Member Reviews
Ohh I loved this book! Darby is a dating expert whose book is hitting bestsellers and changing the lives of millions of women. The only problem? Her love life soon goes from awesome to dumped on national TV. Her reputation and career are ruined and her books are not selling anymore. How is she going to get out of this and get her life on track? Did I mention her attorney is super tall and handsome?
The narration of the book is spectacular and it kept me hooked throughout the book. Darby is a sweet and sensitive girl but she seems a bit of a pushover to me. I could relate to her a lot. The book is full of drama and twist-and-turns. It also has a lot of TV drama and glamor.
Overall, the book is beautiful.
I DNF this book at 57% and that's after trying to read through for a month.. The pacing was very slow. It's marketed as a romantic comedy, but at 57% I was just barely beginning to see the smallest inkling of romance potential. More than half of the book primarily revolves around her horrible ex. I think there was too much back story presented before the plot from the synopsis finally began, and the idea of an ex step mom filing for custody of her former step kids is pretty far fetched. I did enjoy the quote, "Take a walk, take a breather, get a pedicure, get a grip" and may add it to a list of mantras. Overall, I think Women's Fiction would have been a better genre to classify this book under. This wasn't giving me the heartwarming laugh-out-loud moments I anticipate in rom coms.
A slow burn romance with a strong female character? Perfect. The fact that she finds out she is getting a divorce on live television? Even better, because it meant that she definitely had to be even stronger. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
OMG, loved the book. Normally a book this length would take me a few days to read. I read this in one day. Darby and Will have been married for three years, while raising her step-children. Whom Darby have loved and adored. While Darby was on a book tour with her new book about dating advice, she ended up getting some bad news on the show Today, where she ended up passing out. As I said I really enjoyed this book.
I am thankful that Netgalley gave me this chance to read the ARC, for an honest review.
Darby is down on her luck. she discovers that her husband is filing for a divorce on national TV.
The story line follows Darby as she tries to pick up the pieces of her life and career. Drama, paparazzi, and hot lawyer.
I love how the book first deals with Darby's comeback and then introduces Holt's feelings. Emotional and engaging read. Recommended.
15 Minutes of Shame is a cute story of a woman scorn rising above and finding her way back from a cheating husband and a ruined career. I feel like this is more of a women’s fiction book rather than romance, the real romance isn’t until the last 10% of the book or so but still a great story. Darby is a strong yet somewhat neurotic lead looking to come back from a failed marriage that she only found out about while being interviewed on national television. That’s not great press for a dating expert! With her life in ruins, she turns to her best friends (Tia is my spirit animal) to help her figure out I where to go from from here. They set her on a path towards a new future, attorney, new publicist, new living arrangements. Of course not all is smooth sailing. Trying to gain custody of your ex’s kids, turning your career around and trying not to fall for your hunky attorney make everything a bit harder. This book was a very easy read. Darcy could be a bit too much at times, her obsession over getting custody of the kids was a bit overboard. Yes, as a mom, I understand the attachment and love but at the end of the day, they weren’t her kids. I absolutely loved her friends, they added the comfort, support and comic relief the story needed. I wish that they would have gone into more detail about Holt, yea we know he is good looking, abs for days and all but we only get a bit of information about him, mostly being an attorney and then they are not and heavy right at the end. It felt a bit sudden. Would I recommend? Yes, it’s a great easy weekend read
I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good
Darby is a relationship expert...UNTIL she gets dumped on LIVE television by her husband. He is now back with his EX-Wife AGAIN. Can you believe this?!
This is a very fast paced straight to the point kind of book and that's okay. I do feel like I needed more from Darby and Holt. To be fair, I think Darby fell kind of flat to me because in the scenes where she was talking to Holt- I feel like Holt gave me so much more. She kind of fades into the background and the chemistry isn't there. It doesn't make me believe in this like "instalove." I did love darby and her girlfriends.. I loved that sisterhood and how they did whatever they could to help her. That's the type of friendships every one should have.
Overall, I enjoyed the book enough that I binged it in a few hours! lol
For some reason, this book reminds of another one which didn't make me want to continue reading. DNF.
*********I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley ******
♥ Slow Burn
♥ Strong Heroine
The writing was engaging and appealing. I was hooked straight away. I really enjoyed the little flyers and tips at the end of each chapter.
It wasn’t heavy on the romance. But I still enjoyed reading the other things going on. Darby was a lovable heroine and I wanted to see her win. I also liked her friendship group. Holt was very sweet and endearing.
It was a slow burn which I didn’t mind but when the romance aspect did come it seemed too quick as there hadn’t been much to indicate that level of intensity in their feelings.
I still enjoyed it as it was a quick and enjoyable read.
I am giving this read four stars - not because it is daring fiction or a new type of chick-lit, but simply because it was a fun read. I read the whole thing in one go and enjoyed the silliness of it. It was a fun little escape from reality. Were there feminist issues, and unexplained plot points? Yes. Did I care? No - because this is exactly what you want from a beach read.
The characters were flat, but not overly problematic.
There were some nice women supporting women friendship.
An interesting plot point about Step-parent rights and custody wasn't fleshed out as much as it could be, but the book was short and sweet.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC - this is an unbiased review
I wanted to love this book so much, and I hate that I didn’t because the concept really stood out to me.
While it had a few cute moments, and moments I found funny it (all of which were due to her friends) it took me quite a while to peak my interest. Maybe about 40 ish percent in?
It barely had any focus on Darby and Holt’s relationship, we don’t really get any interactions between the two of them until about 60% in and even after that mark, it’s still very minimal. I honestly think we got more information on Darby’s outfits than we got on their relationship. There wasn’t really any opportunities to connect with their characters, or their romance.
I learned more about Darby’s fake dates than I did Holt. Truthfully the only thing I felt we learned about Holt was why he got into law and that he’s hot and southern.
The voice in this book is phenomenal. .This is essentially everything that I want a rom com to be. It's fluffy, has enough conflict to make the story interesting but not enough to make it darker. From the start of the book it had me hooked! Darby is very likeable and relatable and I think a lot of readers will connect with her, as did I.
Thank you to NetGalley and Siesta Key for the copy of this book for my review. Darby was immediately such a likable and relatable character that I instantly felt connected to her. This contemporary romance was a quick light read that was thoroughly enjoyable the whole way thru. She is the book heroine we all root for, the girl we love to see come out on top, even if she has to go through a few struggles on the way up.
4/5 stars for 15 Minutes of Shame
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!
I, honestly, don't have much to say about this book. Normally, I love a book with a slow burn romance, but I think this was a little bit too slow for my taste. The book wasn't bad by any means, it was kind of just meh for me. I can see why others might love it and the characters, but I just wasn't very interested.
Humorous and delightfully entertaining. I would have rated it higher, but my timing was off. I downloaded this copy back in March, when I was in a rom-com mood. By the time I remembered I finally picked it up from my library, my attention had long shifted into another genre. Had I read this earlier, I would have had more fun with it.
There’s a lot of brief summarizing and listing out Darby’s actions of events instead of going into details (it feels like a lot of “first, then, next, last” format) so I felt like I couldn’t actually connect to the story. I would have liked see the details pertaining to the story more developed rather than minute details of Darby’s appearance. It was too much telling, not showing (even with her love for the kids).
I didn’t really know about anyone’s character except for maybe Darby, and there was barely any interaction with Holt until about 60% of the way in. There was no buildup in their relationship and the next thing I know, after a handful of very brief interactions, they’re talking about loving each other and being meant for each other. There were many times when I wanted to DNF. Although the synopsis was interesting, the plot throughout the book felt flat and there was no development regarding both plot and characterization. I really couldn’t get into the book at all.
hey am not being petty or anything i mean i get it Holt is fictional but damn i loved him from the very start.This book its just meant to be .The story everything that happened all the regret i had for doubting when i started this book it went well ..well put together .Much thanks to the author and her team
eARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this book, but it was exceptionally hard to get into. Though there were some funny lines that I highlighted as I was reading, other moments felt like the author didn’t spend much time doing research to describe settings or experiences well. There were also several moments that felt like it was still in it’s rough draft stages due to all the errors, but the book was published in February, so that’s disappointing. I think some people might appreciate this quick read, but it wasn’t for me.
I enjoyed reading this so much, but mainly because of how relatable the main character, Darby was. Reading 15 Minutes felt like I was reading letters from my best friend. Lisa Daily did an excellent job of keeping the tone light and humorous while driving the plot forward. I feel like a lot of rom-coms struggle with this, but it was so well executed in this case. I was hooked from the first page all the way through to the last. Can't recommend this one enough.