The book has a good plot and message, but I just could not get into reading it. I just didn’t click, I liked reading about Dez I wish there was more of him.

I was so excited to read this after reading Libby Hibscher's other novel, Meet Me in Paradise. However, this one fell a bit short. The book follows Violet, who catches her husband, Sam, cheating on her with a neighbor. Violet has a breakdown and ends up burning some of Sam's stuff in her house one night. This is how she meets the love interest, Dez, who is a firefighter that comes to put out the fire Violet started. From here, Dez and Violet almost immediately form a connection and basically start dating. I wished the pacing of the romance was a little slower. It felt like Violet immediately jumped from Sam to Dez, and Dez was constantly showing up to solve Violet's problems. Overall, I liked this book but didn't love it.

I heard a lot about this author last year around the publication of Meet Me in Paradise. I don't love a super sad read, which I'd heard it was, but I'd also seen a lot of reviews that described it as very well written and added the author to my radar. Intrigued by the premise, and the cute firefighter on the cover tbh, I was excited to jump into this read. The reviews I'd read weren't wrong - this author's writing style is my jam. From the beginning, I was immersed in this story and really enjoyed it overall.

I could feel Violet's rage and injustice in coming home to find her husband wrapped around their neighbor in bed. Sense leaves her and some pretty wild reactions abound, such as burning her husband's things in their culdesac. She befriends a firefighter from the scene, Dez. The story alternates dual timelines between present and earlier in Violet's marriage. There's lots of heavier topics woven into this story - cheating, infertility, miscarriage = which are handled delicately and make you want to wrap your arms around Violet as she seemingly self-destructs. This story is full of emotion, rising from ashes and dust and reminding yourself and your center. It's also quite the exploration in grief. I wasn't quite sure I got Violet and Dez's connection for most of the story, but towards the end I was hanging my ever hope on their happy ever after.

From the moment I read the synopsis of this book, I had to have it. The way Libby Hubscher weaves a story is reminiscent of another beloved author of mine, Katheryn Center. Hubscher will definitely give Center a run for her money.
Violet's life seems to be in perfect running order, but how quickly it falls apart. After she finds her husband cheating on her with the neighbor, she starts to slowly lose her mind. Can you blame her though? This seems to be a classic case of cheating and its super fun to watch from a distance. Hubscher makes her characters so adorably relatable. They say the things that you could only wish to say, and the snark factor is through the roof.

Even though stuff goes down, the ending is wonderfully satisfying when all the characters find closure. I even found closure in this story, and that's saying a lot since most the time I'm left wanting more from the characters.

My review will be live on my blog, Book Confessions on 3-9-22.

To the outside world, Violet Covington seems to have it all. A beautiful home, a happy marriage, and the most popular advice column in North Carolina, Dear Sweetie. But everything comes crashing down when Violet finds her husband, Sam, in bed with their lycra-obsessed neighbor. Furious and heartbroken, Violet vents her frustrations in her column and ends up going viral in the process.

When Violet burns all of Sam's belongings in a late-night bonfire in her front yard, she meets a handsome firefighter named Dez, who ignites something in her that she's never felt before. The pair have an instant connection, but Violet is torn when Sam starts trying to win her back. Violet finds herself pulled in all directions, and the more stressed she gets, the blunter and more bitter her advice seems to become. With everything hanging on the line, Violet will have to decide how she wants her story to play out.

I thought this sounded so cute, but it ended up not being for me. It was over-written to the point where it felt like it took five paragraphs to say one thing. The characters were one-dimensional and uninteresting. I didn't feel a connection to any of them, so I had a hard time rooting for them. Out of everyone, I liked Dez the most and found him so sweet. I loved how caring and thoughtful he was towards Violet. I liked them together, but they felt very surface-level. I needed more depth and connection between them for their relationship to be believable. I thought Violet was a bit messy, and even though it's justified given all that she was going through, her actions still annoyed me at times. I was hoping to love this, but sadly, it just missed the mark.

This is my first time reading Libby Hubscher, and I quite enjoyed her writing and the good pacing and easy flow. However, I would categorize this book as a general/women's fiction with romantic elements in it, it's closed doors, so be warned! It's focused solely on the heroine, Violet Lovingdon, and her journey to get over heartbreak from being cheated on by her husband of 12 years (literally caught him in their bed with their neighbor!) and her path to find happiness again.

As an advice columnist, Violet's job is to give advice to other people's dilemmas. Her own grief makes her column more relatable. This book hit quite close to home to me personally (though my experience was nowhere to this extreme, thank goodness!), so I could understand and feel connected with Violet's journey: it's real and vulnerable, yet it's still empowering.

Dez, the firefighter who came to put out a fire set by Violet, is the ideal hero! He's sweet and caring and swoony, giving Violet space and time to sort out her grief and her broken heart, but always being there for her when she needed him. I feel like Dez is just a background and supportive character. We don't get to see his perspectives and know his characters in depth, which makes this book less of a romance novel and more like a women's fiction.

That being said, it's well written, and I love Violet's relationships with her mother and best friend. The topics discussed are heavier than I expected, but I still found myself drawn into the story and kept flipping the pages to see where it would take me!

*Special thanks to Berkley Romance for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved, loved, loved this book! The characters, plotting, and action were delightful. I can't wait to read more from Hubscher.

What’s the last book that made you cry? Like genuine sobs, real tears streaming down your face…

If your answer ISN’T one of Libby Hubscher’s books, I’m not sure that I believe you. I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this book is.

Libby manages to navigate incredibly difficult topics with such care and respect.

Violet has an advice column but finds herself needing some of the advice that she gives out after walking in on her husband cheating on her. In an epic moment of revenge, Violet decides to set a F-You bonfire in the middle of their street… which does not go according to plan.

Dez (sweet, sweet Dez) is a firefighter. Who, despite putting out a seemingly crazy woman’s fire, is intrigued by her. Dez, who quote Glennon Doyle, who brings coffee and croissants, seems to be showing up in Violet’s life, a lot.

Both of these characters navigate deep grief and loss, and find each other, as they find themselves.

I simply adored this book. But please, take note that this is not a rom-com. This is a powerful and heavy women’s fiction/romance. Libby turned up the heat from Meet Me in Paradise, but this is still a closed-door romance.

While Libby did include a beautiful author’s note at the beginning of this book, please note some of the majors content warnings:
CWs: cheating spouse, grief, miscarriage/infertility, stressed parental relationship, toxic mother-in-law, gaslighting

If You Ask Me is out on March 8, and I cannot recommend it enough. Go preorder this.

Violet loves being the anonymous “dear Sweetie” advice column. She loves thinking of ays to help solves others problems. When she walks in on her husband sleeping with a neighbor however, Violet does not know how to follow her own advice, and begins to spiral out of control. Even with the hunky fireman Dez always seeing the best in her, she is having trouble seeing that for herself. Will her life fully fall apart before she can right it?

So I will start by saying that after Libby’s last book, I was expecting something that would make me cry. Ill tell you this book will not! This book is more what I was expecting going into Meet Me In Paradise. Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. I can totally see how easy it would be to spiral out of control after walking in on your husband sleeping with someone else. Especially the Bunco scene….I did not blame Violet one dang bit! Maybe Ashleigh a little, but I won’t spoil anything! I also really enjoyed Dear Sweetie’s new tone with her column, so that’s just me! If you loved Meet Me In Paradise, this book has all the joy from Libby’s first book, but less of the cry your face off sadness. I will say for trigger warnings there is talk of infidelity, infertility, and miscarriage so it those are triggers for you, this might be one to skip!

A fun, sweet book about loss and rediscovering yourself.

I am not sure fun is the right word, but I enjoyed watching Violet’s progression through the book. It was wild to see her reactions to her husband’s infidelity and how they impacted not just her but others in her life too. I liked seeing how she figured out the past to being better, and realizing that you can’t be perfect or gloss over hard moments.

I liked her relationship with Dez and how he supported her through the difficult time and made her realize things that needed to change.

Overall, a sweet story that also packs an emotional punch. (3.5)

[cw - infidelity, infertility]

I came very close to turning down the offer to read Libby Hubscher's If You Ask Me when Berkley reached out. It's not historical. There's no mention at all of anything paranormal or supernatural or magical. No great mystery to be solved. It wasn't "my thing."

I pulled it up on my phone one Saturday morning when my 15 year old was home. It was several weeks ago so that way I would have plenty of time to send a "sorry -- it didn't work for me" and back out of the blog tour if necessary. When my son finally sent me to bed late that night/very early the next morning, after I had finally set my phone back down after the last page, I realized that I was quite wrong about a lot of things.

Okay, so it's not historical .... but there's magic in the transformation that occurs in the main character, Violet; there's the great mystery over whether things would work out in so many aspects of her life; there's no way I could have backed out of the chance to ooh and aah over this one.

Most of all, I was wrong about it not being "my thing" because it was exactly the thing that I needed at the time. It has the perfect blend of snark and heartache and hope ....

This book is half of what I would want to read and half of what don't want to read. The story of interest is Violet and her own life, not her immediate new relationship with Dez. I found that part boring. The friendship, self-esteem, regrets, decision making, growth - that was the meat of the story. It doesn't need a fireman to rescue it.

Thank you for my early copy! I was a bit surprised by the heavy content of this one. I expected more of a lighthearted read but this was a lot more. I didn't care for the initial passiveness of the female lead, but all in all this rounded out nicely.

If you didn't read Libby's debut MEET ME IN PARADISE, you need to go ahead and add it to your TBR because it was one of my top reads of 2021. I fell hard for the characters she wrote, flawed and wonderful all at once, with a story full of emotion that I carried with me throughout the year. Without knowing anything about her sophomore novel, I knew it would be a must-read for me, and I was honored to be given the chance to read an advance copy thanks to Libby + Berkley.

This year, many of my favorite titles have had characters who are hot messes in their own right, raw and real with their struggles and imperfections that make me feel comfortable and seen as I devour their stories. IF YOU ASK ME was beautifully written, I'm going to need Libby to become an advice columnist for my own life immediately, because how she wrote Sweetie/Violet was everything I didn't know I needed until I picked up this incredible book. After a rough week in my personal life, I decided to pick this one up, knowing her writing style would envelop me like a hug, giving me all the feels and making me whole again and it was even better than I expected.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅. 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒔. 𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒚.

Violet's world is turned upside down when she comes home to celebrate good news at work and finds her husband in bed with another woman. Destroying the snow globe of her life, she soon realizes that her perfect life is anything but, and that's the beauty of life. As an advice columnist raised to always keep a smile on her face, coming to terms with her new life as she moves on is easier said than done. When she leans on those who love and support her, including the firefighter who lights her up when things get dark, we get a relatable story full of love, miscommunication, and a cast of characters that make it such a fun read even during the heavier topics. (Check out the author's note for trigger warnings before you pick this one up!)

Dez is a DREAM, and I could not have loved how his hunky firefighter self falls into her life, we could all use a love like theirs in life! For me, romances that are so much MORE than fluff, and have a heart like this story are the best, and I know If You Ask Me Will be one that sticks with me for a long time. The Dear Sweetie letters were the perfect device to tie together the story and topics brought up, I really loved how Violet's character arc grew with each one.

Hubscher will steal your hearts with her words, woven together to create a refreshingly real romance with a beautiful story of love and loss.

Thank you Berkeley for the ARC to read and review.
I went in with the impression this was a romantic comedy, however it’s not really a romance. It’s a piece of women’s fiction. Violet’s perfect life is upended when she discovers her husband in bed with another woman. She deals with this in some less than healthy ways while still continuing to write her advice column. That column gets entangled with her own issues and there are some funny but also downright immature actions on her part. She is definitely a work in progress, but by the end of the book I just felt tired of dealing with her. I didn’t care if she got a HEA.
Mixed feelings about this one. Good writing style, but way to many crises for my liking.

When i first saw the cover, I thought it would be a light romcom read, but this was such a beautifully written deep read, that gave me a rollercoaster of emotions. I laughed, I cried, and overall I really enjoyed it. This is a women’s fiction with a lovely sprinkle of romance.There many serious topics discussed throughout the book that can be very triggering. Life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, & we all deserve to be happy no matter what we go through, so I really appreciated the light brought upon these issues.

Violet writes a column called Dear Sweetie, where she mainly give relationship advice to other women. She has what you can call the picture perfect life with the perfect husband, and perfect marriage. That is until she gets home early one day, and finds her husband in bed with another woman. Her world is literally turned upside down and the obvious thing to do is to burn all of her husbands belongings. The fire department gets called, and that is when she meets the hottest, fluffiest, and charming firefighter. They develop the sweetest friendship, but it’s obvious feelings are starting to grow between them. Violet is such a strong woman who is living life one day at a time, and learning to love & accept herself. Will she give herself the opportunity at a second chance at love and at life?

When I read a romance book of course I want a HEA & have this idea of what it should be. The reality is that many of us unfortunately go though breakups/divorces and deal with infidelity & I feel like its something many suffer in silence. Especially the life after being cheated on, finding your own happiness, & trying to not blame yourself for whats happened. & That is what we see with Violet, & I was rooting for her the entire time. My heart literally broke in half for her, because she deserved to be happy and she was strong enough to fight for what she really wanted.
I absolutely recommend this, but please be mindful of the trigger warnings.

You can expect:
* Second Chance Romance
* Fire Fighter Hero
* Self Discovery + Self Acceptance
* Friends to Lovers
* Closed Door Romance
* Based in North Carolina
* Small Town Romance

I judge a book by a couple things, the writing style and the entertainment value. This book hit both of those marks in a great way! I loved this book! It was entertaining, yet extremely relatable. Please be aware of the content warnings that the author discusses at the start of the book. While this book looks like and reads like a fluffy rom-com, there are definitely serious topics discussed as well.

Dez was the perfect such a great guy. Honestly so swoon worthy. I really enjoyed his attentiveness and how he treated Violet was exactly what she needed. The only concerns I would have is the pacing of the relationship. I feel some of the feelings declared didn't line up with the time line, but that might be my own personal preference.

This was my first book by Libby Hubscher and it won't be my last!

If You Ask Me by Libby Hubscher

If you ask me, you should definitely add If You Ask Me to your list of books to read.

Emotional, beautiful and funny! I related with Violet. Change is scary, the unknown is scary. If You Ask Me takes you on an adventure as Violet figures out who she is and what road she wants to be on. A great reminder that we can write our own happily ever after at any give moment.

Libby Hubscher is a new author for me but I will be adding Meet me in Paradise to my TBR list.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If You Ask Me will be released March 8, 2022.

Description:

When an advice columnist’spicture-perfect life implodes, she opts to go rogue in this hilarious, heartwarming romance from the author of Meet Me in Paradise.

Violet Covington pens Dear Sweetie, the most popular advice column in the state of North Carolina. She has an answer for how to politely handle any difficult situation…until she discovers her husband, Sam, has been cheating on her. Furious and out of sensible solutions, Violet leaves her filter at the door and turns to her column to air her own frustrations. The new, brutally honest Dear Sweetie goes viral, sending more shock waves through Violet’s life. When she burns Sam’s belongings in a front-yard, late-night bonfire, a smoking-hot firefighter named Dez shows up to douse the flames, and an unexpected fling quickly shows potential to become something longer lasting.

A lot of people want to see the old polished Violet return—including her boss, who finds her unpredictability hard to manage, and Sam, who’s begging for another chance. But Dez appreciates Violet just the way she is—in fact, he can’t get enough of her. The right answers don’t come easily when Violet finds herself at her own personal crossroads. But maybe, by getting real, Violet can write her own happy ending.

#IfYouAskMe #NetGalley #libbyhubscher #2022readingchallenge #romancebooks #berkleypublishing #chicklit #contemporaryromance

*thank you to Libby Hubscher, Berkeley Publishing and NetGalley for the early copy of If You Ask Me in exchange for my honest review.*


https://instagram.com/p/CaAFVHjFScB/

🥐If You Ask Me by Libby Hubscher🥐

“When an advice columnist’s picture-perfect life implodes, she opts to go rogue in this hilarious, heartwarming romance from the author of Meet Me in Paradise.”

🥐First, how cute is this cover? Those trees. The biceps. THE CROISSANTS. 😱😍 I loved (and was personally wrecked) by Libby’s first book and am so grateful to get to read the second!

🥐I loved Violet’s job as an advice columnist. I’ve always been intrigued by that as a career and adored the letters and responses throughout. I was also so drawn to her backstory and loved her character arc.

🥐FIREFIGHTER HERO. I don’t think I need to say more than that, really. 🔥

🥐Libby’s writing is beautiful, witty, and deeply authentic.

Thank you to Libby and Berkley for access to this wonderful ARC!!

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐒𝐀: Resist the urge to base this book on the title or the cover.

This is not the light, rom-com I was assuming it would be and that was fine with me. Thanks to @netgalley and @berkely I was able to enjoy 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐒𝐊 𝐌𝐄, a mix of women's fiction with a romance subplot. (PUB 03.08)

𝗪𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃:
Violet- After witnessing her husband's infidelity first hand she goes a bit off the rails and becomes a self proclaimed hot mess express. The advice column she writes, 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘦, gets caught in the mayhem. But I empathize with her struggle to become who she wants to be opposed to who everyone expects her to be.

Dez- The sweetest cinnamon roll firefighter. He's almost too good to be true- almost.

The author includes a note of caution for content warnings at the beginning of the book. Including: infidelity, infertility, miscarriage, anxiety, and alcohol abuse.

Similar to Hubscher's debut, the characters are dealing with some heavy issues: betrayal, heartbreak, self-growth, and acceptance. I appreciated that the heft is counterbalanced with very tender, heartfelt moments as well.

I loved how the letters and replies to 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘦 helped provide backstory while also propelling the plot without ever pulling me out of the story. It was a clever way to help develop Violet's character.

Closed door romance -

Sandwich this one between two heavier reads and it will be perfect.