3.9
I've read a number of books by Georgia Beers and just like her previous books, '16 steps to forever' did not disappoint.

This story as Hallmark written all over it. It's a sweet romance and you feel the romance between the pair bouncing off the pages.

I think for quite a few of us, 2020 was emotional hard on us... I've found it hard to concentrate and also had difficulty reading. But this book was very different from the rest of what I've read this year. It kept me gripped and ground and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. I actually read this in a day.

You have 2 main characters in the story, firstly Brooke Sullivan, she knows what she wants from life, even if she's been let down repeatedly. She's in a new city as started a new job and feels like she's back on her feet. She doesn't go looking for a distraction but then walks in Macy Carr. Macy Carr believes in true love and soul mates. Once upon a time she had everything she dreamed of until a simpy accident took it away from her. But she as her job, friends and her fur babies. Lifes good... until she falls for the newbie, her new agent working for her biggest client she as.

If you like romance stories, this one needs to be on your to-read list.

I gave '16 steps to forever' 3.9 stars.

I was given a copy for an honest review.

ACTUAL RATE: 3.5 stars

The first thing I'd like to say is that the work with the characters is great. When we meet the protagonists, we get the impression that Macy will be the sunshine, stereotypical Hufflepuff while Brooke will be the grumpy, emotionally closed-off workaholic. While they do have these characteristics, we get to know Macy is still dealing with the trauma of her (ex) girlfriend's death, using the sunshine-like personality as a mask/coping mechanism, and Brooke, after getting through the wall of her organization habit, she's just smitten and constantly in a bisexual crisis. She's still a workaholic, of course, and she suffers too, of course, for example, because of her parents' disapproval of her bisexuality, but I personally think that she's closer to the cute sunshine than Macy is and I like it when the expected roles are switched.
Now, giving Macy and Brooke a so deserved break, let's talk about the secondary characters. Tyler, Macy's 16-year-old nephew, has an important plot point and his conversations with his aunt are always fun to read. There was one line from the character, though, that I didn't really like. (MINOR SPOILERS) When they're talking about his sexuality, Tyler mentions that his generation "doesn't like labels" or something amongst those lines. Well. First of all, Gen Z is already romanticized virtually, as if everyone from this generation were revolutionary people, which... is so not true. I'm qualified as Gen Z and I like labels a lot and know many people around my age who do as well. They make me feel safe and bring me comfort, and the moment I'm certain of one of my labels I feel just... euphoric. Second of all, it sounded as if he spoke of labels as something outdated, which is not a good idea and doesn't help people who do feel comfortable with labels, like me, at all. It wouldn't have been hard to slightly change the line to "I don't really like labels", without bringing generations to the table.
Apart from this line, though, I adore Tyler. I enjoyed his character almost as much as Brooke and Macy. I also hate his parents. Eva, Macy's sister, is mad annoying to me, and her husband is a terrible, terrible father. Likely to be a terrible husband, too, but about that, I have no idea. Tyler, I'm sorry to correct you, but your dad isn't a teddy bear, he's a pig.
Enough for the "Tyler's father whose name I made no effort to remember" hate (for now). Something I also really like about this book is the different dynamics between LGBTQ+ characters and their families. Macy's family is shown as not only accepting, but also supportive: she's close to them, having family reunions often, and her attraction to women being mentioned and discussed normally, openly, not being doubted for a moment and Tyler says that his parents are chill with him being unlabeled. Brooke's parents, on the other hand, are intensely religious in the typical LGBTphobe manner we all know and certainly not love, which is the reason Brooke moved away from their home in the first place. They still talk to each other, but the conversations are superficial and the both of them, although they know about her bisexuality, her attraction to women is unspoken of, ignored, while they often talk about men she could have a relationship with. So, there's a variety of identities and types of family dynamics, which shows that not every LGBTQ+ person is the same and neither are their households and surroundings. Basically, context important when giving advice to LGBTQ+ people, for example, and that there shouldn't be any pressure to us coming out, because it might not be safe to do so. This is a very important message to portray and that not many works get right: not all LGBTQ+ families go through psychological torture with their families, but the opposite isn't the rule either. There's no rule when it comes to that.
I also enjoyed how grief was portrayed by Beers, how its weight gradually became lighter, until she managed to forget about it for mere seconds; then, feeling guilty about it; and then, overcoming that guilt. Mere seconds are significant and as someone who has been through that, I loved how delicately it was handled, but still raw.
Finally, to end this very long review (I don't know how it got so long), I wanna talk about the misunderstandings and the miscommunication in this story: finally! Finally reasonable and relatable miscommunications! I wanted to call them dumb and stupid several times but I'd be a hypocrite to do so, because I would do the same! Or already did the same, the point still stands. So yeah, I liked that a lot.
Sooo, if you want a romance that tackles heavy topics like death, grief, anxiety disorder and biphobia, but in a way that isn't too heavy because it's inbetween romantic and/or funny scenes, then this is for you.

Although I liked this book, at points I was a bit frustrated by it too. It's hard to review without giving key bits of the storyline away but I think some aspects of this story were resolved a little too simply. For one, Brooke's relationship with her parents was an aspect I think should've been resolved clearer for the reader as it was made an issue for our main characters.
I absolutely adored Brooke, who I think was pegged as an ice-queen type (but really was a huge softy from the get-go) but Macy was a character I didn't particular connect with. I know we are set-up to feel sympathy for her but I think by mid-way I was ready for her to learn and develop.
All in all, a cute romantic story.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I just couldn't connect with this one. I love Georgia's other books, but for whatever reason I didn't vibe with this one.

When a read a Georgia Beers book I know she is going to give me everything I like in a book. This is the story of two women who didn't think they needed love in their life. Brooke is the new real-estate broker for Sasha Wolfe Realty. She is trying to escape her family who is not happy about her being bi sexual. Macy is a stager that works with Wolfe Realty. Brooke and Macy meet in the boardroom where Macy runs into Brooke with a handful of Raspberry Danish all over her white jacket. They keep running into each other at the park and coffee shop. The books starts out as you are introduced to her animals. Her cat vomited into her favorite shoes and she put her foot into that shoe. Brooke and Macy started out as a slow burn but when they got up to speed they had awesome chemistry. Sex scenes were some of the best Ms. Beers has written. The secondary characters were awesome. Macy 's best friend Lucas was wise and funny and with her menagerie of 5 animals. Her sister Eva and nephew Tyler kept encouraging Macy to get back into the dating scene after the death of her GF. Brooke brings life back into Macy. I ended the book with a smile on my face and couldn't wait for the audio to come out so I could read the book again.

When I want to read a delightful romance novel, I frequently look for a book written by Georgia Beers. She always writes a pleasant romance that will provide readers with several hours of a heart-warming story.

In 16 Steps to Forever the two main characters are Brooke Sullivan and Macy Carr. Brooke is a successful, high-end realtor who has recently moved to upstate New York. After coming out to her family, she needs to start a new life in a town where she has not grown up because her family does not understand her since she previously dated men. Although the synopsis of the book makes one feel as though Brooke is standoffish, her character just takes a while to warm up to people before she is interesting and shows a quick sense of humor.

Macy Carr works for a company which stages offices and homes for realtors. Macy is incredibly talented and has an excellent eye for this type of work. After losing the love of her life in a car accident, she is not looking for a new relationship. However, when Macy meets Brooke, she cannot seem to keep her out of her thoughts. She wants to get to know Brooke. However, although Macy is a friendly and talented person, she does have one little flaw—she is quite clumsy, and their first meeting is disastrous.

Readers will find that Macy and Brooke are charming, and their characters are well developed. The story is a “feel good” plot with little drama. Instead, you will find that you just want to see how their relationship develops.

I have read every one of Ms. Beers’ books and recommend them to anyone who wants to read an excellent book. I rate 16 Steps to Forever with 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Georgia Beers is an expert in creating moments of meet-cutes and first kisses and this book has proved it again. Brooke, a real estate agent just moved to a small town starting a new job. Through her new job, she met and got to know the adorkable Macy, the property-stager. At first, their story was looked like an ice queen romance, but as the story goes it slowly reveals the layers of Brooke character into a warm and funny personality. The chemistry between Brooke and Macy felt natural since their first meeting and was build very slowly.

Just like every other Georgia Beers’ book, I really enjoy the pacing. I can feel the depth of the emotion of the characters and the atmosphere of a small town. This is a sweet romance and definitely provides an enjoyable escape during these uncertain times.

The premise is a bit cliché, but the story was so beautifully told that I really didn't mind. Brooke and Macy are wildly different people, and yet they fit so well together. While neither character is perfect, both served as fantastic main characters who I genuinely liked. The alternating perspectives in the book definitely helped with that. A great read, and I look forward to reading even more from this author.

Another good Georgia Beers’ book with an ice queen in a suit and an adorable klutz with emotional baggage.

Ice queens and office romances are two of my favourite tropes, so give them to me and I am sold. Brooke is the ice queen real estate agent in a power suit, eager to be back on her feet in a new city with a new job. The last thing Brooke needs is to be distracted by the adorable klutz of a property stager who throws Danishes all over her the first time they meet and spills coffee the second time.

I always gravitate towards ice queen characters, and I was drawn into the book from the moment Brooke threw a mini bitchfit in the bathroom while wiping raspberry stains off her expensive white suit. But Brooke didn’t stay as ice queen for long. And she turned out to have the sweetest personality and the tenderest hear and I found myself liking this Brooke too.

I’m surprised by how much I liked Macy as well. Macy was described by Brooke as flaky at the start and I thought she was going to be a ditzy and shallow character, but she really wasn’t. Macy wants Brooke but is afraid to fall in love again after having lost her partner in a freak accident. She hesitates making progress with Brooke at several intervals because of the emotional baggage she carries as the surviving partner and this is one of the core themes of the book. Without giving the story away, I would just like to say that Beers develops the storyline around this theme very well.

Although this book was slow at the start, Beers had me in tears at the end.

I really enjoyed this. Brooke and Macy are different in so many ways but come together so well. I am always looking for bisexual characters in sapphic romances, so I loved Brooke though I wish she took longer to fully warm up to Macy. I was hoping for more of an ice queen.
I love the heart and emotion the story evokes.

Two strong women who are the same yet very different. They don't want whats right in from of them...don't even want to try, but can't deny that they might have to give it a shot. Admittedly, Ms. Beers is one of my favorite authors, and t his book really didn't disappoint. I love that she can evoke all the emotions in a story!

This was a really sweet read. Brooke and Macy were both very well written characters with a lot of depth and chemistry. I liked that Brooke was bisexual and that this wasn’t glossed over, also liked that the book explored issues around faith. It was great to see two characters who were in tune with their feelings and communicated well, without any unnecessary dramas or miscommunication issues to move the plot along. The conflict at the end could have been resolved more slowly and Brooke, who seemed like an ice queen at the beginning, could have taken longer to warm to Macy, which would have made this book perfect but I very much enjoyed it still.

This book was a delight to read. The story is essentially an opposites attract story. Two women - Macy, a klutzy free spirit, and Brooke, a fairly regimented woman - meet under less than perfect circumstances, then find themselves slowly warming up to each other. The secondary characters (especially, Sasha) were interesting, and added to the story. And any story that has cats and dogs in it is a winner for me.

There were two issues, though, that I had with the story. One was that I found that Brooke's character too easily warmed up to Macy, And, secondly, I found it a bit repetitive how each character focused in detail on what clothes the other was wearing whenever they met. The author presented them as physically attractive women who wore clothes that added to their attraction. One or two mentions of this would have sufficed ... at least, for me. However, these are minor quibbles, and I recommend this book.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Georgia Beers is one of my favourite authors, and this is a lovely romance from her.

This features Macy, who is recovering from the death of her partner and works for a fit-out business and Brooke, who is staring a new job at a real estate agency that Macy’s company does a lot of work for. Their first meeting does not get off to a good start and I admit I expected Brooke to be more of a hard ass about it, (as her character is portrayed as a bit ice-queeny in the blurb) but she’s a complete softie. They have a few more ‘meet cutes’ and then become friends. Their relationship is sweet and unfolds naturally and I liked how they communicated (and flirted) with each other.

Brooke has some family issues due to her bisexuality and the requisite baggage that comes with that, while Macy has trauma from her partner’s death and this leave her uncertain about how to move forward at various stages.

There’s also a delightful cats of supporting characters, particularly Brooke’s boss, Sasha (who features in a novella in [book:All I Want for Christmas|54636237], and Macy’s BFF Lucas and her nephew Tyler, who has a small storyline that coincides with Macy’s AHA moment during the requisite drama around the 80% mark. That drama felt less contrived than usual, and thankfully didn’t involve a long protracted breakup, more of a pause that was rectified by actual communication. I did think the end was a bit sudden, but it still managed to tick all the boxes.

Honestly, I just wanted to read something sweet and hopeful and this is both. Fans of Beers should love this. 4 stars.

4 Stars for Georgia Beers' latest novel.

This begins with a classic meet cute. Macy Carr is a talented home stager, staging homes and offices to attract buyers. Adorkable Macy lives with two cats (one appropriately named One Eyed Jack) and three dogs. She is also has a well-deserved reputation of being clumsy. Her teenage nephew, Tyler calls her “The Dropper” because “She has the superhuman inability to hold on to things.” Brook Sullivan is starting a new job, in a new state, in a new home, from Ohio to upstate New York. Brook is a successful high end real estate agent but she decided she needed a change. When she came out as a bisexual to her family, it didn’t go well. The last straw was when her mother asked her again “Why can’t you be normal?” The first morning at the new agency, her boss Sasha Wolfe called a meeting about a new property of condos and businesses with Brooke and other agents along with Macy who was hired to stage the project. Macy brought a box of raspberry danishes for the meeting, only she literally ran into Brook – covering Brook’s white suit with raspberry filling. “The Dropper” strikes again!

Everywhere Brook has lived, she found a place to sit and think and observe. Brook walked to a park near her house and was pleasantly surprised and she knew she found her new favorite spot – she sat on the 16th step to enjoy the view of the reservoir and watch the joggers, walkers, and a woman who was trying to control 3 dogs… I appreciated that Beers included that not only was Brooke adjusting to a new location, is that she really missed going to church. Although, Macy doesn’t go regularly, she suggests her family’s church that is “Catholic inclusive”. I can relate, after moving to a new place, finding a church is probably more difficult than finding a place to live.

I liked the pace of this romance. It was slower, but didn’t feel glacial. Macy wasn’t ready to start a new relationship so it developed from friendship to something more.

I also enjoyed the relationship/friendship that Macy had with Tyler. She’s the type of aunt I strive to be. Her freezing at one of Tyler’s soccer games reminded me of when I went to Travis’ final soccer game of the season. It was a night game in December. In Colorado. BURR. That year they moved to Colorado and while I visited, I was able to catch his last game. Normally a starter, he played only a couple of minutes, because the coach let the seniors play and the freshmen sat it out. But I was there. Freezing my butt off on metal bleachers. But I was there.

BTW – Brook’s boss Sasha Wolfe is featured in the story, Triple Dog Dare in the anthology, All I Want for Christmas. It was my favorite story in the book.

3.75 Stars. This was a sweet Beers romance. For whatever reason I wasn’t crazy about Beers’ last book, Hopeless Romantic, so I’m glad to say this was more my speed and I felt it had more of that ‘Beers magic’. While this is not a holiday romance, it still had that sweet feel that I think people look to find in holiday romances. Because of that I think this book would be perfect to read around this time of year.

This is one of those books were not a ton happens, the romance is the star, but Beers is able to suck you into the story anyway. I was never bored once, which normally I might have been, and the read just went at a really nice pace. The writing felt warm and while there is a little angst and conflict, this is mostly a feel good story.

I was a tad bit thrown off by Brooke’s character. I thought she was supposed to be an ice queen and she seemed like she might be in the beginning, but then she totally melted right away and ended up being super sweet. While Brooke ended up being my favorite character, I think if she would have stayed icy longer than the chemistry could have been out of this world. It was good chemistry don’t get me wrong, I just saw potential for even more.

I actually really liked the secondary character of Sasha and was disappointed she wasn’t in the book more. Then I realized she’s the character that is in Beers’ new holiday novella in All I Want for Christmas. I have been dying to read that novella and now after reading this book I’m even more excited for Sasha’s story.

I’m going to keep this review pretty short and get to the point. This book is easy to recommend to Beers fans and fans of sweet romances. This is my favorite Beers book this year and it was a really nice read. I’m excited to see what Beers has in store for us in 2021.

Ah, what a story.
I was totally into this book from the very first Chapter. I felt like it was extremely well written. It kept my attention the whole time.
The main characters were described so well and their issues full of depth I could feel every up and down they felt.
I feel that books like that are what reading is all about.
When you can follow the path that is created and just go with it.
I kind of fell for both main characters for so many different reasons because both are so different.
One is the perfect picture of stoic and one full of happiness and easy going. They just fit.

This year Georgia Beers has become a go to author for me, and this book was no exception. From start to finish, it was heartwarming, unexpectedly full of emotional depth and also full of animal love (which is always a bonus). I flew through this book and am left wanting more of these characters. I swear as soon as I finished the book, I let out a little contented sigh. This is a perfect book to bring those warm and fuzzies before the holidays.

This book had a lot of my favourite tropes, but they didn’t feel overdone or tired at all. I have grown to really love opposites-attract books and I especially enjoyed it here. We had a fantastically adorable and awkward meet cute between the ‘messy clutz’ and the ‘put-together business woman’. This trope wasn’t the focus of the book but it was definitely a sweet and fun addition to get the ball rolling. After absolutely adoring Beer’s ‘Hopeless Romantic’ earlier this year, I’ve come to expect adorableness and a light-hearted romance from her books. While she definitely delivered on that, it was the more unexpected emotional depth that made me really love this book.


Although the story wasn’t heavy by any means, it had a perfect mix of lighthearted moments and more heavy topics. Beers also dealt with grief, family rejection and touched on anxiety (although I don’t think it was expressly named as such). I think this added a lot of emotional depth to the romance which I really grew to appreciate. While l adored the sweetness and the sexiness of the relationship, this was definitely the cherry on top of Macy and Brooke’s romance. They had fantastic chemistry, their flirtation was super fun and lots of sweet moments. But, I also think their relationship touched on a much deeper side to their romance, although it wasn’t the focus by an means.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable romance. It made me giddy and warm, and has left me in a fantastic mood. Macy’s family, both womens’ friends and all of the beautiful fluffy friends also just made this book so fun to read. I definitely recommend, this was a great romance.

You just can't go wrong with certain authors, and Georgia Beers is definitely one of them. You can count on the characters to be likable, fun, with cute banter and flirting, and it gets under your skin in the prettiest possible way. She has yet to write a book I don't love.

I enjoyed this book and I enjoyed the writing style of the Author. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading.