A perfect book written by one of my all-time favorite authors.. Small town charm. Self-discovery. Female friendship. Revisiting the past. Falling in love.

Georgie and Levi are everything. I love them. I love Kate. I love Kate's words. Her prose is stunning as always. The emotions in the story!! They hit so hard. I felt every moment. I was in every scene.

Kate and this book are pure magic and you're going to want to read it!! Thank you to Kensington and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love basically everything Kate Clayborn writes. She's so kind to her characters, teasing out gentle drama through very specific character details. Human nature is a feature in her books, not bug. That said, this was not my favorite Clayborn book and I think that is only because I'm not personally a fan of the "small town girl returns home again" storyline. It still gets four stars for the way it's written.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Georgie, an LA assistant extraordinaire, moves back home to help her best friend, ready to give birth, and comes across an old
Journal to remind herself of all her plans and wants for life.

While learning who she is, she becomes roommates to her ex’s grumpy brother, Levi.

Decent read overall. Not incredibly memorable, but piqued my interest, for the most part.

Georgie's story seems to hit close to home for a lot of millennials - as a PA in Hollywood, she is at the beck and call of her employer leaving no room for her personal wants and needs, which... what even are they? When she returns to her hometown, both to help her best friend get ready for a new baby and to regroup, she finds a callback to her youth that gives her a bucket list of things to do in order to find herself again. Throw in a brooding unexpected housemate with ties to her past crush and it leads to growth and love.

I really liked the premise of this book - revisiting goals of our youth to bucket list our adulthood isn't a bad way to reconnect to things we loved and understand why some of our youthful dreams aren't right for us now. The character of Georgie, however, felt a bit nebulous and plot-driven - we need her to be good at this thing, so she is - rather than her character driving the plot. She and her story may have been better served without the second-chance romance with Levi.

I'm in love!!! The amount of times my heart felt as if it were about to jump through my throat was simply unprecedented.. Levi and Georgie are my favorite types of characters and the story was just *chef's kiss*

I love everything Kate Clayborn writes! This book is no exception. Georgie is such an openhearted character, matched perfectly with the secretly soft Levi. There's so much specificity in this story, told with such tenderness and affection. It makes it so easy to root for all the characters to grow. Kate always writes great side characters, and the ones in Georgie, All Along are among her best. All in all, a lovely, satisfying read.

Georgie Mulcahy returns to her hometown after unexpectedly losing her job to help out her pregnant best friend (who, it turns out, doesn't need her help). She comes across her childhood journal, which served as a sort of high school bucket list she never got around to fulfilling. Due to her parents' mixup, she finds herself staying with Levi Fanning, who has a reputation as a local bad boy and whose brother was Georgie's high school crush. Together, Levi and Georgie start marking things off her bucket list, This book had a lot of heart, and I found myself rooting for Georgie and Levi.

I really enjoyed Georgie, All Along. It got me through the first couple weeks of back to school season. Sometimes when I don’t have as much reading time, I lose interest. I never lost interest in this book. I very much felt invested in it. I liked the characters and the storytelling. I look forward to reading more Kate Clayborn books.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN KATE CLAYBORN. IT JUST DOESN'T! I already can't wait to reread this one - I just have to recover first.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I loved this book. I could not put it down it was everything, I didn’t know I needed at the time of reading it.

I requested this book when it popped up on Netgalley because, well, Kate Clayborn. I've been a fan ever since I read Love Lettering.
Georgie is incapable of planning. So when she ends up coming back to her parents' house with all her belongings in bin bags in the back of the car, no one is really surprised. Then she finds a notebook from when she was a teenager, full of plans. In order to find her purpose again, Georgie tries to relive those plans.
Levi Fanning has been labelled 'trouble' for so long, he's started to believe it himself. He's not good with small talk and generally stays out of the way of people. His best friend is his dog.
Due to Georgie's parents being slightly vague, they end up sharing a house for a few days.
The story is immensely adorable. I loved the way Levi and Georgie both have issues, but they help each other heal. Levi's backstory is genuinely heartrending in places and is handled beautifully. The scene between the two brothers, where they discuss how they feel and what the patriarchy and toxic masculinity did to them both made me cry.
This book has a lot of tropes (Not a criticism, I like tropes, especially when handled well like they are here) and manages to weave them into the story whilst maintaining genuine character development. It's wonderful.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

My favorite thing about this story was that it doesn't rush the romance. The leads spend several weeks dating and getting to know each other which was charming and also realistic. Cons: The dialogue was a little wordy and I found myself skimming some of the characters' inner monologues. However, there were some great steamy scenes which I appreciated.

Georgie, All Along
By Kate Clayborn

5 stars

This was a dreamy gem of a book. Thank you to @kensingtonbooks for allowing me to read an early copy.

Georgie, All Along is for those among us who may have internalized the feeling that we are “too much” (we aren’t) or that maybe our messes are too big or our personalities too expansive to deserve love (they aren’t). Georgie is someone that I wish I knew in real life. I just loved her. Maybe my favorite protagonist of the year.

First of all, Kate Clayborn… I saw what you did with, “…the fingers in his right hand flex” line. That Mr. Darcy Finger Flex™️ was in full effect 😂

Georgie, All Along is about Georgie, a celebrity assistant who makes an extended trip to her hometown to transition out of her assistant role and plan her life’s next steps. She’s also there to support her best friend through the final stages of pregnancy. Her parents are on a trip, so they are thankful to have Georgie take care of the house. The problem is that they forgot that they already asked a friend to house sit. That friend turns out to be Levi, a grumpy, closed off, but also secretly tender hearted man. The conflict kind of builds from there with the forced proximity. It is a slow burn, but eventually does get a bit spicy in parts.

Georgie is coming to terms with accepting herself for who she is—someone who grabs life & lives it in the moment. Levi is healing from family trauma & learning to accept the person he’s become. This is a small story about people who seem really… well, real. There’s not a billionaire or a vampire to be seen, which is honestly refreshing. It packed an emotional punch, and I found myself rooting for the love story, yes, but also just rooting for these two humans in general. I absolutely loved this book.

Favorite quotes:
“‘Just kids’ isn’t a thing. Important stuff happens to kids. Kids do important stuff.”

“…I’ve always lived for making things better in the moment—I think it means that want I’ve really been waiting for is something from my present. That I’ve been waiting to realize I’m okay, and that I’ve probably always been okay.”

Kate Clayborn has done it again. What exactly is it that she's done? Well, it's hard to describe but folks who have read her writing before will know that it just has this quality to it that makes you ache in the very depths of your soul but it doesn't exactly hurt, and you feel sort of wrung out afterward but in a happy way. Like your heart's been sent through a rock tumbler and come out of all that tumult shiny and smooth. Anyway, that's what she's done again with GEORGIE, ALL ALONG.

Georgie lives out her dreams from the past and along the way helps herself and others figure out what's best for them. A very sweet story with a little bit of spice.

great start to a this book. Kate is becoming my favorite author and love her books. This was a good one and want to read more.

My review for this book could simply be as a follows - "I finished this book several days ago and can't stop thinking about it" - and maybe for certain readers that and a 5 star rating is all it would take to convince them to pick this one up and give it a try. But I feel compelled to try to write more, even if what I think makes Kate Clayborn's writing so special is that her books seems to have a certain je ne sais quoi that defies my ability to articulate what makes them great.

Georgie moves back to her small town after her LA assistant gig comes to an abrupt end. She feels aimless, unsure of what comes next in a life that has sort of been defined by falling into things and not really having much of a plan. When she finds a "friend fic" that she and her best friend wrote in junior high with all their plans for a successful high school experience, she realizes she did once have more concrete hopes and dreams, though they never completed most of the items on the list. Even if the plans in the fic were necessarily juvenile, Georgie sets out to complete them anyway, thinking that the process of achieving some of her past goals will help her set new ones for her future. This process is complicated by the presence of Levi Fanning, the town's former resident bad boy who, unbeknownst to Georgie, is also staying in her parents' house. With her best friend unavailable to help complete the items on her list, Levi eventually offers to help Georgie, leading to a much more emotional experience than either of them bargained for.

I think I loved this book so much in part because of how it ultimately answers Georgie's own questions about the direction her life is going to take, and her own reckoning with her reputation as being somewhat aimless and flighty. It's refreshing to read a book where the main character isn't a high achiever who has always had success in their life, and I found it really validating even as someone who isn't really much like Georgie at all. And Levi. Oh, Levi. His journey through this book is so special I cried real tears about it towards the end of the book, so thanks for that, Kate. I loved everything about Levi and his romance with Georgie and ugh, I just want to melt into a puddle of swoon just thinking about it. All of this is wrapped up in the author's sharp writing, which made it such a joy to read.

Thank you SO much to the publisher for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own!

Oh yeah… I’m a huge Kate Clayborn fan! This book was so wonderful and delightful, this book just goes to show what an exceptional storyteller she is!

There is just so much to love - but here are my top three
1. Levi
2. Georgie’s growth and inner healing
3. Georgie & Levi’s friendship

There is delightful conversations, intense chemistry, a whole host of wonderful characters… I just wanted to live in this world for a while! I loved that before anything happened with Levi and Georgie - they built a really wonderful friendship. I love that their relationship changed them, well before they were in a romantic relationship.

And the change was just so beautiful - it was Levi, going from the man trying to constantly make reparations for his past and trying to live unnoticed, to becoming a man that was comfortable with all aspects of himself and not letting his past define him anymore. For Georgie - all the things that she thought were weaknesses, she realized were strengths and the best part was seeing her realize this and loving herself!

A bonus mention goes to Hank - Levi’s dog… he was a scene stealer for sure!

This is a reread for me for sure... I loved it and want to go back and read it again for all the things that I may have missed and to re-fall in love with this story!

If you are after a meet cute, about two small town misfits, both having left and returned, and are trying to prove they are not the people the town thought they were, this is for you. A dual self discovery tied into a romance. Georgie and Levi are both incredibly lovable people who are delightful to watch together. I love Georgie’s parents and her dad’s string of nicknames for her was a fun touch. A good book for an easygoing evening of reading. Did the ending make me cry? Absolutely it was so sweet. I loved watching these two people learn to standup for themselves and discover their true gifts. Thank you to @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks and @kateclayborn.author for providing me a copy of this fun book to review.

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn follows longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy after she is unexpectedly released from her job. Although sent into a tailspin of questioning her self-worth, it is "perfect" timing so Georgie can return home to support her best friend, Bel, who is married, pregnant and needs "help" unpacking. While unpacking, Georgie and Bel discover their "friendfic" diary from when they were teenagers. Georgie decides she is going to fulfill each of the adventures they dreamed of as teens.

Georgie’s parents are away and offer their house for her to stay. Only, they forgot they also offered it to Levi Fanning, the former town troublemaker and the brother to her teen crush. Levi appears to be a quiet, grouchy man but is so much more than his reputation. While the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she wants might not be found in the pages of her diary. Will she be brave enough to pursue what she wants? Or will the past get in the way?

I loved Georgie, Levi and Bel as they navigated through teen fantasy versus adult reality! Bel's secondary story was just as heartwarming as Georgie's!

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.