Weekends with You is a fun, sweet romance, full of found family and self-discovery. Told in monthly installments, it follows a group of friends as two of them find their way to each other and a love seemingly destined to be. The characters are fun and sometimes frustrating, but aren't the best love stories always that way? This is the perfect romance for any time of year!

Many thanks to Avon for the advanced review copy of this romance, which came out on April 9th.

Weekends With You follows florist Lucy, who moves into a massive warehouse with eight roommates. She's not thrilled about the change from her formerly rent-controlled London flat, but soon she learns that she's joined a tight-knit community... one that includes the attractive and elusive photographer Henry, who comes home for just one weekend every month. As they spend those brief weekends together, they try to figure out what to do about the attraction between them.

When I saw this one billed as "for fans of Beth O'Leary and Josie Silver" I knew I had to give it a go, and I'm glad I did!

What I Liked

The structure of Weekends With You is a really interesting approach to telling a love story. Each chapter centers on one of the titular weekends, so there's big jumps in time between each. This lets us spend the maximum amount of time with Lucy and Henry as they fall in love, and while I was initially unsure about the structure, it won me over in the end.

Henry and Lucy have a natural chemistry and banter that is almost immediate. It makes you want to root for them in spite of all the obstacles in their way.

I loved that they both had career goals and ambitions outside of their love story that made them feel like real people and created believable tension and obstacles for their romance.

What I Didn't Like

Even though I ultimately got used to the structure, it did feel a bit difficult to settle into the story and get to know the characters with such big time jumps between chapters. It felt like I was missing big chunks of their lives, and though they did get filled in over time, I do wish I knew just a bit more about what Lucy got up to when she wasn't waiting for Henry's weekend at home.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Weekends with You is a fun romance with an excellent found family element. I enjoyed watching the flatmates interact and their genuine love for one another, which fell right in alongside the romantic relationship. The challenges our couple faces before they can find happily ever after felt real and not contrived, which I always appreciate.

I recommend Weekends with You to anyone who loves a look into the chaos of those times in life when you're not quite sure of your place but are desperately seeking somewhere to belong.

WEEKENDS WITH YOU - Alexandra Paige

Friendship and Romance - 4 stars

Plot - 4 stars - Unwillingly becoming one of eight flatmates in a quirky warehouse conversion would have been difficult enough without any romantic entanglements, but when Lucy lays eyes on Henry Baker, the traveling photographer who only comes home twelve weekends a year, she knows her hands will be full with more than just posies. As each weekend progresses, Lucy also finds herself unexpectedly falling for all her new flatmates, along with this bustling but ultimately sweeter home.

Writing - 4 stars - This book was easy to read, and I immediately felt a closeness to the characters and their lives.

Characters - 4 stars - The characters are what makes this book fun. Lucy is good as the focus, with an interesting career as a florist and plenty of insight into her feelings about her attraction to Henry and friendship with Raja. Henry is a pretty wishy-washy main character, unable to make a decision about his job and where he wants to live. He seems to want a relationship with Lucy, but he can't bring himself to fully commit. The rest of the flatmates are entertaining and pleasant, and we learn bits and pieces about them, just enough to feel like close acquaintances and feel interest in their lives.

Title - 4 stars - I didn't really understand the title until I started reading and learned about the Warehouse Weekends shared by the roommates, plus the added complication of Lucy and Henry's budding relationship, but it only happens once a month when Henry is home from his business travels.

Cover - 3.5 stars - This follows the typical trend of cartoon-y characters on the cover, but I love the bright pink color that attracts the eye.

Overall - 4 stars - Paige is a new-to-me author, and she caught my attention right from the first page. Her characters are appealing and very approachable, living lives that are comfortable, up-and-coming, and friendly. I loved their relationship as a group--very supportive of each other.

Lucy and Henry. Are they MTB (meant to be)? Or will the frustrating rhythms of only meeting on Warehouse Weekends morph into a broken record? If you are like me, you might even stop rooting for Henry and back another guy. Here's what I liked:

📅The monthly chapters focusing on the Warehouse Weekends and Henry's London time.
💐Lucy's job as a florist brought lots of flowers into the narrative.
🍀The weekend in Cork was a welcome change from the London outings.
📸Henry's grand gesture was one I would really love!

So I am rounding up and giving this one four stars. Was Lucy a bit too naive at times? Yes. Did Henry lead her on with his words and then not follow through a time or two? Yes. I would have loved a little more flirty banter between the two as well. There is a happy ending and that's why we love to read this genre.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review. Happy Publication Week!

This book was just ok for me. I loved the characters but Lucy and Henry’s relationship was a bit annoying and over the top. Unrealistic. I love the idea of the warehouse, warehouse weekends and their closeness. That was amazing. But the love story of Lucy and Henry was annoying and I was rooting for Oliver.

It’s giving cringe debut vibes.

I tried my best with this one, but everything felt very stilted and the chapter time jumps felt very jarring. I also didn’t like how disconnected the setting felt from the rest of the story. Very disappointing.

Thank you to Avon and Harper and NetGelley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I binge read this in one day. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did due to the other reviews but I heavily related to Lucy and physically felt the chemistry between she and Henry.

Although there were definitely flaws, and the pacing sometimes felt a little off, I loved it. The concept of a story being told during only one weekend at a time was so unique that the premise alone was enough to hold my interest. The characters and their personalities were a bonus.

I loved the found family aspect of this story so much. Each person was developed well enough that it felt like I was the one living in the warehouse with them. However, I do wish that we had a little more backstory for both Lucy and Henry. Understanding a character’s past is important to understanding who they are in general. I also think there could have been one less breakup for our protagonists - the third one is the only one that felt forced and then was resolved too quickly. The first two were necessary to the plot and to the character growth but some annoyance kicked in by that late third act breakup as it felt unnecessary for their relationship development.

I would love to see a book written about several of the other warehouse roommates - each of them deserves their own story. But for now I’m content with the outcome for Lucy and Henry and will be thinking about their little love story for a while to come.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading the book Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige. I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher. This is my honest and personal review. Happy Reading!

Weekends with You had an incredible found family that was impossible to not fall in love with. The ensemble of characters here was the best part about this novel and made you absolutely fall in love with the group as a whole. While I found myself completely annoyed with Henry most of the time, I felt that it made the book something I couldn't put down because I just had to know when he was going to finally get it together.

Alexandra Paige has a great writing style here that is so easy to read. I enjoyed the layout of each chapter being the next month of a Warehouse Weekend as it kept the plot continuously moving and building to what came next, not just with Lucy and Henry, but also with Lucy and the flower shop as well. The atmosphere created here was incredible and I read this all in one sitting. Really enjoyed this!

Many thanks to Harper Collins for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!! Pub Date is April 9th, so make sure to check it out!

⭐️: 2.5/5

I wanted to love this book so much. The idea of 8 flatmates living together, then one new one comes in and falls for the one who is only there one weekend a month sounded so good and had so much potential but this just felt super flat for me.

My favorite part was the friendship the 8 flatmates had and then when I turned to the last page and realized I was finished. I was incredibly bored through the entire book and the chapters were painfully long 😩

Henry and Lucy had absolutely zero chemistry. Like literally none. They flirted back and forth and laughed but that’s all we got to see, we didn’t get to see them fall in love on the page which made me absolutely not root for them at all. They had absolutely nothing in common at all and they were both on very different paths, their paths crossing was just so random it almost felt forced.

It was so annoying how Lucy kept trying so hard to make it work just for Henry to run the other way, change his mind after Lucy made an effort to move on, act all hurt and sad when he saw she wasn’t hung up on his rejections and then rope her back in to his childish game asking for time and communication when he was the one that couldn’t provide Lucy with either.

Like cool dude you’re trying to find yourself, that’s awesome and super understandable but don’t drag this poor girl along who is also trying to find her way in her career and make her feel bad for wanting to be there and then tell her your excuse is you’ve never done relationship before when you’re the one who initiated the whole thing. 😡 He just seemed very immature and after Amsterdam I couldn’t get past the mind games he was playing.

The writing style was nice, I loved all the dialogue, it made the long chapters more bearable! If you read it I hope you enjoy it more than I did!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the eArc and Harper Collins, Avon Books and author Alexandra Paige for sending me a finished copy of Weekends With You in exchange for my honest review.

I thought the concept of this book was really interesting. Like trying to fall in love with someone on just the weekends. However, after a while, the book gets a little repetitive with each chapter starting with Lucy at work with Renee and a story with that and then Lucy going out with her friends. I would've liked a little bit more variety but I understand why it was like that.

Also, a little hater moment but I don't like that Renee calls Lucy "pet". I'm sure it's a term of endearment but it feels really belittling and grates on my nerves every single time she calls her that.

Anyway, overall, I did like the book. It was interesting enough and it kept me fairly well hooked. My biggest problem with the book was the love story. I feel like Lucy and Henry are definitely a book couple that broke up after the epilogue. They do not seem well suited for each other at all. I know the whole premise of the book is how it's hard to have a relationship with each other because of their schedules but they act so childish about it. If they really wanted to, they could've made things work forever ago. I just didn't really like them together at all which was annoying because they are obviously a big part of the book (if not the whole book).

Again, the book was interesting and kept me reading it but I think it could've been done better.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Semi spoilers ahead:

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I really liked Alexandra Paige's writing style and the premise of the story was really cute. I loved the found family that the FMC got with her new roommates but I did not like the romance part of this romance book. I ended up realllyyyy disliking the MMC and almost had to stop reading because he upset me so much. I didn't think that the FMC and MMC had any chemistry together, only physical attraction. I could go on like a fifteen minute rant about the MMC (which I did at home when I had to pause reading) but the bottom line is that Lucy deserved better. He never was invested in the relationship or her. They spent, what? 15 days together? And half of those were ending things between the two of them.

On the other hand, I was invested in Lucy. I felt her triumphs and rooted for her personal successes. I loved the new friendship that we got to watch turn into family. I enjoyed reading about Lucy with her boss. And I loved the inclusion of all the flowers. It was nice reading about them in a way that was more than "fLoWeRs ArE pReTtY". I will be adding more Alexandra Paige to my TBR.

Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige was a fun romantic debut!
My goodness this story was absolutely delightful, and a captivating page turner!
Alexandra‘s writing is a perfect mix of character, setting, love and laughter. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these characters.
I just found the whole book really interesting and charming. 

Thank You NetGalley and Avon for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I breeeeezed through this one in a day!! 4 stars ⭐️

📖 The Details
Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige

⏱️ Quick Summary
As Lucy Bernstein works to make ends meet at The Lotus, a local flower shop in the UK, she moves in to a converted warehouse with a whole cast of characters - including her old college roommate, Raja, and traveling photographer Henry - who she instantly feels a connection with. The only issue - he's only home one weekend a month. She spends the next year or so getting to know and falling in love with the city and everyone she lives with.

💁‍♀️ My Take
This was pretty cute and interesting and easy and light. I was definitely getting Beth O'Leary and maybe Emily Henry vibes throughout - relatable and flawed characters, great dialogue, unique storylines, and fun but deep side characters. I was rooting for Lucy, though she made some questionable choices, and I felt like I wanted to be a part of the friend group. As far as Henry goes....I wanted him to be better. He was a bit immature and strung Lucy around too much - but honestly, that feels like real-life to me? Overall, entertaining and satisfying. The perfect read for springtime!

I LOVE a debut novel, and this one was very cute. It gave “FRIENDS in London” and was the sweetest found family trope.

I really loved that this was told in a month by month format. It really added to highlighting the difficulty Lucy faced in trying to navigate her relationship with Henry throughout one weekend a month, even if it made for some long chapters.
I’m not a big “will they won’t they” person, it stresses me out, so Lucy and Henry definitely gave me some anxiety here. I found myself so frustrated with Henry especially.
I absolutely adored the warehouse residents and their lives/relationships otherwise. It was so wholesome and sweet and I genuinely found myself sad when someone moved out. The concept of Warehouse Weekends was so fun and exciting I found myself looking forward to what each roommate had planned as if I were attending as well.
Lucy’s tenacity and resolve were so inspiring, especially in her career, (I love a florist job in a book) I loved seeing her get what she wanted and deserved from everything. She was so relatable in her big and real feelings.

The roommate/found family storyline absolutely took the show for me here. I never wanted Warehouse Weekend to end! I’d love another book just to see where everyone is.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 4/9/24

Weekends With You is Alexandra Paige’s debut and it’s adorable. I read somewhere it’s compared to Rebecca Serle and Josie Silver and I would agree with that.

Lucy is a florist who lives in a warehouse with 7 roommates. Henry is a photographer and one of the roommates. Henry and Lucy only see each other once a month, during Warehouse Weekend. This is a weekend one of the roommates plans each month and they all hang out during this one weekend.

The book is told in 12 chapters-one for each month beginning in August. As they meet each month, Lucy and Henry’s relationship up and downs are revealed. I’m really liked the story being told like this!

If I had any complaint about the book, it would be Henry. I think the story focuses too much on Lucy, it’s told in first person from her POV, that it’s hard to connect with Henry and his motivations. This makes him seem immature, at best, and an ass, at worst.

Ultimately, it’s a romance so alls well that ends well but still not sure these two were meant to be.

Great start to a writing career that has great potential. Thank you to #netgalley and #avonbooks for the advanced e-copy of #weekendswithyou! And thank you to @prbookgirl for the finished copy. I look forward to reading more!

Ratings:
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice: 🚫

Tropes: 
Forced proximity
Found family
Friends to lovers
Long distance relationship
Florist x photographer

Summary:
Weekends With You is Alexandra Paige’s debut novel about Lucy Bernstein living in a London flat with 7 other people. Every month, each flat mate is in charge of “Warehouse Weekend” in which a group outing is planned. She gets romantically involved with one of her flat mates, Henry who is a travel photographer and is away on business more than actually living in the flat. All while learning how to juggle a long distance and on and off again relationship she also has to keep her flower shop in business.

My thoughts:
Absolutely loved the flower symbolism and Weekends With You is a good book to read during the springtime. Everyone’s dynamics with each other kind of reminded me of the TV show Friends, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, for me, this book left more to be desired. I usually eat up the found family trope and was hoping it would save the book for me. It sort of dragged on for me and felt as though Lucy and Henry’s “relationship” was in a loop throughout the entire book. I enjoyed Lucy’s character, she’s more mature compared to the regular FMC you come across. Henry was the most unlikeable and came across as immature. *spoiler* I was hoping Lucy would actually end up alone or with someone else.

I encourage you to read this book if you need a feel good spring novel!

I got to say, I really loved this book! Lucy has become of my favorite characters; she’s sweet and kind, but also sticks up for herself in her way. Sometimes standing up for yourself is done calmly and quietly, exactly as Lucy does it. She’s clearly passionate for her friends, even if she’s a bit more introverted than all of them. Beyond that, I loved the way the book is structured. It’s a unique set-up, focusing on one weekend each month, and keeps the story moving along at a fast pace. It also has the added effect of being able to keep the character group tight, so we can easily keep track of all of Lucy’s roommates.

I totally recommend this book to fans of slow burn, sweet friends to lovers, and cozy romances!

It was interesting to see Lucy and Henry fall in love while only seeing each other face-to-face one weekend a month. I thought their romance was cute, and I loved seeing them together. I just wish we would have seen more of their text messages to each other and FaceTime calls in more detail. I adored all of the roommates. I loved the banter between them and how they supported one another even while giving each other a hard time. I enjoyed this book as it was unique to other books that I typically read, and it was fun and cute.

I spent my weekend reading Weekends With You, the debut novel from Alexandra Paige. This novel perfectly captures what it feels like to be in your twenties - the chaos, the highs and lows, the relationships, the uncertainty.

To save money, aspiring florist Lucy moves into a warehouse with 7 roommates. All eight of the roommates live busy lives, so they institute Warehouse Weekends - once a month, they gather together and spend time as a group, taking turns planning the activities. These weekends are strategically scheduled to ensure that Henry, the traveling photographer roommate, can attend, and thus the novel's structure is born. Each chapter represents one weekend out of a month, the one weekend Henry returns to London and sees his roommates.

Sparks fly between Lucy and Henry immediately, but they struggle to figure out how to proceed given that they only get to see each other once a month. To make things worse, Henry is actively trying to find what feels like home to him; all he knows is that London isn't it, and he plans to move out by the following summer. With this expiration date on their time as roommates, Lucy questions whether she should take the risk and pursue anything with Henry - but will their chemistry prove too much to resist?

I'll be honest: I didn't immediately fall for Henry. I had to remind myself that these characters are all in their 20s, and none of them have anything figured out. Henry definitely reminded me of every slightly self-centered, generally clueless man I dated when I was in my 20s, which definitely wasn't the most flattering comparison! However, rest assured that these two do find their way to a HEA... it just takes a while to get there.

I love when a book does the found family trope well, and Paige absolutely nails it. I wanted to know more about every single one of the roommates, and I loved the banter between them. She really understands how to capture the turbulence of early adulthood, while setting it against all the joyful moments: nights spent out with friends, maybe having a bit too much to drink, maybe kissing a stranger, experimenting and finding what feels right, even if it means trying plenty of things that don't work along the way.

I hope you'll give this book a shot, and that you'll find yourself rooting for Lucy just like I did!