This book was super cute and quick witted! I found myself laughing at the cuteness of it all. Great summer read!

Firstly, a huge thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing me with the e-arc of this book in return for an honest review.

Also, as always, huge props to anyone who successfully writes and publishes a novel!

I’m giving To Get to the Other Side 4/5 stars. It’s a light romcom full of quirky characters (including a chicken) and lots of fun.

Here’s my two stars and a wish:

⭐️ The side characters are so fun. You can tell that they are living their best lives on and off the page. Further, Bear’s family felt like a family unit rather than Bear plus his family. Also, I love that it was Bear’s family who was included, and that they showed healthy family vibes.
⭐️ It was great to see a male lead who was strong and handsome but who also enjoyed Grey’s Anatomy and wine. I don’t know that everything stuck fully (such as the beer aversion) but I understood what Ohlert was doing and how it showed Bear’s growth, so, overall, I loved that part of his character.
💫Now, for my wish. I was hooked from the start. I’m a sucker for insta-love romcom’s (I know, I know) but I also love to understand the motives/stakes. I do feel that it got lost a little bit in the middle and the story, as a result, shifted to being primarily about Bear’s growth. I don’t know that the stakes were high enough to make me, as a reader, feel fully satisfied with the ending.


Overall, if you like insta-love, animals, and roommates (more than one bed), this is a fun, light read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free e-copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This book should have been around 200 pages (max).
The characters are somewhat endearing and the topic itself is what made me reach out for it, but the truth is that in the second half of the book, everything drags on, and on, and on...
The main female character is very childish to the point that all of the interactions she has with the people in her life (especially with the male interest) are cringey.
A little therapy would have helped her a lot. I must say, I found some of her actions to be very hard to explain and her reluctance to create bonds with other people was not only unhealthy, but also unreasonable. The fact that you had a bad experience with a friend when you were younger doesn't automatically mean that all people have extremely bad sides and might betray you.
Her inability to trust the male character and accept what she is feeling toward him made me feel very tired.

I guess this could be a 5-star read for someone who has a lot, and I mean a lot, of patience.

Quirky characters and weird situations they've gotten themselves into. Ah, and a chicken... This book definitely deserves a place on my for-a-rainy-day shelf on Goodreads.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

To Get To The Other Side was such a wholesome story featuring a bunch of adorable animals. This actually warms my heart. The story started when Trixie picked up an injured chicken she stumbled upon on the road and caused a traffic which caused an uproar from the cars behind her. She then got saved by Bear who just happened to pass by. Bear is such a sweet guy totally opposite of his huge physique. His name is really unique and cute too I couldn’t help but love him!

The intro was super epic and heartwarming I instantly knew I was gonna love Trixie. She has the biggest heart ever especially for animals and I adore her so much. She’s super friendly and kind too. I just hope she learns to open up and trust again despite what happened in her past. She adopted an injured chicken and named it Chick Chick which is super cute and even payed for the medical bills even though she’s running short of cash. This resulted in getting her kicked out of the apartment she’s staying in and met Bear for the second time as she was looking for a new place to live in. His sisters suddenly decided to play a little joke on him and posted a very funny ad that got viral online, stating that he’s looking for a roommate. Trixie immediately grabbed the chance and of course Bear couldn’t resist this beautiful woman he failed to ask out the first time they met. They had a very shaky start especially when she failed to mention that she’s bringing the chicken with her but Chick Chick unexpectedly grew on him so he decided not to kick them out.

It was great that they don’t hide their attraction to each other even though they both tried to keep a boundary between them and have a platonic roommate relationship. The miscommunication between the two ticked me off though. I hoped they talked it out earlier rather than ignoring the issue for so long. But it ended pretty well and I’m pretty contented with it. I love how supportive his family is too especially the sisters! Some issues I hade was that I found the plot a little bland and I think the characters lacked more depth in them, they fell a little flat for me. Overall, it was a really fun and is perfect for someone looking for a fast and light read.

I was completely on board to read this book when I read the name and saw the cover! I really enjoyed the main character, Trixie. She is constantly saving animals, even though her apartment does not allow them. So she isn’t thinking clearly when she stopped her car in the middle of downtown Chicago, scooped up a chicken struggling to cross the road, and drove off. Now she and her new friend are looking for a new home.

Bear likes his quiet life with his close-knit family, but he’s in for a rude awakening when his meddlesome sisters post an ad to rent the spare room in his simple home, without asking his permission. Still, when Trixie responds to the ad, he agrees to let her move in. Now they are sharing a house with each other and a chicken.

Trixie fights to keep her walls up and resist her romantic feelings for Bear. However, it’s not long before the pair’s proximity and chicken parenting ignite flames that have Trixie and Bear testing the boundaries of their platonic ground rules. They have to figure out how to save a family business, pay for mounting vet bills, and navigate their own emotional baggage if they want to find the love that they all deserve.

I thought this was a very cute story. It did lag a little in places but I enjoyed it. I hope additional books come out focusing on each of his sisters!

What a fun, witty romance! Kelly Ohlert has captured the essence of a whimsical romantic comedy. I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

I was quite excited about this book. I won't say I had high expectations for this book, just that I expected a cute, fluffy read and for the most part, this was but on the other hand it erred on the side of boring and uneventful.

I didn't particularly enjoy the story that much. This could have been partly because I was in a mood and the lack of cute interactions between the two MCs frustrated me a bit. Their whole shtick just felt a little forced. And the whole chicken thing was so bizarre. I guess it feeds into the whole eccentric character trait that the female character has. But she isn't even that eccentric. Just pretends to be. What this book has in spades is people behaving in a way that isn't the "real" them. Perhaps that was the plotline because it certainly wasn't the love story.

The story was decent enough but it came up short on so many things and all throughout I was hoping it would get more intense and the loved-upness would dial up to 100, but at the end I sort of just felt like, that's it? Not particularly exceptional but had a lot of potential to be great though.

Thank you to netgalley for this gifted ebook.

2/5.

thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!! it was my first ever arc and i was so happy to receive it, but unfortunately, i didn't enjoy it very much. i was drawn to it because of the description of the book, yet it fell short for me.

𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.
the sentence structure was very repetitive to me and the book as a whole was VERY hard to get in to. it felt a little underdeveloped. something about it felt off to me and there was way too much inner dialogue.

𝘁𝗿𝗶𝘅𝗶𝗲.
trixie is our fmc. as a character, she felt very underdeveloped. "the idea filled me with rage, not an emotion i feel often". i know it's important to create unique characters but to me, this made her feel very inhuman and disconnected. i felt no attachment or connection to her. both trixie and bear had about two or three personality traits.

𝗯𝗲𝗮𝗿.
bear is the mmc. in the beginning, i was so here for the fact that he was shy, but he soon became very bland and boring. i didn't care about him in the slightest and i don't have much to say about him.

𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.
the romance also felt wierd. i wasn't a fan of the insta love, particularly because there was ZERO chemistry between trixie and bear. the sex scene was not good either. it shouldn't have been included.

𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗻.
ahh, the fucking chicken. the entire premise of the book was that trixie saves a chicken, goes into debt because of the chicken, and has to leave her apartment because of said chicken... i don't mean to be rude but this might as well be a fantasy book. in the very beginning of the book, there were three pages in a row of trixie speaking to her chicken... the chicken she just kidnapped off the side of the road.

𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀.
i am all for constructive criticism, but this needs a LOT of improvement. i wouldn't recommend this to anyone and i think it would better suit middle schoolers if there wasn't a sex scene and if the mmc didn't constantly talk about how hot the fmc's ass is. it could've been much much shorter as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4598307074

I'm all for saving animals (I have 2 rescue dogs) and I've also had chicken, but I just feel like this is sort of unrealistic (probably is a chicken for the title). The chicken part of the story was meh, after a while the chicken was irrelevant to the story.
I can appreciate the conversation about how gender stereotypes affect people and how you should shoulder your worries and smile. However, we got Bears' trauma was actually dealt with, whilst Trixies' wasn't really, and I feel like she needed it more. Also, she didn't tell Bear the full story about her trauma...I feel like she should've.
Bear's decision about the flower shop was dragged a little too much (milked)
Overall, the main characters were flat. Trixie was infuriating. The "quirky" swear words were not cute and just annoyed me. The scene where Trixie blames Bear for something that wasn't his fault annoyed me so much. Also, her perpetual smiling was creepy. Bear was better, I liked how he was super wholesome and sweet (Trixie did not deserve him). As for the side characters, I liked most of them, especially the meddlesome sisters and the super cute niece.
The romance was insta-lovey, which is a trope I (and everyone else at this point) don't enjoy. The "sex scene" (if you can even call it that) was a no. I sympathized with Bear when it came to the fade-to-black sex scene: major blue balls.
Basically, it was okay: not absolutely terrible, but not great either. If the mc was less insufferable maybe I could've enjoyed this more.

I enjoyed this book. It was a catchy title and cover that got me wanting to read it. Throughout the book at some points it did drag on a bit. There was alot going on with the characters. This book as a easy read.

A quick instalove story about a girl with a bleeding heart (Trixie)who resists falling in love with the man struggling with stereotypes of toxic masculinity (Bear). The love story is full of conflict and miscommunication.

They both had deep scars from either being bullied or betrayed. Trixie’s trauma from being betrayed by a roommate is brought up often in the narrative but she does not bring it up to Bear. Instead she runs away and hides and even throws objects at him when she is triggered by this past event. Bear is terrified people will bully him again so he hides that he likes to arrange flowers, watch Grey’s Anatomy, and drink wine.

Another topic that is brought up often is that Trixie has fake smiles that she puts on when others are around because that’s how she won her parent’s approval. There’s a lot to unpack there but instead of communicating that, Bear is left to figure out which faces are real or fake on his own.

There were things that I did enjoy about this book: the little things Bear does to let Trixie knows he cares and most of Bear’s family. Without spoiling anything, Bear is very good at picking up small things in conversation and making gifts out of them. He also has a lot of patience when it comes to his meddling sisters. They meant well but they clearly never learned boundaries (such as putting his address on Craigslist) and were constantly pulling stunts or barging into Bear’s house at just the wrong moments. However, I really liked their family meetings and Bear’s mom’s calm guidance.

It also felt like there were hints for a second novel with the neighbor and one of Bear’s meddling sisters.

In conclusion: I had some frustrations with the book but overall I think it was a fun and quick romance read. I appreciated that all of this started by a chicken crossing the road.

An electronic Advanced Reader Copy of the book was generously provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had to think hard how I wanted to rate this book. On the one hand I found some parts funny, and I really did like the characters. However, one of the main plot conflicts fell into the "get a therapist" realm, and I have issues with authors presenting big mental health/trauma being miraculously cured by love. I liked how the author dealt with toxic masculinity (perhaps even highlighting some of the stereotypes authors present in romance novels). Yet, too much time in their heads made the story drag at times. Overall, I would say this story was decent middle of the road story. * I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

The cover is cute, I can usually roll with a good percentage of cheesy elements (like their names are “Trixie” and “Bear.”) I just couldn’t get into this one. There is a lot of internal dialog in the set up chapters.
I wanted to like this a lot, but just couldn’t get into it.

A story began with a Chicken. Yes you read it right. A chicken. Trixie was not thinking right when she scooped the chicken up from her windshield and get in her car. She as a animal lover just couldn't left the chicken alone. Bear loves to stay quite but his sisters posted an ad about wanting roommate for Bear. Trixie saw this ad and it was pet friendly, she thought why not try it as pets are not allowed in her apartment. When Bear saw her, he lets her in, made her roommate because he was attracted by her from the day with the chicken. But they want to keep a platonic relationship between them. But can they do it?

When I started reading it, I thought it's just a romcom book but it was more than that. Both of them had childhood trauma, toxic parents and all of these effected them a lot. They need to surpass this to get in a relationship. Both of them need to show their true
self to get out of their trauma. You know no one can be happy always and you don't have to show that you're happy when you're not. You don't have to pressurise yourself to be happy. Be yourself. And don't let childhood bullies get you and force you to leave your passion. People will talk but if you let it effect you, you'll lose yourself.

I was a bit nervous to see what kind of plot a book with a title based on a knock-knock joke might have, but this is a typically cute romance (with a heavier dose of chicken than you might normally expect).

I’d say enjoyed the front half more than the back half—I felt that the story became a bit overly long, and I got frustrated by Trixie’s resistance to opening up (or at least how she started to blame Bear for it).

Full review on my blog: https://maeflowerreads.wordpress.com/2022/02/28/to-get-to-the-other-side-review/

TLDR: I thought it was cute, but there was a lot of issues with character development, character personalities, and structure. It made for a quick and fun read, but it was lackluster.

3.5/5 stars

Love love love! To Get to the Other Side was such a lighthearted refreshing romantic comedy that is tenderly flawed with really good characters and lots of animals including a sweet chicken. Trixie is a big-hearted character with some flaws that are super relatable. Bear (adorable nickname for Barrett) is a great character with charming sisters that love to intervene in his life, causing him and Trixie to become roommates. It's a cute, heartwarming read that as a pleasure to read!

I really enjoyed this corny romance. I’m not really one for reading romance books but this one was really good. Bear and Trixie have similar sad situations when it comes to parent/parents and they handle their trauma in different ways. Bear finally learned how to accept who he is and what he likes and Trixie finally realized that she doesn’t have to me happy and perfect all the time. I will say I got worried about Chick Chick and was going to throw my book across the room if she had died lol. I definitely recommend this book!

By all accounts, I should've loved 'To Get to the Other Side' given that it has all my favorite tropes: the forced living arrangement, the grumpy x sunshine character, it even has a token cute animal character! Ultimately, I thought it was just okay. It's cute, but the characters didn't really do too much for me, and the book kind of drags its feet during the middle.

Still, I'd pick it up if you're in the mood for something sweet and insta-lovey!