In this emotional second-chance romance novel, readers meet Andie after she lands her dream job as a senior book publicist, and the emotional boost from getting the job gives her a sense of purpose, which she had lost after her father died. However, her biggest author is Jack Carlson, who ruined her life at university five years ago, and no matter how much she hates him, she can’t afford to mess up. Stuck on the book tour together, they both need this to be a success and be professional, but their feelings might get in the way -- and maybe they’ll be able to resolve their years-long silence. Tropey, fun, and emotional, readers will love the complicated relationship between Andie and Jack and how it evolves over the novel. Their respective character arcs and detailed backstories are well-written and absolutely fascinating, and readers will really enjoy their changing dynamic over the course of the book. The tropes add some great comedic and emotional elements to their relationship, and the flashbacks to the end of their friendship further complicate their relationship in ways which readers will enjoy. Charming, emotional, and entertaining, romance readers will love this fun new novel from Bianca Gillam.

Not bad. Not really a rom com but more focuses on grief. Quick read that was kind of slow in the middle

I had to DNF this book a few chapters in. I just wasn’t able to get into the writing. I do hope to give it a chance again someday.

Dnf at 31%

I just can't take this anymore. I'm not sure if this is a Netgalley issue, or a publisher issue, but this is the second book now that's been dubbed as a romcom/second chance romance that has no romance at all and is mainly focused around grief and a FMC that refuses to get the therapy that she desperately needs to have.

The blurb says this is a sparkling romcom. But nothing about this has sparkled, there has been no romance, and there has been no comedy.

Here's a run down of how this book goes.

Jack does something nice. Andie shits all over him for it and says he's basically the devil (but we don't know why). She texts Sara about it. She self deprecates about being an awful daughter, and then proceeds to treat her mother terribly. Rinse. Repeat.

Any time something is brought up that she doesn't want to talk about, Andie shuts it down immediately so she doesn't have to deal with it. When Sarah calls her out for this, Andie has the audacity to be HURT and say "I'm not burying it. I'm pushing to to the side."

She takes no responsibility for herself. She's mean and unprofessional, and since I never found out what evil thing Jack did before I gave up, I could never root for her. I had no info to make her actions make sense. According to other reviews, you don't get that info until around 80%, and that's just ridiculous. It shouldn't take that long to make Andie's actions redeemable when she was acting like such a bitch from the very first page.

Super cute! I always love a main character working in publicity. I think the book idea was super cute. I think the hinting at the bad thing he did was a little too vague, I wish there were more clues so the reader could try and figure it out during the book. This was also marketed as a rom com, but I think it delt with grief so much that I wouldn't call it that.

A book tour across Europe? Sign me up! I really loved the characters in Bad Publicity—Andie’s grumpy nature and Jack’s patient, steady sunshine made a great mix. Following them on the book tour across Europe had me enthralled. I'm not usually a romance reader, but I enjoyed this cute novel that was ultimately about healing and connection, and the way Gillam writes her characters makes it all feel so real.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked that it took place during a book tour promoting Jack’s book and I thought that was interesting because Jack the author and Andie the publicist had history. They clearly had something happen in their past, which made them had the bad blood between them, but they were able to put those their issues aside to have a successful tour. The issue between them was worth the build up. The second chance romance was sweet once they worked out through their prior feelings.

I personally felt connected to Andie as I’ve also lost my father and had to deal with my mother getting remarried later in life. I wish I could’ve talked to her because we had the same feelings.

Thank you penguin books for my gifted ebook.

So, I'm back to my research a little bit, and expected this to be a fun and light-hearted romcom. I was certainly wrong. This book, about Andie having to be an ex's publicist for a high-profile book tour around Europe, was an odd mixture of romance, comedy, drama, and grief.

It was a nice book, I will say that. I wish it had been marketed differently. While, at first, this seemed like a very cheesy romcom, it very soon turned into Andie dealing with the grief of losing her father and everything changing when she's not ready to face it all. That, plus the backstory as to why she hates her new author Jack Carlson, made this book feel very far from comedy. Which is fine unless you're specifically looking for a that romcom to bring you good, cheesy happiness.

I'm also not a fan of the ending. I understand the choices made, and agree with many of them, but there's one that I am not a fan of. It doesn't make sense in comparison to the rest of the book in my opinion.

My biggest pet peeve, however, was the way cut offs were written. Most times a character was cut off, the sentence simply stopped with zero punctuation of any kind. Infuriating. I'm not a grammar stickler most of the time, but that just kept throwing me off while reading the book, especially because many of the cut offs could have been normal sentences, but suddenly I see they've been cut off and have to reread from the point of view. Maybe it's a silly thing to be annoyed by, but it happens. A lot.

Overall, I mostly enjoyed this book once I removed myself from the romcom perspective I was honestly hoping for.

For publishers: The title doesn't really seem to fit. It's cute, and sets up an idea of the book, but after reading the book it doesn't really make much sense to me. Also, the cover doesn't fit the book. Again, it's giving a very strong 'romcom' vibe that many would be very excited to pick up, but it doesn't fully deliver it. I wish it were more marketed as romance and grief/healing. I think that would've been better.


Rating: 2.8/5

Recommend? Sure, not strongly

I loved how we had a romance but we also had a story in which these characters are going through their own things. I really loved how grief was portrayed and think this book was well rounded and written. It caught my attention from the beginning and I loved the chracters both together and apart from each other.

Really enjoyed this read- it captured my attention from the beginning and I thought the pacing of the plot was great. For this genre of books, I give it four stars!

Review: Bad Publicity
Author: Bianca Gilliam
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Bad Publicity presents itself as a sparkling rom-com, but beneath the bright, quirky cover lies a more introspective story centered on grief, regret, and emotional growth. This second-chance romance between a rising publicist and the author she once knew unfolds against the backdrop of a high-stakes European book tour—and while the setup is full of potential, the execution left me feeling a bit disconnected.

Andie, a newly hired book publicist in New York, is immediately tasked with managing a major release for Jack Carlson—a former college acquaintance whose complicated history with her is slowly revealed throughout the novel. Their forced proximity and emotional baggage set the stage for a slow-burning story, but the romantic tension never quite lands. While the book touches on meaningful topics like loss, trauma, and moving forward, it often leans more literary than romantic, which may surprise readers expecting a traditional rom-com or enemies-to-lovers dynamic.

Character development is where I struggled most. Andie’s grief and past experiences understandably shape her behavior, but her emotional walls and reactive decisions often felt more frustrating than compelling. Jack, though patient and kind, remained largely underdeveloped. I never quite felt the chemistry between them, and their romantic arc felt more circumstantial than earned.

The pacing was also uneven. Much of the story hinges on a past event that’s referenced repeatedly but not fully explained until well into the book. Once revealed, it didn’t carry the weight I expected, and it made the prolonged buildup feel unnecessarily drawn out. Subplots involving side characters, particularly toward the end, added layers that felt more distracting than impactful.

That said, the novel’s exploration of unresolved grief and identity does give it emotional depth, and the publishing-world setting adds an interesting backdrop for the story to unfold. Readers who approach this as a character-driven drama with romantic elements, rather than a straightforward rom-com, may find more to appreciate.

Ultimately, Bad Publicity has a compelling premise and moments of emotional resonance, but the lack of chemistry, uneven pacing, and tonal mismatch made it hard for me to fully connect. A thoughtful debut with potential—but not quite the love story I was hoping for.

I thoroughly enjoyed this smartly written romance. The characters were well defined and easy to like, but they just needed to get over themselves already. The university incident was well written, and I liked that Andie finally recognized that she had some issues to resolve before plunging into a relationship with Jack. Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC.

Short review: I usually like a miscommunication trope, but this one was not it. The book had promise, but I couldn't buy that the MCs had any romantic chemistry and the FMC was immature and unlikeable in almost every way.

Long review: FMC Andie works as a publicist in publishing and finds out that Jack, (who in all of the descriptions of this book is called an ex...but that's a stretch) a college classmate, is on her roster of authors and she is going to have to go on a book tour across Europe with him in support of his new release.

She continually mentions that something terrible happened in college between them, but this is not disclosed to the readers until more than 3/4 of the way through the book. Jack tries to clear the air and discuss what happened, but Andie refuses and instead proceeds to treat Jack terribly for most of the book.

It seems like she tries to blame all of her behaviors on losing her dad just after the terrible even with Jack, but she also does not do anything productive to address her grief, including refusing to speak with her mother about anything which leads to miscommunications between them as well that are side plots that make Andie even more unlikeable in my eyes.

Andie and Jack strike a truce part of the way through the tour when she realizes she is being unprofessional, but she still refuses to discuss what happened. They still have residual feelings (supposedly) and eventually hookup which, unshockingly, does not fix everything because Andie needs therapy, not to hookup with someone she claims to hate.

We finally find out what Jack did, admittedly, it was pretty terrible, however, the way that Andie treats him because of it throughout the book is the furthest thing from professional. The only thing that is slightly redeeming for Andie was that she quit her job at the end of the book, though she should've been fired, so really too little too late. And because this is a romance, they end up reuniting, but honestly, they should be on one of those BookTok lists of couples who would breakup once the book ends.

I really wanted to like this book . . . I really wanted to read this book. But I couldn't when f**** was the first word and was repeated multiple times in the first chapter. I wish there was a content warning given in book blurbs about explicit language. I wouldn't have downloaded the book to read if I'd known there would be the that much - or that soon? Anyway, I did not finish it or even get very far. Because of that, I cannot give any feedback on the plot, character development, themes, etc. I wish I could!

I really loved this story. The miscommunication/misinformation trope is a little on the tired side and wish it would end already, but it worked a little bit in this one. Might have been better if they would have just talked.

I was excited by the description of this book but it fell totally flat. This book wanted to be Book Lovers but it got the formula wrong.

First of all, we don’t actually know why FMC Andie hates the MMC, Jack, which makes it hard to sympathize with her insane behavior towards him. She basically just acts rude and unprofessionally towards him for - from our perspective - no reason. We know she was somehow wronged by him in college (5 years ago) but that’s all we know. Girl just do your job!

From the outset, we don’t get to know her enough as a character outside of her singleminded, self-defeating hatred of this guy. She decides she hates the book she’s reading specifically because he says he likes it. She won’t accept his umbrella when it’s raining. It comes across as very juvenile.

I ended up skipping forward to 75% when they reveal what his sin is and I will say….yeah it’s gross. It makes me dislike him. I understand where she’s coming from. But this book needed to be structured differently for me to even want to get that far to begin with.

Thank you Penguin Books and NetGalley for the E-ARC of Bad Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, sooo this one was just kinda meh to me. Nothing stood out from it as a must read summer romance book. It did have some moments but those moments were very small and only happened like two times.

Andie being so selfish about things got quite annoying after a couple of chapters of her and Jack being on the tour. Also as someone who's super close to her mother and best friend, I CAN'T imagine ignoring my mother and best friend in the ways that Andie did. It was just rude! Jack was just the type of MMC that I love reading in a romance novel, really didn't have anything loveable about him other than he had special connections to how Andie was feeling but that only happened twice in the book. From the two flashback chapters it was clear that he fell first and fell so HARD when they were at University but really didn't warrant this being marketed as a second chance romance. They barely had even started something previously. It's more of a workplace-frenemies to lovers-to not now because I'm broken-to I'm ready now that I'm less broken type of romance to me.

The website drama felt very high schoolish and burn bookish to me. And the fallout from it also felt extremely high school to me. I was expecting something other than that from an adult romance. Like slut shamming yes, it's a thing but this is 2025.... I was expecting something other than that as the reason she loathes Jack.

This made me wish I were the type of person who DNFs books.

Andie was soooo annoying and childish. She prides herself on being a professional, and yet the first half of the book is just her being a brat. I understand that there is no timeline for grief and that she went through something traumatic in college, but so much of her behavior is self-destructive, uncalled for, and makes no sense for a grown adult.

Jack had the patience of a saint with Andie, but there’s nothing remarkable about his character. He’s a dull kind of nice. There can be comfort in the safe and average, but we don’t actually know anything about this man! He’s just there.

The story had some thoughtful parts about grief and healing, but it took up way too much focus. This was supposed to be a romance, and yet the romance was non-existent. Why did these two characters fall in love with each other? I have ZERO clue. There was no chemistry between them–I didn’t even care if they ended up together.

The pacing was absolutely terrible. Most of the book is Andie being a jerk to Jack throughout the book tour, and them supposedly reconnecting, I guess. Like I said, there were no sparks between these two, so the storyline fell flat. I was over it by about 20% in, and then it took a month for me to finally decide to power through it, just to write a review. This draaaaaaagged, and I could not wait to be done with it!

As soon as they set the scene for their first meeting, it’s instantly obvious why Andie would be mad at Jack. It was such an agonizing journey getting to their backstory, and once you do, it’s like, okay, so what was the reason?! You did not need to wait so long to tell me all of that, which brings me back to, “why are they still in love with each other five years later?!” They BARELY knew each other. They were just classmates who shared a handful of small-talk conversations. I understand how they might feel connected through their shared experiences from that last day together, but for this whole “romance” story to spawn when they know next to nothing about each other is actually kind of insane.

There was way too much going on in the end, especially with Sara and her relationship, which was honestly random and unnecessary. I didn’t care about the main characters, much less the side ones.

Overall, this book had no rom or com. I did not enjoy reading it, and I would not recommend it.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the ARC of this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This one was hard to get through. I struggled to want to pick the book up everyday. I can empathize with the FMCs pain, but I don’t understand is why she didn’t seek therapy for her pain from these situations. I guess she thought talking it through with her friend sufficed, but it clearly didn’t in the long run. The FMC comes off extremely selfish when she cuts people off when they are trying to have a conversation about feelings but they have to drop everything for her feelings. That irked me. I also don’t understand why the reason for the MCs falling out was not explained until the 80% mark of the book. This book was not for me, but if you like second chance, coworker, black cat/golden retriever, miscommunication, you might like this better.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC

I’d heard mixed things about this book, but I mostly enjoyed it. It’s a pretty straight forward enemies to lovers tale in which Andie a publicist has to go on a book tour with Jack, an author.

We spend most of the book with Andie hating Jack because of something that happened 5 years ago at university but it isn’t until about three quarters of the way through the book that you find out what happened. Delaying that long makes it hard to support Andie’s hatred.

Then the event in question and the aftermath is really dark stuff so it’s both terrible and also feels really out of left field for a sunny yellow covered romance novel.