Fun, short, sweet. By no means extravagant or original, but pleasant to read. This is one of those books that you grab to procrastinate folding your laundry, but you probably won’t remember it.

I loved the character, Trixie with her love of animals and a complicated past, but I loved Bear and his family even more. His sisters were everything I would want and he had amazing parents. The relationship with Trixie ran a bit hot and cold for a bit, made me want a quicker resolution to all of Trixie’s inner turmoil, but I’m glad I made it to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me. There was very little character development other than the constant repetition of the same issues over and over and over. The chicken scenario was a unique meet-cute, but the bird took up way too much of the plot. What really got me and kept this from being a 3 star rating was the "quirky" curse substitutions that Trixie used throughout the book. It was supposed to be a cute character trait, but instead it was one of the most annoying things I've read. I've seen other books do this and it just isn't cute, quirky or funny. "Oh, jousting jellybeans" and "well, bubble and squeak"....wtf? Bear's (seriously, these names...) family stole the show and were probably the best part of the story.

I think the book has potential, but it needs some work to give it depth.

If you’re looking for a humorous book, you can assume from the title that this will have a lot of laughs.
And it does.
This book follows Trixie as she adopts a chicken (Chick-Chick) and struggles with her new roommate to keep things… platonic.
Bear is a thoughtful and generous person, Trixie wears a smile all day everyday and cares for all those around her. Their dynamic is so sweet and the banter is perfect.
(I think I should start watching Grey’s Anatomy now… I need to see who Jackson is.)
It’s a struggle to rate this book because I enjoyed it and found myself laughing throughout it, but also wanted more from it. However I can say that I rate it 3.5/5 stars, so I’d definitely recommend it!

This is such a cute book and to top it there is an added pet that is a chicken. I loved the nosy sisters and their recurrences in Bear's life and I could understand the concept of facade that Trixie has to carry around and what made Bear softer towards Bear. The book is a good story of two willing adults living their regular lives till they enter each other's lives. Now I don't know about insta-love, but what striked me most was the characters and the build up of the story. This is a light read with few lessons to learn along the way. I hope you pick this up and give Trixie and Bear a chance.

First things first - I have to ask if this is the first draft? I can see the pub date isn't until Dec of this year (writing this in Feb) so I'm wondering if this is still going through several heavy rounds of editing before it is released?

If not, please consider doing this. You have time, and I think this book has so much room to evolve and grow into something stronger.

The characters are very cut and paste and extremely one dimensional. At first I was drawn in by the grumpy/sunshine trope. But it truly didn't exist. The only sign of Bear being "grumpy" was Trixie telling us during their dialogue that she was surprised he spoke so much in that conversation. That was it.

There is no story at all. The conflict is entirely them in their own heads - and a very overblown response to past "trauma". There's even a little subplot of Trixie being made fun of for crying in college, which is why she doesn't let anyone in? It just doesn't make sense at all.

An attempt is made to show Trixie as Quirky and it falls very flat. Wearing bright colours and substituting swear words with random words is not quirky. It's lazy character development.

I wanted to DNF this many times, but I kept going in case there was a big reveal that made everything made sense. Alas, it was not to be.

To the publisher/author - please take this on board. Use the time before officially publishing and let this book become more than it is. Build the world, flesh out the characters and find the hook for the story - find real conflict and resolve it at the end. Good luck.

This is a cute and quick read, it is a bit little bit funny (not a much as is intended) and it gives you a nice warm happy feeling in the end.

At the beginning, our main character Trixie stops her car in the middle of a Chicago street to rescue a chicken. The chicken is injured, so she takes it to the vet for thousands of dollars worth of treatment. This is where the book lost me because she obviously is a city girl who doesn't know about the $1.99 baby chicks at the Rural King store. Who pays thousands of dollars to keep one chicken alive when they're just scraping by in downtown Chicago trying to pay their rent while working AT AN ANIMAL SHELTER? Yeah. I didn't get it either.

When she tries to take the chicken home, her landlord isn't happy and gives her one week to get rid of the chicken or move. And of course, she ends up as the roommate of Bear, a grumpy guy, in contrast to her sunshiny, always happy personality.

And the story just keeps going downhill. Fast. Trixie names the chicken Chick-Chick which is obnoxious after she says it over and over and over again. And then Trixie doesn't swear, but uses words like sassafrass instead. It makes her seem about 10 years old and just plain weird, although the intent is to make her seem sweet and quirky.

Some may enjoy the insta-love that Trixie and Bear share in this book, but I found it to be a little on the ridiculous side with a storyline that was long and with not much happening. Also, where did that chicken come from in the first place? The world will never know.

⭐️
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I wanted to love this book - really, truly, I wanted to simply adore it. Unfortunately, I ended up forcing myself to finish it so that I could give it an honest review. The premise, albeit strange, is pretty cute. Trixie (a huge animal lover) lives in Chicago and randomly stumbles upon an injured chicken trying to cross the road. She stops her car, and all of traffic, to try to catch the chicken when another driver starts yelling at her. A big, burly man (named Bear… seriously?), comes to her rescue. There you have it folks, insta-love.
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There’s more to the plot but most of it seems messy and unnecessary - for instance instead of giving up the chicken (named Chick-Chick… again, seriously?), Trixie decides to MOVE OUT OF HER APARTMENT and INTO A HOUSE WITH THIS MAN that she has met twice!!!! They also each only have a few personality traits. Trixie is a goodie two shoes who doesn’t curse and wears ridiculous color combinations like purple, turquoise, and yellow together and Bear is a man’s man who is unattractively insecure about his “feminine” side. Their “traumas” also felt so forced and really just not really relatable?
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Don’t even get me started on the “sex” scene.
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All in all, this book fell majorly flat for me. With so many progressive & interesting romance books on shelves today, the same old trope of alpha male helping cutesy female without anything else added to the story doesn’t really cut it!
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Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book!

This book was so cute! I love love love grumpy sunshine and family dynamics and the book had all of that. I've been some people refer to Trixie as a manic pixie dream girl but I would disagree. Yes she is unique and a little to quirky but she has her own personality and growth. While I enjoyed the development of the characters and their relationship, I felt as though their characters were too extreme. Trixie is described almost as a child and Bear as well, a bear. Not to the point of Trixie being a MPDG, but just made me feel slightly uncomfortable. This book was a romance with other topics involved, some heavier some lighter but pretty entertaining. Would still reccomend as a pretty solid read! (3 stars)

Despite reading some negative reviews, I quite enjoyed reading this light-hearted romance. It was an easy read, which is sometimes just what you need. The main protagonist Trixie comes across a chicken trying to cross the road, with the help of a handsome stranger she is able to save the chicken. After finding out that the chicken needs extensive care, Trixie knows she needs to find a new place to live as her current apartment is a no pets zone. Enter Bear, the handsome stranger and his boisterous family. The story is predictable but sweet, it covers a range of issues such as belonging, family and relationships but ultimately you are urging the romance forward.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. It you want a cute funny happy ending story this is the book for you. It was so cute and funny, some might say a little cheesy but I like d it a lot and with everything going on in the world cute and funny and happy ending was perfect for me.

To Get to the Other Side was quickly a DNF for me. The cover and concept were so cute, but the immediate need to suspend belief was just too much.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

To Get To The Other Side by Kelly Ohlert is such a fun story! Trixie actually says that Chick-Chick is crossing the road to get to the other side!

Trixie and Bear both have issues from their childhoods. Trixie was treated as a commodity by her two intense dance parents. She feels like she can never let anyone get close. Every time she tries to show her whole self to someone, she gets hurt. Bear's biological father is the picture of toxic masculinity. He bullied Bear and put him down for liking things that weren't manly enough. He went into construction to make his biological dad proud, but that man is just a jerk and doesn't care about anything.

Together Bear and Trixie learn to trust each other and themselves. There are bumps in the road. All good stories have ups and downs. But we get our happily ever after in the end.

Trixie's non-swears are an absolute treat! Look for them throughout the book!

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was so so.
Characters were kind of annoying, didn't really get the chicken thing but was quickly and cheesy

I was extremely confused when I started this book as I didn't quite understand why she was so obsessed with this chicken. I'll be honest, the start did not pull me in and gave me no motivation to read the book. I hated the idea that the main character had to please everyone and that she had to put on a smile and be polite to all these men who were extremely rude to her. I don't know, maybe I just wished she had some backbone

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
I give this books 2.5 stars, rounding up to three.
To get to the other side was a funny, refreshing story with a unique plot. If you are looking for a fun, cute and easy read, this is your book!

It to 28% but then I had to quit. Maybe it is just because I have read a lot of contemporary romance because I just had enough with this book.
In my update for this book, I said that I find it so annoying when authors emphasise how small and petite yet curvy the main character is and how her love interest is this big muscly building of a man. And lo and behold: this. exact. thing. It is not that it was only said so many times that he is so manly and big, but it is the fact that the author literally wrote a scene where Bear (yes, you read that correctly, his name is fucking Bear, so we would not forget how big and strong and muscly he is) gets locked out of his house and the only way back in is through Trixie's window. But get this, he is sooooo big that he--wait for it--gets stuck. In the window. His shoulders are supposedly too broad for his window. Now let me ask you this: how does he walk through a door? Does he turn sideways so he is able to walk through a door that is usually narrower than a whole ass window?
Another thing is, this is insta-love. Like they see each other for like two seconds and all of a sudden they want to rip each other's clothes off. You literally just met and made eye contact for 2 seconds on a highway chasing a chicken! The cherry on top to make their sudden attraction even more unbelievable is that Bear does not talk. He only grunts. It is not even that he speaks through his actions (like Brandon Taggart did), but he literally barely speaks. And do not get me started on him simply having to flee his house while Trixie is showering because she is naked in there (shocker! People are naked when they shower) after only knowing each other for two fucking weeks.
I really tried to give this book a chance, but I also promised myself to not push on books that just do not do it for me. I am kinda sad because others seem to like it, but I just cannot force myself to finish this book.

This was a funny little book with the grumpy/sunshine trope. Trixie was all happy but immature and Bear really was like a grumpy but sweet teddy bear. The real star was Chick-Chick, the chicken.

The story felt and kind of cheesy. It could have benefited from some steam. Trixie felt immature and why she adopted the chicken didn't really make sense to me. The book could have used some spice, but the chemistry was so lacking that I'm not sure it would have worked here. Also, having grown up in Minneapolis and spent plenty of time in Chicago, a few more references to Chicago would have been nice since the book make such a big deal about it being in Chicago. I did appreciate the dual first-person structure, which helped bring a bit of depth to the trauma narratives.

I also honestly think it could use another editing round. For example, how many times do we need to be told why there's play doh sitting on the table? Overall, this was cute but didn't stand out to me as a particularly great romcom.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Expected Publication Date: December 6, 2022.

Bear is like his name, a big teddy bear and Trixie is little miss sunshine with some baggage and a chicken as a pet. Their chemistry is there from the beginning, however, I missed a bit of steam.
It’s a funny, entertaining book.