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.

4 1/2 "Second Chance" Stars!

I read very little of the blurb prior to reading Twice in a Blue Moon and I feel like my reading experience was all the richer for it. Going in blind helped me to be just as shocked as Tate was by the events that happened in her life. Sometimes that shock value can go a long way. For that reason, I'm going to attempt to keep my review relatively vague.

Tate and Sam meet when they are young. She's eighteen and he's twenty-one. They have their entire lives ahead of them, but they each have grown up in less than normal circumstances. They know that what they feel is intense, but due to circumstances that are beyond their control, they are pulled apart and lose touch for years.
When they meet up again years later, there is a lot of hurt to overcome and some misunderstandings to be explained. In the time they've been apart, Tate has become a successful actress and Sam has become accomplished in his own field. They will have to decide if their feelings are still there and if so, can they overcome the mistrust that exists between them.. Twice in a Blue Moon doesn't just focus on Tate and Sam's romantic love, it also addresses parent/child relationships, grandparent/child relationships, the importance of friendships and more.

I really loved this story. I found it to be a little different from a typical Christina Lauren book but that didn't make it bad, just different. At times, Twice in a Blue Moon felt more like women's fiction than contemporary romance to me. That could have just been my perception though.

I liked how we initially got to know Sam and Tate as young people with a fresh new love and then we fast forward to years down the road. Now they aren't together and neither is sure what the other one feels. They dodge one another until there is ultimately a moment where all of their angsty feelings culminate into a critical moment. At this point, they are forced to address their feelings for one another and address the bitterness that has been between them.

Not only did I feel a connection with Tate and Sam, I really enjoyed the secondary characters as well. The only thing I would have liked was to see a bit more of Sam and Tate's future. I believe an epilogue could have accomplished this for me. That said, it was still a great read and I thought the storyline was inventive.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’m always excited when I find out about a new Christina Lauren book. TWICE IN A BLUE MOON was no exception. Some of their books are among my favorites, and after a couple of recent misses, I was hopeful TIABM would be a contender for another favorite, however, this one missed the mark for me, too.

There wasn’t anything particularly bad about the book. The writing is trademark CLo and an interesting take on a second chance and forced proximity romance. Tate and Sam’s relationship just didn’t do it for me.

I’m not sure if it’s because of how the story is structured (past is the 1st 100 or so pages, then you read the present. There aren’t any flashbacks.), but I didn’t get the chemistry between these two like I need in a romance.

They know each other all of 2 weeks 14 years ago, and yes they had an intense connection, but was it love? Lust? Infatuation? Could that really last for 14 years when there’s zero contact? Could they really truly know each other and deeply love each other after only two weeks when they were 18 and 21? For most people, who they are at 18 vs 32 is very different, so I wasn’t able to easily convince myself that these two could have such a lasting love without time to reconnect beforehand. It feels a little like wish fulfillment.

When we go to the present, the tension isn’t there and the chemistry was missing for me, too. I wasn’t yelling at them to get together or honestly particularly rooting for them. I just kind of felt apathetic.

It was a fine story, and no doubt there will be people who love it, so I don’t want to necessarily discourage you from reading it. I just think there are better CLo books than this one. Fingers crossed I like their next book better!

Christina Lauren always gives life to their books in away that no other can. Twice in a Blue Moon will touch your heart on many levels as you travel the relationships of Tate and her family along with Tate and Sam.
They met in London when they were young they left an impression on each others lives 14 years later it seems neither of them have really moved on from that initial impression no matter the harshness the world and life through at them individually.
So worth the read, it will suck you in and not let you go until the end.

Sam and Tate meet during a trip to London and quickly fall in love. Then he disappears, and she finds her identity has been revealed to the press. Fast forward 14 years. Tate turned that reveal into a very successful acting career, and she's landed a huge movie role as the lead with her famous father in a supporting role. And on the first night on set, she sees Sam again. Even with the strength of their feelings, neither tried to contact the other. Then they have to figure out how to work together on set.
It was a good story, most of the time spent either in London or on the movie set. I had trouble with some of the actions/reactions of some of the characters to certain situations.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Twice in a Blue Moon captured my heart the minute I recognized the homage to A Room with a View in the first chapter. The book opens with two young people, each on a vacation in London with their grandparent. Tate and Sam are attracted immediately and become first friends and then quickly fall in love. But they are separated by scandal as Tate's identity as the estranged daughter of a famous Hollywood actor is leaked to the press, probably by Sam. Sam and Tate meet again 14 years later as Sam has become a successful writer whose book is sold as a movie and Tate is now an actress cast as the lead in Sam's movie.

I loved this story, which was more than just a romance. Tate's estranged father is also cast in the movie, so there is a lot of pressure for Tate to try to deal with her father as well. Tate has not spent much time with her father, since her mother left him when Tate was 8. Tate's grandmother was also involved in a difficult marriage, so Tate really comes from a family of women who doesn't trust men much. Tate has to figure out how she can deal with her father and Sam on the most challenging film in her career.

I think Christina Lauren is my new favorite author, this story was so good! I wish I could say more, but spoilers!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.