Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Penguin Books for my advanced readers copy for an honest review. Unfortunately, I DNF this one around the 30% mark. I couldn’t connect with the characters and thought it was slow.

Wow. I just finished this book, but I have a feeling its going to take a few days to really process.

This book is not what I thought it was going to be. I was thinking meet cute rom com, but it is so much more than that. I would actually market this as more of womens fiction with a side of romance. It reminded me a lot of some of Abby Jimenez and Emily Henry.

The best part about a book that is WF & Romance is that our FMC gets to be a fully developed character with a life outside of the romance. In romance books, I often find that outside of the relationship I dont know the characters or the MMC is such a 'perfect book boyfriend' that he outshines the FMC and that is definitely not this book.

This was very hard hitting and raw and honest. There are so many important lessons and themes in this book:
Forgiveness, grief, the importance of giving people the benefit of the doubt and seeing both sides of the story.

This book is very dear to my heart. AND A DEBUT NOVEL?! I'm speechless, but at the same time I could also probably tak about this book for an hour.

This is a VERY WELL DESERVED 5 STARS. I can't wait to purchase the physical book when its out, tell all my friends, and see what you publish next! I'll be waiting!!

bad publicity (arc)

thank you to netgalley and penguin publishing for the arc!

i’ll start by saying that while i wouldn’t personally recommend bad publicity, i wouldn’t not recommend it either. it wasn’t a hit for me, but i can definitely see why it could work for others!

my biggest issue was the pacing of the romance—it just didn’t land for me. the connection between the two main characters never really developed in a way that felt deep or believable, so by the time we got to the “i love you” moments, it felt… off. rushed, maybe. unearned/out of place.

another sticking point was the conflict. the fmc holds a grudge against the mmc for something that happened five years ago, and we don’t even find out what that something is until about 80% of the way through. and once it’s revealed, it turns out to be a misunderstanding—which, fine, i can roll with that—but even after clearing things up, the fmc still pushes the mmc away repeatedly. i just didn’t fully understand her reasoning, and it made the emotional payoff fall kind of flat.

all that said, it was an entertaining, super fast read. i honestly flew through it. and i really loved the setting—books set in the literary world are always a win for me, and following an author and publicist on a european book tour made for a fun, atmospheric backdrop.

just to clarify my rating system: 3 stars means i liked it and would recommend it. so while 2.75 might seem harsh, it’s not a total write-off—just not quite my thing.

2.75 stars

Loved this book but I disagree with its classification as rom-com! This story deals a lot with grief and loss and is much weightier than your average romantic comedy. All that said, it's a well-told enemies-to-lovers romance that I thought was really sweet and full of personal growth.

The FMC was interesting but I felt needed a bit more, or really a bit sooner. the MMC was nice but relatively flat. the romance took a back seat, which i felt worked quite well. 3.5 stars rounded up. tysm for the arc.

DNF at 4%. Too slow and boring. Predictable story line that’s been done multiple times. Overly dramatic main character is difficult to relate to or like.

A book publicist lands her dream job only to discover her biggest author is the man who broke her heart years ago. Now, she must navigate a month-long European book tour with him, battling old wounds and new challenges.

This book is not a romance—it’s a women’s fiction about grief. The romance is a subplot: most of the interaction between the Andie and Jack is superficial, colored by her misperceptions of him. By the end of the novel, we know almost nothing about Jack, or why they should be a couple.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This book was just bad from start to finish. What looks like a romance, but is not. The 2 main characters had zero chemistry IMO, the reveals were obvious (never good). I do not think the author knew what she wanted this book to be... rom-com, overcoming grief, complicated relationships. Pick a lane and stay in it for writing, it makes it more interesting for the reader.

My other huge issue in this book were both main characters. The MMC had zero balls and let the FMC act like a complete bitch towards him, yet he was still into her? WTF?! The FMC really was a bitch and was completely deplorable and unlikeable. When you are writing a fiction book, aren't you supposed to get the readers to like the main characters? The answer is: neither was likeable or interesting.

For all this and more, I cannot recommend this book. I did not like it.

Thanks to Netgalley, Bianca Gillam and Penguin Group Penguin Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 5/20/2025

I was really excited for this one, and it had so much promise but ultimately was pretty disappointing. It's also NOT a rom com. Very important to point that out since it's marketed as one.

One of my pet peeves in books is when something happens to the main couple to cause conflict between them and it keeps being referred to, but we don’t find out what actually happened until the very end of the book. This doesn’t happen at the very end, but we don’t find out exactly why Andie hates Jack so much until we’re 75% of the way through the book. When we do finally find out what it is, even despite his explanation, I couldn’t find myself rooting for them to end up together.

Andie is really really REALLY frustrating as a main character. You want to root for her, but she’s so self destructive at times it makes it really hard, especially not knowing the context of why she hated Jack until much later. She’s also so dependent on her best friend Sara to the point that she calls and texts her all the time and expects her to drop everything to deal with her problems, yet Sara is clearly going through something herself. But Andie continues to make any and all situations about herself and her feelings, not really giving a thought to anyone else’s. Jack was treated as strictly the love interest. He didn’t have a ton of backstory or wasn’t developed as much as he should have been.

One thing I really did love though, was the different bookstores they stopped in throughout the book tour. I love bookstores, and I love how each one was explained, I could feel like I was actually there. I also loved the cover of this one! I just wish the story lived up to it.

Bad Publicity by Bianca Gillam

Rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Penguin Books, Netgalley, and the author for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Bad Publicity is a great read! A forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance that will leave you feeling all the feelings. This novel does an excellent job at balancing humorous moments with more emotional, angsty, and heartwarming ones.

Andie and Jack, the MCs, are exes who have a rather complicated past. They have to figure out a way to work together since their job calls for it, which leads to them experiencing a multitude of emotions, from significant dislike to attraction. The slow-burn aspect of their romance works really well to build the plot throughout. And, while there is some miscommunication, it’s handled authentically. Following along on the journey between Andie and Jack and seeing how they navigate the complexities of their relationship makes the ending even more compelling.

Also, the way in which Andie's grief is portrayed was navigated very well and further increases the depth/emotion to the story overall. Recognizing Andie's grief and struggles showcases her determination and strength.

Overall, Bad Publicity is a really good read! The plot is interesting, the characters are well written, and there is a good amount of depth to the story.

3.5 stars.

This was cute but lacked depth. This novel follows Andie, a publicist for a publisher and is shoved into a position of being a publicist for her ex Jack, who has just written his first romance novel. The story focuses on Andie's grief and feelings from the past with a scenario we do not learn about until 70% in the book. It's gives miscommunication and to me, that trope is the worst.

Although it wasn't the worst and it was cute, it could have been so much more.

Do I recommend you read it? Maybe.

Bad Publicity was an interesting second chance romantic comedy that explores grief very well. Andie and Jack had a relatively short history in college but the after effects of how they ended have stayed with both of them in the five years since they've last seen each other. There were definitely some funny moments throughout but the book definitely explores a lot of Andie's unresolved issues not only from her relationship with Jack, but the loss of her father right after college and trying to have a better relationship with her mother as they both adapt and move on. Andie was not the most likeable - but Jack's charm made up for a lot. Overall an enjoyable debut novel. Thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this novel.

Big thank you to NetGalley for selecting me as an ARC reviewer!

As far as debut novels go, this really wasn’t bad at all. As cheesy as it sounds, I understood the authors vision completely - but it could definitely have used a little more… something.

I’m not sure if I’d really consider this to be a romance novel. More so grief, if I had to assign a theme. There’s a tidbits of romance sprinkled throughout, but in all honestly we don’t get to know Jack (the love interest) very well at all. Surface level at best. So that aspect fell a little flat for me.

I do think the topic of grief was done well and portrayed accurately. I really felt for Andie throughout the entire novel and her mixed emotions in dealing with losing not only her father, but feeling like she was also losing her best friend and mother in different ways.

It was a cute story & a quick read. It definitely felt rushed in the way that I had to keep reminding myself that this story wasn’t taking place in a matter of days, but weeks. I wish there was more to Andie & Jack’s romance story because I like both characters a lot and felt they could’ve been dived into a little deeper beyond the surface level we were given. Overall, I’d definitely read more of the authors work in the future!

Andie was so unlikable and she felt so selfish. The constant reference to what Jack had done without finding out until almost the end was frustrating. Jack was such a nice guy, what on earth could he have done.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. Unfortunately, I found the book to be poorly written and the story uninteresting. Thank you for the opportunity and your consideration.

I am not sure how to review this book without sounding cruel. It was not for me.
I found the writing style hard to connect with. I found the narrator, Andie, to have predictable, repetitive interiority. The love interest Jack was giving Adam Driver stand-in and had 0 personality aside from being obsessed with Andie, for some bizarre reason, given how TERRIBLE she was to him. The hijinks kind of forced proximity did not work for me. The POV switch at 80% was so jarring. The whole conflict seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the story and Andie’s growth. I’m not sure what her arc even was—the dad grief stuff and the past storyline/Jack hatred felt so divorced from one another, it felt like reading two different books.
Count the number of sentences that start with “I” and the number of “breaths” Andie took (spoiler: thrice per page). I was so over her by the end, I didn’t care about the resolution with mom (also, the garden party? Come on), and I skimmed the last ten percent. I did not love this but if you are new to the genre you might enjoy it.

I enjoyed this book, especially the ending. The pacing of this book was a bit off in my opinion, with the first half being spectacularly focused on how mad the FMC was at the MMC. The reasoning why isn't explained until much closer to the end. I actually thought the "why" was one of the most interesting parts of the book, but it was frustrating to not know that. I thought the parts of the book discussing the FMC's grief over her parent's death were good and realistic. However, the other parts of the story worked for me. Overall, a bit of a sad romance novel with a great HEA!

The premise of this book sounded so good. But it took so long to get to the main issue from years ago, only for it to be a miscommunication trope. Not even miscommunication, no communication. That really annoyed me.

Ever want to throw a book across the room? Yeah, that was this one for me. Bad Publicity had potential, but the payoff just didn’t deliver. And to call this a “rom-com” is laughable. You spend nearly the entire book waiting to understand what happened five years ago between the FMC and MMC, only to be met with the classic “if you’d just let them finish their sentence, it wouldn’t have been that bad” trope.

I get what the author was going for—a slow unraveling of past hurt—but it ended up creating more confusion than intrigue, and made it hard to connect with the characters. The FMC, in particular, was difficult to warm up to. Her strained dynamic with her mother and refusal to communicate made her feel closed off and at times even unlikable.

This felt less like a romance and more like a slow, frustrating exploration of grief and unresolved emotion. If you like vague tension and ambiguous flashbacks, this might work for you—but I needed more emotional clarity and character depth than I got here.

I had to DNF this book, and honestly, it was a bit of a disappointment. The main female character, who also serves as the narrator, was tough to connect with. Right from the start, her treatment of her mom made her come off as unlikable, and some of her decisions just felt unnecessarily frustrating.

As I read on, I kept waiting for her to fully address the issues she had with Jack, but instead, there were only vague hints this allowed for me as a reader to come up with my own conclusions that suggested something really traumatic had happened between them. To me, this story didn’t read like a romance at all; it felt more like a journey through grief and the significance of friendship. It’s a shame it didn’t resonate with me the way I’d hoped.