This romance for sure was a rollercoaster of a ride. In other words it has alot of angst. For those that love that sort of thing this might be the book for you. I on the other hand am not normally a huge fan to angst. If done right, I find myself liking it. Often times, I find that sometimes too much angst is too much. With that said, I found this one to be a bit more angsty than I like. The romance still had some good parts. I found myself liking supporting character MJ more than I liked mains. I do hope that Copeland writes a book about her. Anyway, the mains I found okay and the romance okay. I am glad that they were able to put the scandal of the bad review behind them in the end because they did seem to be a good fit. Oh I just want to say that I did like that a 40+ character was in this one. It seems that authors are really paying attention for the need to have more older mains falling in love.

3.5 stars

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

The author of this book has really challenged herself with this novel by taking on a number of tropes in the one book. Age gap, opposites attract, then enemies to lovers and a familial relationship to repair. It is a lot to tackle in the one short novel and because of this I never really felt I got to explore any of the issues going on to the extent I needed to to be fully invested. The secondary characters in the novel at times felt slightly more fleshed out than the MC's and I found myself wanting to know more about their character ARCS in the story. The exploration of the power of "professional" book bloggers was interesting but is likely to not sit well with some readers. This was a light read that overall left me disappointed wanting more.

Not for me I’m afraid. Too much melodrama, too much Insta love but most of all found the internal monologue of a Liar and a coward quite distasteful. Alison is shallow and self-centred - quite unlikable.

Kendra Blake is having her best year ever. At forty-five, she’s finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of writing a lesfic novel and is excitedly awaiting its publication. Alison Chatterley, a British au pair, aspires to stay in America and become a journalist. While neither woman has finding romance on their radar, when their paths cross, their chemistry and connection are instant, and they’re swept into a passionate relationship. But is it too much too soon?

Before long, the bloom falls off their rose when a nasty book review, Alison’s secrets, and baggage from Kendra’s past derail their promising future. Despite a career change taking Alison’s life in a new direction, she is determined to prove what they had is worth fighting for. But convincing a skeptic like Kendra will be harder than she thinks. Recommend reading

The book is well written but I still couldnt get really into it. I guess sometimes you just like a trope pr characters better than others. But this is still a good book and a sweet story.

Didn't really feel the connection between the two main characters, which is kind of important in a romance novel. I was hoping this would be a fun age gap romance, but it just didn't connect with me.

Meh. I expected so much more from this book because the premise sounded promising. I just didn't find any of it realistic or relatable. Kendra is in her 40s but the friendships she has seem so juvenile. Every scene with dialogue between the three friends felt like the author was forcibly trying to be funny, but it fell flat for me. And Kendra herself is so unsure and demure with Allison who is something like 13 years her junior.. I just didn't buy the age difference.

Try as I might, I just couldn't like these characters. They just seemed like stereotypical caricatures to me, with no fully formed dimension. The relationship Allison was having with her boss' wife was laughable.

Average 2.5 stars.

This is a well written book with a very flowing narrative, I enjoyed the style of writing as well, it reminded me of Jessica Fletcher solving a clever mystery.
Overall it was well structured and enjoyable definitely a book I could see myself rereading even before the summer is over.

Scandalous!

Kendra has published her debut novel and reveling being successful when she meets aspiring journalist Alison, who has secrets of her own. When Kendra receives a horrible book review from a site that has numerous followers she is devastated. Alison wonders how long she can hide her secrets from Kendra but when they do come out, even though Alison longer involved in the things that threaten their relationship, Kendra is unsure if she can ever trust her. Alison is determined to right her wrongs through and win Kendra back.

Such an exciting story with a lot of relatable moments for authors in this genre and reviewers alike. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the premise of the story and just knew it was going to be exciting and filled with such scandal. The nasty review, just the one was enough to derail Kendra and I think whether an author, or just someone who uses social media these days, we all know what damage can be done from one nasty comment. I love that Jean Copeland has taken that and explored it, using two characters that were so emotionally connected and showing the consequences that come as a result of someone being unpleasant (intentionally or not!).

The romance was quite an emotional rollercoaster. Kendra and Alison had a wonderful connection and you just knew they were perfect for one another but with Alison’s secret looming, you also had that dread that when all was revealed, Kendra would be hurt. What I didn’t expect was just how it was all going to play out and I couldn’t have predicted it, but I am glad Alison could see what she’d done previously was wrong and I loved again that it took her falling in love and hurting someone close to her for her to realise that. A lot to be learned about how much damage you can be doing without even being aware of it until it’s too late.

A very eye-opening read and emotional romance with lots of moral lessons explored and to learn from. This is the first story I’ve read by Jean Copeland, a great story that I thoroughly enjoyed and was hooked on. As it relates as a reader, reviewer and occasional writer I just found lots to connect with, and think anyone who is involved in reading or writing books will find the same experience.

I absolutely love the way Jean Copeland writes. The sentences flow beautifully and the dialogue and narrative are so humorous without being artificially funny.

Many writers, readers, and reviewers of lesfic are aware of "Charles", the Goodreads reviewer who famously one-stars almost every book months before publication, without ever leaving an actual review. This is the story of a debut author who happens to fall for Poison Pen, a blogger notorious for ripping apart books on her site. It's an age gap, second chance romance with plenty of angst, but leave it to Jean Copeland to make it fun to read. Each main character has her share of faults, but don't we all, and the ending is perfection.

Sorry to say this was a struggle to finish...Kendra and Allison couldn't keep my attention, I had a hard time buying into the fact that they were so in love because I didn't get to see why, I was just told they are. If you get what I mean. While the time jumps gets us further it also intensified the disconnection I had with the characters and I just couldn't get into it at all.
The storyline with people meeting, attraction, secrets, loss of trust and all that is well used in romance novels and it *can* work, but it needs the reader to feel like they care what happens to the MC's and if the connection isn't there, it doesn't work. At all.

***An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

This was just an ok read for me. Both the main and secondary characters were good. However I would recommend because I'm pretty sure others will find this quite enjoyable. 3.5 stars


Thanks you Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

It’s the classic”girl gets girl, girl either lies or misleads the other girl, and then we wait until girl #2 finds out about the deception and all hell breaks loose” story that seems to be in the majority of books these days. What sets this apart is the likeable characters (although Kendra started to get on my nerves with her negativity) good secondary characters, and no editing issues.

Kendra Blake has just written her first lesfic and is out celebrating with her friends when she meets au pair Alison Chatterley. Things get interesting when we discover Alison writes a scathing blog, 'Poison Pen' on new books. 
I was only just ok with this book. I didn't really warm to Alison as she had a fairly loose lifestyle. Maybe that contributed to the fact I didn't find Alison and Kendra had great chemistry. I kind of started to speed read to the end.

So there are two things I really can’t stand; liars and cheaters. Lucky me this book has both wrapped into one very unlikable character.

Alison is a character I just really couldn’t like. She works as an au pair but really wants to be a respected journalist. She can’t really get that career started so she keeps her nanny position, does the lady of the house in the side just as some freelance writing and keeping up her blog Poison Pen. On this blog she just shreds everyone and everything and people seem to eat it up. Why? Why? Why? Oh, she is also British and says things as blimey. I have British friends and they never use that word. I’ve tried it out on them and they made fun of me for being an old lady. Alison and I are in the same age bracket…. As for Kendra, also a dull character. I don’t know what to say, she’s 12 years Alison’s senior and an editor and writer. You get the idea with the writer and reviewer thing here, right? Ok cool. So Alison isn’t upfront about who she is and who she had in her bed. Kendra with her past easily forgives and forgets the first offence, the second not so much, but all is well that ends well.
Everything is too easily forgiven, there is no character development and just such a boring story.

This book isn’t long by any means, but it took me 3 days to finish, long for me. I just couldn’t get into it, lost interest several times. The writing style just doesn’t work for me, combine that with boring and unlikable characters and you have a book that just isn’t for me. What confused me a lot was the telling and not really showing of the connection. And the end where we just skipped in time so much from one chapter to the next. Where the first 3/4 of the book happens over 3 months the last 25% is months, then years ahead, confuses my poor little brain. Oh and the dialogue from Alison, I think maybe it’s too stereotypical British or something, just doesn’t sit right with me. My friends don’t talk like that… Redeeming qualities of the book? Iguanas as pets, very original.

This one just didn’t work for me and I can’t give more than 2.5 stars, which will be 2, because 3 is too much.

This is an age gap, opposites attract, angst packed book. At 45, Kendra Blake is finally publishing her first Lesfic book. She only has a pair of close friends; both of whom have differing opinions on who and how she should spend her time. On a rare night out with them to celebrate her book, she met Alison Chatterly; someone who piqued her interest with her charms.

Alison is an au pair who is unbridled and lives a wayward lifestyle. Setting her sights on the older Kendra, she wooed and courted her until she started to develop actual feelings for her. Grappling to hold on to Kendra with her secrets, their relationship grounded to a halt when she was exposed and buried all her hopes with it.

4 stars. The author was really brave with her characterisation of Alison. Yes, Alison is not your typical main character with her flaws; she was careless with her involvements, unabashedly open with her dallying and someone who you would find difficult to trust. Yet, the book was heavy on second and third chances and gave Alison the chance to redeem herself with the couple’s time apart. With a background like Alison’s, she simply went the other way until she met Kendra. I was a tad disappointed with the end of the book cause the time apart was not elaborated and was looking forward to a more passionate and fulfilling end with all the angst.

I just reviewed Poison Pen by Jean Copeland. Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publishers of "Poison Pen" for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
I was drawn to this book by the promise of an age gap romance (my favourite genre), and the premise which sounded interesting and appealing, I've enjoyed the author's work previously so was looking forward to reading this.
Initially the storyline worked for me. The idea of someone writing a book that someone else wrote a scathing review about only to find out its the person you are in love with and who should have your back? The misunderstandings were explained away sufficiently. However, it was the characters who I had the most problem with.
I just found there was less to like about Alison and couldn’t see why anyone would be drawn to her. The chemistry between and her and Kendra was at best lukewarm. There was dialogue, yet the feelings didn’t translate into the pages. I'm not sure what the problem was except it just didn’t work for me. The whole push /pull thing with Vanessa didn’t convince me re Alison's motives either. The secondary characters however were really well-drawn, and I found them an interesting credible addition to the storyline.

This book didn’t work for me at all. First, there’s a lot of telling, not enough showing. I never got to know the characters well enough to care about them or what happened to them. And what I did get to know about Alison really doesn’t make me want to root for her.

Kendra has been on her own for a few years, never needing a partner, and she feels just fine about that. She is a novelist and is about to have her first book published.

Alison is an au pair from England, transplanted when the family she works for returns to the U.S. She is a popular blogger known as "Poison Pen". She writes snarky, sometimes negative reviews of books.

Kendra and Alison meet, and the attraction happens pretty quickly, too quickly for Alison to tell Kendra she's "Poison Pen" and too quickly for Kendra to tell Alison that she is the author of Alison's newest lampoon. Seems confusing, but it really isn't. What it turns out to be is a story of two women who are on different paths, have different futures planned.

You can see how the problems and angst between these two women will arise.

Jean Copeland scores another victory!

Kendra is finally getting a chance for her book to be published something she wanted to do now coming true. Alison is a au pair who longs to be a journalist she secretly writes a blog called Poison Pen that is known for trashing new books.

Kendra and Alison meet they weren’t really looking for romance but as they get to know each other their feelings deepened. While being caught up in each other conflicts arise with Alison secrets and the baggage that Kendra can’t seem to let go. Kendra and Alison have nice chemistry you see the connection. I like their friends and the support they gave.





I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.