love another book just to see where everyone is.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 4/9/24

Weekends With You is Alexandra Paige’s debut and it’s adorable. I read somewhere it’s compared to Rebecca Serle and Josie Silver and I would agree with that.

Lucy is a florist who lives in a warehouse with 7 roommates. Henry is a photographer and one of the roommates. Henry and Lucy only see each other once a month, during Warehouse Weekend. This is a weekend one of the roommates plans each month and they all hang out during this one weekend.

The book is told in 12 chapters-one for each month beginning in August. As they meet each month, Lucy and Henry’s relationship up and downs are revealed. I’m really liked the story being told like this!

If I had any complaint about the book, it would be Henry. I think the story focuses too much on Lucy, it’s told in first person from her POV, that it’s hard to connect with Henry and his motivations. This makes him seem immature, at best, and an ass, at worst.

Ultimately, it’s a romance so alls well that ends well but still not sure these two were meant to be.

Great start to a writing career that has great potential. Thank you to #netgalley and #avonbooks for the advanced e-copy of #weekendswithyou! And thank you to @prbookgirl for the finished copy. I look forward to reading more!

Ratings:
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice: 🚫

Tropes: 
Forced proximity
Found family
Friends to lovers
Long distance relationship
Florist x photographer

Summary:
Weekends With You is Alexandra Paige’s debut novel about Lucy Bernstein living in a London flat with 7 other people. Every month, each flat mate is in charge of “Warehouse Weekend” in which a group outing is planned. She gets romantically involved with one of her flat mates, Henry who is a travel photographer and is away on business more than actually living in the flat. All while learning how to juggle a long distance and on and off again relationship she also has to keep her flower shop in business.

My thoughts:
Absolutely loved the flower symbolism and Weekends With You is a good book to read during the springtime. Everyone’s dynamics with each other kind of reminded me of the TV show Friends, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, for me, this book left more to be desired. I usually eat up the found family trope and was hoping it would save the book for me. It sort of dragged on for me and felt as though Lucy and Henry’s “relationship” was in a loop throughout the entire book. I enjoyed Lucy’s character, she’s more mature compared to the regular FMC you come across. Henry was the most unlikeable and came across as immature. *spoiler* I was hoping Lucy would actually end up alone or with someone else.

I encourage you to read this book if you need a feel good spring novel!

I got to say, I really loved this book! Lucy has become of my favorite characters; she’s sweet and kind, but also sticks up for herself in her way. Sometimes standing up for yourself is done calmly and quietly, exactly as Lucy does it. She’s clearly passionate for her friends, even if she’s a bit more introverted than all of them. Beyond that, I loved the way the book is structured. It’s a unique set-up, focusing on one weekend each month, and keeps the story moving along at a fast pace. It also has the added effect of being able to keep the character group tight, so we can easily keep track of all of Lucy’s roommates.

I totally recommend this book to fans of slow burn, sweet friends to lovers, and cozy romances!

It was interesting to see Lucy and Henry fall in love while only seeing each other face-to-face one weekend a month. I thought their romance was cute, and I loved seeing them together. I just wish we would have seen more of their text messages to each other and FaceTime calls in more detail. I adored all of the roommates. I loved the banter between them and how they supported one another even while giving each other a hard time. I enjoyed this book as it was unique to other books that I typically read, and it was fun and cute.

I spent my weekend reading Weekends With You, the debut novel from Alexandra Paige. This novel perfectly captures what it feels like to be in your twenties - the chaos, the highs and lows, the relationships, the uncertainty.

To save money, aspiring florist Lucy moves into a warehouse with 7 roommates. All eight of the roommates live busy lives, so they institute Warehouse Weekends - once a month, they gather together and spend time as a group, taking turns planning the activities. These weekends are strategically scheduled to ensure that Henry, the traveling photographer roommate, can attend, and thus the novel's structure is born. Each chapter represents one weekend out of a month, the one weekend Henry returns to London and sees his roommates.

Sparks fly between Lucy and Henry immediately, but they struggle to figure out how to proceed given that they only get to see each other once a month. To make things worse, Henry is actively trying to find what feels like home to him; all he knows is that London isn't it, and he plans to move out by the following summer. With this expiration date on their time as roommates, Lucy questions whether she should take the risk and pursue anything with Henry - but will their chemistry prove too much to resist?

I'll be honest: I didn't immediately fall for Henry. I had to remind myself that these characters are all in their 20s, and none of them have anything figured out. Henry definitely reminded me of every slightly self-centered, generally clueless man I dated when I was in my 20s, which definitely wasn't the most flattering comparison! However, rest assured that these two do find their way to a HEA... it just takes a while to get there.

I love when a book does the found family trope well, and Paige absolutely nails it. I wanted to know more about every single one of the roommates, and I loved the banter between them. She really understands how to capture the turbulence of early adulthood, while setting it against all the joyful moments: nights spent out with friends, maybe having a bit too much to drink, maybe kissing a stranger, experimenting and finding what feels right, even if it means trying plenty of things that don't work along the way.

I hope you'll give this book a shot, and that you'll find yourself rooting for Lucy just like I did!

With 8 young 20 something year olds living in a warehouse apartment it makes for an interesting read.

Lucy Bernstein is living in London working as a florist and is falling for one of her roommates Henry Baker, who works as a traveling photographer not home very often. Henry seems to lack a likable quality in my opinion, so after reading this book I'm interested in reading what other opinions are.

This book was a good read, and the story line was very interesting, it was not as romantic as I would have liked but in all it was a good flowing read that did keep my interest.

I would recommend this book for anyone that loves a light read with no heavy drama.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, I enjoyed this story! I love the premise: American woman living alone in London has to move into a warehouse with seven flatmates. One of those flatmates is a handsome photographer that travels for work and is only home one weekend per month? SIGN ME UP.

I really loved the cast of characters in this story. I was worried I wasn't going to be able to keep track of everyone, but each flatmate was defined and has their own unique personality. This story is ultimately about found family, and it was a joy to watch Lucy find her place within the warehouse.

When it comes to the romance, I absolutely felt the chemistry between Lucy and Henry, but their back and forth caused whiplash. I felt that they would reconcile, break up, and then reconcile again really quickly, and it happened more times than I expected. I really struggled with the Amsterdam scene and the aftermath. I know people are complicated, but Henry just seemed immature and indecisive to me. Don't say things you don't mean!

I was worried, but in the end, there was an HEA, which I was grateful for. I'd definitely read future books by Alexandra Paige.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Romance, Spicy Romance
Heat Level: Sex on the page
Representation: Gay side character

WEEKENDS WITH YOU is a light romance.

I liked:

- The flat of roommates
- Florist shop
- Oliver
- The main character, Lucy

Sadly, I didn't connect with the love interest. I thought he was too wishy-washy and disrespectful of Lucy. If we learned why Henry (the love interest) was so set on moving away from London and England, I missed it. Maybe if I'd known, I'd have more empathy for his behavior. I was all for Lucy finding someone else who was ready for a committed relationship. BUT there are cute moments, and I'm sure there are readers who will love this book.

Happy reading!

Weekends With You by Alexandra Paige
3 stars ⭐️
Thank you, netgalley, and HarperCollins for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Lucy needs to move out of her flat immediately because of rent hikes, and the best option for her is to move into a warehouse apartment with 7 other people living there. Henry lives in the flat for a weekend a month, traveling for work for the rest of the month. The connection between Lucy and Henry was instantaneous, but can they be together when their lives are so different?
I liked some parts of this book and really disliked others. I liked the friends that Lucy made in the warehouse, and I enjoyed seeing how they all interacted with each other. I also liked Lucy's job as a florist and reading about how she continuously strived to better the shop. What I didn't like was Henry. He was severely frustrating and really immature. He strung Lucy along for the entire book and just didn't seem to understand where she was coming from. In a romance book, I don't want to read about toxic men who put their partner on the back burner. This is the one time I did not want an HEA.

What a cute debut from Alexandra Paige!

I feel like the best way to describe this book is love at first sight meets missed connections. The story revolves Lucy, an ex-Pat living in England who has the creative flair and passion as a florist at a small, local shop. The book starts off with her needing to find a new place to live as her landlords are selling her place. She quickly finds a solution, living with her best friend, Raja. Oh, and six other people! The setup is an old warehouse converted to large apartments with multiple rooms. In this case, it fits eight. Immediately it seems like chaos in the best way.

On move-in day, Lucy's new roommates all come to help her out. This is where she meets Henry, a very attractive traveling photographer. Here is where the love at first sight meets missed connections. While Lucy and Henry might have immediately felt an instant spark, there is an issue. He is only home ONE weekend a month. He is testing this out as a part of his job, and less than a year to decide if this works for him.

Due to this odd arrangement, the eight roommates come up with Warehouse Weekends, where all roommates come together for the entire weekend, with one roommate assigned to come up with the plans. Honestly, I wanted to be invited to these weekends! The activities sound like a total blast. As the months go on, both Lucy and Henry have to figure out what is important to them. Is it their careers? Where is home truly located? Are they really just setting themselves up to crash and burn?

For a debut, I thought this was excellent. It was a fun, quick, lovely romance. The characters were charming, even outside of the main characters. The scenes were fun. It felt like watching an adult truly become an adult and all the angst that comes with it. I absolutely loved having the main stage being an apartment shared by so many vastly different personalities. I hope this is just book one of an eventual series so I can see more around the other characters, especially Raja. There might even be a love connection brewing between some other roomies...hmmm. ; )

Lucy, I’ve had the urge to kiss you since I met you” 💓🩷

Weekends With You gives me “FRIENDS” vibes but in London. This story is told over the course of a year in monthly increments- based around the “Warehouse Weekend” where each person at the flat gets a weekend in a month to pick the outing. Throughout the story, Lucy gets immersed in the found family aspect of her flatmates. One person in particular caught her eye.. Henry. Henry is a travel photographer who is away more than he is home… but that doesn’t stop their relationship from sparking.

At some points, I found myself relating to Lucy so much that I was getting mad at myself, because I felt that she deserved better. I felt that she was being dragged along in a relationship and that hurt to see and read, and I just wanted her to love herself first and to not allow that to happen. She kept wanting to fight for herself but kept caving in. Ultimately, things worked out for her and Henry but it sure was a rollercoaster. I felt this was very real and genuine- and despite having some negative thoughts about their relationship it didn’t deter away from my overall enjoyment of the story. I liked seeing character progression, and I’d love to have another book with all the flatmates getting together still once a month now that their lives have all developed and changed.

I wish I could pop into The Lotus and chat up Lucy and get a customized floral bouquet 💐 This book goes to show that no matter where life takes you or how busy you are, you always have time for friends 🩷

This one was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and the FMC's character arc. Lucy is a London transplant, originally hailing from Long Island, who has settled herself in the city. We start with her having to find housing and agreeing to live with her best friend in a converted warehouse with seven other adults. (I instantly was stressed for her.)

Those seven adults form a strong found family. They were honestly my favorite part of the book. Although you don't get to know each of them very intimately, they all feel like their own characters and have separate personalities. The antics that the group gets up to was unique but felt like something that would absolutely occur within a large friend group.

My biggest issue with the story was actually the romance. Although I loved the chemistry and banter between Lucy and Henry, by the end I was almost not rooting for them. I was almost hoping that Lucy would tell him to go screw and stay single. Ultimately, I knew this was a HEA romance so that wouldn't happen, but this one was heavy on the miscommunication/no communication, and a lot of it stemmed from Henry's side. Lucy wasn't perfect, but his unwillingness to communicate and make the same mistakes repeatedly became frustrating, especially because you were only focused on the two of them during their weekends each month.

All in all, I really did enjoy reading this one, and it was a sweet story. With this being the author's debut, I really hope to read more from them in the future!

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a cute and adorable debut!
Lucy & Henry's relationship was filled with "will-they-wont-they" moments. I loved the gang of roommates and their connections with each other.

This British rom-com reminded me so much of "We Met in December," by Rosie Curtis.
Overall it was really sweet!

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

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book for a review, all thoughts are my own. Lucy runs a flower shop and is barley making ends meet. She has to leave her flat when a new management company is taking over and her rent will be doubled. She moves in with her friend Raja from Dubai who has a warehouse with several units that she rents out. One of her tenants is Henry who is pop star photographer and is only there once a month. Right off the bat, sparks fly between Lucy and Henry. I loved the characters in this book, they all were funny, quirky and you wouldn't mind being part of this group. Loved this book.