Romcom with a cute premise and moderate-level spice. I especially liked that they were roommates because they developed a friendship around watching Grey’s Anatomy reruns and pigging out on pancakes and mac n’ cheese. It was still insta-lust though. The chicken is sweet. Trixie gives off some heavy manic pixie dream girl vibes. She’s also not like other girls as Bear so shrewdly deduces that, ‘she wasn’t afraid to eat in front of him’. Do what you want with that information. I recommend it to angsty romcom lovers.

The good : It has a cute premise. Forced proximity and animals are always appreciated. I liked Bear a lot. He’s the dream, right ? Handsome, gruff, good with his hands and a good cook. Also, something unrelated but worth mentioning is that, although sometimes cringey (because of Bear) and sometimes problematic (because of Trixie), this book actually does touch on issues I concern myself with. A big idea in feminism is that girls and boys are socialized very differently from each other and that creates problems when they grow up. Basically, girls might grow up to have trouble accepting and/or expressing their ‘negative’ emotions and boys may unwillingly conform to toxic masculinity rules, or even embrace them.

The bad : Not much happens for a while, except of course, I slowly start to dislike Trixie because she starts playing hot and cold with Bear. Fed up with all this, the chicken finally forces the plot forward.

The ugly : Chapter Thirty-Seven. Everything changes here. I’d been losing my patience with Trixie before but now I’m coming up with words like delusional and mentally unstable. When she starts throwing things, I’m convinced that she needs professional help.

One final thought : Trixie mentions one single instance of her life, (the college incident) more than five times. They bullied her and it sucks. But this kind of repetition is tiresome and unfortunately abundant in the book.

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was definitely a fun, easy romance that I finished in one sitting. I felt that it lacked substance and didn't really bring much to the genre, There were some parts that fell short, and didn't seem unrealistic at all. Overall, I wouldn't read it again.

I thought this was a sweet romantic read!! I laughed in the beginning when Tricia was chasing the chicken. It sounded like a thing I would do. I even told my husband about it and he said that sounds like you! One of my favorite quotes from the books was “ I’d let my heart gag my brain, tie it up, and stuff it in a closet.” Which aldi reminds me of my animal living heart! Always trying to bring animals home with no where to help them. I don’t want to give to much away but would definitely RW come d this to my friends! I thought it was great and didn’t want to stop reading!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book!!

Cute romance book. Seemed a bit cliche and didn't bring anything new to the genre. Overall, a good romance but needed more substance.

If you ware looking for a light hearted and funny rom com, pick up this book!!

This story is about Trixie who saves a chicken from becoming nuggets while crossing a road. After she saves her chicken, she needs a pet friendly place to live to care for her new pet. Then comes Bear, best described as a tender, flower arranging lumberjack, to the rescue. His house happens to have a room for rent (that he doesn't know about thanks to his meddling sisters), and Trixie responds to his (their) add. While they are obviously attracted to each other, they both agree to keep their living situation platonic while caring for their injured chicken, and we all know how that goes!

I thought this book was so cute! I need to preface my review saying: I LOVE CHICKENS!!! Chickens are one of my favorite animals, and it is my dream to one day have a chicken coop in my backyard with pet chickens.... So naturally, when I saw the chicken on the cover I was sold. I found myself laughing so much while reading this. There were so many ridiculous moments that I had to put it down to have a good belly laugh. I also loved Bear so much! He was so sweet, patient, and shy. He cared about Trixie, and it warmed my heart seeing how much he wanted to get to know all of her. Trixie was so quirky, smiley, but bubbly. She learned over the years people only like to see you smile and be positive so she hid her true self behind her smile. She didn't like to show sadness, frustration, or any negativity out of fear of not being loved. I loved how Bear saw that about her and was there to let her know it is ok to feel, and slowly got to know the real and raw Trixie she never showed anyone.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts!

hm… hmmmm…

you know, it was definitely a book! i definitely read something!!!

don’t get me wrong, i enjoyed reading the first 2/3s of this book! i had a lot of fun. it was corny and it was clique and i love corny and clique romances, i’ll always eat it up. the third act was where things went downhill… like fast. i don’t really understand why she was thinking that bear would treat her the same way as her roommate from like forever ago. i understand unresolved trauma j really do, and i’m not going to judge you for having unresolved trauma as a book character, HOWEVER, if youuuu are using that unresolved trauma to not leading on a poor guy because of your emotional unavailability… i don’t know what to say.

i love a stupid dumb fmc i really do but.. be serious. i was trying not to roll my eyes so much. there was one point near the end when bear wanted to help trixie out by taking care of her and the chicken chick chick. she pushed him away and they cried because he left after pushing him away.. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE TO YOU? bear was ready to give her everything by the end of the second act she just wasn’t ready and i guess i really hate when a person in a relationship is more invested in the relationship than the partner. you could just tell even though trixie was telling herself she wanted bear, she wasn’t ready to go all the way with him until the very very end of the book.

overall, i guess id give this 3.5 for the fun i had in the beginning.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This book was an easy read but wasn't entirely plausible. It was a fun romance to take you out of the real world for a bit

DNF

I just couldn't get into this story. Everything felt too far fetched and I could only suspend disbelief for so long. The characters were too much. Pixie was too quirky and Bear was just too good, and that shouldn't even be a thing.

I tried multiple times to keep reading in hopes that it would get better but I just couldn't do it.

*I recieved an ARC from NetGalley for voluntary review

The premise of the book is fun and interesting. I read the book over the course of a single day because I was pulled in. But I honestly did not connect to the characters or the story the way I would have liked. Overall a cute story and one I would still mention when recommending a romance novel. .

'To get to the other side' is an extremely rare case where I genuinely can't think of anything good to say about a book.
Without diving into the plot of the book, there are still things I don't like. The writing style was bland, and fell very flat. The dialogue and interactions between characters felt so forced and unnatural, and had me cringing multiple times.
The main character is a maniac pixie dream girl who goes out of her way to be not like the other girls and quirky and different, by using alternate swear words (ie. horseradish, fish fingers), and also risking her life to save a chicken, which despite being on the cover of the book and also kind of the title, but became irrelevant very early on and was only brought up for the sack of being there. She also spends way too much money she doesn't have on this stupid chicken.
Both of the main characters had no personality, and were painted in a very unlikeable way.
They had zero chemistry together, and were borderline instalovey.
Also the main character names the chicken chick-chick? what a stupid name.
The love interest and second main character is Bear. He's scared of being too feminine, because apparently taking over your mothers flower shop and liking flowers is manly.

Overall I found this book irritated me on every page, and I would not recommend it.

I loved loved this beautiful romantic book and the cover wow. Then again i love love so anything romance is like I'm glued and this book wasn't any exception except the slow burn romance that left me in my feels throughout.
I also loved the writing. The Characters and just reading the book from their perspectives
This book definitely deserves a spot in your never-ending tbr list and a read if you're looking for your next read. Definitely would recommend

This book had an interesting and unusual premise: roommates with a chicken tagging along. It felt more contemporary than romance to me.

It began as a cute read, but as the book went on I felt like it was dragging and unnecessarily long. It was insta-love, which I personally don’t like. I found it difficult to connect emotionally with Trixie, one of the protagonists and the chicken that she saved. At times she was annoying - most of her thoughts and time were geared towards the chicken (and I guess the author was trying to create a metaphor between Trixie and the chicken) and I would have liked to see more emotional depth and characterisation for her alone (without the need for a chicken or any other animal).

Although this book overall isn’t my usual cup of tea for a romance book, I do appreciate the somewhat realistic scenes in a relationship. For example, how Bear (the love interest) reacted and responded to Trixie being distant - he could’ve been all happy and positive that she’ll love me still, but I liked how he was frustrated but still gave her the space she needed - sometimes it’s best to figure out your own issues and trauma rather than being in a committed romantic relationship and that falling apart as well.

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Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for my eARC❤️

I wanted to enjoy this book - I thought the premise and set up was cute, but it quickly fell flat and read like a caricature of a romance novel. It was cliched and much of the dialogue made me cringe. I found the main character annoying and immature, and the only part of any of the characters that I related to was Trixie's compassion for animals. Otherwise, I had a difficult time getting through this book.

An overall solid book that is worth every penny; you'll definitely want to purchase a copy at the release! Full review linked.

There were a couple of parts that made me laugh out loud, but I never felt connected to the characters. I actually was not even able to finish it because I felt no draw to them.

This was not a bad book at all. The plot was interesting, and the writing was decent. There were just a couple things that peeved me to my core.
1) why the weird exclamations that trixie says?! It felt veryy millennial trying to be cool. eg. “oh snickerdoodle,” and “oh, pickachu.” Can we try to find a different way to show that she’s quirky without being annoying about it?
2) trixie changed her mind wayyyy too fast about wanting to be with Bear. I wanted more development and slow burn.
3) the names. Trixie. Bear. Chick-chick. Did not enjoy.
Surprisingly the fact that there was a chicken was a plus.

This book was cute cute cute!!!! This book remined me a lot of the Roommate. This was another one where you knew they were going to get together in the end up together. There were some parts of this book that did drag on a little bit. But overall it was a cute romance and I would suggest it.

The book started promising but I’m not particularly a fan of insta-love so in that aspect it disappointed me. The author brings up important topics here so it’s not just a romance book. I would recommend this if you’re looking for a quick romance to read!

What a funny twist on a chicken crossing the road! This was an unexpected and fun read. I love a good unexpected love story!

To Get To The Other Side was a cute book written by Kelly Ohlert. Trixie is driving one day when she rescues a chicken from the side of the road. Bear [ yes, that is the characters name] happens to be walking down the street at that time. Days later, his sister's put an add in the paper for Bear to lease our his spare room, and turns out, Trixie needs a new place to live since not all apartments allow chickens !!
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Throughout this book, Bear and Trixie navigate having a platonic relationship, while the chemistry continues to burn between them. Both have pasts full of baggage and trauma, that they are both struggling to move past. This book reminds you that trauma can take all forms.
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I enjoyed reading this book, it was very cute. Trixie's personality was sweet, and her fun curse words made me laugh. I felt like the back and forth drama towards the end was frustrating and dragged out, making it a little hard to get through. Overall, good book!
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Thank you Netgalley for sending me an ARC copy for an honest review !