Thank you Atria Books for the advanced copy!
I love a brothers best friend trope and this one was almost perfect for me! They were childhood friends, they have been pining for each other for years, he’s a golden retriever and she’s a bit of a grump. I just loved it and couldn’t put this book down! I loved the dual POV between Zac and Melody, it is always so nice to hear from both characters. Zac is the perfect man, he has been waiting for Melody since he was 14 (swoon) and when Melody comes back from the big city, has been helping her get back on her feet after a bad break up. Melody was a bit frustrating at times, but it al worked out in the end! I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

This is one of the best romances I read in January. It’s well written and plotted, and the characters are memorable.
It’s got tropes galore, brother’s best friend, small town, sports (football) romance, and second chance romance.
Melody is back home, no boyfriend, and her brother guilts her into a camping trip with friends that includes his best friend, Parker. Parker is a football coach and has always wanted to be with Melody, but she’s off limits. They had an “encounter” that went sideways 10 years ago, and have thought about each other ever since.
Finally they’re both single and living in the same town. Can they make it work this time?
I think you’ll enjoy the banter in this one, it’s a fun read. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

3.5/5 🌟

I don't think I expected that level of spice going in! Nice lighthearted read about a hard-fought and earned second chance.

Shows a case of a manipulative partner who ruins a girl's confidence, and she doesn't even know it, then shows her healing as she falls in love (again).

Enjoyable, but not sure I'd read book 2 in the series over other books on my TBR.

All I can say is this was one hot sports romance! The chemistry and the spice between the FMC and MMC was sooo good! If you enjoy a brother's best friend trope you will like this one. Melody has always had a thing for her brother's best friend and football team mate Zac Porter. Little did she know he harbored the same feelings but kept from acting on them for a reason. One night changed everything between these two when an almost kiss happens and leaves both broken hearted. Years later Melody returns home determined to have nothing to do with Zac but Zac has other plans. He will stop at nothing to get back into her good graces and win her heart.

This book was incredibly sweet and easily one of the best romances I’ve ever read. I can’t wait to see what Ellie writes next!

Melody and Zac where do I even begin??

I love me a good brothers best friend trope and honestly, I love a second chance romance trope as well. This book had both so my hopes were pretty high that I would enjoy this. With that being said, I totally enjoyed this book.

The spice? It was giving and each scene had me giggling to myself.

The forced proximity when they are stranded in the woods while sharing a tent together? Incredible

Zac gave Melody the chance to grow and learn to love herself which we love because come on, a man doing that? Rare. The way he was SO down bad for Melody was incredible. I love a man who is whole heartedly in love and not afraid to show it.

All that being said, I can’t wait for the rest of this series!

*Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest review

This book was so cute!

This is the first book I have read by Ellie Wilde and won't be my last. I loved the second chance romance x brother's best friend trope!

I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

As a football fan, I knew I would enjoy it, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do! Mel & Zac’s second chance at love was beautifully presented and their relationship was so precious! Zac would literally do or give anything for Mel!

I’m going to be adding Wilde’s books to my TBR more often!

Holy new book boyfriend, Zac Porter is everything. He is everything you want in a boyfriend, life mate and future husband. From his tenderness to his protectiveness to his jealousy, I could keep reading his story all day long! Melody is one lucky girl.

This is must read and I can't wait for the next book in the series. I just know that Brooks Attwood is going to be an amazing book boyfriend. especially since he was willing to fake date Melody for his best friend.

This was my first book by Ellie K. Wilde and she is now up there with my other favorite authors!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC!

I went into this one blind. It’s a small town, second chance romance. I eat those tropes up! This one however, I struggled a bit. I wasn’t able to connect with either character. I did appreciate Melody’s growth and how she ultimately rebuilt her confidence. Zac was likable but I wasn’t swept off my feet.

The pacing of the book was a bit off, especially when it came to the side characters and the plot wasn’t focused on the relationship between Zac and Melody. The side characters were a lot of fun.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was cute and spicy all in one and had me zoned in from the very beginning. This is a good book for those that enjoy sweet contemporary romances, and makes for a good read when you are looking for a palette cleanser as well.

Some of the tropes I noticed were: second chance, brother's best friend, small town romance, football romance.

Likes: The character development was good and I felt like I had an idea of who they each were, even the secondary characters. While there was some spice, it was mostly tension for the first half of the book. While I got as annoyed as Zac did every time they were interrupted, it made the first spicy scene that much more spicy. Now Zac, I loved Zac. He gave perfect golden retriever boyfriend energy. His loyalty and love for his Clover was unwavering and they built each other up. It was a healthy relationship with no third act break up (which I cant stand). Melody was strong, but also realized what she had when it was right in front of her and didn't spend the entire time going back and forth on whether she should be with Zac, even though putting a title on it did take awhile.

Dislikes: I felt that the reason for Zac leaving in the beginning was predictable before the story even got that far. I also found Parker slightly annoying, but since he was a secondary character I could overlook it.

Overall, I was able to finish this book while staying engaged the whole way through. I liked the characters enough that I would read the other books in the series as they come out and from the author in general.

THIS. BOOK. OMG.

I didn't know I needed this second chance romance. I was hooked from the first page. When I was a teenage, I was the grumpy girl who gifted people smiles and laughter. I was skeptic of anything happy aka I related the Mel so hard. I felt seen and loved anytime Zac would say he loved her scowl. I've never read a book with man so down bad for a grumpy woman. I love it. So many perfect moments: he took care of her when they were stranded, the shoelace, their first time, Zac messing up Connor. I really loved that we got to see Melody slowly realize all things Connor did that was a red flag. Sometimes we are truly blinded by love to see that the person that "loves" us is actually hurting us, especially when they isolate you from anyone you know. The secret clover tattoos and all the saved clovers truly pulled at my heartstrings. Poor Zac was pining for Mel for 14 years. He got his second chance and truly didn't waste a single moment. Thank you for this story <3

This book had everything I love, sports, banter, and spice! While football isn't my sport, I was fully invested in this and may have to give the sport another try. I loved the second chance romance between Melody and Zac and that it was a small town romance!

This book was DEEPLY sweet and quite possibly one of my favourite romances I've ever read. Looking forward to anything coming from Ellie in the future.

incredible!!!!!! second chance and brother’s best friend are two of my favorite tropes and together they made for a near perfect book.

i loved melody and zac’s relationship so much and their chemistry was off the charts from the start. their relationship was intense but in the best way. zac was a man down bad and i will never not be obsessed with that!!!

this was an unforgettable read and i had the time of my life with it.

thank you to netgalley for inviting me to read this book and introducing me to another incredible author!

I liked this book a lot. It sucked me in, kept me entertained, and made me miss the characters when I was done.

I'm not sure I've ever read a leading male character as love-struck, sappy, and endearing as Zac. It seems like it's usually the female leads that are written this way. It was fun to see it from a different perspective.

I would recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Only in Your Dreams is a funny and amazing second chance romance! I was not expecting to like this very much, but this book was so easy to enjoy.

Melody and Zac are just such great characters. I loved the angst and tension! It was definitely frustrating at times, but I still enjoyed this book so much. I was rooting for them the entire time. The side characters are fleshed out. I loved Brooks and Noah!!

The writing is detailed and very easy to read. I liked the snark and groveling. I would say this book is more character focused, but it is still a lovely story about growth, leaving a toxic environment, and finding happiness.

Overall, I had a great time reading this. Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I liked it, but I can’t say I loved it. Honestly, it just felt too long. There were whole sections that could’ve been cut without losing the heart of the story, and it would’ve kept things moving a lot better.

I loved the beginning, the camping and getting stranded part was fun and felt pretty unique. I mean, as wild as it was to believe that their friends just up and left without noticing they were missing (seriously, how?!), I was into it. But once they got back home and things shifted to their day-to-day lives, it started dragging. It just got a bit boring and repetitive.

I tried to connect with Melody, but it just didn’t happen. I did appreciate her growth and how she rebuilt her confidence after a toxic relationship, and I loved how she found herself on her own. Zac helps her out but never steals the spotlight, quietly supporting her while she finds her footing again.

Zac was likeable enough, but he didn’t exactly sweep me off my feet, either. Their romance had sweet moments, but it felt a bit forced at times, and I blame that on the pacing of the story more than anything else because they had chemistry.

I wasn’t sold on the reason for their 10-year silence; it felt pretty weak. But hey, at least it didn’t lead to a third-act breakup, so I’ll take the win where I can.

On the bright side, the supporting characters were a lot of fun, and I loved the found family vibes. Those moments were heart-warming, and I’m definitely curious to learn more about their stories. But overall? It was just okay. Not bad, not great, just... fine.

The tale of Melody and Zac was entertaining to me. One of my favorite clichés is second-chance romance. I had a great time reading this one! I was completely captivated by Zac and Melody's second-chance romance. I adored how Zac allowed Melody the room she needed to rediscover herself; it gave their relationship a genuine and significant sense. loved this one!

Although I've read and enjoyed plenty of romance books in the past, I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of the genre. Nonetheless, when I began reading Only in Your Dreams I was so excited for a light, fun, and saucy read! Unfortunately, as you could probably tell by my rating, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I had hoped to. It's not often that I don't manage to finish books, but I just had to throw in the towel at around the 50% mark with this one despite how hard I fought to continue reading Only in Your Dreams.

First of all, the most nerve-wracking part of reading this book for me was the excessive cursing. Mind you, I'm not at all a prude. I can stand to read some curse words. Because I was curious, I counted how many times some variant of "fuck" is used in this book: 396. That's an average of 9 "fucks" a chapter, including the prologue and epilogue. This is definitely something that should have been edited out and I can't stress enough how irritating it was to read the characters talk like they just discovered that curse words exist.

Next, the protagonist, Melody, was seriously unlikable and immature to me. I believe Melody is around twenty-eight years old, almost thirty. I'm eighteen, but I would never behave the way she did in this book, and she has (or should have) ten years of maturity and experience on me. That's an issue. Why is an almost thirty year old woman acting like the people I went to high school with, but somehow worse? And Zac, the love interest, was no better than her. He randomly tells Melody that he thinks of how she looks naked (this is before they're together, mind you), that she has sexy legs, and thinks about stealing her panties from her backpack while she isn't looking. If I were Melody, I would have been clutching my pepper spray for dear life whenever he was around. I don't think I'll ever understand how Melody wasn't absolutely terrified of Zac, especially since they were trapped in the middle of the woods with one another while he was behaving like this. In all honesty, I felt like I was reading a true crime novel in some sections because of the way that Zac was written.

Finally, some parts can get sort of preachy and dramatic, like when Melody talks about her ex. It seems like he was supposed to be this controlling, abusive character but, to be honest, none of the things he did seemed all that crazy to me so the scenes where all the characters are freaking out about how "evil" he is just made me roll my eyes. Compared to Zac's creepiness, the ex, at least to me, seemed like a walk in the park. Also, there are also brief mentions of "rich white men" and "the patriarchy" which I feel aren't at all relevant or necessary in a book like Only in Your Dreams. Personally, I don't read romance books to hear about class disparity and sex-based discrimination, nor do I think a lot of other people do, either.

To say the least, Only in Your Dreams left me feeling very agitated and confused. Again, I wish I could have enjoyed reading this one and I really did try to.