This one was hard for me to judge. It was cute...sometimes funny. But it got a little weird near the end. The characters fell flat and the chicken thing got weird and strange.

This is a quirky and memorable romcom starring main characters with believable flaws and wonderful personalities. Trixie and Bear first meet when they witness a chicken being injured in traffic. Tthey reconnect through the influence of Bear's sisters, who advertise for a roommate on his behalf just at the time Trixie is forced to relocate to a pet-friendly apartment where she can continue to nurse the wounded chicken. The plan is to live together as roommates, but their attraction to each other soon blurs the lines between friendship and more.

The voices of the main characters come through very strongly in this book, and the author's writing is a pleasure to read. The supporting characters, especially in Bear's family, add such warmth and humor to the story, and it was also nice to have a hero that wasn't necessarily a macho guy, but who had the unique interest to run the family flower shop. The chicken is also an interesting part of the story. What starts out as a silly meet-cute grows into a situation where these two characters really care for and help each other with the chicken. It was fun to read about a different animal than the typical pet.

This is a great rom-com for anyone who loves animals, grumpy/sunshine couples, and strong family ties, but though there are no explicit sex scenes, there are some descriptions of sexual thoughts that might be offputting to readers who prefer a low heat level.

Oh my heart, To Get to the Other Side by Kelly Ohlert is the cutest of the cute, and I loved that there was a chicken in it!! This is Ohlert's debut, and I can't wait to see what her sophomore novel will be like after this unique take (the chicken) on a rom-com. Trixie is a super sweet and quirky character and I have to say that Bear is as well. He has the best family, and I was glad they got included one way or another in the story so much. Trixie brought out the animal lover in me to the max (she works in an animal shelter), and this book is filled with them which I loved!! It started out very humorous as well and I was a little sad that the humor kind of petered out about halfway in and then it moved into more serious territory without as many laughs. I love a good blend of both, so I would have loved it if it would have just been that way from start to finish.

I adored the audiobook and I thought Stefanie Kay & Paul Heitsch made for such wonderful narrators. They were both completely fitting for Trixie and Bear, and they made this a real treat to listen to. I would highly recommend the audio and I thought their reading styles brought the text to life in a way I wouldn't have gotten simply from reading the book. It is also a really quick listen at just under 9 hours, and I think the audio just made it more fun for me overall. To Get to the Other Side is a lighter read for the most part, and it basically blends a sunshine and grumpy trope with a miscommunication trope. Miscommunication can drive me crazy sometimes, but it didn’t really bug me here, and I just enjoyed seeing Trixie and Bear’s journey to being together. This is a happily-ever-after story without too much steam so if that is your thing, I would recommend it!

Thank you to @netgalley and @alcovepress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @dreamscape_media for a free download of the audiobook.

What was a chicken doing crossing the road in downtown Chicago? To get to the other side, duh! It’s none other than Trixie, saver of all animals who is chasing the chicken across the street upsetting all the other drivers. Trixie is then asked to leave her apartment due to said chicken and ends up living with Bear…They guy who saw her chase said chicken.

This was a cute story. It was funny and sweet. It was a bit cliché and lacked the connection the characters to really set it apart from others in this genre. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, light read. It was still entertaining.

3.5 Stars – Rounding to 4 stars for Goodreads

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #alcovepress #dreamscapemedia #ltbreaderteam #togettotheotherside #kellyohlert

Trixie is an animal loving happy to lucky girl who finds herself in a pickle. Bear is a quite keep to himself guy who has 4 sister 2 of which mettle in his life all the time. When trixie answers an ad in the paper for a place to live it happens to be near whose sister made the ad to help him with his money issues by renting out part of his house.

This is cute story that revolves around a chicken and opening up.

Thank you good reads for the advance copy

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC in return for my honest opinion. Overall: 3.50 rating. Dual point of view, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, not spicy. I loved that the book involved rescuing a chicken as most books involve a cat or dog. The book was entertaining and a light headed read however at times it was hard to understand where the book was going. It took awhile for the characters to admit their feelings to each other and I didn’t feel connected to the characters, they just needed more substance.

I really enjoyed this one! Bear is the definition of written by a woman.

Trixie was trying to save a chicken from getting hit while crossing the road (haha...get it?) and Bear saves her!

Trixie is one of the kindest characters to ever exist, she works at an animal shelter, wears adorable polka dot dresses and is always smiling. She has to move out b/c her landlord won't let her live with the chicken, and oh look at that she can move in with Bear!

They go through many ups and downs, like any pair of roomies, but they made me smile the whole time.

This book was what it presents itself to be, imo nothing too special, but nothing that I really didn't like. It is cute and worth a read!

4/5

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Alcove Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am so mixed on this story that I'm not sure how to rate it. There were parts of the story that I loved and some that I just thought didn't need to be added.

I loved Trixie's heart but I had a hard time with her character. She's a lover of animals and rescues them including chickens but her anxiety and people pleasing just turned me off to her.

Bear starts off as kind of gruff but he's actually a sweetheart and I think he made this story.

It's a cute romcom, and I like the idea of rescuing an animal, but it has a lot of cliche moments that made me want to roll my eyes.

This book was a realy mix for me. There were a lot of moments I really enjoyed but there were also some moments that felt boring or really cliché.

First of all, I really liked the idea of the book. When I read the synopsys I thought that it sounds like the perfect book for me. But in the end it was an average book for me.

I couldn't really conect with Trixie and that made it a bit difficult for me to continue the book on some pages. But I still finished and think that it's a good book, just not for me.

It perfect if you want a funny romcom!

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this Arc!

This was such a fun romance. It's humour was just right and the main characters plus a chicken well what could go wrong. I liked how Trixie and bear connected and she was scooped up into their family before the romance hit.

Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me. I just didn't connect with the characters and. I believe the idea was there but unfortunately the execution just didn't hit it for me.

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to review this book.

I couldn't finish this book - there were too many cliché moments between the characters that became frustrating.

So I wanted to like this. A quirky woman and a hot mystery guy find a stray chicken in the middle of the city she lives in and takes it home. Instead of finding literally any other home for it, she gets kicked out of her apartment and ends up living with the hot mystery guy. Love ensues.

She made so many silly decisions that I didn't love and it was hard to root for her. Spending $3,000 on a chicken's medical bills that forces her to take on multiple part time jobs probably makes her a better person than me but bless her heart, it was too much. I thought the chicken, named Chick-Chick unfortunately would be a cute side plot and it was a huge plot point through the whole thing.

The alternative curse words drove me nuts. It was supposed to be charming and I was not into it. They kept edging around Trixie's trauma and Bear's father as far as things that majorly shaped them into the adults they were and it started to bug me after a while that we didn't get to it quicker.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

I'm sad to say I wasn’t a fan of this book. The romance didn’t do anything for me, Trixie was a pretty annoying character and why was the love interest named Bear?

I truly felt nothing for these characters or for the story. And I know this book is one I’m not going to remember in a year from now.

However, the only thing I will remember about this romance was that our female protagonist had a chicken for a pet.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Great book, good storyline. The book was cute and I enjoyed reading it over a holiday break. The characters made you care about them and the story they were going through. It caught my attention from the beginning and kept me reading quickly.

Truly just so fun and insane but in the best way. Also the. cover is just perfect., Thank you to Alcovefor the advanced copy

This was such a cute romance book. I mean the main character literally has a pet chicken that she rescues in the first chapter so if that doesn't hook you, then I don't know what will. I loved how it was roommates to lovers which I always adore as well.

When Trixie saw the chicken run in front of her car, she didn’t stop to ask herself why the chicken was crossing the road. She just jumped out of her car to run after it And when she realized that she was making other drivers upset, a stranger stepped in and stared menacingly towards them, giving Trixie a chance to grab the chicken, put it safely in her car, and get back into traffic. She took the chicken to the vet for some much needed care, but she couldn’t completely put the handsome stranger out of her mind.

Bear grew up in a house full of sisters, and while he is good at construction and remodeling, his chosen career hasn’t made him very happy. He lives alone, and while he is often interrupted by one or more sisters dropping by, or his best friend Ryan who lives next door. But his sisters think he needs more, so they take action on his behalf, putting out an ad for a roommate without his knowledge.

When Trixie sees the ad that’s gone viral on the internet for the room in Bear’s home, she had to jump at it. She didn’t know him or his sisters, but she knew she needed a new place to live. Her landlord had put her foot down on all the stray animals that Trixie had try to sneak into her apartment. But while she could take the cats and dogs to the animal shelter where she worked, they didn’t have a place for Chick-Chick. If Trixie wanted to keep taking care of her new chicken, she had to find them a new place to live.

When Bear found out that his sisters had placed an ad renting out his spare room, he’s livid. He sends away all the strangers who have suddenly called or texted or just shown up at his place. Well, all but one. That lovely woman he saw chasing a chicken across the street had taken away his power of speech that day, and she did it again when she showed up to look at the room. He couldn’t say no to her. And he found that he couldn’t kick her out days later, when he found out that she had moved in the chicken along with herself.

Trixie finds herself feeling very comfortable in Bear’s home. They start spending time together, watching television and drinking wine, and she finds herself torn. She wants to lower the walls that she’s built up around her heart, but she built them there for a reason. The last time she let herself think she had made a genuine friend, she had been devastated. Bear doesn’t seem like he would hurt her, but she thought that last time too. Can she really open herself up to the possibility of a friendship with him, or even more?

Bear has spent most of his life fighting the voice of his birth father in his head. He’s been mocked and bullied to the point where he’s hidden his true self away. But he feels more like his true self around this strange woman who wants to save a sick chicken and keeps standing on one foot like a flamingo. Can he trust her not to mock him and his real dreams, or will she turn out to be like the others?

To Get to the Other Side is a sweet rom com about two people who were emotionally abused as children and trying to overcome the effects of that as adults. Their struggles to connect with each other despite their battered hearts is a testament to their feelings for each other. But mostly, this book is just a pool of sweetness and charm for me. I had to read this one slowly, because there was a lot going on in the rest of my life, and dipping into this book a little at a time was sweet relief from all the stress and chaos.

I saw the cover of this book, where Trixie is running around after a chicken, and I was immediately interested. I wanted to know more about this chicken, and about the woman. And the more I read, the more I loved it. There are so many surprising moments and so many sweet details. There are some steamy scenes, but mostly, this one is sentimental. It’s adorable, it’s funny, and it’s romantic, but you also have to be prepared for a chicken to steal almost every scene she’s in.

Egalleys for To Get to the Other Side were provided by Alcove Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I just reading about main characters rescuing any animals. It shows they have an heart. And that's not something we cannot deny.

Trixie may be messy whenever she rescues an animal but she can't deny her passion in saving them. And she is more than determined to provide them a home when she gets kick out of her old place. She may be shock how much she enjoys her new place with Bear. And she can't deny her attraction for him. She is going to try her best to stop it since they both live each other.

if you love reading about roommates romance with forced proximity trope, then this book is for you.

The first book I was ever approved for on netgalley and I loved it! I felt so close to this book because I've never heard of the author or the publishing company so I felt honored that I got approved! This book is a story of a new unexpected love. A must read.