Diving into "If Only" was like stepping into a cozy café filled with laughter, friendship, and the sweet aroma of romance. Angela Marsons weaves a charming tale of longing and love, centered around Cher and her quest to capture the heart of her dream man, Michael Hunter. While not an all-time favorite for me, the audiobook held its own, offering a delightful escape into the world of cheeky wishes and heartfelt friendships.

Cher, our endearing protagonist, dreams of a fairy-tale romance with Michael Hunter, her soon-to-be boss. Marsons skillfully paints Cher's character with relatable quirks and aspirations, making her journey of self-discovery and romance endearing. The author captures the essence of workplace crushes and unspoken desires, creating a narrative that resonates with fans of romantic comedies.

The supporting characters, including Cher's friends Sarah and Deb, bring additional layers to the story. Sarah's quest for commitment and Deb's wedding woes add a touch of reality to the whimsical narrative. The camaraderie among the three friends is a highlight, infusing the audiobook with a warm and friendly vibe.

The story leans into the romantic comedy genre, embracing laugh-out-loud moments and relatable situations. Marsons injects humor into the storyline, and the whimsical idea of casting a wishing spell adds a sprinkle of magic to the narrative. The romantic elements are sweet, and the plot unfolds with a pleasant predictability, offering comfort to those seeking a light-hearted escape.

However, despite its charms, it didn't fully resonate with my personal taste. The plot, while enjoyable, follows a familiar trajectory common in romantic comedies. Some moments felt a tad too clichéd, and the characters, while likable, lacked the depth that could have elevated the story.

"If Only" is a friendly and light-hearted audiobook that caters to fans of romantic comedies seeking a dose of laughter and love. Angela Marsons crafts an entertaining narrative, and while it may not have become a personal favorite, it undoubtedly possesses the potential to be a delightful read for many others.

I love a romcom audio book!!
I really enjoyed this book! I liked the narrator I felt it was well cast and believing that they went the flow of the story.
I hope to read more by Angela Marsons in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and to the author for the ARC in exchange for a review.

I really enjoyed this book! I liked the narrator and felt that they went good with the story. I hope to read more by this author in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and to the author for the ARC!

If Only by new to me author Angela Marsons was a breath of fresh air for me. I was quickly drawn into this story of three women who have been the best of friends for ages get together over several glasses of wine to commiserate the misery of their lives. Cher is in love with her boss, who is a tool and barely acknowledges her existence. Sarah has been seeing a married man for five years and longs for a baby, thinking it will bind him to her forever. Deb is in the middle of wedding planning hell with her future mother-in-law trying to control every aspect of the nuptials and was the cause of the last two attempts to be postponed.

Do you know what they say about not making important decisions while under the influence? That goes for casting wish spells too. After finding a book about casting spells on Sarah’s bookshelf, they decide to try it. Cher wishes for her boss to fall in love with her, Sarah wishes to have David’s child and Deb wishes her fiancé’s mother would disappear. I say be careful of what you wish. Your wish may be granted, but not in the way you are expecting.

What follows is a story I found difficult to put down. I truly liked these women and cared about their lives and with what they were dealing. I could be friends with these women. I had a bit of a struggle with Sarah dating a married man but she isn’t the type of man-stealing femme fatale character I usually think of when I envision the “other woman.” I’ve never been a fan of the adultery plot device, but the author writes it so well that it garnered more empathy from me for Sarah than I normally would feel.

The chapters skip between each of the women, giving me the sense that I was a part of the story, present with each of them as friends would be, with laughter and sympathy for what they are going through. Isn’t that what life is all about? Surrounding yourself with the people you care about the most who are there ready to celebrate your victories and mourn your losses with you, with or without wine, is the best way to live.

My Final Verdict: I highly recommend this book to readers who love stories that draw on their emotions from laughing to righteous indignation to tears. I listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed the narrator’s voice and the personality that shines through the characters. I doubt I would have enjoyed it as well if I had read it in my own voice.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of If Only from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read. Three friends each with a wish ... to have the love of your life fall for you, to have a baby and to get rid of the mother in law!
Casting a spell on a drunken night together ... but will they get what they wish or is it "careful what you wish for"?
Told in the 3 ladies points of view . This was a well narrated audiobook and a fun story!

This book really wasn’t for me. I didn’t find any of the characters appealing, so the storyline didn’t keep my attention which is a shame as the storyline sounded great.

Story of the book-

The story is told from three POVs of three ladies in their twenties. For the most part, with regards to different lead characters, every one of them is managing one explicit troubleshot. However, for this situation, we have two fundamental issues for each character that should be settled by the end of the book.

Deb: She is getting hitched soon to Mark. However, her future mother-in-law is a prevailing smarty pant who needs to give her opinion in all of her wedding decisions. Up for a forthcoming advancement at work, she has three months in which to substantiate herself more qualified to the new position than the other associate who is a slippery fox.

Sarah: She has an additional conjugal illicit relationship with David. She concludes that forgetting him was the only option, as asking him to leave his family is off chance. However, she gets pregnant with his child. She needs to have a vocation as an author. Yet she is reluctant to allow up her job and face this large challenge.

Cher: She adores her second-rate work and loves her boss. She keeps on dreaming regarding when they can be together, however, he gives no indications of being keen on her. With numerous cutoffs in her organization, her future by all accounts is unsteady. She is constantly taunted by her family for being an underachiever.

On an evening after a substantial drinking session, they run over an old book of spells and choose to take a stab, projecting a wishing spell to make their fantasies materialize. However, as it’s been said, we must be cautious about what we wish for.

My review-

This was a pleasant story yet had some genuine subjects discussed. I didn’t care for the entirety of the ladies, explicitly Sarah. I thought she was egoistic and was just contemplating what she needed. She was difficult to like. I preferred Deb. She was content with her life and didn’t need a major gathering of life. She didn’t care for getting controlled by her future mother-in-law, which was frustrating. Cher was in the middle. She was incensing and needed as a man depending on his looks, not his character. I was delighted in seeing their desires work out as expected, though not how they would have preferred them to.

I do cherish books with solid female characters, which this book has. Through and through, their accounts are fun and character-driven books. This book is a pleasant romantic comedy. I need to say that the storytelling was brilliant. On the chance that you appreciate romcoms, you need to read this book!

If you liked The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin, then you’ll like this book’s premise. I thought it was a clever idea, but I wasn’t invested in the characters. It just wasn’t the book for me

If Only is a contemporary rom-com about three women in their twenties figuring out what they want in life and love. Unfortunately, I struggled with this book. The plot was predictable and the characters were unlikeable.

Deb is a saleswoman who lets her future mother-in-law walk all over her. Cher is a secretary with a crush on her boss. Sarah is planning to drag her married lover away from his family by getting pregnant. One night while drinking, the three friends cast a spell from an old book to make their wishes come true. The question is will they get what they want?

This one kept my attention and was a fun easy romcom read. Love this author, mostly for her crime fiction, but this was a great start into chick lit. Enjoyed it!

I listened to this book on audio and to be honest I probably took too long listening to it so the story felt a bit disjointed, I do have a copy on my kindle so I think I will give it another go but read it this time. This was a light read centering around 3 friends and their tangled love lives.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't enjoy this audiobook. I couldn't get into it at all, possibly because I didn't like the narrator.

I had high hopes for this book but didn't work for me. The characters were very unlikable and immature. I found the plot to be predictable.

I found the characters to be fairly unpleasant and found it hard to connect with them for the bulk of the book. There were flashes of amusment, especially when the characters were drunk, but the speech and the characteristics of the protagonists were hard to engage with

Read the book instead of listening to the audio. It was difficult to get through the book and ended up scrapping both the book and audio. Wish I could love it based on the description but couldn't.

I decided to try this book because I liked the concept and because I wanted to attempt an audiobook that I could listen to while working on things and therefore get more reading done despite limited time. I had SUCH a terrible time getting through this book. I thought at first it was the audiobook, then maybe my lack of experience hearing british accents for so long. But the longer I listened, the less I liked the story. There's a trope about liking "men written by women" and being creeped out by women written by men, but I had to check the author because the main characters were such stereotypes. Couldn't finish the story due to this :(

Thank you to Netgally and Hachette UK - Bookouture for providing me with an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I decided to wait a few days after finishing this book before writing my review.
I think the narrator did a great job and I probably would have DNFed this if I was reading as opposed to listening to it.
This book would have been so much stronger if it was only told from the perspective of Deb or Deb and Cher. I found Sarah's character to be really unlikable and infuriating but more importantly, I found her charater to be extremely underdeveloped, like 95% percent of her actions and thought processes do not line up at all with age, and just when you think she is finally going to display the most minimal amount of character development, she just completely belly flops it. I found every moment in her POV to be uninteresting, completely irrational, and idiotic. Cher wasn't as bad but she is ridiculously blind most of this book. On the other hand I actually would have loved to have gone more in depth into Deb's story.
Also, I know that you are not supposed to judge a book by it's cover but I feel like the marketing on this book completely misrepresents it. The cover and even the description do not properly represent the contents and overall tone of the book.

First of all I loved the narration. But I don't know why I couldn't connect with the book. I mean I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. It has a great plot and I kept hoping something amazing will happen but it doesn't which was quite disappointing. Also it seemed like outdated. I don't know.

Thank you NetGalley and BookOuture for the audiobook.

This book was a harder one for me to get through. I’m not sure if it was the narrator or the story itself, but My mind kept wandering and I would have to go back and force myself to pay attention. Overall the storyline didn’t grab me. In exchange for an honest review, I was provided an audio version of this book by the publisher.

Unfortunately I could not get into this book. It was all over the place.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.