This was a quick and fun read. I was drawn to this book because of the STEM elements however they certainly weren't as prevalent as I hoped.

This was a very sweet and touching story. Both the main characters have insecurities and troubles that they have to overcome. Finn is still grieving from the death of his older sister, but he’s doing his best to raise his twin nieces who are as cute as can be.

Millie is sweet and joyful, which is just what Finn and his nieces need. Her family is lots of fun and I found their group family texts quite amusing. However, she does have her own weaknesses since her former boyfriend gaslit her into losing all her confidence in herself.

Another aspect of their growing romance is that they first became friends and actually talked to each other. Sure, they were attracted to each other, but they put that on hold so they could cook together and play with the little girls and just communicate. So many romance books skip that stage of a relationship and just communicate a false idea of what a strong relationship might be based on.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

4⭐️/2🌶️

I’m so thankful to have received an arc of this book from NetGalley :)

-workplace/boss/coworker
-single uncle/dad figure
-grumpy/sunshine
-cute cooking lessons 🫶🏽

This was a very sweet and lovely story omg. I was so happy to have time to finish it before new years too.

Finn is one of my favorite boy names so we already started with an advantage. But this man was just absolutely to die for. So sweet and caring - a very present and patient father and boyfriend to Millie :”) how supportive.

Millie’s family is also to die for, one you dream of having. It was amazing seeing her have that kind of support in contrast to what Finn was raised with.

This book was cute. Two museum curators, one is sunny and happy while the other is a black cat and grumpy. One is into bugs, the other is into astronomy.

I loved that that main FMC was into bugs and was an entomologist, you rarely see that as an occupation for a romance character, nonetheless a female one. I also loved that the MMC was a single dad raising his two nieces. It really made him a more personable character.

Thank you to Jillian Meadows, NetGalley, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ebook.

Tropes:
. Grumpy x sunshine
. Characters in their 30s
. He falls first and HARD
. He's always liked her
. Workplace Romance

First time reading this author. This was a cute story. Easy reading. Love the setting, made for some fun times. Finn and Millie are both very lovable characters. I enjoyed this book.

Give Me Butterflies gave me butterflies the whole way through!! Millie & Finn had chemistry that was off the charts from the beginning, coupled with a huge amount of respect that they had for one another 👏👏👏
I truely enjoyed the found family aspect, specifically Millie’s parents and the girls. I would absolutely re-read this. 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋/5
Thank you to Net Galley & Avon/Harper for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

One sentence synopsis: A grumpy astronomer and a sunshine entomologist who work at the same museum realize they have feelings for each other.

This was… fine. It’s your typical grumpy x sunshine story where two people end up getting together after the sunshine thinks the grumpy hates her. 🤷🏼‍♀️ The writing was super basic and the spice was cheesy which is why I didn’t love it. I DID love the side characters — Millie’s family and Finn’s nieces (whom he has custody) — and i read it in one sitting.

Read this if you:
🐜 love going to museums and checking out the exhibits
🔭 have ever fooled around in a forest (🫢)
🐜 get angry when your favorite coffee shop runs out of pastries

Millie Oaks is an entomologist at the Natural Science Museum in her town, but with her boss retiring, she’s applying for the position of Director of the Entomology department. She knows she has a good chance at the position until she sees who happens to be one of the people deciding her fate, Finn Ashford a co-worker from another department that in the past couple weeks she’s spilled coffee on, bashed her head into his nose, and had a fender bender with.

Finn is a 30-something scientist working in astronomy who happens to have a thing for the pretty entomologist he works with. He’s often been short with her, not knowing what to say, but when he brings his twin nieces that he’s guardian of to a science camp, they start to connect over her love of baking and cooking and his lack of being able to cook almost anything.

Millie and Finn are both working through some heavy trials in their lives, but the short amount of time they’ve spent together has them wondering if them being something more than friends was meant to be.

Millie and Finn’s story was really enjoyable. It started as a grumpy/sunshine story, but the grump quickly turned into a soft cinnamon roll with the right person there. I felt like the grief of Finn for his late sister was well written and him with his nieces was adorable. Millie was healing from a past relationship, but I felt like the story gave us a mature response to everything she was dealing with which I really appreciated. This is the first book in the Oaks sisters books (Millie being the middle sister) and I’m looking forward to reading more from this family. Millie is close to her two sisters and parents and I absolutely loved the family text chain they had. I have 3 daughters and hope that one day we have a family chat that cool. The other two sisters’ books aren’t out yet, but Wreck My Plans is a story about Millie’s roommate Lena and is out now.

Everyone needs to read this book! I absolutely loved it! I loved how it takes place in a museum. The Star Wars and Star Trek references were so cute. I enjoyed the single guardian trope. It was so adorable. The love story between Finn and Millie is one of my favorites. I went and preordered a physical edition which I don’t do a lot with eARCs unless I truly enjoyed the book. And I really enjoyed this. I hope there are more books in the future!

Review posted go Goodreads 12/30/24

If you like Ali Hazelwood's STEM romances, you will like this!

What happens when an entomologist that is up for a big promotion runs into and spills coffee on the grumpy astronomer that works at the same museum? This steamy rom-com that will tug on your heart strings.

For a debut novel, Meadows did a fantastic job at balancing humor with emotion. There are so many moments that made me swoon. Some moments dragged on a little bit, and then the conflict seemed rushed. I'm not the biggest fan of extremely long smutty scenes, which this had many of (but there is definitely an audience for it).

Thank you Avon for the ARC! (book is being republished)

If Finn is grumpy when he meets Millie its just because his life is overly complicated and falling for her adds a level to this and he isn't ready for that. Millie is up for a promotion at work, and one grumpy man could possibly be in her way of that. She doesn't know why Finn doesn't like her, but she wants to find out why. When his nieces come to her summer camp a the museum, all the pieces start fitting into place.
Finn lost his sister and has become a guardian to his two nieces very recently and Millie is still trying to work through her last relationship. The two form a friendship and little by little Finn's resolve begins to crack. If you want a "he falls first" book, this is for you. I, in fact, always want a he falls first hero so this was for me absolutely.
Another thing I loved about this book was the fact that they openly communicated. These two could tak about their feelings and it was refreshing. Millie came from such a bad place and Finn was all the green flags waving her right into him and his orbit and I couldn't have been happier with the two of them finding this HEA. I am so looking forward to the next book, and it better be about Fable. Just saying. 4.5 stars.
Thanks to Avon, Netgalley and Jillian Meadows for an early copy.

I almost DNF'ed this one but I decided to power through and I'm glad I did. There were aspects I really enjoyed, but not enough to overlook the elements that I struggled with. The intimacy coordinator was in the room with us and the romance was adorable, but the plot and character development was lacking. This is marketed as an enemies to lovers and grumpy/sunshine dynamic but within 50 pages the MMC was suddenly in love with her. Honestly, it was after he was checking her out bent over her car that he was all heart eyes. From that point on things went quickly, she over at his house, they were friendly, and he was very obvious about his feelings for her. Which, looking at how well the author wrote their romantic dialogue and intimate scenes I get her desire to rush getting them together. Another point I struggled with was the whole previous boyfriend story line, I just wanted her to block his number and then report him to her workplace. Speak up girl! You have the support!

Anyway I am giving this a solid 2 stars. Maybe I'll read the next one, maybe I won't.

✨Workplace Romance
✨Nerdy MMC
✨Guardian MMC
✨Found Family

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this E-ARC.

I loved reading Give Me Butterflies, exactly what I'm looking for when reading romance. Both Millie and Finn were great, as well as the rest of the cast (well everyone except Kyle). I found myself having a hard time putting it down.

4.25 stars

I neglected some responsibilities today to devour this book. Just something about a man falling hard first and FMC’s personal growth work for me. I loved everything about this book and I can’t wait for more. I see that Lena has a book out but I want more! When is Theo and Fables book coming out?

I received an arc of the special edition version from Netgalley and the publisher.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of Give Me Butterflies by Jillian Meadows in exchange for an honest review.

Millie loves insects, her family, and her job as museum curator. Her future looks bright because her boss is retiring and she's interviewing to be the next department head. It's unfortunate that Finn, astronomy department head and general frowny face, is on the selection committee. It doesn't help that every interaction with him seems to end in disaster.

Meanwhile, Finn is just trying to stay above water. After the tragic death of his sister, he's become the guardian of her young daughters. Balancing his career, his new parental responsibilities, and his toxic parents has left him exhausted. No wonder it's hard to process the beautiful, sweet, and overly excited coworker.

But little by little, Millie and Finn manage to bridge the gaps between them. After the girls spend time with Millie during the museum's science summer camp program, they start tip toeing toward each other in the most adorable of ways. It's a lovely, lovely story. Sweet, but very balanced by mature, responsible adults who have big Feelings and use actual communication to work out their issues. There are real issues to navigate but these two likable and relatable people help each other through them every step of the way. There is one big conflict of interest at the beginning, but it's resolved well.

Highly recommended for entomology enthusiasts, for readers who like their romance protagonists mature and communicative, and readers who really, really wanted to go to space camp growing up. If you love romance novels and you can pick Ursa Major out of a starry sky, this book is for you.

As of right now, I am deciding to not finish Give Me Butterflies. One day, I hope to finish the book! I just couldn't fully get into Give Me Butterflies. After picking up the book multiple times and seeing that I was only 42% in, I decided to pause the book. Despite almost getting half-way through, I thought this book felt too long. There weren't a whole ton of things going on to keep me motivated to read. This book was being advertised as a read alike to Ali Hazelwood and I could see the connection. I enjoyed the museum setting and the curator jobs. Millie and Finn were fine main characters. I liked that there were dual POV's. Finn and Millie were fleshed out enough. I did want Finn and Millie's "enemies" relationship to play out longer. I wanted more tension from them. It was nice to see their relationship develop slowly. I liked that there was a deeper layer to the story with Finn and his nieces. They were cute and well written. I thought Meadows did a good job of adding comedy to the story with Millie's family group chat. Meadows' writing wasn't the strongest. Some parts of the book felt surface level. Overall, this book had promise and perhaps when I'm more motivated, I'll give this book another chance. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC.

It’s hard to believe that this is Jillian’s first book. This was incredibly well-written and didn’t feel like a copy and paste typical romance that I feel I’ve read over and over. There was so much depth to both of their characters as well as incredibly well-rounded supporting characters. Millie’s wholesome, tight knit family is so cute and had me wishing I had a family like that. However, seeing Millie and Finn and their dynamic with the girls gave me hope that even though I (like Finn) didn’t have that experience, I can create it with my own little family moving forward. I really enjoyed the bonus epilogue at the end and felt it really tied everything together with a pretty bow. This book was surprisingly healing for me in that way. I’m so glad to be ending the year with such a great read!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Avon, & Harper Voyager for this ARC. I highly recommend this one, it is set to be published on January 21, 2025. So soon!

This book didn't know what it wanted to be. It started out as an enemies to lovers workplace romance. Then it switched to a slow burn friends to lovers.

The book was also unfocused. Was the central problem supposed to be that Finn was on the hiring committee or was it that Finn needed to be single to focus on the girls? The lack of focus made the story boring and meandering and it ruined any chance of building sexual tension.

WOW. To say I loved this book would be a massive understatement. Give Me Butterflies is the epitome of contemporary romance books. It’s so refreshingly beautiful and needs to be on everyone’s radar. When I think about books I recommend to both novice and avid romance readers, this makes my short list.

I received a digital advanced reader’s copy of this book, but catch me at the bookstore on January 21st buying physical copies for me and for my friends. Thank you so much to Jillian Meadows, Avon, and NetGalley for the eARC.

Plot Summary:
Millie and Finn both work at a science museum, she’s an entomologist and he’s an astronomer. When they run into each other at work, he looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. Millie is interviewing for the opening of entomology department head and Finn is on the decision committee. During the science museum’s summer camp, Millie learns that Finn lost his sister and has custody of his twin nieces, who adore her. As Millie and Finn start spending time outside work together with his nieces, she realizes that she’s in a sticky situation of wanting to pursue a relationship with Finn, but also wanting to ensure she earns her promotion on her own accord.

Very muched enjoyed Give Me Butterflies. Millie and Finn chemistry was so good. I enjoyed the single dad vibe and the chemistry between millie, Finn and the girls. Millie's family text were a great touch and i enjoyed them. Look forward to reading more from Juillian Meadow.