One of the easiest 5 star reviews of the year for me! …

Thank you so much Amy Lea and Penguin Random House for this kindly gifted eARC via Netgalley!

This book was sooo easy too read it helped me get out of a 2 week reading slump and I can honestly say, there aren’t many books I can sit and read for 3 hours straight til I finished it! I loved the Taylor Swift references as I adore her music, the Bookstagram!!!! It’s just so modern, so real and addictive! I haven’t read “Set on you” by Amy Lea but I will certainly read after reading this one! The writing style was one of the best I’ve read in a while, I’d compare it too the likes of Jenny Han’s and I love all of her books as well so that is saying something!! The ending- gahhh was amazing 🥰🤩🫶 love love love 💕💕💕

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Exe’s and O’s is a heartwarming, funny, sweet romcom that I absolutely loved reading. It is the follow up to Set on You and follows crystals sister Tara as she revisits her relationships with her exes in order to try find an epic second chance romance. Tara is a relatable and likeable main character and it was really fun to see a bookstagrammer in a romcom. I also enjoyed the friendship and the slow burn build up of her relationship with Trevor.
This was such a fun, easy read which has one of the most satisfying endings that all of us romance readers will swoon over! Overall a fantastic romcom that I highly recommend.

Having your heart broken is always painful but having to work with your ex is torture. Having his new romance thrust into your face sets a chain of events. Moving in with a new flat mate and hunting down old boyfriends.
Follow the fun and missteps of the hunt.

thank you netgalley for providing this book to us! i really enjoyed the ‘second chance’ trope in this novel! even though the book was a tiny bit cringy (but what else can one expect from romance?), exes and oh’s was a love letter to romance novels! i felt such a connection to tara - she knows the expectations of book boyfriends and uses that in her life! i feel like a lot of us book readers do that! she embodies us bookstagrammers to perfection! this was such a cute read and i am so glad i had the pleasure to read this book!
while trevor is a little bit of a cliche, i still believe he is SUCH a good book boyfriend! i loved seeing their relationship unfold and watching his feelings develop for tara!
also, the sunshine x grumpy trope is one of my FAVOURITES! so if you love that, go ahead and read this!
i loved every minute of this book and i can’t wait to see what amy lea does next!

Exes and O's was a feel good romp, full of laugh out loud moments and sweet romance.

When Tara needs a place to stay after her engagement falls apart, her sister moves her into her husband-to-be's old flat, with accompanying roommate of course. Trevor is the antithesis of Tara - picture storm cloud to sunshine OTP - and they get off to a somewhat rocky start. Especially when Tara announces she's going to go back and attempt to re-date all of her still eligible ex's and see if she missed The One. Throughout it all, Trevor supports and watches the romcom madness commence, only to work out he might like her more than he first thought.

With some true belly laugh moments, the story was so much fun. While elevated versions of reality, the characters still felt relatable. I really like that Tara had a bond with her grandmother and was a Bookstagrammer - readers love to see it - and that Trevor was more than just a mountain man with marshmallow insides. Everything about it just felt fun, and I appreciated that the miscommunications to bring them together weren't too horrible to get through.

Overall, I could definitely see myself reading this again and recommending to other romcom lovers.

I enjoyed this book, if you are looking for something fun and light hearted this book is definitely for you.. I thought this book was very cute and maybe the closest to the good feels of a YA whilst still being very much adult. This book is definitely one that has you engaged and I think I read it in one (maybe two) sittings which is generally what I want from a contemporary romance.

I enjoyed the premise of the story in that you know exactly what is going to happen you are just waiting to see how many silly things have to happen first or in this case how many possible bad dates there can be. I loved the idea of re exploring past relationships and the way it sort of enabled Tara to see her own growth as a person. This book wasn’t quite grumpy sunshine but more grumpy about dating and sunshine which I thought worked really well because it was clear that Trevor secretly loved it (as I think most men do- we see you watching and loving Love at First Sight). I do normally prefer an enemies to lovers trope but this book made me think differently about friends to lovers and I really enjoyed that element.

I liked how Tara was romance novel obsessed and how there was the contrast between the romance novels she reads and the happenings in this romance novel. I thought it made the characters feel real and genuine.

The thing that I didn’t love about this one was I felt at times it did a lot of telling rather than letting us draw our own conclusions, I think I’d maybe have liked it if the conclusion was a little sooner so we could have experienced more of that than at the very end.

Overall I enjoyed this book, I enjoyed how the romance felt very natural what with the MCs being roommates and I thought the writing was engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amy Lea and Penguin UK for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heart warming romance where the protagonist shines against her nasty exes.

This is for anyone who has ever been classed as too emotional or intense- Tara certainly has by many of her exes and it makes a pleasant take on romantic heroines. She is a character who, despite the many break ups, she still remains hopeful. Trevor- the slightly unconventional hero- is a perfect foil for her extrovert characteristics. Plenty of romance tropes can be found amongst the pages from forced close proximity to opposites making a perfect match and, at the heart, a perfect woman who is standing up for herself and accepting who she is. This is a light, heart warming book which is a compelling read and one I would recommend!

….plus who could not love a grumpy firefighter?

Kind of your typical rom com. Cliché characters but an ok plot. Tara could have had much more character development, she appeared a bit shallow at times but otherwise it was pretty decent.

Exes and O's by Amy Lea is your typical warm and fuzzy romance book. It's lighthearted, fast-paced and overall a good read.

We follow the main character, nurse and part-time bookstagrammer, Tara, as she endeavors to rekindle a relationship with one of her exes after recently breaking up with her fiance Seth. Tara is a lovable, relatable, and comedic character and you'll find yourself constantly giggling at the things she says and does. Throughout this book, Tara is labelled as "crazy" by many different characters and I think the author did a great job at highlighting this and then almost taking back ownership of the word.

The other characters are also enjoyable and well written. Even the smaller characters, like Segway Jeff, have interesting twists and quirky personalities which stops the many date scenes from becoming repetitive and boring for the reader. Amy Lea really did a good job at making me hate Seth as well, and I found his character to be incredibly relatable; I think we all know a Seth or two!

I loved the romance in this book, it's heartwarming, and does not seem forced by the writer. Trevor and Tara obviously spend a lot of time together, being roommates and all, but their relationship develops slowly and builds over time. Although it's pretty easy to assume from the beginning that they may eventually fall in love, I still enjoyed watching it come to fruition. Trevor is a sweet character, helping Tara with finding her dates and then, further on, helping her with texts and even going on her dates with her for moral support. Personally, I think it was pretty clear Trevor had feelings for Tara from quite early on, yet
It was fun watching Tara be so oblivious and just waiting for the inevitable moment when they would finally come together- and I wasn't disappointed.

Overall, Exes and O's is a well-written, cozy romance novel that will make you smile and is definitely worth the read! I rated This book 3 out of 5 stars as, for me personally, it sits middle of the pack; a nice enjoyable read but not one of my all time favourites.

3 out of 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Amy Lea and Penguin UK for allowing me to read and review this book.

I loved it! I loved Amy leas last book and I bloody loved this one too! I literally could not stop reading! Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the early access to this book.

I loved Exes and O’s! I didn’t know much about this going into it but it took me by the best surprise. I really enjoyed it. It was such a fun and easy read - it’s the kind of book that you want to read when you need a break from an intense fantasy series.

I really liked our main character, Tara. She’s just gotten out of a relationship with an ex-fiancé who didn’t appreciate her but still, she doesn’t give up on love. I found myself rooting for her from the start. She is the definition of sunshine.

Talking about sunshine, the grumpy-vs-sunshine trope is complete with the grumpy love interest, Trevor. If you love the grumpy-vs-sunshine trope, then this book is for you! He’s a great love interest and also the opposite of Tara: he doesn’t want a relationship or to fall in love. At the start of the book, you see them first meet. He’s honest with Tara and their friendship is genuine. I really loved these two as a couple!

Tara is a bookstagrammer!! I loved the bookstagram references which I was totally able to relate to.

I must admit that I hadn’t read Set On You (by the same author). Some of the characters from that book were in this one but I didn’t feel like I had to read it in order to understand this book. However, I do want to go back and read it because I enjoyed this book so much!

A huge thank you to Penguin Books South Africa and Penguin Random House South Africa YA and Amy Lea for this eARC!

I enjoyed following along on Tara’s mission to find her own swoon worthy romance. The story was so relatable and on occasion felt a little too close to home, I think we all crave the type of love we read about in romance novels, although I’m not sure reconnected with ex’s would be the way I’d go about looking for it.

Tara and Trevor were so obviously meant to be in each other’s lives, with the banter, the back and fore and the sweet gestures it was clear what capacity that should be in, the book was so slow burn though, that i was starting to wonder if they were ever going to have the type of relationship i needed them to have. But it’s ok, they caught up eventually. It would have been nice to experience some of the story from Trevor’s point of view, just to understand his thoughts and motives a little better, but it didn’t lessen the story at all that there wasn’t any.

This was my first Amy Lea book and I can’t wait to get my hands on another, Amy has mastered the slow burn without the slow pace feeling and I can’t wait to see what other secret talents she has yet to reveal.

3.5 ⭐️

A cute, unserious, to all the boys I’ve loved before-adjacent, light slowburn.

Tara’s character was endearing. She was the right combination of relatable, unhinged and cute.
I was tuned in for Tara & Trevor’s relationship but honestly, I enjoyed seeing Tara’s growth throughout the book the most.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for providing this arc.

Really enjoyed the book, a really cute romcom novel and I'll definitely keep an eye out for future Amy Lea novels!

Note: The galley had some formatting issues which made it difficult to read - I suspect this was a Netgalley issue as I've had similar issues with other galleys that I tried reading on my kindle.

4.5 ☆

This is Amy Lea's second book and this woman can do no wrong! I loved both of her books ♡
I didn't realise going into this that the book focuses on Crystal's sister, Tara. Crystal is the MC from 'Set On You'. You don't have to read the first one to be able to read 'Exes and O's' but I would recommend it. I loved how Tara's expectations came from books and fictional men, it's so relatable. I also loved Trevor as a character, he is peak fictional boyfriend. The two of them took A LONG time to get together but it helped build the tension so well.

I was lucky enough to be accepted for this book as an e-arc and I could not have been happier.

Firstly, I have never read a book so fast in my life, 2 days this took for me to read which is unheard of. I just could not put this down.
This is an friends to lovers story or adeptly named room-ance and I am here for it.

In this story we are following very relatable Tara as she attempts to rekindle any kind of romance from her life. As you can expect this does not go exceedingly well for our main character.
A little back story of Tara... she is a romance reader, junk food loving booktuber! and I loved to see it!

In the background of this story we have Trever who stands by every choice Tara makes throughout the whole story line.

Just seeing this story unfold was magical and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of Amy Lea's work!

(FYI there is a couple of explicit scenes in this book and a lot of mentions of s*x as you might imagine in a romance, if you prefer clean cut romance this might not be for you, but for all the smutty readers! have at!)

This was a nice, sweet, uplifting read with some lovely feel good moments. I so loved all the references to Bookstagram, the fact that Tara was such an avid reader was such a great touch and her grandma having her own crocheting insta was adorable! Trevor was definitely book boyfriend material with being a fireman and the tattoos but I’m not sure if this was meant to be a grumpy/sunshine trope because I certainly wouldn’t say he was grumpy just a commitment phobe. When he showed up at that restaurant though, that was the best part of the book, just so cute, what a gent! I can’t say I I was overly invested in Tara’s character, she actually annoyed me at points in the book and I found her a bit pathetic. When she took Daniel to the Valentines Ball I just cringed, I think I lost all respect for her at that point. Overall though I would recommend this book, it’s a sweet slow burn which you could read in one sitting.

As Amy Lea’s second book, I really enjoyed Exes and O’s. I gave it 4/5 stars and a solid 8.5/10 rating.

Tara Chen, sister of Crystal Chen from Set on You, is finally getting her life back together after the breakup with her fiancé (who she still works with 😬).

She moves into a new apartment for a fresh start where she meets the hot, playboy roommate, Trevor Metcalfe, doing hot, playboy things. Oh, did I mention he’s also a firefighter?! 🔥 As an avid romance reader and book content creator, she’s set out to find her second-chance romance and document it for the world to see, because who doesn’t love a second-chance romance?! She slowly becomes best friends with Trevor, while he also helps her connect with her exes and pick up the pieces from the aftermath of an epic fail of a date with her exes.

I loved that this book didn’t jump straight into the main character and love interest’s romance and there was actually a storyline. Roommates with benefits would be a sticky plot to begin with so I did appreciate that. However, I do feel like we got to see more of Tara and less of Trevor because of this. We didn’t really hear about Trevor at work, I was waiting for the firefighter content!! Also because it’s written in Tara’s POV only, we weren’t able to read what Trevor was feeling whenever Tara had a date with her exes (I want the jealousy!!)

The steamy scenes were everything and so I was not disappointed in that area! But if miscommunication is not something you like, this turning point might may slightly vex you, it gets resolved quickly but it could have been avoided.

The book overall had some great, memorable scenes like the cuddling up on the couch and watching The Bachelor together?! Or the cozying up and reading side by side - it was quite literally a romance book waiting to happen. And the EPILOGUE?! It was THE BEST ending to the book possible. Trevor Metcalfe knows what he’s doing, ladies and gentlemen.

Both characters are really loveable and I was rooting for their romance. The writing is beautiful with just the right amount of witty humour to get you to carry on reading. I absolutely adored this book. Amy Lea is an author that I wouldn’t miss the chance to read her work!

This book follows Tara Chen who is a romance book connoisseur but she isn't quite content with her own love life, so she sets off on a quest, with the help of her extremely attractive roommate, to reignite sparks with her ex's to work out which one is the one.

I loved this book!!!! The concept was fun and fresh, a little rushed maybe but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Trevor Metcalfe is my newest book boyfriend and I think his character/character arc was stunning. I loved how we as readers knew he was secretly pining but Tara herself couldn't see. The spice was stunning but could probably have done with some more, you can never have too much spice.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and finished it in one sitting!

I rated it 4 stars!

"𝐂𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬. 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚-𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞."

𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:
After devouring Set on You by Amy Lea, I was extremely excited to be approved for the eARC of Exes and O’s. This book had my attention right from the get go. Tara is such a likeable and relatable character, that I found myself connecting with her almost immediately. She is a book blogger and bookstagrammer, who loves the idea of love. We follow her on her journey of second-chance romance by re-dating her ex boyfriend’s in the hopes of finding her soulmate - just like her Granny did. But through this journey we are introduced to some interesting men and entertaining dates to say the least.

Cue Trevor, her broody firefighter roommate, who often keeps to himself but slowly overtime starts to open up to Tara. Without realising the slow burn romance starts to build between this grumpy-sunshine duo and develops into one of my favourite romantic comedy reads.

This book was filled with witty banter, friendship and a beautiful love story. Amy-Lea has definitely become one of my auto-buy authors💕
Exes and O’s releases on 10 Jan 2023, make sure you get your preorder in!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮:
💓 Contemporary romance
💓 Grumpy-Sunshine trope
💓 Room-ance (Roommate romance)
💓 Slow burn
💓 Banter
💓 Friends to lovers trope
💓 Bookstagram references
💓 Forced proximity
💓 Relatable characters

𝙁𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚:
“𝘏𝘦’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴. 𝘏𝘦’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵? 𝘏𝘦’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”

𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to @penguinbooksya & @netgalley for the #gifted review copy of this book.