This started off so strong, but then it quickly lost the plot. As I was reading it, I kept thinking it would be a near-perfect read if more editing and character-building were utilized. The second half felt particularly meandering and aimless. You know who her ultimate love interest will be pretty much as soon as he's introduced, but the book takes you through way too many pointless scenes with the other one-dimensional, trope-y men. As a result, it feels like we barely have any time with the real love interest and his relationship with Ana. The main character's relationship with her best friend is also very shallow and one-sided, and when they do finally argue, it's basically resolved without any real discussion, and the best friend's own subplot is never wrapped up.

Is it still a fun and easy read? Yes. Is it a little frustrating because of how poorly executed certain things are? Yes.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was a Do Not Finish for me at about 60%. I've seen other good reviews for the book, so it might have just not been my cup of tea or the mood I was in since I'm a mood reader. I may go back and reread it at some point and I would definitely try another book by this author in the future.

Ana Karina (really with the name?) is a reality tv producer who has been manipulating the reality (we all know this happens) but she's unhappy with her own life and sets off on a journey of discovery. This is a well trod theme but it's not well executed here largely because Ana is pretty unlikable. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I DNF.

Ana Takes Manhattan was such a fun and witty read! I loved the setting, and the humor found throughout the book. I didn't care for how chaotic the story was and some of the characters seemed underdeveloped.

Read if you like:
- NYC setting
- Reality tv shows

I want to preface this by stating while I did not enjoy this book, I really do hope others do. There’s much in the narrative that will get you laughing and smiling, and while the romance didn’t hit for me, it may very well for you.

But for me, this book simply wasn’t it. At least not the way I would have liked.

》The Lead《

Ana was a character I went through highs and lows with. The highs came in moments of true endearment...when her character started to feel more three-dimensional and relatable. At one point she discusses the traditions of her family New Years throughout her life and it was literally word for word how I grew up as well. It brought such a smile to my face. Moments like those endeared me to Ana.

But they faded all too soon.

Her character read rather superficial and shallow. On one hand, it is interesting to read a character that one may not immediately warm up to— there’s certain immaturity and judgmental attitude she needs to work through, and eventually she gets there, but for some (aka me), it takes too long to do so.

》The Romance《

The true romance took too long to develop, and when it finally started I found I simply did not care. It didn’t feel genuine, there was lack of chemistry which became a lack of care on my part. That said, ironically my favorite character is the main love interest. I actually really liked him! And maybe if that facet of the story had been developed earlier, or just had been more present, I may have had another perspective on the romance as a whole.

》Toxic Friendship《

Romance books, for me, always need to have strong friendships within it. Characters our lead(s) can rely on as they navigate the workings on their heart. Unfortunately, the main friendship in this book felt toxic and, like much of the book, shallow. I was really disheartened by it.

》The Lists《

I can only take so much of the numbered lists on every other page. It became distracting rather than add to any of the endearment I would sometimes feel for the lead and story.

》The Ick Factor《

In one of my previous reviews I discuss how one of my no-gos in reading is cheating, be it emotional, physical, what have you. It happened too often for my liking in this story. This is more of a personal nitpick because I am sure others would view this facet much more differently than me, which is fair. But this was a massive red light for me.

》It’s Okay, that’s Life《

I wanted romance, but didn’t get much of it. I did get some laughs, some heartwarming moments along the way, but it was cluttered with lists, too many devolving almost-love stories, and a lead who rang more juvenile than adult.

It wasn’t the book for me, but I hope you find in it what I could not.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book doesn’t start out in the right way. I don’t like jumping into a book that has already “started”, and this one drops us right in the middle of a situation that we have no context for. From the get-go, I was lost. It seemed like the author wanted us to feel left out of the story. I didn’t feel like any of the characters had chemistry, and I felt more awkward than anything while reading different interactions.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

(3.75) Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel! I thought that Ana was a well-written character and I enjoyed reading her story. I also really liked each of the men that she was pursuing. They each brought something really important to Ana's journey and were effective vessels for the lessons she needed to learn. I am also a sucker for understated chemistry that simmers below the surface until the end, and her and Richard were just that. I also was happy about the fact that any discontent between the characters was reasonable and resolved at a normal pace. The main thing I didn't love about this novel was that there were a lot of characters packed into such a short novel. I didn't think all of them were fleshed out as much as they could have been and some could have been cut altogether.

Thank you @readforeverpub for this book. I was intrigued by the premise of this story of Ana who is a producer of a marriage proposal reality show. The book was entertaining but I felt both Gia and Ana were way too immature and didn't agree with their behavior. I was expecting more romance but this book was more women's fiction. I was a bit annoyed with Ana's list and how she thought she can create a perfect boyfriend.

While the premise of Ana Takes Manhattan was intriguing, the author clearly understands the reality TV setting, and several of the characters were interesting, I struggled with several aspects of the story. Several of Ana’s love interests seemed firmly two dimensional, and her relationship with her best friend also was hard to understand. The ending also seemed a little rushed - the resolution of several story threads wasn’t satisfactory.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing), Forever and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital arc

A story about more than just romance, but loving yourself enough to know that you deserve love. Oh and the reality tv aspect is so fun!

3 stars! Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed the premise of this story but I have mixed feelings about the execution. It was really nice to see a woman like Ana figure out what she wants in her professional career and in her personal life. I liked Ana’s growth and how she was willing to take chances and put herself out there. It was nice to see how career oriented she was!

However I didn’t love her personality because she was so immature and her friendship with Gia felt a little toxic. I didn’t think Ana was super likable initially because she was very judgmental so I had a hard time connecting with her. The characters felt a little one sided and everything felt surface level so it was hard to understand the characters and root for them. Especially in regards to her friend Gia who behaved very inappropriately throughout the story.

Also the story ended abruptly which is weird because I felt like the story dragged on and on.

I think Ana learns a lot about herself and what she wants in life. The romance that was in the story had so much potential but didn’t really do anything for the story. Unfortunately, the story fell flat for me.

Ana Karina, a second-generation Cuban-American from New Jersey and now in her thirties, works for a large New York company that produces dozens of reality shows and documentaries for TV, and for the past eight years she’s been the producer of "Marry Me, You Fool!", a reasonably successful weekly show about highly original marriage proposals. Not dating, not weddings, just the proposals. To Ana, it’s all about optimism and hope. Most recently, however, her set-up of a proposal involving a Central Park fountain, a children’s choir, a flock of trained swans, and a tenor, went south when the guy went down on one knee and the girl who insisted she loved him fled in terror. So much for that budget and now Ana’s worried that she might get sacked.

Ironically, of course, Ana herself hasn’t been in a relationship since her boyfriend in college years ago, who turned out to be a jerk. But she still can’t stop thinking about him. Her best friend since their college days is Gia, who was born in Brazil, and is gorgeous, smart, and also in media, and who seems to get whatever she wants. (The longest she has ever been without a devoted boyfriend is twelve minutes.) Right now, Gia’s busy planning her wedding to Matt, a millionaire entrepreneur. Or, rather, Ana’s doing all the planning, which is taking almost as much of her waking hours as her paying job. But the bonus is Landon Wright, Matt’s own best friend (and Best Man), and Ana has had a major crush on him since the first time she saw his photo. But then there’s that electrician working on her sets who has asked her out and who is more than a decade her junior. And also the older artist Gia is trying to set her up with and who is more than a little creepy.

It’s not-bad rom-com, partly because the author herself is a Cuban-American with fifteen years’ experience in producing TV shows about love and relationships, so one may assume she knows what she’s talking about in terms of the background and setting. The book tries a bit too hard in places, but that’s a common fault of debut novels. As a first effort, this one is definitely worth your time.

I loved this book SO MUCH! It had me laughing right from the start. Sure, Ana was an immature MC but that seems to be the trend in new romance lately. I think it was done well. As for dating more than one guy at a time, at least she was putting herself out there and it was probably a lot more real than many would like to admit. I also think super sweet best friends have been done to death.

This story was right up my alley of interest with me being a huge fan of the TV series Unreal. I would love to see more from this author! 4.5/5 Stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC.

I have mixed feelings about the story. While I liked Ana’s growth and her willingness to take chances, I didn’t love her personality, her relationship with Gia, or the abrupt ending. I think for most of the characters, I wanted more development so I could understand their motivations and perspectives.

Ana is an interesting character. Picky and snarky, she is a bit self-centered and a very career oriented at the start of the book. I didn’t think she was super likable initially. She’s a little judgmental and really snarky, and I had a hard time connecting with her.

Ana’s best friend Gia is not the most likable either, and I kind of wondered why they were friends. There seem to be some unresolved issues going on, and they are never really addressed. On top of that, Gia is just not nice. She does a lot of inappropriate things that betrayed her fiancee, and I just didn’t get it.

Ana has a great career and is super motivated (and an awesome list-maker), but she feels like she’s missing something. She starts to say yes more and takes chances she wouldn’t have before, which results in some interesting experiences. I think Ana learns a lot about herself and what she wants in life as she dates men who don’t quite meet her criteria on the course to finding a deeper and more meaningful romantic relationship. I wish the romance were explored more because it has so much potential. Unfortunately, the story fell flat for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

Cute cover, cute premise, and a light, easy read. Ana was a fun MC and I enjoyed the voice of the novel. I'd definitely look for more from this author in the future.

Thanks to Forever for providing a copy of this book to read through Netgalley in exchange for a review.

FIrst off: this cover is 5 stars!

The story was cute, but oh good lord it dragged on for me. I don't think anything really got going until around the 70% mark and that's just too long for me!!

ALl in all, a cute and sweet story, but one where I never fully connected with the main characters.

This one ended up being a miss for me. I felt like I was watching a plane crash and I just had to sit by as it fell. The parts of the book that worked were few and far in between. I just wasn’t having fun while reading it. If it hadn’t been an ARC, I probably would have DNFed it unfortunately.

I LOVE a book about a TV show, so I knew going in that this was going to be a fun read for me.

Of course, I very much enjoyed the book. The somewhat chaotic plot moved quickly and it was easy to root for Ana and all of her antics. At times, she did seem a bit immature, but I think that can be true of anyone going through a stressful time.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and thought it was an impressive debut. Thank you forever for the advanced copy!

I finished ANA TAKES MANHATTAN just a couple of hours ago and I’m conflicted.

I think I liked it? I also think I probably wouldn’t recommend it to others.

⭐️ rating: 3.5 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
📖 genre: romance? woman’s fiction?
🔥 steam: closed door, weird fetishes mentioned

Let’s start with the things I liked:
✨ The character of Ana was funny. You could see she was a perfectionist and dedicated to her friends and career.
✨ I loved the frequent use of lists in the book! It gave a different kind of insight into Ana.
✨ The moments we did get to see between Ana & Richard were fun and definitely flirted with being “enemies-to-lovers.”
✨ It was interesting to see Ana try to date multiple men at once.
✨ It was for sure laugh-out-loud funny.

Things that didn’t quite work for me:
✨ It took about 40-50% of the book for me to actually figure out the plot. So I enjoyed the second half more than tue first.
✨ A lot of the characters were so one dimensional. Even Ana was a tough nut to crack - but she had a “revelation” at the end which gave her some depth.
✨ There we’re so many characters and plot lines that you didn’t really feel yourself get invested in any of the characters.
✨ Gia. That’s it.

That all being said - I enjoyed the writing style & the overall story was one that I liked seeing! You don’t often see books about just dating multiple men without it turning into an orgy or just a lot of open door scenes.

I’d read another book by Decos!

I saw a lot of reviews saying the characters were immature and I didn't feel the same. I actually really enjoyed this book! It was a pretty quick, easy read. A lighthearted romance!

There's a good sense of humor in the writing and I found myself laughing out loud numerous times! I also found myself rooting for Ana despite her being a mess.

The only thing that irked me is it felt like EVERYONE was cheating/sneaking around on their significant other. I also found myself slightly annoyed with Gia for like 80% of the book. 🙃