Trixie is going about her day when she rescues you am injured chicken (you read correctly) from becoming road kill on a busy Chicago street. A stranger helps her. He’s really yummy to look at, but the slew of drivers honking make them part ways. They both figure they missed a chance, but the universe decides to help a little. Trixie’s landlord is adamant about no pets and when she finds an ad in the paper for a room rental that is perfect, she jumps at the opportunity. The ad has been placed by Bear’s meddling sisters, hoping that he’ll socialize more with a roommate. Bear is no one other than the handsome stranger! Trixie is sunshine impersonated and Bear is a cinnamon roll disguised as a grump. Soon, they’ll find out they’re perfect for each other.
Hmm, the chicken meet cute was quirky and fun, but Trixie’s obsession with the animal is way over the top. We get a little insight on why Trixie behaves the way she does, but it soon gets overshadowed by the chicken shenanigans and should’ve have been explored more.
I liked how Bear’s insecurities were portrayed. It shows how toxic masculinity can really do a number on a person and I liked how he came to terms with his own passions, though some stuff gets really stereotypical, like the beer drinking (Sweet Lord, men drink wine, people!).
I think the author has great potential. This is clearly a debut and we can see she has great ideas, but it needed some heavy editing. It is a rom com but the emphasis on the “com” brought too many silly and unnecessary plot points. I wish we got more character development rather than that.
All, in all, a sweet (yes, closed door, my friends) romance. I hope I see more of this author in the future.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you, NetGalley and the author for the copy.
Possible triggers: toxic masculinity and toxic relationship with parents

Many thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the digital review copy,

I wanted to love this book. It has cute animals and a forced proximity romance, and what more can a girl ask for? There are definitely some great laugh out loud moments and plenty of mutual pining to be had in this rom com. I also appreciated the author’s efforts to tackle the impact of gender stereotypes and how they can influence the way men and women are comfortable behaving in public.

However, there were some aspects that felt a bit heavy-handed and repetitive. In particular, both characters are explicitly working through some issues from their past. While it’s great that they’re both self-aware, their thoughts around these challenges took up a lot of space witout necessarily moving the plot or character development forward. This pulled me out of the story after a while because it became a bit repetitive, so I wasn’t able to enjoy the book as much as I wanted to.

In all, this was a cute story that delivered on the adorable animals and the occasional laughs. I just wish it was a bit more streamlined and that the characters had a bit more breadth to them. To Get to the Other Side is a great fit for animal lovers and fans of a close proximity romance with a lot of tension between the leads.

Well wasn’t this charming? Who doesn’t love a good disaster meet cute involving a chicken? This has all the fun of a cute friends to lovers story with added pop culture references and lovable cast of characters. I was really drawn right in from the start and was honestly pleasantly surprised how incredibly delightful this book was, especially for a debut!

Quirky, complex Trixie was relatable, emotionally vulnerable and sincere and I really appreciate how the author allowed us to experience her feelings so deeply. Her relationship with Bear was just precious and I was just yearning for the two of them to admit their feelings. Although TBH, I’m pretty sure Trixie loves her chicken Chick-Chick the most (:P).

I swapped between the audio and ebook for this and the alternating POV is particularly effective in this novel and both narrators did an excellent job.

Did not finish.

To Get to the Other Side started off strong, with Trixie finding an injured chicken on the side of the road and rescuing her. She needs to find a new place to stay after her landlord kicks her out for breaking the no pets policy, and she ends up with Bear—the man who helped her rescue the chicken.

So I was invested and interested at the beginning. But then it just kind of went nowhere and I got bored. Trixie is a complicated character that I just didn’t connect with; she really needs some therapy. And Bear is kind of the same, damaged and still struggling with his childhood trauma.

So both characters were just kind of a mess and I just wanted everyone to get therapy. Thanks to Alcove Press for the review copy, but To Get to the Other Side was not for me.

This was a cute story! I wasn’t in love with it while reading, but i had a good enough time! I enjoyed most of the plot and many of the characters. I just felt something was missing

The first 5 pages was cute, but it was just totally downhill after that.. I couldn’t force myself to enjoy this book no matter how hard I tried. Huge miss for me!

I thought I had sent this book to my kindle only to discover I had not and it was too late.

I love the synopsis and plan on adding this book to my collection.

3.25 This was a cute forced proximity romance that was a fun read but got a little slow in the middle. This story follows Trixie a animal lover who rescues a chicken from an intersection with the help of a tall handsome stranger, in Chicago only problem she’s not allowed pets. After Trixie takes the chicken to the vet and spends more money than she has to help her Trixie is at a loss as to who would take the chicken. That is until an apartment listing shows up that is to funny to pass up. Trixie shows up to find the tall handsome stranger or Bear as we come to know him. Bear offers Trixie the apartment and maybe a place in her heart as well.

This novel started off strong I thought the concept was interesting and the characters seemed relatable and entertaining. After about a third of the book the problems start to become a little to repetitive and it just left me not caring as much. That being said I felt this book at a strong ending as well it just really lagged for me in the middle. Saying that though I did enjoy the writing so I plan to maybe pick something else up from this author in the future. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

3.75 Stars

I love the general set-up and ridiculous meet-cute and re-cute. The meddling sisters are hilarious and a random injured chicken makes for lots of comedy and heart. Then Trixie and Bear fight their attractions for so long and it’s sweet and frustrating in the right ways.

Trixie’s trust issues and ingrained trauma, to always be smiling and carefree in the presence of others, is so relatable. Though I do think, by the end, it goes a little too far. The number of ways she talks herself in circles stopped making believable sense.

I greatly appreciated Bear’s backstory and journey. Issues of perceived and expected masculinity need to be addressed more. So, to see it play out so well here was great. Though, once again, I think it started to run thin towards the end, especially since he had such amazing familial support.

There’s a lot of heat and build in these pages. Great attraction but, for once, I’m disappointed that the foreplay ended in a fade to black. I appreciate all levels of steam in romance books, but this one gave great leading tease and the abrupt cutoff felt wrong.

Still, overall, I enjoyed the themes and strong characters. Even though it fell short here and there, it’s still a great read.

*I received a free early e-copy from the publisher.

I adore this rom-com. I really loved the grumpy sunshine aspect of this book. This book has jokes in it and they were hilarious, and I loved how much the jokes added playfulness to the story. Every part of this book was adorable, and I highly recommend it. Thank you for letting me read this arc.

This was a first time read for me by this author so I didn't have any expectations when I picked this up. It was a fun, light-hearted story that was quite entertaining. The story was definitely unique and sweet and just the thing for a good pick-me-up. Trixie was a quirky and lovable character and Bear was sweet, homey, and a quiet guy who came through for her when she really needed it. Trixie had been given notice to find another place to live, and Bear's meddlesome sisters had posted an ad to rent out his spare room, which was the perfect solution for Trixie. Bear worries about keeping things platonic between them, but agrees to rent out the room to her. It doesn't take long for that platonic wall to crumble and for their feelings for each other to start to take over.
The story was cute, with plenty of fun moments that made me smile and laugh. An entertaining and enjoyable, feel-good story!
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Thank you to the author, Alcove Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb begins: "Trixie isn’t exactly sure what she was thinking..." and we as a reader never really get more insight than that. This book is a combination of "quirky" female lead (aka manic pixie dream girl), grumpy and withdrawn male lead (aka misunderstood sensitive soul), love beyond all sensible budget considerations for an escaped factory chicken with the extremely original - I kid you not - name of ChickChick (I suppose this shouldn't be considered a negative, as this is what brings the two leads together and cements their relationship), lots of mention of "blue balls" as soon as female... breathes near male, and to top it all off, a truly awkwardly written sex scene. Oh, and I forgot one absolutely irritating detail: WTF is going on with substituting food for cursing (oh snickerdoodles - oh fish fingers - oh ... insert food of choice). I'm sure there are those that will be charmed by this book - I am not among them.

2 stars

I really wanted to liked this book but the female main character was so unlikable I just couldn't. She did things and said things that I didn't find funny just annoying which in the end was a huge part of me not enjoying the book.
Our MMC was also very one dimensional and I didn't care about him to be honest.
Still I did like the authors writing style and I'm curious about other books from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
This book has an interesting premise, which I enjoyed. I also liked Bear and Trixie, although I wish that their backstories had been more developed as they played such a significant role in who these characters are. Both are scared by their pasts and through their journey in this book – with the help of each other – they learn to put these issues in their proper place in their lives. I enjoyed their time on page together and found myself laughing out loud at various times as I read. The secondary characters were interesting and at times added to the story.

There were parts of the story that for me, could have been executed better – Trixie’s backstory for one. I felt like growth made the most sense and felt genuine. Trixie’s on the other hand, felt more one and done, which left me a little baffled as to whether she had actually dealt with her issues. I’m not sure how I feel about what the sisters did in the story, other than it felt extreme at times.

I enjoyed the story for what it was but didn’t find it amazing. Bear and Trixie are interesting characters. The title is very fitting for the story – both because of the chicken and the journey that the characters (particularly Bear) go on.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5ish stars

The start of this book was funny, silly, and kind of ridiculous (in a good way). As it went on, it became clear that the female protagonist had some pretty serious trauma to start working through (so did the male protagonist, but it felt different), and the tone and style of writing got heavier as she got deeper into those issues. Eventually, we got to the HEA, and it was fine, but I actually liked the first half of the story a lot more. Also, ChickChick was definitely my favourite part of the whole book, so I’m glad to see things worked out nicely for her.

To Get to the Other Side was silly and kind, but I struggled to connect. The characters and the story, truffled to pick a focus. with any of it. I think the main issue for me is that we’re not exactly sure where the focus of the story is.

I did find that Bear and Trixie seem well suited for each other, and they help each other navigate through some challenges while eventually finding their way back their relationship is wonky and I struggled to connect. The main characters give off quirky main vibes that just did not land and detracted from the story. Even though I struggled to connect with the story it was a fairly fast read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for my e-ARC of this book.

The book opens with Trixie driving down a busy road and stopping to rescue a chicken. After attempting to sneak the chicken into her apartment, she has to find a new place to live. This leads her to Bear who was a knight in shining armor when she was performing the road rescue. She moves in, and Bear finds out about Chick-Chick. The story continues as they live together and take care of Chick-Chick while denying their attraction to each other. It was a sweet and quirky read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

This was super cute from the very beginning, and I had so much fun reading this book. You never knew what you were going to get from one chapter to the next, and I adored the way that Trixie was so bubbly and quirky (she reminded me of my best friend). The romance was adorable and had so much depth to it that I felt I could actually relate which is something romance books often struggle with for me.

I really enjoyed the journey that Trixie and Bear both went on with their mental health and learning to navigate healthy relationships. That was something that made them so much more relatable for me, and it really balanced out the fun and laughs of the rest of the book. Their stories made everything matter so much more, and it gave a depth to the book that I really enjoyed learning.

If you're looking for a light read that will have you giggling but also have you wanting to cry into your pillow, then this is the romance for you!

This is a light, fairly clean, enjoyable romance but without enough substance to rate it higher. The story started out fun with Trixie rescuing a chicken from a busy Chicago road and a stranger, Bear (weird nickname!), helping her. They are both attracted to each other right away but Trixie drives away and they both figure they’ll never see each other again. Wrong, of course. Bear’s sisters are a nosy, pushy delight, as they try to get their brother to come out of his social isolation (and help his finances) by placing an ad in the paper without his knowledge, looking for a roommate for him. And that’s how Trixie and Bear meet again.

The chicken thing was fun to start, but wore thin pretty soon, with Trixie obsessed with nursing this injured chicken back to health, even though her finances are taking a major hit because of it.

Trixie has issues because of past experiences with her parents and a college roommate betrayal. She thinks she has to smile all the time or people won’t like her or want to be around her. I thought this was a bit overdone and needed more explanation.

Bear’s issues struck home with me more than Trixie’s did. The author wrote a good portrayal of how society continues to put pressures on boys and men to “man up”, and denigrates interests that aren’t considered masculine enough. (Bear prefers wine to beer. OMG, a major horror!)

I bounced between the print version and the audiobook, which was narrated by two different narrators, both of whom did an excellent job with the material: Stefanie Kay and Paul Heitsch.

Thank you to Dreamscape Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 10%

The chicken thing was weird. Sorry! One too many mentions of potential chicken poop and chicken lice and I was getting too icked out.