Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publication: July 18, 2023

Rating: 2 stars

I was initially drawn into the book based on it's synopsis, however, I quickly learned that the story/writing style were not for me as a reader. The writing style was on the choppy side which led to me struggling to remember where in the story we were in. There was also a lot of telling rather than showing within the story which led to a hard time connecting with the story. I put this book down and really struggled to pick it back up.

4.5/5

Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review is a second chance romance within the story of family, friendship, and the way a person can be shaped by abandonment and the simultaneous absence and presence of the people who we think we should love and those whom we allow to love us. Sammy Espinoza is returning to the small town of Ridley Falls, where she spent the largest part of her tumultuous and transient childhood. Here, she runs into Max Ryan, her teenage crush/former rockstar who ghosted her but now has no memory of having met her— he is also the very person Sammy is pinning her hopes onto for saving her career as a music critic. Additionally, Ridley Falls is the place that Sammy has spent most of her adult life avoiding despite it being home to most of the handful of people she loves, for it is also the place of the family who abandoned her before she was born.

Sammy is messy. And honestly, that’s relatable. She’s made mistakes and keeps making mistakes, but her journey of self-discovery helps her understand the traumatic roots of why she’s kept making those same mistakes. While her deception had me /stressed/ from the inevitable way it would blow up, I ultimately really felt for her. (Her simultaneous fear and expectation of abandonment, same.)

And Max. He holds my heart. The way his story unfolds, and his reactions felt real to me. Healing in not linear, and that shows in Max.

Sammy’s story is steeped in grief, love, loss, the family she inherited, the family she chose, and the family whose very absence shaped her life. I will be the first to admit that I don’t always remember everything I’ve read, but Sammy’s journey and relationship to multiple definitions of family struck me and has stuck with me long since I read the last page of her story.

Thank you Penguin Random House and Netgalley for the ARC!

cw: (major) abandonment, grief; (moderate) alcohol, death, death of parent, medical trauma, panic attacks/disorders, pregnancy, sexual content; (minor) abortion, body shaming, car accident, injury/injury detail

Sammy Espinoza's Last Review is a romance, but it's also about finding oneself. We tend to think that people should be fully formed by their twenties, but so many people are still finding their way in this decade (and beyond). Sammy is a great demonstration of the importance of found family and the support that we all need in our lives. I wasn't entirely invested in the central romance, but the friendship and search for a purpose did pull me in.

This book was great! I found the premise so interesting and loved how the plot was structured. Highly recommend.

Sammy Espinoza is a music critic who lost her reviewing honesty when she started dating a musician. When the diva breaks up with her, Sammy is set adrift and scrambling to reclaim her credibility. One night she hatches a drunken plan to return to her hometown and find the famous musician who once broke her heart. Sammy is positive this is the story that could save her career. But Ridley Falls holds more secrets than musicians and Sammy will have to face her past when she returns.

Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review struck me with how emotional and heartfelt it was. Sammy has a lot to face in Ridley Falls and I loved how it was handled. She’s been estranged from her family in the Falls and she finally gets the chance to reconnect. I liked Max Ryan, the musician love interest, but my favorite part was the found family that Sammy has built. I especially loved her best friend Willa and her wife Brook. They provided such a strong support system for Sammy. I disliked how long it took Sammy to tell Max the real reason she was initially trying to connect with him. I think it was handled as well as it could’ve been, but I felt frustrated with Sammy as she stalled!

Overall this was a funny and enjoyable romance. Readers who love second-chance romance, queer found family, and reconnecting with estranged family will love this. Readers who enjoyed Funny You Should Ask (Elissa Sussman), Happy Place (Emily Henry), and The Roughest Draft (Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka) should check this book out!

Thank you so much to Tehlor Kay Mejia, Random House Publishing- Ballantine, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

4.25 ☆

Can a story about a 29 year-old trying to figure out her life after a career crisis feel like a coming of age story? This definitely did and was done so well! I enjoyed this immensely and while it started off a bit slow, Sammy’s journey as she navigates returning to her hometown was heartwarming and emotional.

I found Sammy to be super relatable. Dealing with estranged family issues and trying to make sense of her career, I couldn’t blame her indecisiveness. I was rooting for her throughout and was satisfied with her character arc in the end. Her found family - Willa, Brooke, Larry, Maeve, Paloma - really makes this book special.

Sammy Espinoza's Last Review has me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I loved meeting Sammy and Max and Brooke and Willa. These characters went through so many wild scenes and I loved every moment of it. I loved getting to follow Sammy along during her journey. Definitely a favorite read of the year for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tehlor Kay Mejia for this ARC!

This was such a cute story about love, found family, and music.

Sammy returns to the only place that feels like home when her girlfriend dumps her and she's about to lose her job. She's on a mission to get the most coveted interview in the music world by trying to find the musician who ghosted her when she was a teen. However, he doesn't remember her.

Sammy goes through a lot in this book with her family and all of the issues from her relationship with her mother. She also has to figure out what this whole thing is with Max and how she's going to redeem herself at work. It's full of so many sweet moments and lots of growth from this cute set of characters. I really liked it! Oh, and did I mention that Max is a rockstar God on a motorcycle???

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

First off, thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

This novel completely surprised me! In a fantastic way. The character development and the ability to grasp their faults/mistakes etc, was what a lot of books I’ve read lately have been missing.

It’s a familiar tale, but one with new angles and and settings that made it seem fresh.

This was a sweet story about second chances and finding your own family. Sammy is a music critic whose life is in a downward spiral both personally and professionally. As a last ditch attempt at saving her career she has to return to her “hometown” to try to get an interview with a reclusive rock star who she had an amazing night with, and then he ghosted her. The problem is, when she finally finds him he has no idea who she is. So she is forced to try to find a new angle and way to get her story, except she finds herself falling for him all over again. As Sammy grapples with this new professional and personal crisis, she also must come face to face with her past. Back in Ridley Falls, a place she never wanted to go back to, she is also forced to confront the family that never wanted her, and a mother who never made her a priority. I loved the town of Ridley Falls, and Sammy’s found family of Willa, Brook, Maeve, and Johnny. This was a beautiful story of redemption, and learning how to love yourself. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

It took me a really long time to finish reading this book because I kept putting it down and then taking multiple days to return to it. The story is good, but the topics are hard, and I wasn’t in the right emotional space to read this all in one go.

Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review is about a music-loving main character (Sammy) returning to her hometown in search of answers to her past and solutions to save her job. There were so many parts of this story that had that warm, genuine, “feels so good to come home and belong” feeling. Then in the next chapter there would be heartbreak and loneliness and feelings of anxiety. My emotions were all over the place because Sammy’s emotions were all over the place.

I enjoyed seeing Sammy find herself and reevaluate a lot of her old relationships. I also really liked most of the characters - Larry and Maeve are amazing and I need them to adopt me too, Willa and Brook are relationship goals. Max Ryan was a little questionable, and Paloma was so much more complex than I expected.

The writing was good, the steamy bits were definitely steamy, and the descriptions of anxiety and fear were spot on.

Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review
By Tehlor Kay Mejia
4 stars

If you’ve ever had an emo phase (it’s not really a phase) or you really love music, this book will be for you. It was kind of like reading a fanfic of your favorite musician in a good way. I loved all the music business talk and really enjoyed Sammy and Max’s relationship but I did have a hard time with the miscommunication. I just kept cringing every time Sammy wasn’t telling the truth because I was waiting for it all to blow up. Max had some stuff he was keeping from Sammy as well and though I understood and guessed why, I do wish he would’ve just communicated with her at least a little bit so we didn’t have the whole third act breakup. There were just a lot of dishonesty and some of it was hard to get past.

I was not expecting it to be as emotional as it was when Sammy was digging up her family history. To avoid spoilers, I will not be elaborating but it was beautiful and sad at the same time. I definitely teared up a little bit.

Read if you like
Second chance romance
Rockstars
Messy characters
Found family
LGBTQ+ rep

This was a slow starter for me, for sure. From the beginning I thought it would just be your average romance. I connected with these characters, however, and it ended up being an emotional read for me. The connection with Sammy and Max was great but I never really like a story that hinges on the MC lying (by omission) to the love interest.

The found-family aspect was touching, I found myself with tears more than once. The romance was good, so good I wish there’d been more. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Tehlor Kay Mejia.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballentine for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

We have been busy with end of year shenanigans and it seemed like every time I sat down with this book something came up. As soon as I really sat down with it, the story and characters drew me in. The relationships built and broken within Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review left me laughing and crying along the way. I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I highly recommend you grab this when it is released this summer!
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
I was provided a free copy of this title from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Sammy’s life is in disarray, so she goes back to the one home she connects with to regroup with the support of her childhood friend,Willa.
What she finds is a complicated relationship from and a series of truths that make her reevaluate her life. While there is a decent romance in this book, it is more a coming of age tale. The secondary characters making up Sammy’s found family were my favorite, and the ending made me quite emotional.
3.5 stars.

I really liked the story's premise and fast pace reading, but I never fully connected with any of the characters. Maybe this one wasn't for me. It is well written (though highly formulaic) and I recommend it to those who enjoy coming-of-age / finding-oneself / second chances romance stories. It would be a good beachy read - one that engages, but you don't have to have too much focus and can read a chapter or two at a time and easily remember the storyline.

Advanced copy courtesy of NetGalley.

This was *really* good. I wasn’t initially sold in the first few chapters, but this slow burner builds into such a heartfelt story. While it at its core is a romance, so much of it is a family story and a coming of age story. It’s emotional and incredibly well written and a must read.

The Emily Henry blip pulled me in + the fact that I really enjoyed Miss Meteor but this one was totally different and totally sexy. I loved every second and I can’t wait to gush to everyone about it.

Thank you so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed every single page and I would happily read this again and again just to feel the happiness I felt while reading. It was engaging and kept me on my toes. It's one of those books that it's easy to get lost in! Highly recommend!

I originally found this book from a recommendation from Emily Henry. I'm so glad she used her voice to talk about this book because its a little outside of my typical genre so I may have not picked it up. But this was such a beautiful story about found family and self love. It was beautifully written and I am so glad I read!