Overall, Booked on a Feeling was a cute, pretty predictable rom-com that we book lovers are especially drawn to because it takes place in a bookstore, which is secretly a dream for all of us. Lizzy and Jack are clearly drawn to each other—and you get the POV from both sides so you know that they are both heading in the direction of romance, though it takes a long time to get there.

Though the story was sweet, nothing really happened with the plot. I found myself skimming through sections of it to find some sort of action or conflict and never really got too much of anything. The plot is slow and I felt that I didn’t really understand why Lizzy and Jack were friends or how their relationship worked before this point in the story. Childhood best friends usually have more inside jokes and quirks that only they know about each other, and I really didn’t see that here.

Without giving too much away, though, I did like the ending and I liked that neither of them had to change to be together—they were already friends, so it wouldn’t have made sense if someone had to give up part of who they wanted to be to make it work. Also, the secondary characters in the book were really great, especially the bookstore owner and Jack’s sister.

If you’re a lover of the friends-to-lovers trope and have an affinity for rom-coms and bookstores, you’ll want to grab a copy to breeze through it. You’ll get exactly what you’re looking for!

3 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

If you're looking for warm fuzzies and happily ever afters, look no further than Booked on a Feeling!

While this is the third book set in Walden, you don't need to have read Jayci Lee's earlier novels to enjoy this one - it reads like a standalone. Lizzy and Jack's friends to lovers romance is so perfectly written; the way they feel about each other is so sweet, but the sparks between them are definitely not lacking in spice.

I really appreciated that they both took the time to figure out their dreams and to pursue their goals before fully committing to each other. I loved cheering Lizzy on as she overcame the immense pressures her family put on her to walk away from her high-stress legal career to pursue her dreams. The way her anxiety and professional burnout was handled felt so true-to-life and will definitely resonate with readers!

If you love a (best) friends to lovers trope, this book is for you! Booked on a Feeling gave me Book Lovers by Emily Henry vibes - in such a good way. While I did feel like the story line was predictable and certain parts of the book felt rushed, it did leave me with a smile on my face. It's a cute rom com set in between LA and a small town. Lizzy is a lawyer chasing ambition while Jack helps his family run their brewery, but he's desperate for more. They're two best friends who lean on each other when things get hard, however, Jack has always yearned for more. When Lizzy escapes to Weldon to help her anxiety, she will learn a lot of truths about herself and Jack.

I loved how the author handled anxiety and societal pressures in this book. The slow burn is quickly paid off and I loved the dynamic between Jack and Lizzy. This book is a quick, easy page turner that will warm your heart.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5. Cute story! I loved Lizzy and Jack together. I loved the Korean culture woven in.

For me, the pacing was slow to get going but once it was going it was a sweet & spicy read.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read an advance copy.

This was a really sweet friends to lovers romance. I loved the whole small town aspect! When Lizzie decides that she needs a break from her lawyer career she goes on a spontaneous 3 week trip to Wheldon where her best friend, Park, lives. I love how she finds a bookstore in the small town that needs help and decides to fix it up. It was a book lovers dream! One thing that I really liked was how Park has been pining for Lizzie since he was ten years old. I love how much her cares for her and goes along with all her shenanigans. I swooned at all the times that Park thinks Lizzie is cute. Awwwww!

Read if you like:
3rd person dual POVs
Friends to lovers
Small town romance
Bookstore renovation
Open door romance

thank you to netgallery for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

this was such a cute and lighthearted read. it felt like a hug.
lizzy is an aspiring lawyer who, after a breakdown, decides to take a break in a small town in california where coincidentally, her childhood best friend, jack works.
although jack has spent years convincing himself that his relationship with lizzy is strictly platonic, her return has sparked feelings again.
this book is filled with passion and cute moments that made me smile like an idiot.

however, the characters were also extremely stubborn and suffered in miscommunication.
this will be published on july 26th, 2022

This book follows a lawyer named Lizzy who needs a break. She ends up visiting her best friend Jack who works in his family’s brewery. The story follows the two of the as they navigate work and relationships.

This book was cute in concept, but I felt the connection wasn’t completely there. I wanted more from the characters. If you like friends to lovers, you may find this story enjoyable.

Booked on a Feeling is a really cute, fun romance book. I didn't realize until I was midway through that it's the third in a series, but it works well as a stand alone book. But now I must read the first two! Lizzy is a workaholic lawyer, and her best friend Jack lives four hours away, but the sparks fly between them. Lizzy and Jack are both Korean-American, and there are a lot of good descriptions of food and family. The series reminds me of Jasmine Guillory's books, in that each book is about a loosely connected character from the earlier books. It's a fairly formulaic romance, and makes comments about that in the book, and like Jasmine Guillory's books, it's really well written and keeps you sucked into the characters' lives, even though you know up front they'll end up together.

This is your classic friends-to-lover romance. Lizzy is having a come to Jesus moment. she doesn't want to be a lawyer. she is suffering from anxiety when working at her law firm in New York and enough is enough. She's taking some time off so she can figure out what she wants to do.

Jack has been in love with Lizzy since he's known her. He has a brilliant idea to take things further but now Lizzy is in town for three whole wee.

This was a cute and spicy friend to a lover - I was really into the journey of these two and the clear misunderstanding waiting to happen
I enjoyed the culture embedded into the storyline

Booked on a Feeling is Jayci Lee’s newest romantic comedy. Lizzy Chung is a 30-year-old overachieving lawyer who is conflict-averse and has serious anxiety issues. She is five years into her seven-year partner-track at a Los Angeles law firm and is serving as the Lead Counsel in a trial for the first time. After having an anxiety attack while delivering her Opening Statement, Lizzy questions if she is really cut out to be an attorney. She decides to take three weeks off and visit her hometown and lifelong best friend, Jack Park, to decide what she wants out of life.

Jack Park is a 30-year-old mathematician who works as a bookkeeper at his family’s microbrewery in small-town Weldon, California. He has been secretly in love with Lizzy since they were 10 years old and is plotting to move to LA to be closer to Lizzy. When Lizzy decides that the Weldon bookstore needs a little revamp, Jack helps her bring it back to life. They finally both admit that they have romantic feelings for each other.

I did not enjoy this book because I didn’t find any humor in it. Neither Lizzy nor Jack acted like 30-year-olds; their thoughts and behaviors were more like teen-agers. Lizzy’s anxiety issues were mentioned often, so this story was more realistic fiction than comedy. If Lizzy was ill-suited as a trial attorney, there were other types of law that she could practice instead of leaving law altogether. Financially it didn’t make sense for her to buy a bookstore in LA.

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

This book had all the makings of being a wonderful read, but it fell short with major disappointments. I was immediately drawn into Lizzie's story. She felt realistic and relatable as a main character overworked during the long weeks leading up to a big trial. The writing was engaging and the details of lawyer-life were accurate and realistic, and I loved the overall premise. I also loved her the short moments we got to see of her relationships with her colleagues (I wish we had gotten even more from her relationships with her colleague, Ashley) and her boss - it's nice to see a male boss written to be a pretty good person, and I appreciated it!

Where this felt like a miss for me was the development of the love story in Weldon. When Lizzie found herself in Weldon, it was as though on her quest toward reconnecting with herself, she literally regressed from being that mature and capable woman to ... getting WAY too excited over checklists and llama notebooks? No thank you...

I wanted to fall in love with her and Jack's relationship, but it never quite clicked into place for me. Jack, at times, felt like he had a little bit of the stereotypical male "learned helplessness" (I.e. wanting to help in the kitchen but "just being unable to"!) that turned me off. Together, Lizzie and Jack's budding romance felt more like two eighteen-year-olds falling in love (that closed-door romance 70% in absolutely broke my HEART! They're 30 - we can handle some steam!), rather than a "second-chance-romance-friends-to-lovers" trope show. Which really encapsulates the last issue that I had with the read: it felt as though it was written (a little too blatantly obviously) for the quintessential quirky bookish girl. It didn't give me that organic feeling of familiarity, but rather like it was a little too forced.

I wanted to love this read, but it just fell short for me in so many ways. A swing and a miss...

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee. This is a contemporary romance, friends to lovers book that is absolutely adorable. I really feel in love with the characters in this book while the main characters found themselves.

Unfortunately I ended up DNF at 40%. It took two weeks to get to this point in the book. I really wanted to like it, the cover is adorable, but it just didn’t do it for me, Thank you for the opportunity for the eArc.

✰ ✰

💐 friends to lovers

“she promised herself not to buy any more books until she put a dent in her to-be-read pile.” — lol felt that !!! 😫

sadly dnf at 32%, which was a shocker to me because i never do that but i really couldn’t! this was just not my thing, the plot seemed to lack a lot and nothing really happened at all (given that i did stop pretty early on but literally NOTHING happened) , it was kind of all over the place in my opinion.

the main characters were also just very immature considering the fact that they’re 30 years old, didn’t connect with them.

i did however like the modern & relatable feel of it and the korean representation! also the book cover is so cute ✨

thank you to netgalley and st. martin’s press for the arc!

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee is the third book in the Sweet Mess series but can be read as a standalone. I was also given the audiobook arc of this book. This was a cute friends to lovers book with some good pining and a great addition to the Sweet Mess series.

Lizzy Chung and Jack Park have been long time best friends. But Jack has been pining for his friend for a long time. Both are also feeling unsatisfied with their careers. Jack works in Wheldon, CA as the business manger at his family’s brewery ( though he calls himself the book keeper). He decides to starts applying for jobs in LA. LA is where Lizzy is, being a high powered/overworked attorney. That’s really close to making partner. After a big win in a case leaves her unsatisfied she decides to take a vacation to think some things over. Her vacation is in Wheldon where she gets to spend time with her best friend. Spending this time together brings out feeling Lizzy didn’t know she had. They spend even more time together than they thought when Lizzy gets involve in helping a Indy bookstore make changes to help business. See bookstores are Lizzy’s safe haven. And she ropes Jack in helping her. While they get closer and closer will their new plans for their career paths destroy any chance and them getting their happy ever after.

This was a cute and enjoyable friends to lovers romance. The pining Jack did for Lizzy was probably one of my favorite parts. Also like what Jayci Lee did with both being unsatisfied in their current work and both needed to find new paths. Most books I read only had one character doing that but I like this twist. The book element was something I loved. As an avid romance reader I just found that part easy to connect with and relate to. Also love how important the bookstore was to the story. Listened to the audiobook and enjoyed Cindy Kay’s narration. Her voice was very scathing. Also loved seeing the characters from the past books in the series.

Overall rating for this book from me is 4 stars.

Thank you Net Galley, St. Martins Press and Dreamscape for the arcs for this book.

"Booked on a Feeling" is a fun, romantic read with likable characters. The romance (longtime old friends finding themselves attracted to each other) is believable, with realistic obstacles. And the food culture in the book made me want to rush out and try some new ethnic restaurants; I was suddenly conscious of how I've been stuck in a rut.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me a read an ARC. I really enjoyed this book!

Sometimes a little more time with the girl of your dreams is really all it takes to push you closer together. When Jack and Lizzy find their ways back together for this friendship after Lizzy heads back home, feelings start to grow more than either of them really anticipated.

Get ready to laugh at some of the things Jayci Lee gives you in this book because it’s a little piece of an inside look on life.

I much preferred the first novel in this series, The Dating Dare, over this one. I adored that one's unique family brewery setting and unexpected situation for falling in love. While I absolutely loved the descriptions of yummy Korean food and the portrayal of burnout, Booked on a Feeling fell short for me in quite a few ways. I noticed that a few of the plot points felt underdeveloped or unnecessary, like their morning runs, Lizzy's body insecurities or her love of the romance genre. This one is a personal "ick" for me (i.e., it may have been a hit with other readers), but karaoke scenes always make me feel uncomfortable -- and this one went all out on the cringe factor. This book was a very played-out childhood-friends-to-lovers plot, and I was left feeling like I wanted more unpredictability and excitement out of it.

I think I’m just not a fan of friends to lovers, but even if I loved that trope this book would have still felt just as jilted and awkward. The characters interactions were all SO awkward, and not in a cute and quirky tongue tied way. More like a “dear god please make it stop” way.

I found this story really hard to get hooked into. I almost marked it DNF, but decided to keep going in case it got any better. I found the beginning of the book boring and even when Lizzie went to Weldon and started talking to Jack in person, I didn’t find their chemistry to be all that exciting. For those of you wondering about the sex scenes in the book, don’t expect much from them in this one. They were limited and kind of faded to black (not telling us much). Maybe I didn’t like this story as much because I’m not a big fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, so if you do like that trope you can give it a try, but I wouldn’t expect the best story of your life.