When Alice Cooper's perfectly planned life falls apart, she books a female only tour of England and Scotland on a whim. She arrives to find the guide infuriating (while handsome, of course) and over 30 years younger than the rest of the group.

This was definitely a book of self-discovery, as well as love. I actually found myself more drawn to her relationships with the other ladies than I did to the romance aspect. We need more stories of strong, older women living badass lives, and this fit the bill!

Alice frustrated me at times, with how stubborn she was and how she picked on Robbie, but I liked that he gave the sass right back.

I loved the literary additions and references to Bridget Jones' Diary as well. It added a fun touch to the book.

Thank you to Avon Books & NetGalley for this ARC. All views and opinions are my own

This was actually cute and what I would consider a real romcom. Even though they were acting immature for their age it was making me laugh. I will say that it's 2024 why are we still having harry potter references?

I received an arc through netgalley.

Work in Progress by Kat Mackenzie

Rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Avon, Harper Voyager, Netgalley, and the author for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a cute story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, so it was a lot of fun seeing how the author developed and built the story around that trope.

Alice is craving a fresh start and an exciting adventure after a break up and losing her job. She decides to go on a literary tour across the UK hoping to figure out what she wants to do with her life along the way. What she doesn’t expect is all the chaos that comes with the adventure and the handsome tour guide who infuriates her.

Immediately from the first interaction between the two MCs, the author did an excellent job at providing a real reason for them to initially dislike each other. The banter throughout is so entertaining. The chemistry between Alice and Robbie is great. I loved how the relationship felt organic. The author does a fantastic job of showing them grow over the course of their journey.

This story is told in first person POV from the FMC’s perspective, which really helps readers see the world through her eyes. I also enjoyed learning about UK landmarks as the tour goes on!

Overall, Work in Progress is great. It is wonderfully written and really emphasizes that all who feel like they have been left behind in life need to realize that there’s so much life to experience. I would definitely recommend this read!

Alice Cooper is not functioning lately; she lost her job and fiance at the same time. He has moved on she hasn't even looked for a new job.
She sees a trip to England and signs up to go. Of course, it's a trip from he** to get her there. When trying to find her luggage a man steps in front of her at the counter. When this is finally settled, and she has her bag and gets to the assigned location for her trip pick-up guess who the driver is!
As Robbie and Alice strike sparks off each other on the three-week trip with a bus full of little old ladies.
As it turns out it is a wonderful adventure.

This is a delightful, witty and beautifully written novel. It had me laughing out loud so many times! And when I wasn’t laughing, I was grinning or, at the very least, smiling!
I loved all the clever, witty banter. Of course I loved the romance, but I also loved the friendship, genuine connections, wisdom and the beautiful UK setting.

The main characters start off on a wrong foot, hence the witty banter, both with strong personalities that clash, but as the story progresses, their dynamic shifts into something much more complicated and ultimately beautiful.

The UK plays a major role in the charm of this book. I enjoyed the setting, the description of the surroundings had me wished I was there with the characters enjoying the sights and British spring.

I loved that every chapter came with a lesson, a reading list and a “Bridget Jones tally”. I thought they were very thought through, hilarious and spot on in summarizing the upcoming chapter.

The language in this book deserves special mention. It feels like every sentence is carefully constructed and every word is chosen with care. It made me want to slow down and appreciate the craft.

While Work in Progress is a romance novel, it is so much more than that. It’s a story of love, connection and friendship, growth and healing, which makes it so much more deeper and beautiful.

This book truly feels like a warm cup of tea for the soul.

Thank you Kat Mackenzie and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. I’ve already preordered the physical one!

Alice Cooper {insert joke here} has recently lost her job, her boyfriend, and she's *gasp* getting ready to turn thirty. She's always wanted to travel, so she books a literary bus tour through Great Britain. Alice is excited to go on this tour, meet some exciting new friends her age, and have an adventure. But things go terribly wrong as soon as she gets off the plane at Edinburgh airport, when it turns out the bus tour is full of old women who are "young at heart," not the twenty- and thirty-somethings she was expecting...and the driver? Could he be any worse??

Scottish rogue Robbie is determined to embarrass and anger Alice at every turn. He's not all bad, though. He's full of historical facts and interesting stories about the places that they visit...and he could be a knight in shining armor underneath all that bullish exterior.

I've got to say that I didn't like Alice for about 75% of the book. There was banter back and forth between the two, but hers was much more mean than flirty, and she didn't seem to have any redeeming qualities. She did, however, grow and change over the course of the novel, so by the end you like her well enough. In the grumpy/sunshine trope, Alice was definitely the grumpy one...and the romance was a very slow burn, but reached bonfire heights by the end.

All in all, a great showing for a debut romance which was a mash-up of forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, and enemies to lovers, so if any of those are your favorite tropes, give this one a read.

“Work in Progress” by Kat Mackenzie
A Super Fun Tour
I am sad to say this was a work of fiction; because I want the opportunity to take this bus tour with the hopes of meeting a fun, possibly life changing group of ladies, too. I got so caught up by the people in the story that I really need to read it again to take notes on where the tour actually went and the literary references, too. In my humble opinion this is a MUST READ story, not to be missed; IF you like to laugh and maybe shed a tear or two. Happy Reading ! !

Alice isn't a spontaneous person, but she hoped that booking a three-week literary tour around the UK would snap her out of her depression. Unfortunately, things remain terrible on her trip across the pond, and a rude man pushing her aside after the trip from hell is the last straw. Alice loses her cool and has a verbal fight with the obnoxious, pushy, horrible (hot) man. Alice is even more devastated to discover that he's her tour guide and the tour isn't exactly what the website promised. Alice has no choice - she can't waste her money, even if the other patrons are geriatric and the tour guide dances on her very last nerve. However, as the tour progresses, Alice learns to love the other ladies, and even grows fond of Robbie. Is three weeks enough time to change someone's life?

Gosh, the banter between Robbie and Alice is INFURIATING. Kat Mackenzie definitely knows how to write a man that gets your hackles up - their chemistry is undeniable. As a driven, type-A person, Alice was relatable, and the other characters were so interesting and lovable. The places that the tour visit sort of become another character, and I definitely found myself mentally adding a few places to my bucket list. I had a really great time reading this, and I would highly recommend this book for those that love travel, verbal sparring as foreplay, and women discovering who they are and what they want after life kicks them in the pants.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this E-ARC. I emjoyed the journey the FMC was on and I loved the banter between Robbie and Alice it was just chef kiss not gonna lie something its hard to read in books but this one was just so funny and smooth. But lets face it the real winners were all the ladies of that were doing the trip with Alice. Alice going thru that process and then finding herself thru it all was so good.

I truthfully loved every moment of this book! I went in a little hesitant or not fully sold just because I thought it would be a typical vacation romance, but I found it to be so much more. Work in Progress falls into my favorite brand of romance novel because it was an everything book, touching on topics and lessons that truly apply to every era and component of a full life. Alice's tour throughout the UK, the women she met, and the lessons she learned were enough to have me falling in love and her enemies to friends to lovers with Robbie was the perfect cherry on top. I know this might not be to everyone's taste, but I was also obsessed with how the plot revolved around a UK literary book tour. with so many references to classic novels, this book's writing style was whimsical, romantic, and dramatic just like a classic itself. It was very special to read a contemporary romance using words of the classics because it just helped romanticize the whole thing in a way that I really enjoyed. I read this book while on a staycation and the story genuinely took me with it and I felt like I was on the tour bus too, in fact, I'm slightly considering looking for a book tour myself! Overall his book is a brilliant, soft, romantic, and comfy tribute to literature and love.

Title:  Work in Progress
Author: Kat Mackenzie     
Genre: Romance        
Rating:  3.8

UK Bus Trip Goals:

1. Crawl out of pajamas.

2. Get over cheating bastard and his stupid ironed jeans.

3. Have my first real adventure!

4. Achieve stability, strength, and growth.

5. Definitely do NOT kiss any British men.

Alice loves a good list. But careful planning didn’t stop her from losing her job and her fiance in one fell swoop. With her dreaded 30th birthday looming on the horizon, Alice makes the first impulsive decision of her life - booking a flight to the UK for a three-week, all-female, literary bus tour. What could possibly go wrong?

Turns out - everything.

Alice arrives to discover that this tour isn’t what she expected. At all. Instead of cool, globe-trotting thirtysomethings with meaningful tattoos, she finds a rickety, antique bus full of fluffy-haired octogenarians. And to make matters infinitely worse, the tour guide makes her blood boil! And that devilish grin of his tells her he’s dead set on making her trip a misery.

But as they travel from castle ruins to cozy pubs, Alice may just find that she’s got it all wrong. The ladies are vivacious. The book club chat is on fire. And damn if that mischievous smile doesn't threaten to turn her world upside down - and her beloved list right along with it!

I have to be honest:  Alice was very off-putting for me for the first bit. Her absolute hatred for Robby was almost irrational—and she was vicious. I liked her personality when she wasn’t being rabid, so I kept reading, and she did improve. I loved the group of ladies she was with on the literary tour, and I would have signed up for that trip in a hot second!

Kat Mackenzie is an American who loves to travel. Work in Progress is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Avon and Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 1/16)

I absolutely adored the combination of rom-com, sweetness, and life truths in the book!

In Work in Progress, Alice books herself an all-woman literary bus tour of Scotland and England as a way to pull herself out of a life funk. The things that happen to her in her travels are equal parts terrible, hilarious, and utterly relatable. And that's all before she gets on the bus.

The book then takes Alice, and the reader, on a journey to see the sights down from Edinburgh, to Pemberley (Chatsworth), Cambridge, Oxford, London, and everything in between. Ms. Mackenzie paints a poetic picture of the places and people on the journey, making me wish I was there, without overwhelming me with too many names and dates of historical events. There were book recommendations to go with each literary-themed stop on the tour.

Along the way, Kat befriends the women on the trip, while I, as the reader, soak up the wisdom and love and generosity of those women right alongside her. There is romance of course, but what really stood out to me were the interactions with the women. Every one of the characters were so well-fleshed out, real, rich, and vibrant; the stories they shared were poignant, heartbreaking, hopeful, and beautiful.

I laughed until I cried, and then cried some more. But not a sobbing cry, just happy, sweet tears.

The writing was down-to-earth, yet so utterly poetic at times, I wanted to highlight so many passages as golden kernels of truth or as the funniest jokes.

Basically, I just went on an incredible literary bus tour through Scotland and England with a group of amazing women, and came out richer for it. This is a book that I need for my bookshelf and will reread again.

This was so much fun to read! I loved Alice and her sense of humor and intelligence. Robbie was also a complicated character that kept much of his personal story private, which only made me want to get to know him more, and when he revealed small pieces of himself to Alice, it made me love him more and more. Alice and Robbie have chemistry and banter that made me swoon--it's some of the best I've read.

I loved traveling to England and Scotland--both are bucket list travel destinations for me. The setting felt authentic and based on the author's experiences, I know it is.

The tour group participants are well-developed characters with their own quirks and ones Alice came to love and therefore, so did I. These ladies had wise life advice based on their experiences and shared their wisdom with Alice. Some of the advice I want to remember for myself. Thank you to NetGalley for my early digital copy to read and review honestly.

I had so much fun reading this! I loved the English/Scottish setting and it made me very nostalgic for my time in the UK. If only I had met a man as dreamy as Robbie when I was there. The idea of a three week book themed tour was amazing and had me wishing I could sign up in real life.

I loved following along with Alice as she tried to heal after a series of hardships and started to realize that it’s never too late to start a new adventure. The slow burn dislike to love romance was so good and Alice and Robbie’s banter had me laughing the whole time. The group of elderly ladies who ended up being her tour companions were also hilarious and the unexpected connections they formed were so sweet. There was actually a lot of wisdom in this book and it had me feeling emotional by the end. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a funny, romantic, and uplifting story.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Work In Progress by Kat Mackenzie is a cheeky novel that had me laughing out loud!

Alice Cooper has just gotten out of a 6 year relationship with her cheating ex-boyfriend…. as her 30 birthday approaches what better way to forget him & celebrate than to hop on a plane to the UK and take a literary bus tour with like-minded women who are “young at heart” ….Alice is expecting to mingle with women her age but imagine her surprise when she’s the youngest amongst a crowd of elderly women and a handsome bus driver named Robbie who enjoys giving her a hard time!

This book is much fun - I laughed out loud a lot. There are so many funny parts. There’s even a part where they are literally naming British towns with genital-themed names 🤣🤣 The romance is slow burn and there’s even a bit of a love triangle along with some heavy miscommunication. Some parts made me gag while I was laughing.

Kat’s writing is so clever which made the witty banter between Alice & Robby that much more satisfying along with all the outrageous things that came out of the older ladies mouths. I was relieved that nothing bad happened to any of the women and that we do get a happy ending.

I enjoyed the way this book is formatted with Kat’s love of lists, her Bridget Jones checklist, quotes, and the book corresponding with each leg of the tour.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Please grab your copy when this novel hits shelves on January 14, 2025! I look forward to reading more from this author.

Any book that takes place is Scotland is a winner to me! Overall, I enjoyed this book. It took me a while to warm up to the FMC as I felt she was a little too dramatic or would be mad at Robbie for things she asked of him, but her verbal sparring and their banter was still excellent! I really enjoyed that the tour was book themed and came with a reading list and felt that the plot was different from anything I've read before, which was refreshing. I loved that the back stories of all the women were sprinkled into the story, learning about their pasts and journeys through life, which in turn helped Alice find herself again was so special.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This book was absolutely hysterical! I started laughing in the first chapter and it only got funnier from there.

Alice Cooper lost her job and broke up with her fiance six months ago. She's about to turn 30 and needs to get her life back on track, so she books a 3 week literary bus tour through Britain and embarks on her first European vacation. What she hadn't counted on was that she unknowingly booked a tour comprised of all elderly women and one infuriating (but handsome)Scottish tour guide/ driver. But as they make their way through the tour, Alice begins to realize that sometimes healing and change comes from the most unexpected places.

This book was such a joy. Not only was it incredibly funny, but it was full of heart. The friendships that developed between Alice and the older women were so sweet that I teared up multiple times. The banter and snark between Alice and Robbie the bus driver was delightful, and all the mishaps that befell Alice had me laughing, while simultaneously cringing with embarrassment for her.

While I did enjoy the romance, I have to say that the friendships and Alice's personal growth were what really shined in this book. I also adored all of the book references, and have now added a British literary book tour to my bucket list!

I highly recommend this one!

Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

Honestly so freaking cute. I loved that this takes place in the UK and there's a lot of nods to outlander/jamie Fraser.
Since I'm watching that show right now, this couldn't have been a more perfect time to read this book! Though this is supposed to be "enemies to lovers" it's really more of a
"strangers that got off on the wrong foot to lovers"
Robbie is witty and charming but absolutely infuriates Alice... Until he doesn't (but the banter between them is hilarious). Everything in Alice's life is going wrong to the extreme, but the best thing about rock bottom is there is only up from there. I am obsessed with the idea of a literary bus tour, especially with a group of little old ladies. Tbh my dream come true. The lessons and wisdom these women brought to Alice really made my heart grow 3 sizes. As much as this book is a romance, it's about a girl who just turned 30 that realizes it's okay to reinvent yourself, and it's okay if plans don't turn out the way you were expecting, because there just might something better waiting for you.
The character development of both Alice and Robbie was done wonderfully - we see the kindness in Robbie, and watch Alice mature.
I loved the descriptions of each destination in the UK, and enjoyed the specifics of the cities. It wasn't just a generic
"somewhere in England." One call out that I didn't really think added to the story was the reading list/ Bridget jones tally at the beginning of each chapter. I get what Kat McKenzie was trying to do, but I found it a little distracting and unnecessary.
Thank you so much to HarperCollins/Avon and Kat McKenzie for this gifted ARC. I really enjoyed this story so much! This book is available on January 14th, 2025

Alice’s life imploded six months ago after she lost her fiancé and job - now she’s finally ready to emerge from her apartment and she chooses to go on a three-week literary bus tour around Britain. The trip is not what she expected - all of the other women are octogenarians or older and the tour guide infuriates her. But as the trip progresses Alice realizes that her initial impressions are all wrong, the women are fun and wise and the tour guide, not so annoying.

I loved the premise of this one, bus tour around Britain, hitting all the literary spots and a 30 year old with all older women - so cute. But here’s the issue I had with this one, I loved all of the characters except for Alice. This is an enemies to lovers trope and in order for it to work for me, the characters hatred of each other has to make sense, and in this one it was taken too far simply to fulfill the trope. Even once Robbie (the cute tour guide) showed Alice his kind side, she kept at him for no reason - the scenario just didn’t work for me. This issue is why I am having a hard time rating this one because I really did like the story’s potential and the rest of the characters so much.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC to review

This book came to me at the perfect time!

I knew I was so excited to read this book because of the setting and the Scottish mmc. Like Alice, I too have a habit of romanticizing the idea of an experiencing the history and constant overcast of The UK and hopefully acquiring a modern day Jamie Fraser in the process. Also like Alice, I constantly find myself in a panic about being a 30 something that doesn’t have her whole life figured out.

The romance in this was cute and the banter was top tier. I was extremely frustrated by the miscommunication so that turned me off until it was resolved. I would have surely confronted that man. No way am I holding that information in for days. I think I would have rated this a little higher if the miscommunication either didn’t happen or if they would have squashed it sooner.

What really made this book stand out for me was Alice’s friendship with the women on her trip. I have so many days where I think with my 20s long gone I have already lived the funnest days of my life but these characters were a reminder that life is what you make it and you can keep traveling, having fun with your girlfriends, and experiencing love well past your 20s and 30s.

I highly recommend this book to any woman that has a love for Austen and Tolkien references, Scottish men, and a mid life crisis brewing.