I found this to be a good romcom type story but also thought it was a good story about figuring our who you are outside of your job & friendships. Jo & Go (Margo) have a podcast about being single & the rules to follow while dating. Jo breaks the rules & decides to get married. Her wedding is a destination wedding paid for by sponsors. Margo is disappointed about the changing of the rules & is trying to come up with an idea to transition out of their podcast. At the wedding, she reconnects with Declan, a guy she thought hated her in high school. She hints that maybe she will break the rules with him & see where that takes her as far as ideas for the podcast. I recommend reading this if you're looking for an escape to an interesting island & a good story to go along with it.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

This was a cute read that had some fun banter. I thought that the watching their relationship grow was pretty fun. I really did not like the third act breakup, but that is a personal preference. Overall, it was a pretty fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was such a sweet story! I loved the characters personalities and the banter and flirting had me laughing.Their chemistry was good, and at times I was squealing and giggling at their interactions as the tension was building!

I really had to push through in order to gain interest in the beginning, because there was lot of explaining and I’m not a huge fan of reading podcast blurbs in books. However once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down, I read it in a day!

I thought this third act was done really realistically and well. I would have loved more happy moments of them at the ending because they were super cute together. Overall, I’m really glad I read it because it was such a cute story and the flirting and banter was so fun and I was swooning almost the whole time!

Thank you for NetGalley for lending me an advanced copy in exchange for a review!

A great read! I actually really enjoyed the character development for the main character and the way the relationships formed. I laughed and found myself anxious during the conflicts of the story even knowing they would (hopefully) be resolved.

3.5 stars rounded up!!

Margo Anderson is:
— A prominent podcaster with a strong dislike of relationships.
— A little miffed that her co-podcaster and best friend Jo is messing with their brand by getting married.
— The maid of honor in Jo’s wedding opposite best man Declan Walsh, her prankster high school nemesis.
— Really surprised that Declan suddenly looks like the guy from Outlander.

When Margo comes up with an idea to break her rules as content for her podcast, she and Declan clash just enough to make him the target of her plans.

<b>Opinions:</b>
What a fun, beachy/island, childhood enemies to lovers romance! When I started, Margo’s impatience with Jo for finding love was a little annoying (just be happy for your friend!!) but as the story goes on, you understand more that she’s afraid to lose her best friend and her livelihood in one stroke.

Outside of the main romance, this book illustrates the joys and pitfalls of living the influencer life.

<i>Why a 3.5/5?</i> Enjoyed the story, but Declan didn’t have a significant character arc in the story. Which like, there are plenty of fairly well adjusted people in this world, so he doesn’t have to have a huge problem he overcomes. I just wish we learned more about him or maybe saw scenes from his perspective.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a fun & sexy beach read! It will be released next week, so add it to your TBR now. 📚

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Margo and Jo have built a successful podcast that focuses on women not finding love. When Jo decides to get married, well, this throws Margo’s world upside down. How will fans react now that Jo has found love which goes against everything they’ve been saying? For Margo, finances are tight and some sponsors are pulling out and her best friend has let her down. She decides to use the wedding to her advantage and look for a guy she can break the rules they set up to build new content. Declan seems to be the perfect choice since he never liked her in high school, always do crazy things to her. What she doesn’t expect is to like Declan when she finally takes the time to get to know him. How will this affect her plan? Getting to know Margo was tough for me at the beginning but I enjoyed how this story built and I was able to truly understand her motivations, the fears that drove her decisions. I had fun with her journey as she had to find a new path for her life which meant opening up and being willing to let new opportunities in. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

This was a sweet romcom and thought it was very well executed for a debut! Fairly spicy and gave me call her daddy vibes! Iykyk

REVIEW FOR SEVEN RULES FOR BREAKING HEARTS

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars

Thank you to @netgalley, @smpromance and Kristyn Miller for the arc in exchange for my review.

So I really enjoyed this book. The premise was super interesting, and I thought it was a cute take on a semi- enemies to lovers. With that said, I’ve seen a number of reviews who have said this book was a bit juvenile, and I can also see that.

𝕊𝕐ℕ𝕆ℙ𝕊𝕀𝕊:
Margo and her best friend Jo are hosts of a podcast focused on seven rules to avoid getting attached to significant others. They live their best single lives, along with their thousands of follows. When Jo breaks those rules to get married, and takes up the offer of a sponsor to host an all-expense paid wedding, Margo is stuck with an unclear future and the whole internet to answer to. She also needs to deal with the best man and high school tormentor Declan. When a need for content arises and Margo cooks up a social experiment that involved breaking the rules, it forces her to spend more time with Declan. But more time won’t have her catching feelings…will it?

𝕎ℍ𝔸𝕋 𝕀 𝕃𝕀𝕂𝔼𝔻:
• the premise of influencers and the good, bad and ugly of the public’s perception of their jobs Margo showed
• loved how the story timeline was condensed int Secen two weeks

𝕎ℍ𝔸𝕋 𝕎𝔸𝕊ℕ’𝕋 𝕄𝕐 ℂ𝕌ℙ 𝕆𝔽 𝕋𝔼𝔸:
• sometimes it was hard to buy the chemistry between Margo and Declan
• you didn’t really get to dive into a lot of the characters you met
• while I really liked Margo’s journey, sometimes I wanted to smack her lol

𝕆𝕍𝔼ℝ𝔸𝕃𝕃 𝕋ℍ𝕆𝕌𝔾ℍ𝕋𝕊:
A fun read just in time for summer. If you like strong female friendships, on location/vacation stories and somewhat of a second chance romance, you may really like this! Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts hits shelves next Tuesday, 5/16!

Part The Unhoneymooners, part The Hating Game following Margo and Declan, maid of honor and best man at the destination wedding of their best friends. An enemies to lovers (but he fell first, and fell hard ages ago and she thought he hated her), set amidst a Catalina island resort, this was a fun vacation read!

There were a couple things I didn't totally love - for most of the book it felt like the characters were reliving the glory days of oh high school. I think they were meant to be late 20s, but they were still stuck with high school ish drama that did not add to the plot. Also, Margo kind of needed to grow the heck up, she lacked the depth and maturity one would have expected to see (and frankly an attitude adjustment!) And even with the conflict resolution it didn't feel like there were things completely learned/growth there. Don't get me wrong her and Declan had some positively sweet moments, full of butterflies and some will they/won't they but it felt like the FMC was just missing some development through the course of the story. Don't get me wrong though, this a fun summer/beach read complete with the HEA we were rooting for the whole books.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review!

This was one of those “stay up until 6am reading” books, because I just had to know what happened.

Very interesting premise! I loved the incorporation of the text messages and podcast scripts. Fun pop culture references sprinkled throughout.

I didn’t quite like Margo at first but she definitely grew on me. The 3rd act conflict was a little different and exciting to read.

Not super spicy. Spice is non-descriptive. Lots of steamy kissing.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this eARC!

if you're looking for a romcom, then I highly suggest this! This is a debut book btw???? IT'S SO GOOD!!! it's so cute and interesting!!!

let me just start off by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK!!

the fact that Declan was a ginger instead of your typical blonde or brunette or black haired mc he was a ginger!! I think that made the book truly unique because i don’t really remember ever reading a book with a ginger mc. This book made me want to go to an island and fall in love with someone. this was such a quick and easy read and PERFECT to get you out of a slump. THE TENSION??? THE CHEMISTRY UGHH i loved this book truly.

Out next Tuesday is Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts! I loved this one.

Go (Margo) and Jo host a podcast focused on rules for staying single….
And then Jo gets feelings…So they head off to Catalina Island for a wedding!
Cue up the best man, Declan. Be still my heart, I just adored him, and I doubt any other book boyfriend will come close to him this year. You heard it here first.
.
In addition to feelings, romance, and a wedding, was the reality that Go and Jo have a podcast that is anti-relationship and anti-romance. Making for a layered story of friendship, life changes, and swoony romance.

I love books with texts, podcast transcripts, and anything close to a modern epistolary style writing, and this book has it!
.
Thank you @smpromance and @netgalley for the ARC.

This is a breezy romantic comedy featuring forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, and a destination wedding on Catalina Island. Since Declan was Margo's nemesis from high school, I suppose this is also a second chance romance.
The premise is intriguing, and the brief glimpses of the podcast content helped flesh out some of the characters' motivations. I did not care for Margo's cynical, selfish attitude for the first half of the book, although she becomes more interesting in the second half. The pacing is strong and Margo and Declan's relationship progresses over a two-week period, which makes the pages turn quickly. I say this quite often, but to me, a failure to communicate is not an effective plot device, and I feel that's what happened here.
Overall, fans of lighthearted beach reads featuring a destination wedding and a behind-the-scenes look at the life of an influencer will enjoy this debut.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary copy. All opinions shared here are my own.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for my eArc, thank you to PRHAudio for my complimentary audio book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts was an enjoyable second chance/enemies to lovers romance.
While I enjoyed most of the book, miscommunication and third act break up play a huge part in the story, and those are my least favorite tropes. The story was predictable, but i enjoyed the mini vacation to Catalina Island.

I thought the narrator, Karissa Vacker did a wonderful job with all the voices. She sounds like an up and coming Julia Whelan!

Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts was such a fun, flirty, and cute summer romance!

This story follows Margo, a podcaster and influencer, on a two-week island getaway to help her BFF Jo get married. Margo is struggling with all of the changes happening in her life and career now that Jo is off the market. Their podcast is about dating rules for hooking up and not getting attached, so how do they remain relevant? Margo concocts a plan to break her own rules during their vacation, all for their podcast. Enter Declan Walsh - BFF and Best Man to the groom, and Margo's highschool nemesis. Margo is convinced she can create some incredible podcast content, but the more time she spends with Declan, the more she realizes how her dating rules were only standing in her way.

I absolutely LOVED this book! I just wish I was sitting on a warm beach while reading it! It was an easy read with funny, relatable, and well-developed characters, but not too many characters that it was hard to keep up with.

I could immediately feel the chemistry and tension between Margo and Declan and I enjoyed their banter and flirting. There was just the right amount of spice and drama, and I quite enjoyed how things wrapped up for them, it was well done!

I also enjoyed following along as Margo came to terms with her changing relationship with Jo. This change to their relationship is so relevant, and I really empathized with Margo's struggle feeling a bit left behind and alone in her quest to save their podcast. However, she could have handled the wedding day a bit better!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts was a cute rom-com in a vacation setting. It was an easy read and kept me definitely kept me interested, though I wouldn't say it was extremely unique from any other book in the rom-com genre that I've read.

I enjoyed watching Margo grow throughout the story, liked her more alternative vibe (green hair and a tragus piercing rather than the typical look most girls have in these kind of stories), and I thought she seemed like a cool girl to hang out with despite the rules for dating she'd made for herself. It was also nice to have a leading guy not be tall, dark and handsome but instead red-headed, ginger and handsome. (Red-heads get slept on! I know plenty of awesome red-heads!)

I don't feel like I saw this in any other reviews, but I didn't really like Jo. She didn't seem like a great friend to me. It may have been what the author was going for, in that case, she did great writing that, but maybe that was just how I perceived her.

It kind gave a How to Lose a Guy in 10 days feeling because of the podcast that Jo and Go did, which shares the title with the book.

I also enjoyed that any pop culture references that were included in the book were current (for now anyways, I guess in a few years they won't be), but it felt like they belonged and weren't just thrown in to throw them in. As well as the podcast element and the added texts. I usually enjoy when texts are added. It just gives it a little ✨more✨, ya know?

It did have a little spice, so if that's something you want to avoid, I'd say there were 3 1/2 peppers. Also some talk of drug use.

Overall, it was an easy read and if you like rom-coms, you'll probably like this one.

And hey, Margo, get a new best friend.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kristyn Miller and St. Martin's press for letting me read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

Cute rom-com set on a fun island. I genuinely like the characters, and rooted for them. Predictable "3rd act breakup" but still an enjoyable read!

This was a fun vacation romance between a cinnamon roll high school secret admirer and a cynical anti-relationship podcaster/influencer. Lots of How to lose a guy in 10 days vibes and I was totally there for the ginger hero!! Pure entertainment with a good amount of emotional depth and a great friendship too. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book started off strong. The premise was fairly interesting- podcasters who solely talk about how to avoid relationships end up in relationships. The reason behind Margot’s fear of commitment was overdone (parents split up so she was afraid of being hurt). Margot was likeable enough, although it was pretty gross when she got mad at Declan for not wanting to sleep with her after they kiss in the elevator. Later, she acknowledges he has nothing to apologize for in that situation, but doesn’t realize that she owes him an apology. The multiple mentions of smart watches is strange. The author/main character acts like they’re rare, when they’re fairly common. It just took me out of the story a bit. I found the entire conflict with her initially having shady plans for the podcast a bit unclear.
Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I’d consider this a pretty average rom-com.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!