Flipping between the male and female perspectives, I must say I enjoyed the main lady much better. Really interesting reading about her design job and the work dynamics, usually I'm not into the side stories, just the romance, so that was a surprise for me. Struggled a bit with the main dude playing the typical grumpy, recluse but I just didn't find much to get on board with. Enjoyed the lead up to the relationship much more than the actual.

Wait for It by Jenn McKinlay takes the reader through a range of emotions. It's a fun read and a great escape.

Anabelle heads to Phoenix to start over after 2 divorces and a recent proposal from one of her ex's She is renting a house from the reclusive Nick, who she has yet to meet but is pretty sure he's an old grumpy guy.

This was a quick read with a lot of character depth as Belle and Nick each find a second chance. This was told in dual POV, which I love! I think you get so much more to a story when you get both sides. This book packs a bit of an emotional punch but also has great moments of hope, humor and romance.

This was my first non-mystery book by this author and it will not be the last!

Annabelle is ready for a change in her life and knows that when her friend Sophie offers her a job and a place to live, she can’t pass it up. Upon her arrival, Annabelle is immediately fascinated by her anonymous landlord, Nick, who is thought to be old and cranky, based on the constant letters with rules that are left for her. Annabelle soon finds out though that Nick is not who she thought he is.

After reading and falling in love with Jenn’s Paris is Always a Good Idea, I was so excited to get my hands on Annabelle’s story. Sadly, this one didn’t hit the mark as highly as the first book. I didn’t feel the connection between the two main characters and was a little bored with their story. I also didn’t understand the point of having Annabelle being late to work SO often. In the real world, she would definitely be fired if she wasn’t working for her friend.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

i really wanted to like this book, but the unrealistic-feeling and very unprofessional work subplot overtook the rest of the story and eradicated the charm of the romance for me. there were some politically incorrect moments that made me cringe, the writing style didn't work for me, and i didn't feel connected to the characters. could very well be an "it's not you, it's me"!

First of all, Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the ARC of Wait for It by Jenn Mckinlay in exchange for an honest review.

Publishing Date: August 10th, 2021.

Wait for It, was a definite “judged by its cover pick”. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this story. I always love a dual POV romance, you just get more to the story when you get both of the perspectives of the main characters.

The romance part of this book does not even relatively start until 50% into the book, and the ending of this book might be a little too perfect for me. But other than that this was a super quick read with lots of action and way more depth of character than I was expecting. The main character Nick and Annabelle both dealt with a lot of lose in their life and they both had different ways of coping with these losses.

The mental health representation in this book in regards to Nick was written really well and it was great to see someone come to terms with their own mental health and work on themselves.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Meet Me in Paradise. This book is filled with emotions, loss but somehow still stacked with love and humor. Many times throughout this book I caught myself laughing out loud.

'Wait for It' was very readable and is the kind of book that would be perfect for an afternoon by the pool in the sunshine. I loved the setting and the office politics, which for me actually overshadowed the romance. Also there were some great side characters, Jackson steals the show and is by far the most memorable (closely followed by Sir of course!).

I did find it a little slow at times, and the heavy descriptions of what people were wearing or eating was a little much for me. But I think it was the very end that let the read down, I was already on edge every time Nick called her 'Goddess' but that ending was a big nope. It basically screamed to me that neither of them had learnt anything.

I'd say this was a solid right in the middle of the road 2.5 read.

While I loved the premise of this book and its inclusion of mental health and the importance of seeking treatment, I felt that the book was lacking in certain aspects. The relationship seemed rushed, with Annabelle jumping into another fast relationship after two failed marriages. While I appreciated Nick and his growth, I felt that Annabelle herself could have grown more.

The cover and the premise really drew me into this book, but I was left feeling a little meh by the end of it. Annabelle is a 28 year old twice over divorcee, and after being proposed to by her ex husband, she accepts a job offer in another city for a fresh start. She rents a house from a friend of a friend, and she and the landlord, Nick, get into it through a series of passive aggressive notes. Annabelle doesn't know that Nick is recovering from a stroke that's left him sometimes wheelchair bound, and as the two get to know each other, she sees past his grumpy exterior and falls in love.
I think the biggest struggle in this book for me was Annabelle. She was a mess, both in her personal and professional life. I think her being divorced a few times and then falling into a very fast relationship with Nick weakened her character. Also, I get that she's an Artist with a capital A, but reading about someone be late for a new job is like nails on a chalkboard. There's a lot of great rom-coms out there, but this one was pretty forgettable for me.

I was a little confused on whether this was going to be a romance or not since it took so long for them to actually get together. At first, I was like - is this a women's fiction novel but because of the alternating POV between Annabelle and Nick, it was obviously a romance. So I like that he's a young stroke victim - that felt different but if her big issue was being divorced twice by 28, wouldn't she be more cautious about jumping into another marriage with someone she's only been dating for a couple months - or at least I think that's how long the time passed in this story. There's nothing wrong with insta-love to proposal but it felt like becuase of the extended beginning of her talking about all of her issues and mistakes that maybe she'd approach the Nick relationship a little slower. But otherwise it was still a cute romance and an easy read.

4 stars for sure! I enjoyed this book. The plot was interesting, and I liked the chemistry between the two main characters. The ending wrapped up a little too neatly, but you can't complain when you get an HEA.

***All quotes used could be changed before book is published***

I love a good cover and that is the big reason for requesting this title. I loved the colors of it! Even though the blurb was promising enough, I didn’t like this one as much as I thought I would and inevitably it became one of those “it was okay” books.

This book is told with two point-of-views: Nick and Annabelle. Annabelle is trying to take advice from her friend and move on and away from her first ex-husband who uses her as a clutch to help improve himself in areas he lacks, i.e. social events. She moves from Boston to Phoenix and becomes a graphic designer for her friend. Nick is 35 years-old and suffered from a stroke. He is still not 100% and his trainer thinks he is holding himself back and suggests seeing a therapist or psychiatrist for help. Nick also comes from a hard background which involves parents on drugs and foster care.

I will say that I preferred Annabelle’s perspective more as Nick’s felt poorly written. I don’t know of any 35 year-old who would say something like, “He was just such a Boy Scout about these things that I liked to get him all aggro with my knuckle dragger comments.” I also felt that it’s kind of rude to play your friend like that with comments you don’t believe in because Nick says himself that he isn’t misogynistic but then says some questionable things like, “I’m not a very good sharer,” or “And until this thing between us is dusted and done, you’re mine.” While Annabelle eats it up but also calls out others when it comes to their misogynistic behavior. Maybe I’m wrong about this but it just sat poorly with me.

The relationship in the book doesn’t happen until around the 50% mark. This doesn’t leave a lot of room for development and the romance between them really lacked because of it. I liked the banter in the beginning before they met that happened by note and wish there was just more build-up or something. *Spoiler*——– By the end of the book they are already on the marriage talk after only knowing each other for a very short time—–*End of Spoiler*

The side characters were pretty good and did like reading about them when they showed up. I do think that Annabelle’s friend used her in a way even though her friend was the one trying to tell her to stop fixing people.

There are many plot points/topics that are discussed throughout the book, i.e. estranged sibling, drug abuse, parental death, a sleazy dillweed at work, and so on. Just like with the underdeveloped relationship, this left for a few of the topics to feel like more dramatics/filler to just keep everything going without giving them the page time they really needed to be discussed.

Overall, this was okay. It wasn’t very memorable even if there were some decent parts to it. A lot of it just left me feeling unsatisfied.

This one was just okay, kind of forgettable. Rich, beautiful people with some problems. Nick's were slightly more interesting as a young stroke survivor and child of addicts than Annabelle, who was facing down a cartoony villain at work, and is also a 2x divorcee at 28. He's crotchety and she's the sunshine, of course. Secondary characters were lovely, although some felt like they were going to be a bigger part of the story than they ended up being-- Sophie and Miguel kind of disappeared for a chunk of the book, and the groundskeeper was introduced as being mysteriously aloof and then pretty much disappeared, too. I also didn't love the ending, which apparently has Annabelle headed toward a 3rd marriage after knowing this dude for 2 months? Overall, I think I had more problems with this one than things I liked.

Loved, loved, loved Wait for It! This book had everything I could want in a contemporary romance, it made me laugh, it had characters I could root for, and it made me cry on multiple occasions. This was my first Jenn McKinlay book, but it certainly will not be last because I will gladly now read anything she writes.

McKinlay wrote a story with so much heart to it that left me with a huge book hangover because I was just not ready to part with these characters. Wait for It deals with some heavy issues, stroke, trauma, anxiety, and misogyny in the workplace, and in my opinion, McKinlay handled them flawless. The characters felt raw, honest, and real as they dealt with the things life had thrown their way.

Annabelle and Nick have become one of my favorite book pairings, but they are also stellar characters on their own. As Annabelle in a way starts her life over in a new city and with a new job, I liked seeing her having to confront her past in order to grown into the person she needed to become. For Nick, life threw him many curveballs, and he had all right to want to shut himself off from the world because of what he has been through, but even if it did take time, some of my favorite parts of the book were watching him realize just how much he wanted to in a sense live again. I loved what they each brought out in each other, Annabelle gave Nick hope even if he didn't want to admit it, and Nick was able to see through Annabelle even when she tried to hide from him, pushing her to where she needed to be.

“‘What are you doing?’ I demanded. I was getting impatient. “Wait for it.’”

Two-time divorcee Annabelle hilariously dodges a third proposal by making an impulse decision to move to Arizona and accept a high-up graphic design position working for her best friend’s company. Once in Arizona, Annabelle moves into a fancy, yet barren guest house owned by reclusive retiree Mr. Daire. After getting bombarded with impersonal infraction notices from her new landlord (e.g. no using the hot tub, no noisy singing, no feeding the stray cat), Annabelle makes it her mission to meet and charm the “old geezer”. As it turns out, Nick Daire is a very attractive young man who uses a wheelchair because of a stroke. We quickly deduce that there is no physical reason why Nick hasn’t fully recovered from his stroke nine months ago; the paralysing fear of suffering another stroke is what has prevented Nick from recovering. Annabelle and Nick quickly develop an infatuation with each other. Their connection grows when they are forced to work together; Annabelle needs Nick’s help securing a big-league client to show-up her rude nemesis at work and Nick needs Annabelle to help his sister (whom he hasn’t been in contact with since childhood) positively promote her new housing development.

Wait For It is a “sick lit” and a romance that deals with mental health and self worth. One of the main takeaways for me was that you are stronger than you think; “He [Nick] was a man who’s been on the top of the world and had it all crash down around him, but he survived. There was a strength in him he didn’t recognise, but I [Annabelle] did”. Another big takeaway from the story was that you are worth it; one of my favourite quotes from the text (surprisingly said by one of Annabelle’s ex-husbands) is, “you need to stop settling for diamonds in the rough, Annabelle. You deserve so much more”.

This book is ideally suited for adults who enjoy contemporary romance novels that deal with heavier topics like loss, abuse, addiction, mental health, and disabilities. Wait For It would also be perfect for fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, Jay Asher, and Gayle Forman. This book deals with themes like power and strength, companionship, order and chaos, empowerment, love and loss, heartbreak, escape and isolation, family, fear of failure, losing hope, resilience, appearance versus reality, strength, as well as wealth and poverty.

A major downfall for me was that you must wait until the midway point before the main characters meet in person. I also really didn’t like Annabelle’s rude work nemesis, Carson; he was completely disrespectful and crossed multiple lines and it was hard to believe that Carson was able to get away with harassing his co-workers for so long without being caught. For me personally, I wished the book ended differently as it was a happily ever after ending, but it seemed as though Annabelle was almost reverting to her old self-harmful patterns by rushing into another serious relationship.

First off, Nick and Annabelle’s relationship was “enemies to lovers” was fantastic; their vibe reminded me a lot of Lucy and Josh from one of my favourite books, The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. Furthermore, the main characters in Wait For It, especially the fact that they grew a lot throughout the book. Nick was able to move past his traumatic childhood, learn to let people in, accept his weaknesses, and take steps towards improving his mental health. Additionally, Annabelle was able to conquer challenges at work, stand up for herself, deal with her grief, and start to become more confident in herself. Lastly, I enjoyed reading about Jackson (Nick’s physical therapist/ friend) and Lexi’s (Nick’s sister) budding relationship; I would love to see their love story continue in a sequel!

Overall, this book was incredibly enjoyable and very engaging. I would definitely recommend Wait For It to friends who enjoy reading romance novels that deal with more serious topics.

I really enjoyed this one but I have to say, every time I opened my Kindle I had the song Wait For It from Hamilton in my head. Very annoying :) But I digress. Annabelle has just moved from Boston to Phoenix. She has a horrible track record with men. Her friend gets her lodging living in the pool house of a rich guy. Annabelle assumes her landlord is some old curmudgeon, but no. He's very hot and her age. At first they only communicate by leaving notes on doors which was fun. Now Nick, her landlord, has become reclusive after suffering a stroke. He wants to stay being a recluse, but Annabelle has other ideas. I love books where both characters are broken and have issues to overcome and this was one of those books.

This was my first non-mystery book from this author and it's clear she is multi-talented. I loved it. Annabel and Nick were so adorable together, even when they were fighting and, even though I knew they'd have their HEA (not a spoiler: it's a romance!), it didn't make me enjoy the journey any less. The supporting characters were great, even the ones I HATED (looking at you, Carson!) And Sir was definitely a book pet to love. There were soft moments that choked me up and light parts that had me laughing out loud. I'm definitely going to read Paris is Always a Good Idea sooner than later. Finally, the cover of this book is GORGEOUS. Love.

Good gravy but the premise of this book called to me. I am powerless against a wounded hero and this looked like a sure thing. It didn't exactly play out the way I would have liked. I felt like there was too much crammed in - and the hero came off as more arrogant and pompous than reclusive and wounded. I wanted more of a connection or a spark of romance, but the first half of the book definitely reads as women's fiction and - for me - it didn't grab me the way I wanted it to. It felt like too much telling, not enough showing, and not enough character development for me to really invest in it. Ultimately, it was a DNF for me.

I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to read and review. I think in the end, this author's writing-style just might not be for me.

This was cute! And the Phoenix setting was fun -- I just at at the Matt's Big Breakfast on Camelback a month or two ago, so it was neat to see it mentioned in the book.

It’s a little hard to write this review because I’m not quite sure what it was supposed to be. The first half felt solidly like women’s fiction, the second half was a romance. I really enjoyed the second half, but the first half was a little slow for me. Once the plot finally picked up near the 45% mark I started enjoying it.

Needing a change after her ex-husband proposes again, Annabelle moves to Phoenix to accept a job working for her BFF. She’s immediately intrigued by her mysterious landlord whom she hasn’t met in person. They communicate via handwritten notes, until one day she finally antagonizes him enough for an in person meeting. He’s not at all what she expected and the two begin a steamy affair, but both have baggage from their past holding them back.

I struggled a bit with Annabelle. My pet peeve in life is tardy people, and she thinks because she is an artist that gives her license to be late everywhere she goes. She’s almost 30 years old and can’t arrive to work on time. This isn’t normally a big deal for me for a fictional character, but it is mentioned often, like it’s some charming affectation instead of just plain rudeness. From the very beginning, I didn’t like or trust her because of this. She also is an extrovert who thinks she can just force her will onto everyone and get what she wants, and I think she needed to grow up and learn how to deal with people a little more maturely.

Nick has had a hard year, after suffering a stroke at a young age, he can’t get over the fact that his body betrayed him and deals with constant anxiety it will let him down again. He had a lot to work through from his past and the present worry of suffering another stroke, but I found his character compelling and quite likeable. I love a grump, and this poor misanthropic baby won my heart quickly.

Their relationship seemed based mostly on proximity, but I did appreciate that they brought out a better side of each other. Annabelle’s work situation was interesting and I did like that dynamic.

Overall I liked the last half but the first half was not super interesting to me. 3.5 stars