I was gonna make a little different beginning to this review until I took some time and, yeah...PR departments need to either be brave enough to back their Authors and their books, or someone has to re-design the genre markings so that we have OTHER WORDS to call very specific books.

I had some idea in my brain this SCREAMED Women's Fiction to me, then had thought NetGalley had marked it as such. Goodreads put it under TOP BILLING for Romance and then of course 3rd was for WOMEN'S FICTION.

Look, I'm no dummy. I have been in this Romance Reader game for a massive majority of my life [35+yrs]. When a Summary tells me a woman protagonist, who will be our heroine, has 3 men vying for her love interests? 2 for sure, and then one off to the side as a maybe? This is not mainly a Romance. And man, come on...a mature woman in her 40s, hitting a mid-life crisis where most of her best friends are all getting loved and paired up, having babies and moving on? This is a story about a woman's journey.

I am in no way upset at the book, story, characters or Author, but it's not nice to sugar-coat and hide the unexpected to those inexperienced. Especially the way Romance genre has been lauded about and can take off, skyrocketing to Best Seller lists. Most readers want to get their groove on and some folks will crap on this book for leading them astray. And it really comes down to MARKETING-PR and MARKETING-PR...stop calling Chick Lit/Women's Lit/Fiction Romance... at this point, I am so exhausted from screaming this as loud as possible. Because you have no idea how this ruins a great book and an Author's reputation when you make false promises you can never live up to.

It's like for some readers they start to hate-read a book and hate-on the characters because they feel betrayed and I fully understand. It is a huge let down to walk in with high expectations and to learn you were duped.

But, listen, 35yrs of reading has given me gumption of my own and an ability to be set in my own opinions [because I have read it ALL, it feels like] to never assume I am being told the whole truth. Always have no expectations or low expectations, then NO ONE will let you down. And everything will come out smelling like roses.

..what is that saying, " Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining... " Because, yeah... don't tell an expert Romance reader she is reading ROMANCE when ALL THE SIGNS point toward near non-romance.

Luckily, the reason I picked this book was for the summary's pile-on of men for a 40yr old woman. I was curious to see what her journey would teach her.

I found myself...reading a book, a story, about a character I was pleasantly surprised to read more and more of. Was she golden for me the whole way through? Of course not...that is what's so wonderful and fascinating about Women's Fiction...the chance to take a lead character's hand and go on a walk of self-discovery.

Look, there is a trio of girlfriends here where one just...it almost derails the center romances...overtakes the woman's personal journey, because Annie thought ONE WAY about a one-on-one relationship with one of her best friends, Kelly.

Except...here is where this story blew my ever-lovin' mind. It became personal for me because I have gone through a similar self-exploration.

Teens, 20-somethings and even some 30-yr olds won't ever know this until they pass over a hump at 40. Yeah, for many, this is a point in time where if you remain a "single", then this is who you might be for 5, 10, 15 more years. For some, suddenly it becomes a rite of passage, like you restart your libido again and you find a man or woman, and now you start viewing a future with this person.

If anyone has had a lifelong best friend and when you reached certain milestones in youth together, then you made profound declarations..."Oh, this is awesome! In ??yrs when we're in our 30s/40s/50s we'll still be together and retired, drinking margaritas and hitting on younger men..."...whatever the promise was... SOMEONE ends up not keeping it.

Or worse, neither of you vocalized the sacred promise and only ASSUMED you both would be single forever and life would simply mosey onward.

This is basically a story about THAT MOMENT. Between two women best friends. Where ONE... Annie, our heroine, had thought her friend Kelly would live in her home's basement [an apartment] FOREVER. And they would be old cronies together. Instead, a family tragedy drags Kelly back home to stay with her parents and then...eh, she finds a late-in-life LOVE, with a 40+yr old man.

Now Annie has to re-calibrate. Everything. Her plans gone kaput--she is not a planner but she conjures ideas and ways to conquer them in her head. So Annie has always thought it would be HER & KELLY. But for Kelly? Not so much.

I have never resonated with a main character so much which is probably why this book settled perfectly in my frame of mind and all my own mid-life crisis moments...because, this stuff happens. Real life is a bummer, and its often tragic and ever-changing. We have to constantly be prepared to change with it. Be able to lose important people who we once thought would be there forever. Even if they are family or feel like family.

We are also allowed to be angry and upset. Especially if what Kelly did to Annie is done to any of us. Annie was, and I think always will be, too forgiving. Not so much passive aggressive, but she allowed Kelly to get away with, uhm, so much more than just turning BRIDEZILLA for her wedding...but UGLY YELLING and making wild assumptions about Annie's career. And also questioning Annie's character and friendship because of always being on-call for her job.

Kelly KNOWS this but suddenly when Kelly was having a crisis and then during that crisis fell in love, she began to keep things secret from Annie. I can only assume her guilt was making her become angry...but it was displaced, scapegoated when she finally faced Annie with her fiance, Mark, the man she'd been falling in love with for 3-months.

Annie is a concierge doctor. She does not work outside of an office, per se. She has "patients", her clients, but she works for VIP people who can afford to pay her by-the-hour. And it sounds like what it is...when a pricey, fancy hotel will have a concierge doctor on-call. This is pretty much what Annie is, except she is FOREVER on-call for patients on the outside.

And Annie is a nurturer so she cares about her patients a lot more than having a social life. And this was apparently the trigger that sends Kelly off on a really nasty rampage, off and on.

Kelly comes back home, makes Annie assume things are back to normal... all the while Kelly is keeping secrets. 1) that she could be moving out, moving away, back home 2) that she fell in love while caregiving her parents, her mom, mainly and then 3) that she is now engaged because this man has been in Kelly's life for 3months...

Great that Kelly asked Annie to be in her wedding, but, yeah... Kelly continued to cop major attitude with Annie...always seeming to belittle and crush Annie's spirit...for what? I don't know. It took up major portions of the book/story and plagued Annie's mind when she wasn't with the men of this book.

And yes, there are 3 men vying for Annie. Two she will drunkenly propose to...and then one, Dax, a 27yr old bartender, who reluctantly becomes her replacement Pub Trivia team mate. Especially once she gives him Kelly's old apartment in her basement.

The other two men, Rob...an old high school classmate who is one year older than Annie. Their mothers are Best Friends. They also either live next door or live in the same neighborhood. Also, Rob's mom is recovering from cancer but not fully in remission. So there is an added extra pressure to marry Rob, but just from their mothers.

Then there is Darius, who is...hmm, I want to say around Annie's age or maybe a year or two younger. He should be no less than 35. He is a local news personality who does a kind of MAN ON THE STREET piece, but he really wants to BE a media personality, especially on RADIO, for Chicago.

Uhm, one of Annie's longtime patients is the anchor where Darius works; she also mentored him when he joined the news channel. Darius was kind of strong-armed to do a "piece" on Annie for TV...and from there Darius became interested in her.

When Kelly shows up, randomly, out of the blue, with her fiance, Mark...Annie just does not know what to do, where to go or who she is anymore...because Kelly has been living another life she never allowed her to be a part of. Then just one day brings a strange man to Pub Trivia...and shows off her engagement ring. Annie learns their other friend knew about everything a lot longer. And then, of course...Annie's future starts to unravel...

And, yeah...this is a harsh betrayal of someone you assumed was your best friend and that you two would be single until the end of time.

And there are moments here where I wished Annie had taken some sage advice...some friendships aren't meant to last for good--shockingly, this came from the 3rd friend in the trio of girlfriends, Yessa/Yessi[?]. There will be people that we know for a short enough time and then they have served a purpose and so much changes between you two that...maybe it is time to move and let it go. Except Annie doesn't, but I wished she had, to some extent.

Stay until she could be in Kelly's wedding. See her off on the honeymoon with Mark...and then slowly ease back and make KELLY come to her. Because apparently Annie had made too many wrong assumptions and Kelly didn't see HER like that anymore.

Hurt and brokenhearted, TWO of her friends are in BLISS and LOVE, while she is still single, so Annie drunkenly sends a proposal text to ALL the men in her Contact list...but eh, a handful respond.

Annie actually is the one who chooses that it will only be ROB and DARIUS. She will go on dates with them to "get to know" them...but yeah...here is where Annie wasn't such a great heroine in her own story. She was too much of a pushover, wanting to please EVERYBODY and not put a foot down for herself.

Mainly because...there was something about the way Dax was being written. Something about the way Annie reacted to Dax. And also, the way Dax reacted to Annie. There's interesting details, minor moments in random scenes...once where Dax breaks a wine bottle on his leg...Annie rushes to "doctor" him...and then in Annie's big screw-up...Dax takes a drunken Annie home, and stays at her place in order to make sure she was okay.

These were minuscule enough details that many would overlook, but as a writer they stayed in my mind as smaller pieces of a much bigger puzzle that would fit together eventually. Dax and Annie singularly proved to me... they care and have compassion, despite being different ages... Annie [39] Dax [27]. And when the Author adds a precious dog to take care...?? yeah, even more of a "sign".

Yeah, there is awkwardness and some modicum of two really fascinating characters of the opposite sex who could not be more different, but keep bumping into one another...there's a tug between them...but they never act on that pull. Then because Dax and Annie almost see each other, on a routine...especially when he moves in, with his dog, Joanne...yeah, they begin to warm up together because...

...after all Annie's complaining...she will soon turn 40, in August, and she knew Dax was 20-something...she kept shooting him down. But there was always something special and attractive about Dax Annie could not stop being drawn to. Because they would sometimes talk and open-up about certain things she never let other people know about her life, her privacy.

I kind of knew right from the jump, Dax would be whom Annie would end up with. Mainly because...hehehe, I actually thought Rob could be gay. He was simply too, too close to his special group of male friends and then he focused on ONE. He brought Annie to a Bar-B-Que and ended up ghosting her...this was their 2nd date. He was also in this "thing" with Annie for the wrong reasons... more to make his terminally ill Mom happy, by marrying HER best friend's daughter???

Darius? Ugh...just no. All Flash & Show but no substance. Something about him screamed RED FLAGs. I hated that Annie enjoyed how "connected" Darius was to a lot of things in and out of Chicago. He could get VIP status anywhere [into clubs and restaurants w/o waiting in line], but yeah...Darius wants success and a beautiful Perma-date/Plus One [almost a Trophy Wife]. But secretly, with his last relationship, he had fallen in love with another Chicago celebrity whom he had to let go of...and, this did not bode well for Annie.

Once Annie makes the decision to break things off with Rob and Darius, because she wants to be with Dax...once again, Annie becomes an idiot...and, yeah, Dax was right to react the way he did.

Annie has this ability to be TOO NICE and never tell people N-O...so, she basically has TWO ENGAGEMENT RINGS in her purse... which Dax finds...and things start to fall apart.

And here again is a space where you know this is not a Romance but a Woman's Fiction story when Annie lets Dax go--6months to a full year for his band to go on a European Tour. It was very close to the end, nearly 3rd-4th chapter from the eventual end. And suddenly Kelly comes in to make random apologies...and now wants to help Annie get Dax back.

Darius ended up with his HEA. Rob got his own HEA with Dax's sister, Lily. And there Annie sat... wondering if Dax would return back to her...it almost felt like he stayed away and did not come back to Chicago, but, eh...

Annie did get her HEA with Dax... some are calling it an HFN. That's fine--we all have our opinions. I can understand why a reader would say it this way because Annie and Dax have promised in their relationship to not make definite plans, etched in stone--to play it by ear... to take each day as it comes...together.

But for some weird reason I see it written... I hear them say it...but I kind of get that both are with one another FOR GOOD. Other readers will assume what they will.

With my reading experience the way this story unfolds and how I can read between the lines actually said... eh, this is a HEA of permanence...but that's just me.

**I received this e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

I have to admit, I struggled to write a review for this book. On the one hand it was a fun and quick read. I enjoyed the premise, with the almost bachelorette like feeling, back and forth between which man she would ultimately end up with.

But I think what I liked about it also made way for the problems. While it was overall entertaining, it was also a bit one dimensional. The scenes with the other two men sort of fell flat, which in all honesty may have been the point. We probably weren't supposed to fall in love with them as much... but it certainly would have made the will-they-won't-they more interesting if readers were a bit more invested in the characters.

I really wasn't a fan of the friend dynamic in this book either. It was the catalyst for the main plot, I get that. So it was necessary for some of it to happen. But again, it didn't feel natural at all, it just felt forced and underdeveloped.

Overall, this was a fun read and I would recommend it to readers looking for a quick and light romcom with some elements of the marriage of convenience trope.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC, all thoughts are my own.

It's Raining Men had me at the synopsis.
After digging deeper into it, this book will make you laugh, swoon, smile so hard at the same time.
Annie, 40 and single, learns that her best friend who she was supposed to spend her life ( platonically) is getting married & leaving her alone.
So she does what any devastated person would do, she drunk texts every guy in her contacts & is surprised to find two responses back.

I truly enjoyed this story. It was so much fun, entertaining & hilarious.
Annie juggling her life & choosing between 2 handsome men was epic.

Annie is a work-a-holic. A doctor who runs a one-woman show for those who can afford it, she is always available. Unfortunately that has caused serious issues in her personal life. Now, she finds herself knocking on the door of 40 without a man, a social life or a roommate. Cue an emotional life crisis, too much alcohol, and a cell phone and you have a rom-com recipe for disaster. What follows is a laugh-out-loud romp through relationships, friendships and what happens when you find your true self in the middle of the mess. It's Raining Men by author Julie Hammerle is worth the read, just perhaps without your cell phone close by.

Overall, this book was fun. It's a romcom through and through, but it does some surprising things. It's like an adult version of "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" crossed with "One to Watch." I liked that it's not obvious who the final man is going to be. But the trade off for that is valuable page time is spread out between three "candidates," and we don't get as much time with the final guy, which I would have liked. I did like that the heroine is child-free, and it's not a huge deal. This book seemed really self-aware, and I liked the details and care taken with inclusivity.

The pacing was slow for me; it felt like it took much too long to get through for a romance. The chapter titles were also annoying, obscure, and distracting.

This was a fun, fast read.

When Annie finds out her BFF is engaged and moving out, her fear of being alone (and a lot of tequila) makes her send out a mass text to all the men in her phone. She says she is done playing games and wants to get married and 2 of the 39 men respond that they are on board.

I was all about this plot idea when I thought she was looking to date. Finding out she proposed marriage and 2 guys responded positively felt weird. And both of the guys felt boring to me. 🤷‍♀️

Her best friend was a massive bitch for 90% of this book and the resolution was not satisfactory. I didn't feel enough of a connection with these characters in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled for this free copy.

A huge thank you to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a fun romcom, almost like a coming of age story with older characters dealing with mid-life crises! I had the best time reading this all throughout!

This follows Annie, a concierge doctor who is about to turn 40 and is suddenly dealt with the pressure of settling down after her long-term best friend and roommate suddenly gets engaged and moved out. During one drunken night, she ends up sending a marriage proposal to all 39 men on her contacts list and to her surprise, 2 of them replied. One of which is Rob, her childhood friend and Darius, the up-and-coming host and celebrity in the making. Amidst all the dates she goes with them to see which had more potential to be her endgame, a relationship is brewing with her and her bartender-turned-roommate musician, Dax.

I love Annie! Despite being a super successful doctor, she still stresses with the pressure of life and finding love which makes her so relatable. Her voice is quirky and fun and the writng was just engaging so it was so easy to just keep on reading!

Annie’s relationship with the three men were all so interesting given how different they were from each other but you could see how they would each work in Annie’s favor which made it extra hard to determine who she’ll choose in the end. (Though personally, my heart was already set on our dog loving man so I was a bit bias.) The banter and chemistry with Annie’s love interests (mostly Dax) were so natural and so on point! It was so entertaining exploring all three possibilities!

I also love the other side characters from Annie’s best friends, Yessi & Kelly, her mom and ofc, Joanne!

Overall, this was a light, fast-paced and heartfelt romcom! It highlighted the fact that we’re never too late to go out there and just experience life no matter what age we are which I loved! I highly recommend this!

So much love for this coming of age (40’s lol) story!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just fell for this delightful story. The author perfectly showcases what happens when a woman gets older, is still single, and her besties are all getting married. Maybe you are married to your job, but are you really happy?

That is just what Annie is dealing with in this coming of age story. But when her fingers do the walking, she all of a sudden has several men interested in marriage. How do you balance them all?

Hammerle has created the best guys for Annie. They each have great qualities to make them the perfect choice. But one stands out from the crowd and is simply delicious! Plus, he has a sweet pup that makes a star appearance in the story.

It’s Raining Men is loaded with wit and banter that makes the story light-hearted and fun to read. A perfect choice for those who love an easy to read clean romance without the angst!

I enjoyed this romcom, it was different and funny. Annie the main character knew what she wanted and went all out to get it. This was a very different story to most romcoms that you read. 4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

"It's Raining Men" - 4 ⭐

(Unpaid Review: thank you to @netgalley, @juliehammerle and the publishers for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review)

This was such a fun, fluffy, laugh out loud read! The title obviously makes us think of the song and it actually makes us feel like we're living in the music vídeo.

The story is so genuine and cheerful. I love how the protagonist made the decision for what she really wanted in life. The romance is so sweet and enjoyable, perfect for summer and younger readers!

4 stars

It's Raining Men honestly surprised me in a lot of ways.

I was a bit skeptical at first about how a story about a woman juggling two men that she is thinking about marrying was going to work out, especially when a third object of affection entered the ring. There were a lot of ways that Hammerle could have gotten bogged down in some of the thornier bits of this novel, but I think she handled this story in an incredibly fun and engaging way.

There are definitely more sobering moments in this book than I am used to in a romance (Hammerle thankfully provides content warnings in the beginning), but they didn't feel gratuitous or overwrought. The only thing that I could say knocked down a star for me was that some of the plot points (the fight with the best friend and the worry about a potential romance with an age gap) did get a bit repetitive for my taste.

All in all, It's Raining Men was a thoroughly engrossing read and I will definitely be taking a look at Hammerle's backlist in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled: Amara for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

It's incredibly refreshing to read a romance novel with a heroine in her late 30s - more of this, please! I also really appreciated that this story captured multiple dimensions of Annie's life. Yes, she's figuring things out romantically, but she's also navigating evolving friendship dynamics, redefining what career success means to her, and worrying about her family. This rang so true to me as I turn the corner into my late 30s and find myself redefining what success and happiness looks like in my own life.

I also appreciated that each of the possible romantic leads in Annie's life were portrayed as genuinely viable options for her. No obvious bad boy or villain trope here; each leading man brings things to the table that Annie could see herself valuing, and she has to really work through what she wants for her romantic future. I found myself rooting for each of the men at different points, for different reasons.

I will definitely be recommending this to other women in their 30s and beyond - it was such a treat to read something so true to my own lived experience!

It's Raining Men starts with Annie's BFF moving out and getting engaged in one, frustrated swoop, which sets Annie on a downward spiral. After a drunken night, she decides to try her luck with marriage with one of two men- Darius or Rob. Rob is the boy from next door who she never really loved but he's nice to his mom and her mom, so why not? And Darius is the local news-person who wants a woman to move up the ladder with him. Annie is pragmatic and career-driven, so she doesn't seem concerned about love or emotions and struggles to see how anyone feels but herself. For a person whose job as a doctor is to be empathetic and knowledgeable about humans, Annie has her head buried in the sand for most of the book. Dax, the bartender/roommate/boy toy/musician is most likely intended to balance her out, but I have no idea what he sees in her. Overall the book has an interesting premise and it's great to see a career-driven, nearly forty-year-old female starring in a romance novel. However, I didn't walk away feeling any connection to Annie or any of the men that rain down upon her.

oh my gosh, this book is the cutest! I love the witty charm that Annie has, plus her interactions with the men she drunkenly messaged. If you enjoy adorable romcoms that are so very heartwarming, this is a book for you!

This one was laugh out loud funny, highly enjoyable rom-com. It made my day. The characters were super fun and well developed enough to jump off the page. I also loved that the heroine was slightly older than the average romance heroine. The character growth in this story was genuine and the writing was solid. This book had me hooked from beginning to end. Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review.

Honestly, if you are a person that enjoys Lifetime Romance movies, you would really enjoy this book. For me, it was just too cheesy, predictable, and bland. I truly didn’t feel engaged with the story as I could easily predict the entire story after about two paragraphs. The chapters are fairly short, and the book did pass pretty quickly. It was a bit redundant with the age gap and false concern for the main character, and i honestly laughed at how often it began to show. It’s a sweet story that will pass quickly at the pool.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I wish I had enjoyed this book so much more.
I did not enjoy Annie's relationship with Kelly at all, it was very juvenile and toxic.
The romance between Annie and Dax was sweet and I wanted a lot more of them together.
Darius and Rob... again I wanted more out of those scenes. Overall the book was okay but I wanted more connections, everything felt very surface if that makes sense...

Lives are flashing forward in front of Annie's eyes, the single almost forty year old doctor. Drunk one night, Annie decides to change her life situation and drunk texts over thirty men asking if they want to marry her. No strings attached is the bargain. Bachelor number one: childhood boy next door who wronged her at the high school dance. Bachelor number two: Chicago media superstar who gets the "in" to everything. Bachelor Number three: young for Annie bartender with an adorable dog. With life spiraling fast and dates happening quickly, Annie has to choose: will she marry for love or marry just to marry?

It's Raining Men by Julie Hammerle is a wild ride from start to finish. This book was humorous and the characters were mainly significant. Readers will adore most of her bachelors but notice a fourth of the way through who Annie should really be with. It's Raining Men is the perfect romantic comedy beach read or cozy read on a rainy day. Fans of Lindsey Kelk and Sophie Kinsella will adore this novel.

Romance for romance sake alone won't be enough for me to read it.

I picked up this book because I loved Julie's other book, "Knocked up Cinderella".

In this one it is an older woman figuring she has to get married because, why not, and so she sends out a drunken text to everyone in her phone, and gets two replies. One from a local TV personality, who thinks having a plus one would be great, and the second from her former next door neighbor, who wants someone to marry to please his mother, who is dying.

And of course, it isn't just a triangle, but a cube of some kind, because throw into the mix Dax, the local bartender, who is looking for a spare room, which she has.

This is one of those books where you know who she should end up with, before she does, and you just want to pull her aside, and say, look honey, this is who is best for you.

So, a fun book, but telegraphed so far in advance that the story drags a little while you wait for her to figure things out.




<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

I was very fortunate to receive an advance copy from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Just about finished this cute summer read. What happens when a well established career driven personality soon turning forty has a few too many drinks and sends out a text to the men on her contact list looking for an unconventional marriage partner? Add in a sexy young bartender? A great romance /romcom escape to read.

I loved this book and I can see it being made into a TV movie....I loved the relationships in this book between friends, old crushes, new crushes, family a dog....there were laughable moments along with some romantic moments...learning about oneself and taking that leap of faith for a future you actually want. It’s a great book to take on a holiday or while lounging by the pool.