4.5 stars.

What could go wrong when a woman pretends to be her best friend for a job? Read Lizzy Dent's upcoming novel, The Summer Job and find out.

Elizabeth “Birdy” Finch hasn’t had it easy. She had a tough childhood, she’s blundered from one job to another, and never found a relationship that would stick. But she’s always been there for her best friend, Heather, supporting her through her achievements as a sommelier, and as she chases after a love she’s so desperate to find.

When Heather decides to abandon the new summer job she’s landed at an old Scottish resort hotel to pursue a relationship, Birdy agrees to notify the hotel. But instead, Birdy decides to pretend to be Heather, like she’s done at parties and events before. How hard can it be to learn wine? And if the resort is old, how challenging will it really be?

Of course, the resort has been redone and the restaurant is now posh, with 124 wines(!) on its list. Birdy has her work cut out for her. The last thing she’s counting on is a handsome chef to distract/motivate her, not to mention actually starting to enjoy herself, despite the deception she’s perpetuating.

I really enjoyed The Summer Job so much. Sure, it was predictable in many ways, but it was funny and sweet and poignant (a little heavier than the average rom-com, which I always enjoy), and I love any book that takes place behind the scenes at a restaurant. This would definitely be a fun Hallmark or Netflix movie.

NetGalley and Putnam Books provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thanks for making it available!

The Summer Job publishes 5/18.

I really didn't care for this story, and I think it's because I have a friend who is a sommelier.

But about the story. The premise is a cute rom-com about Birdy, who fills in for her friend/roommate as a sommelier at a Scotish Hotel. Besides the fact she drinks wine occasionally, she knows nothing. I liked the characters we meet more then the Birdy. I guess I wasn't the right audience for this story! Of it wasn't for that, it's a cute rom-com.

It took me a bit to get into this book but once it got going, I was hooked. I credit that mainly to the characters, who were all so warm and relatable, especially Birdy. I totally understood how she got caught in a pickle and felt for her conflicting emotions as she fell for the hotel staff (and lovely James) while pretending to be someone she wasn't. I'm one of the rare fans of romcom who doesn't typically love the foodie stuff in books, but I found it fascinating in this one, possibly because there was so much emphasis on wine! There was just the right amount of conflict to keep things interesting without getting angsty. The ending was perfect.

Where are my wine lovers and foodies at? The Summer Job is a heartwarming, laugh-out-loud debut that tells the story of a good’s friend very bad decision and the summer job that stands to ruin or make her life!

Birdy has no job, no where to live and is pretty desperate when she decides to pose as her best friend Heather for the summer. The only problem- the job is actually a lot more than she bargained for! What follows is a comedy of errors as Birdy tries to figure out the wine industry. Of course, there is also a hot chef that Birdy actually likes who unfortunately thinks she’s someone else.

Words I’d use to describe this book- hilarious, entertaining, charming, light, enduring, and sweet. I’d highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a quick escape, those who have worked in the hospitality industry, and wine lovers!

Four stars!

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Okay, I loved this cute, little novel. Part love letter to wine, the hospitality industry, the beauty of natural Scotland, and part journey of self-discovery, this book was just everything I loved rolled into one. While the MC continued to make some very stupid mistakes, she was still likeable and you wanted to root for you - even if you were shaking your head ashamed of something she did.

The whole cast of characters made this book feel whole - almost like watching a movie in your head. This is the perfect summer read for wine lovers, foodies, lovers of the Food Network, and those wanting a cute, slow-burn romance in their lives - with a dash of comedy!

This was a really cute book! I loved the main character's secrets and her struggles to maintain her "Heather" identity so that no one knows she's really BIrdy, Heather's roommate. Birdy is the STAR of this show (book). She is hilarious and thought-provoking. I really enjoyed her!

Birdy is supposed to cancel a job as a summer sommelier for Heather because Heather is a flaky friend, and can't do it herself. Birdy means to do it, but ends up taking the job AS Heather! When she gets to the run-down restaurant, she finds a fancy one in its place, one with a chef holding Michelin stars. So now, she's taking a crash course in wine to keep up the ruse.

I thought this was really fun, and such a light, easy read. It's perfect for summer and readers will love it!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I was so looking forward to this book as its compared to Beach Read and I absolutely adored Beach Read. Unfortunately I got about 20% into this book and decided to DNF. It was strange because the story was almost there for me but just didn’t make it. I do think there will be a lot of others who enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me.

Ahh, A summer job at a highland Scottish Hotel sounds lovely! It is a promising opportunity to get away from it all, work, and enjoy life. You are expecting a run-down hotel, with low expectations of your Sommelier skills. But when you arrive it is not as you were expecting. You are not what or WHO they were expecting!

That does happen when you show up, pretending to be your best friend, Heather, a Sommelier, who was hired to do the job. But, Heather, is on holiday in Italy and you have no place to go sooooo.... you seize the opportunity and off to Scotland to you.

Thankfully, Birdy (the imposter), is a quirky personable and likeable character who thinks fast on her feet and can talk her way through some mishaps involving pairing food with wine. She quickly realizes that she needs to learn all that she can in a short amount of time.

When not trying to learn about wine, Birdy finds herself growing closer to James, the handsome and oh-so-likeable Chef!

The Summer Job is a fun light read which played out like a movie in my mind while I was reading it. There are some laughs, some eye rolling and fun. Birdy will have you rooting for her as she stumbles along, gaining confidence and forming a community of sorts with her co-workers. Along the way some secrets will come out which only add to the heartwarming feel of the book.

Sometimes a new beginning is all that you need. Even if that new beginning starts with deception.

I enjoyed the themes of friendship, belonging, community, starting over, and hard work.

Escapism reading, which is charming, cute, and captivating.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sweet, light tale of woman impersonating her best friend for a job. THE SUMMER JOB has location, personalities and a not-well-hidden secret going for it. The protagonist is flighty and susceptible to romance in all its forms. This is a good beach read: fast and light. I received my copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

I really wanted to love this book but it just wasn’t the book for me. Pages rambled on and on about food and wine pairings and I was bored.

The “love story” was terrible. I found it difficult to connect to any of the characters. I truthfully wasn’t rooting for Birdy and James whatsoever. I didn’t care about them and I didn’t care about their relationship. Birdy is annoying and immature. James is just meh. Skimmed the last 1/3 of the book just to get it over with.

The writing is good, the story just had nothing go for it.

This was cute and fun, and a good light summer read if you don't want to think too hard about it. The relationships just didn't work for me, and while I got the main character's justifications for what she was doing from inside her head, I was surprised at how other characters reacted when everything came to light. Definitely recommend picking up if you're in the mood for a summery romance, if you love food and wine, or you just want to watch a girl sweat while she tries to cover up her lies.

This took me a bit to get into; because I was so frustrated with Birdy’s behavior at first; but I ended up quite enjoying it. The Scottish setting was delightful and it made me laugh out loud several times. (But there also are some CRINGEY moments. Birdy is a lot sometimes.)

I enjoyed this story about a 30ish Londoner (Birdy) trying to find what makes her happy and being able to commit to it.

Birdy is down on her luck and ends up taking a job in Scotland in her best friend’s stead (her friend Heather turned it down for a trip to Italy). As her friend was a sommelier and Birdy is most definitely not, problems and guilt arise.

The cast of characters are outstanding and well-developed, and it’s nice to witness Birdy’s road to maturity, acceptance of herself and ultimately a newfound happiness.

My only caveats were personal to me: the fairly regular use of offensive language, which I found unnecessary for the unfolding story (but I suppose could be seen as a true facet of Birdy’s personality) and frustration with Birdy’s waffling between being honest with everyone about her subterfuge and trying to cover her track of lies.

But overall, I enjoyed this one.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #GPPutnamsSons for providing me the free early ARC for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Birdy has an unstable job history and has never found her passion in life. Her best friend, Heather, is a wine expert with a summer job at a Scottish hotel that she abruptly decides to turn down at the last minute. Birdy decides to take her place and pretends to be Heather without her knowing. How hard can it be right? It turns out to be a lot more than she bargained for.

The entire time I was reading this one, I was shaking my head and waiting for things to blow up around Birdy. She definitely didn’t make the smartest decisions. I’m not sure I would classify this as a romance because it seemed like that storyline was in the background of Birdy’s self-discovery journey. It was an enjoyable book to read and probably would have been even better if I was a wine fan. My only complaint is that I felt the ending was abrupt and I would have liked more of a resolution between Birdy and Heather.

The storyline of this book gave me anxiety from the beginning. I don’t usually love books based on lies because we all know how it ends. This one went better than I expected and I’m glad I decided to read it.

There are lots of different characters to follow in this story and for the most part they were well developed. I wish there had been more chemistry between Birdy and James early on in the story. While I ended up loving their relationship it took awhile to get there and it wasn’t convincing at first. This story really started picking up about 50/60% into it and it ended up being one I enjoyed. I would have liked it better if some of the mystery that came about towards the end would have been developed sooner. I think that would have kept me interested a lot sooner. I’m hoping there’s a second book because I feel there’s a lot more story left to tell.

I was certain I would give this book 3 ⭐️ but as it got better and better it rallied to 4 ⭐️.

Thank you to Penguin Books Putnam for the ARC!

Elizabeth, or Birdie as her friends call her, is a young woman without ambition or even a job. When she finds herself without a place to live, she decides to do something foolish and risky...pretend to be someone else. This decision leads Birdie to find that she CAN work hard if she is motivated enough. This was an enjoyable, quick read.

Heather, the brightest young wine expert in England, is a hopeless romantic. So much so that she decides to bail on her summer job at a hotel in Scotland to go to Italy with a man she thinks she loves. Her best friend Elizabeth goes to a party as her and while impersonating Heather, decides to do the job in Heather's place. What happens next is a series of comedic events that leads Elizabeth to realize she might be in over her head.

This book was just okay for me. It was a fun read, but wasn't one of my most recent favorites. I can't really put my finger on why the book fell flat, but I just didn't connect with any of the characters. At times, there seemed to be a lot going on, especially at the beginning when the timeline jumped back and forth. It was a quick and light read.

I really, really wanted to like this book, thinking it would be a fun and frothy summer read. And I will say there are things about this book I liked - the author's writing is really strong, and I laughed aloud at some of the jokes and banter. I also liked the Scottish setting and loved all the details about restaurant life. But at the end of the day, the totally unlikeable protagonist made this book sort of irredeemable to me.

I generally have a bit of a hard time with protagonists that are a total mess, but the problem in particular with Birdy was that I didn't think the book set up her character enough to in any way justify the con she pulls in this book. This isn't a situation where Birdy simply subs in for a friend in a standard, one-size-fits-all type of position. Her friend is a world-class sommelier, and despite having no wine knowledge whatsoever, Birdy leans into her deception, even after finding out just what is at stake for everyone involved at the hotel. Her lies started to veer into gaslighting in a way that made me uncomfortable, and the fact that other characters jokingly refer to her as a gaslighter at the end didn't make me think that her actions were okay. These lies are also tangled up in a character who struggles with alcoholism, and the treatment of this character didn't sit right with me.

This book is also billed on its romance. I did really like James, and the scenes between him and Birdy were well-written in terms of the tension and chemistry. But I could not help thinking he deserved SO MUCH BETTER than Birdy, who is not only lying about who she is, but lies about the on-going nature of her relationship with the guy she left back in London.

All in all, I spent the entirety of this book vacillating between stress about when the other shoe would drop, second-hand embarrassment as Birdy continued to make a mess of things, and anger at Birdy's selfishness. I never got on board with her, never rooted for her, and it was really disappointing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! It is the perfect beach read and while the main character wasn’t exactly my favorite, she was more like a frenemy-still interesting and I wanted to see what else she would do.

Ah, what a cute summer read. This is the perfect light beach read if your looking for something that you can just sit back and enjoy.

Birdy's best friend Heather turned down a summer job as a sommelier at a hotel in Scotland, deciding instead to go to Italy with her new boyfriend. Birdy, who is now 'homeless' with Heather leaving decides to take the job herself and pretend she is Heather. She doesn't expect all that the hotel has in store for her... This book has a wild cast of characters. Birdy was silly and sarcastic, and although she was impersonating her best friend as a sommelier, she was also true to herself. A very lighthearted book that will make you laugh and smile.