At first when I started reading I was confused because there were so many names, I was like wait. Who is who? Nonetheless I decided to go on.
Oh this book was lovely, so lovely. I was laughing so many times and I literally finished this in one night. The MC and her best friends amazing 🤣. I loved how there was so much loveeeee in this. The second chance in this book was second chancing 👏🏾.
Absolutely loved it
I feel like the redemption part was a bit quick, hell it was wayy to quick. I would have loved to see the make MC begggggggg even more, but it is what it is.

This isn't a novel, it's an episode of a soap opera. There's a confusing cast of characters and the motivations aren't grounded at all. Perhaps it's just not for me.

A second chance romance with groveling and one sided hate to love, what could go wrong? Sadly, a lot. Honestly, there's a lot wrong in this book: (1) telling, not showing, (2) trying hard to be liberal and free, yet everyone is in traditional relationships, (3) immaturity, overhype with body types, lack of body positivity, fatphobia, and (4) all the characters are basically the same person, no real diversity. There are so many characters thrown at you and it felt like half the book happened in a day! Its hard to keep track of who and what and honestly, the pacing is pretty fast for a second chance. The main characters had hardly a drop of chemistry and it the same conversation was repeated over and over again.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I would like to thank Netgalley and all involved for allowing me to read Earning It by E.F. Dodd in advance for an honest review.

Love, betrayal, careers, honeymoons, vacations, friends... This book was full of what I dream to have men treat me like. The men in this book were head over heels in love with the female characters and they SHOWED it. I absolutely loved it.

Regan Murphy (Rae) and Donavan McLeod (Van) have a sketchy past full of heartbreak, betrayal, and the inability to ask for forgiveness.

At her best friends wedding Rae discovers that her ex boyfriend is the best man and she's about to be stuck on a week long vacation in a group honeymoon with the only person she's allowed in her heart. What will happen?

This book was good. True reasoning to hate someone. Enemy to lover situation with a lot of effort for forgiveness. What brought this book from a 4-star to a 3-star rating was almost too much groveling, and whiplash of emotions it pulled me out of the story a couple times and made it less enjoyable. It was also pretty repetitive and didn't hold me as a reader as much as I was hoping.

All-in-all I enjoyed the read and would recommend to people who enjoyed "Unhoneymooners"

I love a laugh out loud romcom and Earning It did not disappoint.
Rae is a confidently sassy and realistic character, and watching Van attempt to explain and right the wrongs that occurred in their shared past was realistic and charming. The supporting characters felt like friends, and the setting lended a perfect vibe for this fun beach read.

3.5 ⭐
Fans of chick lit/romantic comedies will love this light tale of an unexpected encounter with an old flame. It starts out slow, but picks up and sucks you in.
When Van showed up to his best friend's wedding, he had no idea that RAE was his Reagan from his past. They didn't part on the best of terms and the memory of her had been haunting him for the past 5 years. He made some huge mistakes, but as soon as he sees her, he is determined to try for a second chance.
Rae is finally in a groove with her life and work. When she runs into Van at her best friend's wedding, she is shocked and wants to run. Or maybe scream. Or hit him. She can't decide. When she realizes they are stuck together for the next week, she has to decide what to do. Make his life a living hell (payback), or give him another chance.

Thanks to netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

** spoiler alert ** Received ARC from NetGalley, hugely appreciated this.

Now, onto the story. Rae is a bridesmaid at her friend’s wedding and to her horror best man is the only person she thought she would never see.
The first 40% of the book takes place over 24 hrs and then we have honeymoon (seriously who takes 4 other people on their honeymoon?).
It is very clear from the start of the book, this is a story of lost love and redemption. What is really annoying is how author shorten names (Rae, Van for Donovan, Kez and V), it is getting confusing and annoying.

The story is predicable but quite enjoyable.

My favourite tropes are second chance romance and enemies to lovers . This story was pointing at that from the description alone. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past the 20-% mark and had to dnf. It’s not something that I enjoyed and the characters just felt like spoiled kids to me. I’m really sorry.


Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

2.5 ⭐️

When I read the blurb I was so sure I was going to enjoy this story. It’s a second chance romance with groveling and one sided hate to love. These are some of the tropes I really enjoy but sadly it didn’t work in this story.

First of all I had problems connecting with the main characters because we get introduced to so many characters in the beginning that it was kind of hard to keep track of who’s who. And it didn’t help that half of the book took place on one day and the second half took place in a few days and the main characters were always surrounded by their friends.

The romance lacked chemistry. It also got really repetitive. It was almost always the same conversation between Van and Rae. It would be him trying to apologize then Rae rejecting him but also giving him mixed signals. There was no real progress to their relationship until like 70%.

Overall this romance sadly didn’t work for me. But if you like fast paced second chance romances you might enjoy this.

Thank you Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for a review!

Rae and Van unexpectedly reunite five years after their dramatic breakup at a wedding where they are the maid and man of honor respectively. The wedding is torturous and it literally lasts for half of the book. Van desperately wants a second chance but Rae won't give him the time of day. But then, surprise! The newlyweds arranged a group honeymoon so the torture continues and the plan to earn Rae's love back begins.

This is a textbook on how to make your problem everyone's problem. I enjoyed it though but it was hard not to roll my eyes at how immature these characters are. Take a shot everytime you read they "bonded over X alcoholic drink" or an out of place sexual innuendo is made. I also thought it was funny how the author made a point of describing the wedding as super liberal and non-traditional but throughout the book the couples are very old-fashioned and perfectly stick to gender roles. Still, I'd recommend it as a fast, entertaining read with some spice.

I'm so sad this one didn't work for me! It seemed like the kind of romance book I would enjoy, but while the premise was interesting, the structure and execution of it didn't work at all for me.

First, I want to say that I think the author's writing is strong, but the way this story was structured didn't do them any favors. It didn't fully capture Rae and Van's relationship before or after their breakup, making reading it very tiring. The first 40% all took place in one day. It was INCREDIBLY repetitive. It felt like I was reading the same scenes/conversations but in different formats, which got tiring fast. This entire section could have been condensed to something much shorter, and we wouldn't have missed a thing. The next part of the group honeymoon does end up going a little faster, but it's still not all that enjoyable because it's in the same location. And while you do get to see Van grovel, the tension between him and Rae never seems that believable because we don't get a complete showing of their past. In a second-chance romance novel like this, it's necessary for the reader to understand and see their relationship before the falling out, for them to root for their relationship to work now. This story didn't do that.

Sadly, this story ends up falling into the mistake of telling, not showing. At least for me, this is its biggest mistake and its downfall. Instead of showing us Rae and Van's love story, their breakup, and their reunion, we get told it majorly through conversations. This doesn't make for a very enjoyable or entertaining experience for a reader. Instead, it makes the story slow, repetitive, and lackluster.

I think this story could have worked if it had made these changes. I apologize in advance if this sounds like an editorial letter, but I really wanted this story to work!

For starters, we get told why Rae feels so betrayed by Van through a conversation with her friends. This was so disappointing! It completely took away from the reveal. And, here's the thing, the reveal is a GOOD one. That was shocking. It would've been a great plot point, but getting told instead of seeing it for ourselves means that we don't get to go through the betrayal with her, nor do we get to sympathize with her. SO many of the conversations the friends have about the past could have been written into actual scenes, so we see things as they happen rather than being told them. It would have allowed us to go through things with the characters rather than feel like we're simply hearing about them.

This made me think that this story would have worked better if it had been told in a past and present format. Have it start with the wedding, have Rae and Van see each other for the first time, and then have chapters detailing their past relationship. Then we could have seen how they met, how their relationship grew, how they fell in love, and then we could have seen the reveal (Rae finding out the truth) towards the middle of the novel and have the later half be Van trying to make it up to her. This also would have allowed the scenes at the wedding not to get too tiring, drawn out, or repetitive because we would have had the chapters of their past to read in between those sections. That would have allowed us to go through their relationship, feel Rae's betrayal, and then root for Van to get her book. Sadly, giving us fragments of how Rae found out and not even full chapters of their past relationship makes it hard to care for either of them or their relationship. How are we supposed to sympathize with Rae if we don't even understand why she felt the way she did? There's no way for us to care for either one of them without an in-depth look into their past relationship. Sadly, the breadcrumbs that we got didn't do it for me. In turn, this made it so that I didn't feel the tension or chemistry between the two in the later half of the story, so Van "earning it" wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.

I'm very sad this one didn't work for me. Again, I think the author's writing is strong, and they're capable of writing a great romance novel. All the pieces are there, but the structure, organization, and format must be different for their writing to shine through. I'm giving them two stars because I think the premise is incredibly interesting and unique, and their writing was very close to being it for me. And I'll make sure to keep an eye on their upcoming stories because I do think this carries the merit and potential of them being a great romance author in the future!

As always, thank you, Netgalley and Sugar Beaver Books, for giving me the chance to read early in exchange for an honest review!

Earning It by E.F. Dodd is the second chance story of Rae and Van.

After going through a break-up in the past, Rae has enough of romance and rather wants to focus on herself and therefore she even moves to a new city. Her best friend Kez is soon to be married and as the maid of honor she is there for her friend. But on the wedding day, Rae meets the man of honor and that is no one other than the guy who broke her heart.

Van is an FBI agent and when he met Rae, he was working on a case and never mentioned his work. When Rae found out his role, she was not amused and broke off their relationship. But his job is super complex and she didn’t see any of that or even gave him a chance to explain. Now it’s his chance to clear up the air and earn back her trust.

From the beginning, I could feel that Rae and Van truly loved each other and both were affected after their break-up. Now with the wedding of their best friends, it provides a good opportunity for them to come to terms with what happened in the past. While Van wants to move on from it and he gives her the room she needs. Rae is still very stuck on the past and can hardly move on from it. The focus of the book was definitely on them working on a new relationship and through that I couldn’t really form a good connection to either of them. I liked them as a couple, but their individual characters were a bit lacking and the third person narrative only added more distance to it.

Overall, Earning It is a fun romance that could also be a good summer read. 3 stars.

(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

Fun summer read for romance lovers! Characters were somewhat two dimensional at times and most of their interactions were around their conflict without much depth and background of who they were. Plot was interesting but got a little repetitive and simple. Sexy scenes in the last third of the book.

3.5 stars!

"Earning It" by E.F Dodd is a second-chance, forced proximity romance where Van and Rae, former lovers who haven't seen each other in five years, are thrust together as best man and maid-of-honor at the wedding of their two best friends. Van finally has a chance to grovel and atone for the sins of his past after he wronged Rae half a decade ago when she discovered the truth about him.

I thought this book was a fun, summery read with a good amount of steam. One thing I really enjoyed was the premise. I like how Rae and Van are thrown back into each other's life unsuspectingly. Some of Van's caginess as a character had me thinking this story was going to go a totally different route...and I kind of wish it had. E.F. Dodd does a good job building reasons why these characters feel the way they do toward one another.

In my opinion, the length hurts this book. It could have been a little shorter. It feels like a lot of details and scenarios are repeated merely for the sake of lengthening the page count. It took me a bit longer this one because I didn't always connect with the characters.

Other than that, this is a perfectly fine book. Nothing awful or overly memorable about it.

Thank you to NetGalley, and the author, for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated in any way for my review.

“You always had a way with words,” he said as he walked in the direction Ms. Williams pointed. “So did you,” said Regan. “Only your way was to twist them into lies.”

Regan Murphy's bestfriend is getting married and she is obviously the maid of honor. Regan's excitement however is short-lived when she learns that the groom's bestman is none other than her ex who deceived her and broke her heart. But Donovan McLeod is determined to prove that he still loves her and is willing to do anything to get her back. Well the plot was entertaining and I liked the side characters. The first half was really well written and I could feel the connection and chemistry between Rae & Van but towards the end, the book dragged on a lot and I started to lose interest. Rae was a strong main character who could throw some good comebacks and could hold up on her own. Van was very sweet and the way he put efforts to show her that he wanted a second chance was credible. Overall, I enjoyed this book, it is a good read to pass a few hours, so I'll go with a 3.5 star rating for this.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me the ARC

Earning It by EF Dodd is a second chance romance, with a touch of enemies to lovers and forced proximity. Rae is excited for her best friend to marry the love of her life, but when the best man turns out to be her ex who she hasn’t seen in the five years since she walked out, the wedding day could turn out to be a disaster waiting to happen. Meanwhile, the best man, Donovan, can’t believe his luck in possibly getting a chance to explain himself to the one who got away, if she’ll only listen to him.

This book makes for a good day at the beach, quick read. It’s an easy read, featuring drinks with good friends, days on the beach, and some steamy moments.

For me personally, this book didn’t quite work. It felt like the editing could have been a little tighter, and may have worked better as a long novella rather than a full length novel. There is a lot of repetition in conversations and thoughts (a lot of telling rather than showing, and a lot of internal thinking from the MCs rather than actual communication.) The book is largely based on the miscommunication trope, or rather no communication trope. Van (Donovan) made a huge mistake when he and Rae were together, for misguided, but ultimately understandable reasons; Rae doesn’t hear him out in the moment, runs away, and he never bothers to find her to explain himself. And then, once they’re reunited, Rae refuses to hear him out for a long time.

The pacing of the book was another issue for me. The first 40-45% of the book is at the wedding of their friends (which also, while their friends are incredible for helping these two on their WEDDING DAY, had it been my wedding day I probably would have requested everything be put on hold until the day after. I don’t know, the whole wedding/group honeymoon being the place of them hashing things out was an…interesting choice. There was a lot of hemming and hawing about not wanting to ruin things for their friends, and then them doing things that did exactly that. It did give the forced proximity thing, but it was also incredibly selfish, and doesn’t paint either of the MCs in the best light.) The second half of the book occurs over a week on the group honeymoon/vacation planned by the bride and groom.

There were also a few…somewhat problematic things for me. First, there was a huge emphasis on toned bodies and the working out it took to stay sexy. Which, I know this is pretty common, BUT, we’re also coming into a time where it should be more background, a one liner if it’s deemed necessary to be in there. Otherwise, there’s the element of fatphobia, which while there was no overt commentary on fat bodies, and likely wasn’t really considered as an issue, it felt juvenile and overdone. And then, there was an ableist line “the implication in the question would’ve been obvious to a deaf man.” Insensitive and unnecessary. Hopefully it’s caught by a sensitivity reader and reworded for the actual publication.

Now that I’ve covered what didn’t work for me, here’s what did. Rae was unapologetic in who she was. Love seeing that in an MC, even if I don’t fully love the MC. The friends were amazing - close knit, able to listen and protect, while still reminding the MCs of their flaws/errors. We all need those friends who are able to be supportive, love us, and still call us out on our BS.

Overall, while this particular book didn’t quite work for me, I would likely read another book by this author. Earning It has gotten great reviews from others; so, if second chance, forced proximity, with a little enemies to lovers, and a FMC who is unapologetically bold is your jam, it may be worth giving it a try!

enjoyable read.. Rae.. The main character is heartbroken.. ( which is a really cliche way to start the story. But ok).. Tho the character interactions are good. But i wasnt getting really into the story.. It become boring at some point

1.0

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book - it's a romance for sure, however, it is so incredibly cliche and uninteresting that you can't really root for the main couple or believe the plot. Everything is like whiplash in this book, things happen so quickly that you forget what happened before, and the plot is just whacky. I think the most egregious thing was the tension between the two main leads - Rae and Van; their chemistry was non-existent, and their journey to healing their relationship was written so terribly. Their love story has a lot of emotional weight - there is potential there for a heart-breaking but light road to reconciliation for them - but the way the characters are written, along with the unbelievable plot, you kind of just feel indifferent about their romance.

The characters also seem to act like they're teenagers for some reason - being horny and childish, which is fine I guess BUT they're all written the same so I just didn't see the need to care about any of them. Literally, all the characters ARE THE SAME, there is very little nuance between them - they all give out relationship advice, they all are excitable around their naked significant others, they all talk the same, it was jarring. Sometimes I didn't even keep up with who was talking because they're the same characters.

Also the sex scenes were SHOCKINGLY BAD. Girl, there's no sexual tension between Rae and Van but you expect me to believe that they have mind blowing sex??? And the sex is the most VANILLA SEX I've ever read. Vanilla sex is fine if it's written well with likable characters - this just didn't hit the mark.

Not that it's bad, but why does this feel like it was written for Wattpad?

*This review contains spoilers. Huge thank you to Net Galley for providing this ARC*

2.5 ⭐️ - For some reason, I couldn’t get into this book until the last 25% of it, when things started to take off for me. The story follows Rae and Van as they try to rekindle their romantic relationship after five years apart.

Things I liked about this book:

1. The female protagonist seemed badass. I like heroines that do not shy away from making their voices heard and they’re feelings known. If they feel wronged, they have zero qualms into making it obvious just how much they do not like you or trust you. Some might call it petty; I say it’s honestly in its most unapologetic form (It’s probably why I love enemies-to-lovers so much).

2. They never shied away from their affairs with other people. In the beginning, I was afraid when we got the explanation on how Van was someone who’d had physical relationships with other people but was never able to fall in love again, because I thought the author would paint Rae as someone who’d stay celibate or something like that… Nope. They may both still have feelings for each other but understood that their relationship was done, and they both tried to move on to other people in a way that felt right to them.

3. The showcase scene – During the entire book, every female character is extremely sexualized and objectified, constantly talking about wearing next to nothing, ready and willing to flaunt themselves for male attention. Nothing wrong with that, but it was nice to know that this wasn’t just a thing for the women in the book, but that the men also had their time of ‘I enjoy attention, look at me!’.

Things I didn’t like about this book:

1. Not stating clearly that THIS IS A SEQUEL: I picked up this book thinking it was a stand-alone, but it became apparent within the first pages that it very much wasn’t. It immediately made me want to go and find whatever book was written about Kez and Jackson - I’m sure for someone already invested in those two characters would be very happy with this book, but as someone who had no idea it was a follow-up to a different story, I felt somewhat lost in the number of details given to secondary characters, even just in the first chapter. We know virtually nothing about our MC, but we got a full run-down of her best friend’s story, next to her soon to be husband and their family. I mean, it was nice to put us in perspective, but it’s a bit too much information on side characters.

2. Ridiculous (and viral) vows: If you’re on TikTok you’ve probably heard of Caitlin Reilly’s mock wedding vows viral video, but if not, all you have to do is read the vows scene in this book. My notes on the scene read: “OMG! – There’s a ‘Jason, if you had told me, a year and a half ago, today, that the guy taking my order at Outback Steakhouse, would one day be my husband, I WOULD HAVE NEVER BELIEVED YOU.’ LMFAO, I’ve literally had to stop reading, I’m tearing up! I’m going to go find that TikTok.” I had to literally take a break; I was laughing so much, and I don’t think the author intended for this scene to be the funniest in the entire book, but it was to me.

3. Extremely gendered language: I know that this isn’t a big problem to some, but it really does bother me when author’s describe things as feminine or masculine when referring to objects. Gender is a construct, and anything can be feminine or masculine depending on who’s using it. If you are a male-identifying person wearing make-up, or a skirt, or long hair, then those things are masculine. If you’re a female-identifying person doing… honestly anything, fix a car, play sports, do anything you want, and IT’S FEMININE. Period. But this book is so riddled with these little, almost subtle, misogynistic messages, that just made enjoying the story a lot more difficult for me. Things like “random articles of feminine crap” or “despite the explosion of femininity in the room” made it so hard for me to focus - and those two are only the examples in pg. 123.

4. Van’s entitlement & Rae’s manipulation back-downs: Both MCs are somewhat problematic, and although I recognized that Rae was outwardly trying to toy with Van to rile him up and make him pay a little, I wasn’t all that bothered about it, as I get that it’s kind of the whole point of the book. Or I wasn’t bothered until two things happened: First, Van would get upset, and instead of talking to her or trying to put a stop to the situation by speaking up, he just upped and left like a 4-year-old being told they can’t have ice-cream after dinner. He keeps saying that he’s willing to put up with anything, do whatever it takes to make her hear him out, but when the time comes to put up with her jabs, or just sit under the scrutiny and accusations of things THAT HE HAS ACTUALLY DONE, he just disappears. Then, the second thing that bothered me would happen, which is that every time, Rae would immediately feel guilty (or made feel guilty by their friends) and would follow him and try to strike a conversation with him so he could feel appeased and more at ease with his own actions. This happens multiple times in the book, but nothing really changes. If Van doesn’t what to put up with Rae’s games, then he could just stop trying. If she felt guilty about toying with him, she could stop too, but does it happen? Nope. Neither of these characters knew how to stick to their guns and it. was. so. annoying.

5. Ultimately, there is no excuse. I thought that, by the end of the story we would be privy to a more in-depth view of what had happened all those years ago. I thought Van would have a couple of details about the case against her old boss that would put it all into perspective, and justify his actions, manipulations and lies, but it never came. He just admits to his own cowardice and failures, and although that’s more than I expected for a character as emotionally immature as him, it still didn’t grant any new reasons to earn Rae’s forgiveness or trust. Leaving his job was an uncalled and, honestly, predictable move to try to manipulate Rae into taking him back.

Overall, this book was fine. It was an easy read with a couple of laughs and, sometimes, that is all you can ask for in a book.

2.5/5 ⭐️

EARNING IT
By EF Dodd
3/5

Woah! This one was a ride. Minor Spoilers Ahead!

Regan Murphy is the maid of honor at her best friend's wedding and on the big day is surprised to find the best man is none other than her ex of five years, Donovan McLeod. Obviously, chaos ensues.

What I liked:
The friendship between Rae and her two friends, Kez and V.
This gave me The Unhoneymooners vibes with the whole wedding + enemy wedding party + reluctant vacation bit.
Rae doesn’t give in to the swoon-worthy Van immediately.
Well-timed flashback scenes.

What I didn’t like:
I’m not kidding when I say the first *half* of the book takes place at the wedding. We’re talking like 150 pages spent on what is basically 12 hours.
Rae reallllllly made this poor guy grovel. It was maybe a bit much for me.

Read this if you love:
♥️ second chance love
♥️ enemies to lovers
♥️ major groveling
♥️ steamy
♥️ dual pov

Thank you to NetGalley and Smith Publicity and Sugar Beaver Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Will be posted on @booklovingtaylor on 8/3.