The political story line in this one was almost too stressful at times (real life is stressful enough!) but I did enjoy spending time with Lee and Ben. I found Lee and her messiness to be really relateable and I was rooting for her the whole way. I've read and loved Ashley Winstead's previous thrillers and I was so impressed with her ability to write a great, engaging story in a completely different genre. I'll be picking up everything she writes in the future.

I read this book about a quarter of the way through this book and did not finish. For me personally, there was they wrong combination too much alcohol talk/consumption mixed with a highly un likable main characters. It’s just not for me. I will say I was intrigued by the Comic Con and Ren Faire settings and the environmental politics.

From the outset, Lee Stone's character works so hard to portray herself as strong and self-assured character. As the story progresses she becomes more authentic and allows different sides of herself to be seen, both in regards to her past and how it shapes who she is in the present day. Her relationship with Ben was confusing and truthfully I felt awful for how he'd been treated and continued to be throughout the story. Overall the characters weren't likable and it took a lot away from the momentum of the story, which felt a little immature and stereotypical, regardless of the focus on politics and serious issues.

I struggled hard with this one, as I found our MC Lee Stone to be overly toxic. I couldn't connect with her, and it physically pained me to see how she treated Ben. I wanted to like this so bad, and I am so here for an enemys to lovers trope, but this one, was not it. It was extremely hard to find a likable characteristic within "Stoner" and I just found myself ultimately wishing she didn't find her happily ever after because she needs some serious work on herself before she deserves that.

I'm not a huge lover of politics in IRL or reading. I tend to get glassy Eyed and lose focus, but I Love Ashley, and I gave this book a chance. Glad I did. I enjoyed it. What an amazing talent she has to genre hop!!

I had mixed feelings about this one. I liked the idea of the second chance romance and enjoyed the fun that Ben and Lee had as they began to work and spend time together again. While in Lee’s personal life she was quite messy, I did love her confidence and take charge attitude in her career. I also liked the strong friendships and relationships with her sister that Lee had. However, the cheating storyline of the book was a bit tough to read, especially since it felt like it was often glossed over or excuses were made for it so it didn’t feel like it was fully resolved. If discussions of cheating is tough for you, then I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead

(Swipe for a quick review 👎)

Honestly, I could’ve staged this photo with a garbage can. I ripped on this book in my stories and lost followers over my negativity (it’s okay, bye!) BUT YOU ALL NEED TO BE WARNED.

Do not be fooled.

In My Dreams I Hold The Knife was a recent thriller I adored. I loved the characters and how suspicious I was of every last one. I thought this would be a winner - for certain! Nope.

Hating the characters does not translate well in romcoms. (Unless it’s enemies to lovers but you soon learn he actually had a protective heart of gold that whole time underneath his scowl *sigh*)

This heroine is not one you root for. Lee Stone(r) is literally a stoner who works in politics and hates anyone who disagrees with her. She’s also a cheater. She’s also 30-something with the emotional intelligence of a 12 year old.

The whole book was CRINGE. If the author wasn’t taking the time to make huge political assumptions, she was giving us the most annoying inner dialogue I’ve ever experienced.

Every time I grew less annoyed and thought it would get better, it got worse. Like laughably worse. The moment she was tripping on various drugs, ~licking~ other people at a party and then *Ben* walks in and is all, “not to infantilize you, but are you okay?” I realized this book was only going to continue down a path of ridiculousness.

Lee Stone needs therapy. And a rehab center. The “break” from alcohol at the end was a fraction of the help this girl needed.

I could go on but I’m about to run out of space.

I just don’t think I can every pick up another Ashley Winstead book again, sadly. I have been fooled once, and I cannot fall into this pit of a book again.

It was not for me. I’m not totally against a political romance but it just made me feel icky.

Also I’m still waiting to hear exactly WHAT Ben loved about Lee? WHY HER, MAN?! I don’t see them lasting, sorry.

Nothing wrong with this book, I just wasn't a big fan of the setting and I'm not a huge fan of second chance romances.

This book was just "ok."

It didn't present anything truly spectacular to me. I read a lot of romance, and while I feel like I'm not going to get a lot of variety on the romance spectrum, this just felt kind of meh to me.

Thank you so much to the publisher and to Netgalley for an arc of Fool me Once by Ashley Winstead.

I loved this book much more than I was expecting to! I had high expectations going in and the writing and characters lived up to the hype. If you are looking for a novel with amazing character growth, acceptance, romance and a fun band of side characters this is the novel for you. It was more political than I expected, and as a Canadian I’m not super familiar with the US political system, but the story was very well paced and I was invested. Definitely pick up this book and give it a read!

Fool Me Once had me hooked almost right away! Ashley Winstead has such a beautiful way of writing that is very digestible and easy to read. Plus the romance and plot with the political aspects blended so well together that it wasn’t overbearing! And, as someone who minored in political science, I really enjoyed the political plot line and felt that it was pretty realistic to the current political climate!

The romance in the book was great! I was rooting for them to get together the whole book. I loved the initial tension and banter between them, and it made me want to read more to find out what was going to happen next. There were many scenes that had me laughing out loud.

The only thing I wasn’t too fond of was the multiple cheating plot lines. However, I’m going to choose to look past that because I loved every other aspect of this book!!

3.5 stars.

This was actually pretty funny, but the romance was just okay for me. I didn't really buy it in reference to the main character's actions or the relationship itself. Overall, the main character didn't really work for me and didn't grow enough over the course of the book, in my opinion.

I am always impressed when an author can write multiple genres and Ashley Winstead is definitely a pro at that! I really enjoyed this romance and although I can see how people were annoyed by Lee, I really liked her. I'm not always a fan of the second chance romance trope, but this one felt realistic as Ben and Lee reconnected after college. Winstead's writing is fun and easy to fly through. I definitely recommend checking this one out and can't wait to read The Last Housewife (although it's definitely not a romcom) soon!

I had really high hopes for this one but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. I liked the romance part but the politics ruined it for me. If you don’t mind politics and bashing one side over the other side then definitely give this one a try. I would read another romance by this author if there weren’t any politics involved.

This is my first book by Ashley Winstead and I love her writing style. It was easy to read and it made me laugh out loud often. This just took me forever to finish and I could not get myself emotionally invested in the story. I got bored easily with the political driven plot but I loved the scenes between Lee and Ben. I was rooting for their second chance of love with each other. Overall, this is a well- written and entertaining book.

Thank you to NetGallery and to Harlequin Trade Publishing for giving me a copy for my honest review.

Loooved this one. It lived up to the hype. I listened to the audio and enjoyed it. My first from this author but definitely not my last!

I am very impressed when an author can write successfully in different genres and this book was written by one of those authors. She has also written a very popular thriller that I still need to read. This book is a fun romcom. I didn’t always like the rather abrasive main character but she eventually grew on me. I always love a second chance romance so that had me invested in Lee and Ben’s story. I enjoyed reading about their jobs in a political/communications field and I liked how their romance evolved. There was great dialogue and character development and the story flowed well. All in all it was a fun romcom.

I really enjoyed this jump to political romance for Ashley Winstead. This book was interesting and hooked me from the beginning. It was smart, witty, and thought-provoking all at the same time.

The political goals of the two main characters really drove the story. Lee is a workaholic and has some self-sabotaging tendencies that made me cringe, but her growth throughout the story kept me invested. Ben Laderman is such a sweet hero. He just seems like one of your friend's boyfriends that you can't help but adore. When Lee, a.k.a. Stoner, is out pretty consistently making bad choices (Queen of the work hard, play hard movement amongst her friends), Ben can't help but be a support for her to lean on. His belief in her, in her political aspirations, her goals and her dreams, would make any girl feel like she could do ANYTHING with him by her side.

I typically dislike story lines with cheating plots, even when the cheating was in the past. However, I thought this second chance romance really addressed some of the pain, heartbreak, tension, and lack of trust between the characters, and those moments of healing were powerful in this story.

Some really big pros from this book:
- Side characters: I loved both Lee's sister and her friend group. They helped me see that Lee was flawed, yet still very lovable.
- Hard conversations: I ALWAYS appreciate an author that isn't afraid to address some hard truths. Lee and Ben's path from lovers to exes to colleagues to friends to more was filled with all of the important conversations. They addressed things (mostly the mature Ben did anyways) and they took the space and time to hear from each other with respect and love that is necessary for all healthy relationships to work through. We need more examples like this in romance - realistic, hard, but beautiful in the end.
- A strong, girl power team that doesn't let THE MAN stop them. I don't usually love politically focused novels (we have enough of that stuff in the real world, and I read to escape). THAT BEING SAID, I adored the GIRL POWER you felt with Lee's company. They were literally trying to take down THE MAN (or, in their case, the MEN) standing in their way. They didn't let being female stop them. I'm so grateful for examples of this in literature. I'm sad we're still fighting for these small gains, but we can open the eyes of others to change the world through books like Ashley's!

I was not anticipating how this book ended, and that was a pleasant surprise!

This book was a solid 4-star read for me!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book! These are my honest thoughts!

I loved this book! I had to wait to read it until after it was released as it wasn’t working on my kindle app, but I didn’t mind since I enjoyed it so much. Ashley Winstead is becoming a favorite author of mine & I can’t wait to read more of her work!

This is one that I read because I heard a lot of people talking about it. I was very excited to read this. But sometimes when a book is super hyped it might not live up to your expectations. That is how this book felt. I liked it but it was just a little over hyped for me. I do like the main character was meant to be unlikeable. A lot of times in books it is the main that is unlikeable. But I liked how the rolls were switched in this novel. I did not like all of the miscommunication in this novel. It was just a little annoying to me. There were somethings I liked about this novel and there were some that I did not. I do think that I would suggest it. But it just wasn't my favorite book.