A second chance romance, with sass, class, and a whole lotta ass

Rae is a PR consultant, attending her best friend's wedding as her maid of honour. At the wedding she discovers the best man happens to be her ex-boyfriend Donavan, who betrayed her trust and left her with a lot of emotional baggage. When they are forced to go on a friends honeymoon with the newlyweds they may be forced to confront their past and maybe build a new future.

This was super fun, it had great humor, and I felt the chemistry. The writing just needed a bit of refinement. The logic and flow of the events needed to connect and flow better

Light summer read on second chance love.

It was a quick read, but found the build-up to be lacking. The pacing didn't seem quite right (spoiler - the "one week" vacation just flew by?) and felt rushed. I couldn't quite find our main character, Rae, relatable. The pain, the deception, mistrust, etc. made sense. However, the way she went about dealing with it / treating Van didn't make sense for somebody as confident and successful as she is. In fact, it felt hypocritical in many ways.

With that, I give it a 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 since it is better than 2 (due to the other characters being fun and loveable).

* Received copy for review**
2nd chance; forced proximity
Van has arrived to serve as best man in his best friends wedding. He has never met the bride and is stunned to find that the one who got away is the maid of honor.
Regan cannot believe that the man who broke her heart 5 years ago is the best man at her best friends wedding.
I love a 2nd chance where the wrong doer is groveling for a lot of the book. This book is different in that they are forced together as they are all going on the honeymoon together.
There were elements that i loved but one big part was a miss for me.
Overall, I’d recommend it.

Van messed up royally five years ago with his former love, Rae. Now she’s his partner in the wedding of,their best friends. But Rae is not in a forgiving mood. She’s in a vengeful, spiteful mood.
The sexual tension crackled in this book almost on every page.
I liked how Rae tortured Van because he deserved it so much. I do think the honeymooners inviting their friends along was very odd, but the story needed the friends’ influence and intervention.
Van suffered and that was satisfying to read, plus the smoldering looks he gives Rae anytime he’s near her.
He definitely earns it.

I really liked Earning It by E.F. Dodd. I am usually very meh about second-chance romance tropes but Earning It really pulled me in from the beginning.
The characters just pop off the pages, both main and side characters. You become invested with all of them. Rae and Van as the main characters were wonderful. I really felt the betrayal and hurt Rae had but totally understood Van’s frustration of her not being willing to listen. Van was meant to be the bad guy in the situation but he was made likable enough that you just wanted Rae to listen. The heat was spot on and just right.
There were parts where things were sort of hashed out multiple times from different angles. Loved the banter between everyone but thought that Rae sometimes tried too hard to make Van jealous. At one point I thought she was lucky that he seemed to like her a lot or else he might have just been gone.
I would recommend this and I am going to read the book prior to this featuring Rae’s best friend and the bride/groom in this book.
Thanks to NetGalley, E.F. Dodd, and Sugar Beaver Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story had all the right stuff for a romance novel and seemed like the kind of romance book I would enjoy, but for some reason I couldn't get really into it. It just didn't click with me.

What I liked:
I liked the dual POV and the romance tropes in it are some of my fav. The characters where nice and balanced, and the plot was fast-paced.

What I didn’t love:
This book has lots of repetitive dialogue, and this kind of made the reading feel like it was going slow. The ending felt rushed.

I loved Rae in all her petite, angry, spitefulness. And of course, Van was an excellent hero with equal parts contrite and tolerant of her antics. Yum! They have fun friends who help along this second-chance romance by providing the forced proximity in paradise. I loved the resort talent show scene. I could perfectly visualize the animated coordinator and the participants' hijinks.

Earning It, written by E.F. Dodd, follows Rae, a successful PR rep, as she is ambushed by her long time ex, Van, at her best friend’s wedding (and of course she’s the maid of honor and he’s the best man). She walked out on him years ago when she discovered that her whole relationship with Van was a lie, without giving him any chance to explain. When they are reunited again, Rae discovers that parts of her are still attached to him, no matter what she believes him to have done. But as Van begs Rae for a chance to explain, Rae begins to believe that maybe what she thought happened wasn’t the real story, and agrees to give Van a chance, as long as he can prove that he deserves one.
So first of all, a huge reason I enjoyed this book is because second-chance romances and dual POV. Rae and Van had so much chemistry from the get-go of this book, and I enjoyed reading every second of it. Another thing I really loved about this book was the dedication to maintaining Rae’s character, she is definitely stubborn and not willing to give up easily, and I’m glad that she didn’t just give in to Van’s words right at the beginning. And even though we know that Van isn’t the bad guy she thinks he is, I still loved that Rae stayed true to herself. It definitely made the book more interesting and fun to read, and I’m glad that the author maintained that dedication. Finally, I just really loved that there was such a strong aspect of friendship in this book too. It was basically a found family. I just really loved the friendship that they and Rae had, it was so heartwarming to read. Overall, I really did enjoy reading this book. I’d definitely would recommend to anyone looking for a cute second-chance romance!
I received this ARC from NetGalley and reviewed it voluntarily. All opinions are my own

Thank you to NetGalley and Sugar Beaver Books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Regan’s (Rae) best friend is getting married, but she had no idea that her ex boyfriend Donovan (Van) is the groom’s best man! After their relationship ended, Rae was left putting her life back together. Now that they’ve been reunited, Donovan will stop at nothing to try to get her back.

More than 1/3 of the book took place the day of the wedding. Rae and Van went back and forth, with all their friends involved, of her being hurt and him trying to get her to hear him out. I thought that once they got through the wedding, they’d have a conversation, she’d give him a chance, and we’d spend the rest of the book getting to see them rebuilding their relationship. When a honeymoon vacation with the whole wedding party was brought up, I could tell this was going to be a slower process than I’d thought.

I felt like this was part of a series, not a standalone, and I’d missed a whole lot of back story by not reading the others. Nope, this just started at a weird place for me.

I would’ve liked there to be a little more conflict between Rae and Van, and maybe a stronger reason for staying apart all those years. I liked the friend group, but could’ve used a lot more back story there. Overall I’d say it was just ok.

This book caught my eye from the cover. It looked like a perfect summer story and that's exactly what it was. It started off a bit slow for me but once it picked up, I was into it.

This was a really light and easy read! I enjoyed this book, and I did find myself caught up in the story. On a spice level I would give this a 2 out of 3 - and it was great! This had a great pace, and I loved the dynamic between the two friend groups. The guys (Dave, Jackson and Van) had some great banter. This starts with a wedding, moves to a group honeymoon, then ends up back home. I had never read a forced proximity with a group honeymoon situation before so I enjoyed this one! Reagan Murphy is such a great main character. I loved her sarcasm, and that she owned her sexuality as well. She wasn't a wallflower, but was still able to be sensitive. This was a great read, and would be a perfect summer read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sugar Beaver Books and Smith Publicity for the ARC.

I really wanted to like this book and yet page after page, chapter after chapter, I was kept wondering when I would get to a part that I would enjoy. I never did. The premise is simple enough: man and woman dated (lived together!), he messed up, she left, they don’t see each other again until circumstance forces them together, there is still attraction, he’s determined to apologize and win her back.

Here’s the big reason I didn’t like the book: the reason WHY she left him was absolutely legit and was, in my opinion, was such a transgression that I could not see how any woman could find a way to forgive him AND get back together. Just, no. HE LIED ABOUT WHO HE WAS FOR A YEAR. He manipulated their meeting, he pursued a relationship with her, they dated, THEY LIVED TOGETHER. How can someone even consider resuming a relationship that was initiated on such a big lie? I don’t get it.

The FMC, Regan, just increasingly annoyed me throughout the book. She seemed to thrive on being snarky, to the point of being rude, as well as finding ways to punish the MMC, Van. She came across as immature and silly. Was she wronged? Absolutely. She just couldn’t seem to let it go and deal with it in a mature way.

I felt that the writing was done through the male gaze. Reading scenes where the three woman are getting ready to go meet up with the guys while at the resort, and deciding what to wear (bathing suits, dresses, whatever), it seemed it was always focused on what they should wear to get the attention of men. The three guys came across as possessive, even with Van referring to Regan as his girlfriend to a towel boy, even though she wasn’t around and she definitely wasn’t his girlfriend at the time.

I received an eARC of the book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into this book. It was kind of slow in the beginning and then it got a little bit better from there.

💞Seemed slow despite short timeline😕

I was not particularly taken by this novel and had trouble making it to the end. At about 40 percent, when they were preparing for the group honeymoon trip, I lost interest and had to start skimming through all the group activities and Rae's confabs with BFFs V and Kez. Too bad, because the last part was better and revived my interest; I just wish it had come much sooner. The lead couple's past, how it ended and the obstacles to taking up where they left off were the highlights and could have stood on their own.

The basic romantic plot could have worked better if it had not been so entwined in the wedding and honeymoon of the couple's best friends. I just was not as interested in all the group activities. The idea that Rae and Van's surprise reunion as principals in their friends' wedding would have major repercussions on bridal couple Jackson and Key's enjoyment of their big event and their honeymoon was an unusual way to go but did not reflect well on Rae. I also thought Rae's attempts to rub her hookups in Van's face went too far.

Thanks to Sugar Beaver Books and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

My first Netgalley review! And how lucky am I that the first review I get to write is for a book that I enjoyed so much! This book brought a smile to my face at all the right moments, and it was such a pleasure to read.

Earning It, written by E.F. Dodd, follows Rae, a successful PR rep, as she is ambushed by her long time ex, Van, at her best friend’s wedding (and of course she’s the maid of honor and he’s the best man). She walked out on him years ago when she discovered that her whole relationship with Van was a lie, without giving him any chance to explain. When they are reunited again, Rae discovers that parts of her are still attached to him, no matter what she believes him to have done. But as Van begs Rae for a chance to explain, Rae begins to believe that maybe what she thought happened wasn’t the real story, and agrees to give Van a chance, as long as he can prove that he deserves one.

So first of all, a huge reason I enjoyed this book is because second-chance romances are some of my favorite tropes of all time. I feel like they always have the best chemistry, especially in that moment when they realize they have feelings for them again, or even better, they always did and they’re just realizing it now. And this book did that perfectly. Rae and Van had so much chemistry from the get-go of this book, and I enjoyed reading every second of it.

Another thing I really loved about this book was the dedication to maintaining Rae’s character, she is definitely stubborn and not willing to give up easily, and I’m glad that she didn’t just give in to Van’s words right at the beginning. And even though we know that Van isn’t the bad guy she thinks he is, I still loved that Rae stayed true to herself. It definitely made the book more interesting and fun to read, and I’m glad that the author maintained that dedication.

Finally, I just really loved that there was such a strong aspect of friendship in this book too. It was basically a found family, a group of three couples (well, in the beginning, two couples plus Rae and Van) that I really enjoyed reading about. Kez and V were definitely my favorite characters, and I kinda wished we had gotten to learn even more about them, even though they weren’t the focus of the book. I just really loved the friendship that they and Rae had, it was so heartwarming to read.

Overall, I really did enjoy reading this book. Sometimes romance novels can just throw me into a reading slump, but this book definitely didn’t, which is definitely a great sign! I’d give this book 4 stars, and I definitely would recommend to anyone looking for a cute second-chance romance!

Earning it by E.F Dodd is a book about second chances in love, friendship and vacation.

A book about second chances in love, friendship and vacation would have worked if it wasn’t for plot structure. 40% of the book took place on the same day i.e wedding day and the remaining on vacation.

Rae and Van are ex-lovers who reunited at Rae’s best friend Kaz’s wedding, where they were maid of honour and best man.

Rae and Van were annoying in the book. There was a lack of chemistry between them. Rae and Van didn’t want to ruin their best friends’ honeymoon because of their past relationship, but turned around and did the same thing. Rae gives mixed signals to Van for half of the book.

There was not enough back story about Rae and Van. The author only gave a glimpse of what happened between them. Instead of dragging the wedding scene, it would have been better if there was a proper background story of Rae and Van’s relationship and what happened between them.

There was nothing special about any of the characters, not even the MCs. They were all the same. The characters were immature. There was a lack of character development.

The friendship between Rae, Kaz, and V was my favourite aspect of the book. Rae always has Kaz and V's support and protects Rae. But they will also call out Rae wherever she’s wrong.

This book has lots of repetitive dialogue that made it look like the book was being dragged. The ending was rushed.

Those who love fast-paced plots, summer read and second chances in love themes might love this book.

I received a digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I rarely DNF, but sadly I DNF’d this one. Immediately I felt no connection to the characters, the setting, or the storyline. This story just wasn’t one for me.

This has to be the worst book I’ve read this year. I read carefully until halfway through, when I realized it wouldn’t get any less ridiculous until the end. I then hastily read the rest, and, sadly — I was right.

I cringed the whole way through. From making her best friend’s wedding all about herself to making sexual innuendos while with her friend’s husbands, this book made me roll my eyes so far back my head hurt when I got to the end. Would not recommend.

This book is not for me. The book starts of confusing which I wasn't a fan off. DNF





**********************************************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley.*******************************************************

This book lands at at 3.75 stars for me. I think it is the perfect summer read! Second-chance romance is one of my favorite tropes to read and overall this book delivered in ways, but was also lacking in others. About 40% of the book took place a the wedding that both main characters were attending. The wedding is important for setting up the book and knowing the background of these two characters I feel that because so much time was spent on this part of the book other parts were lacking. I wish that we got to see more of Rea and Van during their week on vacation. I feel that because we didn't see this we missed a lot of possibilities for character development and realizations. I feel the end of the book was rushed because of this as well. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I would recommend giving it a read!