I accepted this book on a whim reading only a short blurb. I had zero expectations, but it was so good. Sammy was such a great character. I loved experiencing her character growth in the story.

The story was solid. It felt like a play on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I love that movie.

I laughed, I cheered, and I cried. I don't handle sad in my 40s like I did when I was younger. The spice was a nice mix as well.

4 stars- Its been a hot minute that this book impacted me the way Sammy Espinoza's Last Review did. It had so many of my favorite tropes: small town, celebrity/rock star, second chance romance. The way Tehlor Kay Mejia layered in deeper topics such as abandonment, need for childhood stability, brought me to tears at some points. Thanks Netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

This was a DNF for me. It started out a bit slow and I couldn’t get into it. I’m sure this one is someone else’s preference.

This was a tear jerker and kinda of an emotional rollercoaster - just what I wanted for great weekend read. I loved the premises of rock bottom Sammy coming back to the only home she has ever known and finding herself and potentially the love of her life that got away. I loved the reclusive rock star in the small town. I really enjoyed how Sammy and her friendship /family relationships are formed and how she learns to deal with her very narcissitic' mother, meeting and getting to know her grandmother and her father through her. I loved her friendships with Brooke and Willa and Willia's parent might have been my favorite.
I love that Sammy and Max Ryan both had a love at first sight meeting 10 year ago and I had horrible 3rd person humiliation when he didn't recognize her when they meet again. I love how they were just drawn to each other each time and how they just felt like themselves around each other. Their romance seemed so easy except they just had lots of baggage going on (both her and him). While miscommunication is one of my least favorite romance tropes I did find that it worked well in this book as you could feel the earnestness in Sammy as she explained why she was in Ridley Falls to Max and kept putting off telling him the truth. And Max had his reasons which were so true to characater.
One thing I would have loved more of was Ridley Falls. I love a small town and how it embraces it's quirky characters. We got a few random pieces of the town but I could have had a whole book about it.
I recommend to anyone that enjoys 2nd chance, small town with found family and great character growth.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for letting me read this book early. It was a truly great read.

I’m gonna be honest, this one just didn’t do it for me. I was expecting more, and it just missed the mark. It just wasn’t for me.

Sammy Espinoza's Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia--I was offered this upcoming book as a digital ARC from NetGalley & the publisher. It is a romance featuring a music critic and a former music star. Sammy has recently broken up with her girlfriend and is about to lose her job. She goes back to her hometown hoping to reconnect with Max, a reclusive rock star (who broke her heart 10 years ago) to write an interview article about him and save her job. There is also a subplot about Sammy's family history. This book was just ok for me. It was a romance where both main characters are keeping secrets from the other and being dishonest. Not my favorite romance trope. I also didn't find Sammy very likable. I really liked all of the other characters in Sammy's life. This book has good diversity of race & sexuality

Sammy Espinoza's Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia was a sweet and fun read that fed my romance hunger.

I over how Tehlor Kay Mejia created her characters with such strong emotions.
Their relationship was realistic with ups and downs.
The emotions of the characters were so touching and real I felt I was on the journey with them.
I loved being in Ridley Falls with Sammy and Max.
The writing was phenomenal. My first time reading this authors work and I’m already excited to start another one.

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

Thank You NetGalley, Random House, Ballantine & Dell for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

What a heartfelt, wonderful novel. It took me a few chapters to really get hooked and then I couldn't put it down! The way the author weaved these characters seems really intentional and that effort really leaps off the page. I will be recommending this to all my College students!

First thank you so much Penguin Random House for sending me an ARC of Tehlor Kay Mejia's newest release.
In this book Sammy Espinoza has ten days to save her music journalism job, and make the life she always wanted for herself. Stuck in a spiral of epic proportions, Sammy targets her teenage crush aka former rock god Max Ryan to make her career comeback. She goes back to her home town where she has to confront the ghost of her past and deal with her aloof mother.
This is Mejia's debut in adult romance and I think they did a great job. Sammy is a relatable character and we see her tackling a lot of family trauma.
The writing for me read a bit younger, and for the characters all being in their late 20s early 30s they were a bit immature. The storyline follows a fairly formulaic routine, some parts dragged and I think more development could've been had by the main characters as well as the side characters. Many problems were dragged for far to long and the miscommunication trope is a heavy aspect of this book which isn't a favorite of mine.
The premise was promising and I think I would recommend this to people transitioning from YA romances to adult as the writing isn't difficult and the characters feel younger. This book does contain some sexual content and includes topics of death of family members and abonnement issues. This to me leaned heavily on the adult slice of life moments over the romance aspects.
Thank you so much Penguin Random House.

“Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review” is Tehlor Kay Mejia’s first adult novel. This author’s name rang a bell and I realized she’s published a number of YA novels previously. This wasn’t a terrible book, but except for the more explicit sex scenes, this book felt like it was more YA-ish. The main character, Sammy, is nearly 30 - so I hesitate to call this a coming of age book, but it felt like this could be binned into that category. There were things to like about this book - I liked the relationship between Sammy’s friends (Brook & Willa and also Willa’s parents). I also liked the “meet cute” between Sammy and Max. I also liked how Paloma interacted with Sammy. The ending was very predictable (relationship-wise) but it was okay. While I enjoyed the overall story, I wish that the characters had been further developed.

I was surprised about all of the emotions of this book brought on. I didn’t really like all the characters but that didn’t stop me from feeling all the emotions.

Beautiful and engaging, witty and charming all at once! This adult debut from Mejia is every I love in a romance!

A music critic finds her career and heart in jeopardy after a horrible break up with her musician girlfriend, to try and get both back she hopes to not only snag an exclusive story from her teenage crush who broke her heart but get some revenge on him. Sammy Espinoza has had a rough life, her entire childhood has been scarred by the fact that she feels like she’s constantly being abandoned and it doesn’t help that her first real crush who later turned out to be a famous rockstar, completely abandoned and ghosted her. Now she’s been dumped by her musician girlfriend and her career is under fire because as a music critic she’s been trying to fix her love life by writing favorable reviews hyping up her then girlfriend’s mediocre band and now her fans have turned from her. In order to get her career back, Sammy hopes to run into former rockstar Max Ryan who is said to be recording his first ever solo album after his dramatic exit from music. Sammy might also have a super complicated history with Max and this would be her chance to get revenge against the guy who broke her heart. When she does run into Max, he doesn’t remember her hat all and soon she finds herself going on dates with him. But their complicated history and what Sammy’s entire motivation for getting access to Ryan’s music could derail what is starting to look like a second chance at a relationship. Can they make it work the second time around? Honestly this one was not for me, I didn’t like Sammy or Max and for people who are in their late 20s they acted more like teenagers. The romance wasn’t really working for me and I just was not having a great time with this book. It started off a bit interesting but then lost me. I wasn’t invested in seeing them get back together after everything and unfortunately, I was just looking forward to the book ending. Overall, if you are interested in second chance romances give this one a go, maybe it’ll be a better time for you than it was for me.

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

God damn this book made me cry more than once…

I really enjoyed reading this book. Sammy is lost searching for stable ground surrounding all things life, which is entirely relatable. I loved that fact that everything that she needs to work on was up front and center. Willa and Brook are the best friends/ family you need to help guide and advise you while still staying in your corner. Knowing that there is always someone is there. Paloma, Sammy’s grandma, is probably my favorite. She has that distinct personality of loving but also don’t mess with me and I’ll do what I want. Max is also pretty lost and is trying to figure things out in his life too. This book does follow trauma on both sides and unhealthy coping mechanisms that both need to face and work on.

I love how everything was described in this book so I could picture everything going on and create the scene in my head.

My only qualm about the book is that the actions towards the end from from both Sammy and Max were slightly off-putting. I felt like it didn’t match where they both were at and didn’t come together the right way in the end.

Overall, I think this is a great book with great characters that depicts someone who is trying to better themselves.

I was sent an eARC by Penguin Random House through NetGalley for an honest review.

This book broke my heart. The feeling of being isolated and left behind is horribly relatable. I followed every moment of Sammy overthinking things, of imagining the worst case scenario. It hit home in ways I can't even begin to think about. And the loss, my god the loss Sammy experiences in so many ways. I want to wrap Sammy in a hug and tell her she's not alone, perhaps because that's what it feels like will be the solution to this. This is brilliantly crafted and overwhelming and heart breaking and it will be sticking with me for a long long while.

I did enjoyed this book and it kept me engaged to the end. It had some interesting aspects, but nothing that blew me away. It was a quick read, and as others have said Sammy felt younger than 29. I liked Sammy's story, and how she learned to begin to become herself. I didn't really like Max and I didn't like Sammy and Max together.

Overall, a quick enjoyable read.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for providing me with an eARC of Sammy Espinoza's Last Review in exchange for my honest thoughts!

I've been aware of Tehlor Kay Mejia's YA work for a while, but diving into the eARC of her adult debut novel was the first time that I've read anything of hers (on a side note, the cover design has a YA feel to it that made me think I was following teenagers or early-20s characters, but nope, they're full-grown adults, so I had to adjust my reading lens for that). As much as this is being marketed as a romance novel, I actually found Sammy's personal baggage with her irresponsible mom Dina Rae and her estranged grandma Paloma to be more riveting than the romance itself. Even when there were bits and pieces of the family dynamic that came off as cliched, I still found myself getting invested in it.

As for the second chance romance (a trope that I can be pretty soft for) between Sammy and Max, it involves far too much miscommunication and lying for me to completely root for it. Sure, the two of them could be cute together and I liked their chemistry, but honestly, I wasn't seeing them as the kind of couple that could genuinely make things work in the end. That being said, I did appreciate how easy it was to read this book, the breezy prose helping to keep the pages turning. Sammy's close friendship with married couple Brooke and Willa is charming, and the positive queer representation is a big plus, too.

Overall, I'm giving Sammy Espinoza's Last Review an official rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. Even though I couldn't fully get into the central love story, there's other likable elements of this book to consume.

I loved every second of this book. Sammy and her chosen family were so easy to love. I laughed and cringed and cried. There is something powerful about a book so well written that the reader can feel the emotions of the characters. It had some Hallmark qualities to it, though it was more real and raw. Sammy’s life shows how complicated love, trust, and family can be, but she also learns how much better life is with them.

3.75/5 stars! The cover of this book was so bright and happy that I was excited to read the story before even reading the premise. When I read that this was a queer romance, I was even more hyped. I liked Sammy's character, but she didn't feel 3-dimensional enough for her age. I liked Max more. I found the backstory around her family to be enveloping and that was when I really connected with the story. Overall, I enjoyed this story and would just love further character development in future stories.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC!

The book was a quick read, and for a romance it read a little like YA in my opinion. Sammy was a little underdeveloped as a character for me as a person of 29, I expected a little more conviction. There was a lack of character connection that was hard to ignore, and muddled relationships that made things difficult to follow. It’s a cute quick read, congratulations on the first novel. I look forward to work to come.