The pacing was off, the chemistry was truly never there, and I just thought it was boring. All of the traveling was fun, though!

Sarah tricks her boss into giving her a journalist assignment tracking down a missing celebrity who has been convicted of murder. Nick, a photographer (and Sarah's nemesis) is sent along on the journey. This book is a lot of fun! I enjoyed the adventure, the sarcastic conversations, and there were some laugh out loud embarrassing moments.
I did find Sarah to be a bit annoying. But that's where she's at. in this moment in her life. She doesn't have the career she wanted and her boyfriend basically ghosted her. She's lost and all she can do is replay those moments in her head to try to find a solution. I think the adventure of her journo assignment and Nick helped to distract her from those thoughts.
Overall, it's a fun read! Definitely a perfect, light vacation novel.

When you look up this book on Amazon or NetGalley, there is a little subhead that says, “If you love Sophie Kinsella, Zoe Foster and Christina Lauren, you’ll love Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn!”

Now, I’m quite sure it wasn’t the author who made that statement. I’m sure it was her publisher. But just as a note to all the authors and publishers out there who use this marketing tactic: Don’t.
The simple fact is that if you compare yourself to a great, industry giant like Sophie Kinsella or Christina Lauren, your book will most likely suffer in comparison. It’s like a horror author saying they’re the next Stephen King, or a singer saying they’re the next Whitney Houston. It’s just...douchey. (Note: the only exception to this rule is when someone ELSE says something nice about a book. Then, quote away, authors and publishers. But then AND ONLY THEN is it not a dick move to pull a humble brag like that.) So, as I feared, this book suffered in comparison to Sophie Kinsella, Zoe Foster and Christina Lauren. A bummer, but not surprising.

Here’s what went wrong:

The heroine, Sarah:
Sarah is a wishy-washy turd of a heroine. She’s hung up on her twatwaffle of an ex (even though he ditched her and stuck her with a mortgage she couldn’t afford) right up until the very end of the book. She’s also the worst reporter in the history of reporters and only succeeds at her job by stumbling head-first into information. It’s blind stupid luck that she gets her story, which I hate. I much prefer smart heroines who are good at their jobs. (Competence porn is my jam) She’s also dumb enough to accept a drink from known criminals. (Who does that? OF COURSE it was drugged) In short, Sarah is TSTL (too stupid to live) and I have no interest in TSTL heroines.

The hero, Nick:
Nick’s not quite as annoying as Sarah. I mean, at least he’s good at his job. But he’s also a bit of a jerk who flirts with everything in a skirt and pretty much treats Sarah like crap. (He also pulled a “hey, I’m not good with feelings and you made me feel stuff, so now I have to ignore you” thing on Sarah in their past together, which is one of my all-time least favorite tropes EVER.) I didn’t see anything in his actions or words that led me to believe he had any real romantic interest in Sarah. I mean, I don’t blame him; she’s a turd. I wouldn’t want her either. But that lack of romantic interest was a bit of a problem for me as a reader, seeing as this is a ROMANCE novel.

Other randomness:
This book also features Sarah’s turd of an ex, who, frankly, I think is perfect for Sarah. They’re turds of a feather as far as I’m concerned. (Off topic: Do romance heroines ever break up with decent guys? I’d like to see that happen once or twice.)

And on another note, this book was the first I’ve ever read to feature a Scottish rock star (not the hero, a side character) who was a complete and total dud. He was weak, cowardly, not a great kisser, and generally a total bore. How the hell can a Scottish rock star in a romance novel be so repellant? That should be, like, illegal or something.

The mystery and action in the story was also fairly lame. And a random sex scene was thrown in at the end of the book for the sole purpose, I think, of the publisher being able to call this book a romance and capitalize on the millions of romance readers out there. It read like it was pieced together from every 1980s romance novel that had Fabio on the cover. Very, very cliche.

So, needless to say this wasn’t a read I’d recommend to, well, anyone. Would I have been as hard on the book if it hadn’t been touted as the second coming of Sophie Kinsella and Christina Lauren? Maybe, maybe not. I guess we’ll never know...

I enjoyed reading Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn. This was a quick read with humor, mystery, romance and an adventure! Sarah’s life has not been very good recently. Left with a mortgage she cannot afford, she is trying to survive when an opportunity of a lifetime lands at her feet. What she never expected was the photographer assigned to go with her, who happens to be her ex’s friend.

With no real experience, Sarah is trying to navigate her assignment and the man traveling with her. Suddenly she finds herself in the middle of a mystery and quite the adventure. They end up travelling through Europe trying to find the missing Rockstar. Nick and Sarah had great banter and chemistry. Though the story at times moved quickly, it was was enjoyable

Happy reading!

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. There were some bits that were a bit repetitive, and for some reason when the lead female character keeps repeating thoughts, I get particularly annoyed and frustrated with her. Which might be the author’s intent.

Would definitely read more from this author and will be on the lookout for her next book.

Quick read with humor and mystery mixed in. I really liked how sarahs chance meeting with a musician turned into a mystery she needed to write a story on . Then throw in nick the ex friend, I really liked how Sarah and Nicks adventure kept you guessing how it would end !

It’s a must read perfect for a beach read . Thank you to netgalley for my ARC for my honest review

Sarah Burrows is a journalist, stuck in a dead end job at a gossip magazine where she only reports on beauty information. She recently got broken up with by her live in boyfriend and has been given absolutely no reason as to why! During a night out with her girlfriends, she meets Ford. After attempting to go home and sleep with him, he ends up having to leave in a rush. Turns out that Ford is a famous musician and may possibly be connected to the murder of his band mate. Sarah ends up traveling to Barcelona with Nick, the douchey photographer she slept with once and regretted, to get more on the story.
This book is wonderful because it has all the things I love in it: break ups, love, sex, and mystery. I could not put this book down. Sarah was relatable to me in the sense of her break up and love life, and I ended up really enjoying her story. The mystery side of it wasn't as intriguing to me, but it still kept me reading and wanting to find out how it was going to end. I'm excited to hear that there is another book in the works for this series!
I received this book for free through netgalley for my honest review.

Sarah Burrowes is a wannabe investigative journalist that gets one chance to prove herself with a story that takes you on a journey across Europe. She is assigned the story with her photographer Nick Archer, who happens to be her ex boyfriend's best friend. This book kept my interest from the beginning to the end with great character development, action, suspense and a little romance thrown in. I would enjoy reading more from this author.

This was such a cute book! The connection between Sarah and Nick was awesome! The hate/love/tolerance between them was absolutely perfect.

I really liked how this turned out to be a suspense with the perfect amount of humor!

Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn was provided by NetGalley and Pantera Press for an honest review.

Sarah Burrowes is a former beautician and current columnist who has a dream to become a real journalist. When a quick hookup turns out to be with the lead singer of a band, who gets a phone call and runs out on her, she sees an opportunity...she convinces her boss that she can get the story of the year and find out what is going on and what has happened to his bandmate who has disappeared.

Paired with photographer who just happens to be the best friend of her ex, who dumped her with no explanation several months before, Sarah takes off for Europe in hot pursuit of the story...but will she be able to get it? Secrecy, heartache and hysterical antics follow as Sarah follows the singer and finds out she's bitten off way more than she can chew! A fun read!

This was a charming and fun read! It was an enjoyable escape read with a little bit of mystery, romance, and intrigue. Adding to the appeal of this book is the international travel involving multiple locations. Other especially fun elements were the characters and their professions, including rock stars and tabloid journalists. This is one for readers who are willing to suspend some disbelief, will overlook a female protagonist who is not always brilliant or even logical, and are looking for diverting women's fiction.

I enjoyed this story. Sarah hates her job and her boyfriend has run out on her. She sees a chance to advance at work and gets an assignment to travel to Europe in search of a missing rockstar. The photographer assigned to travel with her is her ex's best friend. They find more than they expected during the trip. This book was entertaining and I would read other stories by this author.

This book kept me entertained and intrigued from beginning to end with captivating characters, action, suspense, drama, and mystery as wannabe investigative journalist Sarah Burrowes and egocentric photographer Nick Archer chase rock star Chris Ford all over Europe. This is the first book I have read by Rebecca Freeborn and I look forward to more from this talented author. I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my unbiased review.

I went into this book with good intentions, but it just wasn't for me. A beauty writer who doesn't like makeup? A guy who has supposedly been in love with her for years is a complete asshole 90% of the time? It just didn't work for me.

I received Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn for free in exchange for an honest review. This was my first story that I read by this author, so wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. It was somewhat of a slow burn-- enemies to lovers story (though they had a one night stand prior to the story starting.) It was an enjoyable read. A bit of suspense/mystery mixed with romance.

This was an auto approve that I was excited about based off of the synopsis and comparison to Christina Lauren, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters and maintaining an interest after the first couple chapters. I pushed through and made it to the end but probably wouldn’t read again. The writing was good, but the storyline dragged; and took me almost two weeks to make it through this novel. If something peaks my interest I usually finish within a few hours, that was not the case here.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

The description of this book sounded like it would be interesting so I decided to give this one a try. I ended up not especially loving it, I just couldn't connect with Sarah as a character. She spends a lot of the book being treated like crap by either Nick or James and yet she still kept just brushing it off like it wasn't a big deal. Her relationship with Nick was dysfunctional, those two just could not communicate and they kept lashing out at each other because of it. And don't even get me started on James, dude disappeared on her and left her alone with a mortgage she couldn't afford and yet she answered the phone when he called her. I would've torn that man a new one and then never contacted him again except to have my lawyer resolve the mortgage issue with his lawyer. So I just had a lot of trouble getting into this story line with the characters and how convoluted the plot was. Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me.

Sarah is a bit naive, but quickly becomes a world traveler as she chases down a story for her magazine on a famous musician being accused of murder. After a chance meeting with the star, she is sent with her former one-night stand and best friend of her ex-boyfriend Nick, who is a photographer for the magazine. The two fight their attraction for one another throughout the entire novel despite the fact that Sarah is annoying and Nick is often rude, the two are able to hit it off.

So when I started this book, I really wanted to like it. It began with a really funny scene where Sarah pretty much falls all over Chris, the hot rocker whom she'll eventually have to stalk for her story. She'd been through a bad breakup, and lordy, will you ever hate the guy she dated. He leaves her holding the bag, aka, the mortgage to their place, and now she's practically broke. Let's face it, anyone who reads this will immediately relate to the story of a woman with a douchey ex. At any rate, she almost gets hot and heavy with Chris, but stops cold, just about the time his phone rings and it's his signal to get out of town. Turns out he might be questioned for a murder. Meanwhile, poor Sarah thinks she's totally not his style and gets back to work the next day. Her editor, this complete slag, just rips into how she's not quite the "journo" she's looking for, and that was just mean! So Sarah rigs the pool, so to speak, to get a crack at going to Barcelona to find Chris. She gets her wish, but ends up having to share time with Nick, a totally skeezy photographer from their firm. He pretty much reeks of Lothario, but he ends up being not so bad, as these stories go.
Needless to say, a gal without a passport, money--all sorts of things can happen. The ending was cute, a little predictable, but if you're looking for a fun book to read, Knock this off your list and go for it!
#HotPursuit #NetGalley

I enjoyed this book. It was an easy read with a great adventure! The characters were well written. The storyline flowed. I would recommend this to anyone that loves a great adventure romance.