I'm just going to DNF this at 22%. Something about the McHuge nickname and he's seems a little too "enlightened" for my taste. I'm not really feeling the chemistry between these characters either.

I really enjoyed Maggie’s second book, though it can be read as a standalone and found the characters refreshing! This is the grumpy x sunshine story we are looking for, with deeply realistic characters who are just trying to find their way and work through their own stuff. The slower start should not deter those reading, as I found it was really helpful to see the roots of the characters and get into the story with a deep understanding of how/why the characters engage the way they do within their relationship. Great romantic read that’s entertaining, thought and emotion provoking that really will give you so much more than just a story!

The continuation of this series didn't disappoint. The journey Stellar and McHuge go on is wild and fraught with all kinds of interesting situations.

This book was so lovely! I enjoyed the action and their romance; the entire story tied together nicely.

My only qualm is the beginning. I felt lost in the first 40 pages. As a reader, you’re introduced to this character who has an edge to her. She thinks of herself as one apart. She’s small but she has spikes.

It got a bit messier after she had a seemingly satisfactory hookup, yet in the scenes after she was angry and harbored resentment towards this “kind”man. It was also difficult to orient myself to the location — she describes needing to take a far away job, but I didn’t quite understand that the hospital wasn’t a farther distance & was actually local to the area. It sounded like she had a faraway job in the sticks & just flew in for the concert where they met. Smoothing those bits out for readers would help us understand her dynamic with Lyle a bit more in the beginning, make it easier to see why he was still in the save area as her a year later, and help clarify the urgency of her staying in the area a bit sooner so readers can better understand what’s going on. To me it was hard to wrap my head around her anger and to get why she’d stay local if he had hurt her in some unforgivable way.

Another gorgeous book by Maggie North with poetry-like prose.

Overall: 5
Spice: 3

Stellar Byrd "needs something" according to her best friend. After walking away from a medical career and stumbling through gig work, she is obsessed with making sure her interactions with others are even and fair, she'll never take more than she's due. When Liz's family could utilize Stellar's medical degree to help their start-up business, Stellar will take any chance to doing something for Liz - even if it means spending the summer working alongside Lyle "McHuge" McHugh, the one-night stand she can't forget.

After loving North's debut, Rules for Second Chances, earlier this year, I was thrilled to get the chance to read the next story in the Maggie-verse. She has outdone her debut with this beautiful story. First of all - yay for complex main characters in their 30's! Stellar and Lyle each bring their own teenage trauma to their forced proximity which causes them to circle one another cautiously. I love that they can pair their strengths and weaknesses to be stronger together. North did a great job of giving just enough info on the couples on the Love Boat to add conflict and interest, while keeping the main focus on Stellar & Lyle. The side stories of sisterhood (both by blood & friendship) and the injustice of misogyny in the workplace added a lot to the story. The tension after the one night stand is perfect for inserting steamy flashback scenes that build the slow burn. North's writing about people and nature is so beautiful, it reads like poetry at times. I especially loved the consistent imagery of water/the river/rafting throughout the book.

The Ripple Effect by Maggie North

I would like to thank the publisher for allowing this book to be open the accesson NetGalley. I read this book while on the plane today and had a good time. This is my second book by this author; I don’t remember, especially loving her first book so I didn’t really have high hopes for this one.

However, it is evident that this author has grown in her technical skills as a writer for her sophomore effort. I really enjoyed getting getting to know her main characters and seeing her characters from her first book again as well. I really like the premise of this book it’s really interesting and well thought out.

The antagonists were also appropriately dealt with which I appreciated and the romance was good.

This is easily one of the best contemporary romances I've read this year. This is the second Maggie North book I've read and I'll be first in line to grab her next! I adore her ability to write MMCs who are a whole clothesline full of green flags and yet maintain plenty of tension and issues to work through; the way her love of the Canadian wilderness practically lifts off the page; and the details that make the locations and characters feel so real.

Stellar and Lyle are such a delightful couple and an interesting combination--a MMC who doesn't dare to be angry and embraces kindness as a shield, and a FMC who is absolutely vibrating with rage from being hurt in the past. Also, I was so delighted that they're both queer! I adore them. I adore Babe the dog. I adore the way this book took some of my expectations and twisted them in a completely satisfying manner. If this were in stores now I'd run out at this very moment to grab myself a physical copy and read it all over again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

loved this romance with a nurse and psychologist and working together in the woods and helping other relationships . loved her found family and that they both were broken in some way and he was always positive.

A grumpy burnt out physician and a sunshine psychologist must fake an engagement to save his whitewater canoeing/ relationship therapy startup up.

This sounded like it would be right up my alley. But instead of was more like when there are too many tropes. Stellars is always focused on what she owes other people and what might make things even. And McHuge just goes along with everything all of the time.

This might have been a case of not the book for me? I think it was well written. But it was a struggle for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC for a review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book, with my honest review below.

The Ripple Effect was an inclusive and unique romance, complete with an adorable puppy but twisting all other romance elements just a bit. We had a little enemies to lovers going on but one sides (unless the enemy is yourself), a do good mission (but with some less pure intentions), and a lot of interesting mini mysteries and ‘how do they make this work’ in between. I enjoyed all of those things immensely and The Ripple Effect had enough ‘different’ takes for a romance to keep me engaged while also providing some comfortable and cute moments that fit the romance genre.

One thing I will say - if I hooked up with my best friend I don’t think they could ever become like a sister to me. I puzzled over that for way too long before deciding, but maybe you’ll find that part relatable!

The Ripple Effect by Maggie North is a cute follow up to her previous novel Rules for Second Chances. This time Lyle "McHuge" everyone's favorite psychologist is back and he's starting his own couple retreat. Former ER doctor Stellar J. Byrd has signed on as the medical expert and the two are drawn to each other, even though neither is looking for a relationship in spite of the fact they had hooked up once before. Their antics, as well as those of the campers keep this novel moving quickly and make it a fun read. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Cute easy read. Loved the couple but felt the character development wasn’t shown through much. Fell for McHuge.

I am so thankful to have received an ARC for this book. It was everything I love about a rom com and had all the goodness of a fake engagement trope, but it was also so much more than that. The main character felt unique and relatable as an unapologetically queer neurodivergent person. The occasional descriptions of excellent food and beautiful wilderness made me hungry - and hungry for adventure. The relationship was deep without feeling rushed and the ending, without spoilers, brought me to tears a few different times. When this is book comes out, do yourself a favor and read it!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book. The Ripple Effect has fake dating and that trope is almost always a guarantee I will read the book. What kept me going was the forest setting and the character growth and eventual actual falling for one another.

I adored this book! It was so nice to read a tough girl with issues working through those in a healthy way with a cinnamon roll hero. I felt for Stellar and all she had been through and couldn't blame her for any choices that she had made. Overall I'm so glad I was able to have access to this early read. I will definitely be coming back to it!

There is a huge trend right now for outdoorsy romances and this is definitely the book to check out! It's cute and gives you the fix for a Wild love story! (Haha see what I did there?)

This book had a fun premise, a white water canoeing, couples counseling camp. I found the story a little slow moving in the beginning, but I did enjoy following the experience of the first "Love Boat" session.

This book grumpy x sunshine and swapped genders with a yoga loving, gentle mountain man and a grumpy petite ER doctor.

I thought the pacing for Stellar and Lyle's relationship was well done and believable. I also always like to point out when a romance does NOT have a third act breakup as I consider that a huge plus.

I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Stellar and Sloane and how it developed through the course of the book. It felt very authentic.

Thank you to Netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This cover immediately grabbed my attention, and it really is a cute premise for a book! The writing style personally was not my favorite. It looked similar to a lot of my “easy to read” favorites, but the prologue itself was around 17 pages long on my kindle, which set the tone for a very drawn out feeling throughout. The start to me didn’t really have enough context to make a lot of sense.. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of “meat” to the back stories, and not a lot of character or world development. I am giving 3 stars for the simple fact that the book is super detailed, and the author did a great job with that which is somewhat rare sometimes!
Thank you to the publisher of this book for giving me an advanced opportunity to read this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own, and have not be influenced in any way.

The Ripple Effect follows Stellar Byrd (don't get me started) - a former ER physician - and Lyle McHugh - a golden retriever wilderness therapist and author. It's the second book after Rules for Second Chances. If you don't want spoilers for that book, I suggest reading it first. But this can be read as a standalone.

The book is a little slow to begin with and, I think, if it wasn't for me reading the previous book in this "series" I likely would've DNF'd this one. It took some time to get into the meat of the story and for a modern romance, it needed to be quicker. Once it got going, the adventure never stopped. I'll admit that many parts of the plot were extremely predictable which is what you get in a modern romance - but this one was so obvious that it felt like a child to get it. This is, by no means, a children's book (there is open door romance).

I think the plot was fine and I would've given more stars if the character development made up for the lack of plot but it just didn't cut it for me. Overall, it was a heartwarming book that was easy to read and escape into. Solid 3 stars for me.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Maggie North for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I overall liked this book! The premise was really refreshing and original. I had never even heard of wilderness based relationship therapy, so this was a completely new setting and situation I had never read about before.

Stellar J. Byrd, a former ER doctor, becomes a camp doctor for an acquaintance, Lyle "McHuge" McHugh, who is opening up a white water rafting based wilderness relationship therapy camp. However, when it comes out that McHuge isn't in a relationship himself, those looking into the camp try to dig for more information and wonder the credibility of McHuge's methodologies and therapeutic services. There's only one solution - a fake relationship between Stellar and McHuge to help cement the credibility of the camp.

I felt like the plot was very fresh and new. It was an interesting premise. There was an interesting cast of characters from McHuge, Stellar, their friends, and the campers. The MMC, McHuge, is the definition of a cinnamon roll/golden retriever and Stellar is definitely a black cat type FMC. I liked McHuge. I felt like it was a little more difficult to get behind Stellar. The chip on her shoulder, while rightfully there, was almost too big and made her a difficult character to root for.

This book was a little slow starting. I had to give it two attempts to get first the first few chapters, but the plot picked up very quickly. The scenery was beautifully described, but it was difficult at parts to imagine the scenes exactly, which I am wondering how much had to do with technical whitewater terms versus so many characters versus such detailed information that it was difficult to get to the heart of the story. The plot ended up very unique and heartwarming, and is definitely worth the read, especially if you are an outdoor person!