I was late to the Christina Lauren party, but their books have recently become must reads for me. When I saw Twice in a Blue Moon was a second chance romance, I was looking even more forward to diving in. For the most part I felt the book delivered exactly what I had hoped. Sam was a complete sweetheart, so much so that I would have loved to get into his head a bit. I was happy that he found a balance between his familial responsibilities and following his dreams. Tate was likeable, and I definitely empathized with her regarding her father. I wish I had felt more connected to her character, but there was just something about her that held me back. That being said, I was rooting for her and especially for her and Sam. While I would have preferred more togetherness as a couple in the second half of the book, this was a sweet story that left a smile on my face.

This was a cute, if somewhat predictable, romance novel that I found very enjoyable. I really liked Tate and Sam and found the story gripping.

I have read a few Christina Lauren books and this one does not feel like their best. I felt that the heroine forgave the hero just because his family was in need of money to pay for his grandfather's cancer treatment. He outed her family history and didn't apologize for a good ten years. No amount of unrequited love can forgive that. I also felt there was some instalove once they started talking again. I did enjoy some of the minor characters, like her costar Nick. He was my favorite character. I also liked how her dad didn't change and they weren't tempted to make him become a better person. Sometimes a toxic parent is a toxic parent. Overall, it was a cute story, but it needed some editing and another draft to improve some of the bumps.

Yes, yes, yes. JUST YES. I don't know how Christina Lauren continues to write so many entertaining and amazing novels, but they just keep getting better and better. I loved this novel and would have finished it in one sitting if I could have. I was in love with it when I was reading it, and I was constantly thinking about it when I wasn't able to read it. I loved the characters and I thought the setting was a lot of fun. There were a few times when I felt like I wanted a little more from the characters, but all in all it was incredibly entertaining and left me flipping pages late into the night.

This was a fantastic read and I would highly recommend it to readers who enjoy Christina Lauren novels or romance novels. Thank you to Gallery and NetGalley for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 4/5

I want every wish he ever makes to be for this. A penny in a fountain. The first star. An eyelash. 11:11. Just for one more time.⁣⁣

⁣⁣Oh. My. HEART. I just devoured @christinalauren ‘s #twiceinabluemoon and I’m literally S W O O N I N G. ⁣⁣

⁣⁣If you know me you know that I have read all of their books and haven’t had a bad word to say about a single one of them. But Love and Other Words was easily my favorite. Until I read this one. I think LAOW might have been unseated. ⁣⁣

⁣⁣On the surface this is a story of love lost and love found. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a story of friendship, family, vulnerability, and deception.⁣⁣

⁣⁣It has a beautiful subplot covering discrimination, race, and hope. ⁣⁣

⁣⁣It’s just perfect. Christina Lauren can do steam to perfection. But their best novels combine steam with true depth. Their absolute best moments can make me cry and swoon simultaneously. ⁣⁣

⁣⁣Twice in a Blue Moon will stay in my heart for a long time to come. ⁣⁣

⁣⁣

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣⁣

⁣⁣

Thanks to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for an advance reader’s copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

What starts as a modern retelling of E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View takes a sharp turn into the familiar Christina Lauren territory of romance, sex, and self-discovery. Young Tate Jones is content with her quiet, isolated life in a small Northern California town. When her grandmother takes her to England for a trip of a lifetime, she discovers more than London landmarks. She makes a deep connection with a fellow traveler that leads to love, risk-taking, and a complete 180 in her life’s path. We might question Tate's choices to trust the men who have betrayed her; but we respect that Tate is finally strong enough to make these choices for herself.

Christina Lauren’s books have been reliably good—funny, sweet, sparkling, with a depth that a lot of romance novels don’t have. But this one misses the mark.

Sam and Tate have a two week fling in London, he betrays her, they meet again 14 years later and get back together. Okay, that sounds like the bones of a good romance, but (if you’ll forgive a gross metaphor) the flesh is missing.

One thing I like about CL’s romances is how easily the characters talk to each other, and how they talk like real people talk. Sam and Tate don’t really get past the small talk portion of getting-to-know-you before they’re parted, yet I’m meant to believe their connection is so deep that it affects literally everything else in their adult lives.

The dialogue didn’t crackle like it usually does, and the story fell flat for me.

How does one even begin to review a book that left them speechless?

I will say that the first half of this book was definitely more interesting to me than the second half. But I loved the entirety of the book and what it all came to mean. I didn't particularly like seeing the Milkweed script in the book but I also don't like the trope of other works being in a book. However, I realized that it played a role in piecing together some things.

I think the ending was exactly what I wanted it to be and truly felt like the ending we deserved after that emotional roller coaster. It was wonderfully written and I will always give a Christina Lauren book a chance.

I think I'm officially a loyal Christina Lauren fan. "Twice in a Blue Moon" is the second book I've read by them, and it was even better than the last. They're expert at giving real tension between two people in their romances, and still managing to pull you back so you can really root for their relationship. Also, I've often found romances about the Hollywood scene to be very cheesy and near unrelatable, but Lauren's version felt so down-to-earth and real. It was so easy to connect to Tate and her movie star life felt like her job not this flashy, royal, beyond belief lifestyle. Just like last time I read a Christina Lauren book, I had a hard time putting this one down and it kept me up late at night, which is bad for my health but good for my happiness. It's always great to be that hooked by a novel. The writing is crisp, beautiful, and sucks you right in. I definitely recommend giving this author duo a try.

Wonderful book with well developed characters. I loved the way the author takes you back to when the characters first met when they were young and on vacation is London. Circumstances cause them to part with a huge misunderstanding and they come back together years later. This is a slow burn romance with a secondary romance told through the characters in the movie that is being filmed throughout most of the book. I really enjoyed the story-line and how the characters grow and change throughout the story. A sweet and romantic story with lots of plot twists.

I consider myself to be a big fan of Christian Lauren. The Beautiful Bastard series Is like my Kryptonite as well as their Wild Seasons series. Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating was five star read for me! So naturally with such winners under their belt, I thought CL could do no wrong.

That’s how I felt anyway, before I read The Unhoneymooners, which fell short for me. So after having been disappointed, I went into Twice in a Blue Moon with my guards up. And I was right to do so.

Blue Moon is story about first love and second chances. A very romantic concept. I’m on board for that. The trouble is we know the entire first half of the plot in the book description. Our female protagonist, Tate Jones is 18 and taking a trip to Paris with her grandmother, where she meets 21 year old Sam Brandis, a fellow American who just happens to be on a trip with his grandfather. The two hit it off right away in a quick budding romance where she reveals herself to be the daughter of a famous movie star. She’s been living a quiet life away from the media. This is supposed to be a close guarded secret but Tate decides to trust Sam with the info. Unfortunately that’ll prove to me a mistake when the press finds her and it’s no mystery that Sam tipped them off. He is also now MIA. Suddenly Tate has no choice but to come out of hiding and is rightfully heartbroken.

Jump ahead 14 years. Tate has a thriving career. She’s just landed lead role in a big budget film that’s about to go into production. It’s on set of said film that she once again runs into Sam, whom she hasn’t seen or heard from since Paris, and apparently is the writer of the film she is about to star in.

What follows next is forced proximity, interaction, angst and miraculous forgiveness that I can’t even begin to comprehend. There are so many problems I have with this...

Problems with Sam. Yes, he did in fact tip off the press of Tate’s whereabouts. In fact he SOLD HER OUT. And here’s the kicker...as “sorry” as he is, he says that given the chance. He would DO IT AGAIN. Now I get that apparently he and his grandparents were hurting for money and his grandfather was ill, but that doesn’t excuse his actions. What he did was take a life changing choice out of a teenage girl’s hands and disappeared without a trace. No word, no explanation. Just 14 years of nothing. And as the story progresses, Sam doesn’t get nearly enough grief for his actions. He got what he wanted out of selling out Tate, and he got to live his life and have his career. There is just so much wrong with him.

Problems with logistics. The fact that Tate had no idea that Sam was a creator of the film until she came on set is absolutely ludicrous. It’s evident that CL doesn’t have a grasp on the process of film making. There would have been script auditions and screen tests where she either would have met him, or been told his name. Sam apparently tried to contact Tate personally to give her a heads up, but the moron only thought to email her. Um...dude, how many emails do you think a movie star gets daily? CALL HER AGENT!!! CALL HER MANAGER!!! (Where are Tate’s representatives? She doesn’t even have a PA on set!! It’s like CL couldn’t be bothered to include them). He obviously didn’t want to contact her that badly, or he was just stupid.

Problems with Plot. I think it’s enough said that the fact that Tate finds it in her heart to forgive Sam at all is a plot hole. Some might say that Tate owes Sam her career but I strongly disagree .What happened in Paris caused earth shattering life changes .She wasn’t even given the choice. To me, that betrayal of trust is far beyond forgiveness and ultimately, he does nothing to redeem himself. He’s just there and still defending his choices and he has the nerve to be jealous of Tate’s male costar. He (for some reason) had to sit in on the movie’s sex scene shoot...Something that would NOT have happened. There’s this weird sense of entitlement Sam has to her, that seems to permeate that entire part of the story. He seems to think that this is all about HIM and how miserable the Paris incident made HIM, and how HE missed out on Tate for the last 14 years despite the fact that he never tried to reach out to her. He was actually dumb enough to think that her life wouldn’t be changed by his decision to sell her out.
Needless to say, it leaves such a terrible taste in your mouth.

So Tate decides to forgive him when I really don’t get why, but even the happily ever after doesn’t come for free because she gets screwed over (again) by someone else she thought was supposed to care about her and Sam has managed to disappear (again). And then we get a rushed ending with no real conclusion.

I thought the Unhoneymooners was some sort of lull or fluke. I hadn’t realized how bad it could get. I don’t know if Christina Lauren are cranking out too many books in a year, if it’s a quality control problem, or what, but this story took a huge dive for me. The problems with it were too essential to the story to ever get pass them. In the end I was left feeling upset and disappointed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

What a lovely story. It's very emotional and sweet. I enjoyed the chick-lit aspects.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

A sweet then-and now-story about the man who changed the course of one young woman's life, and whether or not he's able to rectify his decision fourteen years later. A rom-com of a book that satisfied my curiosity about the real lives of celebrities, and scratched the itch for a quick escape read.

After reading The Unhoneymooners earlier this year, I was absolutely thrilled to get approved for an eARC of Twice in a Blue Moon!🌙

This book was completely different than previous work from Christina Lauren. It didn’t have the fun, lighthearted banter or chemistry between characters like their other books do and maybe that’s why I didn’t love it. My expectations were high and I assumed this book would be an automatic 5 star read for me. Maybe reading this book right after Fix Her Up and The Friend Zone was a bad idea too. I loved both of those books so much and was expecting this one to be very similar

• Title: Twice In A Blue Moon
• Author: Christina Lauren
• Series: Stand Alone
• Pages: 368
• Genre: Contemporary Romance
• Rating Out of 5 Stars: 3.75


My Thoughts:

The perfect love is never what you expect it to be. The ones that impact us the most are messy. They’re a wild ride that brings out the most of everything in us even when they sometimes tear us apart. Tate finds that out the hard way when on a vacation to London she meets Sam. The first love that changes everything. When he betrays her and she returns home she figures she” ll never see him again. Fourteen years and a whole new life later he comes back into her life. Suddenly she’s eighteen years and laying beside him in the grass looking up at the stars again, wondering if maybe there’s a second chance for them at love or a second chance at breaking her heart.
I have to confess it has not been as strong of a story as the last couple releases. The first 40 percent of the story is the meeting and subsequent whirlwind romance in London of our young couple. The following 40 percent is a slow but steady reaquaintment as they decide how to navigate around what happened and where they stand.
The last 20 percent of the book is where everything finally comes to head and you get to see that magic that our duo of authors have become so well known for. The ending for me is what really saved this book from falling into the mediocre bin.
Most of our cast was decently developed save for Tate’s father. He felt very one dimensional but that may have been the intent given his role in the story. Tate played the role of frustrated but stoic heroine. Charlie, everyone needs a best mate like her. I really like the way older Sam’s character was used. You don’t get to see a believable version of men that are just as confused and hopeful as women are so often portrayed. That was a nice touch.
This may be a hit or miss title for some. It’s not as romantically driven but still a raw and moving look at just how much goes into making a relationship work. The writing felt a little off kilter and choppy here and there but I still really enjoyed my time reading this book. If your looking for a more laid back romance without all the steam and pearl grabbing check this title out.

**E-Arc kindly provided by Authors, Gallery Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The writing duo behind Christina Lauren has quickly become one of my favorites as I make my way through all of their books. The Unhoneymooners is one of my favorite books, so I was so excited to get to read an advance copy of Twice in a Blue Moon.

I was glad to see that it was different from The Unhoneymooners, a more serious take on life and love. I did find the beginning to be a little slow, it took me a little bit to get into the story, but once it did, like all Christina Lauren books, I was hooked! You feel like you are feeling all of Tate's feelings alongside her, love to hurt to a chance to love again maybe if she is lucky. And Sam, you want to hate him at the same time that you want to love him. I was rooting for these characters to both find what they needed in the end.

I usually love Christina Lauren books. I just read The Unhoneymooners and loved it. Twice in a Blue Moon starts out great. A great meet-cute for Tate and Sam, but it all gets a little complicated with the subsequent plot points. I got lost a few times and I couldn't figure out if the story was supposed to be about Tate's relationship with Ian or perhaps she was going to fall for Nick.

Readers always know that Christina Lauren write solid enjoyable romantic books with humor. As far as I'm concerned, they are the current reigning queens of the rom-com.

This book shows another deeper emotional side of their writing with this second chance romance. A whirlwind vacation romance that ends in a betrayal comes back to haunt the heroine when the hero shows up for work at her new job.

Unfortunately, there isn't much a plot besides that and I was left wanting more - either more plot or character development. Still, it was a lovely tender read that I'll be happy to recommend.

I hadn't read Christina Lauren previously, so I didn't know I was in for a treat. I really enjoyed the story and found it compelling, even though romances are necessarily my "thing." I was pleasantly surprised at the story and I know my patrons will really enjoy it. Thank you!

Thank you Gallery Books, Leo PR, and Christina Lauren for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Twice in a Blue Moon. This story was a delightful take on second chance romance with healing and familial ties. I absolutely adored this story!