This is a beautiful story of healing, learning to trust, and opening up to someone. Stellar is closed off from others after a toxic childhood and rough go at her work as an ER physician during the pandemic and years following. McHuge is a self-help personality with a PhD in psychology. After incredible one-night-stand that lead Steller to completely avoid him for the next year, they work together to establish a white-water kayaking program combined with relationship counseling while engaging in a "fake" engagement to help the business. The story is told in first person from Stellar's perspective. I enjoyed her rich descriptions of the nature surrounding her, the food and camp environment, and the people she interacts with. There is also strong LGBTQ representation in the book as well as an autistic character (the author's bio notes that she is autistic) among other diverse perspectives. Overall a wonderful, funny, and emotional read. This is my first read by Maggie North, but I will be looking into her other books as well!

Grateful to St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy—opinions are all mine, as always.

Stellar is tired of being the mark and constantly let down. Her father was a con artist who ended up in jail, and as a child, she and her mother struggled to get by. Despite the odds, Stellar managed to secure loans, graduate as an emergency and family physician, and work at Grey Tusk Hospital. But eventually, she left and began taking on smaller jobs just to make ends meet. Life has taught her not to expect much from people. The only person who’s never let her down is her best friend Liz, whom she considers a sister.

When Stellar is offered a job at a couples therapy camp—complete with whitewater rafting—Liz encourages her to go for it. It seems like a great opportunity. The only catch? The camp is being overseen by McHuge (Lyle), the man she had a one-night stand with a year ago. That brief encounter left her so unsettled she hasn’t been with anyone since.

This book is a rom-com, but it’s written in a very different style than most others I’ve read. Both Stellar and McHuge have experienced fluidity in their sexual identities over the years, which added layers to their characters. I found the writing unique, and the portrayal of Stellar’s emotions had a depth and weight that felt raw and real.

I did enjoy this book, but I will note that it covers some heavy themes and trauma, so be prepared for emotional depth alongside the romance.

Maggie North is an absolute QUEEN and I devoured this book. This was such a refreshing book and I loved how it was so unlike the average romance novel. I'm obsessed!!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for the chance to arc read this one!!!

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

Tropes:
- Outdoor adventure
- Fake engagement
- Forced proximity/Shared tent
- Opposites attract
- Pansexual/LGBTQ rep

I think the makings of a good book are here - but for some reason I almost felt like there was too much going on - so I admit I struggled with this one a lot. I'm not sure exactly why but I didn't buy into some of the characters personalities and the storyline so then the book dragged a bit for me. Maybe I'd appreciate more the story on a re-read or as an audiobook. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3⭐

Meet Lyle "McHuge" McHugh, a man who claims 6'4" when under duress (though we all know he's lying), a man who chooses kindness in every circumstance at the expense of his own feelings, a man who needs help to keep his business afloat... literally! This is the first session of his startup relationship therapy whitewater adventure, but his business partner is forced into paternity leave early, leaving McHuge floundering for help. Stellar Byrd only offered help as a last resort given their history but now the job is even more complicated than expected when they add in a fake engagement, a hostile client, and unexpected business competition. Will their fledgling business survive the summer?
I loved McHuge in the first book so I was so happy he was getting his own. I love how these total opposites teach other to become their best selves and their love story is a such a sweet slow burn. The Canadian wilderness setting was beautiful, the whitewater scenes were fun, and the characters were unique and relatable. The ending was a bit abrupt for me, but overall I really enjoyed this book.

40% in and I decided to DNF it. I just can't get into it. The story is slow, their relationship feels flat at the moment. I just can't get into it.

I really enjoy a grumpy sunshine, especially where the grumpy is the FMC. I really love seeing stellar having to deal with her former hook up McHugh The chemistry between both was obvious from the beginning and I loved that the setting was a summer camp. It’s a really fun book with fantastic manor and really fun characters. It’s an entertaining Reed from start to finish.

Thank you Maggie North, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC! All opinions are my own.

Maggie North, you dog. At it again.

I’m absolutely obsessed with Stellar and Lyle. I loved the peeks of their characters in Rules for Second Chances and getting the full experience in their own book was perfection. They truly couldn’t be more different from one another but somehow it works so well.

The personal growth on this was also beautiful. Just like with Rules, I felt like this book was speaking right to my heart. Maggie knows how to get right to my heart and I can’t wait for her to emotionally ruin and heal me in the future.

I’m absolutely going to recommend this book to all my friends 💕

POV: single first person

You can expect: opposites attract, coworkers to lovers, fake engagement, forced proximity, past one night stand, only one tent, size difference, cinnamon roll MMC, grumpy FMC/sunshine MMC, black cat FMC/Golden Retriever MMC, wilderness couples therapy.

Rep: bisexual FMC, pansexual MMC, poly MMC, dementia (side character), Black side character, queer side characters.

Spice: 2/5

CW: parental abandonment (past), sociopathic parent, corporate sabotage.

Stellar is a burnt out doctor who has been driven out of her field, and is recovering emotionally. She has a one night stand with Lyle, and then finds herself working for him a year later. They both agree that for the sake of his whitewater rafting business, they should keep things strictly professional between them. Easier said than done. My favorite thing about this book is that Lyle is a big (his nickname is McHuge) softie who always looks out for Stellar, who acts super tough. Lyle is the one that is all feelings on the outside, and gentle. It takes Stellar a long time to trust him and open up to him. There's a whole plot where the business is being secretly sabotaged that some people might enjoy, but I found that it distracted from the emotional heart of the book.

Thank you NetGalley for the free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Format - E ARC (netGalley)

Rating- ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Spice- 🌶 🌶

Troupes- opposites attract, forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, Fake dating, slow burn

This was my first Maggie North book but it definitely will not be my last.

I know that this book has a mate but it stands on its own just fine I never felt like I was missing anything while reading it.

Stella and Lyle have nothing in common except a steamy night together and the need to make this outdoor couples therapy camp a success. And in order to do that they have to convince everyone they are a happy loving couple. And while the attraction is real but the affection feels forced until it doesn’t.

This book has all my favorite troupes but it was Maggie’s descriptive writing that really scratched that itch inside my brain. I had a hard time putting this book down which was surprising when that MCs don’t even really stand a lot of on page time together for the first few chapters. This one is defiantly worth a reread!

Thank you Maggie North, St Martin’s press and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

It was a good story, it kinda reminded me of “Out on a Limb” by Carter. My main issue is the nickname McHuge.. every time I read it, I cringed. I liked that the novel turned the idea of a big strong man being so tough and outdoorsy that he doesn’t feel his feeling on its head. Good representation, cute story, loved Babe the dog (hated the name again).

This one was such a fun surprise—The Ripple Effect has fake dating, summer camp drama, and the perfect grumpy/sunshine pairing. Stellar’s a burnt-out ER doc, Lyle’s the overly cheerful therapist she once hooked up with, and now they’re fake engaged to save his couples retreat.
Their dynamic is messy in the best way, with real emotional growth on both sides. I loved the camp setting, the quirky side characters, and the way it balanced heart and humor. Quick, fun, and low-key touching—definitely a great summer read.

Thank you @stmartinspress and @maggienorthauthor for the #gifted ebook arcs. All opinions expressed are my own.

4.5 stars

Ripple Effect was such a perfect name for this book and not only for the obvious whitewater rafting reference but also for how past experiences can have a ripple effect on how you react. Both characters faced this challenge both due to their past relationships effecting how they feel about them and how their own one night stand effects how they react to each other now. I found this book to be beautiful written and compelling while also being funny and sweet (and spicy).

My only issue is McHuge is a horrible nickname.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

Mchuge's heart matches his size! He's incredibly endearing, nurturing and misunderstood because of his large stature. He just wants to help people see life through a new lens to let love reign supreme.

Then along comes Stellar, in need a lifeline, her world has imploded. Their's only one problem, these two had one-night of a mind blowing tumble in the sheets together a year ago, and Stellar's ghosted him since.

After our introduction to these characters in Rules for a Second Chance, they finally get the story the reader has patiently waited. Their second chance for something more at McHuge's Camp brings personal healing, intense coming of age against the lush backdrop of the Canadian wilderness.

The Ripple Effect is more than a romance, its a novel that balances bits humor and emotions to bring to life a happily ever after both McHuge and Stellar deserve.

Thank you St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin

📖 The Ripple Effect by Maggie North

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

Quotes:
"Crises are when you discover who you are - when you get to choose who you want to be."
"If all we have is you and me, then I want us to promise we won't walk away from this.Or from each other."

💁🏼‍♀️ Stellar J is our FMC. She is untrusting, overthinking, and lonely. Stellar had a rough childhood with a con artist father and mother that chose him over her. Stellar worked as a doctor. She was mistreated at her previous hospital. All this combined, she has some emotional damage leaving her scarred.
💁‍♂️ Lyle McHugh is our MMC. He is kind, intuitive, and strong. He has a past, but he is determined to change his character because of it. This brings us to the character he is in the story.
Lyle and Stellar have mutual friends. They meet up at a concert one night and things go too far. Stellar is determined to ignore, avoid, and have nothing to do with Lyle after that one night. Those mutual friends get Lyle and Stellar involved in a business plan together. The story takes off from there.
☺️ I enjoyed this book. Stellar and I have a lot in common as far as trust issues due to past events. Lyle seems like a huge teddy bear I just want to cuddle up with. He also seems like the best support system. I had a hard time staying engaged in this book. I feel like having Lyle's perspective would have added something to it that was missing for me. I enjoyed the side characters and their varied personalities. I loved seeing the growth in Stellar J. and in Lyle.
This was a great story for someone, it just wasn't everything for me.

The FMC was very likeable and the communication/ maturity was healthy. The 3 main characters names alone could lead you to a DNF. The spice was mild.

The Ripple Effect was my first book my Maggie North. I really loved how she wrote Stellar and her background. She was honestly the best and most exciting part of this story. She stands up for what she believes in and hearing her background made me so angry on her behalf. I really liked her character. As for Lyle, I appreciated his calm demeanor in comparison to her spitfire, but I just did not see their chemistry at all. I wish we got to see more of his perspective, or seen more of their history, because their present was just so lackluster and felt like it came out of nowhere. Also I really hated the name McHuge and how he constantly talked about being big. I usually don’t mind that because as a tall person it truly comes up enough, but the nick name made it cringey to read about.

As for the plot, I definitely felt myself wanting to stop because of how much this dragged. Did I enjoy the end? Yes I did, and I liked once the characters started to stand up for themselves more, but majority of the story was slow and serene and I felt myself getting distracted. I also recognized the plot twist pretty early which is different because I can be a very ignorant reader, but this story made it so obvious. While that didn’t take away from the story for me, as I did feel like the last part was one of the best parts of the story, I can see why some readers may feel that way.

Overall, I really did enjoy Stellar and her character arc. I loved reading about her past and seeing how she grows from that experience. I felt most involved the last quarter as so much growth happened which was so awesome. I wish the rest of the book made me feel the way the last part did. I would still be interested in reading other books from this author.


Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Griffin for an earc. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did! I think the premise is good and there was a lot to like about this book. There was just a lack of balance in a lot of ways that didn't work for me.

I liked that this was a second chance-ish romance and I liked setting at an outdoorsy whitewater camp for couples. I also think Lyle and Stellar made a great couple and a lot of their relationship and the way it progressed was enjoyable to read.

What I didn't love was the lack of burn in the slow burn. I don't mind a slow burn, but their needs to be something for the wait to be worth it and there just wasn't. Quite frankly I got really bored. I took over a week to read this book, which is forever for me and I just kept hoping that it would pick up and it didn't.

Also the nickname McHuge was cheesy and overused. We get it here a big guy! I also felt like they took the whole incident from his past and made a way bigger deal out of it to the point that he is basically a pacifist which is fine, but that does equate to letting people just walk all over you and steal your ideas, which is what happened! I liked that Stellar wanted to fight for him, sometimes literally, but she never really got the chance because he wouldn't let her.

I also saw one of the aspects of this book coming from a mile away and I was just left a bit disappointed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one hit too close to home.

Burned-out, crashed out, former ER doc Stellar J. Byrd goes from triage to trauma camp wanting nothing serious, no group hugs, no sing-songs. But her boss, psychologist Lyle McHugh, says they need a fake engagement to save the startup. So they do it, and what follows is an emotional jigsaw, two broken people teaching each other how to fall in love without erasing their own edges.

Stellar J. Byrd is everything I love in a main character, angry, competent, relatable. She’s a former ER doctor who’s burned out to the point of erosion (girl, same, except the doctor part!), still carrying the weight of everyone she couldn’t save and all the pieces of herself she lost along the way. When she lands at The Love Boat, a deeply cringe-y couples therapy startup in the wilderness run by her ex-hookup turned boss, you know where it’s going, but the journey is tender, funny, and quietly brutal in all the right ways.

This book gets the soft parts of healing. It’s not just trauma-dump, heal, fall in love like a meaningless circus. It’s actually about how hard it is to let yourself be cared for by someone who sees you not as a problem to fix, but as a person worth staying for. Lyle is almost suspiciously patient, like golden-retriever-energy-in-human-form patient. He’s the kind of love interest who doesn’t need to be redeemed, he’s just there, doing the emotional labour, holding the line, waiting for Stellar to show up for herself.

There’s a fake engagement, obviously. There’s also startup drama, trade secret theft, and canoe-related metaphors that somehow don’t feel absurd. But what got me was the slow build, the way Maggie North writes recovery as nonlinear, the way love becomes something collaborative rather than earned, and it's not just romantic love, it's learning that you can depend on someone else, when you need.

This book is about being hard to love, and finding someone who isn’t scared off by that. It’s about making peace with the version of you that shut down out of survival, and maybe letting someone sit with her long enough to feel safe.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Did Not Finish.

My real life job might have affected my enjoyment of this one. Stellar is an ex-emergency room physician who burnt out during COVID…and it’s too accurate? I didn’t even have direct patient care (I could hide in an office) and I still don’t like thinking about that period of my life. Add in an extremely angry, unlikable FMC Stellar and a too-nice doormat MMC, Lyle, and I just am not having fun while reading…thus goodbye.