Booked on a Feeling is a perfect book for people who love rom-coms and "friends to lovers" books!

Booked on a Feeling is about a lawyer (Lizzy) who is burned out from her job and takes a vacation in a small town where her childhood best friend (Jack) lives. Jack is elated to spend these three weeks with Lizzy because he has been in love with her for 20 years. Lizzy doesn't know about this crush, and he plans to keep it this way so that he won't risk their long-time friendship. The more time the they spend together, the harder it becomes to hide this.

I loved this story and love the way Jayci Lee writes. I was immediately hooked from the start! The characters in this book are cute, funny and you could feel the chemistry between them. Additionally, it was really nice to see the growth that both of the main characters had. I love that the author included real life struggles in the storyline such as anxiety, family issues and figuring out what you want to do in life.

I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to anyone who loves romance and the friends to lovers trope. Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee comes out on July 26, 2022 and I will be buying a physical copy of it!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinions and review.

This is such an adorable romcom! I love the best friends to lovers trope and this one definitely delivers! Plus I loved the coziness of the bookstore setting!

On the surface, this book is everything that I love in a romance novel. We have a bookish theme, characters burnt out from their careers who need a new path, and the friends-to-lovers tropes. Those story pieces do play well together and have played well together in the past. However, this book was missing one fundamental piece to tie everything together: a plot.

Before jumping into the nitty-gritty, I want to start with what did work in this book. The Korean and Korean American culture that seeped through the pages was amazing to see. Not only did the descriptions of food make me want to locate a local Korean restaurant in my area, but the descriptions of the food made it easy to imagine in my mind. (Although, I do draw the line at the three-sentence description about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.) If you read this novel, be warned: it will make you hungry.

Unfortunately, the food descriptions were the only strength the writing had. This novel heavily relied on telling, not showing, which provided a choppy story flow. I found myself craving setting descriptions, more figurative language, and less on-the-nose adjectives/adverbs to describe emotional states. That was the writing style aspect I struggled with the most. When I read a novel, I want to be able to feel what the character is feeling, and that best comes through inference on a character’s emotional state. But you can’t have that inference when the novel is reading as “Lizzy felt anxious.” I wanted to see Lizzy’s palms getting sweaty, her heart fluttering in her chest, her stomach feeling as if it’s crawling up the back of her throat. Those descriptions make a reader feel something, and that was the spark this story needed to add depth to the descriptions.

Compounding the lack of descriptions was, frankly, the lack of plot. By the 23% mark, this was all that had happened:

- Lizzy won a trial.
- Lizzy took a leave from absence from work, went to her BFF's (Jack) hometown.
- Lizzy and Jack had developed mutual (but unspoken) crushes on each other.

Normally, that would have been fine if there were multiple sub-plots running beneath the surface. However, there weren’t true sub-plots in this novel (or prolonged conflict, for that matter). All I can tell you is that the plot consisted of Jack and Lizzy mutually pining for each other, Lizzy rebuilding a bookstore (which only lasted from 25-75%, approximately), a third act breakup happened (over a brief, and their first, argument as a couple), and a resolution. Again, on paper, it looks like a plot; but, with the amount of meandering, brief conflicts, and lack of engagement from the characters, there wasn’t much plot working on the page.

A further issue was the lack of characterization and development. This was unsurprising to find, as there weren’t many conflicts for the characters to grow from. If characters aren’t engaging with conflict, aren’t pursuing goals, aren’t actively changing, they then have no agency. And no agency in characters makes for a boring story. I would argue that this story was flirting with the characters having no agency. While both Jack and Lizzy had personal goals (of discovering what they want to do with their lives, where they belong, etc.), there wasn’t a greater goal or conflict putting pressure on the characters to cause change. I just wanted more engagement between the characters and the plot to add that tension and growth that make a romance novel shine.

Lastly, the anxiety representation wasn’t well done. Early on, Lizzy describes herself as being anxious and has a panic attack that causes her to faint in the court room. But when she leaves LA to travel to Weldon, she stops taking her anxiety medicine and has “no anxiety at all.” As someone who has generalized anxiety disorder, I can absolutely say that is not how it works. I would love for my anxiety to simply shut off depending on my location or situation, but that’s not how it works. Anxiety isn’t a condition that just comes and goes; it’s something that you learn to manage overtime. It felt like anxiety was a convenient character trait and not something that Lizzy, or the story, truly cared to grapple with.

Overall, this book failed to execute and tie together known tropes in a new, original way. There were many execution issues that were not only distracting but weakened many aspects of this novel. As I’m walking away from this novel, I can’t help but think how much more this could have offered to the reader.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I loved the premise of this book, and enjoyed reading the dual POV! Friends to lovers isn't my favorite trope, but I liked Lizzy and Jack overall. I also enjoyed the description of food in this book; clearly, this writer is a foodie! My only major con with this book is that the plot seemed disjointed From Lizzy's lawyer life to her helping out at the small-town bookstore, and then also her relationship with Jack, something felt off to me. I look forward to reading more from Lee in the future!

Booked on a Feeling is the third novel in the A Sweet Mess series where each novel can be read as a standalone. This story follows Lizzy Chung, an aspiring lawyer in Los Angeles, who has a panic attack during an important work moment. She decides to take a break and head back to small-town Weldon, California to regroup as she questions if she is cut out to be a lawyer. When she returns home, she has the chance to visit her best friend, Jack Park, who works as a bookkeeper at his family’s microbrewery. The two connect further when Lizzy decides to revamp the local bookstore and Jack decides to help her.

As Jack has loved Lizzy since they were ten years old, there is some secret pining between them. Lizzy’s life is initially based on Los Angeles and Jack’s is in Weldon, there is tension about how this will work between them. The two have a natural chemistry, which I enjoyed as their connection did not feel forced, even on a friendship level. Throughout Lizzy’s time in Weldon, she has the chance to reevaluate if being a lawyer is for her. It was her parents dream for her and while she wants to please her parents, she must think if this is the career for her.

This story was very sweet as the two characters shared a lot of history. It was interesting to see how their relationship progressed as feelings developed, but there is always the possibility that this could affect the friendship. Some characters from the previous novels do make an appearance along with multiple other characters. Sometimes this was difficult to track as I did not know who I should pay attention to the most for the secondary and tertiary characters. Overall, this was a sweet story and a great addition to the series!

**I want to give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin, for a review copy of this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Thank you Netgally and St. Martins Press for an ARC copy of this book.

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars

This is a personal opinion. It I usually don’t love books where the main character is a lawyer. I have zero interest in law, lawyers, courtroom scenes, judges, juries etc…

I am here for the bookstore scenes..especially when the guy passionately kisses you against a bookshelf.

Thankfully, the law scenes were short lived and the personal growth through helping a struggling bookstore comes in quickly.

I really enjoyed the two main characters Korean backgrounds. It was nice to read a little bit about their culture through food and family.

I found the dialogue to be a bit cheesy at times but at around the 40% mark, I started to really get into the characters. Sometimes the friends to lovers trope takes some time for me to get on board.

Overall, I thought this was a cute love story. My favorite part being the idea of running an independent bookstore, because like Lizzy the main character, it is my dream as well 🥰

This story was very cute! I am giving it a 3.5! I really enjoyed it and I really liked Lizzy and Jack. The story itself was very cute and I really liked the way the author led the characters to finding themselves and their passions.

Jack and Lizzy were adorable and witty! I loved seeing Lizzy though Jacks eyes. You could really feel the love he had for her come through the pages. I also really loved how Lizzy would point out she was insecure and struggled with anxiety but wouldn’t let it stop her from doing or saying what she wanted and taking control of her life. I really admired her for that.

I felt like the story had a slow start but it eventually took off. I think it could have had more to it in some parts. Something would happen and I was hoping for more from it didn’t quite deliver in some areas.

Overall it was very cute and left me really liking the characters. It is the third book in the A Sweet Mess collection, but can be read out of order, and it did make me want to go back and read the first two stories to get to know some of the side characters a little better! Definitely give this one a shot if you like cute romcoms where you can basically feel the love the MMC has for the FMC!

Thank you for the author, published and NetGalley for giving me ARC in exchange for a honest review!

3.75 stars

I enjoyed this sweet little rom-com. It’s the third book in a series, apparently, but I haven’t read the others, and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. I liked the main characters, for the most part. I especially liked that the female protagonist is a smart, educated, conventionally-successful woman who still loves some traditionally feminine things (in this case, romance novels); that was fun to see. I liked the way the story was put together, and even though it felt like there were still a couple of loose ends that weren’t really resolved, I liked the conclusion, and I suppose that just makes it more realistic. This was my first book from the writer, but I might have to go back and read the first two from the series as well.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

I'm a sucker for the friends to lovers trope/childhood love trope and this book was exactly that. I loved Lizzy and Jacks' relationship and they had some of the cutest moments. The bookstore scenes were probably my favorite parts of the book.

It was interesting to see their dynamic change from friends to lovers especially because Jack has always had a crush on Lizzy but when Lizzy starts reciprocating the feelings, he almost backs off and wants to go slow. It was kinda shocking but also nice because then, Lizzy had to fight Jack about going further with their relationship.

It was great to see the characters sorting out what they wanted to do career wise especially because it is such a relatable feeling that I may or may not be currently feeling. The relatable aspect helped me feel closer to the story.

Overall, a very cute, quick, and easy read. I haven't read the other books in this series but this book can be read as a standalone if you're looking for something quick to read and love a book with characters who love to read and work in a bookstore (fmc).

Thank you to Jayci Lee, St. Martin's Friffin and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Booked On A Feeling is a friends-to-lovers romance following childhood friends Jack and Lizzy. I felt drawn in from the cover and title alone! After experiencing a panic attack in court, Lizzy decides to visit her best friend for some time to de-stress. Jack is ecstatic to see Lizzy, but struggles to keep his secret-he has a crush on her. Both Lizzy and Jack must decide what this means for a potential relationship between them and whether their friendship can survive.

Booked On A Feeling is the latest installment into the series "A Sweet Mess." It can be read as a standalone, though readers who have read the other books will appreciate the cameos. I really enjoy Jayci Lee’s work and Booked On A Feeling might be my favorite book from her yet! Lizzy had great mental health rep, as she struggles with anxiety related to family expectations and work stress. Watching her find the confidence to choose for herself what she truly wanted to do was amazing! Jack was a gentlemanly and swoon worthy MC. He similarly dealt with internal and external pressure about his purpose and goals. I loved how Lizzy and Jack always brought the focus back to their close friendship and were always there for each other. Booked On A Feeling is a sweet read, perfect for readers who love romance, indie bookstores, and friends-to-lovers. Thank you to Jayci Lee, St. Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, Wordpress blog, and Barnes & Noble etc

Cute friends to lovers romance with a lovely cinnamon roll hero. I liked seeing how both main characters were trying to sort out what they wanted to do career wise and make changes from what they were currently doing. Bonus points for all the lovely bookshop plot points!

2.5 rounded up.

This one just didn’t keep my interest very well. The first half was super slow, and I found myself wanting to speed ahead.

I just wasn’t falling in love with the characters, wasn’t feeling the chemistry/tension. I also didn’t love how the FMC handled the “big fight”.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee
Release Date: July 26, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5


Lizzy Chung has been living up to her strict Korean parent’s expectations. At 30, she is primed to make partner at her law firm in a years time, anxiety be damned. Until one day the anxiety takes over and she passes out during trial. Deciding she needs some time off from her high stress life, she takes refuge in the small town where her best friend, Jack lives.

Jack Park is a numbers man, who helps keep his family’s brewery on track. However, its just not the life he expected to have at 30. Oh, and he’s also hopelessly in love with Lizzie and has been for the last 20 years.

When Lizzie surprises Jack on his morning run one day, his whole world goes upside down. And little does she know, hers will too. When they volunteer to help restore the local bookshop, life choices are questions and revelations are revealed.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

If you need a sweet as pie story to get you by, this is the one. It is a super sweet, friends to lovers story. I gave it 3.5 stars. I love the story. I love the characters. I typically prefer an enemy to lovers story, but don’t mind a friends to lovers occasionally. But I tend to like a little drama in the story. This one had like 10% drama. I was ready for the tension and it barely came. But it truly is a sweet story that I ultimately enjoyed.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

✨Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read this before it is published!!✨

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#bookishthings #currentlyreading #romance #romancenovels

"Booked on a Feeling" was so so good! A romance about friends to lovers, trying to find your place in the world, to figuring out who you are. I love that it mostly takes place in a bookstore. The perfect setting!
It was such a good read. If you love rom-coms, be sure to add this to your TBR list!
Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this rom-com!

Rating: 3.5
Releases: July 26,2022

3.5 stars for this super cute but super predictable childhood best friends-to-lovers rom-com! I can't wait to read more books from author Jayci Lee!

Lizzy is an overachieving but successful lawyer in Los Angeles who has just won her first trial. She should be on top of the world, but a panic attack mid-opening statement and a lack of contentment with her win have her questioning her place in her chosen career. She decides to travel to Wheldon, CA to spend a 3-week vacation with her best friend, Jack. Jack is also struggling to find his place in the world as he has spent most of his life helping live out his twin brother and sister's dream of growing their family's brewery business. During her vacation, Lizzy volunteers her time to help Sparrow, a local bookstore, freshen up and become more customer-friendly. Jack also offers to help so he can stay as close to Lizzy as possible because he has been in love with her since he was 10. Unfortunately he thinks she has him firmly planted in the friend zone. Could he be wrong? Could she be in love with him, too? They have three weeks to figure it out.

I did not realize "Booked on a Feeling" was part of a series, but I am certainly interested in reading Jayci Lee's other books now! This romance has a decent amount of open-door steam, it's charming, and it's mostly enjoyable. Lizzy and Jack are great, relatable characters, and I found myself rooting for them to get together. This book deals with burn-out, following your dreams, and doing what you want despite what your family might think. I loved the Korean representation and culture woven throughout the story. There is also a respectable amount of banter between characters. Also, what a cute cover, right?!

Unfortunately, the pacing can be slow, and it takes a while to get to the meat and potatoes of the story. I had to stop reading it and come back a few times before I pushed through to the end. It's not poorly written by any stretch of the imagination, but Lee certainly takes her time unfolding the story.

I think "Booked on a Feeling" is worth your time despite being predictable. The bookstore scenes are sure to make you swoon!

Tropes: childhood best friends-to-lovers, second chance romance, small town, romantic comedy, third-person dual POV

**Thank you to NetGalley, and the author, for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated in any way for my review.**

OMG I could not put this book down (well aside from when I had to sleep or work). I literally loved it. I was interested the whole time and I feel like there was never a point where I got bored or wanted to give up.

As someone who deals with anxiety, it's always nice to connect with a character because they deal with the same issues you do. Lizzy was that character for me. She deals with anxiety when it comes to her job and trying to make her family proud which are things I definitely understand.
I loved Jack. He was so sweet and caring towards Lizzy and wanted the best for her. He feared disappointing those close to him and was unhappy which I am sure we all have felt at some point. He learned to stop doubting himself and that he needed to live his life for himself.
I loved Jack and Lizzy's friendship. Their banter and the angst was to die for. They are literally so perfect for each other. They both needed to discover who they were and I feel like they really did that.

Highly recommend to any romance lovers!
Tropes: friends-to-lovers, slow burn, small town romance.

ARC BOOK REVIEW

Booked on a Feeling
by Jayci Lee

Publishing Date: July 26, 2022

Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 rounded up to 4 stars

Lizzy is a Los Angeles attorney and she just won her first trial case. But she suffered a panic attack in the courtroom due to anxiety and stress resulting in her fainting. She's a chronic over achiever, and feels pressured by both her mother and her employer.  Lizzy DESPERATELY needs a BREAK.

Lizzy heads to Weldon for a 3 week vacation. Weldon is  also the home of her life long best friend Jack- who is the bookkeeper at his families brewery.  While in Weldon, LIzzy has committed to helping a local bookstore come to life. THIS Is her idea of relaxation! ( She LOVES to do lists) Lizzy also has Jack help with bookstore duties and she starts to see him differently than she has before.....did she never notice his 6 pack? and why is she so turned on by his toolbelt?!

Lizzy knows that these 3 weeks away from LA are going to fly by....how will she return to Los Angeles, knowing she is so unhappy there? Is being an attorney the right career for her?And what is she going to do now that she loves her best friend? (Does he love her back?!)

REVIEW: Ok this was super cute! I saw alot of myself in Lizzy...the anxiety, the pressure to be an over achiever, the to do lists...she was a very relatable character. I love friends to lovers and also really enjoy books that talk about books/bookstores. So this one hit a bunch of my boxes.  I LOVE Jack and Lillys relationships- both their romantic and platonic banter.

This doesnt get 5 stars because I didn't get that " heart warming, feel it in your gut" sensation, but it was a quick read that made me smile!

I'd add this one to your TBR  if you like feel good romance.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the arc!

Lizzy, a hardworking, successful lawyer, is questioning whether this law thing is really what she wants. She decides that taking a three week break from work is exactly what she needs to help clear her mind. She travels to a small town outside of the busy L.A., where her best friend of twenty years Jack lives. But what Lizzy doesn't know, is that Jack has loved her since they were ten years old.

Lizzy and Jack begin to spend lots of time with each other, and Lizzy likes the freedom of not having lawyer duties. And she also finds herself falling for her best friend. But does he love her back?

This is such a sweet book! I really related to all of Lizzy's quirks, and enjoyed the small town vibes. I admired how Lizzie took charge of her life and did something she wanted to do, and not what others expected of her.

Jack is also a very well written character. He also follows his dream, which is a big step for him. I also enjoyed the way he loves Lizzy. He was truly supportive of her, and her quirks, and knew exactly what she needed.

The spice level of this book is perfect. It had me wishing I had a friend I could fall in love with.

I recommend this to any friends to lovers fan!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Jayci Lee for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Waiting for her to find her own way was the best way he could love her now. No matter how much he missed her. No matter how much he wanted her. He would love her by waiting."

This story was cute. Lizzy and Jack have been friends for 20 years. Both have been secretly in love with each other. I really enjoyed the bookstore setting and loved all the moments with Lizzy and Jack. I loved Jack, he knew Lizzy so well. He was patient and understanding. Loved him!

Read this if you like:

📚Childhood friends to lovers
📚Rom Coms
📚Dual POV
📚 Happily Ever After

Release date: July 26, 2022

Thank you to @netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Everything is going according to plan for Lizzy Chung. She’s a lawyer, joined a prestigious law firm, and she’s on her way to becoming partner, and she lives in LA! What’s not to love? A panic attack leaves Lizzy whirling, and she takes three weeks off to recover from the burnout in her childhood town and see her best friend.

Jack Park was not expecting his best friend Lizzy to return to Weldon. He’s had a decades long crush on her and would love to be with the girl of his dreams. Only what does he have to offer? He’s a bookkeeper for his family’s brewery and he’s never left his hometown. He doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, but could a few weeks change everything?

If you’re looking for a friends-to-lovers book, this may be the one for you! I enjoyed the dual POVs because they really helped to understand Jack and Lizzy’s perspectives. I loved how this story addressed anxiety and panic attacks, and the Korean culture was a plus. There was a lot of miscommunication between the two, but I liked that both Jack and Lizzy wanted to find themselves without the interference of friends and family. Unfortunately, I did not love this book. It was not super memorable or has a wow factor. I think incorporating more flashbacks, considering Jack pined for Lizzy so long would have enhanced the story. Plus, just incorporating more of their culture and some unpredictability would have changed the progression of the story and set it apart from others.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!