I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This had potential but it was too slow for me! Dnf unfortunately

Amy Perry left her small village for a publishing career in London and never looked back. Proudly unromantic, when she's forced to return home, tasked with setting up a new romance imprint, she finds herself having to face her past. Sam Ainsworth is the heir to the local country estate. In college, Amy and Sam butted heads on a daily basis, but underneath their arguments, there was a simmering attraction. Now she's going to have to work alongside him to create a festival of romance while facing up to all of her assumptions.

The story starts with a Shakespearean reference that fits the story perfectly. True to the title, Amy really makes a LOT of assumptions and frustrated me at times, but I really appreciated her development, particularly towards the end. On the other hand, I LOVED Sam immediately, and the banter between them was often fun. That said, I actually felt sorry for him at times, because Amy could win a gold medal for leaping to conclusions. Sam had the patience of a saint, whereas (at least for me) Amy was only truly relatable at her most vulnerable, which wasn't until towards the end. The supporting characters were all well-written, and I particularly liked Kit, Philippa, Grace, and Pearl. But this is really a story about Amy's personal growth, and even though the actual romance was secondary, it held my interest throughout.
The ending was adorably charming, and the epilogue really worked.
p.s. I was left rooting for Meg and Nisha to find their respective HEAs, plus wanting a ticket to any future RomFests... (please!)

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating:
Emotional Rating: 💓😢😂😯🤦🏻‍♀️😒😡😢💔😊🥰😍

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

(I have left the same review on Amazon UK but awaiting moderation)

Will Sparks Fly..?
Fall out may come at a price in this from hate to love romcom. When a relationship turns sour Amy returns to her home village to concentrate her work on her books and there she comes face to face with her past - or more particularly with Sam. Will sparks fly? Gentle comedy of life.

2 stars.

"Amy Perry's Assumptions" by Laura Starkey is painfully dull, ploddingly slow, and has too much going on to be successful. A lot of characters feel superfluous to the story. Many things happen that feel like page filler. The story doesn't focus on the enemies-to-lovers aspect between Amy and Sam enough, mostly because I don't feel like I ever wanted Amy to get with Sam, and not for the reason you think. It's because Amy is hard to sympathize with as the leading female character. She is so, so snooty and judgmental! It should be called Amy Perry's ASS-umptions because that's what she is! I hated her treatment of Sam, simply because he had the audacity to grieve differently than she did and she held it against him for years without even attempting to discuss it with him. She was so quick to judge him without really knowing his motives. At every possible moment, Amy finds ways to take potshots at Sam, and it got so tiresome to hear her degrade him. Does she think she can work with him for her job, mistreat him the entire book, then beg for forgiveness? All stemming from many miscommunications that festered inside her for her entire adult life?! No thanks. It's SO obvious why Sam acted the way he did...to everyone *but* Amy. I thought this book would have more romance than it did, and what romance there is leaves a lot to be desired. It also feels like Amy looks down at Rowton (the small village where she grew up) because she has been a 'posh city girl' for years. Her love of all things lavish made her even harder to identify with because it felt like all she cared about was status and skincare routines and gastropubs. Then, there's the bit about her work, and how her new job snowballs out of her control, and how she's forced to work with Sam, and how her ex-boyfriend Hugh may eventually hold all the strings, blahblahblah...I couldn't have been less interested. And speaking of Hugh, UGH...at least he's well-written! What a total scumbag! I thought the best character in the book was Nisha, we need a novel about her. She's worthy of a feature! I just didn't connect with this book at all. I may go back and read the author's first novel, though.

Thank you to NetGalley, Laura Starkey, and Alcove Press for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

I was interested in this book based on the description but from the moment I started it my mind began to wander. Didn’t care for the cliche opening of partying with the bff while complaining about a boyfriend. I also wasn’t into the always there bff, the boyfriend who’s in love with her for absolutely no reason and her whole I’m-focused-on other-things personality. So, I wasn’t invested when things went left and was just over Amy as a character. I would still tell others to give it a try but it wasn’t for me.


Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

The story
Amy Perry grew up in a small Midland town. Her mother Lily left her and her father to discover herself, and when her father was ill with cancer and passed away, Amy continued to live with her grandmother. It’s now years later and Amy’s London life working for a publisher has imploded. Forced to leave London and return to her grandmother, Amy reconnects with her childhood friend Sam. How long can they deny their feelings for each other?

My thoughts
I recently read Rachel Ryan’s Resolutions, Laura Starkey’s debut, and love that this second book has similar vibes with a standalone story. Amy has had an emotional upbringing, but struggles to trust that the love will be there when she needs it. The “assumptions” in the book’s title are the key but Amy grows as a person to face the truth. This story has classic British writing style, lots of activities and a great focus on Amy’s professional career. A lovely read!

Didn’t enjoy this one very much. The story was hard to follow and it was confusing. I struggled through it. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This book sadly didn't work for me. I just couldn't get into it. I felt like it lost its way a little throughout. I found my mind wandering and found that it waffled a little bit. I didn't really get much character development either.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

This didn’t work for me. Came across as slow, confusing at times, and just did not feel anything for the characters.

First off, major kudos to the designer of the cover because it’s amazing. Ok now that that is out of the way… this book is great! It’s lacking a bit in the romance but it doesn’t negate that the plot is still very interesting!! Great writing, great concept, and great execution!

Laura Starkey's previous book, Rachel Ryan's Resolutions, was a pleasant surprise for me. As you can imagine, I jumped at the chance of reading her second novel. Thankfully, it did not disappoint.

Amy and Sam, once sworn enemies inside the English classroom and forced into almost peaceful coexistence outside of it by their mutual friend Hari, find themselves meeting again years after, when Amy ends up back in Rowton with her career taking an unexpected turn.

Amy is sometimes unnerving, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for imperfect, stubborn female characters. Even when you, as a reader, disagree with her, her emotions read so strong and vivid they almost jump from the page.

I would also like to highlight the role of all the secondary and minor characters, who give the story, and the village of Rowton a feeling of authenticity and a layer of warmth that truly adds to the cosiness of the novel.

To be honest, there is one character that didn't work for me at times, Pearl. There was something in her dialogue, I couldn't put my finger on what exactly, that did not feel right.

Overall, Amy Perry's Assumptions is an entertaining, endearing book that will leave you wishing for a weekend in Rowton and a real-life RomFest.

A quick story and quick read. I struggled to engage and be relatable with the MC. She was pretty judgey and the story was a little hard to follow. Overall not one of my favs and it was hard to stick with.

I enjoyed this book! I think it’s more of Amy’s career journey with a romance sideplot, but I really liked the career journey. And the premise (breaking up with the boss’ nephew) was very cleverly done and one of my favorite parts. It was a little hard to differentiate between all the characters; I got confused at times.

A quick, easy and fun read that I read over only a couple of sittings. I found the dtory to be engaging and most of the characters were loveable. However Amy was problematic for me I found her very frustrating and hard to like, she was so quick to judge too and not very understanding of certain situations.
A 3.5 star read for me

At times this was difficult to stick with, in parts the story progression is slow and somewhat confusing.
Amy is a great MC, she would benefit from being a bit more forgiving and open to poor Sam, but it ended well

I had enjoyed reading Rachel Ryan's Resolutions so I expected to like Amy Perry's Assumptions. It was a fun read with great secondary characters. Amy was annoying at times and really, really needed to learn how to give a certain person the benefit of doubt. However, I enjoyed the story and reading about village life.

I was dubious about this book, but how wrong I was! After Amy’s life is effectively wrecked by a horrid guy, she’s forced to run back home to take a job she really didn’t want, and face ghosts from her past. I enjoyed this read, and struggled to put it down at times

I enjoyed reading this authors previous book Rachel Ryan's Resolutions.
When I seen a new story by Starkey I jumped at the opportunity!

Amy Perry's Assumptions by Laura Starkey is a cute, funny contemporary romance novel.
Her writing is engaging and she delivered great/realistic with amazing chemistry.
A fast paced, interesting and heartwarming all at the same time.
So easy to read and get sucked into and most often then not I had a smile on my face.
A fun, delightful and entertaining read.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank you to NetGalley and Embla Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I first started reading this book, I found it to be really slow and hard to follow. It took a while to get into the story, and I was really bored by its slow pace. The story got more interesting as it went on, but the pacing was really challenging for me.

I liked the concept of the story, but I was expecting more of a romance. After a breakup with her boss' s nephew, Amy is forced to go back home for her job where she encounters her former childhood frenemy, Sam. Sam and Amy were so competitive and argumentative with each other in high school, but they may have had feelings for each other under all of that hatred. They shared a kiss one night, but they haven't talked to each other since that night.

Amy thinks that Sam is a rich snob, but does she really know him after all of these years? Is Sam the rich jerk that she thinks or is he actually a caring guy? Amy and Sam spend more time together as they work on planning a project for her job. As they spend more time together, do they still have a spark?

I liked reading about Amy's journey with her job, but I didn't think that the story was very romantic. I kept expecting more of a romance or a twist, but it just didn't come.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I wouldn't consider it to be a romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and Embla Books for an ARC of this book.

Great book great story! I loved amy, at some points the story was very slow and hard to keep track of. But over all very enjoyable!