**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

When Gigi pulled her book out in the bar that was so relatable because I myself have done that, but unfortunately that's where it stopped for me. This book didn't give me the RomCom feels I was looking for and I found Gigi to be unlikeable and patronising for most of the book.

Agh, this book makes me miss London! I love a travel romance and this one was exceptional! I cannot wait to read more from Chantel. I love a romance reader heroine and found Gigi so charming.

📖Review: Gigi, Listening by Chantel Guertin

Gigi, Listening is a delectable travel romance that will drive away the winter blues one sun-soaked British destination at a time!

Gigi loves love stories. So much so that she owns a romance-only bookstore. For her thirtieth birthday, Gigi’s friends get her a tour of Britain where the tour guide is Zane, her favourite audiobook narrator of the book that brought her parents together. However, Zane isn’t there at first, but Taj is, and heartwarming hilarity ensues.

You’ll love it if you like:
📚Books about book lovers
❤️Romance (with adorable banter)
🏘️Community building
⭐️Quirky characters
📖Books like Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, or Last Chance Library.

I thoroughly enjoyed this delightful novel. It had all of the fabulously heartwarming characteristics of romance as well as community building. The quirky cast of characters is going to be one I turn to again and again. There’s also so many amazing references to literature that any book lover will be able to relate to Gigi’s voracious reading and the connections to her favourite novels in England.

Gigi, Listening comes out on March 28, and will be the perfect remedy for any lingering winter blues.

Thank you to @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks for this digital ARC in return for an honest review.

🏷
#gigilistening #kensingtonbooks #netgalley

A cute non-spicy rom-com for all the neurotic gals out there!

A SHORT PREVIEW:
Take the girl out of her An Arbor romance book shop, but you can't quite take the romance book shop out of her. We follow the story of GiGi, who is gifted a fun trip across Britain by her friends for her 30th birthday...with a twist. The scheduled tour is guided by none other than the audiobook narrator whom she's been obsessed with for years. Once she meets the lauded Zane... will it be the perfect meet-cute like she's read about in her romance novels for years?

THINGS I LIKED:
- As far as romances go, the entire time I kept wondering when the main character was going to understand that perceived attractions that you try to force aren't the same as real attractions that happen naturally. Thankfully she realized that in the end, or I would have had to throw my phone.
- The setting descriptions were one of my favorite parts of this book. If you've ever wanted to travel to England, this is a cute little read if you're inclined to listen to audiobooks on the plane!
- The author did a good job making the character feel more mature in the way she looks at dating since she's thirty - she's clearly well aware of the pitfalls of hookup culture and internet dating.
- I saw the story shaping up around 30% of the book, and I'm not mad about it. There are no annoying third-act breakups, and I really appreciate when authors don't add excessive drama for the sake of the drama.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:
- Overall, for a quick-read romance, this was really cute, but there were definitely parts that dragged in the middle.
- I have a hard time relating to spastic/neurotic characters. Especially when their neuroses are the centerfold of the story? Not to mention that the main part of the plot was a lil' stalkery... until I realized that it's very similar to the beginning of The Lucky One? The Nicholas Sparks book made into a movie with Zac Efron?
- (This needed its own point because it was traumatizing to read about lol) THE MAIN CHARACTER CONSTANTLY GOES TO BED WITH HER MAKEUP ON... and then puts makeup on top of it to cover that mess up the next morning?! I CANNOT. I am not that woman. My face is always washed and moisturized, and I sunscreen the next morning before makeup!! The number of times I visibly cringed whilst listening to those parts was not okay. 😩

NOTES:
- Setting: All over Britain (it's a road trip)
- LGBTQ+ representation
- Single POV
- Contemporary romance / non-smutty

Can you really fall in love with someone from the sound of their voice? I am not so sure, but Gigi was determined to meet the man behind the dreamy and seductive voice of a book that is very special to her. Romance books are Gigi’s life and she was cautiously hoping for her own happily ever after. Would she find it across the pond on her bus tour of the oldest churches in England? Gigi’s bus mates were a cast of characters guaranteed to entertain her, listen, and offer advice as they joined her on her journey to happiness. But what happens when she finds herself with two men who are vying for her attention? Would the man of her dreams turn out to be not so dreamy after all? What part would her new friends play in her decision and what would they ultimately teach her about life and love? I wanted to join Gigi on her romantic adventure so I could take in the scenery, visit quaint bookstores and watch her fall in love. I may never get a chance to travel but Ms. Guertin’s sweet story invited me into Gigi’s life and I definitely enjoyed my time at her side.

Being from Michigan, the start of this book intrigued me, and heading to London was another perk. As I read more, I found what I thought I was going to be reading, wasn't what I had in mind.

Review from the back cover - Gigi Rutherford loves love stories. She reads them, she sells them at her romance bookstore, and she could spend hours imagining the meet-cutes of every couple she encounters. But when it comes to her own love interests, Gigi is out of stock. Instead of enduring bad date after bad date, these days she’d rather curl up with her favorite audiobook and the only man who makes her heart skip a beat: Zane Wilkenson, the smooth-voiced narrator Gigi is convinced is her soulmate.

Then, she’s presented with the chance of a lifetime: a ten-day bus tour through the English countryside, an ocean away from her bookstore—all in the presence of Zane, in person, as he leads the tour.

But when Gigi arrives at the bus terminal in London, Zane is nowhere to be found. Until he shows up, she’s stuck with an eclectic group of fellow travelers: recently widowed and chatty Charlotte; trivia-obsessed Francis; Jenny, a true-crime-makeup YouTuber documenting every detail for her subscribers; and Sindhi and Roshi, a long-married couple who can’t stop bickering. Then there’s the brooding bus driver, Taj, who Gigi finds infuriating yet also incredibly alluring . . .

With heart and charm, warmth and humor, Chantel Guertin explores the meaning of love and family—and how, sometimes, the journey to yourself is where you’ll find everything you’ve been searching for.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Chantel Guertin for this advance read

Such a cute book! I absolutely LOVED the character development for Gigi, such a huge difference in her at the end. Beautiful story of so many lives that were intertwined by one tour. I enjoyed all of the characters so much! Loved the ending for Gigi as well. So many laughs and cute moments and eyes watering moments wrapped up nice in one novel.

I received this ARC by NetGalley and the publishers to read and review. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.

First The White Lotus took me to Hawaii and Sicily. However, I wasn't done going on virtual vacations and thankfully Chantel Guertin delivered with her latest rom-com, Gigi, Listening. I got to go all over England from the comfort of my own couch (or treadmill). This was such a sweet and fun story that I enjoyed as much as her previous novel, Instamom.

I'm sorry this review is so short, but I only have good things to say about this novel and I don't want to spoil anything. I love that Gigi owns a bookstore and that she stops in all the bookstores on her tour of England. She mentioned a book in the beginning that was totally made up just for this novel, but I wish existed in real life. It was an Orthodox Jewish modern day rom-com version of Anna Karenina called, wait for it...Rosh Hash-Anna. The descriptions made everything in the story come to life without taking away from the narrative.

I highly recommend Gigi, Listening for your 2023 TBR. It publishes this spring and you will definitely want to get your hands on a copy!

Movie casting suggestions:
Gigi: Zoey Deutch (After seeing her in Something From Tiffany's, I couldn't picture anyone else.)
Taj: Sean Teale
Zane: Theo James
Charlotte: Valerie Mahaffey
Jenny: Lana Condor
Nelle: Kirsten Vangsness
Violet: Fiona Shaw
Angus: Bill Nighy
Francis: Keith David

The girl who reads this book could become dissatisfied when her friends don't offer her an all-expenses, all inclusive trip to meet the man of her dreams. COULD become dissatisfied. The first thing that struck me about this book is the selflessness of the girls who came together to give this trip to GiGi, who has fallen in love with a voice on an audio book. The book that Zane narrates is the book GiGi's father was reading in the book store when he met her mother. There are so many layers to this story and so much of the plot deals with appearances that aren't always what they seem to be.

It's easy to see how GiGi built up a picture in her mind of who Zane was going to be, and to have those illusions shattered could have really hurt GiGi if Zane hadn't been late to the party in the first place.

While I do read a lot of romance novels, I generally try to stick to the Christian novels. So this one was a departure for me, but Chantel Guertin's writing in this novel shows an author who puts a lot of thought into how the plot is going to play out. There are some characters who are there to set the stage for GiGi's adventures, some who figure into the warp and weft of her trip, which encompasses most of the plot lines of the book, and some of the characters just add color, which is a fine role--every novel needs those colorful people.

GiGi Listening is, on the surface a fun novel, but it has deeper layers that push the reader into some introspection. It's a great novel to read for an hour at a time, then take the time to digest its fuller meaning. Every reader will find a favorite character other than GiGi to connect with in this book. It's just a given.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and an all-inclusive trip that is more than just a trip.

Kensington Books provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Review:
Gigi is a romantic, her parents have the ultimate love story, she owns a romance bookstore, and she’s madly in love with the narrator of the romance audiobook she’s been obsessed with. Gigi Rutherford hasn’t had much luck in the romance department because she’s in love with Zane Wilkenson, the narrator of a book, and she’s convinced he is her soulmate, her friends buy her a 10 day trip to the english countryside with a tour guide... who is Zane. Gigi can’t wait, this could be the start of her love story, all she has to do is meet him and she knows they’ll have the perfect love story... except things get off onto a rough start as she arrives late, finds out that Zane is nowhere to be found, and theres a grumpy but cute bus driver who gets under her skin. Now she is stranded on this tour with an eclectic group of fellow travelers and has to figure out what her next step is, all the while she begins to spend more time with Taj, the grumpy bus driver who might have more to him than she realized. Gigi will have to ask herself what her happy ending truly is and if being in love with someone she’s never met but built an entire fantasy around is actually real... and when she does meet Zane if he is actually the guy she thinks he is or if Taj is the one she’s been looking for all along. The story was okay, albeit a bit cheesy but overall okay, it just didn’t catch me that much and for such a cute premise I thought I would have been hooked immediately but unfortunately it did not. Don’t get me wrong, it’s sweet in some of the parts but in other parts the drama felt unnecessary and overall it was an okay romance read.

*Thanks Netgalley and Kensington Books, Kensington for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Gigi was a fun character to follow along. I enjoyed her love of books and romance! I really enjoyed this book!

“Interest, my bookstore and my home”
“Don’t let the rest of the story pass you by or you might find an ending you don’t like”
I seem to be just in the right mood for fluffy romance stories. And I also think I found one of my favourite for 2022!!!
This book was so good!!! Gigi, a romance reader, owner of a bookshop, falls in love with the man behind the voice of her favourite audiobook (oh girl, you’re not alone!!!) and thanks to her friends’ thirtieth birthday gift, she embarks on a vacation to meet him. Only … he is not there … at his place a very brooding, grumpy, mystery reader, hot driver, Taj.
With some enemies to lovers, constant banter, tension and some forced proximity, this story completely hooked me in and I couldn’t stop reading it !!! Gigi is … the perfect romance reader … such a relatable character !!!!
And I loved the way she perceives love and feelings !!! I loved both the dynamics between the main character and the side characters, each of them with their own story, worth telling !!!
I’m so grateful I had the chance to read it !!
“That when you least expect it, someone can walk through the door of your bookshop and trigger the start of your story … together”
“What if it’s the middle that’s the best part of all?”

I adored the cover for this book and the premise, which sounded completely charming. I also liked the travelogue aspect—who doesn't want to take a literary tour of the UK? The writing is lovely and I can see the comparison to Kate Clayborn and Sophie Kinsella, though the pacing of the plotting feels more picaresque than romcom. Many thanks to Kensington and NetGalley for the advance read!

This is a new to me author and I have to say I am looking forward to reading more by this author! I loved this book

Can I please be Gigi? Seriously. I love her! I relate to her so much. Rather be home reading than dealing with daring disasters? Me too, sis. I’m buying this for my entire book club!

I was hooked on this story from the first page. I love Gigi, I love her bookstore and her love of romance novels. It’s fun to read all the references to books I’ve read and loved before. I can’t wait for this to come out, I love it already.

Gigi, Listening
By: Chantel Guertin
Review Score: 3 1/2 Stars

Five Key Feels

-I love Gigi’s background as romantic book store owner.

-Gigi has such supportive friends.

-I enjoyed following along on her trip around the UK, and the people she met.

-Gigi’s self discovery on this trip was really great.

-I found some of this book to be a bit predictable.

——

Gigi, Listening was kindly provided as an ARC by Netgalley and Kensington Books. Thank you for allowing me to read this wonderful book!

Release Date: 3/28/23

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. While in some ways, the premise is kind of creepy, it also was a but funny and topical, as, I am sure many others are, an avid listener of audiobooks.

Gigi’s background was rather sad, and of course, I loved her evolution through the story.

I also loved her banter with Taj, and the evolution of their relationship.

Overall, I did like this book. It was a fun read. I just didn’t love it. Some of the story felt unnecessary to the plot, and other parts I wish had more detail. I am definitely torn on my feelings for this book, hence the rating.

I do think people would enjoy this book. I just did not love it.

#bookstagram #books #readingnow #boogiereadsbooks #fivekeyfeels #audiobooks #audiobook #fiction #arcreview #netgalley #kensingtonbooks #gigilistening #chantelguertin

Thank You to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Chantel Guertin for the opportunity to read an ARC for this book! It was one of my favourite contemporary romances that I’ve read this year. 💕
I have been on a few bus tours like this before and the author has definitely captured the essence of what these trips are like. You meet all kinds of interesting characters and end up being good friends by the end with many of them. I’ve also had to catch a tour from Victoria Coach Station on my first trip to the UK and so the scene when Gigi is lost looking for her bus felt all too real for me. 😂
I read quite a few books from this genre and will be recommending this one to others who also like it. I think I may try it with people who aren’t big romance readers as well since it’s not a sappy or cringey type story where you know there’s no way people in real life would act this way and the story becomes unbelievable. This story felt authentic and I felt like I was on that bus experiencing the trip. I haven’t really toured in this part of the UK but I definitely want to now! 🇬🇧

I thought this was an okay cute read. It was really predictable and the beginning was a little bit slow. But overall, it was pretty good. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review. All opinions are solely my own.

Gigi’s ten day travel to London is to meet the man she has been listening for so long narrate her favourite love story. But it turns out so much more. It’s a journey from her past and to her future. The sudden death of her parents, she taking charge of the family bookshop and not having a real life for herself. But England and her tour will make meet new people, face new situations and open her heart and soul to an unexpected love. Sweet, funny and charming.