🔊Song Pairing: Exes and Ohs - Elle King

🗯Thoughts:

I was laughing out loud at the gym. I’m pretty sure Tara would get along quite well. The author has a humorous way with words that just triggers my giggles.

Booksta influencer mc? Please Amy Lea you’re just speaking to the entire community saying I dare you not to relate. Couldn’t love it more. Also, why do I want pop tarts and Cheetos now

This book was very much The Ugly Truth meets What’s Your Number (Chris Evans shredded pre-Captain America but one of thee worst movie messages ever, slut shaming much?!) This removed the sexual shaming leaving the just the drama of ex boyfriend ghosts.

I have been looking forward to reading Exes and Ohs since I saw the absolutely adorable cover. Add in Boston as a location and a MC who is a Bookstagrammer? It’s perfection! 💕

Tara is reviewing past loves to see where she’s going wrong in her dating life. She thinks that one of her former flames is going to be her second chance romance and maybe even the One. She decides to revisit some of these men to see if she made a mistake. Some have revealed she’s too clingy, and that makes Tara think about herself on another level.

During this, she has also moved into a new apartment sharing with a smoking hot firefighter named Trevor. He knows this is a bad idea, but he’s just along for the ride. Trevor doesn’t do relationships, but he helps out Tara with her personal challenge.

This book was everything and more. Tara was a real and genuine person. She is a kick ass nurse who loves reading and even has a booktube channel! She has an adorable grandma who has her own second chance romance. Tara and Trevor have incredible chemistry and he even teaches her to bake her beloved cupcakes. 🧁

This was a total hit for me. This is the second book in the series, but you can read on its own. Thank you so much to @amyleabooks and @berkleyromance for my gifted eARC! Exes and Ohs is on sale today!

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read Set On You by Amy Lea last year and I absolutely loved it! I was so excited about this one, and it did not disappoint. I loved it so much!! I loved both main characters Tara & Trevor, and I loved the cute story and the fun dialogue. Like, honestly it was pure p e r f e c t i o n 💕

✍🏼 𝘼𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧: Amy Lea
🗓️ 𝙋𝙪𝙗 𝘿𝙖𝙮: January 10, 2023
📚 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: Contemporary Romance
📖 𝙋𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧: Berkley Romance

➡️ 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮:
• roommates
• slow burn
• forced proximity
• romcoms
• friends to lovers

Thank you to Net Galley and Berkley for this ARC! I loved Amy's first book Set On You in her The Influencer series, and I couldn't wait to read Exes & O's for Tara's story after her relationship with her sister Crystal's book!

After being ridiculously unlucky in life and love, Tara moves into Scott's (her soon to be brother-in-law) old apartment and meets her new roomie and Boston firefighter, Trevor Metcalfe. As part of her bookstagram and booktok account, Tara's grandma convinces her to look up her exes and see if she can turn her love life around with her own second chance romance. While she goes through her list of exes, she enlists Trevor for his help despite him not really believing in love. As he helps Tara, they start to develop their own friendship and relationship as they confront their own past relationship issues.

One of my favorite things about Amy's writing are the hilarious and random pop culture references through out the entire book! I also love a good forced-proximity, and Trevor and Tara were both so lovable and it was sweet to see how they grew together! This was definitely one of my most anticipated reads of 2023, and I loved it so much and definitely recommend this as your next read! I can't wait to read Mel's story next!

Tara is kind of a mess. Despite being a connoisseur of romance & sharing her love for the romance genre on her bookstagram page, her love life is seriously lacking. She’s just spent a year on her sister Crystal’s couch trying to put herself back together after her fiancé broke off their engagement at the last minute. Frustrated, she takes the advice of her grandmother to look at her previous relationships, thinking the second chance trope is her way to love. She enlists the help of her new roommate Trevor, the sexy playboy firefighter who could never be into her (having first hand knowledge to the kind of woman he brings home).

Quick Breakdown:

Friends to Lovers
Reformed Player
Roommate Romance
Teach Me to Date vibes
Slow burn

This book is a love letter to the unabashed hopeless romantics out there. Tara is messy and very awkward with love, falling early & often in her overeagerness to find “the one.” But, she’s so easy to relate to & watching her acknowledge her shortcomings and grow while still staying true to herself was such a joy.

The pacing of strangers to friends to lovers was done so, so well here. It’s slow burn perfection 🙌🏻 There’s some kind of magic in the reformed playboy / hopeless romantic pairing that sucked me right in. With Tara quick to believe she has no chance, in addition to trying to change her quick to crush ways, a true honest friendship was formed. The two find this level of comfort & trust in one another, upping their chemistry & giving me all the swoony butterflies.

I can’t recommend this gem of a romance enough!

This book was so much fun! Exes and O’s is Amy Lea’s second book and I loved it even more than the first.

Tara Chen is a book lover and hopeless romantic. She’s looking for the one and not having the best luck. After being inspired by her grandmother’s second chance romance (plus, it’s her favorite romance troupe) she decides to find some of her exes and see if maybe one of the ones who got away were the actual ‘one’. And she enlists the help of her roommate, Trevor.

Trevor Metcalfe is a firefighter and opposite of Tara in a lot of ways. He’s much more quiet and stand-offish, but Tara slowly wears him down and gets him to open up to her. These two go from roommates to friends to more than friends and I couldn’t have loved these two together more.

I’ll be honest, it was a bit predictable but I absolutely didn’t mind one bit. I had a blast reading it and I adored both Tara and Trevor. Tara is a lot, but Trevor loved that about her. I love characters that are ‘too much’ for most people but find that they can 100% be themselves with their person. It makes me so happy.

Charming, a good time, sweet and delightful- this book left me with a huge smile on my face. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author and I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good romance.

This book had me swooning. It was exactly what my hopeless romantic heart needed. An unexpected friendship turned to lovers. Tara is a hopeless romantic bookworm (same) who just wants her happily ever after (same). Our stoic hottie firefighter Trevor is too afraid of love to try for a relationship. The unlikely pair team up to help Tara find her one true love by revisiting her past. But what she doesn't know is that her future is the one she shares a bathroom with.

I loved the love in the book. I love how unapologetic Tara is when it comes to her books and speaking her mind. I love how Trevor doesn't mind she goes on long winded rants. He takes her for what she is and doesn't want her to change. Tara pushes Trevor to be more open with the world even if it means he might get hurt.

I'm someone who sees the glass half full for everyone but half empty for myself. This book was a warm hug on a rainy day and friendly reminder that the world needs happy endings. Even if that means being in bed with a good book and The Hobbit on.

I can't wait for the next book now!
Rating 5
Spice 2/5

Tara is on the hunt for true love. Mending her heart after it was broken yet again, she’s finally ready to start the next chapter in her life. It’s time to move on. She’s got a new place, a new roommate, Trevor, and a new perspective, but make no mistake she’s still open to love. And why couldn’t she have a book-worthy second-chance romance? She totally could! So, she decides to revisit her exes of the past to try and rekindle those flames, but in her quest to do so, it’s the guy not on her list that’s got her heart and insides in a tangled mess. But Trevor is a closed-off, habitual-one-night-stander. What could possibly go wrong?

This was a super cute grumpy x sunshine, very slow burn, roommates x friends to lovers romance. I loved the humor. The bookish vibes. All the subtle movie and TV show references. I loved Trevor and Tara's dynamic too, it had so much potential, but I wanted more! More of them and more of them earlier on. And less of the exes, I think. I never really felt like I got to know Trevor. I think that’s because the attention of the story was put more so on the ex-list rather than the development of Trevor and Tara’s connection. I definitely think Trevor’s POV would have helped in this case.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:
Hopeless romantic
Hot tub nights
Forced proximity
Slow burn (very)
Roommates x friends to lovers
Snarky, exaggerated, self-deprecating humor
Grumpy x sunshine

Tara is a NICU nurse who does Book Tok and Bookstagram. She wants her own second chance romance so she tries to reconnect with each of her exes while her new roommate Trevor, a Boston firefighter, gives her advice.

I liked all the Book Tok references but struggled to connect with Tara. She had no self confidence. Most of her exes were jerks so I didn't understand her desperate attempts to fall back in love with them.

What I did enjoy:
*Trevor
*Forced proximity
*Banter
*Bookish talk
*Some steam
*The ending

Thank you to the publisher for an ecopy of this book.

Exes and O’s (eARC) — 4 ⭐️

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: January 10th

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Tara is a book influencer on Instagram. One of her favorite tropes is second chance romances, and she (and her followers) swoon over her grandma’s love story. While seeking a date to a work event, she decides to try to connect with her exes to see if there are any potential matches, and she strings her new roommate, Trevor, along for the ride.

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: I mean, you know it’s going to be a great book when it starts off with a Blank Space by Taylor Swift quote! This book is every bookworm’s dream, and it was the perfect sequel to Set on You! Tara is very relatable with her adoration for love and romance, and you can’t help but root for her. Plus, the love interest is very swoon-worthy and protective, but I wish we saw his perspective. Unlike the first book, Exes and O’s is fully of Tara’s point of view.

Just when I thought things could not get better, the author announced her next book which will follow Mel’s story, and I cannot wait! Amy Lea is quickly becoming one of my auto-buy authors.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 —
🏃‍♀️ Fast Paced
💗 Friends to Lovers
🔒 Forced Proximity
🧲 Opposites Attract
🔓 Open Door Romance
🥰 Feel-Good Story

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐟 —
🍳 You struggle to cook without following a recipe
👙 Your dream home has a hot tub
📝 You have a long list of ex-lovers
💘 Romance novels are your favorite
👨‍🚒 You like a man in uniform

𝐓𝐖: sexual content, gaslighting, emotional abuse, terminal illness, sexism

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group, for providing me an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a MUST read for lovers of rom-coms. Bookstagrammers are going to fall in love with this one.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for an advanced copy of this book.

Tara, an outgoing and bubbly lover of romance books, is looking for a second chance romance by going back to all her exes and seeing if she can find love. Her new roommate Trevor, a quiet, closed off firefighter, helps Tara on her quest for love. They develop a friendship along the way that turns into something more.

I loved every page of this book. It was so relatable, funny and sweet. The main character Tara is a bookstagrammer, it was so fun to read about her love of reading romance and all the references we are all so familiar with.

What I loved about this book:
- The main character Tara is quirky and fun. I loved her self exploration through her challenge of dating her exes.
- Trevor is going to be everyone's new book boyfriend. Grumpy and closed off but deep and thoughtful once he opens up.
- I loved all the book and romance trope references
- The Office references!
- A great mix or romance and humor
- Forced- Proximity roommates

There wasn't anything I didn't love about this book! I have a feeling Amy Lea is going to be a new automatic buy authors for me.

💕EXES AND O’S by Amy Lea💕

📆Pub date: Today!
➡️Swipe for synopsis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read if you like:
🚪Forced proximity
💃🏼Taylor Swift references
❤️Swoon-worthy romance

I’m so excited to be participating in the book tour for EXES AND O’S by Amy Lea! Today is its publication day, and I need all of you to read this book. It’s a book made for book lovers; with a book-influencer protagonist who is trying to create her own second-chance romance by meeting up with all of her exes… with her attractive firefighter roommate along for the ride.

I of course loved all of the bookish references in Exes and O’s, but my favorite part was how much I rooted for Tara and Trevor. Tara was loveably awkward and unapologetically open about who she was and wanting to find love. Trevor was outwardly closed off but tender and charming inside.

Thank you @netgalley, @prhaudio, @berkleyromance, and @amyleabooks for an ARC of Exes and O’s! Highly recommend picking this one up today🙌

I absolutely adored Amy Lea’s debut SET ON YOU & had been impatiently awaiting the release of her newest! She knocked it out of the park once again, and at this point I will read anything she writes 🙌

What I loved —
🧡 Amy’s writing is fantastic + pulled me in right away
💗 friends to lovers
🧡 grumpy x sunshine
💗 opposites attract
🧡 book lover mail character!! there was SO much talk of books & tropes
💗 loved the unique plot - Tara reached out to all of her exes in an attempt to secure her storybook second-chance romance
🧡 forced proximity
💗 swoon-worthy banter & tons of flirty moments throughout the story

EXES AND O’S truly has it all. Highly recommend 🫶

Exes and O’s is the second book in The Influencers standalone series. Romance bookstagrammer Tara Chen has had her heart broken too many times, but she can't let go of the idea of finding her happily ever after. She believes that she can find her happy ending through a second-chance romance. Maybe one of the ten of her exes is "the one" and she just needs to reconnect with them to get those sparks flying again. Tara enlists the help of her firefighter roommate, Trevor, in this endeavor. As the two spend time together, their friendship deepens and soon Tara can't stop thinking of Trevor as more than a friend.

This book was utterly delightful! As silly as Tara's quest to reconnect with her exes was, I thought Amy Lea's execution of this story was perfect. Sure, Tara was a little "extra" in going through her ex list, stalking them, and trying to get them to see why they would want her back. There were definitely some cringe-worthy moments there. I admired Tara's ability to really believe that she would find love no matter how discouraging each man she crossed off the list was. She jumped in with two feet and committed to the project and I loved that about her. I saw a lot of myself in Tara, the romantic who my husband calls "extra". But like my husband, Trevor appreciated Tara's passion and enthusiasm for love and romance instead of thinking she was too clingy.

Trevor was an intriguing hero. He was closed-off, tight-lipped about himself, and hard to read. Tara got to know Trevor as he revealed himself one layer at a time and I found even more reasons to find him sexy and lovable with each layer.

Those months when they built the foundation of their friendship while pining for one another were everything! I love this kind of love story - where there is tension and angst because of all the pining. I wanted them to get together so badly, but I also wanted it to get drawn out at the same time because I love that tension. Lea developed their story masterfully, giving it a slow burn feeling that slid home with a bang.

And that epilogue! I have to say it was one of the most clever and original scenes that I've read and I was gushing because my heart was so full.

Pick up this book for a charming and heartwarming slow burn friends-to-lovers/room-ance!

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: partner emotional abuse, gaslighting, child illness, mention of death of a loved one & fatal fire

“Love has the power to strip you raw, to the bone. And that’s the beauty of it. There’s an immeasurable bravery in opening your heart and baring your soul when all hope is seemingly lost. Knowing, even in the face of heartbreak, that this is not the end. That you’re still standing, after ir all crumbles around you.”
- Amy Lea, Exes and O’s (The Influencer, Book 2)

Review 📝 Please stand up for Tara Li Chen, the bad*ss bookstagrammer who refused to be anything other than who she is — a kick*ss romantic.

Tara has loved and lost. And loved and lost. And loved and lost. But when her grandmother finds love with her childhood sweetheart, she decides maybe there’s something there… and embarks in a quest to live one of her favorite tropes in real life: second chance romance.

With an ex list and the help of her new (🥵) new roommate, Tara is ready to meet (again) the love of her life just in time for her work Valentine’s Day party.

But if romance books have taught us something is that best-laid plans never go as one would hope and forced proximity is a powerful thing 😏

Trevor Metcalfe was flawless.
This book was hilarious.
The scene where Tara tells that piece of wasted space off will be forever one of my favorite book moments.

What’s inside:
🖤romcom
🖤forced proximity/room-ance
🖤grumpy x sunshine
🖤friends to lovers
🖤he falls first

Adult. 5 stars ⭐️ Thank you so much @netgalley @berkleypub and @amyleabooks for this e-ARC.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

👉🏼 Publishes 1/10/23!

Genre: RomCom
Tropes: Forced proximity, friends to lovers, opposites attract, sprinkle of second chance romance, and a dash of grumpy sunshine
⚠️ TW: mentioning of loss of a parent (mother), sick niece (hospitalized + awaiting heart transplant), gaslighting by ex

📖 Read If You Like 📖
👻 Ghost of Girlfriends Past (but reverse)
📱 Bookstagram/Influencers
💕 Cheesy, feel good romance
👵🏼 Cute grandmas
🚒 Firefighter roommate
🏠 Forced proximity
👑 Disney characters/references

💭 Thoughts:
This book was okay, but it didn’t knock my socks 🧦 off. What I liked: the FMC was a bookstagrammer, the idea of going through all of her exes, the sweet relationship with her grandma, and the banter between Tara and Trevor (especially at the beginning when he was grumpy). What didn’t work for me: the love connection between Trevor and Tara wasn’t believable to me, miscommunication, and the pace/length of the story. I wanted to love it because I loved Set on You by this author, but sadly, it didn’t vibe for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Tara and Trevor are roommates who barely co-exist. Tara is a die-heart romantic who has failed at relationships more times than she cares to admit. She has been struggling to find the right one. She decides to go back through her list of Exes to see if she can get a second chance at love after hearing her grandmother’s story at finding love again. She enlists Trevor to help her this time around. What is better than having a male perspective?

Trevor is a womanizer and is not interested in finding love. He is contemptuous of helping Tara, but he soon realizes the other guys don’t really understand Tara as he does. The more time he spends analyzing Tara in this new light, the more he likes her over-the-top behavior.

This is a slow burner. I normally don’t like the womanizer kind of guy. Very few authors can pull that off for the hero. I’m not a prude by any means, but I don’t want any explicit details of the guy with other women. In this case, it works. Tara is just a roomie who kind of works his nerves with all her books and ideas of love, and they have no romantic connection at first. However, Trevor becomes a good guy once he put on his friend’s hat for Tara. I really like that he slowly started to appreciate all that was her.

Tara is this likable girl who just wants the guy for once. You can’t help but root for her and want her to end up with Trevor. The dreams and fantasies about Trevor were steamy. She is scared and vulnerable at the same time. She is supposed to find her second chance romance, and yet she is finding herself falling in love with her roommate, who has commitment issues. It is not an easy situation, but the author manages to strip Trevor down to show that he does care.

There is a bit of miscommunication to give the mild angst needed in the story. I wish that readers got more of a chance to see Tara and Trevor in a relationship once they got together. However, the sexual tension held my interest.

Overall, I highly recommend this for fans of rom-com.

~ Samantha

After reading and loving Set On You, I knew I needed to read Exes and O’s – and I am so glad I did! This book was a warm hug to every bookstagrammer or bookish influencer. It took the challenges of being an influencer and mixed it with the world perception of reading romance – and also how hard it can be to hope for love like we read about in books but struggle to find in real life.

This was for sure a slow burn though – and it worked beautifully! Tara and Trevor end up as roommates with a super awkward (and naked) first encounter, but quickly develop a friendship that everyone will wish they had. I loved their relationship and how close they became. It felt as though their friendship was built on a solid foundation.

But of course, there were feelings. And potentially feelings on both sides. But they had friendzoned each other early on. Trevor wasn’t one for relationships, and Tara had her heart set on a second chance romance and was in the process of revisiting all of her exes. But none of them really compared to the relationship she had formed with Trevor.

What I truly loved about Lea’s story was the fact that no matter how much your heart might be set on one idea of love, your heart will show you what truly matters when you least expect it.

Part of me wishes we had had Trevor’s perspective as well as Tara’s throughout the book, but not having it definitely made the ending even stronger – and Amy Lea may have mastered the grand gesture at the end, too.

Tropes:
😍 Roommates (room-ance!)
😍 Forced proximity
😍 Influencer/Social media vibes
😍 Instalove
😍 grand gesture

Rating 3.75
Laughing 3
Crying 0
Steam 2

I’ll start off this review saying there are a lot of things that I liked about this book, and some things that I did not like. This book is getting great reviews on booksta, so I do genuinely think this is a ~me~ thing.

I had a hard time understanding Tara in this book. I don’t really remember her personality on Set on You, but I found her to be hard to empathetic for. While I understand loving fast and hard, I felt like most of the book was just her stream of consciousness and it was all about her insecurities. She’s an educated woman, with a great job, and although she’s brokenhearted, I just hated that she was seeking validation from Trevor about why boys don’t like her or why she’s unlucky in love. And then even in the end when he tells her how he feels, she’s the most extreme. While the main story line in the book was that he loved her for how she was, I think the book focused a lot on why the way that she is is problematic.

Aside from that, the story is good. Its a slowww burn, but there is good tension, and banter between Tara and Trevor. When Tara wasn’t being insecure, I did find her personality to be funny, sharp, and smart. I think her and Trevor were a great match and I loved how you could see it between the two before they were willing to admit it. There were a lot of cute moments here, and I really liked them together.

There isn’t much to hate about Trevor, he sounded hot, confident, thoughtful, and self aware enough to know he needed to work on himself. I’m glad he ended up being a good guy.

Overall, I liked this book a lot more than Set on You, I just wish we got to see more confidence from Tara as she was finding her self again.

The following review was posted on my blog yesterday, Sunday, January 8th, 2 days before publication. It will be shared on Twitter and Instagram between that day and the day of publication, and has already been posted on Goodreads. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.




“A die-hard, emotional romantic and a guy who only believes in one kind of happy ending? That’s a recipe for disaster if I ever saw one.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Content Warnings (as given by the author): Emotionally abusive ex, on-page gaslighting, portrayal of child with illness, mentions of deaths of loved ones, and deliberate use of the word crazy throughout. —I’ll add that it contains sexual content.

“Exes and O’s” is a heartwarming story that follows Tara Chen, a NICU nurse and bookstagrammer, as she tries to find her own second chance romance by contacting her exes with the help of her forever-single-but-never-alone firefighter roommate, Trevor Metcalfe. Little did they know that looking for secondhand love, they’d find it in each other.

The duo Christina Lauren portrayed it just right in their cover art endorsement: you’ll be laughing out loud with this one. I rarely find rom-com books funny, but Amy Lea really did it with “Exes and O’s.”

The main characters were so likable yet realistically imperfect. Tara was just the right amount of annoying and clingy to get the point across, but she wasn’t obnoxiously undesirable to the point that you wanted to skip her dialogue. The contrary was true, actually, I loved Tara and Trevor’s banter and Tara’s inner monologue in general.

The chemistry between the main characters slowly builds and it literally killed me in the process—I’m not the biggest fan of slow burn romances, but Tara and Trevor were worth the wait. In my opinion, they both deserve the world, we must protect them at all costs.

Mark my words: “Exes and O’s” will be between the best romance books of 2023.

If you enjoy books with grumpy-sunshine character pairing, then you’ll love Tara and Trevor, and if you’re a fan of the close proximity trope, then “Exes and O’s” is the perfect romance book for you.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

Review posted as part of a blog tour.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 10, 2023

“I don’t need another man who makes elaborate promises he can’t commit to, Trevor. I need someone who’s going to be open and honest with me. I want someone who is willing to try.”

(…) “If there’s anyone in this world I want to try for, it’s you.”