As someone who has lived in Denver for 17 years, I saw this title on netgalley and I had to read it!

I thought this was very good! I can’t relate to the divorce part so much, but I did find the story itself relatable. It was actually quite deep and realistic and I fell for the characters.



I will say, I hate the term “beer bar”😂 but that is a small complaint.

The writing was real and honest and the characters are ones that I instantly fell in love with. Andi is such a sting character. The read was quick but wonderful. I’m sad I finished this book.

What a fun read! I love a story that makes it easy to love the characters from page 1. The characters and relationships felt realistic. I appreciated the story line of James overcoming his jaded nature due to past relationship trauma. The friendship between Andi and Sloane is heartwarming. It wasn’t unrealistic and made it more enjoyable to read.

I really enjoyed this book. Watching Andi take control of her life again after a divorce leaves her single and unemployed was a true journey to enjoy. I do have to caution however that the craft beer scene is a very heavily dominant theme, not just a side story. I think if you go into the book knowing that and having a certain amount of understanding of terms will definitely help you to enjoy it!

If you are a craft beer person, your teams have come true - this is a romance every woman in the beer industry will appreciate. The boys club is very real there. Andi starts off the book as a baddass, strong, brewery owning married woman. She slowly dissolves into... a weaker version of herself.

Andi is scrappy, and that is what I love about her. She has a moment where she considers giving up but with the help of her mom and friend, she rises like a phoenix.

I feel like this book was SO close to being a really good novel, but could have used one more revision. Andi seemed to evolve as a character in ways that didn't make sense, the romance was a bit forced, and the dialogue was rough in some spots. But the plot- so good!

I enjoyed this book and loved both Andi and Sloane. The book was not what I was expecting but I wasn't disappointed by the route that the author decided to take. However, although the book was easy to get through, I found it to be overly descriptive in some parts and the internal thoughts to me sometimes dragged on longer than I would have liked. This made certain parts of the book drag on for me and I found myself having to put the book down multiple times because it just never clicked whenever I read those parts.

This book handled the light and the heavy so well together. Getting a look inside the world of breweries was unique and interesting. This book celebrated love in all forms and showed what the real path to loving honestly can look like. Overall, it was a delightful read and I am excited to read more from this author!

This book was cute! I was drawn in by the premise and loved all the brewery talk throughout the book. I liked that Andi is able to start over in a male dominated field, but prove she belongs there. I liked the friendships she creates and how she gets a second chance at starting over.

I didn't realize this book came out last year, but I as glad to get a copy to read.
Thanks NetGalley!

Original Review Posted to Goodreads

So I normally really love romance books, and the boozy romance was something that drew me in. However, I don't think the writing style is for me; It was hard to read this all the way through, if I'm being honest. I understand it is a Boozy novel but the beer talk was just very boring for me and I really felt like it did not go anywhere. The eating disorder sub-storyline was a bit triggering but could be even more triggering for others because of the lack of research that went into that character. This book just felt a little unrealistic for me. If you are into EXCESSIVE beer talk and tough storylines, then this might be the book for you. I think if it were more realistic and relatable I could enjoy it more.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press Inc for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book starts off soooo low. This poor woman is bending over backwards to keep her bar growing and thriving. Having never owned a business or been cheated on. I couldn't imagine going through it all. Thankfulky, she has good support and they push her to follow her passion and get back out there. It was a fun read but at times it felt a little slow. James was always fun to read though.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, The Wild Rose Press, Inc and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I originally requested this one as I live in Denver I was hoping to connect to it. I didn’t. I found it okay, mildly entertaining overall enjoyable. Just not my cup of tea. Or pint of beer in this case.

Content warning: Sloane, a secondary character, has a severe eating disorder. She is hospitalized and goes into intensive treatment. As a secondary character, we don't delve deep into Sloane's struggles, and the author takes care of her. But if this is a difficult subject for you, please be gentle with yourself.

What Happens in Denver was such a great read. There are so many emotions throughout this book. It is definitely a rollercoaster. Andi is a woman in the male-dominated field of beer. Even if you don't know anything about beer, these themes resonate because we all feel this. She finally finds a place that accepts her brilliance! I think the sprinkles on top are the nuances about beer and food, they really make the story special.

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

While reading this book I had a insane desire to drink a beer! Beer is definitely the star in the book as it is the setting of the story. Andi has been screwed over by her Husband. She embarks on a new career path in a new town. She meets new people and James. Andi learns how to restart her life and open her heart again. I found some real giggle moments in this story! I enjoyed it for the most part. I did feel like the ending was kind of rushed to wrap up. I feel like a lot of the story was the beer business while it served a point... I personally think it took away from the story of Andi and James. All in all though I'd reccomend grabbing your favorite beer and giving this a read!

I wanted to love this book based on the synopsis but it was just not for me. The writing style was very chunky and was very let me tell you not show you. It was very surface level and you didn't really get to know the main characters. I wasn't invested in the romance and it felt almost instant love but didn't work. The beginning starts out with Andi talking about her body and how she didn't like it. The story continues to progress with her eating and shows a huge problem with eating disorders. I don't think it was handled in good taste. It wasn't realistic and I definitely feel like it could be offensive and triggering to readers.

Andi has just been screwed over by her husband. After an intervention, she heads to Denver, looking for another job, and gets more than she expected when she also gains a friend in Sloane, and also meets James. How will her new life pan out?
A great read

Thank you NetGalley, Liz Crowe and The Wild Rose Press, Inc for the copy of What Happens in Denver. This is my personal review.
Andi Rigby is one amazing woman! Her life fell completely apart, and she knew was going to fix it and be living the life she always saw for herself.
Her husband decided he was going to take everything form her and do it in such a way she never saw it coming.
I liked Andi and her drive for getting what she wanted but for me I just did feel the flow of the story that I was expecting.
It was an ok book to read.

Thank you for the free copy from the publisher through NetGally in exchange for my honest review!

First off 3.5 stars - I definitely recommend, especially for a quick read.

Andi Rigby had made her bar her life; pouring her blood sweat and tears (not to mention all of her time) into making it successful. Her and her husband Matt had built BWI from the ground up, it was her baby. Her hard work had finally paid off when BWI was recognized at the annual beer convention in Denver. Though through the congratulations she wasn't as happy as she should have been. After getting news through an employee in the middle of chaos at the bar her world was turned upside down. She was about to lose everything, her marriage, her bar, her life as she knew it. After finding out there was absolutely nothing she could do about it a depression sank in.

After wallowing in her own self pity her mother and her best friend Stella arranged for her to fly to Denver to attend an industry job fair. Hand out resumes and business cards and find a job, anywhere, anything to get out of this place, this rut.

Andi wasn't thrilled to go, but since it was already paid for she obliged. A chance encounter with a drunk stranger she felt the urge to protect, from a man that reminded her of Matt, landed her a new friend, a new job, and a new apartment, in a new state.

As she starts her new life and struggles with her own inner demons, she bonds with new people each having their own set of demons. Andi's life had been so routine before, but was now a roller coaster of ups and downs with a new much richer crowd, a handsome new love interest that she wants so desperately to avoid, and the new way too "perfect" friend she had inadvertently made.

Deep down under the romance it's a story of overcoming and growth; in everyone, not only the main character. That's what I enjoyed most: The characters where so real.

What Happens in Denver is my first read by author Liz Crowe. I love her characters. They are real people with real problems. Andi finds herself divorced by a cheating husband who she also ran a brewery with. Running the brewery was everything to her. She goes to Denver for a conference and not only finds a new job in the mainly male dominated industry that she loves but also a new friend and mentor who shares her passion. Cheers to second chances!!!

I definitely wanted to like this more than I did, but I really just thought it was pretty poorly written. This is mostly a romance, but doesn't invest enough time in the main characters for the reader to feel invested in them either. The setting inside breweries means there's a LOT of beer talk that just really is uninteresting and means nothing to me, but I didn't really hold that against the book (though I do think it's possible to integrate specialized topics more seamlessly so an unfamiliar reader can feel less like an outsider).

In terms of the writing, though, I had two big problems: a distance from the story and a really ignorant eating disorder storyline. I felt like this book often fell into a trap of telling rather than showing, meaning that events were being described from an odd distance rather than feeling like I was in them (through dialogue, for instance). The eating disorder storyline started out okay, in my opinion, but I think it developed in an entirely unrealistic direction that's very ignorant of how any of this stuff actually works. I don't know about eating disorders from personal experience, but I do know it's pretty ridiculous to think a woman who nearly starved herself to death would 1. be admitted to a hospital and not (have to) be administered a feeding tube, 2. apparently not receive any psychiatric treatment while in the hospital, and 3. willingly feed herself as soon as she's admitted to that hospital. I know this wasn't the main plot, but I do think it shows a lack of awareness or research done on a topic that's very real and could be potentially harmful/offensive to readers.

Overall, I felt like this was just a very clunky book with an uninspired central narrative and unfortunately equally distasteful B-plots. As a native Kentuckian, I was happy to see a KY author with a book with Louisville roots, but even those connections (both real and fictional) didn't provide any spark to this experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
4/5 stars
This book was not what I was expecting, there was a lot of angst and it was much denser than I thought it would be. I still enjoyed it, it just wasn't what I thought it would be. I enjoyed the lighter moments and loved the banter. Overall this was a great, emotional story and I really liked it.