Fourteen years ago, 18 year old Tate fell in love with 21 year old Sam while on a trip to London with her grandmother, Jude. Unfortunately, their relationship came to an abrupt ending with Tate left feeling betrayed. What happened, and after they are reunited years later, is it possible to fall for your first love "twice in a blue moon?" And, if Tate does fall in love with Sam, will she regret it once again?

If you're looking for this writing duo's typical flirty and fun romcom, this is not it. Instead, this novel featured a more in depth and serious love story... and I enjoyed it immensely! The beginning was all about Tate and Sam falling in love for the first time, and I'm always a sucker for young love. Throw in a romance rekindled years later, and I was totally a puddle on the ground star gazing alongside this sweet couple. Don't miss this tender, romantic, and refreshing love story from this talented writing duo!

Location: England (London), California (Guerneville and Los Angeles), and Vermont (Eden)

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I have a lot of complicated feelings about Twice in a Blue Moon. A couple of them involve spoilers, so I'll stick that at the end. This is a second-chance romance that begins when Sam and Tate meet in London while on vacations with their grandparents. She's with her cafe-owning, over-protective grandmother, and he's with his step-grandfather who turns out to be terminally ill. This last bit is revealed early in the book, so don't be mad at me. Anyway, they're staying at the same hotel and end up eating breakfast together every day. The vacation is two weeks long and Sam and Tate, ages 21 and 18, fall into a whirlwind romance. Vacation is cut short, however, when Sam presumably tells the press that Tate is the long-hidden daughter of a mega-famous movie star, a secret she, her mother and her grandmother have worked to hide for over a decade. Then she doesn't see him again and doesn't have any way of contacting him. Fourteen years later, the two are reunited when she's cast as the lead in a movie adaptation of his novel, Milkweed.

The romance is much stronger in the Before, when the two are learning about each other and falling  in love. After they meet again, there's a lot about the filming, the movie itself, and some angry sex/reconciliation sex. I'm not sure I believed their HEA completely (see spoiler below), but it was still full of the kind of swoony lines I'm accustomed to reading in a Christina Lauren book.

Now on to the complications.

When we're introduced to Sam, we hear about how huge he is--tall, wide, imposing but trying not to be. Then we meet his grandfather, Luther, who is described as Black with salt and pepper hair. It's not for another chapter that we learn that Sam is white and Luther is his step-grandfather. This pattern continues throughout the book. Any PoC are either on page or mentioned for a long time before we hear anything about their ethnicity, or they're immediately marked. None of the White characters are assigned a race except for Sam, when he says something like "Luther is my step-grandfather, but you probably guessed that since I'm a White guy and Luther is Black." This pattern of not-quite-there continues throughout the book. This is really common in books written by White authors so I'm not trying to call out CLo in particular, but it serves to reinforced the White Default and other all PoC. It's not great.


If this was my only concern, my feelings would be less complicated. However, the plot hinges upon the romance between Sam's White grandmother and Luther. They got together in a small town in Vermont in the late 60's, meaning that they experienced a lot of racism. In fact, someone in town burns down their barn in an attempt to run them out of town. While I don't think it's CLo's place to speak about racism from the perspective of their Black characters, it felt really weird that there was this huge spectre of violent racism hanging over Luther's entire life and the book then film. The actor playing Luther in the film is Black and excited to play this emotional, award-nomination-worthy role, but there's only one scene in which he casually mentions how moving it is and that racism still exists. Again, not their place to write Black pain, but I also don't think that this was their story to tell. It felt sanitized and the emotional heft of the book is really more about Sam's betrayal and one later by Tate's (terrible) father who is cast in a supporting role in the film. It's just not quite there for a White author duo to write about two White characters falling in love set against the backdrop of violent racism.


I'll admit, I had a hard time separating myself from much of this narrative since I grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont and one of our barns burned down shortly before I was born. Then another one when I was 12. It's traumatic and neither of those was caused by arson. It's terrifying and my mother still has nightmares. I also lived in Vermont when we were the first state to pass Civil Union legislation for same-sex couples. Someone nearby painted the entire side of their road-facing barn with "Take Back Vermont," a widely used slogan for the homophobic movement that wanted to repeal that law. Prejudice thrives in the hills of Vermont. Why else would we have a population that's 98% White? We never made interracial marriage illegal in the state... because it wasn't an issue. People like to point to us as the exception because "we weren't as racist as all those Other States!" It's simply untrue.


Anyway, it's a second-chance love story and they have an HEA. I'm sticking the spoiler down below the content warnings, so if you want it...





Content Warnings: death of a grandparent, parental abandonment, cheating (not by main characters), cancer (I think), racism


Suzanne received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.








Spoiler: Sam actually DID sell the story to the press! He finds out that Luther took him to London to say goodbye, because he knows they can't afford treatment for his illness. So Sam sells the story without giving Tate even a warning and uses the money to pay for Luther's treatment. Luther ends up living another 10 years instead of a few months. Could they not have found a different way to handle this? Because OMG I hated Sam for doing it. He claims to have loved her every day, but he gets married and divorced in the intervening years, so that's not great for his claim or ex-wife. So he claims to have been in love with her but also says he'd do it again when she asks. Yes, Tate ended up being a successful actress, but she had press hounding her for well... forever, and she had no choice.


I think if he had told Tate what he was planning and why, she would have at least been able to manage it better. I was SO mad at him and I never forgave him, even if Tate immediately rolled over and did.


How do we know he won't betray her again?

GAH! YOU GUYSSSSSSSSSS! Every time I go into a contemporary romance, I think "pshhh.. romance, *rolls eyes* whatever...." and then it's Christina Lauren and they KILL ME. EVERY. TIME.

Nothing is more of an emotional roller coaster than your first young love and heartbreak... until your first real adult love and heartbreak. To get that second chance with that *perfect* person. Well, hell. Thank you books for making me believe that maybe... just *maybe*, this could happen in real life. I mean, don't we all need a Sam in our lives? And Tate - how do you not fall in love with her too?

What I love about this book too is the backstory, the screen writing peppered within of Milkweed. Tackling that subject matter in such a dignified and beautiful way. Bringing the story that both Sam and Tate go through and making you feel it with all of your everything. DAMMIT. I don't like to feel this much and YET I DO. I keep thinking that THIS ONE isn't going to get to me but here I am, reading emails with Tate and feeling this weird wetness in my eyeballs. Great. JUST GREAT.

Basically, read this book. Read all their books! Just grab a tissue box, a cozy comforter and keep that glimmer of hope shining within.

It's been a REALLY long time since I've read Christina Lauren but this book reminded me why I like them so much. A story of not only love but also of betrayal. Tate just wants to be able to live the life she wants without fear that who she really is will create havoc in her life and in her mom's and grandmother's life. A world-wind trip to London creates a scene of first love, close bonds, trust, fear and deception. Tate realizes early on that trusting the wrong person can create upheaval in your life. Fastforward 14 years later, Tate is doing what she always wanted to do in her life. She has put the deceit of her first and only love behind her....or has she? When she comes face to face with the one person she never expected to see again in her lifetime, is she able to find the capacity to forgive? And just when she thinks she may finally have a handle on life, another deception turns her world around. True love like what Tate and Sam found in London comes only once in a blue moon. Can they find that second chance in a lifetime?

3,5 -4 STARS

“It’s so crazy to think that things that I thought only lived in my imagination can be real.”

I love this duo so much and I was super excited for their next book!Twice in a Blue Moon was an interesting read.It catch my interest from the very beginning and even though I liked it a lot, I wasn't feeling it as much as I wanted!

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


The characters didn't make me ach and I didn't feel their connection. I like them though and this is the main reason I gave it this rating!It wasn't bad it just wasn't as good as their previous books.

ARC received from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I loved this story and enjoyed nearly every minute of it! This is more inline with Love and Other Words (I liked this more), than CL’s other romcoms. It was insta-love done right (like, there’s actually context for the characters falling for one a another so quickly), and I was rooting for Tate and Sam the whole way through. There could’ve been a little bit more story/explaining with the overall plot line, and the ending does wrap up pretty quick. Still another solid win from CL!

As a huge fan of Christina Lauren I had high expectations for this book and it did NOT disappoint! I loved this book from beginning to end and felt myself really relating to it. If you love chick lit as much as I do then you will love it too!!

This was a good read, I just wanted a bit more. I certainly appreciated how Luther and Roberta's story came full circle. Truly, their story resonated with me more than Tate and Sam's. But the central romance between the main characters really left me wanting more. This book was well written, as every Christina Lauren novel is. It was just missing that quintessential quality I've come to expect from this duo. I would've loved to see an epilogue, their joint statement, or just more of the couple down the road. I thoroughly enjoyed the "past" but there wasn't enough illustrated between the couple in the "present" to convince me that the draw they felt for those 2 weeks in the past truly withstood time. I guess, overall, I just needed something more.

Tate and Sam met while on vacation in London one summer. Secrets were shared between them and with people they shouldn’t have been shared. Their relationship ended just as quickly as it began. Flash forward 14 years, Tate and Sam see each other again, but will they be able to mend what was broken?
I love Christina Lauren’s books and this was is no different. I was completely hooked from the very beginning. I fell in love with Tate and Sam, their relationship and their stories. Tate had and interesting life growing up and when Sam leaked her secrets her life changed again, she got her dream of being an actress. We didn’t get a ton of Sam’s background and I wish there was more. He loved to write and wrote screenplay for a movie in which Tate is the star and they are pushed back into each other’s lives.
They both had chemistry when they first met in London and spent those two magical weeks together, but there were times I felt it was lacking when they met again. I didn’t feel as much towards them in the future then I did with the past. I was wanting more tension between them. They just kind of avoided each other for the most part.
Overall, this was a good story and if you’re a fan of Christina Lauren you’ll enjoy it. 4.5 stars.

Tate Jones was once just the estranged daughter of one of the worlds most famous movie stars. After spending a large portion of her childhood hiding her true identity, she meets Sam Brandis, a man whom she feels like she wants to share everything with... even the truth about her childhood. But she finds out the hard way about confiding in the wrong person and her life changes overnight...

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Twice in a Blue Moon was a story about a young, all consuming love which quickly takes a turn, when a betrayal shatters the heart of our sheltered heroine Tate, and changes her life forever. Tate and Sam's road would have never been an easy one, but meeting each other alters the trajectory in which their lives have been set... and until they meet again, has kept them from finding a true happiness in life without each other.

When we meet Tate she is freshly graduated from high school and on a trip with her grandmother to London to celebrate. With her plans set to start college in the fall, she is also secretly harboring a desire to be an actress, just like her absentee father. When she meets Sam, she not only falls head over heels in love with him, but he also opens her eyes to what she really wants in life, all while obliterating her anonymity in the process...

Sam lives on a farm in Vermont with his grandparents who mean everything to him, but there is something about Tate that has him questioning his quiet existence and settling into life on the farm. But when things in his world change abruptly, Sam makes the worst decision of his life and loses the woman he loves as a result. And it isn't until fourteen years later that he comes to realize just how badly he hurt Tate in the process of saving his own family...

Twice in a Blue Moon was such a fantastic read! I absolutely loved the plot, it was fresh and engaging, and everything I love about the writing of Christina Lauren. I also thought the movie role and screenplay aspect was brilliant and I adored Sam's ultimate tribute to his grandparents. 

Tate and Same were both such endearing characters who hooked me from the very beginning and definitely had me rooting for them to find their HEA. The story itself started out hot and heavy between young Tate and Sam, but changed into a slow burn pace with their reunion. I ultimately would have loved a lot more depth to their adult relationship, I felt it was missing some much needed interactions and HEAT to really sell me on their attraction being so seamless fourteen years later. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest and unbiased review.

More amazing-ness from CLo. They are consistently awesome. :) Twice in a Blue Moon is heart-wrenching and swoony all at the same time...who but Christina Lauren can even pill that combo off?! Loved this book and, once again, can't wait for more from these two.

Twice In A Blue Moon is one of my most anticipated reads for October. I am a sucker for second chance romance novels. Plus I loved Christina Lauren previous novels so reading this book was a no brainer. I have to say I LOVED the first half of this book. You could feel the chemistry oozing off the page between Sam and Tate. I loved the buildup, the character development, pacing. I felt all the emotions while reading and suffered right along with Tate. When I got to the present this half of the book fell flat for me story wise which was a bummer. I really wanted to feel that emotional reconnection between Sam and Tate but I felt they lacked the passion they had in the first half of this story. I felt too much time was focused on Tate’s father. I also would have also liked an epilogue as well.

3.5 stars

I haven't read any of this authors books and I don't usually read romance books, but this one caught my eye for "second chance love". I don't know what I expected, but for me it was just o.k. There seemed to be so many competing storylines or maybe just elements of storylines, and I don't feel many were very well developed enough for me. I enjoyed parts of it, but was left with a feeling of wanting more. I think it could have been a really good book if the author had taken more time with the character development. It wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't the right book for me, I think. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

I'll admit this is not my favorite book by Lauren. While I loved the first portion of the book, young loves in London, the second part was a bit drawn out. Books about celebrities are hard to read, there's always paparazzi, scandal and naivety. When Tate and Sam were younger everything was easy until Sam made an important decision. Looking back, I think Tate could have figured it all out easily if she just paid attention. She's a bit self absorbed, thanks to her dad and his selfish personality. Even later when Sam and Tate work together she's oblivious to the background of the movie. I really wanted to enjoy their story but the characters just didn't jump out at me and the flow was a bit stuttered. Netgalley provided my early copy, review was voluntary.

Twice in a Blue Moon is a fabulous second chance romance. Prepare to be swept away by beautiful scenery, exquisite travels, romance, love, heartache, disappointment, and impossible choices.

Sam and Tait are full of hopes and dreams. Sam is a romantic who wears his heart on his sleeve and Tait has lived a sheltered life and is finally getting a small taste of freedom, so it’s unsurprising that during a chance meeting in London sparks fly and these two find themselves falling hard and fast. What comes next will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Vibrant and brilliant storytelling, timed to perfection, magnificent character development~ Twice in a Blue Moon exceeds expectations on every level.

Not my first read by the author but I think my official blog review. I haven’t read enough to remember the style very well, so I was kind of going in blind-ish! I will say on a side note that it did take me a little to pick up on this one.

Tate & Sam met during a vacation in London. When they met it was at unhappy times, see Sam was going through something and Tate well she was just being the 18 year old self. [Sam is 21] so when they spend 2 beautiful and sweet weeks together where secrets, passion and kisses were shared. Only, when Tate feels betrayed…she blames the only person who could have done it. Sam. Where do they go from there? Well, more then a decade later when they cross path’s again…it is when Tate is a famous actress on a rise to more stardom. Forced to work together, old feelings come boiling up and they both have no other choice then to address the big elephant in the room. Which sounds like a great idea right? Well, some things are better meant to stay under the rug.

Things that drove me nuts a little: a lot of side characters that were sort of thrown in, I wasn’t sure why and what they contributed to the story at times. It didn’t pick up for me until later, but I really did enjoy the ending. Again, I think mainly the side characters that kind of threw me off at times. Other then that, I enjoyed the story line and the main characters.

Rating: ★★★★
Romance: ♡♡♡♡
Steamy: 🔥🔥🔥
Type: Standalone
Recommended: ☑
⇨ H A P P Y – R E A D I N G ⇦

I am all about a Christina Lauren novel but this one didn’t have the sharp wit and banter that I’ve come to expect from their novels. This one felt more like a Hallmark movie for me. A little too much sweet and romantic for me.

This was a bit disappointing for me, There was a lot of story (first love, betrayal, racism, second chance, parental issues, life on a film set) and I feel that this led to none of these great story lines getting the attention they deserved. I also struggled significantly with Tate. I found the younger Tate very immature and her actions incredibly naive. Even 14 years later as a successful adult, she's still looking for her father's approval and (in my opinion) living life with blinders on. Her first love, Sam, seems to be a shadow of a character. We don't learn enough about him to invest in Tate giving him a second chance.

I would have loved to see Luther and Roberta get more page time. Their story of overcoming racism in the 80s had a lot of potential. It was interesting to have their romance play out through Tate's eyes and the film, but it fell flat towards the end, much like the rest of the subplots. Towards the end I found myself skipping ahead because it felt like there wasn't anything important being said.

One positive for me is Christina Lauren's ability to draw me right into the setting. I felt I was right there with Sam and Tate in their private garden and again on the film set. I loved how the authors gave some insight on how a movie plays out (which I suspect is first hand knowledge for them with production of Roomies).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Tate Jones falls passionately in love with Sam Brandis, a charming boy whom she meets during a short vacation abroad. They are both very young, Tate is eighteen and Sam is twenty-one.

They fall in love and share their dreams and homes and secrets along the way. Sam was Tate’s everything, her first love, her first heartbreak even the first one with whom she shared her secrets.

Their love was intense but then again due to unforeseen circumstances that are beyond their control, they are pulled apart and lose touch for years.

Tate, who still thinks about her first love from time to time, is a successful actress. And fourteen years after the first met, Sam is a successful writer whose book is sold as a movie and Tate is playing the lead actress in Sam’s movie.at this point they are forced to confront Sam. Sam is still charming and alluring and this is when Tate thinks whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

It is a bit different from other books by Christina Lauren. A very well-developed plot and story line. I found the story entertaining and engaging.

My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Pocket Books for sending me an ARC copy.

Review posted on my blog: https://bookoholicscafe.blogspot.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookoholiccafe/

***ARC received for an honest review***

Good luck making sense of this review. I’ve pondered how to write it - spoiler free and yet still sensical. Not sure that’s possible. I also cannot arrive at a rating. 2 stars? 3? I don’t know.

This book is full of buts. And not the fun kind. I enjoyed it. But I always knew that I was reading. I was never lost in it. I liked Tate. But Tate’s decisions made it impossible to respect her. The hero is the time-worn gentle giant. But he’s pretty gross. Reprehensible one might say. And no buts here - daddy issues are passé. Let’s find something new to write about if you can’t do them in an interesting way.

Side note - was there an actual ending to this book? Bc I’m pretty sure I missed it if we got any kind of closure or answers. We deserved a little more.

I don’t think any of the reasons for any of the things were good enough. Everyone came out of this looking silly or looking like an asshole. Or both. The relationship lacked credibility and substance. I understand that love is an amorphous subjective concept - but y’all - this ain’t love.

I’ve been hesitant to take ARCs. Each excellent book I read makes me pickier. Each thought-provoking conversation with a fellow reader and each brilliant review by readers of substance make me aware of holes and fallacies and trite storylines. There’s like a version of me from some time ago who would have been naive enough to be okay with this book. With the way the heroine treated herself. With the fairy godmother nature of supporting characters. Now I’m scarred. Battle-weary. Learned. And this - this is not good enough.