I was so excited to read this book. I love a second chance/unrequited love story. Katie and Wil were best friends in high school, but they had such a deep connection. Their relationship might have gone beyond friendship, but neither of them acted on any feelings at the time. I liked the dynamic of having a close friendship and not knowing if it's more than that.

Katie has gone on to become a famous actress and director, and she and Wil haven't spoken in 13 years. Their mothers are best friends, and that was such a fun part of the story.

Parts of the story felt rushed and other parts felt so drawn out. I found myself unable to connect with the characters, and I struggled with wanting to root for them in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly, I was so so presently surprised by this book. I absolutely adored every moment and every aspect of this book - the writing style, the characters, the plot, the structure, the setting, and the cast ensemble. The poetic and lyrical quality to the chapter perspectives and writing style is my absolute favorite in contemporary fiction and this book executed that so effortlessly. In addition to that, it has some of the most beautiful descriptions of what it means to love, to have a best friend, to be a daughter, a woman, etc. Honestly, it just encompassed all of my favorite things and introduced me to new literature things I didn't know I loved.
This book is an emotional roller coaster because the characters feel things so deeply. It is long, which at first felt exhaustive because of how I deeply I resonated with their dilemmas, but you're so quickly and permanently won over by the grace of their stories and their established personalities. Despite taking place over just barely a few weeks, it felt liked I'd experienced months and years within this world. The love I have for this story, for Katie and Wil, is so immense. I loved reading this novel, it's such a beautiful sapphic romance but it's also so much more than that. And of course, I loved the love for cats <3

Struggled to finish this one. Kept waiting for sorting to happen but it never quite got there. The title sounded so intriguing. Missed the mark for me.

A tender, moving, slow burn, second chance, friends to lovers Sapphic romance between a Hollywood star and her a struggling small town tik tock famous high school friend who fall in love over the holidays. I absolutely loved this beautiful story of friendship, love and second chances that was great on audio read by new to me narrator, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw and had unexpectedly AMAZING emotional depth! Highly recommended for fans of authors like Elizabeth Luly, Meryl Wilsner and Melissa Lendhart. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

TW: intimate partner emotional abuse

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this early ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of this read.

First of all, I'm a sucker for cute sapphic rom-com literature. This novel checked all the boxes! The witty and playful banter/dialogue between the two characters was such a joy to read, and the tension between them was INSANE. I would highly, highly recommend this to anyone that wants to enjoy a fun and sapphic rom-com to delve into!

thank you netgalley for the free e-arc. i did not enjoy nor did i finish this book, dnf at 20%. i got pretty tired of katie's cat life quickly. i thought the writing was both too wordy/flowery and not well-written enough. there seemed to be a disconnect where katie was traumatized by her last relationship but the second she gets alone with wil (who she hasn't seen in almost 15 year), everything wil does turns katie on. the dialogue the entire time was childish and unrealistic, no one speaks this way.

I was thrilled to dive into this book for my Pride Month reading list. Super megastar celebrity Katie Price is home in Wisconsin over the holidays writing a screenplay for her next big project. Being home brings her back into the orbit of Will Greene, TikTok sensation and high school best friend of Katie. Thirteen years has gone by since Will and Katie have spoken, but the chemistry of their senior year picks up right where it left off before they went their separate ways after high school.
I really wanted this one to work for me, but unfortunately it did not. Having not seen each other for thirteen years, the pining that went on immediately between Katie and Will did not feel as organic or believable as I think the writers intended it to be. Proclamation of their love for one another only a couple of days into their reunion felt kind of anticlimactic. There were many times where I contemplated DNFing this one, but given as it was gifted to me as an ARC, I wanted to see the story through. An enormous part of the story was lengthy and long winded dialogue between Katie and Will. Like, by the time I was 50% through the story, I think the bulk of it had been three super long conversations between the two sitting in Will’s Bronco—a Bronco that we were reminded repeatedly was the same Bronco that Katie and Will spent their senior year cruising around in, and presumably talking. I just really wanted something to happen, but alas, it never picked up for me-- and it ultimately just dragged on.

There are many highly rated reviews on this one, so I still think there is great potential for other readers to find something here that clicks with them. While it didn’t work for me, I think it could (and will) work for others.

Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous offers a compelling premise with its blend of nostalgia and rekindled romance. The story centers on Katie Price, a small-town girl turned A-list star, who reconnects with her high school flame, Wil Greene, during a rare visit home. Their reunion sparks an intense and passionate reconnection, but the story explores whether their love can withstand the test of time.

While the book has its strengths, there are several aspects that left me with mixed feelings. The narrative often feels overly long, with certain parts dragging and losing momentum. The detailed descriptions of the characters' lives, while interesting, sometimes felt excessive and detracted from the main plot.

Wil's peculiar habit of kissing a new person twice a week is an intriguing subplot but lacks sufficient motivation beyond serving the plot. The reasoning behind this challenge wasn't fully explored, leaving me questioning its significance.

On a positive note, the book handles heavier, emotional conversations around family health issues and toxic relationships with sensitivity and depth. These moments add a layer of realism and emotional weight to the story, making the characters more relatable and their struggles more poignant.

This is a decent read with engaging elements and heartfelt moments. However, the pacing issues and some underdeveloped subplots prevent it from being a standout. It's worth a read for those interested in stories of rekindled romance and personal growth, but be prepared for a few slow sections along the way.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: June 11, 2024

So much chemistry and tension in this sometimes sapphic romcom about HS friends who reconnect 13 years later, after both have reached different levels of fame for wildly different reasons.

I really struggled with the dialogue in this—a lot of the conversations and interactions were over the top and I was constantly thinking “wait, real people don’t talk like this” and it kept taking me right out of the story.

I loved this sapphic/bi-awakening romance. Wil and Katie grew up together in Green Bay, WI. Their moms were best friends so they knew each other since they were babies and went to the same schools. Wil was always magnetic, popular and lived a "normal" life growing up. By contrast, Katie was always drawn to the theater and performing, knew she wanted to be an actress from an early age and spent most of her formative years performing, taking special classes and traveling around to various shows. Because of her busy schedule, although their lives overlapped occasionally, they didn't become close until their senior year in high school, when suddenly they became inseparable in the way intense teenage friendships suddenly develop. However, life happened, Katie went off to become a huge star in Hollywood, while Wil stayed home in Green Bay, seemingly stuck in place after her father's untimely death from Huntington's disease.

After not seeing each other for thirteen years, Katie and Wil reconnect when Katie comes home for Christmas. Katie is a mega-star, but Wil is no slouch herself, having started a viral Tiktok series in which she films herself kissing two different people a week. When they reconnect, it's as if Katie never left. Old feelings from their high school years, unacknowledged at the time, rise up in both of them. They finally admit to an attraction so deep and strong that it seems to have withstood the test of time, but can they find a way to honor those feelings and make room for each other in the middle of two very different and busy lives?

I loved how honest and direct Katie and Wil were with each other. Although they played flirty games, they did so as adults who weren't afraid to examine and acknowledge their feelings, and had no problem with acting on them. Their attraction was so strong that it leapt off the page. I'm not a fan of flashbacks so I also loved that the authors didn't resort to them to show Wil and Katie's previous connection but instead let their shared past unfold in the course of the present day story. There were a few times when the characters were a bit too much in their heads and I lost the thread of the story, but overall, I thought that it was a smart, engaging read, with two strong, sympathetic MCs who very much deserved all the happiness that they found with each other. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

This was a struggle for me. I was really excited about it but honestly if I didn’t have the audiobook (the narrator was fantastic!) I probably wouldn’t have finished it. The characters were well developed but they had zero chemistry together. I also thought the story dragged on.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, prior to its release date (June 11th I believe) so thank you as always to NetGalley for the fun reads!

Right off the bat, I have not had very much luck enjoying reading anything remotely romance related haha. A friend of mine told me I should get out of my typical thriller genre and try some queer romance so here we are! I’m glad I listened, this one surprised the hell out of me!

I thought it was very well written, took me about 50 pages to get invested in the plot but I really enjoyed the main characters once I did. I was worried that the whole “famous actress in Hollywood” angle would be overdone and supremely unrealistic… happy to say I was yet again wrong! Haha. There was a good amount of spice and longing (is it even a queer romance if there isn’t endless longing) and my only real negative feedback is just that it felt a bit long and overly wordy in some parts. I would def recommend this to a friend though. Well done Mae Marvel, I went in expecting not to like this but it’s a really cute story and I enjoyed it very much 😊

This might be the best romance novel I have ever read. It is stunning in concept and execution. It hums with sexy anticipation for its entirety. The kind of book that makes you say "holy shit" and wonder if you will ever come close to writing anything that so completely sticks the landing on a gravity defying premise. Sheer perfection 15/10

I ended up DNF’ing around 20%. I tried a few times to pick it back up, but just could not really get into the story.

This book was a breath of fresh air. I loved the books concept of a starlet Kate returning home and reuniting with her former best friend Wil now a Tik Tok sensation . The friends to lovers trope was everything. Friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes so this had me so invested from the very beginning until the very end. I loved the main characters Kate and Wils growth and development and their support of each other. Such an awesome work. I will definitely recommend this work again and again. Thank you for early access to this book.

DNF @ 15%. Something about the writing style was just irritating to me. It was a lot of telling and not showing with dialogue that didn't make sense and didn't make me care about any of the characters. I didn't feel like Katie or Wil had any chemistry, and they just felt like such flat characters. I really wanted to like this one, but I just couldn't get into it or make myself care.

This was a really sweet book. I loved the history of the FMCs; their lives ran parallel until their senior year of high school when they were inseparable. Both Wil and Katie are those kinds of people who just have that spark of something special that naturally grabs someone’s attention. They are learning that there was more to their feelings than BFFs back in school when they start seeing each other again. It got long in some places and a little confusing at times but it has fantastic characters and a solid plotline.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the both the book and audiobook advanced reader copy.

I tried to get into this audiobook/book but just found myself rolling my eyes and thinking I can't wait until it's over. Clearly I am one of the few as all the other ratings are 4 or 5 stars. Sadly this book was just not for me.

Unfortunately, I found this book quite boring. I didn’t feel any chemistry between the couple and I wasn’t rooting for them at all. Just not the story for me.

Sapphic celebrity romance? Fun! It’s childhood best friends with a little second chance thrown in when they reconnect as adults, when one of them is a Hollywood celebrity. Wil and Katie. Best friends in high school because their mother’s were life long best friends. Until Katie went to Los Angeles and shot to stardom as an actress. Wil remained in their Wisconsin hometown instead of going to law school, and runs a viral TikTok account where she kisses random people. When Katie returns home for Christmas, the pair reconnect and pick back up where they left off 13 years ago - before Katie found herself in and got herself out of a toxic, abusive relationship or Wil’s dad passed away. Their spark quickly turns to inferno, but both are determined to not cross the line, knowing that Katie has to return to her Hollywood life and Wil isn’t ready to move on with her life post-loss. But when their being together becomes front page news, can they put their reservations aside to make an actual go of it, or will it be another 13 years until they see one another again? Full of delicious tension and drama, and powerful women who take on the toxic masculinity of Hollywood, Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous is a fun and tender read!