Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. This book was very cute if not predictable. It was an easy read that gave you all the good feels. I felt the heroine was more likable than the hero but the story still works. Of course my favorite part are the bookstores. All opinions are my own.

This book is so freaking cute!! It's filled with warm happy feelings and the perfect read for any moment of the year!

The story follows lizzy a burnt out lawyer who takes 3 weeks off following a major panic attack and decides to spend some time with her best friend in his small town. Over these three weeks the two battle out the tension between them and enviably fail.

If you like friends to lovers with a bit of spice this is the perfect read for you!

I picked up Booked on a Feeling because I was in the mood for a sweet childhood-friends-to-lovers romance, and boy did this dual third person POV book not disappoint me. It contained some of my favorite minor tropes (girl boss/male wife; he falls first) and managed to hit the best aspects of the friends-to-lovers subgenre.

Booked on a Feeling takes readers into the lives of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Chung, a 30-year-old attorney in LA, and her best friend of 20 years, Jack Park, the accountant for his family’s small town brewery in their hometown of Weldon, CA. After Lizzy wins her first trial but finds no joy, she decides to take a vacation to return to Weldon for three weeks, staying in an apartment above the town’s indie bookstore. As they help the bookstore’s owner turn the space around, Lizzy and Jack must work through their muddled feelings about their professional futures and decide if the chemistry between them is worth risking their long standing friendship.

The characters are what move Booked on a Feeling forward, who I read as a lot of energy and thought going into. Both Lizzy and Jack had dumb moments that made me roll my eyes, but it was also those moments that made them feel like real humans. When they each contemplated their motivations for their professional lives and how their families’s influenced their outlooks, I had to step back as their thoughts were ones I’d had about my own life just months before. Side characters held less roundedness, but that is to be expected when they have less influence on the book overall. Aside from our mains, Shannon—Sparrow’s owner—shined. While we didn’t get to know a whole lot of background info about her, I enjoyed reading her interactions with Lizzy and Jack and how she subtly pushed them along.

As this is a romance novel, I’d be remiss not to discuss how well written Lizzy and Jack’s relationship is. When we start the novel, Jack has had a crush on Lizzy since they were ten, but she has him firmly in the friend zone. Once action picks up, I liked how Lizzy was hesitant to engage with him because she didn’t know how he felt about her while he didn’t want her to know how much he already loved her. Miscommunication comes up between them several times, but I actually didn’t mind it here? I guess it’s because I can see these situations happening in real life so miscommunication is not overblown. The ending look at where they’re at did seem a little too perfect to be only a year after the conclusion, though I’m willing to forgive this since the rest of the book made me smile so much.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶/🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 (One longer, detailed explicit scene; several smaller explicit comments and references)

**I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

DNF. Unfortunately, this was a book I started multiple times but could just not get into. I appreciate having the opportunity to read this book, it was just not a good fit for me as a reader. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my gifted review copy.

Unfortunately, this book just didn't work for me. The writing was boring and the conversations were stiff and awkward. I had no sense of why these characters even liked each other because there was very little background on their supposedly decades-long friendship. Character development was next to non-existent while for some reason the author would go on and on about the characters performing mundane tasks that had nothing to do with the plot at hand. Perhaps some of my struggle has to do with not reading the author's previous works, but I requested this book under the assumption that it was a standalone only to find out later that it was part of a series.

Summary:
Lizzy Chung is an overachieving lawyer whose whole life is planned out perfectly. She currently works for one of the most prestigious law firms in the nation and is working towards making partner. She thinks she has been living the life she has always wanted by following her dream. However, it takes a panic attack during a crucial moment of her career to realize she might need a break. Lizzy does what every rational human does. She packs up her stuff and moves to a small town called Weldon for the next three weeks. Weldon is where she used to spend her summers with her best friend Jack and is the perfect place to relax as she recovers from her severe case of burnout. Jack Park is Lizzy's best friend that works for his family's brewery in Weldon. Not only is he surprised to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but he's also very excited. Jack has been secretly in love with his best friend since they were kids, but he's never wanted to risk their friendship. Jack and Lizzy get to spend the next three weeks together as they work together to redesign a local bookstore. However, the more time they spend together, they realize that feelings deeper than friendship exist between the two of them.

Review:
I personally enjoyed this book a lot! It's the perfect friends-to-lovers rom-com and is a pretty fast read! It also had a charming bookish vibe that I found to be nice. I really enjoyed the characters in the book. Even though Lizzie seems like she might be uptight and pretentious since she works at a prestigious law firm (where those character traits are the norm), she is actually a very down-to-earth, funny character. She loves to make to-do lists where she can check off boxes and loves to read books in slightly hidden, cozy bookstores. I could ramble on about her all day, but I won't. Jack is also a great character because he's so adorable. Their chemistry with each other is so cute, and they both compliment each other so well. It does have a little bit of spice in the book. I would give it about 2 in terms of spice. It's more of a fluffy, slow-burn than a steamy type of book.
I'm giving this book four stars because it was slow in the beginning. However, when they started working in the bookstore together, it started to pick up and get a lot more interesting. It was just a little too slow for me initially, but it was still a really great book and totally worth the read.
Again, I really loved this book and definitely recommend it! You should read it when it comes out on July 26, 2022.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing this early digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

This is a friends to lovers romance set between Lizzy and Jack. They have been childhood friends and remained close despite Lizzy moving to LA to become a corporate lawyer and Jack staying home to help his family run their brewery. Their friendship is rekindled when Lizzy needs to take a break from the big city and stays for a few weeks near Jack. Sparks start to fly as they try to navigate the tricky waters of becoming more than friends while entangling themselves romantically.

Needless to say this was a sweet story of discovering who you really are and what you want to do with your life. They both discover it is never too late to change your mind and pursue a childhood dream or a childhood love. This is a book that will be very popular among Helen Hoang’s fans due to its ability to discuss hard hitting topics while also delving into Asian culture and the differences that can be present among children of immigrants. This is a book set inside of a bookstore, who wouldn’t love that?

ADORABLE AND LOVELY! The friends-to-lovers romance trope is so underrated!!! love it!! This book had me hooked from the beginning. The pining and angst was sooo good! I absolutely loved the characters and the story!

Tropes: Friends to lovers, second chance, boy falls first.

This book was sweet, easy to read, and it had the perfect amount of angst. The fact that the two main characters, Jack and Lizzy, go from friends to lovers while fixing up a bookstore together was adorable!! While the book centres on Jack and Lizzy’s romance, I really loved how the author tackled anxiety, self-doubt, and the uncertainty one experiences while switching careers.

Overall this book was cute, fluffy, and a delight to read! If you enjoy a good friends to lovers where the boy falls first, then this is the book for you! 3.5 stars.

This book started off really well. I was very interested considering I am in law school and I just love when the main character is a lawyer, and what better than one that also loves to read? The tone felt awkward at the beginning. I found it strange how quickly the admiration for Jack came about, as there was no like self-dialogue to realize her feelings in a meaningful way. I appreciate that Lizzy was assertive but the initial kiss felt weird. It was really random how all of the sudden they were BOTH just hot for each other. I know Jack had a crush but it just seemed rushed and I didn't know them enough to be rooting for them to be so in love so quickly. In the end, it was kind of boring and predictable. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an EPUB of this book in exchange for my honest review.

SPOLIER! But Lizzy really lived out my dream of owning a bookstore in the end. I think the book was really predictable because it mentions the bookstore for sale in the beginning and that Lizzy was not happy at her job. But even though I knew the ending I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun and fast read for people who appreciate working hard and crossing things off lists.

Unfortunately, I put this one down after a few pages. I couldn’t get into it.. i love a friends to lovers romance, but this one didn’t do it for me. I hope others find enjoyment in it though.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Such interesting book, I really enjoyed reading it.

this was a sweet, lighthearted & fluffy childhood-friends-to-lovers read with great food and a bookish smalltown vibe!

i was instantly drawn to this book because of the title and cover, and while overall it was an enjoyable read, i cant say i loved it as much as i expected to. it started off super slow, and i was confused and personally had no clue what was going on in the first chapters because of all the legal jargon. while this book had a lot of potential to be an amazing read, it fell flat for me. i found myself bored a lot during this book, and while it was cute, it wasnt very exciting. it was predictable, and didnt hold my interest.

This one was hard for me to get into, very predictable and dull. I was excited because I love this trope but in the end it didn’t hit the feels for me. Just an ok read

this was just meh. the writing was a little cringy to me and i couldn't get invested in the romance. maybe it was due to the lack of connection i felt towards the characters. it really jumped right into the story without much development. i will say that it was quite cute at times and i would recommend it to someone who just wants a quick read.

This book was super fun and adorable! I would recommend this book to others, especially for a fun summer read. I was afraid that the book would be cliche, but I was happily wrong about this. This is a unique and quirky friends-to-lovers romance without being over the top.

This book follows Lizzy and Jack, who have been best friends for the past 20 years. Lizzy is an attorney at a large LA law firm climbing the corporate ladder, while Jack lives in a small town and runs the family brewery with his brother and sister. Burnt out and struggling with anxiety attacks, Lizzy decides to spend some time in Weldon to relax and reset. Jack is struggling to feel useful in his family business. He longs for a more challenging career, and is secretly harboring feelings for Lizzy. Both Lizzie and Jack must find their own paths to feeling fulfilled, while also juggling feelings for each other that may change their friendship forever.

Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author did a fantastic job of making this story fresh and new within the romance genre. I loved the characters and the writing of this book. Highly recommend!

Sweet, heartwarming, and absolutely adorable.

I don't tend to give romance books many 5 star ratings, because as we all know, they tend to follow the same formulas so it can be difficult for them to stand out from the rest, but there is something about this book that I just absolutely loved. The author played into some of the romance stereotypical tropes in such an endearing, self-aware way that I found it so hard not to enjoy.

Jack and Lizzy are such charming characters in a friend to lovers romance that just melted my cold little heart. When I read any book during the week after work, I am always looking for something to decompress with and eliminate the stress of the day, and this was exactly what I needed this week, and is ironic, as that is exactly what Lizzy is looking for with her "vacation".

Booked on a Feeling had lovely characters, a compelling friends to lovers romance, trying to meet parental or life expectations, self discovery, and even a character working with trying to understand her struggle with anxiety and what causes it. I really just enjoyed this so much and I highly recommend taking a look!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to NetGalley and the always reliable St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Booked on a Feeling has an expected publish date of July 26th, and I definitely plan on picking up a physical copy!

So, the best word I can come up with to describe this book is "meh."

I held a lot of hope going into this book. From the synopsis it had some of my favorite tropes including friends to lovers and when the guy falls first. I've been on a real romance kick lately and I thought this would be perfect. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations due to several issues.

The first thing is that overall, the writing was cringeworthy. Lizzy wasn't so bad, but Jack was something else. He was too sappy for me, especially in the first half of the book. There was a lot of repetition of his overwhelming love that he had for Lizzy which was twenty years in the making. His perspective was mostly him mooning over Lizzy or worrying about his job. It just made him very unlikeable and made the relationship as a whole too mushy for me.

The second thing is that I really don't understand how or why the relationship developed now of all times. The book starts with Jack already in love with Lizzy, and as mentioned had been for a ridiculously long time. But, Lizzy was not yet. As it started to unravel in the book I just didn't understand why Lizzy's feelings suddenly changed and to be honest it seemed more like a change in lust than anything else. It made the relationship seem forced and inauthentic which was a let down.

Lastly, I think the writer created some interesting side characters that I would have loved to seen more of. They felt more like fillers that were pushed to the side and just there to show that Lizzy and Jack weren't the only two people in the town. But, I would have much rather seen more development of Jack and Lizzy through their interactions with some of these other characters, especially Jack's family. I think it was a missed opportunity for the author.

Overall, while I was incredibly excited to read this, particularly for its inclusion of a book obsessed main character, I was left feeling disappointed and pushed myself to even finish it. Here's to better luck on the next romance!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. While I liked the premise of the book, I found while reading that it was mainly poorly written sexual tension. I could've done without it. Love is about far more than just being attracted to someone. I didn't connect to either main character and while at times it's okay to just jump into the story, in this case, I needed more background. I wanted to see more about their friendship dynamic not just how they wanted to sleep with each other. I ended up stopping at 70% because I couldn't get behind the characters or story in general.