One of the most fun romance books I've read in awhile. Well-developed, fantastic characters with a lush setting and who doesn't melt at a good Irish love interest!

With a nod to P.S. I Love You and with parallels to Christina Lauren’s Roomies, Walker has written a movie-worthy rom-com about an American woman, Cara Kennedy who, while nursing a broken heart, decides to take an already planned 3-day holiday to Dublin without the ex-boyfriend. Serendipitously, her Uber driver from the airport is Finn McGuire, a charming, handsome bloke with a killer Irish accent with whom she feels an instant attraction.

On Leap Day in Ireland (once every four years), tradition dictates that women can ask men to marry them, Thanks to copious amounts of Irish whiskey, Cara’s evening in the pub where she meets up with Finn on her last night ends with a proposal followed by a return to her beachfront bungalow in Malibu where they spend days getting to know each other, all while planning an annulment. Given the obvious attraction and easy friendship, it’s no surprise that they keep putting it off.

Cara is an aspiring screenwriter who has been paying her dues at a top talent agency working for Hollywood’s version of Amanda Priestley. Finn shows up at her office on a whim and, in the blink of an eye, finds himself auditioning for the lead in a highly-coveted blockbuster movie. Shortly after, Cara begins questioning if Finn’s affection is real or if she’s just been a pawn in his quest for stardom.

There is so much to love in this story: swoon-worthy book boyfriend who helps buttoned-up Cara learn to be spontaneous, Hollywood boss from hell who unwittingly drives her to finally write a winning screenplay, former starlet and sassy landlady Penelope who provides color, wit, and wisdom, feisty best friend and co-worker Julia who provides an endless supply of homemade Italian treats, tequila shots and a shoulder to cry on, and Oscar, devoted canine sidekick who voices the epilogue.

Highly recommended to readers who can’t resist a man with a panty-melting accent and sparkle in his eye.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Sourcebooks Casablanca through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This was cute, although I will admit I liked the parts that took place in Ireland more than the other bits. I don't know if it was just the aesthetic of being in Ireland or if it was just more entertaining.
I do wish she would have addressed more the situation with her new job with Jeremy though. Seems like a story line that just needed a bit more substance than bring a catalyst.

(Small spoilers.)

Well how cute was that?

“Anamchara”; Soulmate
Can I just say, swoon.

Quick rundown: Cara is recently heartbroken and on her way to a work conference in Ireland. This conference just so happens to be over the last few days of February, in a leap year! (Here comes the fun part!)
Cara is excited to be in Ireland, but distracted with thoughts of running into her dirtbag of an ex. That is, until she meets Finn; Cue sexy Uber driver, museum guide, musician and Irish local. (Hello accent!)
They spend a few cute moments together with a little taste of Irish hospitality, then it all leads to a drunken night on leap day.
To put it simply? They get married.

Now, this story was both predictable and cheesy. (Reminded me of a movie with a similar name…)
AND I LOVED IT.
The flow of the story along with the ease and clarity of the writing were all spot on.
The chemistry between the two MC’s is immediate and believable. I found myself smiling at their cheesiness and loving all their romance.

Special mention to my new book boyfriend, Finn, and his knowledge on one of the best movies ever. PS, I Love You.
He wins okay.

Cute. Funny. A little steamy (but tastefully and in no way heavily explicit.) Easy to read, easy to follow and leaves you with a little smile on your face.
There were a few little twists that has me on edge to! But thankfully, we get the ending we so hope for!

Oh and that Epilogue in the dogs POV Was too cute.

This is the pick me up we all need.
Also, now I need to book a trip to Ireland.

This book begins with Cara waking up in someone’s bed with a foil ring on her finger. As things slowly start coming back to her, she realises she got married to someone she had only met a few days before. After a tense conversation between Cara and Finn, her new husband, they realise the marriage licence has been filed with the court so it is valid. The story then flashes back to when they first met so the reader can follow along with their meet cute, the tension between the characters and swoon-worthy scenes!

‘To finding what you want and having the balls to ask for it.’

Finn agrees to go to Malibu with Cara so they can sort out a divorce whilst together, so it will go quicker. But as they spend more and more time together, Cara slowly realises that maybe being married to this gorgeous Irish man isn’t that much of an issue.

‘Because I knew from the moment I laid eyes on ya that you were destined to break this poor bloke’s heart when you left.’

The Irish leap day tradition of a woman proposing to her partner is somewhat a cliche, but I adore it, and it reminded me of the Amy Adams film Leap Day, which is a comfort film for me! This leap day tradition is what kickstart Cara and Finn’s romance and it was perfect. Cara was meant to go to Ireland with her boyfriend, who broke up with her a few weeks before they were due to leave. She decides to go anyway and I’m so glad she did, because then we wouldn’t have this sweet romance. Cara is dedicated to her job as an assistant to a big agent in Holywood, but her job largely consists of looking after her boss’ dog. She dreams of being a screenwriter, and may have lied to Finn about her job. Finn also brings his adorable dog along, who creates some plot points in this read!

‘The truth is, you captured my heart that day, and it’s been yours ever since.’

This was a fun and lighthearted read, with a great friends to lovers storyline. With an accidental marriage, a handsome Irish man, and a cute dog, what more do you need! I fell for this love interest fast and I hope others do too.

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of Lucky Leap Day by Ann Marie Walker! I read Happy Singles Day by Ann Marie Walker last year and I really enjoyed it, so I was really excited to read Lucky Leap Day!
Lucky Leap Day 4/5 Stars
Summary from Goodreads:
Friends becoming something much more in this hilarious romantic comedy from author Ann Marie Walker. A whirlwind trip to Ireland is supposed to end with a suitcase full of wool sweaters and souvenir pint glasses—not a husband you only just met!
After one-too-many whiskeys, fledgling screenwriter Cara Kennedy takes a page out of someone else’s script when she gets caught up in the Irish tradition of women proposing on Leap Day. She thought she might have dreamt everything, until she wakes the next morning with a hot guy in her bed and a tin foil ring on her finger. Her flight is in four hours, her clothes are all over the room, and she has the most important meeting of her career in exactly two days—and on top of everything else, her husband has a dog who thinks Cara is a perfect surrogate mother, despite the fact that she has never been much of an animal lover…
Deciding to work things out stateside, Finn and her new fur baby accompany her to LA, where Finn spends his days going on auditions and his nights charming his new bride, leaving Cara to wonder whether this is real love, or if Finn is another aspiring actor just after her Hollywood connections? With limited time on his tourist visa, will Finn be able to convince Cara that she’s the right girl for him, or will time run out on their Hollywood ending?
Awww this book was super cute! I really liked Finn and Cara (and of course, I loved Oscar the dog). The whole premise of getting super drunk and married on Leap Day was ridiculous, but like in a funny and adorable way. The way that Cara and Finn had to deal with it and all of the things that ended up coming from that one drunken decision was great. I really like the way that Ann Marie Walker writes her plots and characters. Pacing wise, I thought that everything happened at a good point in the book. When the actual big problem comes around, I felt like it fit really well and I liked what it ended up being. I also liked how it was resolved- the perfect rom-com ending. And the actual epilogue ending was my favorite thing ever- especially with who narrated it! Lucky Leap Day came out on January 18th, so make sure you go out and grab it today!


Link to be added once post goes live

WHAT A CUTE ROMCOM! 😚 i reallg enjoyed this fluffy and cute yet a little heartbreaking romance book, which is something i really needed because of the rough few weeks i had. i mean cara and finn were the CUTEST ever!

aside from the romance, one thing i absolutely adored about this book was that it wasn't just romance to this book, friendship was a huge part of it as well, which i think made the book even more enjoyable! i was grinning so widely throughout the book and my heart was fluttering non stop 😭😭😭 like...get me a love story like that please? it's tough out here 🥺

anyway, would highly highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a cute and fluffy romance!

After one-too-many whiskeys, fledgling screenwriter Cara Kennedy takes a page out of someone else’s script when she gets caught up in the Irish tradition of women proposing on Leap Day. She thought she might have dreamt everything, until she wakes the next morning with a hot guy in her bed and a tin foil ring on her finger. Her flight is in four hours, her clothes are all over the room, and she has the most important meeting of her career in exactly two days.

Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. Cara is the perfect quirky main character. Finn, that accent, wow. This is the first time I have read a book and could hear the accent in my head. I felt the chemistry between them immediately. There were parts that were so funny and parts that were so sweet that I cried.

If I had to say an issue I had with the book, I think Finn was a little too perfect. I do enjoy my romance books with a bit of conflict. He is a total cinnamon roll character but needed a little more. The epilogue was also not needed to me. It was just odd.

Highly recommend this book. Go get it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC!

Lucky Leap Day was a cute book from start to finish. This was a fun, light-hearted read, perfect for fans of the movie Leap Year or the book Roomies by Christina Lauren. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

However, pretty much everything that happened in this book was unrealistic so that made it a little harder to connect. The characters, while enjoyable to read about, didn’t have much depth or development. Nothing particularly made me dislike the book, but it wasn’t compelling enough to buy it or reread it.

I received an audio ARC of this for an honest review. I found this book to be a charming read-it was excellently narrated. Her Irish brogue was spot on, even portrayed as a deeper male voice and her American accent was perfect. I've found over the years that often you can have one or the other as far as accents go but you can't have both-this book was indeed lucky in that regards. It's definitely not a deep romance-the trend lately has been books filled with serious diagnoses and this one is much more lighthearted. It was enjoyable-the epilogue was very whimsical!

“The best things in life happen not only when you least expect them but when you aren’t looking for them at all.”

After getting dumped by her long-time boyfriend right before their couples weekend in Ireland, aspiring screenwriter Cara decides to take the trip solo. Upon arriving without her luggage, Cara meets Finn; a handsome rideshare driver whom she ends up running into multiple times throughout her trip. On the last day of her trip, which happens to be Leap Day, Cara ends up going to hear Finn’s band play at a bar…where too much alcohol has Cara embracing a certain Irish Tradition. Upon waking up next to Finn with a tinfoil ring on her finger and learning that there is no way to quickly undo their impromptu wedding, newlywed Cara heads home to her demanding job in LA with her husband Finn and his dog in tow. Living with her new husband turns out to be way better than expected and ultimately Cara and Finn decide to postpone their marriage’s inevitable end. After Cara’s connections in the film industry help Finn land the acting role of a lifetime, new information comes to light that has Cara questioning her budding romance with Finn.

Lucky Leap Day is a closed-door new adult romance novel that invokes the stuck together, fake relationships, vacation romance, friends to lovers, and there’s only one bed tropes. This book would be perfect for fans of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau, The Summer of Broken Rules by K. L. Walther, and Shipped by Angie Hockman. Lucky Leap Day deals with themes such as change versus tradition, displacement, companionship and loneliness, character, fate versus freewill, facing reality, love and heartbreak, truth and lies, history and culture, and job struggles. I believe that the moral of this story is to take control of your own destiny.

I enjoyed that the beginning of the book was set in Ireland as this was different and adventurous and the plot appeared to be unique, even though there are quite a few stories about fake relationships and accidental Vegas marriages, this accidental Leap Day marriage was unique because it featured people from two different countries who were attracted to each other right from the get-go. The characters were enjoyable and Cara and Finn’s relationship was cute; although, I found it surprising that there wasn’t any on-page spice (other than in Cara’s daydreams). In addition, seeing Finn’s dog Oscar be very much part of the story was sweet and he even has a canine love interest and pursues his own dreams of Hollywood stardom.

In terms of cons and without giving anything away, but in my opinion, I found that the “conflict” towards the end of the novel to be predictable and it would have been a lot more engaging and interesting if the drama was more unexpected. Since I’m not a fan of books that flash back and forth in time, I didn’t like the chapter layout whereby we learn that Cara has married a virtual stranger in the first chapter and then we flash back to discover how Cara and Finn met before (finally) getting to see the fallout of their Leap Day marriage. Furthermore, even though Cara and Finn’s pre-nuptial adventures were short-lived (since we already knew what the outcome would be) the flashbacks at the beginning made it hard for me to get excited about the novel. Similarly, I didn’t understand why the epilogue was told from Finn’s dog Oscar’s perspective; since all the other chapters were told from Cara’s perspective, the change of perspective in the epilogue was a bit jarring. On a final note, I don’t have a big interest in history, so I didn’t enjoy reading the side story about the Irish Rebellion, which mostly took place during Cara’s tour of an Irish jail.

Overall, Lucky Leap Day was a cute and relatively clean romance novel with a happily ever after that would be perfect for fans of travel, adventure, and spontaneity; especially those who fantasise about travelling to Ireland!

<b><i>*huge thanks to netgalley and sourcebooks casablanca for my ARC*</i></b>
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this one's a delightful romcom read that i absolutely adored!
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imagine going to ireland then having some whiskey... and realizing you got married when you woke up the day after. that's cara's situation with finn. they ended up getting married because of that frickin whiskey. cara's the kind of person who had strict goals, but bringing a souvenir from dublin wasn't one of them.
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what i loved about this book was that it's fast-paced and i was literally grinning and smiling every chapter. the characters and the story itself were beautifully written by the author.

A cute, fun rom-com about two friends who find themselves married thanks to the leap day tradition and a bottle of whiskey.

I found this book so delightfully fun. It was fast-paced and I loved the backstory of the Irish love story intertwined with Cara and Finn's story.

This is a sweet love story with not a lot of conflict. Finn is the dream hero and Cara is the strong will heroine who overthinks at times. Altogether, it was a great Holiday read. The perfect read to warm you up and get a great laugh from.

Lucky Leap Day is an adorable romance that follows Finn and Cara, two people who met in Dublin. Cara was there on a single trip and Finn happened to be the uber driver who picked her up at the airport. After a surprising proposal on Leap Day, Finn and Cara try and work out what being a couple would be like after only three days of knowing each other. A quick and cute romance!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

3.5 stars. While I couldn’t connect to these characters as much as I thought I would, I still enjoyed this. I’m a sucker for an accidental marriage trope, and this one was witty and enchanting. A quick read perfect for fans of rom coms. *I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had enjoyed Ann Marie Walker's last book and was excited when I saw Lucky Leap Day was approved for me to read. Overall, however, I felt like it was much too short and much too surface level to rate much higher than a 3/5. If you enjoyed the movie Leap Year (2010) with Amy Adams, then this book might still be worth a read.

It was a cute enough closed-door romance, but it lacked a depth I really would need to rate it higher than a three. Everything felt a bit surface level, and this plot has been done before so a new take on it really should stand out more. Cute read if you need something light.

I enjoyed Ann Marie Walker’s book Happy Singles Day, so I was excited to jump into this.

This was cute! I thought it was funny and I enjoyed reading about these characters.

I didn’t think I’d love the “oops we got married” plot line, but it worked. It was quite funny and overall heartwarming.

And Finn was a gem. Gotta love how women write men.

As someone of Irish descent, I'm well aware of the Leap Day tradition. Also, there's a similar movie - Leap Year that I loved (which is a controversial opinion I know). But if you, like me, liked that movie then go read this book! After her boyfriend cheats on her, Cara flies off to Ireland to take her planned trip anyway. She immediately meets Finn, the handsome Uber driver who gives her a tour of the city. Cara gets very drunk at the pub and ends up proposing to him on Leap Day - and there just so happens to be an ordained bartender who makes the wedding legit. Now Cara has to figure out how to end their marriage... but what if she doesn't want to?

This book is fairly light and definitely an easy read. Somewhat divorced from reality, it's a little unbelievable that the person you just met would fly to California on a whim with you and then get discovered as America's next great actor but IT'S OKAY. It was enjoyable and frankly it just had great vibes. I loved Cara's friends, hated her boss, and wanted the best for them as a couple. And sometimes that all you need in a rom com right?

It's on the shorter side, just about 300 pages - but it doesn't always feels like it. Basically it doesn't feel rushed in plot line or pacing. I would read a follow up book about Cara's best friend finding romance. I will definitely read more from this author, since I also liked her last one, Happy Singles Day.

**Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

Thank you so much for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This was such a fun little romcom. Friends to lovers is a great trope if done correctly as I don't think it often is. Walker convinced me through the pages our love match was just that. The atmospheric writing was beautiful as well. Romance was clean and fade to black.