This story was everything I hoped it would be – swoony, romantic, and full of the tension of both a band and a couple reuniting. The Glitter Bats are reuniting after six years, thanks to Valerie Quinn’s machinations. She needs good press in order to change her image in the media and she’s determined that this is just the way to do it. The only problem is, she has to convince her ex-bandmates, including her ex-boyfriend (never confirmed!), who she hasn’t talked to since the band broke up.

Valerie does convince them it’s worth reuniting for one night, one reunion concert. However, when everything else in her world starts to crumble, Valerie stands to lose everything – her fame and her newly rekindled romance. So much tension! So much angst! Loved this debut.

Jessica James' For One Night Only is a nostalgic second-chance romance that made me wish I could be an honorary member of the Glitter Bats.

Valerie Quinn, a bisexual actress/singer-songwriter in desperate need of a reputation reboot, reaches out to Caleb Sloane, a short king/rockstar turned teacher, to reunite their band, the Glitter Bats, for a one-night only reunion show. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Valerie and Caleb haven't spoken since the night of their last concert six years ago and it's clear they've both been harboring all sorts of feelings for each other since that night. The tension between Valerie and Caleb as the story progresses is amazing and it allows for some very emotional moments throughout the book. There's nothing superficial about the love flowing through the pages of this book.

I loved the dual POV as it really allowed me to connect with both Valerie and Caleb throughout the book. I also loved seeing how the other band members--Jane, Keeley, and Riker--had moved on since the band fell apart. Sometimes side characters take away from the main story, but not these characters. They are just as important as Valerie and Caleb to the story.

For One Night Only isn't a fluffy second-chance romance. It's deep and explores heavier themes, such as mental health and bisexuality, often left untouched in today's romances. Jessica did an excellent job in representing these themes and I hope to see more of this in future books from Jessica.

For One Night Only is an outstanding debut and I can't wait for everyone to read it. Thank you @berkleypub, @berkleyromance, and @NetGalley for the e-ARC!

“Caleb kisses me like I’m the perfect harmony to every melody he’s written”

Thanks so much to @berkleypub @berkleyromance or @acebookspub for the free book!

For One Night Only was a refreshing romance read with a male main character who actually has a unique personality and is the one finding himself strung along intol love by his confident, messy female counterpart. Caleb Sloane, eyeliner-wearing icon that you are… just perfect. No notes.

Every member of Glitter Bats felt distinct to me, and their careers post-breakup all felt reminiscent of bands in real life; in fact, while reading about their early career, I could taste the indie music sleaze, the 2014 vinyls, Urban Outfitters flooded with beanies and Arctic Monkeys fans. It was nostalgic for me and made the reunion plotline all the more exciting.

Valerie was kind of annoying and fame hungry, and I don’t think we got enough of her mom in-scene to justify why she is the way she is. I still thought her redemption was handled well, and her chemistry with Caleb was electric.

Overall, a cute romance with actual stakes and complex characters that addresses the toxicity of the music industry and how it can ruin our favorite artists. I did feel like the pacing was a touch slow at first, but the climax was worth the uphill trek.

Two former bandmates, a band reunion after a horrible breakup, a fake relationship, and a reputation to save... can they make it? When Valerie Quinn's latest bad tabloid headline puts her TV show on the network chopping block, she'll do anything to save her show... even reassemble her former pop punk band, Glitter Bats.... but that means facing her former band mates who she left cut and dry, especially with the bassist, her sort of ex who she definitely ruined things with all those years ago. Valerie knows that if she can pull off this reunion it would not only save her reputation but would save her show, now she just has to convince her former bandmates to agree to it... shouldn't be too hard right? Except they are hard because it means she has to face the reason of her band's fall out, she has to face what she did, and has to face all those old wounds again.... and that means facing Caleb. Caleb is tired of being in the industry, he's tired of the anxiety attacks he gets from it, and most of all he's tired of nursing a broken heart that Valerie left him with all those years ago, but he can't say no to her.. so he agrees to one last show. One single final summer reunion show and he's done... yet making music together revives old feelings as well as old hurts... can he trust her to not break his heart again or will she prioritize fame again over all of them? This definitely had potential to be a fantastic read, I love the idea of bandmates falling for each other, and this was definitely a fun second chance romance type of situation. Caleb was a sweet love interest... however my only thing was that I never really fell in love with Valerie. Despite it all, she really took forever to even like, and her constant switch to making selfish decisions made it hard to root for her. If you like rockstar romances with a bit of fake dating and bandmates falling for each other, I would definitely recommend reading this though!

Release Date: January 7,2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you so much to Berkley for this e-arc. For One Night Only has a myriad of things I like when it comes to stories that deal with the musical/band dynamics. I loved the supporting and secondary characters and found that they brought so much life to the group dynamic, and that being said the reason why I docked a star was due to how selfish and grating the FMC was. For all intents and purposes, even with the trauma she harbored and though she did acknowledge her wrong doing, having known people in real life who are as impulsive as her, she was very grating to the end of the story. A part of me wished the love interest would have amicably parted ways, but instead this story wrapped up with a kitschy almost double proposal that felt so empty towards the end.

I had high expectations for this one. It seemed like a great premise and I was itching for the pop punk band vibes.
It didn’t quite live up to my expectations, though. I hated Valerie all through the book, maybe that’s what we were supposed to feel, but I felt bad for Caleb that he was in love with her. I wanted a little more from the other band members as well, I know it was a dual pov but I wish we had a little more with them.
I’m sure many will enjoy this, I didn’t DNF but wasn’t sold.

DNF at 70%
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I just started to really look at the plot of the book and it completely fell apart. I thought the idea of this story was compelling but the execution is not ideal. The main characters feel unknowable and their motivations are all over the place. So much of the connection is either happening off the page or isn't gone into at all which is something I tend to not enjoy. I think this author has potential and I am definitely open to reading their next works.

A second chance romance between two lovelorn former band mates who reunite for one last show??? Incredible anxiety representation featuring queer characters in the spotlight?? This was a storyline that immediately captured my attention, and what an incredible debut this was!

For One Night Only encapsulates the beauty of fandom while showing the trials and tribulations that come with fame. It’s a refreshing perspective to read, especially through the lens of romance. Caleb, Valerie and the rest of the Glitter Bats rose to fame at such a young age from the immediacy of a viral moment that left them little room to learn themselves and with even less room to grow and make mistakes. Though we meet them years down the line well into their adulthood, we still see the very real effects that fame had on their lives.

Caleb and Valerie had a tumultuous secret relationship in the past that ended abruptly, leaving the band splintered with no path forward. Six years later, Valerie is an actress with a career hanging on by a thread, Caleb's out of the spotlight altogether with a job in education, and the rest of the band works in the industry with little to no contact with their past. When the opportunity to give the Glitter Bats fans a proper farewell arises, they’re all suddenly thrust into the memories of the moments they had together, for better or worse. But reunions bring chances for closure, and that’s the journey that Caleb and Valerie go on as they prepare to face the music.

Jessica James wrote an addicting story that I immediately wanted more of. From the charisma that comes with celebrity, anxiety depicted in a way that brings perspective to the main characters’ decision making, to the creation of found family and fandom, she created a very raw, heartwarming world that I hope we get to return to 🩷

This is a 2025 release that will be so well loved, and I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author!!!

This book depicted anxiety and a flawed main character so well. Maybe a little too well - I found myself getting frustrated with Valerie's choices and getting anxious on my own while reading about her and Caleb's anxieties. I would have enjoyed a flashback or two to when Valerie and Caleb initially fell in love. I think it would have helped me root for her as I read on.

I keep flip-flopping between wanting to give this 3 or 4 stars, but I'm going to land on 3 stars for now. This book definitely has its audience and it shines in that respect. Valerie - as a product of her own environment - was written SO well. Caleb is a cinnamon roll that I will always protect. And the depictions of anxiety and spiraling were spot on.

Thank you to Berkley and Ace Books for providing me with a free digital copy of this book. #BerkleyPartner #AceBooksPartner

#BerkleyPartner @berkleypub @berkleyromance

Now that we have the emphatically mandatory disclosure out of the way, let's begin.

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY by Jessica James is a forthcoming Berkley book. You're probably thinking, "Girl, how did you get approved for a Berkley ARC?" and, fair. I still have a 100% rejection rate for requests through NetGalley; this was a request through the Berkley Influencer Hub for Underrepresented Voices. A few times a year, people with marginalized identities can request copies of books that include that representation. So I took my little Oliver Twist bowl to them and said "Please sir, I'm bi sekshual 🥺".

The book: Valerie has an image problem, most of it unearned. She's not a perfect person, but through the joy of biphobia and misogyny, she's been painted as a problematic diva heartbreaker by the media. Her musical TV show is in limbo with their Netflix-esque streaming company, so she needs to clean up her reputation to save it. (Side note: the series reminded me of Julie and the Phantoms, so I was delighted to see it mentioned in the acknowledgements.) What's her big idea? Get the band back together. Literally—she co-founded a wildly popular band when still a teenager, the Glitter Bats.

There's only one problem: former bandmate (and former best friend and lover) Caleb left the band and the industry, with no intention of ever returning. He and Valerie haven't talked since everything imploded, but he can't say no to his first love. He'll come back to the band, but For One Night Only.

Valerie is not entirely likeable; she's selfish and self-centered. This is fine. Characters don't need to be likeable, especially before the have Gone on Their Journey! Caleb is an anxious pushover who needs to learn how to say no and do what HE wants sometimes. They're not perfect, but they're perfect together.

The texture of the performances was so detailed, the descriptions so specific, I was positive that the author has a musical background. It made the voice of the characters particularly believable. You almost feel like you're in the band too. It's great.

I really liked this book! I enjoyed Valerie as the main character for the most part, though she certainly annoyed me at times. I thought Caleb was a very relatable main character, though, so he made up for that. I loved the side characters, especially Jane and Keeley! I overall had a pretty good time with this book, and I will definitely be recommending it! I'm excited to see what Jessica James writes next :)

As this is a debut author, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’m not always a rock star romance reader, but this one hit the spot! And I’m kind of excited that when I went to find the Amazon link, it looks like maybe, just maybe, this might turn into a series and we can get some HEAs for the other band members?

I loved that Caleb had gone home and become a teacher. Such a totally different career compared to being a rock star. Valerie and the others had all pretty much gone onto rock star adjacent jobs, or at least still with some music or fame/celebrity aspect to them. Valerie however seemed to not be doing as well as her latest show was in danger of not being renewed for another season. Not to mentions people on the show, ex-boyfriends especially, were using her – badmouthing her – on social media but really just to help their own images. So it definitely made me sympathetic to wanting to see her be able to get ahead.

While both Caleb and Valerie had issues with family – specifically their mothers – at least Caleb’s for the most part at least somewhat cared and wasn’t taking advantage of him. But Caleb also had sisters to be there for him or for him to have a reason to be there for them. Valerie really had no one for the most part. Not to mention most everyone kind of blamed her for the band’s break up. But while Caleb kind of blamed her for why he left partly, he also knew he was in a way just as much to blame for the breakup because of how he left.

Their reunion and subsequent rekindling of their relationship, even as they pretended it was just fake-dating to help with the concert was a really fun, yet emotional journey to go along with as the reader. I got to know the both of them so well, and developed both a love and hate relationship with the other members of their band. Enough so that as I mentioned above, I would love to see the rest of them get a story! Of course something had to happen to make things blow up even as it seemed they could maybe get back together, both as a couple, and maybe even the band. And even with how it seemed to totally be blown up and what a crazy way to just walk off once again, it made sense for the history between all of them, and what was hanging on the line with their former company and the contract they found an extra copy of.

In the end I like the way it all worked out. How everyone came to figure out how they really felt and how they made it up to the ones who needed that. As someone who is a major superfan of a group from my high school years, New Kids on the Block, and I consider myself a Blockhead, it was fun to read about other superfans and their much better nickname of the Glitterbugs. In fact I loved the background story on the name of Glitter Bats! I really enjoyed this story, and hope to read more by this author in the future. Especially if it is another one set in this same world!

Thank you to Berkeley Pub and Ace Books Pub for the ARC!

I absolutely loved this. It was nitty and gritty, and truly delved into the darker side of celebrity and fame, and it almost felt like a true account of someone's life imploding and their desperate attempt to wrench back any semblance of normalcy. Valerie wasn't perfect, and she irritated me at times, but it's clear she was meant to be that way. She was imperfect and that was the point. For a debut novel, this was as funny and gritty as it was romantic and dramatic. I love romance books that deal with fame, and I love that Valerie was so unapologetically herself in her sexuality, and I loved that Caleb owned his anxiety. I do wish his anxiety was explored a bit more, but I digress. There were loveable main characters, and side characters, and of course, the perfect villain in Valerie's mother.

A great debut from Jessica James, perfect for fans of music-themed romances and second chance romances.

I really liked the chemistry and tension between the two main characters in this novel. Former bandmates and secret lovers with a complicated backstory, Val and Caleb are in perfect harmony on stage and yet constantly out of sync in their personal lives. I enjoyed the Glitter Bat reunion storyline, as well as the interplay between the side characters. I do wish that we saw Val’s growth happen a little sooner—her selfishness, especially in light of her backstory, makes her an interesting character but I felt like she took a little longer to learn from it than I would have liked. Still, the ultimate resolution was satisfying. I do want three of the side characters to start a throuple but hey, we can’t have it all.

rep: FMC is bisexual and deals with some biphobia, MMC has anxiety and deals with panic attacks.

I absolutely adored this second-chance romance and the debut novel by Jessica James. Her story centers around a fictional band reunion! Valerie and Caleb were truly destined for each other, and I loved seeing them reconnect as both musicians and lovers. The dynamics of their band were just as captivating, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the rest of the group. This book transported me back to my high school and college days of attending concerts. The storyline about fans working to revive Valerie’s canceled show .Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early. I look forward to reading more of Jessica James books in the future.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance reader copy of For One Night Only by Jessica James!

Valerie used to be a member of the band Glitter Bats but has since joined the cast of a TV show. With the show at risk of cancellation, Valerie pursues a plan to generate good press in hopes to save the show. She reassembles the Glitter Bats members for a reunion concert. The reunion puts Valerie back in close proximity to her former bandmate and bedmate, Caleb, who completely left the industry six years ago.

I am in LOVE with this book! And Valerie and Caleb! And all of the Glitter Bats!! For our main pair, there are so many moments that made me melt. From the beginning, you'll know that these two need their second chance romance and find their way back to each other. I thought the rest of the bandmates had such well developed personalities - I loved each one of them! I also thought this book did such an incredible job building the band’s fandom. I'd also love to be a Glitterbug!

I’m hopeful for another book in the Glitter Bats universe - there’s definitely another pair I’m shipping!! :)

I was so excited for this release! The angst. The second chance. The first love lost. The band aspect - I love the Glitter Bats and all of their found family dynamics. I loved the undercurrent of the record company dynamics, and the way this story deals with what early success can do to young people, especially when they don't have the family or management or public support to handle it. The chemistry between Caleb and Val was really well done and you could feel the history and pining and tension. I also really liked the way the rest of the Glitter Bats interacted with one another and the way they each play a stereotypical "role" within the group - Jane is the peacemaker, Riker the fun guy with a heart of gold, Keeley the tough as nails one that's secretly hurting.

Where this fell a little short for me was in how Val's character development happened. I did love the fact that she was very much a flawed anti-heroine. It's always refreshing to read about a female lead that is less than perfect. But as the story went on, I struggled a bit with some of the decisions she made. We would see the action from Caleb's POV, and then get to Val's where she often doubled down on the selfish and (frankly mean at times) decisions she makes. Caleb gets the raw end of the deal, and I didn't see a ton of grovelling or apology from Val when it came to him.

I do have to say that Jessica's writing was great and so engaging. The pacing was good and it had me wanting to keep going. I am excited for what's next from her!

Some books should stay fan fiction and that’s okay. Now I don’t know if this was truly fan fiction, but it felt that way. It felt like an immature personal fantasy that did not translate to a full blown book. None of the characters were likable and I wasn’t really rooting for anyone. It was just a lot of everyone being mean to each other and then really quickly forgiving others for some really messed up actions. The romance being a fake dating, second chance, and friends to lovers situation was a bit much. Also the fact that more than half the characters had last names that sounded like first names (which is clearly in line with the author’s personal name) made it confusing when going back and forth referring to them by first or just last name.

I loved the messiness of The Glitter Bats, and how much I felt like I really knew the band as an entity, not just Caleb and Valerie. All the interstitials were super fun too! A wonderful rock star romance.