Cover Image: Exes and O's

Exes and O's

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Member Reviews

I have never read an Amy Lea book and after this hot mess I don't plan on reading another one.

I was super excited for this one, the premise was cute: Tara loves romance novels, has had her heart broken and sets out on a mission to create her own second-chance romance. Unfortunately this novel relies so heavily on tropes and executes badly.

The synopsis does warn us that Tara is "dramatic" but she actually comes across as a parody of women who enjoy romance, and overall, this seems like a subconscious insult to women who enjoy the genre.

There are also so many weird inconsistencies with Tara's personality and her knowledge of romance/actions in romance. Tara is "romance-novel obsessed" and doesn't know what a one-night stand is, right. One of her exe's refers to her as stupid and unfortunately he is right. She is written absurdly stupidly. How does one read so many romance novels and yet not one piece of information seems to sink into her head? Again, it just made it seem like the author was pandering to a weird ass demographic. On pandering to a weird ass demographic: the tik tok references, and the not so overt uses of popular tik tok trends... please stop. It wasn't done well, and even then, how long can a book really be "good" if it references something so momentary as an online trend which most people forget within a few months.

Some more quick issues:
-Tara is 30, but without context she could easily pass for a middle-schooler
-predictable in the boring way
-the exes we are suppose to hate are better people than our protagonist, drastically so.
-the sex scenes make you want to never read one again.
-there's no chemistry between Tara and Trevor, the two people we should be rooting for
-more on Tara: she is one-dimensional in a way that gives new meaning to the phrase
-If the author purposely chose to write a hard to like protagonist, she did not succeed. There is no reason to even put up with Tara's unlikableness.

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The cover of this book is what attracted me to start reading it. I was hoping to love this book more than I did, it was okay, but nothing life changing. It was an entertaining read despite the MC annoying me, she was a bit immature and maybe not ready to be in a relationship. Everyone else has loved this book, though so there is that.

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This was a cute read, a fun continuation to the Influencer series world…. But I wanted more! I was so excited for Trevor and Tara’s book because I really liked those two characters in the first book.

This one was just a meh read for me. I didn’t feel that much spark between the two other than they lived together. I mean the first time Tara walks in the new apartment Trevor is… shall we say… busy doing extracurricular activities in the kitchen! I liked Tara revisiting past relationships but her idea that they would actually work a second time around was kind of far fetched for me. All in all, it was a cute rom-com but I don’t think I will rush out to buy the physical copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley publishing for the gifted ebook in exchange for a review.

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Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for my advance reader copy; all opinions are my own!

EXES AND O'S is the meta-romance of meta-romances, tackling head-on critiques of the genre and those who love to read it. I appreciate how Amy explored how we frame and treat heroines, and I really loved seeing Tara's unabashed belief in love and happy endings, despite the disappointments she'd experienced. Trevor was super swoony, and his chemistry with Tara was top-notch.

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***3.5 STARS***

THE 411...
In this friends to lovers story, we follow Tara Chen a “stage-five clinger” who has had her heart broken by ten different men but it hasn't soured her to romance. Our girl is in search of the right one and that means kissing a few frogs. Tara is a Pediatric nurse, social media book influencer, lover of the romance genre in search of her own happily ever after. The idea to revisit her past exes in hopes of finding a missed opportunity takes off after she shares it with her followers. She is locked in and committed to going down that list despite the awkward encounters she sees coming. We see her move into a new apartment and meet the new roomie Trevor who isn't attached to anyone and isn't really trying to get into anything serious. He finds Tara's experiment to be not quite a great idea but this firefighter who has NO problem keeping it casual with the ladies, is also her wingman. He’s also the only one Tara doesn’t seem to scare away with her optimistic approach to love and dating...if there was a fast forward option, our girl would definitely hit it if it meant meeting and falling for the one. Along the way he starts to see how great Tara really is and sparks begin to fly...

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS...
Too many times I’ve picked up a rom-com that’s somehow missing the comedy but this one had the right recipe, the balance was just a bit off. The whole premise of going back and calling these guys she's broken up with sounds pretty awkward but she takes up the task with genuine hopes that one of them was a missed opportunity. Although we did get to meet two of the guys, these scenes felt rushed. I feel it would've added just the right amount of humor to the story if we had more time going through her list. Also, her ex fiancé is first class trash and any time he was on the page I cringed so hard for Tara SMH! 

I would’ve loved to have seen our male lead Trevor’s POV a bit more fleshed out. We spend a lot of time in Tara's mind which made for an unbalanced attraction. While it's true that Tara is very clingy which probably made her POV come through a bit stronger, I felt we only got to see Trevor's feelings towards the very end. That being said, the friends to lovers trope is my favorite and reading a MC who is a member of her fictional book community was pretty dope. The opening scene alone with Tara riding the train while reading her romance novel and making eye contact with a cutie had me shaking my head with thoughts of BEEN THERE! Who can resist a steamy dust jacket?!? Haha! I will be continuing on with The Influencer books, Mel’s story arc "The Catch" is next and it’s already snagged a spot up on Goodreads!

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Two words: couples crocs. Tara definitely had some growing to do as a character and, I'm not gonna lie, I found her kind of irritating for the first two-thirds of the book. She asked for help (or, at the very least, feedback) but refused to follow any of the suggestions until literally the last minute. But Trevor was sweet and patient and how he dealt with his own issues made perfect sense. Altogether a fun, hear-warming read.

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I loved this book so much! Amy Lea is growing as an author each book and I can’t wait to read what she puts out next! Tara and Trevor were hilarious together and I loved the friendship between the two that really grew into something bigger. This book had me giggling and kicking my feet because of the sweet moments . Tara felt like such a love letter to all bookstagram girls and romance readers. This is such a fun book to read for Valentine’s Day.

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This is the second book in The Influencer series but can be read as a stand-alone. The main character, Tara, is the sister of the main character in the first book (Set on You). This is my favorite of the series so far.

Tara moved in with Trevor as Trevor's former roommate is now living with Tara's sister. They both have shift work (nurse and fireman) so thought it would be a good arrangement. Tara's reeling from a broken engagement. She decides to excavate her past relationships- her thought is maybe she actually already met 'the one.'

What this means is that Trevor ends up sort of being her sidekick in this journey. So, we have a romance book influencer, a hot fireman roommate, forced proximity, friends to lovers, and slow burn. There are also some great side character, like Tara's grandmother. I really enjoyed getting to know both Trevor and Tara. This was a good one.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy. All opinions are my own.

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This one was quite the slow burn, but oh so worth it! You could feel the chemistry between the FMC and MMC; and the banter was great. Amy’s books are truly the perfect amount of romcom and spice!

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

𝘼 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡-𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙮.

📍 Read if you like:
• Forced Proximity
• Friends To Lovers
• Slow Burns
• Opposites Attract

This book was phenomenal!

I read Set On You before reading this one. They can technically each be read as a stand-alone, but some characters are mentioned in this one from the first one.

I loved the forced proximity between these characters and the roommate's trope. I laughed so much with this book, especially when Tara walked in on Trevor doing the deed on the first day.

From there, their friendship immensely grows and it’s so adorable following both of them. Tara believes in second chances and therefore tries to find her soulmate by talking to all her exes. Trevor agrees to help her, but they eventually catch feelings for each other.

The romance in this book melted my heart so much. I loved Trevor’s character and how he opened up to Tara. Also, Tara’s character was so fascinating with her being a book influencer. It felt so relatable and I think it’s one of the most unique aspects of a romance I’ve ever read about.

I can’t explain how much I loved this book and the characters. They were so adorable together and the roommates-to-lovers trope was so wholesome. I enjoyed this one more than Set On You, I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.

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Another wonderful book from Amy Lea. I really enjoyed getting to know Tara after seeing her in the first book through Crystal's lens. Tara and Trevor are both really well done characters and I could not wait for them to get there HEA. I will say Tara was brave for hunting down her exes and seeing if she was still compatible with any of them because no thanks. Overall a solid read and I look forward to the next one in the series.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

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I enjoyed this but it was nothing special. I didn’t really feel the chemistry between the characters or even understand why they would be into each other. But I like the bookstagrammer FMC!

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•a friends to lovers story where I genuinely believe in the friendship before feelings develop? be still my heart!! what a find!!
•influencers as main characters is so intriguing to me especially with how one’s audience factors into your life/how you view it/what you decide to share. It makes me excited for Mel’s book since she’s the most “famous” of the trio I believe
•I think I wanted a little bit of a deeper meta analysis about romance novels vs. the real world? The strongest emotional development occurred when people called Tara out for whittling everything down to a trope and I just would have loved even more of that (like discussing miscommunication & how that resolves… catnip for me!!)
•this does lean a little into cringey millennial writing, but in a way I found charming because I really liked the characters (and I am also a cringey millennial I suppose)

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This was very cute! It appears I read this out of order so I’ll have to go back and read the first one. I loved the romance-obsessed heroine and the self-awareness of the tropes. Also, we love a reformed rake trope! Or whatever the modern equivalent is? I think this is a great fun read with lots of feels!

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LOVE LOVE LOVE. Oh, this was so cute and funny. I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately and this helped pull me out of it. Perfect choice for February. I liked the friends-to-lovers and forced proximity tropes used. I felt the pacing was well done and kept my interest the entire way through. I enjoyed how the author made two flawed characters who fit wonderfully together. Tara’s character is clingy and cringy at times but also endearing while Trevor struggles to take risks with relationships. I liked reading the development of each of their characters. I adored The Office references and that Amy Lea made Tara bookish. The epilogue is too sweet. I recommend and want to read Set on You now!

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Fun book with a cute room-ance story line. Reviewing late but will definitely recommend. Thanks Net Galley for the advance ecopy.

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Tara is coming out of a year of healing after her engagement was called off by her toxic ex, who she still works with. With therapy and romance books helping her through, she is moving into a new place when she meets her new roommate, ass-first, mid-thrust, defiling the kitchen, after she was mugged.

Trevor is a firefighter who doesn't do relationships. While Tara keeps trying to figure out what his playboy backstory is, Trevor shows her who he is and opens up to her. Trevor's actions showed how he cared for her, especially as he aids her when she decides to track down her exes (really anyone she ever liked) and go for a second chance romance, convinced they were all good guys.

As Trevor supports her on this journey, where her idea of these men is dismantled, Tara develops feelings for Trevor. And while her bookfluencer followers ship them, neither believe they will work.

Honestly, I had to keep putting this book down from the second-hand embarrasement and general annoyance I had with Tara. As Trevor says, "they're exes for a reason," so her hope in these trash men made me think she was too detached from reality, but as I got through it, I couldn't put it down because Tara does get these harsh reality checks. I ended up being amazed by how brave she was to put herself in a position to be humiliated. She became more patient and analyzed herself and her reasoning for this. Her character development was necessary so her and Trevor could work out. Trevor also becomes better through his relationship with Tara so by the end, you believe they're meant for each other and are rooting for them.

Your heart will be warmed by Trevor's protectiveness, kindness, and excellent romance hero-ness, and Tara learning what she deserves and not taking shit about who she is anymore.

Tara is the sister of the first book's, Set On You, heroine and Trevor is the roommate, best friend, and coworker of Set On You's hero.

Feat: opposites attract, roomates to lovers (room-ance), mutual pining, friends to lovers, single POV, grumpy/sunshine

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars
1 spice

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LIKES:
📝 funny, breezy, relatable writing
📖 bookish vibes
🤳 influencer energy (bookstagram!)
👩🏻 Tara is a stunted, clingy, kind nurse
👨🏻‍🚒 Trevor is a loyal, funny, yet distant firefighter
🫂 forced proximity (3/5 steam)
👩‍❤️‍👨 friends to lovers
💞 second chance romance
🗓️ + a dating sequence
😊 cute & sweet
🌱 themes of personal growth

DISCLAIMERS:
⚠️ dm me for TWs
🧀 cheesy
🙄 exes plot got a little silly
👎 FMC became a bit annoying

VERDICT: a cute romance completely carried by the MMC (a HOT, loyal, PERFECT firefighter) + side plots but know the FMC felt younger than her age & the dating sequence plot got a bit repetitive

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4/5 stars!

Amy Lea shines again with a romance filled with tension and emotion. I loved watching these two characters fall in love with not only themselves but also each other. If you love a book where he falls first, she's obsessed with romance novels, and they were roommates, and a FMC who thinks she's too much for other people but comes to love herself as she is instead of changing herself for others, then this book is for you!

Thanks for reading!

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Exes and O's is a timely story of a social media book reviewer who makes a list of all of her exes in order to rekindle romance and hopefully find a date to her work's Valentine's Day gala. Needless to say, it goes terribly for her but wonderfully for us because she has a hot fireman roommate who is obviously obsessed with her.

I immediately downloaded everything else Amy Lea has written.

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