Rounding up to a 4, but really hit at 3.5 ⭐️ for me. I enjoyed and flew through the audiobook, it’s definitely a fab beach read, but I was not sucked into the story or romance like I usually am with romcoms. The spice was pretty good and steamy! But the lack of swoon and the slow burn (well, a different kind of slow burn as a second chance romance) didn’t really hit for me.

I really appreciated the touches on mental health and the storyline does cover 2018-2023… so you know what happens halfway through. I thought it touched on COVID and lockdown, etc in an effective, tasteful way. I didn’t have to roll my eyes like I have for other books’ mentions of the pandemic.

I liked the dual POV and the audiobook narrators were lovely. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the advanced audiobook :)

Listened at 2.5x speed with no issues. Dual narration worked well for the two MCs. Each was strong on their own, but worked well together.

Heading into a traditional Rom-Com, there were a ton of recognizable tropes and predictable elements. Where this book missed for me was two-fold: 1) The lack of surprise. It was a story where I was constantly able to predict the next step, which was a bit unsatisfying. 2) The dialogue felt unrealistic. The declarations of love may have been unavoidable, but some of the sex scenes in particular were cringeworthy. It felt like what a person would ideally dream about dialogue being, but without the real world grounding in how people actually talk, it pulled my listening experience askew.

Pacing was fine. The story didn't ever feel like it was dragging on too much, and the additional characters (family and high school friends) that popped in and out added just enough to the plot line to keep things interesting.

Overall: 3 stars (I liked it)

I'll tell my students about: language, sex (SPICY), LGBT+

**Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the free ALC. All opinions expressed are my own.** Review posted to GoodReads 5/2/24

I absolutely loved this book! I was intrigued by the fact that this would take place over 5 years and was so caught up in Molly and Seth’s story. It’s funny, spicy and sweet! I was rooting for the couple the whole time.

Thank you @NetGalley @MacMillan.Audio @Flatiron_Books @Greatlyn for gifted ARC!

Romance/Rom-Com is one of my top genres, but even moreso lately. I have been on a Rom-Com kick & this definitely measured up to the other fab Rom-Coms I’ve read lately. This was my first read by Katelyn Doyle & I’ll definitely be signing up for future releases!

I loved the role reversal of the FMC being the pessimist about love & the MMC being the one constantly going all-in.

Molly doesn’t believe in real love due to the horrible divorce between her parents when she was young. All Seth wants is to settle down with the love of his life, build a family & live happily ever after.

Molly & Seth dated for four years in high school until she just up & left him when she moved to California to become a successful screenwriter of, wait for it, Rom-Coms. It was an easy genre to get her foot in the door, she just doesn’t believe in any of it. They reunited at their 15-year high school reunion & after a night of debauchery, make a bet on where they believe the love lives of 5 couples will be in 5 years at their 20-year reunion. Seth & Molly include themselves as one of those couples.

The story follows Seth & Molly over the following 5 years & what does or doesn’t become of their relationship. Can Seth break through & convince Molly that true love exists or is he destined for heartbreak once again?

This book is full of humor, witty banter, charm & the sweetest MMC ever written. It was a wonderfully quick read leaving me completely satisfied & swooning. I appreciate a good, smartly written second chance romance with the perfect amount of spice. Finally, as is necessary with this genre, there will also be heartbreaking moments where you might find yourself shedding some tears.

@yolakin & @thevoiceoftimpaige did a FABULOUS job with the narration!

4.5 Stars & I highly recommend!

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Thank you NetGalley for this audio ARC. This book fell really flat for me. The characters apparently loved each other in the past, but you'd never know it based on how the book was written. I was bored and unattached to the characters.

Thank you MacMillan for the audio review copy and to Flatiron for the ebook review copy (free copies). Just Some Stupid Love Story is one of those books that should be a big win for me, I love romcoms and I am all good with second chance themes and all of the tropes but there was not a lot in this story that worked for me. Strong premise, I loved that the FMC was dark and edgy but a romcom writer (I actually liked her a lot) but the MMC was so flat, one dimensional, and even for a "sunshine"vs grumpy"... this was over the top sunshine at the expense of having an interesting nuanced male character (and his fiance... the way she was written and described made me annoyed, so unrealistic and unrelatable). I think some of my dislike for the MMC was possibly also the narration style, solid performance but the tone just didn't work either.

I felt the plot bounced around a lot, event to event without ever giving me a sense as to why the two MCs liked each other, I didn't get a sense of their chemistry but more spent a lot of time in their heads and messages about their feelings but never really the why. And then the phone sex just landed in my car speakers and it felt awkward and not sexy at all to me.

This is for me a romcomc that is missing the rom part.

This audiobook is not for me. I made it 10% of the way in and couldn’t handle the male narrator’s intonation. He sounds like he is narrating a book for children which is awkward considering the topics.

Story wise, I wasn’t sold on the plot or the characters. There doesn’t seem to be much chemistry between the main characters and then all the sudden they are having sex. This isn’t like an Emily Henry book.

I adore this audiobook and the narrators did such an excellent job. I did find the male character to be a bit stereotypical when it came to his approach at first. However, the author did a great job creating different character flaws. I found that this book read like real life and the part about consent was sweet. It is a good message and I love how the two characters jobs were actually the opposite of how they felt. So, having the male and female do a debate was a sweet surprise. I really appreciated the characters and the ending while predictable to me, was perfect. I would definitely reread it either in person or audio.

Pros:
-cute premise
-the characters actually develop over time


Cons:
-the years long, constant bad timing of if all. This made the book way longer than it needed to be and made the FMC seem a lot younger and immature than she was

-the majority of the spice focused on the phone sex and that just….wasn't it.

-this last point is totally a me thing, but can we stop including Covid in every book!? We lived it, we get it, and every author just flies through it anyway! Can we give it a rest!? Again, this is a me thing, and reading books that don’t talk about Covid doesn’t mean Covid didn’t happen, but it helps me pretend.

This story follows Molly and Seth through years of “wrong place, wrong time”. There was some great banter throughout and I was definitely rooting for them to be together the whole time.
This is not a clean romance, but I don’t remember there being any explicit scenes.

The two audiobooks narrators that were used were great. At first, the male character didn’t do it for me, but he grew on me as the book went on.

My only negatives for this one are:
1.) I think the book went on a little too long. There were just too many rounds of the two starting to work out and then something would happen. It’s a long audiobook, and probably could’ve cut a couple/few hours off.

2.) I think the timeframe was just too long. They were mushing 40 by the end. I know I’m coming from a different point of view, because I married my husband a few months after we met and have been going strong for 16 years (and I’m the same age as the characters are in the end, when they finally stay together).

Overall, this debut author had a promising career ahead of her and I think you’ll really enjoy this rom com novel!

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and MacMillan Audio for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate it!

Read this if you like:
•second chance romance
•finding yourself
•high school sweethearts
•debut novel

This was a great debut! The chemistry between the characters had me hooked! There’s a lot of back and forth in this book and makeup/breakup as the characters find themselves, grow up, and decide what they want!

Thank you Macmillan audio for the ALC!

In a sea of fairytale-perfect romance plots, this story steeped in reality is a refreshing reminder that happily ever afters are possible in real life with time and a little faith.
The characters are relatable and authentic. Molly is disillusioned about marriage because of childhood divorce trauma, and cynical about love from paternal abandonment. Seth is a hopeless romantic who tries too hard to make every relationship fit into his soulmate narrative. It’s a unique, opposites-attract theme based on real-world personalities and not exaggerated stereotypes.
The plot moves at a good pace, which is surprising due to how much time passes during the book. The humor is contemporary and witty. The scene descriptions are impressively articulate but not verbose.
It was amusing to see a romcom acknowledge the romance tropes and discount them as fiction only to prove itself wrong with a happily ever after that felt truly genuine.

This book was such a cute rom-com to just unwind and a perfect beach read ❤️
I adored Molly and Seth❤️ from the beginning I couldn’t put this audiobook away and the side characters are just great ❤️I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick rom- com to listen to or read 😍
Can’t wait for release day to have my friends read it😊.

A huge thank you to NetGalley , the publishers and Katelyn Doyle for the opportunity to listen to this ARC of just some stupid love story ❤️❤️

I’m not one to typically use audiobooks, but listening to Just Some Stupid Love Story was such a delight. Slightly spicy rom-com involving high school sweethearts that reconnect at their 15th reunion. Molly and Seth have a grumpy/sunshine vibe that I love to watch unfold over the five year time span in the book.

Katelyn Doyle does a great job of making her novel contemporary with believable dialogue and actions/reactions from main and supporting characters which I really liked. I also love reading a love story about people who aren’t basically teenagers! Real adults with complicated families and relationships, yet not too real that it’s not entertaining.

I’m very impressed with Doyle’s debut novel. I think it will make a great book club pick and summer novel for many readers!

Seth and Molly! How untypical your story is. And I loved it. Seth is not your typical male lead - emotionally intelligent, golden retriever-type who has patience beyond my ability to comprehend. Molly is tough to understand and frustrating to read. She’s been wrecked by the examples in her life and every challenge she encounters seems to elicit an explosive response. They spend much of the book orbiting each other, being drawn together periodically like magnets. Moments in the book made me tear up and the author really made the reader work for that ending !! Highly recommend.

wow. I am absolutely blown away by how beautiful this story was. In the single day, I devoured this audiobook, I have a brand new second chance romance favorite, opposites attract favorite, and all around favorite book. this story is filled with so much authentic, real life moments, but is compounded so incredibly with hysterical humor, unconditional friendship, and deep soulmate level love. the dual pov and narration made this story come to life and let me fall hopelessly in love with both Molly and Seth.

Seth and Molly have, in my opinion, the most perfect second chance romance/opposites attract romance. The time jumps throughout the story make their love story so authentic and refreshingly beautiful as they continue to choose each other over and over again for the better part of five year. Seth is one of the best heroes I’ve ever read— he is so overwhelmingly kind and patient and understanding in everything he does, while still being adorably sexy and hotly hilarious in everything.

The way Molly is able to find her self-worth and acceptance in her relationships with others, and with herself had me in tears. she deserved so much better from her father throughout her entire life, and by the end she’s able to accept the love she so beautifully deserves from Seth, her friends, her mom, and herself. so incredibly beautiful.

I feel like I can’t possibly review this story in a way that it properly deserves. just know that it touched me so deeply, has become one of my all-time favorite stories, and I am so incredibly thankful to have read it and be able to share it with as many people as I can. thank you so much for the alc :)

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook copy Narration was great. The story was super cute I look forward to reading more from Kaitlyn Doyle

This one was quite sweet and the beginning was cute! I loved the setup of the bet they make about couples from their high school reunion. It also gets deep with parent issues and unhealthy relationship patterns. It was good! The narrators were great!

this book is very tell-y, not show-y. we’re told the main characters have history, told they have chemistry, told what they feel, but I didn’t really feel it.

I also didn’t really enjoy the cavalier way it talked about medication. I’m all for normalizing using medication (I am on anxiety meds myself), but the way it was talked about felt more like self-medicating than normalizing medication.

additionally, I didn’t really enjoy the male narrator. I don’t know what the opposite of monotone is, but it felt a bit like that- just extremely cheery all the time regardless of what he was reading.

Just Some Stupid Love Story
By: Katelyn Doyle
Publisher- MacMillian Audio
Pub Date: June 4, 2024
4🩷🩷🩷🩷

A fabulous debut!
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Molly and Seth dating in high school.
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Many years later at a high school reunion sparks are ignited. Their journey has not been easy, but they are drawn to each other. Living in different places, and Mollys anxiety makes her panic. Their chemistry is off the charts…
🩷
This one is fun, spicy and filled with all kinds of emotions. Their timing always seems to be off. Will they get the happily ever after or realize they just can’t make it work. Sometimes love does not solve everything.
🩷
Thank you Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy.

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