I'm usually interested in a book with a surprise baby trope, but I DNF'd because I had trouble with the setup and the writing style didn't work for me.

Thanks to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this so much!!! While dealing with grief and their animosity towards each other, Colby and Rip have to step up as parents together. I loved the plot of this so much and their connection was blazing off the page. I thought the author did a great job balancing the serious tone while also creating an addicting romance and a comedic dynamic with the children. I adored the family aspect, it had me tear up multiple times. Really special romance I can’t recommend this one enough!

Overall I really enjoyed this book. However (like many others) I didn’t like the way Rip talked to Colby especially after he had gave into his feelings.

DNFed at 61%.

I was really excited about this one! I love a surprise baby trope, whether it's a hidden pregnancy or life throwing the worst at characters who have to scramble to pick up the pieces, and I liked the sound of childhood rivals to lovers learning to co-parent and deal with loss while balancing an uber-organized type A personality and a chaotic free spirit. Rip and Colby had the potential to be grumpy/sunshine excellence, but nearly every aspect of this book ended up falling short.

I liked the kids and Colby was fine, but Rip is charting for one of my least favorite male leads of all time. I love a good grump who is an actual grump, but Rip was just cruel to Colby and I didn't feel that the writing properly scaffolded this as a shitty expression of grief that would be remedied in a way that furthered the romantic plot; instead, it came off as vile and misogynistic, and the switch-up of Rip staying home and Colby getting his office didn't hit at all as a proper comeuppance. If he didn't have the secondary POV, I would have expected Banks to be the actual love interest. I might have preferred it that way, actually.

The writing was also unfortunately lackluster and I felt a lack of tension that kept me invested in the relationships. At 61%, I didn't feel any true will-they-won't-they, even with double secondary love interests in the mix (though on Rip's side, I felt that plot thread was dropped and forgotten). I might be somewhat biased toward slow burns, but especially considering this is a grumpy/sunshine second chance rivals to lovers, they got too close too fast. I also felt Colby forgave Rip way too quick. Simply not enough groveling, considering all this man has put her through. For all the history featured in this book between the high school bully gunning for Rip, their childhood relationship, their failure of a second date, and the couple that united them, very little of it came to the surface and added the weight that would have kept me hooked. Perhaps with a bit less of those moving pieces, this book might have stuck the landing for me?

Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book at all, but thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There’s no denying how gut wrenching this story is. But it’s also just as comforting. A bittersweet reminder that it’s okay to grieve by being happy. (Something I needed to be reminded of myself.) I started getting emotional during the prologue, and that was before we even knew what was going on! Colby is a free spirit, and Rip is…well, her opposite. In every way. He has routines, and rules, and expectations. And unfortunately, that created a wall between them. A wall that neither of them were really very fond of. When life throws them both a curveball, they have no choice but to work around that wall. Before they figure out that they need to just tear it down. I fought tears every time Rip talked down to Colby. Especially when it came to his expectations as she grieved and figured out this new life. Before even 50%, there were so many emotions jam packed into this! A roller coaster that we were all on, and struggling together! When Rip had his light bulb moment, and everything fell into place, it felt like we could all breathe again. I got those 80% jitters…and then got to 90% and was like “hot damn!” Oopsie! It was so easy to fall in love with Ben and Viera. My momma heart just wanted to hold and protect them. Laughing through the pain was helpful for all of us! Thank goodness for those kids! (And Colby’s sense of humor!) I 100% understood why Colby’s ovaries went in a frenzy watching Rip with the kids; mine were doing the same exact thing! I can’t write this review without mentioning how much I enjoyed Banks! Colby and Rip (and me!) would have been so worse off without him.

This is one of those books that you shouldn't judge by the cover. The cover makes me think of a rom-com, and although this is in many ways, the overall storyline is pretty heavy.

Colby and Rip lose their best friends/Rip's sister and find themselves co-guardians to their two children. Colby is a bit flighty and flies by the seat of her pants while Rip is the structured control freak, so co-parenting is a struggle from the get-go.

This book gave me whiplash in more ways than one. I laughed quite a bit during the first half of the story, but I almost felt bad about it because the storyline itself was so sad. And there was a lot of back and forth between scenes that would have me laughing and scenes that made me almost tear up. Then, there was Colby and Rip. Their love/hate relationship had me feeling like I was riding a yo-yo at times. And I must admit that I feel like a hypocrite, because I'm a fan of bully romance, but I was not a fan of Rip for much of this book. He's a bit of a jerk (and not in the hot and brooding way), and I found myself struggling to understand Colby's feelings for him.

This is a fairly quick read. As a mom, I really did enjoy laughing at some of the parenting fails depicted in this story, because well...been there, done that! LOL. Overall, The Godparent Trap had me laughing, made me angry, made me sad, but I just felt like my emotions went back and forth a bit too much. I was unable to form a true connection with these characters. I liked this story, but I just didn't love it.

Funny!!!!Great book. I enjoyed Reading it. The characters and plot were interesting life like and easy to connect with.

This was really cute! I'm not that familiar with Rachel Van Dyken, but I really enjoyed this and will read more of her books going forward.

An interesting book inspired by/in homage to The Parent Trap. Captures the feeling of the movie but with a modern setting and older characters.

I absolutely adored The Godparent Trap. Colby and Rip are polar opposites and sworn enemies, the only catch is they're secretly in love with each other. Awful circumstances have them sharing a house and playing family with their niece and nephew, now they have to learn to how get along and keep two kids alive. There is so much packed in this book and I loved every second. It's full of grief, but it's also full of love. The depiction of raising kids had me cackling until there were tears in my eyes, the banter between Colby and Rip was hilarious, but also total fire. Yes, the way this family came to be is tragic and heart shattering, it was also beautiful watching them learn and not give up. Even though it's a heavy subject, there is a lot of humor to help break it up and lighten the story. This was a great read that will definitely hurt your heart on one page and make you laugh on the other.

Some of my favorite type of books to read is enemies to lovers or in this case, frenemies to lovers. After tragedy strikes, Rip and Colby's lives have been turned upside down. The two must come together in order to raise the kids their best friends left behind when they passed away. Both Colby and Rip love Ben and Viera fiercely, however they can't get their act together when it comes to each other. I couldn't wait to ge to the part of this book when they actually got their act together! There was seriously not once part of this book that I didn't love. There were moments when I wanted to cry and many moments where I was laughing out loud. Overall I loved the book!

This story pulled right at my heart strings and reminded me so much of the movie “Life as we know it” which I loved!!!
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This was such a heartbreakingly sweet story that just really wrecked me. As a parent, one of my biggest fears is something happening to my husband and I, leaving my children without their parents. In this story, Colby and Rip are forced into parenthood after losing their sister/best friends in an accident. Colby and Rip literally despise each other, but must learn to coexist and make the kids new “normal” as easy as possible.
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I loved that this book is told in both Colby and Rip’s POV. I loved the way this enemies to lovers story unfolded. Seeing the two of them begin to realize that there just may be some hidden feelings there really made the story that much more sweet. Banks was another character that I absolutely loved. His wit and cockiness really added to the story and left me laughing out loud many times.
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This book had some incredibly heartbreaking moments, but this story discussed grief in such a beautiful, raw, and vulnerable way.
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Thank you so much to @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. Sorry it took so long 😉

When I started reading this I really thought Rip was the worlds biggest jerk. But the more I read, the more Rip unraveled and the more I learned about him. The way he cares about Vera and Ben. The way he loves Colby. I love the way they balance each other out and we really get a full picture as to how they became Rip and Colby. I want Banks to have his own book. He seems like he would be a really fun character. This book is messy, real and made me cry. I love Rip and Colby. I adore the Ben and Vera. I love how Vera tells Colby she's looking at Ben like a cookie.

I had a really hard time with this book. Honestly, I'm still not sure what to rate it overall. I think a 3? I wanted to love it, I was very excited for the trope and it felt like it could be a fresh take on a romance book. Unfortunately, I wasn't in love with the characters. Obviously there was going to be some sort of grief and tragedy but it felt like it went a bit too far with how Rip was acting. I do think it was very believable but I don't think it was believable for Colby to connect with that as much as she appeared to. This is definitely a heavy heavy book so care should be taken when beginning. I had to start and stop multiple times, although I'm not sure if that was the content or just how it was written. However, I loved the epilogue and the interactions with the kids! Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for this ARC!

It's been almost two year since I read this book and realized I never wrote a review for it. But the crazy part is, I read the blurb and immediately remember this story and even certain scenes between Colby and Rip.

This was a great opposites attract story. Colby is very easy-going, sort of rolls with things while Rip is very rigid and likes things in order. It was blast watching these two navigate a new world for them both.

Colby and Rip had their differences in the past but knew they had to put that all aside for the two kids that are now responsible for. The banter between Colby and Rip had me laughing out loud and just showed how things progressed between them as the story moved along.

The pacing of this story was perfect. It was joy watching these two learn and grow in many different ways and Rachel did a great job of showing the many layers to them both.

Definitely a great read!

The Godparent Trap is pretty amazing. I Loved Colby and Rip. They are Frenemies but end up falling in love. This book beautifully describes how opposites attract and how they fall in love.

I Would Highly Recommend it to all Readers.

Let me start this review by saying that I am a little confused about the proper rating I should give to the book, so I am going with 4 stars.

I did not like the beginning of the book. I am used to the author using a scene we have will read about in the second half of the book as an opener, but in this case I feel like the context was needed because when I started reading the book, I thought that Rip was the abusive partner the heroine has before she meets the hero. When I read the scene in the place it was intended to be, it was cuter and more endearing.
Rip is a very strict person and he doesn't like coloring outside of the lines, which is something Colby loves doing. He wants simplicity, she is chaos. So they are opposites and yet somehow they made it work. They went from two people who were forced to work together and didn't want to, to becoming a team that was like one person. Neither character was someone I could relate to since I fall somewhere in the middle, but I liked both of them. It took me a little bit longer to warm up to rip, but he was a great uncle and later a good partner to Colby. Colby was a good heroine and the only thing I didn't like about her character is how much she thought that Rip's best friend was hot and date-able. It was almost like a love triangle and for a while I thought that Brooks was going to end up being the hero of the novel.

Colby dating and lusting over another dude was not needed and in my opinion, it took time and space that could have been used to expand and explain/ give resolution to everything that went down in the last ~20% of the book. Colby's high school nemesis was mentioned a lot and I thought that something bigger was going to happen with her, but it didn't. Compared to the rest of the book, the last 20% went by too fast and a lot of things were included there, so I do believe that there was a slight pacing issue.

However, I fished the book with a smile on my face and warm feelings so I can't really hold on on the bad stuff, hence the 4 star rating. I hope brooks will get a story as well since he was a very good (and apparently very hot) dude.

It wasn’t my favorite RVD book but it was still an enjoyable read and I recommend it for anyone who loves RVD.

I did not expect to enjoy this so much! It's giving romance movie but ten time better. The kids in this book? Sold me! 10/10. The ending was perfection butterflies and every heart warming emotion to exsist.

I do not feel bad for ending this book 26% in. A man saying that it's easy to stay at home, take care of a toddler and work.

Bye. This is "Life as we know it" but she's the "mess" and he's the put together guy.