Millie is a failure... or at least she feels like one. When she is let go from her corporate marketing job in New York City she decides to take a leap of faith in Peacock Bay, California. After all, her best friend is there and her brother *insisted* she come check it out. With her friend group's magical lucky dress and hopes of joining the Bay's elite group of Instagram influencers, she documents her ADHD fueled screw-ups on Here To Stay. What happens when an attempt to grab likes turns into falling in love with her long time crush?

For me, the title was a bit misleading. Yes, the magical sisterhood of the travelling pants dress was featured predominately in the book but I think a more appropriate name would be something like hmm...Here to Stay. I think if we get to see what happens next with the dress with another one of the friend group the series could totally be "Four Ways to Wear a Dress" but as a singular, standalone book about one person's journey with the dress it can be a bit confusing.

Featuring a fake dating trope and a friends to lovers trope the romance and spice in this one was palpable and on point. I loved Millie and Pete together but really wanted them to just address the elephant in the room, but alas, the trope leads to the build up, the break-up, and the inevitable make-up. Pete is literally the best and I think everyone in the Bay and reading about the Bay will eat him up. Millie, however, could stand to get over some of her issues a little earlier in the book and came across a bit shallow. Her character touched on deeper surfaces and topics and was thisclose to getting there but the Instagram influencer lingo and angle was a bit too steep to overcome. Also, Alanna (spelling may be incorrect - I listened to the audiobook!) was an absolutely obnoxious character - even I wanted to punch her.

Overall, this book had some really good moments and is a good beachy summer read with a lot of talk about surfing and beach bum life. If you can get over the annoying influencer behavior and bear with the characters working through their crap, there is a good story under there.

What a fun, beach vibing romcom! Four Ways to Wear a Dress is a charming story about Millie who is trying to find herself again. This story involves dealing with ADHD, the feeling of failure and the pressures of social media.

But what a girl, Millie is not afraid to get back on her surf board and try again! I went into this audiobook blind and quite enjoyed it!

There were a couple times you wanted to yell at Millie to open her eyes and see what's right in front of her, but what is a good romcom without that frustrating side.

I would highly suggest reading this one by the beach this summer!

Before I get into my review I just want to say thank you to Netgalley, Gillian Libby and Sourcebooks Casablanca for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Ok this book was amazing. Imagine a modern twist on Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants but it's relatable to every single woman in their 20's and 30's...add some spice and you have Four Ways To Wear A Dress. This book was so good! If you like any of booktok's romcoms you will die for this book! Stop whatever you are reading and start this one, I swear you will become obsessed. I really hope their are more friends that we get to see in this dress!

Sisterhood of the Traveling pants fans this ones for you 😉

I love this book! This book follows Millie, who after being laid off from her job in NY, goes in search to find herself and some freedom. She flies across country to CA, where her best friend from college lives and also her college crush, who just happens to be her bff’s brother Pete.

Millie is sent on her way with what she and her college friends call their lucky black dress, think sisterhood of the traveling pants. Enter the behind the scenes IG Influencer world, of the small beach town that are trying to help boast their own tourism.

I loved how this book evolved, it touched on so many different aspects while also having a nice amount of steam and tension.

The narrator did an amazing job with this one and I’m so glad I was able to listen to the audio.

This is definitely going to be a reread book for me! 💗

Melli’s Book Breakdown
🤍Best Friends Brother
🤍Fake Relationship
🤍IG influencers
🤍ADHD heroine
🤍spicy & steamy

Perfect summer read! A little spin on the sister hood of traveling pants, I also vote that Pete is book boyfriend of the month. The focus on different issues such as ADHD, and social media presence is refreshing. I enjoyed this book, and the narrator for the audio version did a lovely job! She brought the right type of emotion when needed.

First of all, I absolutely loved each of these characters so much! This made for such an entertaining story and I was so incredibly invested in their success! I will say, this is a slow burn book and you have to wait till over half way through for it to get any romance. This book felt a little long at times, but it was the perfect listen for long walks/bike rides which was fun! I loved the narrators of this book as well, made me feel as though I was talking to one of my bestfriends. The dress felt like such a small part of the story- so the title was a little strange to me. It was a little frustrating to know that the main character and the love interest were in love the entire time- and neither of them had the guts to say it! Overall, a super cute beach read!

This book is basically a grown up version of Sisterhood of the travelling pants. It's a group of friends from university who would each borrow a little black dress and then have wonderful adventures and fun things happen to them. This story focuses on Millie who was fired from her job so she decides to move across country to be with her best friend and her brother. She wants to get back in to surfing and possibly become an influencer like her friend and the other ladies who live in this town. I really felt that the social media aspect of the book was true to life and felt like it could definitely be happening right now. I liked to see an different main character who was neurodivergent and was open with her struggles with ADHD. It was also interesting to see a female surfer and she even discusses the sexism in the sport. The romance was ok - it was like a combination of fake dating trope, best friends brother and friends to lover. It was nice that it wasn't insta love. Generally the story was good. I think I would read the next book in the series to see what the dress does next.

I received an advance listen copy from NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Gillian Libby in return for my honest feedback.

Millie gets laid off from her NYC job and has to decide where to go next in her life. She decides to head to California to visit her best friend and stay in her families hotel. Before she leaves New York, she finds a little black dress and takes it with. Millie attempts to try out documenting her adventures and ends up getting caught up with her best friends brother Pete, who she has been crushing on for a while. Will Millie be able to live the influencer lifestyle? Will things with Pete end up being more than just fake dating?

I loved the second half of this book. The first half did not do it for me. It took me a while to get into, but once I did I enjoyed it. There is fake dating, falling for the older brother of the best friend, small town romances. I also did not love how Quincy took to social media about her son's possible autism, which is a reason for the lower rating.

This was a really cute read. I'm a sucker for best friend sibling's trope. I was so into the audio, I requested an arc of the print version as well.

Four Ways to Wear A Dress was the perfect dive into summer reading. The premise starts off like a single POV version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and I would love to see spinoffs of the other friends when they are in possession of it!

Millie was a really fun MC. Recently laid off from her marketing job, she goes to visit some college friends in their beachside surfer town and decides to try her hand at influencing while she’s there. She gets reacquainted with her best friend’s hot brother, and they begin a fake relationship to boost their follower counts.

Millie and Pete had great chemistry. I love the friends-to-lovers trope, and their scenes were really fun to read. There was the perfect amount of steam.

The setting was probably my favorite part of this book. I adore little beachside towns and got excited for my own summer vacation plans while listening to this story.

There were a couple of things I didn’t love–most were minor, like the fact that the storyline turned away from the dress despite it being in the title. As someone who clearly spends a lot of time on Instagram, it felt extremely unrealistic that a social media nobody would gain 75k+ followers in just a month. I also felt like Millie took the “fake dating” bit too far, but constantly insisting how fake it was when Pete clearly was interested in her too.

I really disliked how Quincy’s story was dismissed. Alana was terrible to Quincy as she tried to navigate her son’s possible diagnosis, telling her to hide it for the sake of social media likes and follows. I wish there was some justice for Quincy and her son, and he deserved better than to be excluded by the moms and likely the other children. I do hope that he gets a happier ending if this is turned into a series.

Overall, this debut was a fun, summery hit. I’m looking forward to reading more from Gillian Libby!

Audio Review: Erika Schindele was a great fit for Millie’s character. Her voice is young and energetic, and felt like the perfect fit for a mid-20s surfer girl.

This was a very cute, very sweet, beachy summery read! A first for me from Gillian Libby and I am planning on going to check out what other books she has written because she left me feeling really good at the end. I went through quite a range of emotions with this book, which is not normal for me, and I liked that!

I felt that at first it went quite slow, through the introduction and bringing in quite a large cast of characters and she had to give us their background and how everyone was linked - I wasn’t very invested initially. I stuck with it and wow… just wow! Millie is laid off from her New York marketing start-up and heads to a California surf town where a college friend is from, and is able to spend some time gathering herself. The story is about her month doing that, trying to become an Instagram influencer, like everyone else in town.

I was blown away very quickly in the second half of the book with how the fake relationship between Millie and Peter picked up from just an Instagram cover to help her gain followers (though Millie had crushed on Peter since college), a story made up by her friend who was obsessed with making the town of Pelican Cove look like a perfect and desirable tourist destination, to support the businesses (and Pete’s family hotel), Alannah. Millie is encouraged by her friends and Peter’s sisters. The influencer life isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, and everything she posts ends up being how she is not good at things, like surfing and skateboarding.

As the month wears on and she and Peter put on a show for their online relationship, Millie realizes that she does need to start adulting and looking for her job, and maybe her parents are actually right…

I loved so many things about this story, mostly in the second half once the background information is established. I definitely recommend everyone gives this book a read! I give it a 4 star rating because of the slow start (though the back half is definitely worthy of 5, the beginning brings it down). The narrator, Erika Schindele, did an excellent job!

I received an advance listen copy from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, and this is my honest feedback.

This is an enjoyable book with a strong voice and fun characters. I liked Millie a lot. She and Pete had a ton of chemistry. It confused me that they continued to consider their relationship fake even after they started sleeping together. At that point, maybe they might have talked about having real feelings for each other? But in the context of the book, I suppose it made sense. This novel is an interesting look at influencer culture and finding the balance between your personal and professional persona.

The audiobook did a good job of capturing Millie's voice and personality.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscapes Media for the opportunity to get my hands on the ARC of Four Ways to Wear a Dress!

I was surprised to see this was a debut novel. Gillian Libby knocked it out of the park with this sweet and spicy beachy romcom!

You must add this one to your summer TBR and I promise you'll fall in love with Pete & Millie just as much as I did. Pete's declaration to Millie on his deck?? [[swoon!]]

Four Ways to Wear a Dress way such a light and fun read. Millie is a girl who gets laid off from her job and needs to decide on her next steps. When she arrives in Peacock Bay to visit her old college roommate and best friend, she decides to stay and join the influencer world. Since college, she has also been in love with her best friend's brother and finds herself always in his path.

I loved this story because it was modern and very relatable. It touched on how social media affects our lives and how everything is not always what it seems to be. I also loved that the author took a page out of the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants and gave the friend group a "good luck dress". Although a small part of the plot, it was a cute addition. I think that it would be interesting if the author made sequels for the other girls in the group and gave their experiences with the dress.

I got an audiobook ARC from NetGalley and was very impressed with the narrator. She is a great storyteller and gave the perfect voice to Millie and the supporting characters. I would recommend this book for a light and romantic read.

I thought this would be a take on Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was more than that though. It was predictable but different enough. I loved the focus on adhd. It is time to normalize differences. Also the message of understanding that your perception might not be others perceptions.

3.75/5⭐️

A cute best friends brother, friends to lovers romance with a sprinkle of fake dating.

This book was cute and I enjoyed it but was nothing too special to me. Pete was a cutie and I liked the relationship between Pete and Millie. I didn’t really like Millie, I found she was a bit unlikable. She was selfish and there wasn’t much character development in that area.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it was cute, but I’ll likely never think about it again. If you want a cute, light hearted summer read with the best friends brother, small town, and friends to lovers trope, I would recommend giving it a read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audiobook arc of this book.

🔊Song Pairing: California - Tchad Blake Mix

💭What I thought would happen:

I thought it would be an attempt at an adult Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (a fav of mine) I was very cautious stepping into this book.

📖What actually happens:

Poor poor Millie, always the failure…just lost her long standing job at a toy making company and where shall she go…what will she do…how will she pay rent in NYC?! Instead she decides to make her pilgrimage back to the ocean to see her best friend Quincy and to rekindle her relationship with the waves.

While there she meets the most vibrant, epitome of California, people (imagine Stars Hollow with waves). Millie decides to take a page from Quincy and attempt to become an influencer on her journey to California in her and her group of friend’s lucky dress that has more versatility than a Swiss Army knife.

What Millie is most nervous about? Seeing Pete, Quincy’s brother once again. The (super hot) one that got away

🗯Thoughts:

This book is what I wanted Beach Read to be. I am that guy standing on the streets with the cardboard sign saying READ FOUR WAYS TO WEAR A DRESS. My beautiful butterflies you want this book! It’s a fantastic summer read and it’ll make your heart jello by the end!

There was a point near the end when I was running and listening to the audiobook and an awwweeeee literally left my mouth. At least only the angry geese could hear me and left me alone because I sounded obviously deranged.

This book has everything:
🏄‍♀️Surf (hello Malibu Rising fans!)
💦Best friend’s brother (HELLO!)
📸 Influencers
🧠 Discusses mental illness and how it’s okay to be different and to get the help you need

This book has Kelly’s stamp of approval! HUZZAH! If I was Oprah I’d be all you get a book, everyone gets THIS book!

Also threw on one of my lucky dresses for this picture! Makes my booty go *POP*

Thank you Gillian Libby Sourcebooks Casablanca and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook!

Pub day is June 7!!

This book made me want to have an adult sleepover with my bff and watch Blue Crush. Reminded me of the Traveling pants a bit and I wonder if a sequels is in store. I sort of hated Alana and felt like she never got brought down but was okay with that. Such a light and run beach read

This is fun,summer book with main characters Surfers. Also main girl character has disability ADHD and you can hear that though her monologes

☀️ Book Review ☀️

Four Ways to Wear a Dress
Author: Gillian Libby
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you love:
👗 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
👗 Fake dating
👗 College love interest
👗 Romantic Comedies

Cheesy and predictable are the first words that come to my mind when describing this book, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you’re in the mood for it. While I do like cheesy stories, this one definitely wasn’t my favorite.

That being said, the book was entertaining enough for me to finish and was good to listen to while performing chores since it doesn’t require too much attention. I can definitely see this being a good book to read by the pool or beach when you need some light entertainment.

I also would like to mention that the narrator, #ErikaSchindele, helped the story a lot for me. I don’t think I would’ve finished had I been reading a physical copy. Erika is lively, entertaining, and did an excellent job with all the voices. Another plus is that her voice gave me a #KristenBell sort of vibe which I appreciated very much.

So, Happy *almost* Publication Day to #FourWaysToWearADress and #GillianLibby! And a special thanks to #DreamscapeMedia for the listening ARC I received via @netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Grab your copy on June 7!