I love rom com tropes and thsi book was promising but in the end I just couldn't get invested in the two leads getting together

I really enjoyed Leah and Eli together. They were fun! (At least from Leah’s POV. However, I didn’t feel like Eli’s personality came through at all from his POV.

This miscommunication trope isn’t for me. So that was frustrating. And changing who you are COMPLETELY for another person, also isn’t for me.

I did enjoy the pop culture references and a lot of the banter. Wit and banter is my favorite thing in a story, and this had a solid amount!

This book was so cute. I was so happy with the ending. Her foster brother was terrible and she deserved that ending. The author did a good job at story line and character building. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

I truly wanted to like this book as I found the premise so fun and something right by my alley. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to connect with the story and characters and found myself getting lost in my own thoughts while trying to finish the book.

I wouldn't say it's terrible but I was not engaged enough to care about the relationship developing between Leah and Eli, specially when the later is so obsessed with getting back with his ex in the first part of the book. Overall, I would say that while it's a fast love story, there's not much that I will remember about this book. I think that my favorite thing about it was Leah's friendship with some of the other characters as I can understand how hard it is to make friends as an adult, so it was cure when Eli's group of friends kept including Leah in their plans, so I'd say at least I had fun reading those parts.

I think this was a cute story with good characters that you can't help but feel for. You find yourself rooting for them and though it was fun, there was nothing that will keep me remembering it later

This was a cute romance with the premise of teaching someone how to be a more ideal man to win back the love of his life by watching Rom Coms. While the premise is cute, at times it felt a little heavy handed. At first it was cute and quirky, but by the third movie reference, it was getting a bit old. Not knowing some of the movies mentioned also had some impact on understanding what they were trying to teach.

In terms of characters, Eli's obsession with winning back Victoria was a bit tiresome. Even when it seemed like he might be realizing he should just move on, he reverted back to wanting her. Then, when he finally does move on (slight spoiler coming), it didn't seem like it was because he came to his senses but because Victoria was truly unavailable with a new boyfriend. While it didn't feel like he settled for Leah, I didn't get the impression that his character had grown or realized the folly of his ways. At the same time, with all of the makeover work, it sends the message of changing to be loved. Even though Leah liked him without all of the changes, the message of "I like you just the way you are" is lost. I might not be the biggest fan of Eli's, but Leah was a wonderful character struggling with a sense of belonging after growing up as a foster child. It was great seeing her be accepted into a group of friends and discovering a new type of family. Speaking of the group of friends, there was at least one too many friends. Jillian got lost in the background and could have been completely erased from the story. All of the drama between Delia and Grey, while cute and subtly relevant to the whole not noticing someone in love with you, felt under developed. The first time it was mentioned felt like it came out of the blue. It would have been a cute subplot to explore further.

Ultimately this was a cute but slightly flawed rom com. That, though, just might be nitpicking. The story as a whole worked but it's attempt at being unique felt a bit forced.

You know how the story's supposed to go... but love makes its own plans.

Leah is used to being alone, especially after taking care of her sick foster mother for the past year. But now there’s nothing keeping her in the sweet town of Willow Cove. It’s time to move on. Again.

Eli thought he and Victoria were meant to be together until she decided to jet off to Rome for a year. Eli is determined to win her back. But how?

Changing Eli’s physical appearance is easy, but to turn Eli into the sophisticated-yet-vulnerable ideal man, his girl pals force him to watch classic rom-coms. And take notes.

Inadvertently drawn into the makeover scheme, Leah ends up being Eli’s guide through the wild world of meet-cutes and grand gestures. Even though she believes Eli doesn’t need to change a thing about himself. Even though she just might be falling for Eli . . . and Eli falling for her.

This story involves found family and friends to lovers tropes. It was a quick and cute read, a perfect beach read!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I felt like this was a really long book.
Eli spent way to long fixating on Victoria. It got kind of annoying after awhile.

This was my first Jayne Denker novel and it won’t be my last!

The story follows Leah—a young woman used to being on her own who came back to the small town she lived in through her teens to care for her sick foster mom; and Eli—a hopeless romantic blinded by the idea of love that falls fast and hard for Victoria, a woman whose just not that into him.

After Leah unintentionally overhears the worst moment in Eli’s life, their paths cross again in an unexpected way. Eli wants to win Victoria back, and while his friends don’t approve, they decide to help him make himself over into someone Victoria will want. With Leah working numerous odd jobs around town, she becomes the final member of Eli’s makeover team.

There were parts of this story that were heart breaking and parts where I was laughing out loud. The cast of characters is entertaining and fun to spend time with.

This book is great! I really enjoyed the story and could feel the characters chemistry from the very start. The references to other rom-coms always made me smile and made it even more relatable. I've already told a few friends to read it! Looking forward to reading more books from this author!

An unfortunate miss for me.

The dialogue made me cringe, the characters are horrible, immature, and are not interesting.

It's not even worth the in depth review to talk about how blah this was.

This had a cute concept, I especially liked that Eli was the one getting a makeover and part of the process included him watching classic rom com movies from the 80s and 90s. Leah was a really likable character with an interesting backstory but Eli really annoyed me. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting invested in the story. As much as I feel like it was meant to be a slow burn - it really just turned into a really awkwardly paced romance. Parts were really cute, it just did not do it for me.

While I was not the biggest fan of this book, I think that it has a lot of potential. If you’re looking for a fun rom-com to make you smile — read this.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I just love a good Rom Com that crosses over with classic movies and a small town setting! This book was everything and more with our tall rugged hero Eli and Leah who had to learn to trust. We got a makeover, but instead of the ugly duckling woman makeover Eli was the victim and it was entirely too enjoyable. Funnily enough I think this book would make a fantastic movie in the most meta way 😂

- romcom
- slow burn
- self acceptance
- small town
- friends to lovers

this was a sweet, small town slow burn kind of love. I loved the group of characters and what each brought to the story. I hope so see some of those characters in the future!!

This book has a really cute setup. It is a friends to lovers story set in a small town, which sounds like the perfect recipe for a heartwarming romance. If you're in the mood for something light and sweet, I'd definitely recommend giving it a read.

However, I have to admit that I did have some issues with the pacing and the way certain details were handled in this novel. The transition from friendship to romance didn't quite click for me, and the ending felt a little rushed and left some big loose ends untied.

That being said, if you're looking for a romance that's not too spicy and just want to enjoy a cute love story, this book could be just the thing for you!

This is a fun read! I liked the different characters involved and getting to know people but it was a little slow for me. It just wasn’t my cup of tea but I think others will definitely enjoy this book as a summer time read!

I really loved this story! I loved the connection that Leah and Eli feel. I love Eli’s friend group and how they are all supporting one another, while also being all up in each other’s business. Their friendship that blossoms into more is wonderful, I love that kind of connection and romance.

We meet Leah, who is a young woman who has been taking care of her foster mom for the past year while she struggles with cancer. Her foster mom passes away and Leah is left alone in the world with no friends or family besides the biological son of her foster mom who she never connected with. She doesn’t plan to stay in Willow Cove much longer - only enough time to work a bunch of part-time jobs to make enough money to get out.

We also meet Eli, who proposed to his girlfriend, Victoria, after only four months of dating and right before she leaves for Europe to study art. Eli’s friends and family are helping Eli transform himself both inside and out, so that he can be ready for when Victoria comes back and he can sweep her off her feet.

Because Leah works multiple jobs she is at many of the places that they take Eli for his transformation: first stop is new clothes. Over the course of the next few months Eli has to work on his internal transformation by watching every movie on a list that includes great romance, great heroes and men to look up to. Leah ends up helping him with this and they watch many a movie together. After awhile of them being friends, along with her being accepted by Eli’s crew, they both realize they have feelings for each other, but Leah is planning to leave and hasn’t told any of them and Eli is still planning to win Victoria back, but the question now is, does he still want to?

A few quotes I highlighted while reading:

Eli to Leah: “But, I mean, how many jobs do you have? Am I going to keep seeing you all over town? Because if that’s the case, I’m going to start calling you Kirk.” “Kirk?” “They guy who had all the different jobs on Gilmore Girls.”

“Don’t be a pessimistic pouty pants.”

“I’m sorry.” Leah took a breath but didn’t meet his eye. “It’s okay.” “Apparently it’s not.” - Can I have my own Eli please?

“I consider myself Team Books and Movies.”

This book includes a lot of familiar tropes, but it's so sweet that I was still completely invested!

Playing with some classic rom-com tropes, after Eli is dumped by his girlfriend Victoria who is moving to Italy, his friends and family encourage him to undergo a makeover to become the man of Victoria's dreams. Of course his friends and family don't actually like Victoria, and hope instead something might happen with Leah. It's a fun read, full of rom-com references. I didn't love a lot of the side characters, and I thought the ending was a little rushed, but overall it's a cute read that is clearly paying tribute to rom-coms.

Thanks to netgalley and the publish for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

💡Disclosure: I received a free eARC of this book on NetGalley.

I shouldn’t have finished this book. It wasn’t for me at all. I’m normally a fan of idiots in love dynamics but uh… this was too much. There was no real barrier between Eli and Leah getting together, which was especially apparent when nothing changed but magically they both accepted their mutual affection. I was too frustrated by both of them to be interested in how they would get together.

Also neither of them had a real… goal? Until like 75% of the way through the book. There were some surface level goals (like Leah fixing up her foster mom’s house to sell) but nothing either of them cared about them. They’re just sort of bouncing around while ostensibly Eli is working on wanting to get Victoria back, which I just didn’t care about because Eli is already the perfect romcom guy on page 1 except for the part where he wants to propose to someone he’s dated for a summer—which is not something the book seems to think is a problem. Because there were no other established goals for these two, once they admitted their feelings (as one knows they must due to the genre), I didn’t have anything to care about anymore.

I liked Leah except around Eli. The joke of her many part time jobs was good. The stuff about grief was good. I want her to succeed. Basically every other character though regrettably I didn’t care at all. I couldn’t keep track of the friend circle and thought most of their involvement with Eli’s love life was super creepy.

It was too sweet for me, syrupy. Just not for me. I’m sure someone else, a lot of other readers probably, will love it. But not me.