Thank you NetGalley and Lisa S. Gayle for letting me read this book.
A romantic and peppy version of The Hunger Games+ Instant unexplainable chemistry= Binge worthy book you can finish in less than a day!!!
I've got to say that although Instant Chemistry is not my type, I did enjoy this book a lot. Smart, funny and beautiful- Amity has it all. Mountain man, sleek, and slightly rugged, Easton ends up a million dollars richer than before with a Fiancé to brag about! I recommend this book to those facing a book slump.

First time reading this author, and a fairly straightforward enemies-to-lovers story that was a breezy read.
The thing I really appreciated in this story was the use of the reality show setting and how that crimped the "simple conversation" response to why the two protagonists were withholding information from each other. I mean, obfuscation is the name of the game in these settings after all!
Also appreciated the FMC being a smart & strong competitor & how she just carried on while the others misjudged her. Go, girl!

ok... I tried to get through this book. really, I did. However, I found the characters immature and the book as a whole was moving too slowly. conversations went from hot to cold too fast, and the back and forth gave me whiplash. the only saving grace of this book was the setting of the cascades. I love the cascades. that was the best part.

Story
1 Plot, 1.5 chili pepper

Amity and Easton star in this enemies-to-lovers survival reality T.V. show competition.

Pros
I'm not really sure. Bria was pretty cool. Amity had her moments as well. She could be spunky and spirited at times.

Cons
Where to begin? I didn't really care for any part of this book. The characters and story played into every basic male/female stereotype into the dating world from the commitment-phobe guy, to the girl who gets mad but won't tell you why. It was eye-roll inducing and unimaginative.

While Amity could be spunky and spirited, she was also dramatic and dishonest. Easton was a nonstop pendulum of mood swings, ranging from emotionally unavailable to not being able to live without her, and back again. I do not think this irritating behavior was counteracted by his occasional acts of sweetness. Too little, too late.

Amity & Easton's entire relationship could be summarized as a roller coaster along a miscommunication track. It was awful, completely shallow and superficial, and constantly in a dramatic flux. They did not communicate at all, or really get to know each other before they were suddenly, madly, desperately in love with one another. I have genuinely no idea why this couple even liked each other. I don't think they did either, other than the sexual chemistry the author kept insisting existed, but never really landed. They didn't know anything about each other and they had zero emotional connection. I was not invested in their relationship at all. Definitely a couple that breaks up after the epilogue.

The writing was often times cringey and tried to hard to be cool by incorporating (dated) slang. And for the love of god, "his privates" and "his personals" should NEVER be used as descriptors in a spicy scene!

Conclusion
Would I recommend this book? No, absolutely not.

<i>"Dealing with Easton was like swinging on a pendulum. His actions never really made sense with his words. Why did he save her if he didn't truly believe she could help him win?"</i>

Crush in the Cascades is a romance set in the Cascades of Oregon. Written like a game show we follow Amity and Easton and their task of taking out the one million dollar prize money. Both MC start off on the wrong foot, then have a back and forth relationship before the end.

The beginning part of the read was okay. It was mostly believable, except for a few moments like Easton wanting to get Amity naked within a few pages of the book starting. Once we hit towards the middle and we met more of the contestants and enjoyed a little more backstory, it became more enjoyable.

It was light and cheerful most of the read and we did get some character growth towards the end. There was a tiny bit of spice added in too, if that is something that you enjoy but it wasn't there to progress the story. If you're after a quick one day read and love romances that give a happily ever after then this would be great read for you.

Take a romantic adventure by picking up this book! It was a slow start, but towards the end I could not put it down. This is the first romcom I have read that felt distinctly unique. I can’t wait for the series to continue!

im sorry but i had to dnf this book. i didn’t want to since it was an arc, but i really wasn’t enjoying myself whatsoever while reading this. since i can’t abstain from rating this on NetGalley, im going to give it two stars since i feel like that’s the rating i would have given it had i finished this— it didn’t deserve three stars since my usual three star reads are enjoyable and i would recommend others to read.

this book, im sorry to say, i don’t recommend. and the hero, Easton, is why.

from the get-go, Easton rubbed me the wrong way. his stereotyping and casual misogyny were eye-roll inducing. he was incredibly snooty and judgmental, and it was immediately off-putting. he’s constantly annoyed by her attitude but all he did was insult her.

if i was Amity, he’d be getting way more than just a bad attitude.

so the beginning of their enemies to lovers arc wasn’t intense and juicy. it was just irritating and kinda sad. i felt really bad for Amity bcos Easton was just so uncalled for. she didn’t do a damn thing to warrant his rudeness that publicly embarrassed her, other than just being a bit of a girly girl. you’d think she had murdered Easton’s dog with the way he acted towards her, when in actuality she was oblivious to his existence before he’d purposefully targeted her. at lease that Miles guy fully acknowledged he was a jerk. i can respect you a whole lot more when you own up to your behaviour— Easton had faux-good-guy schtick i just couldn’t vibe with.

versus “the tough girl” Bria🙄 the fact he called her that was so obnoxious. the stereotyping got worse and worse and by the first 10% it was already unbearable. it just seemed to play into putting different types of femininity against one another and i really didn’t like that sentiment.

ultimately, bcos of how awfully everyone treated Amity, this book was just me rooting so hard for her to prove everyone else wrong. i truly wasn’t rooting for the romance in the slightest. i was honestly dreading that i still had 70% left to read... so knew i had to bow out even if this was an arc and part of me felt inclined to finish it.

***edited a few hours later: i felt guilty for dnfing this, so i skimmed the rest of the book and then read the last few chapters. and my original sentiments still stand— Easton was still treating Amity awfully and it was pretty horrible to read honestly. the fact he claims to be in love with her but is still so callously rude is beyond staggering. so i don’t feel as guilty for dnfing this now.

thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book. If you’re a fan of light hearted romance, then this is the book for you. We have our grumpy action man paired up with a supposed spoilt rich girl, thrown together on a reality tv programme. The cameras follow their every move, including hilarious challenges they have to face. The book hooked me straight in. I felt a small lull mid way through, but stick with it!
Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend . A video review will also be posted to: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLpTsfWs/

This book is told in alternating points of view between Amity and Cooper, two reality show contestants in an amazing race style competition show with a romantic element.

I liked Amity but didn’t really care for the chapters written from Cooper’s POV. Phrases like “man card” and “because she was a woman she was still thinking about…” really turned me off. I can’t stand the use of outdated gendered throwaway phrases like this in writing. Besides that, it was a fun fast-paced read. A little cheesy at times because of the love/timeline but the competition element was a lot of fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for making this book available for early review!

3.5/5 Stars

Easton Cooper is a mountain trail guide competing in an action-adventure reality show for the chance at a million-dollar prize that could save his best friend’s life. The last person he wants to be paired with is a Hollywood princess who doesn’t even know what flint is.

This was a quick and fund read. I enjoyed the challenges and the different characters competing. I thought it was a little too insta-love. Even so, I was all in until about halfway through the book. Then I felt like someone else was writing it. Some of the descriptions felt awkward and the sex scenes felt a little cringy. I think the general premise was a great idea and I really wanted to love it. I’m looking forward to seeing how the second book in the series turns out.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this ARC and the opportunity to review it.

This was a cute, enjoyable read! I liked the contrasting yet complementary personalities between Easton and Amity, and I liked the buildup of their relationship. This was also the first "reality tv" plot I've read about in a romance book, so I was very interested in the concept and how it was written out. It was a very fun and entertaining book to read!

Having recently read a book with the "high-mantience girl vs rugged boy" trope, this one just fell really short in comparison. I don't like how Amity is portrayed, or the relationship between the two. I thought I'd really like the idea of a game show esque setting. I figured it would be really fast paced, and funny but I just didn't get that from this book.
The writing was easy to follow, and it was a very lighthearted book which I enjoyed but overall it just fell short for me.
I could defintely see others reading, and really enjoying this but alas, it wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pre-reading:
Seems like standard smooth brain fare.

Thick of it:
Bestie, you're the one using the cooler. If you don’t want it, don’t use it. Oh, everything’s a brand name drop. Okay then. I read Alec Baldwin. This book has super awkward phrasing. Not just harm in general? We are on page 21, and he already wants her naked. She just cut her hair off. Honey, you’re not Mulan. This man is instantly in love with her just because she’s wearing some dry-fit T-shirt. Is she describing spidery arms as an attractive thing? What? I feel like she’s not using riveting correctly. Isn’t running in new shoes bad for you or something? Would you really call a Christmas tree a floral scent? “Bulge in his zipper compartment pants” I honestly can’t tell if she’s trolling. I don’t like her calling it personals. This man is a raging misogynist. She did not just say mad skills. Every comment this man makes is disparaging women. This book is not good, but it is entertaining. I think it would drift into solid two star territory if this man wasn’t so awful, but I just cannot buy him as a viable romantic interest when he’s this awful to women. Amity deserves better. “Of course, being a woman” I gasped. This book is hateful. Why do they call this man a people person? He actively hates people. Have these people showered once? He’s described as having octopus arms, and we’re supposed to be attracted to him? I’m confused. Clits aren’t really soft or inside. Poor typo or is she genuinely confused about personals? No one’s fainting over this. No one in romance books ever knows how to communicate, oh my lord. Yeah, wait a minute, how does he still have a goatee? None of them are shaving. All the girls should have like hairy legs and armpits. Also, how does he wear contacts in the wilderness and then he dives underwater and had to open his eyes? Can you do that with contacts? Wouldn’t they be all gross and filthy? What about like dust behind the contacts? Do Olympics people compete in contacts or do they have like extreme sports glasses? Google says they all get Lasik. An orangutan is not what pops into my head to compare people to. Yeah, I don’t buy them getting together. They both could’ve had 1 million dollars. Maybe like 10K you could let it go but 1 million. Also, I like how a 1 million dollar medical procedure is completely plausible. Fucking America. Oh yeah, she wears lipgloss she must be loaded. What the fuck is this book? This guy is so rude. Oh, she’s not rich so now he doesn’t have to feel guilty about not wanting to give her nice things. 0/10. That’s how it ends what the hell? I feel like it’s hard to live interchangeably at a Homestead because like don’t you have cows and stuff to take care of?

Post-reading:
This book annoys me. Reading about the competition was genuinely interesting. It’s a decent concept of an extreme survivalist reality show romance. The smut is bad. Easton is incredibly unlikable. He’s a misogynistic asshole. Hard to come back from that if it’s supposed to be a romance book. By no means is this book good, but I would’ve given this two stars if they had different inner monologuing for Easton. I feel like it needs a heavy, heavy edit.

Who should read this:
Easy read romance lovers

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson

Crush in the Cascades is a cute, mostly open door romance based in (you guessed it) the Cascades in Oregon where a new reality action-adventure TV show is busy pushing contestants to their limits in the great outdoors. Will the contestants win it all? Or give it all up for love?

While I definitely enjoyed the story overall there were a few things that left me wanting a bit more.

Let's start with what I loved:
1. A unique story that was a little bit The Amazing Race meets Survivor. I've never read a book that centered around a reality TV show. It was a fun plot that kept me engaged.
2. I actually really enjoyed the main Characters: Amity and Connor. They had personality and I enjoyed getting to know them better. I did have a few issues with Cooper (see below) but I felt like those issues were anomalies and not his actual persona.
3. The challenges they encountered through the show were a lot of fun. I wished I was actually watching them unfold on TV.

Things I didn't love:
1. The attraction between Connor and Amity felt a little too forced/intense at the beginning. It really didn't make sense to me to go from "Yeah, she's attractive, but I can't stand her" to ... the woodcutting challenge. I feel like that scene would make more sense after some forced proximity relationship building instead of the way it actually came to fruition.
2. The sex was a bit cringy for me. For me it would have been better with some fade to black and call it good.
3. Some of the plot fillers or the devices to move the plot forward felt too forced. I felt like I mostly understood Cooper but his bizarre efeelings and erratic actions toward Amity hindered the plot. It was just awkward to read those.

I feel like a bit more editing might find a way to smooth out these edges and make it an even more enjoyable read.

OVERALL I liked it.

Crush in the Cascades was a cutesy romcom adventure that follows Easton Cooper and Amity Rose as they battle through a reality TV show amidst other contestants for a cash prize of $1 million. The reality show constantly changes its rules and throws out skills and challenges that keep the contestants guessing. Amity and Easton start off at odds and have a back-and-forth relationship that is almost Enemies to Lovers in its delivery while popping in with the miscommunication trope.

The book is a very light, happy read that brings in a breathtaking backdrop of the candidates competing along the PCT. If you're looking for an easy RomCom with a hint of spice for a summer read, this will make a great addition to your TBR.

I received this story as an E-ARC courtesy of NetGalley and BooksGoSocial and am sharing my thanks for allowing me to read an early copy.

I absolutely loved this read. The cover sucks you in and the concept of the story keeps you there.
5* read !!

Thank you to NetGalley for access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

Being a PNW native and a bit of a reality TV junkie (particularly of MTV's The Challenge, which this gave me vibes of), I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. I would have liked there to be a bit more main character background early in the book so that the reader understood their motives even if the other characters didn't. There was also a bit too much giggling from Amity - it didn't align with the scrappy character she was set up as.

That being said, the author did a good job of describing the environment the book was set in. And it was an entertaining enough read that I will likely ready the second book in the series when it releases.

While I'm not a very big fan of books written in third person POV, I found myself quite drawn to not only the cover of this book but also the plot description. Going into it, I thought it was going to remind me quite a lot of the bachelor, the amazing race, and of ‘the charm offensive’ by Alison Cochrun, and it did, in the best possible way. I think the cover is very well designed as it’s a cover type that is super popular and well liked among most at this point in time, so points for that(I love it and I think it’s adorable).

I think the buildup of the main characters' relationship was well written and I loved all of the competition elements, like the challenges. I thought it was super cute and I'm incredibly glad that I got to read it.

The only reason I'd mark it down is probably because of the fact that it was written in third person, as it makes me feel kind of disconnected from the story, but what’s not my cup of tea, could be yours, so please give it a read!
I rate this book about 3.75 stars, and id recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the charm offensive or likes watching high intensity shows like The Amazing Race, Survivor or The Bachelor.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early!

Crush in the Cascades is a fun, light read about a reality TV show, ‘The Race for Riches or Romance’ told in third person alternating POV - Amity and Easton Cooper. I adore the cover.

I liked the first half of the book better than the second. The relationship buildup was believable, considering the forced proximity circumstances and physical and mental challenges, but the romantic scenes are problematic. They’re cringey and more of a half open door. The dialog in these scenes is atrocious and, well, cringey. I did, however, enjoy the competition scenes.

I really like the idea of this book, it has a great premise and story, but the execution is just a tad off. Gayle’s writing, while good and descriptive is at times stilted, which in turn had me rereading several passages to make sense of them. Adding an additional word or sentence(s) for clarification would go a long way. Then there was the wrong use of several words, for example: stalked/stocked or humm/hmm or having a house that is “several square feet.”

Overall I enjoyed Crush in the Cascades and can recommend it. I think a lot of people will enjoy Amity and Easton and the reality show premise. However, I do think it would benefit from a thorough edit.

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing an ARC in return for an honest review.

This was such a cute, fun read! I love the relationship between not only Easton Cooper and Amity (who doesn’t love a good enemies to lovers trope?!) but the other characters as well. I also love the “Amazing Race” style of this book, it really makes it stand out among other romances novels out now. The ending was fantastic and I can’t wait to read the next installment in this series!