My goodness this story was absolutely delightful, and a captivating page turner!
Annie England Noblin’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. 
A wonderfully written friends-to-lovers romantic comedy.

Spring Fling was a sweet, small town romance that I really enjoyed. I’m a sucker for the rekindling of a high school love and this was just a fun, uncomplicated read! If you’re looking for a cozy, Sunday afternoon read as we head into Spring, this is it!

Spring Fling provided a much-needed afternoon escape from reality.

Set in the charming small town of Clay Creek, Arkansas, it’s a lighthearted read where Mylie runs her thriving tackle shop and navigates life with her ever-supportive Granny and little sister Cassie. Amid the buzz of an annual fishing tournament, her childhood best friend Ben returns, stirring up old feelings with a hint of ~*unresolved tension.*~

The story has a cozy vibe and is a sweet, feel-good read perfect for a lazy afternoon, even if it doesn’t fully pull you into the emotional depths.

Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for the ARC!

Spring Fling was a sweet and cute small-town romance, but it did not fully click for me. Readers who love instant-love stories will probably enjoy it more. The beginning showed promise, but I struggled to connect with the characters. That said, it was a light and easy read with total Hallmark vibes—if that is your thing, you will have fun with this one!

Thank you so much to @netgalley @Avonbooks and @HarperVoyagerUS for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Publication Date: 18 March 2025

Spring Fling by Annie England Noblin
Pub date: 3/18/2025 (tomorrow!)
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This was a cute lil small town romance that served spring vibes. The main characters Cassie and Ben grew up together as friends who were crushing on each other but never told each other. After 10 years, they reconnect when Ben returns to sell his grandfathers home.

I enjoyed the dual timeline, the strong female characters and the humor that the side characters brought to the story. I would have liked for the main character to be developed a bit more and their miscommunication was a bit frustrating.

Overall a cute and lighthearted read. Thanks to @netgalley and @avonbooks for access to this eARC.

Spring Fling written by Annie England Noblin WASN'T a horrible book by any means, in fact it was cute for a spring read, but I just had a some issues that kept me from giving this book a higher rating. As many of y'all know by now, I'm a sucker for a pretty cover, so of course I had to get my hands on this book, I'm super thankful I had the chance to read this story early, but again, I had a few issues with this one. Spring Fling wasn't bad, in fact it was pretty enjoyable, but I just didn't love it as much as I wanted to. Now, let's get into the reasons why I gave a three star rating. Spring Fling was a cutesy spring time story, I know it's categorized as romance, but the romance wasn't romancing for me, it felt so rushed and not well executed, don't come for me, I know this is an advanced readers copy, but the miss spelling of one of the characters names happened at the most awkward times randomly throughout the book, and my last issue I had was our two main characters haven't seen each other in over ten years but they were shoving their tongues down each other's throats after ten years of no communication, that just didn't sit right with me at all. For those of you that want to read this book, don't let my review stop you from picking it up, you might have better luck than me, but for the reasons I had, maybe it was just a me thing, but anyways, I'm still going to recommend this book to those of you that are looking for a cute spring read.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND AVON AND HARPER VOYAGER FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!

"Not everybody wants to have a boyfriend, but everybody wants to have friends".

Mylie Mason owns Hook, Line, and Sinker which is a warehouse in Arkansas that crafts handmade tackle for fishing. This little Clay Creek, Arkansas community holds a Spring Fling Finishing Tournament and Hook, Line, and Sinker is one of the biggest sponsors of the tournament as they make the tackle. For the tournament this year, Mylie is on an all women's team. Mylie has a fourteen years old sister, Cassie, but Mylie acts more like a mom figure to Cassie instead of playing the big sister role. Cassie and Mylie's mom has been in and out of their lives, but they have different dad's and Mylie's dad has been dead since she was a baby. At just twenty-two years old, Mylie went to a community college for a business degree. I absolutely adored Violet Mason- their grandma, she was so sassy and spunky, they also had the cutest pitbull named Stanley. Benjamin Lawrence went to college in Chicago after graduating high school. Ben returns to Clay Creek to sell his grandfather's house after his passing and his mom also passed away. Ben is a respected member in the field of economics. Ben claims Chicago is his HOME, he loves the city life. Ben wants to sell his grandfather's house before summer rolls around because he has a job offer at a University in Boston waiting for him after he decides to sell the house.

Mylie and Ben became best friends in sixth grade, they connected because they were the only two kids whose dad's had passed away, and Mylie was Ben's first real friend that stood up for him while the other kids made fun of him. In Spring Fling. we get past chapters and glimpses into Mylie and Ben's crush phase back in high school. After ten years of no communication, Mylie and and Ben finally meet again, but their reunion was just a bit weird, I didn't like the fact that they were full on making out right away. This fishing tournament is basically like the Superbowl with food, festivities, and tourists, but for fishing instead of football. I love the friends-to-lovers trope, but I don't know, it just felt way too rushed for my liking. Like I stated before, I know this is an advanced readers copy, but the spelling errors were most random, Mylie became Miley, and her best friend Jodi became Jodie, it was just at the most random times when this would happen. Mylie and Ben would always look at each other like they wanted to ravage each other despite not talking for over a damn decade. I liked these two characters, but I felt like Mylie tried too hard sometimes, and Ben was just too damn stubborn and blind to see what was right in front of him when Mylie was crushing on him. Clay Creek, Arkansas sounds like a fun and loving community. I praise Mylie for stepping up to help out with Cassie, but I feel like she could have gone without playing the mother figure role.

This book was a cute romance book. It was childhood friends to lovers and a small town romance. I loved the small town and all of the crazy characters in it. I loved the flashback to the main characters growing up. I found a few grammatical/spelling errors as well as a couple of times a character being called by the wrong name. I also wanted the characters to have more depth and overall just wanted more from this read.

Spring Fling by Annie England Noblin

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub Date: March 18, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read and review Spring Fling.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and loved Mylie and Ben together. I loved the small town vibe and the supporting characters. I even loved the flashbacks to Mylie and Ben’s childhood. Town wide events make me super happy and I think they’re a lot of fun. So the fishing tournament was right up my alley. The town shenanigans were so engaging. And don’t get me started on Granny and Fat Tony. I LOVED THEM!

But at some point things just got stagnant for me.

Here’s the thing: I feel like Ben and Mylie have a relationship based off of nostalgia rather than who they really are. I think first love is a special thing and sometimes people are meant to come back together later, but I just didn’t see it with them. I almost felt as though it would have been better if they didn’t end up together and remained friends. I know you need to sometimes suspend belief when reading fiction, but I just couldn’t see them lasting long in the real world.

This book was a cute small-town romance, but it is not one that will stick with me. I liked the main character, Mylie. She a strong female character that knows how to handle her business and take care of the people around her. Unfortunately, the romance between her and Ben was just not there for me. As high school best friends, the book depended a lot on that past relationship even though we didn't get to see very much of it. After ten years of not seeing each other and hardly talking, their relationship seemed purely physical, and even that didn't have much chemistry. Though I liked how the author ended the book, Mylie and Ben's relationship didn't seem like one that would last.

I really enjoyed Mylie's relationship with her sister, Cassie, and I liked the touch of drama thrown into the story. Mylie and Ben both had great backstories, though we didn't get to see the effects of those backstories on the characters as much as I would have liked. Both MCs could have been fleshed out more.

Overall, it was cute but forgettable.

This book was cute but there were a lot of inconsistencies in minor details throughout the story that bugged me. The sentence structure also felt rudimentary & clunky at times, or as if it could’ve used a little more developing / editing. There were so many plot lines & some of them didn’t really add anything of value to the story. I feel like one of them easily could’ve been dropped (specifically the one revolved around an unhinged side character).

The main characters were supposed to be in their late twenties but the way they acted a majority of the time seemed much younger to me. It also felt like some of the side characters were more fleshed out / had more personality than Ben & Mylie.

I did enjoy the story and the characters overall but, unfortunately, the large amount of editing issues greatly impacted my enjoyment of the book. I’m really hoping that some of them were caught before it went to printing!🤞 Thank you to NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC!

Spring Fling by Annie England Noblin is a book that showcases this author’s capability to write magical stories of love, renewal and legacy that is often where we turn our thoughts in Springtime. A “friends to more” story that has delightful characters, plans that change in a small-town community. It’s not hard for Ben and Mylie to give the community something to talk about which small towns excel in doing.

Any Annie England Noblin book that I have read has her wit but also her entertaining small-town personality. Spring Fling is the perfect Spring escape read.

Spring Fling is a small town romance following Miley, the owner of a tackle shop, and Ben, her childhood best friend, who returns to the town after ten years away in order to clear out his late grandfathers home and put it on the market. Despite not seeing each other for almost a decade, Miley and Ben quickly resume their friendship and realize this is the chance to explore their relationship in ways they never got to before.

I really wanted to love this friends to lovers romance, but I just found the story a little lacking and ultimately underwhelming. There is nothing abhorrently wrong with the plot, but outside of the characters and the quirky town, I think the romance didn't have the time to develop and shine the way it should have. While Ben and Miley were very cute together, their relationship progressed so fast and I wasn't able to feel their emotional connection, tension, and build up that often comes with a second chance romance. Overall, the small-town charm was there, but side characters and subplots overshadowed the romance and left me wanting more depth.

3.5/5

This was really cute and a perfect read to transition into spring if you’re into reading seasonally. It’s a second chance, small town, friends to lovers romance between Mylie and Ben and you get to see glimpses into their pasts when they were younger as well as in present day. The town was quirky and so were many of the residents, I kind of liked the secondary characters more than the main ones to be honest, I think Mylie and Ben could’ve been a little more developed. Overall a quick and sweet read that was a pleasant escape.

The book was fine. I hope they changed the multiple spellings of the Mylie. Felt rushed and too much like a lot of other romances. The romance parts felt so awkward and flat. The book was enjoyable, but the characters didn’t seem like they would even work. It all felt very predictable.

This story follows Mylie and Ben as they get a chance at love after leaving a lot of feelings unshared after graduation. Ben comes into town intending to sell his family's house and move on from the town of Clay Creek, but it's difficult for his feelings for Mylie to stay hidden when he's thought about her all these years.

The story in this novel was sweet, but it didn't stand out to me from other romances.

I was charmed by the town and amused by the scenes featuring the mischievous town raccoon. I enjoyed seeing Mylie and Ben face their feelings and choose each other, and the ending was lovely.

This novel is like the standard small-town romance, but I wanted more. It lacks emotional depth but is otherwise an entertaining and sweet read.

If you want a romance without much major conflict or stress, you may enjoy this.

No other love is quite like first love. In sixth grade, Ben Lawrence moved with his mom from the big city of Chicago to the small town of Clay Creek, Arkansas, to live with his grandfather. His new neighbor, Mylie, happened to be his age, and her Granny said she had to befriend him. The two became the best of friends, so when they graduated from high school, it was hard to let Ben go back to Chicago for college without telling him she loved him. Ben's grandfather had since passed away, and his mom was going back to Chicago to teach, leaving the neighbors house empty and Mylie without her best friend.
Ben went on to get his doctorate and was ready to begin a career in academia. He decided, 10 years later, to sell the Clay Creek house, but had promised his mother before she passed that he would go back one more time.
Mylie had a successful business and had established herself in her hometown. She still lived with Granny and helped take care of her 14 year-old sister, Cassie.
Neither Mylie nor Ben expected their lives to change when old feelings rise to the surface. Is it a spring fling, or can they make it work this time around?

Spring Fling is a romcom set in the Arkansas Ozarks. I so appreciate a novel set in this area, as it's not far from where I'm originally from. And the author did a nice job of representing the people and culture there without relying heavily on stereotypes (though they are present).

I enjoyed the spring setting around a fishing competition and all of the small town characters, including a couple of the 4-legged variety. ;)

It's a high school friends turns into romance as adults with a few spicy (though not especially descriptive) scenes. The story includes some brief flashbacks to when they were in high school to give context to their relationship in this book. Overall I wanted more connection between the main characters, but overall I'd recommend this book!

This novel was good, however was not my favorite. I loved the plot line of Mylie and Ben, childhood friends who reunite and decide to follow their hearts when Ben returns to town several years later. The flashback moments however seemed a little bit much and I didn’t really particularly like some of the language used. An example of this was “dressed like a hooker.” Like why say that?! Does anyone talk like that now?!

SPRING FLING – Annie England Noblin
Avon
ISBN: 978-0063222281
March 18, 2025
Romantic Comedy

Clay Creek, Arkansas – Present Day

Mylie has lived in Clay Creek her whole life and runs a bait and tackle shop with her best friend Jodie. It’s spring and they are gearing up for the fishing season, including the town’s annual fishing contest in June. She has lived all her life with her beloved Granny along with her half-sister Cassie. To Mylie’s surprise, her old friend Ben suddenly arrives in town and shows up at the house next door. Ben is in town to get his late grandfather’s house ready to be sold. Old memories of the attraction she felt for him resurface. Nothing ever happened between them despite their closeness. Will things change while he’s back in town?

Ben went away after he graduated from high school to get a college degree and is currently between college teaching jobs. He is fulfilling the request of his late mother to stay in Clay Creek to sell the place. Returning is a bit awkward for Ben. He was always seen as a nerd while Mylie was the life of the party. While he wishes they could have been a thing, it never worked out. Meeting her again stirs those old feelings. Ben is one of the good guys and always helps others. In fact, he offers to help Mylie with the fishing contest—and to keep an old nemesis out of her hair. Will Ben get a second chance with the woman he never forgot? Along the way, readers will be laughing and rooting for Mylie and Ben to somehow make it work.

SPRING FLING has many colorful characters besides Ben and Mylie. Granny is a hoot who swigs homemade moonshine and isn’t afraid to offer opinions even if it’s not wanted. Robbie is the villain in this tale. He went to school with Mylie and Ben and had been a pain in the rear back then. Mylie recently fired him, but the man is bent on revenge and pops up from time to time. Mylie’s friends are always available to offer advice, and just like any small town, everyone likes to make it their business to find out what’s going on. Readers will be chuckling as the circus swirling around our couple has them heading for their own little sanctuary. It takes some time, but what Mylie and Ben missed out on when they were younger soon becomes a reality. The big question is whether Ben will leave town as he planned.

A cute and funny tale that is a breeze to read, SPRING FLING should be on your reading list if you’re looking for a quick and entertaining book to read. The characters are fun, and the banter will have you laughing out loud. There is a lot of action going on, such as the neighborhood raccoon and teenage Cassie having boyfriend issues. Ben and Mylie dance around their feelings for most of SPRING FLING, but once they give in, it’s an enjoyable and bumpy ride to the end. Don’t miss this sizzling tale.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

Spring Fling is a charming small town friends to livers romance. Mylie and Ben were best friends as kids. After high school, Ben moved away from his small town life in Alabama with no plans to go back. Mylie couldn't imagine ever leaving her hometown. Living with her grandma and sister and running her own business fulfills her. After 10 years of hardly any contact, Ben moves back to town to take care of selling his grandfather's house and taking care of the estate. Mylie and Ben's old feelings resurface and they find themselves giving into their long waited feelings. Ben still plans to leave though and Mylie still plans to stay.

This sweet friends to lovers romance brings all the spring vibes. It is set in a small, charming southern town that has nosy neighbors, town gossips, and moms trying to marry off their daughters to eligible bachelors. The story hosts colorful characters and funny situations. On top of all of that you have a sweet budding romance in Ben and Mylie who have been pining for each other for years (talk about a slow burn!). This book was a fun time and reminds you of new love, coming home, and fresh starts. The story has some sweet and steamy tension that is sure to warm you up after a long winter!