I loved this book! It is such a fun and sunny romance with great LA vibes, and I'd hang out with this group of friends tomorrow for brunch if I could.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eARC!

This year, I set out to read more queer fiction and For Her Consideration was a fantastic addition to the growing collection of LGBTQIA+ stories that I have devoured over the last few months.

This is my first book by Amy Spalding and I absolutely adored the characters she created throughout this book! To say I want to be Aunt Lorna in my next life is an understatement! Ari and Nina were both fantastic characters on their own, and while I felt that Nina's weight was a little too centrally the focus of the book at times, For Her Consideration was a mostly lighthearted story about learning to come to terms with your true self, despite what past lovers may have said.

For Her Consideration by Amy Spalding
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
CW: Anxiety and Depression

This book! What a fun read about overcoming internal self-doubt, the joy of found family, and to top it off a fun hollywood romance.

For Her Consideration follows the story of Nina Rice, a 32 year old woman who ran to the safety of LA suburbia after a devastating breakup three years ago in an attempt to not live up to the many things her ex said were wrong with her. Nina works for a talent agency managing celebrity emails. One of the many email accounts Nina manages is for queer rising star Ari Fox, who has some concerns about Nina's ommunication style. After meeting to address the concerns, Ari and Nina form a friendship and eventual relationship that asks them to consider, what does it look like and feel like to have a partner that sees you, hears you, and loves you...flaws, successes, and all.

For Her Consideration was such a fun ride of watching Nina overcome her self doubt and find what really matters to her and how she wants to achieve her dreams on her own terms. The pitfalls she and Ari face felt realistic and I enjoyed their growth over the story.

While I adored Ari and Nina I have to say the biggest highlight were the many side characters that fill up Nina's story- especially her Aunt Lorna and the many visits to her retirement community. Nina's LA family is filled with strong queer characters all at different stages in life and yet, the love and humor they have resonates off the page. Spalding did a fantastic job of breathing life into these side characters and making you just as invested in their stories as much as Nina's, truly something that doesn't always happen.

2023 can't come soon enough and if you are looking for a quick and lovable romance read, this book is a must for your shelf! I know I'll be adding it to mine.

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute, easy read and I enjoyed the overall storyline, however, there were some things that had me rate it 3.5 stars.

I really liked Ari's personality and character, but I had trouble connecting with Nina and since the story was from her POV, it made it difficult to get into the book fully. Also, I could not feel the chemistry between them before getting together.

There are a few difficult topics within this book so be aware of that. One point that wasn't difficult but was brought up too much in my opinion was Nina's weight. Even being positive, it was a bit overkill.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eARC!

I’m an absolute sucker for anything with a celebrity dynamic.
I was in awe of this book. The beginning might have been a bit slow, but it picked up pretty quickly and let me tell you, so worth it.
I probably won’t shut up about this for a while!
Highly recommend reading this!

I’m a fan of Amy Spalding’s work. Her books always contain the most quirky and adorable charchters and you just can’t help going all 😍 eyes for them.

I do believe “For Her Consideration” is Spalding’s first foray into adult romance and she just slays it! Nina went through the mother of all breakups three years ago and the parting gift from her ex was a 12 point list of Nina’s flaws 👀….aaand with that Nina’s decided that she’s better off alone living in the safety of suburbia. However in meeting the indomitable and rising Hollywood star Ari Fox, Nina’s being forced to step out of her cocoon and simultaneously confront her past.

This book was just the 😻. There were so many positive messages being communicated through this book, like it’s okay to be curvy and taking courage in how you look because someone out there will appreciate your appearance for just the way you are. How it’s important to respect others opinions regardless of what you think is good for them or what you may assume they want to do.
I also loved how Nina’s group of friends don’t give up on her. The love that these characters feel for each other really jumped out and I loved every minute of their banter.

It goes without saying that the magnetic pull between Ari and Nina is awesome and now that Spalding has stepped out of the YA confines, the sexy scenes are 🔥too!

At the end of the day, this story is all about self esteem and the journey towards acceptance that you can’t be perfect, that people can change for the better and maybe the one that you thought was perfect may not actually be good for you. I loved this message but I did think that the realization / acceptance / resolution portions happened very quickly in the end to facilitate the HEA. But who am I kidding? I ❤️HEA’s and I enjoyed this book so much, that even if things got resolved swiftly, I just enjoyed basking in the glow of all the 🥰 feelings this story inspired. 4.75⭐️S

Thank you Kensington Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book! It was a nice break in between some heavier reads. One thing this book did exceptionally well is represent a fat protagonist! I loved that her weight was not the focal point of the book, as often tends to be the case with curvy leads. I thought the book was well written and the pacing was good!

Let me start by saying that I loved the representation in this book. For some reason, people think all Queer friend groups are unrealistic but truthfully they're more realistic than straight people think. As an anxious lesbian, Nina felt very special to me especially since she's the first anxious main character that hasn't made me so anxious I had to put the book down. I always love Hollywood/Celebrity Romances, whatever you want to call them, and to finally have a cute lesbian one has made my year. I loved all the characters and seeing how much they loved Nina while she was struggling to love herself.

But we did not escape the final act breakup!! I don't mind it as much since it gave us the incredibly heartfelt scene between Nina and her amazing group of friends but it will never be my favorite thing.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It did start off a bit slow, but once it picked up, I was immediately hooked.

For Her Consideration was delightful. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

A trope which always infuriates in any romance book is miscommunication when we as the reader know how to resolve the problem. I was desperate for Nina to speak to Ari about the email list, and especially to her friends. But, I think after spending so long in Nina's head throughout the first 2/3s of the novel, I could make out why she was reticent to give herself fully over after being emotionally damaged by the breakup with Taylor. I wanted even more instances of Nina caring for herself. Besides reconnecting with friends and falling for Ari, I wanted to see her do nice things for herself in more quiet moments. I loved how Bianca wouldn't let her get away with pushing people away as well.

I think Ari is great for Nina personality-wise and felt completely approachable, especially for where Nina was at. I wish they hadn't gone three-four weeks not speaking after the fight. If they both wanted to apologise, I wish they'd talking about it days after. The breakup also hadn't felt entirely final until Ari had said it in the article.

These are all smaller notes because I loved this book. I finished it in a day and was enthralled from start to end. I want to see more of Nina and Ari.

For Her Consideration was delightful. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

A trope which always infuriates in any romance book is miscommunication when we as the reader know how to resolve the problem. I was desperate for Nina to speak to Ari about the email list, and especially to her friends. But, I think after spending so long in Nina's head throughout the first 2/3s of the novel, I could make out why she was reticent to give herself fully over after being emotionally damaged by the breakup with Taylor. I wanted even more instances of Nina caring for herself. Besides reconnecting with friends and falling for Ari, I wanted to see her do nice things for herself in more quiet moments. I loved how Bianca wouldn't let her get away with pushing people away as well.

I think Ari is great for Nina personality-wise and felt completely approachable, especially for where Nina was at. I wish they hadn't gone three-four weeks not speaking after the fight. If they both wanted to apologise, I wish they'd talking about it days after. The breakup also hadn't felt entirely final until Ari had said it in the article.

These are all smaller notes because I loved this book. I finished it in a day and was enthralled from start to end. I want to see more of Nina and Ari.

I'm a sucker for a celebrity romance setup in a novel, and Amy's book creates a really unique spin in this idea. I love all of the characters, and sped through the book in two sittings. As a Los-Angelean I loved the references to local spots — it really felt like I could have bumped into any of the characters any time!

I enjoyed this book. The plot was paced appropriately and the characters were well developed. I would recommend this book to others.

A lovely read, but one that didn't give me the tension for which I hoped (personal taste). But overall, such a lovely, positive sapphic romance that really captured my heart!

This was a fun lesbian romance. I have been enjoying a few queer celebrity romance titles lately and this was another good choice. I can't imagine receiving a list like this then caring that much about the sender, but I'm not young anymore. Love the chosen versus given family parts. So many folks in the LBGTQ+ community only have chosen family and it was so nicely depicted in this title. Thanks for allowing me to read.

This was a pleasant surprise from an author that is new to me. I'm a sucker for celebrity romances and this one was a great one. Ari and Nina meet when Ari requests a meeting with her communications team and they instantly hit it off, becoming fast friends. Nina is still reeling from a breakup with her ex and has spent some time hiding from her former life and it threatens their blooming relationship. I found Nina's anxiety to be very relatable and loved her group of friends. Ari and Nina together were so cute and had so much chemistry from the beginning. Aunt Lorna was a hoot as well. I also grew up in the area the book is set in so it was fun to see it represented in a book, especially one that was so much fun to read. I picked this up and couldn't put it down until I was done!

This was a super sweet and cute romance set in LA. Nina’s crisis after her ex gave her a 12 point list of why she was a terrible person leads to her self isolating and working as someone who ghostwrites emails for busy celebrities. That’s such a fun and weird premise. But also the emotional point of this book was super relatable. I too am a flight risk when someone tells me I made a mistake.

Nina meeting Ari and the two of them building a relationship was super cute. I liked reading about Nina struggling to parse out her feelings about Ari, about her job and her writing, reconnecting with friends and more. Her self doubt and fear of being a problem to those she cared about was really well done.

I kind of missed having Ari’s POV. It’s just Nina narrating the romance so I didn’t get an opportunity to connect to Ari’s side of the romance. But since Nina’s emotional growth was such a significant component of the book it makes sense.

I am a little hesitant about the mention of adoption agencies and the subplot of two characters looking into adopting a child. It’s not significant but the harm that adoption agencies have done to children and to birth parents while simultaneously exploiting people who want children is too big of an issue not to mention it in relation to this book. It’s insignificant in the grand scheme of things but for a romance, seeing adoption agencies thrown in as a happy ending really did not fit the vibe. But it’s like a total of four paragraphs in the book so not a huge impact.

I was quite chuffed that the main character is fat and that’s that. Like the story did a wonderful job of just letting her exist. It wasn’t about her size, it wasn’t about how people reacted to her around the diet culture of LA, it wasn’t a Nina learning to love her body. All those stories are so valuable but one book about a fat woman living her gay life in LA learning to be fully happy with her career and love life was a really lovely thing to come across. [as a straight sized person my opinion here is that of an outsider. an own voices review would serve you better in understanding the fat rep in this book]

Overall a fun book! I was disappointed the smut wasn’t more detailed but you can’t win ‘em all.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles. I really not the opportunity!

I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

AAAAAA I loved this dearly, everything about it, well except Taylor i didn't care for her.
But seriously? Nina my beloved?? You're a mess, but that mostly reminded me of myself so seeing her fall in love with Ari gave me so much hope!!
Definitely honored that i got to read this.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of For Her Consideration in exchange for an honest review!

This is absolutely everything I want in a romance novel. The characters were lovely and unique, and I couldn’t decide if I was more in love with Nina or Ari! I was invested in all the side characters and best friends. I was so invested in the relationship between Nina and Ari, and was rooting for them the whole time! The plot was simple enough to easily follow without being basic. I also enjoyed the dialogue as it felt realistic and natural. I absolutely loved having a queer, plus size main character, and it made me so happy to read as a plus size queer woman!

My one criticism would be that some of the sentences were a little too complicated and that a couple times I had to re-read a section to get it all straight, but this was a minimal issue!

For Her Consideration was the perfect blend of lighthearted, sexy, sweet, funny, and serious. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a genuinely good but easy read!

4.75/5 Stars