This heartfelt, engaging, and poignant debut delves into themes of addiction, familial dysfunction, the struggles of sobriety, mental health, and the quest for self-discovery and acceptance.

The protagonist, Emma, at 26, embarks on a journey to take control of her life. Celebrating one year of sobriety with the support of the special group HG and her sponsor, Lola, she grapples with complex feelings towards her father, who denies his alcoholism and lives a hippie lifestyle in upstate New York.

As Emma navigates her new chapter, she learns to accept that while she cannot control everything, she can control her reactions. Stepping out of her comfort zone, she encounters challenges, including interactions with Mitchell, an office jerk, and Ben, a hot IT guy she harbors feelings for.

Assigned to organize a Christmas party with Ben and Mitchell, Emma's journey becomes more complicated. Her slow-burn friendship with Ben and her efforts to accept her parents' changing lives lead her to question her past mistakes and the kind of person she wants to be.

This realistic and honest portrayal draws readers in, allowing them to empathize with Emma's journey of acceptance and growth. It's a pure, genuine, and inspiring read that resonates deeply.

I eagerly anticipate reading more works from Ava Robinson in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA for providing me with a digital review copy of this heartfelt novel in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I absolutely adored this debut novel by author Ava Robinson. Definitely Better Now, is a fresh, modern, POV on a young woman’s journey to and through the beginning of her sobriety. The novel’s main character Emma is undeniably relatable, witty, but most of all human. She is just trying to make her way through life’s ups and downs like the rest of us, trying to feel as “normal” as possible. I believe this is a must read!

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me access to this Arc in exchange for my honest review.

Okay. Wow. I'm having so many thoughts and feelings over this one.

I have not felt such a deep love and attachment for a novel's main character as I did for Emma in SUCH a long time. From the start - I'm talking opening page - I felt this desperate need to root for her as she entered into this new stage in her life, having finally reached a full year of sobriety. And as the book goes on and Emma goes through all of the hell that she goes through (and the good times too), that feeling never once left me. It was like I was standing on the sidelines cheering for my lifelong best friend, that is how much I truly adored her character.

As for the story itself, it was an emotional roller coaster in the best of ways. I was giggling and kicking my feet throughout the beautiful relationship that unfolded between Ben and Emma (hello, healthy adult relationship). I was losing my mind with rage basically every time Mitchell existed. And then, with the plot line that went in for the kill, I full-on ugly cried for Emma's relationship with her dad.

I would give this book a hundred stars if I could. Ava Robinson, I am officially obsessed with you.

I rated this 3.5 stars! I really enjoyed this book! The female main character Emma is a recovering alcoholic. She is 1 year sober and trying to renter the dating world! The beginning of the story can be a little slow but it does give a great backstory and full background for Emma with her mom, some memories and exploring friendships. She meets Ben through work and they start to develop a relationship! This book is a great emotional story of how it can look navigating life as a recovering alcoholic. It’s my first time reading a story from the POV of a recovering alcoholic and I think it explored it in a very good and respectful way. Emma and Ben’s story was so fun to read and I would highly recommend this book! Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

4.5 stars!!!

Ava Robinson the writer you are!!! I loved this book so much. I connected with Emma's character so much as a fellow 26 year old trying to get their shit together. I loved all the different relationships Robinson explored from romantic, platonic, familial, and more. It was funny and emotional and heartfelt and made me cry like a baby. There were so many sentences that GAGGED me, they were so well written. Not many people can capture the voice of a gen-z/millienial but Robinson did it so well here. I do think the ending was a little rushed after Emma returned from her father's funeral but other than that no complaints.

Thank you publisher and NetGalley for the eArc. This was a great debut novel by this author. I am excited to read more by them. The first 75% of this book was missing something but the ending and relationships were all tied up. Overall very enjoyable.

After hitting the one year anniversary of her sobriety, Emma is opening herself back up to the world of dating. Though Emma doesn’t feel quite ready her crush on her coworker Ben propels her into the deep end. Emma is awkward, anxious and everything in between. She struggles with her sobriety, her friendships, her sponsor, and her family. The pages are filled with the angst that causes so many people to turn to alcohol to drown it out. But she’s fighting each day and living through the shit.

This book is incredibly beautiful, but it is really heavy. As someone who has struggled with my own relationship with alcohol it’s amazing to have stories like these to relate to. Just such a raw and real pov from a recovering alcoholic. There was some issues with repeated passages around the 55% mark that threw me off. But I really enjoyed this book, literally couldn’t put it down.

This book was about a recovering alcoholic named Emma who lives in Nrw York. Emma’ has not dated in a year so
her friends have decided to make her an online profile. This attracts some unwanted attention from a man in her office. Emma becomes friends with Ben, the IT guy, after a rather awkward start. This book delves into their relationship and confronts issues from the past. I was not sure if I would like this book at first but I did enjoy it. I found the author humorous and also sentimental. I give this one 4 stars. Thanks NetGalley for the early release of this book.

This book caught me by surprise. I resonated with it in too many ways to feel coincidental:
- first relationships
- living in nyc
- working in marketing
- social awkwardness
- navigating death
- even our star signs and our partners star signs are exactly the same

i was deeply in my feels throughout the book, but that last part brought me to tears.

so many of the places were familiar to me - i could imagine exactly what she was describing. the feelings were relatable - the writing was well paced and flowed nicely between descriptive prose that grounds you in the setting, and dialogue.

this novel is filled with beautifully written relationships.

Beautiful prose and story of a 26 year old woman and her explorations of being 1 year sober from alcoholism and in AA. The main character recounts her life and experiences honestly and vulnerably. My only qualm was that it was a slow read but that’s on me as I am typically a thriller reader.

Has someone who has never struggled with addiction, but has had friends that do. This book help me see things through their eyes I had never even thought about. Following the FMC journey really opened my eyes in the world of addiction and the struggles it brings. Thank you so much for letting me be an ARC reader. Will definitely be telling my friends and family to read.

As someone who has never personally struggled with addiction, I was worried this book wouldn’t resonate with me. I was so very wrong! Following Emma through her journey being 1 year sober as she navigated relationships and finding herself as Sober Emma was so relatable even to me. I loved how Ava made an emphasis on the different versions of Emma that people saw and interacted with because I find myself having different versions of myself depending on who I am around. Knowing that others struggle to find their true authentic selves in their adult life was comforting.

I’m so eager for this book to be available to the public! This was a great debut novel by Ava!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this story, even with some slow part that dragged a bit. I don’t always enjoy books that focus on AA as it goes against their mission but I liked the creative spin it had. It also showed the different types of meetings one can go to. However, I will mention that it does give a skewed vision of AA and what happens at the year mark.

The book explores that it’s not as simple as she makes it out to be at the beginning which is great, but since people learn info from books, even fiction ones, It did get a bit stereotypical and “tropey” with this magical date that would change an alcoholics life. That’s not reality at all. You can be sober for a year and have done none of the other work in AA which doesn’t afford you the “privileges” mentioned in the book.

Anyway, I won’t get bogged down in that. This book can give insight into the process, be a connection for those in recovery all while not getting bogged down in it. The romance part of it lightens it up and makes it an enjoyable tale for many. It’s a journey of self reflections and redemption all while being put on the committee to organize a yearly holiday party for her office. What could go wrong?

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I loved this book so much! Emma is 26 and newly 1 year sober after 10 years of alcoholism. She's trying to be the best version of herself, but she's finding it difficult. It's difficult to know where her boundaries are, how to let people in, WHO to let it, how to have fun sober, how to date sober.

I find AA culture fascinating and this book contained A LOT of that. There was also a very sweet romantic subplot, but I wouldn't particularly characterize this as a romance. It really was a coming of age story about someone who is trying to find herself, but her humanity keeps getting in the way. 100% recommend!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Rating: 2.25/5 stars

Recently, I created a Netgalley account and this was my very first approved eARC (yay!). The premise of this book seemed really interesting because of the way the main character is described. Right off the bat, Ava Robinson makes it known that Emma is far from perfect and her life is not anything close to what she imagined it would be. Maybe it's because of where I'm at in my life right now, but I felt as if I could truly resonate with that. It brought me a sense of comfort to know I wasn't going to read about this perfect, bubbly, outgoing woman who has her life put together. I really enjoyed learning about Emma's past and her struggle with sobriety as the book progressed. It was sad to read that she was never able to reconnect with Susanah (her best friend pre-sobriety), but that's probably very on par with what a lot of alcoholics experience during their journey. While I did really like Ben (Emma's love interest), I felt as if there wasn't any true chemistry between them until the very end of the book when Ben starts talking about his friend who passed away due to an overdose. I thought that conversation really established a vulnerability and connection between the two characters that was otherwise lacking in previous pages. While I'm on the subject of love interests, I would just like to take a minute and ask...why did Mitchell need to be written in this story? In my opinion, he quite literally didn't have any relevance and I thought he didn't add much to Emma's growth. At the end, she still hates him and there's not much else she has to say about him. There were definitely some major flaws in this book, but it was a cute, fluffy read that definitely had me staying up past my bedtime to finish.

Emma, 26 and an alcoholic, reaches her one-year sober anniversary. She's being responsible: her own apartment, holding down an office job and following all the Alcoholics Anonymous rules.

But of course, Emma still has significant work to do. The realizations and comparisons she makes between drunk and sober life can be really mature and insightful. But some of her tendencies to overreact can be frustrating.

Voluntold for the "fun committee," charged with planning the annual holiday party, Emma finds herself in the group with the gossipy HR manager, a "bro" from finance, and the cute IT director.

Learning that life in general is a work in progress, sober or not, seems to be a major lesson for Emma. The story is quite touching, but have some kleenex handy.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Ava Robinson for the ARC.

Definitely Better Now is a really solid debut. My biggest takeaway is that I found it refreshing to have an alcoholic main character who was not an unreliable narrator. I feel like alcoholism is often used as a trope in thrillers to create witnesses to crime who aren’t believed because of their alcoholism (I’m looking at you The Woman in the Window and The Girl on the Train). Obviously, Definitely Better Now is not a thriller, but nonetheless I appreciated that Emma’s experience with alcoholism was redemptive. The description of AA and Emma’s experience felt genuine and I was really rooting for her.

3.5! Definitely Better Now is an eye-opening story that discusses the complexities of life, how we come out of it, and the person we become. We follow Emma’s journey of sobriety after having just celebrated a year of sobriety. Emma has such a big personality and an amazing sense of humor. I loved seeing all of her inner thoughts as she interacted with people because it was so relatable. One specific topic that I think was important throughout the book was Emma wondering whether she was still likable although she was sober. She believed that she was living a great life when she was drinking and doing drugs and many people liked that version of her. Now in sobriety, she questions whether others will like this new version of her just as much as she does. Although Emma was already a year sober I think that the time after this accomplishment is when she truly is healing and feels like she can truly live her life. Although there is romance in this book, it is more of a subplot which I think was the best decision.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who appreciates the complexities of life and the beauty of transformation, I wholeheartedly recommend Ava Robinson’s “Definitely Better Now.” This debut novel is a bittersweet and darkly hilarious journey through sobriety and the messiness of life that awaits us. Emma’s story of starting over sober, navigating family dynamics, and finding love is both witty and profoundly relatable. It’s a touching reminder that life’s biggest challenges can also lead to its most rewarding moments. For anyone looking for a story that’s as heartfelt as it is humorous, “Definitely Better Now” is a must-read!

This one was so many things wrapped in one. It had an element of surface level, girlie rom-com, mixed with Sandra Bullock 28 Days, mixed with powerful tear-jerker. I was kind of just plodding along at first. Ok, a girl is in recovery and is trying to adjust to her new life without alcohol, but somewhere around the halfway mark it just gripped me. I really liked Emma, I rooted for her the whole time. I really like Ben. I liked them together. The family part was very touching. I finished this book last night and I thought about it all night; for me that's the sign of a good book. It was beautiful in a way that is subtly morphed from one thing into quite another and I loved the character development Emma was navigating in her head. One small problem, there was a line that said something about "Sharon Stone in Fatal Attraction"...wrong movie, I really hope someone catches that before it goes to print. All in all, a really great read and I would definitely read another book by Ava Robinson.