Mein Leseerlebnis

Der Klappentext hörte sich faszinierend an, auch weil ich zuvor noch keine “transplant romance“ gelesen hatte. Nach dem Lesen muss ich festhalten, dass nicht alles im Buch für mich perfekt funktioniert hat, ich das Lesen des Romans aber auch nicht bereue.

Jules fand ich sympathisch und interessant. Sie zeigte eine große Stärke und es war faszinierend mehr über ihr Leben mit einer lebensgefährlichen Krankheit zu lernen.

Tom war mir in den ersten Kapiteln äußerst unsympathisch, ganz erholt habe ich mich im Verlauf der Romans von diesem ersten Eindruck nicht. Was natürlich folgen für die Liebesbeziehung bzw. meiner Freude daran hatte.

Zwei Start-Ups als Dreh- und Angelpunkt der Geschichte zu haben, hörte sich vor dem Lesen spannend an. Details dazu fand ich allerdings eher langweilig. Es hat sich nicht als Thema herausgestellt, dass mich über ein ganzes Buch hinweg faszinieren kann. Im Gegenteil, ich fand es leider schnell etwas nervig.

Richtig aufgeregt habe ich mich beim Lesen immer dann, wenn Jules Familie auftauchte. Diese war Jules Leiden gegenüber absolut gleichgültig und kalt, das hat mich betroffen gemacht. Ich habe nicht verstanden, warum sie noch mit ihnen Kontakt hatte und ich die Familienmitgliedern als Leserin mehrmals ertragen musste.

Glücklicherweise gab es im Buch auch Passagen, die mich gut unterhalten konnten. Ich muss aber leider sagen, dass meine Emotionen beim Lesen nur bedingt involviert waren und mich auch der Transplantationsaspekt der Geschichte weniger fasziniert hat, als erwartet. 🖤🖤3/4

Für wen?

Schaut in eine Leseprobe rein, findet ihr die Charaktere in dieser und den Krankheits-/Transplantationsaspekt interessant, dann könnte sich das Lesen des Romans für euch lohnen.

Jules has spent her life trying to get out from underneath her families thumb. She's not like them. They are shallow and selfish and, honestly, pretty horrible. Jules is also battling a very rare and awful disease called PSC. Her only chance at survival at this point is a live donor. In the midst of just trying to survive, she is also the CEO of a start up company and she shares an office space with Tom and his company. They immediately start off on the wrong foot when she overhears him bashing her company. They're absolute enemies...until they aren't. Until Tom shows up with her favorite food at her apartment one night. Until they start to realize that maybe it's not the anger towards each other that makes them feel this....but rather it's just THEM. Jules hides her disease from everyone, until one night she can't, and everything comes out. On her death bed, she finally has a live donor come through to save her life. But life after transplant isn't what she thought it would be. Can Jules navigate learning her new life and love?

I loved this book so so so much. I learned so much about a disease I never even heard of, and immediately did a deep dive on the author, who is alive today because of her own hero: her live donor. I had so many tears reading this book. I felt so deeply connected to Jules and I just wanted to reach through my kindle and hug her so tight. This book was beautiful and sweet and taught me so much. Everyone should go pick this gem up!

Free on KU! Happy reading!

An absolutely delightful read!

Going to this ARC (Kinda blind), I never thought it would impact me this much. This book made me happy, emotional, laugh out loud and think.

This had all the interesting tropes, office romance, nemesis to friends to lovers, a great secondary characters, fantastic characterisation, made family, realistic issues, cute pet names for each other, tiny adorable moments and self discovery.

Everyone must give this a try, I would say Unlikely Match is a ‘Wakeup’ kinda book. Sometimes you need those books to wake you up from the slumber you’re in, where it wake you up to the unconditional love your family has for you, to the care your siblings and friends give you, to the unwavering support your partner offers you.
One of the things most of us take granted is our health… till we get ill. The heroine Jules was one fiercest warrior like the hero Tom calls her. She was strong, brave and never lost hope. I was rooting for her from the beginning. There was many many Heart melting moments in the book.
Hero Tom was my absolute favourite! Ugh…. How I love that man. If I could, I would adopt him in a heartbeat. Even though he is stoic, cold and closed he had this child like innocence to him throughout the story.
He was smitten with the heroine from the beginning. Loved how he worked to become for the better version of himself.
I just have one tiny complaint, I wish Jules was little more open and receptive to Tom.
The medical aspect didn’t overshadow the romance like I feared.
This was Tom and Jules story and they completely owned it.
Epilogue was perfect.
Recommended.

After that Author's note, it was impossible for me to rate this book any less than 5 stars, guys. I was just 22% into reading it and by then, I experienced so many emotions. This book definitely made me cry because it was beautiful, raw, with great friendships, some strangers being angels but it also was real, heartbreaking, painful and tragic. While it showcased that there is good left in the world, we cannot ignored the fact that there's bad too. Sometimes mere strangers show you more compassion and understanding when your own family can't. I am at a loss of words and I'm feeling kind of numb after finishing this story but at the same time so happy with the ending because it was just very wholesome! I absolutely loved the kind of relationship that developed between Tom & Jules. Initially, I admit that it was kind of hard for me to feel the chemistry between them but the things that transpired in the second half definitely had me feeling all kinds of butterflies! Overall, it was a really great plot and most importantly the struggles that people with a serious illness go through was portrayed in such a realistic way that got me (a person who doesn't like to show her emotions) teary eyed. That should tell you just how real and heartfelt this book was! And yes, kudos to the authors for writing about a topic that is so personal to her.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the ARC

“I guess that’s the ironic thing about facing death— there’s no better crash course in learning how to live.” Unlikely Match by Laura Bradbury

📚REVIEW📚

Jules is the sassy, no nonsense CEO of a startup travel guide, her company has been given the opportunity to share free space for a year with Tom's company. On first meeting they really get off on the wrong foot but something about Tom's chauvinist attitude sets fuel to Jules and breathes new life into her already deteriorating body. You see Jules suffers from a very rare disease PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis) and in order for her to buy more time she needs a liver transplant and with the way things are going for her, she needs one as soon as possible.

This story stems from the authors' own personal experience. This was such an interesting read from the medical impact, their respective backgrounds and the love interest angle.

Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Huge thanks to the author @laurabradburywriter
and @netgalley for the ARC.

Fantastic! Amazing! Beautiful! These are the words I would use to describe this adorable, realistic transplant romance. The way Laura Bradbury instantly pulls you into Jules and Tom's world and will not let you go is magnificent. When you decide to start reading this make sure you have a block of time (and tissues), because you are not going to want to put it down. There is so much I loved, but I can't share, because it will spoil the journey. I will recommend this book to all my friends and family who love romances.

Thank you to Laura Bradbury and NetGalley for the digital ARC of Unlikely Match in exchange for my honest review.

This book was everything I didn’t know I needed, I finished it in one sitting. I went in a bit hesitant; unsure of how all the aspects of Jules health, her new start-up business (and it’s grumpy competition) and romance would all come together. Watching the main characters on their roller coaster ride while laughing… and also tearing up sometimes was amazing.. While trying to launch her business Jules is fighting and trying to hide her illness while dealing with the company of “tech-bros” sharing their space and competing against them for an investment. Somewhere along the lines bickering and competing turns to something else. Jules and Tom were most definitely the definition of opposites attract. Jules the who encompasses sunshine and Tom the clinical type. The author using her personal experiences for this book Helped Jules feel very real; all the good, bad and downright ugly moments someone from the outside doesn’t always see. If you’re looking for a book that is funny, pulls at the heart strings and with a strong FMC this is it.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher, and Laura Bradbury for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect with a donor romance / workplace romance, but this totally set the bar for any I read going forward. I loved the tension between Jules and Tom, even when deciding to just be friends. I love the side characters. I love the story. It's not just a romance, it's so much more, and that is what makes this book worth reading.

Get a good night’s sleep before starting this book. When you start, you are not going to want to put it down. Loved this book. It captivates you from the beginning. You fall in love with the characters and will be cheering for them all through the book.
Jules and Tom are both fighting for their lives but while Jules is actually fighting to stay alive Tom is fighting to succeed with his company. They are total opposites and their backgrounds might be different but when they get to know each other they begin to realize they have more in common than they think. Eventually they figure out that they cannot fight their attraction. Both of them have secrets they are hiding. Will things change when they are revealed? Will they get their happily ever after or will it be too much for both of them?
The chemistry and interactions between Jules and Tom were superb. The author did a remarkable job explaining Jules’ illness, the procedures and the emotions the patient goes through. You really felt all the feelings that were involved. From laughing out loud to crying like a baby, from putting your fist in the air saying "Nooooo!" to clapping and jumping up and down for joy. Join Jules and Tom on their journey of learning new things about themselves and seeing how a big challenge in their lives will change them for the better.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing my to read this book for my honest opinion.

4.5 ⭐️
1🌶

T R O P E S
- Own voice
- Work place romance
- Opposite Attract
- Enemies to lovers
- PSC rep
- Swoony MMC
- Found Family
- Diversity rep.

** All CW are included at the beginning of the book. However, here are some of the CW: medical trauma, PTSD, parental abandonment and foster care system.

T H O U G H T S
WOW WOW WOW WOW
I devoured this book in less than a day! I was hooked right from the start. It's so much more than just a love story. You can feel the personal touch from the author in every word found in this book. You can how Jules is feeling is based on personal experience and that why it makes this book so much more precious. I don't know many books that can make you cry and feel helpless 25% in.

This was such a sweet, swoony story about healing with a small touch of romance. Once you start to read this book, you'll want to know more. You'll want to know what happens with Jules. It's been so eye-opening on PSC. I loved all the small things about the characters that makes them who they are... except for the Kellys !

I swear, you will enjoy this book!

It was a roller coaster of feelings, I laughed, had fun and cried with this book to the point of talking nonstop about it
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This is the first Laura Bradbury book I've read and I really enjoyed it. It was very informative about organ transplant, especially living donors and the life of a person with a degenerative disease. I learned so much as I watched these two cute characters go from hating each other to friendship and to more possibilities
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Jules is in the final stages of her illness, PSC, trying to keep up with work and the medical check-ups. With little hope of finding an organ donor, she finds new energy on a feud with the CEO of the competing company with whom she must share office space.
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Arguing with Tom gives her a sense of normalcy she thought lost and a spark to go on. But sharing spaces and getting to know each other little by little, this enmity makes a truce and grows into something more.
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I love the way they both developed their feelings and how they manage to find their own way through everything in they way. Her friends and the people she finds on her way make this book so heartwarming and hopeful that I kept me marking several pages
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This is a slow burn, Enemies to lovers in a same workplace between two ceo's who are competing for a special investment opportunity
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Thanks to Laura Bradbury and Grape Books for give me this beautiful book in exchange for my honest opinion

If you liked the hating game you'll love this book! Jules Kelly and Tom Davenport are the main characters in this beautiful story. They absolutely despise each other from the moment they make eye contact for the first time. Tom has created this version of Jules that she is lazy and doesn't work hard for the things she wants but we know Jules' reasoning for not being at work giving her effort 100% of the time. Jules is struggling to get the transplant she needs and the only motivation she has to get out of bed is to challenge Tom while working in the same space he is. After some time Tom actually isn't that bad on the eyes and he's actually really really sweet. This story was so cute and pulled at my heartstrings so much. I thoroughly enjoyed it even with all the tears it brought me. Definitely check this out when it comes out May 26, 2022! I will be going to get a physical copy at my local bookstore!!
Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🌸 Book Review 🌸

Do book covers ever convince you that you need to read a book? I could ✨feel✨ the enemies-to-lovers rage/vibe on the cover of this novel and knew immediately (even before reading the premise) that I had to put myself on the roster on @netgalley to get an ARC of this book!

A story about love, illness, and transplants, UNLIKELY MATCH follows Juliette “Jules” Kelly — she is the CEO of a startup company that she formed with her best friend, and their company has just won subsidized office space from one of the coolest co-working spaces downtown. However, she must share that space with another company, and Tom, the CEO of that company, has proven himself to be an asshat. On top of having to deal with Tom, Jules later finds out that their two companies have to duke it out and compete against each other to win a sizable dollar prize from an anonymous angel investor. Jules is ready for the competition; however, her rare and serious disease has other plans for her body. Will her disease complicate matters at work for Jules? Will her growing relationship with Tom also complicate work more?

I really, really enjoyed this story — @laurabradburywriter did a wonderful job telling Jules’s story. This story did not at any point feel like a tragedy vacuum, but a retelling of Jules’s full life, her day-to-day life as someone who struggles with a serious illness, but isn’t defined by that illness alone. Her struggles are grounded and specific, and similarly, her small joys and feelings of life and optimism are also specific and real. Reading this book was eye-opening, in regards to what happens for those who need transplants and what they go through after getting a transplant.

Also, on a less serious but not less important note — Jules’s relationship with Tom was FIRE. SO GOOD, even I want some magical pierogies now 😂😂

UNLIKELY MATCH will be released tomorrow, May 26! Grab your copy tomorrow and give it a read! Also, congratulations @laurabradburywriter for writing a great story!

PS swipe to see author’s note of encouragement to those struggling with illness 💛

QOTD: Have you ever had surgery?
My A: Yes! I had my tonsils/adenoids out and oral surgery as a kid!
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A few months ago I read Laura Bradbury's Oxford Wild on KU and loved it, so when I saw Unlikely Match on NetGalley I had to snag it!
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This is a workplace romance where two completely opposite CEOS are forced to share an office while at the same time competing for a financial gift that would launch their businesses. While they started as enemies that QUICKLY turned into a friendship and then into so much more. While I guessed where the story was going, I still loved reading it play out.
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Chronic illnesses suck. Plain and simple. I really appreciated a MC that struggled with one being represented in what felt like a respectable and accurate way! I've never had liver disease so I can't completely speak for accuracy, but I feel like I've learned something from this! The book also tackles tough subjects like the foster system and parental favoritism.
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BLURB:
I’m Jules Kelly, a certified bohemian boss babe, whose hip tech company just won subsidized office space in the coolest co-working space in town. From a distance I seem poised to take over the world (or at least the travel industry), and I would be if it weren’t for two big complications:

1. A rare and seriously inconvenient disease is tanking my health by the day, and my only hope for a cure—a transplant—is moving further from my grasp.
2. A soulless database company is sharing my new office space, and its coldly gorgeous, judgmental, CEO is on a path to world dominance (at least in his mind).

Tom Davenport represents the very worst of bro culture in the start-up world. Naturally, we despise each other.

The thing is, as much as Tom's antagonism annoys me, he has an uncanny ability to conjure up my fighting spirit and vitality at a time when my illness is robbing me of both. I'm drawn to him in ways I can't (or would really rather not) understand.

A mysterious angel investor forces our companies to compete for a life-changing amount of money just when my relationship with Tom becomes infinitely more complicated. To make matters worse, things get cutthroat just as my time starts to run out.

Book received for free through NetGalley

I absolutely adored this book. I was caught by the first word and found it so hard to put down. It offered insight into the medical world, was based in a tech startup, and offered amazing characters. Thanks for the ride.

First I want to thank the author, Laura Bradbury, and her team for letting me read an ARC of this book through Netgalley.

I have never read a transplant romance before and I really enjoyed this. The characters, even the side characters, felt very nicely fleshed out and I appreciated how real their relationships felt. Her family felt a bit fantastical but just because their actions/reactions are outside the scope of my experience doesn’t mean it’s not real.

This book made me cry and giggle and smile and feel all the emotions. I liked the enemies to lovers-but they aren’t that straightforward-kind of situation and I loved the diversity, chronic illness rep, and conversations about PTSD/medical trauma/therapy.

I loved the connections and interactions with Brian as well.

Overall I really enjoyed this read and consumed it in just over a day.

An Unlikely Match by Laura Bradbury is an absolute gem! I loved this book so hard!!!!

Jules has a rare chronic illness, PSC, and she needs a liver transplant. I do not have PSC, my chronic illness is different. But I saw so many things about my struggles in this book. There were so many things that I said Yes! I know! Agreed! Chronic illness steals so many things. Friends disappear, you can't make plans, you have to save energy to do things. When people find out you are sick that's all they see. I feel so seen in these pages. This book is an absolute treasure!

I could talk forever and ever about this book. Jules is a woman CEO at a tech start up. When she meets Tom, the CEO of the other company in their co-working space, he is spouting tech bro misogynist garbage. Jules goes off on Tom and starts to feel a spark of life. And so begins their story.

To balance out the horror that is Jules' family, we get her found family. There are so many wonderful characters in this book, truly kind people. They bring so much love.

Also, pierogi!

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

First off thank you NetGalley and Laura for the ARC.
I really enjoyed h the is book. The enemies to lovers trope is one of my favourites and this did not disappoint.

Jules has a rare liver disease and is in need of a live donor. She isn’t having any luck, even her family won’t consider it. She keeps her illness secret from most of her coworkers, including Tom who is the CEO of the other startup company in her building. But when Jules and Tom spend the night together and she develops sepsis and ends up in hospital, the secret is out. Jules is so sick she needs a donor, like yesterday. Can she find one in time to save her life?

At first I was a bit unsure as the sound of a transplant romance seemed a bit strange but as I read I found I could not put this book down! The characters were likeable, Tom, after a rocky first impression, grew on me and by the end I really liked him! Everyone wants a best friend like Alan, and Jules herself was a hard working independent woman, which I love!

This book was a really enjoyable rom-com and I am now interested in reading more by this author.

Interesting read with a fairly heavy premise despite the cute cover and fluffy blurb. It took me a while to warm up to Jules and Tom. I know he was awful during their first meeting but I did not love how she deliberately picked fights with him. They eventually grew on me and I liked how the relationship progressed. Also enjoyed Jules and Alan’s friendship. 3 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Laura Bradbury for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A transplant romance. Jules Kelly was diagnosed with PSC (Primary sclerosing cholangitis) and she's in desperate need of a living-donor for her liver. She's also the CEO of a start-up tech company. Then there's Tom Davenport, the CEO of another start-up tech company. They got off on a rough start, but despite that Jules felt more alive than ever.

I'm sure you can tell already from the 5 stars, but I absolutely love this book! Enemies-to-lovers and workplace romance?! Sign me up! I was so immersed in my reading that I didn't even realise it was midnight already. Despite the heavy topics, I could not put the book down. I loved both the main characters, Jules and Tom. Jules is a total badass and one of the strongest people out there! Aside from the main characters, the side characters, especially Alan, are absolutely amazing. Except Jules' "family", of course. Props to the author, Laura Bradbury, for writing something so personal. You did an amazing job with this book! The portrayal of how people living with a serious disease is just so realistic, it left me in tears.

Overall, this is an amazing book that you need to read ASAP!