I had high hopes for this book, and I wasn’t disappointed! This book is a super cute friends to lovers rom-com that takes place in sunny California! Lizzy is a very type A attorney in Los Angeles, but, after she passes out during her opening statement of her first real trial, she realizes just how burned out she is. Enter Jack, her best friend of two decades who lives in small town Weldon. Lizzy decides to take a three week vacation, traveling to Weldon to get away from the city and surprise Jack. Jack is similarly unhappy with his quaint life helping run the family brewery. When Lizzy shows up unexpectedly, he has to try to hide the feelings he’s had for her for two decades.

Lizzy and Jack were SO cute! I loved how they described each other - Jack observing the girl he’d been in love with since he was a child, and Lizzy seeing Jack in a completely new light. This was an absolute delight to read. I will say that the ending seemed a little dramatic for what it was - if they had just expressed their emotions a little more it would have been fine, but then the book wouldn’t have been as exciting, haha. I really loved the way they came back together in the end though!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars all around! Romance, independent bookstores, finding your dream and purpose in life while falling in love, friends to lovers and a Doctor Who reference to boot? A perfect feel good rom-com. I loved how we got to go on a journey with Lizzy and Jack while keeping up with Tara and Seth & Aubrey and Landon from the previous books in the series. I fell in love with Waldon and it’s residents in The Dating Dare and have loved every book since. The closeness of the Park family, their partners and friends is amazing and I hope we get to read more about this world that Jayci Lee has created in the future!
*Thank you so much NetGalley, Jayci Lee and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I’ve rated this book 4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - rounded up here because the writing is so well done!

Booked on a Feeling is such a relatable story, a romance within self-discovery. Lizzy and Jack are both struggling with the decision to live a life that’s expected of them, rather than one they really want. Their relationship is written beautifully with natural banter and chemistry. The steam was great!

The plot may have been a little predictable, but in a good way. They were characters and relationships you wanted to root for, and I was happy to read how it played out for them. I also loved the significance of culture in this story, and the way it (and their families) were woven in the main characters’ lives. It felt very genuine and home-y.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Booked on a Feeling is a great representation of one of my favorite tropes-friends to lovers. I loved the relationship between Lizzy and Jack. They both had to figure out who they were individually in order to grow their happiness together. Both of them were unhappy in their current careers and have to figure what they want to change to feel complete.

This book was a light, sweet, easy read. The characters were adorable, and I love the bookstore setting in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ARC review
⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was a so cute! I love reading about a man obsessed. My only issue with the book was that I had a hard time believing that Jack and Lizzy had managed to go through 20 years of friendship without crossing the line. Jack was down so bad to the point where he said he was would die if their relationship didn’t work out. And although Lizzy didn’t express feeling the same way for the full 20 years of their friendship, it’s hard to believe she didn’t feel that way with how much she wanted to take their friendship to the next level almost immediately upon seeing him. I think this storyline could’ve worked better in the context of a historical romance because of how dramatic it was at times, but it was still super cute!

I also liked that neither character sacrificed their dreams and ambition for the sake of their relationship. They both did what they wanted and figured their lives out on their own, and we still got a happy ending.

Booked on a Feeling was such a fun read! We follow Lizzy who works as an attorney and he best friend Jack who turns into more than a best friend. Lizzy is overwhelmed with work and starts helping out in a bookstore on her break from work. It’s a great story of self reflection and finding your self while also having a great friends to lovers story line!

This was such a sweet book! It was a quick read and the romance was absolutely adorable!

Booked On A Feeling follows two POVs: Jack and Lizzy. Lizzy is an attorney living in LA who slowly realizes there’s more to her life than just the plan her mother set out for her. And Jack works at his parents’ brewery, wishing he had goals of his own, and pining helplessly for his best friend of twenty years.

I loved the diversity in this book! It took us through two vastly different Korean households and the characters were unapologetic in their culture.

The romance was really sweet, it had all the right Moments and both characters really understood each other. I felt it happened a bit too fast but that might be because one party was in love long before the book even started.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a super sweet book with no miscommunication trope and unnecessary conflict! If you like a lot of fluff this is definitely for you!

I thought this book was an overall great read! The title definitely is a keeper, as books are a great way to bring people closer together and fall in love (sigh). The plot itself was simple to follow and, honestly, very predictable, but sometimes you are just in the mood for a lighthearted read. Rather than having the suspense of what might happen, the reader is able to really focus on the characteristics of Lizzy and Jack, and can relate to their inner thoughts. Jayci Lee does a great job on illustrating what the pressures of a job can do to one's life, like pleasing a parent or consuming all your time and energy, and how that does not have to be your whole identity. There is more to life than work, but sometimes you have to take a risk and go after what you truly want. And along the way you might realize it is not about where you go or what you do, but who you are with.

This book was really lovely and heartfelt. Do you love books? Do you love food? Do you love love? This book is for you. We're all looking to find ourselves so find yourself in this book for a few hours

I had to keep going back to this book over and over and push through.

Unfortunately it felt like a chore to keep going. The characters weren’t memorable and I had to read the summary to refresh my memory even on what I read.

Read if you like…
-Friends to lovers
-Dual POV
-Books about books and bookstores
-Following your dream *cue TANGLED music*

“...finding the right book kind of feels like that. Once you read that book, a whole new world will open up for you. You’ll take these incredible journeys through your imagination and find limitless possibilities with every new book. It only takes that one right nook to change everything.”

Lizzy is a big city lawyer, with her life planned out for her, thanks to her mother. Jack, a small-town bookkeeper for his family business, is anxious to find his own path in life. After a panic attack, Lizzy thinks it’s time for a getaway to unwind and escape the big city. There is no other place than Weldon, her best friend Jack’s hometown. Jack has been in love with Lizzy for as long as he can remember, but he could never risk their friendship by telling Lizzy how he feels. They’re spending three weeks together sprucing up a local bookstore, and their lives might be about to change.

Booked on a Feeling, was a fun, flirty read. I have so much love for our two main characters, I don’t even know where to begin. Lizzy’s love of small bookstores and checklists made me instantly want to be her best friend. And let’s not forget how she sometimes dreams up these big romantic scenarios from books, willing them to happen in real life…we’ve all done that right? Jack’s love for his family and the fact that he’s such a selfless and supportive friend to Lizzy earns him so many points in my book. Their 20 year friendship…goals! I loved the realness of the characters, seeming to have it all together on the outside but inside they're dealing with insecurities, anxiety, and finding a purpose in life. This is something so many of us can relate to and I feel like Jayci did a wonderful job growing these characters throughout the book.

This book was the perfect childhood friends to lovers! I loved the multicultural aspect involved and how the book was not only a romance, but also involved the main characters finding themselves separately and together. The third person point of view was done splendidly, allowing readers an insight into all aspects of the book. I would read this book again in a heartbeat. It's perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey!

Fun, light-hearted read. Just was I was expecting based on the description! It followed the formula well.

This is a Hallmark movie in book form. It is cute and sweet and cringey and everything that is wrong with romance. Books like these set unreal expectations about crushes. Things kind of things do not happen in real life. I understand that you have to suspend reality in books but this is not a fantasy. It talks about very serious mental health situations (panic attacks) like they are not as debilitating as they can be. Like they are just a thing that people can get over with ‘positive thinking’ and finding true love. It could be better but really expectations were already low because these authors never do better.

[Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me this Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review!]

Honestly, after reading the first few chapters of Booked on A Feeling, it was looking like a two star read. I felt disconnected from the character of Lizzy, and I wasn't enjoying reading about her life. However, after reading deeper into Jack's life, I had planned on raising it to a three star. I loved Jack's character and his struggles with feeling like he wasn't needed in his current situation really hit close to home. At the end, I'm rating this novel a four star read thanks to the steaminess between Jack and Lizzy and the fantastic descriptions of Korean food. The passion between the hero and the heroine was off the charts, and the inclusion of the Korean culture was amazing.

3 stars

I came for the books, I stayed for the books.

Overall a great read! I loved how vocab like “TBR” was incoorperated into the story because only avid readers would understand and that made the story more interesting and more relatable. It started off great, but in the middle after the MC and love interest fell in love, it fell a bit flat for me. Personally I don’t prefer the friends to lovers trope, but I decided to make an exception for this book because of the mentions of a bookstore in the description. I could definitely relate to the main character, Lizzy, because my parents are on the stricter side. I could relate to the love interest, Jack, as well because honestly I have no idea what to do with my life. Let me just point out that I believe that not all romance books should end with a happy, pregnant, married main character, but I loved how Lizzy delivered the news to Jack and that was just way too smart. I liked this book and would read another from the author!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 - 3.5
Such a cute story! I loved the friendship between Lizzy and Jack, but I was worried that it was going to be ruined once they started dating, but it wasn’t! I loved/related to her love for books, and it was so cute to see them work together toward her dream and not even realize it. This book is the perfect read for the summer!

This was really cute and I’m a sucker for a book about book lovers, but it leans VERY heavily on miscommunication as a trope. Like, that’s the entire conflict. So, it lost points with me for that. But as far as a story about coming to terms with your family’s dreams for you not being your dreams, this is a good one.

This is a review in exchange for a NetGalley ARC.

This slow-moving friends-to-lovers romantic comedy unfortunately was not for me. From the outset, I struggled to identify or feel anything for the FMC. I'm not certain if this stemmed from a disjointed feeling I had having read the title, "Booked on a Feeling," to being thrown into the day-to-day life of an up-and-coming female trial lawyer. I found the time it took to explain Lizzy's dispassion for her chosen career to when she realized her true passion could lie elsewhere was much too long. While this level of detail could be what hooks other readers, unfortunately, it was not for me.

I had such high hopes going into this book - I mean a book with so many bookish things in it had an immediate appeal to me! I overall thought this was a cute story that I wish could have given a little more depth and background to these characters that had so much potential that wasn't fully realized for me.

ARC kindly provided in exchange for my honest review.