I enjoyed Much Ado About You at the beginning but it started to fall flat about half way through, and I kept waiting for the "punchline" to be delivered. Main character Evie promised to be a strong character but felt wishy-washy toward the end, and completely oblivious about what was really happening with her love interest, much hinted-at implied relationship deal-breakers which, in the end, didn't make a bit of difference after all the drama.

Solid 3 stars for the setting, I think Much Ado About You will appeal to a lot of readers but contained some of my own personal book pet-peeves which might not bother other readers at all.

*As always, not purchasing this adult title for my HS Library.*
Sooooooo......I go around and around with this one. It took me almost a full day to write this review because I wasn’t sure what I’d give it. Ultimately, it felt like a 3-4 type range.....maybe a 3.25? Here’s why:

There were some excellent lines, like “I am going to Much Ado About Nothing the shit out of this thing!” So that endears me to it right off the bat. I also adore the dog and dog focus in the story, as well as the setting. I mean, coastal England in the Spring and Summer??? Come on. Ridiculously good. I also like the development of the secondary characters.

However, all of that was overshadowed constantly by that tropes: 1-he’s immediately in love with her and 2-he’s the most beautiful man she has ever seen and 3-everyone automatically loves her in this tiny, insular, not very welcoming to most outsiders coastal town. It’s WAY overdone. And I just think there are too many lessons vying for solutions and so many other issues that muddy the waters.

A very cute book! I really loved the characters and especially liked Roane what an awesome character! The plot was really good and the twist was quite surprising I also really enjoyed the will-they won't-they and liked that it actually had some substance. Samantha Young is an awesome writer and I can't wait to read more from her!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing an arc for an honest review!

I really liked Much Ado About You a lot. It was perfect for my unable-to-leave-the-States-because-of-Covid wanderlust. Roane was dreamy, the setting was dreamy, and owning a bookshop on the English coast is dreamy. There were 2 quibbles with this book that I had though: First, as Evie is describing herself at the beginning she says she's a bigger girl but is quick to say she's not fat and that she hates when she's called fat. Like... can we just not with that? Let not use fat as a bad word. Second, toward the end, Viola mentions that most people in the village didn't see the color of her and her dad's skin. Let's not with that either. Color-blindness has no place in 2020 and beyond.

I went into this book with high expectations since Samantha Young is one of my all time favorite romance authors and I was NOT disappointed! One of my favorite aspects of her writing is setting which is very unlike me. Placement rarely matters to me but the was she writes makes me feel like I’m there and falling in love with the cities themselves. Evie is so relatable as a character and I loved watching her grow and no longer accepting treatment she didn’t deserve. Romantic interests aren’t the only relationships that can be toxic and watching Evie navigate making her relationships and her own way of thinking better was 100% perfect. And I haven’t even mentioned the romance yet! SWOON ROANE SWOON. Can I run an English bookstore and meet a handsome farmer to sweep me off of my feet??? Absolutely loved this book.

I love Samantha Young! This book had me laughing and imagining myself as the main character. Imagining finding myself and falling in love in England while working in a quaint village at an adorable bookstore with a handsome stranger!

Such a fun read! I had NO idea you could actually RENT A FREAKIN' BOOKSTORE IN ENGLAND FOR A WHOLE MONTH. Um, if I could write a romance novel, I would 100% do what Samantha Young has done so well. Although I'm not a huge fan of insta-love, Evangeline's story was genuinely written and not easily tied together, which made for a joyful read. As Evangeline leaves her Chicago life behind her and decides whether to live the rest of her life in England (uh, with a hot English farmer? duh.), the reader is pulled into the story and characters who truly come to life--Caroline's side story is a heart-wrencher but wonderfully written. Loved it--for bibliophile romance readers everywhere!

As someone who's visited The Open Book bookstore/airbnb in Wigtown, Scotland, which serves as inspiration for this novel's setting, there was so much to enjoy about Much Ado About You! And I adored the way the author incorporated real-life places in Northumberland that had me rushing to google to find out more.

But there was one tiny snipped of dialogue that is going to make this book nearly impossible to recommend. This isn't my quirky opinion but the prevailing sentiment during a time when it's incredibly important to get the language right. My hope is that, with plenty of time between this review date (September 28 2020) and publication date (March 2 2021) that this line can be changed.

The lines appear at location 2941 in my egalley, when a Black character explains that, instead of the predominantly white community being racist towards her family, "most people are fine. They don't see my dad's skin color or mine..."

It's the "not seeing" color part that makes me uncomfortable, and I anticipate those lines doing the same for many potential readers. Please, edit this while you can!

Evie seems stuck in life. Her job has reached a complete dead end and online dating has left her struggling and alone. In a compulsive moment she packs up and heads to northern England to run a bookshop in a fishing village. By happenstance she soon meets Roane, a local hunk, ahem, I mean, farmer. He is hot for her and pulls no punches in blatantly showing his interest in Evie. She immediately feels the attraction, but sets up her boundaries, and boy, does she have some very specific criteria keeping her from him.
I found Evie to be somewhat contradictory. In England she is fully self-possessed. She espouses forgiveness, body confidence, trust, and tends to call everyone out in the town with no reservation. Yet she is the first to run off when she is challenged by someone. Young tries to give her some insecurities about her body, but otherwise, she's pretty full of herself, ahem, I mean confident, about her brains, her legs, and her opinions. I am just surprised that a woman with this attitude toward life and these new people she just met was stuck in a job below her ability and trapped in failed online dating attempts. The change from one woman to the other is so abrupt it makes the escape falter a little for me as a reader.
I also wanted to see a little more rounding out of Roane's character. It wasn't completely shallow, but about 50% of the way through I was growing tired of the same adjectives describing him.
Thanks so much for the ARC! I would give this a solid 3.5 to 4 star rating. A fun, sexy escape.

Until I read this wonderful book, I had no idea that you could pay someone to let you run an old bookstore in a cozy English village as a vacation. Where do I sign up? It's such a great premise, and very well fulfilled. Evie's career and love life have just taken a spectacular downward dive, and she impulsively books a holiday that will allow her to be the proprietress of a little bookstore. She immediately meets a handsome farmer from the area, and romance begins. But can it be real and lasting? Or is she too hurt, too vulnerable, and too much of an outsider for them to have a future?

I've enjoyed Samantha Young books, like the Hart's Boardwalk series, but I felt Much Ado About You was very stale, culturally inaccurate (cheerleaders and collegiate sports like basketball do not exist at most UK and European university), and a bit dull over all. I liked the premise of the book, a bit like the movie The Holiday, but I felt that the plot was predictable in ways that her other new title, The Truest Thing, was not. One thing I really did like is the age and maturity of the main character, and the struggles she felt with her best friend moving on without her in life (pregnancy) while also at a crossroads at her career. Overall, I would still recommend to her fans and newcomers as a whole, particularly since the market in contemporary romance right now seems to focus on fresh young things out of college with great career opportunities and acceptances of self.

This book was EVERYTHING I look for in a Contemporary Romance. Evie was so real and relatable. Her body wasn’t a perfect 10, she had insecurities and doubts and felt like everyone around her had found “The One” while she was getting stood up by guys she met on online dating apps. She had me rooting for her to finally find her HEA.
Roane... OMG, what can I say other than, SEXY FARMER with an adorable giant dog as a BFF!! SWOON!
This book made me want to pack up my life and move to Northumberland. It made me laugh, it made me sad, it made me mad! It gave me all the feels and I loved every page!
It was an awesome love story and I would recommend to anyone who loves a good slow burn without the angst and drama that a lot of other books have.

For the town alone, I think this is a book that I could easily return to whenever I need an escape to a cozy British town. That being said, the romance between Evie and Roane is way too good to be true. In a *good* way. In a we all wish for a little of that some of the time. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but, when it did, I felt like everything snowballed rather quickly and unexpectedly. It ended on a high note and I would love to see this turn into a series about other inhabitants in the town.

This made for the perfect vacation escape read! Loved the small town setting, with each of the residents being well-drawn and memorable. The romance element was steamy but also completely sweet at times, a balanced blend that I appreciated. I loved how the author gave readers insight about Evie's strained relationship with her mother - and also her self-confidence struggles with her body type. The plot kept me engaged as we moved toward the main relationship conflict, which happens rather late in the story - the reveal was something that I did not see coming! However, I appreciated the happily-ever-after for these two wonderful characters without much added drama. There were laugh-out-loud moments with the townspeople and the pub, and a few minor conflicts kept the pace moving along. This would be a great suggestion for fans of Jenny Colgan - many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an early copy to review. Definitely one to recommend to my fellow rom-com library readers!

This book moved too fast at times and way too slow at others. The pace and characters lacked believability, it was a bit corny and unsatisfying.

It was cute. I liked the small english village as a setting. The pace was a little slow in the middle then went really fast at the end. For the entirety of the first sex scene all I could think about was that they should have showered first and it really took me out of it.

This book wasn't my thing. Within the last month I've read [book:The Roommate|45023611] and [book:The Ex Talk|53415121], and I think my romance bar has been raised. I'm a bookish person with a bit of a UK crush, so by all accounts this book should have been right up my alley, but it didn't work for me.

The humor felt forced and cheesy, the prose didn't flow enough for me to feel immersed in the story, and none of the characters felt like real people to me. The plot was predictable and I found myself not particularly caring whether the two main characters got together at the end.

Also... can we talk about this woman's blissful, seamless transition into running a bookstore, having never done anything remotely similar before? The protagonist literally says (I'm paraphrasing), "I did all this reader's advisory. I'm so well-read that it comes easy to me." I'm a librarian - and this is bullshit. Putting aside the fact that reader's advisory has nothing to do with being "well-read," Evie does not have innate skills that make it a cinch to run a bookstore more successfully than it's ever been run before. Like, at least make it a challenge she has to rise to. Make her work for it. The assumption that book-related jobs are peaceful, easy, vacation-like drives me crazy.

All that said - I still gave it 3 stars, because I don't think it's horrible - I just really didn't like it. Not for me, but maybe you'll like it.

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced review copy!

I loved Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Blythell so this was a fun twist on what it would be like to actually experience living/working in a bookshop. The characters were all enjoyable, believable, and I was rooting for all of them in their own way. Would definitely recommend to readers looking for a cozier romance.

3.5 stars. Any book lover will love the premise of book. Evie Starling is 33 and gets stood up for an online date and is passed over for a promotion to at work. She quits her job and books a months rental at a coastal town in a northern English village. Her rental includes an apartment and getting to run the towns small bookshop. Such a fun idea. Once she is there she meets the locals and makes friends with several including handsome farmer Roane Robson.

I been to the area (her town is fictional) and toured the Alnwick Castle that she visits. And I laughed at the detail that Evie purchases a copy of the first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) because in England the title is different. My daughter did the same thing. I like that Evie wasn't looking for romance and took time to be friends before anything happens with Roane. Along the way she pushes, herself into the lives of many locals trying to be helpful. In fact many of the side stories takes up as much plot as the main romance. Everything is told from Evie's POV. There was a minor negative religious slant involving a couple of characters that stood out to me because religion is seldom mentioned in romances. I would gladly read another book by Samatha Young. Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Evie is a funny, relatable character in this sweet insta-love romance.

Feeling left out and left behind because all of her friends have found love and some are even having kids, Evie hits bottom when an online date stands her up and she doesn't get the promotion she'd been promised. Quitting her job and swearing off romance, she decides to go to England for a month to regroup and figure out what she wants.

The truly dreamy part is that she's not just on holiday but she gets to run the book shop in a quirky, small-town complete with colorful secondary characters and a friendly neighborhood pub.

As a bonus there's local hottie and farmer Roane with his friendly dog, Shadow. Evie feels an instant connection but tries to keep her distance so she can figure out her life.

My quibbles were with the ending - the big reveal felt like a romance cliche and Evie's reaction to her conflict with Roane felt overly dramatic.

Sweet and charming contemporary romance.