Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

Booked on a Feeling
by Jayci Lee
Pub Date: 26 Jul 2022

This was a sweet story about childhood friends who secretly want to be something more...but will they risk that friendship for that chance? Lizzy and Jack had such a pure commitment to each other. I love how supportive they were and wanting what was best for the other. If it wasn't for insecurities, stubbornness, and miscommunication blocking the path to their forever with each other... (but then I guess you wouldn't have enough to write a book!) This was a quick read with kind of a predictable (but happy) outcome.
3 Stars

Friends to lovers? ✔️
Second chance romance? ✔️
Guy falls first? ✔️
Slow burn? ✔️

This book has it all!! Cute, fun and fast-paced. I very much enjoyed it. The cover alone sold me. It’s absolutely gorgeous!! I definitely needed this book after reading a bunch of thrillers. It warmed my heart. Can’t wait to read more from this author!!

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Griffin) for gifting me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Booked on a Feeling is a sweet romance about Izzy and Jack. There were themes of friends to lovers, second chance romance, and slow burn. Best friends since they were 10 years old, Izzy decides to take a 3 week vacation to Weldon, Jack's hometown. In spending all of his free time with this best friend while she is on her 3-week vacation, Jack and Izzy decide to start dating. As 30-year olds, they have known each other for 20 years, and unbeknownst to Izzy, Jack has had a crush on her the whole time. Their lives take them in different directions and they have to find a way back to each other after saying hurtful things to each other and ending their relationship just shy of the end of Izzy's vacation.

Overall this book was a fast read and enjoyable. I tend to prefer spicier romance books, and this book did build up the heat, to only have closed door romance scenes. If this is what you prefer, then this would be a great book for you!

#BookedonaFeelingJayciLee #NetGalley

Firstly, I want to thank @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the ARC. Secondly, let’s discuss the book and this gorgeous cover! I read The Dating Dare last summer and loved the writing, the characters, and the story. So, I was thrilled to read Jayci’s newest book!
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Friends to lovers is a slow-burn trope with a lot of self-questioning about whether or not to take the chance while debating the ‘friendship’ part. For me, when it’s done right - it is the best story, and this is exactly how I love this trope. I guess the only part I found a bit off, was how quickly they were obsessed with the physical aspect of their relationship....
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I enjoyed this one and look forward to Jayci's next book!

I REALLY wanted to get behind this friends-to-lovers romance, but unfortunately I couldn’t get behind it.

Lizzy leaves her law firm after winning a big case, needing to step back due to her overwhelming and demanding life. Insert best friend, Jack. Lizzy decides to move and help a small town bookstore to be closer to Jack, who works for his family’s brewery. Meanwhile, Jack is secretly interviewing for a job in the city to be closer to Lizzy.

This book read very light, and very predictable, more like a YA than an adult romcom, and as things heated up between these two friends? It just felt weird.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I was super excited to read this one and I throughly enjoyed it. The characters were a highlight and easily lovable. I would definitely recommend.

This book was super cute! I loved that it touch on mental health and anxiety too. It had everything: genuine connection, spice, and HEA.

"The point was he had no plans to shake things up. He would take their friendship with a side of pining any day if it meant he would always have her in his life. Besides, a little pining never hurt anyone."

4.5 stars

I love friends to lovers plus a book with a bookstore as the primary location - it's perfect for book lovers! Lizzy and Jack have been friends for 10 yrs. The kind of friends who knows each other's quirks and family drama and have been there through all the awkward phases. I love seeing the transition from friends to more! Being Japanese I love seeing Asian MC and feeling understood having grown up Asian. The food, the family, the need to make your parents proud. It's all there and it felt real!

I felt their relationship was natural and realistic. There's a little second chance romance happening at the end and I loved that none of it felt rushed. They both and crap to figure out and that takes time. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and moments I cried. The only thing that bothered me was Lizzy was so "adorable". Literally, about every other page it says adorable and it got on my nerves after awhile. But that's a small complaint - I felt the book was amazing otherwise! This was my first book by Jayci but I'm definitely going to look up the rest of the series! Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press! I really enjoyed reading this one!!

This was my second book by this author. I read the second in the series and I decided to see how well this would be as a stand-alone. I found it didn’t matter if you read all of the series of picked and chose. There were some mentions of the last book’s main characters, but nothing hard to make out.

Lizzie wasn’t my favorite character, but I understood her personality. She was a go getter overachieving lawyer, her attitude definitely held up to that. When that major panic attack hit, I really felt for her. I suffer from panic disorder and they tend to happen in the worst possible moments.

The romance aspect of the story was lacking a bit in my opinion, it was a sweet childhood friends to lovers story. Jack’s love for Lizzie was adorable, but I wished Lizzie was a bit more reciprocal sooner. Jack was one of my favorites he was just so damn sweet and everything you would want in a man.

Overall, this was a cute romance, with a great plot. Other than finding the romance a bit lacking, I really enjoyed the story as a whole.

This book was very cute. A fancy lawyer climbing the corporate ladder suddenly finds herself in desperate need of a vacation away from the stress of the city. She goes to stay in the same town as her long-term best friend who would love to be more than that but thinks she doesn't reciprocate those feelings. Incidentally he's applied for a job in LA to be closer to her and to pursue his dream, but he's kept this information to himself.

As they navigate the few weeks together, she busies herself with helping out a local bookstore she fell in love with and gets to spend a lot more time figuring out what she wants out of life. And of course as they spend more and more time together, she realizes that maybe he is more than a best friend.

When the two each have big news to share with each other, trouble ensues, and they are each left to decide what the rest of their respective lives will look like.

This was a cute romance novel especially for someone looking for a slower-paced small town romance with a lot of talk about books in it :).

Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

I found the summary of this book to be so much more interesting than the actual content of the book. Lizzy is a high strung lawyer and, having just won her first case, she should be on top of the world. However, she’s filled with anxiety and stressed by the future looming over her. She takes a few weeks off to visit her childhood town, and spend time with her friend, Jack. They have feelings for each other and quickly act on them.

I don’t like how Lizzy acts when she’s with Jack, or vice versa. I enjoyed the dual points of view and feel like it was well written in some respects. I didn’t like how the romantic scenes were written because they felt so trite and typical of sugary romance. It was the same thing, without any new twists, and too plain to stand out in the genre as a whole. Plus, it felt incredibly fast, even considering Lizzy and Jack knew each other for over ten years. The way Lizzy would act, all excited about lists, and the things she would say, felt out of character, for a character I hardly knew at all. It was an odd disconnect, to be sure. I was hoping the addition of Lizzy’s anxiety would change the story a bit, but the anxiety all but disappeared the moment Lizzy left the office.

Aside from the romance, the rest of the story moved fast as well. Lizzy becomes good friends with the owner of a local bookstore within seconds. She gets to know the owner’s kid and starts running the renovations of the bookstore, all within days. There’s too much packed into so little time. Suddenly, the bookstore is successful, partnering up with local businesses to have events and fully renovated and thriving within three weeks. It’s entirely unbelievable to me.

I skimmed over a lot of the cringy dialogue and the “spicy” scenes because they were just too uncomfortable. I read a ton of smut, and smutty fanfiction, even, and this was just not on par with what I usually read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this book! I enjoyed the opportunity to read more romance, and from a new author. Some of the other books by Jayci Lee are well rated and sound fun so I might give her another try!

I am so in love with Jack and Lizzy's love story. I had no idea going into this book that it was part of a series and after finishing this book I will immediately be reading the other two. Loved the writing style and representation throughout. Highly recommended.

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee is another friends to lovers trope. My favorite kind of rom-com! Lizzy and Jack were friends for a long time, they sure have feelings for each other but like any friends to lovers premise, these characters are hiding their feelings and denying what they feel.

I like Jayci Lee’s writing but I can also honestly and sadly admit that it is not my favorite. I do love the Asian references. Being Asian myself, nothing beats the Asian foods. Ever. Though this did not hook me as much as I want to, please do not take my word for it because I know for sure that this is an awesome rom-com and anyone gets entertained with this reading experience!

Thanks Netgalley and PRH for the ecopy to review in exchange of my honest opinion.

This book was cute but it wasn’t my fav. Definitely a quick read but nothing really wowed me

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Such a cute heartfelt read 💖
I think Lizzy and jack are the cutest couple they are definitely end game
It has self growth and books what else can you need

Lizzy and Jack have been best friends for decades, but live 4 hours apart. They finally get to spend time together when Lizzy takes a long vacation and spends it in Jack's hometown. The only issue is that she is starting to notice more than just Jack's sparkling personality.

This book was fine, but I didn't love it. I enjoyed the bookstore project, but overall this isn't one I would recommend.

Booked on a Feeling follows Lizzy Cheung, a high achieving, albeit burnout, lawyer from LA. After a very demanding case, which resulted in her first Trial win, Lizzy takes 3 weeks off to go see her best friend in his small hometown. Lizzy, an avid reader, falls in love with the bookstore below the apartment she's staying in.

Booked on a Feeling is a dual-POV romance of two 30-somethings, that I personally felt read as a YA novel. From the get go, the MMC is already head over heels for the FMC. I do love a friends to lovers, but I didn't really enjoy the MMC's POV. Like I said, this read as if it were a Young Adult Romance, rather than two established adults. So, in my head I aged them down A LOT. Both characters internal monologues came across quite juvenile, and I found myself skimming a lot of the book.

I can definitely see a lot of people enjoying this book. It's a HEA, friends to lovers, centred around a bookshop renovation, warm and fuzzy small town romance. I just think it wasn't what I was looking for. I can handle a little miscommunication, but it got to the point where the will they, won't they narrative got old quite quickly.

As far as Romances go, this is an extremely easy read. I definitely think this will be enjoyed by the wider Romance community, however, I found the lack of character background and development lacklustre.

2.5

Thank you for providing me with an eARC of this title.

I liked this book. It was a sweet rom-com but it didn’t pull me in. I like the best friends to lovers and the pining tropes but I didn’t love the way it was set up. I think they got together a bit too soon for my taste and though they were “taking it slow” it went really really slow. I did love the Asian cultural references and the mentions of all the yummy food references! That’s probably my favorite part of a Jayci Lee book!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!

Lizzy Chung has lived her life in the manner that her overbearing Korean mother wants. She got her law degree, joined a prestigious law firm, is on her way to making partner, and is completely miserable. Her best friend Jack has been in love with Lizzy forever, and when Lizzy decides she needs a break from her anxiety-inducing life in LA, she plans a 3 week's vacation in Jack's small town of Weldon. Lizzy is living her dream of living above a book store and helping the owner renovate the book store. Jack is glad to help out Lizzy with the renovation, but spending so much time with his best friend, that he is in love with poses all sorts of problems. Can the two remain friends but deal with the growing sexual tension? As always, Jayci Lee brings fun characters, laugh-out-loud circumstances, and some pretty hot and steamy love scenes. I loved this third installment in the Sweet Mess series. I can't wait to see what Lee writes next. 4 stars. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC.

Booked on a Feeling is an enjoyable contemporary romance! Although this is the third book in the "A Sweet Mess" series, I read it without reading the previous books and had no problems. Lizzie and Jack have known each other since they were little and Lizzie's family vacationed in Jack's hometown. They are best friends and know each other better than anyone else does. Jack has been keeping a secret, he has been in love with Lizzie for years, but is afraid it will ruin their friendship if he tells her. When Lizzie has a major panic attack during a trial, she takes a leave from work, and goes to spend three weeks in the place she was happiest, Jack's hometown. With him there, she will have someone to support her and help her figure out what she really wants out of life. While she is there, she volunteers in the small, local bookstore and is happier than she has been in years. Working with Jack on her special project and spending time with him, she realizes that what she feels for Jack is more than just friendship. With both of them at a crossroads in their lives, they have some serious decisions to make.

Lizzie and Jack have a great friends-to-lovers romance. Being friends for so long, made it easy to slip into something more. The chemistry was amazing and as their relationship grows the steam picks up a notch. Both of them had feelings toward the other before they revealed it as they were both afraid to ruin a wonderful friendship, but love wins out. Just when it seems like things are going well, they have to make decisions about their future that seem to work against their relationship. I liked both of these characters and felt bad for all they were dealing with. Both of them have career issues they need to figure out. I was not impressed with Lizzie's mother. She didn't care if Lizzie was happy, she just wanted her to follow the path she had chosen for her. Jack's family didn't pressure him, but he always felt that they needed him and he couldn't let them down. They were actually very close and supportive, but Jack didn't necessarily see that. This story is very realistic and the characters very relatable. I was rooting for Lizzie and Jack to work things out. I loved that Lizzie was happiest working in the bookstore, as that would be my dream job. Themes include following your dreams, standing up for yourself, the importance of communication, family relationships, friendship and romance. Overall, Booked on a Feeling is a sweet contemporary romance with great characters, themes and a bit of a steamy romance.