Thank you to NetGalley for this E-ARC.

This book is amazing. It’s so stinking cute. Were there a few times where it was a little too lovey for me? Yeah but it was okay because the spice made up for it. The spice was nice. I really enjoyed it.

Melody and Zac have known each other since they were kids. Melody always had a crush on Zac. Who happened to be best friends with her twin brother. She never thought he would feel the same way. So she decided to move to the city.
10 years later and she has to move home to live with her brother. Her boyfriend broke up with her and she has nowhere to go. She’s sad, lonely, broke, and hates her job.

She hasn’t seen Zac in 10 years. What will their reunion look like? Read and find out.

*I read this as an ARC but was not compensated for this review*
WOW! Ellie Wilde leaves lasting impression on her first title.
I was so impressed by every part of this development. I’ll admit I’ve been in a rut of maybe 3-4 books being DNF by me. But this title came out swinging. I was honored and delighted by this from beginning to end. I felt a full range of emotions, and often felt like I saw a part of myself in multiple characters. It took me back to high school with such sweet and pure lust, but also reminded me of a tempered balance of love as I know it at 30. Character development was well thought. I didn’t feel like the characters had “insta-love” or anything patronizing of the genre. I will be buying this title hardcover for my grandmother, as I do with only my favorite love stories. I’m excited to see what her feedback will be because I am sure she will love it.

Do not be thrown off by the cliche tropes, the unoriginal “sportsball” theme, or the unfamiliar authors name. As an elder millennial I am unenthusiastic but still constantly searching for a mentally addictive love story. This has lived rent free in my mind during the few days I have spent writing this review. The truth is- I have looked over it a few times now just wishing I could put words together that adequately explain how enjoyable this story was.. I’ll let Ellie Wilde do the rest of the convincing.

I read the first 30% of this book and I just couldn’t get myself to finish.. I think if you haven’t read a sports romance before you might like this but it just wasn’t for me.
I am still looking for an actual enemies to lovers in a contemporary romance because this wasn’t it.
Also… how is it second chance if they were only friends before?

I won’t be leaving a review anywhere until a couple of weeks after release day since this a indie author and I genuinely think some people might like this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC ♥️

I had a pretty good time with this book. It is a second chance romance/brother’s best friend romance. The main characters pine over each other for over a decade. The FMC is straight out of a 6 year long relationship with an absolute garbage human that controlled her every move.

I enjoyed the chemistry between the characters. There was also an enjoyable football plot behind the romance. My main complaint is through the book the MMC calls the FMC a brat over and over again. Even when it is said jokingly, I just can’t get behind it.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars.
Second chance, brother's best friend, and grumpy x sunshine. The fun part about the grumpy x sunshine is that back in the day she was the broody one and he was the All American charmer. But 10 years later life has flipped them around, he’s the town grump due to his flagging career (and secretly pining love life..) and she is playing fake nice to everyone as a result of a defense mechanism with her awful ex. So they both help each other find their HEAs, spicy & sweet.

I loved that this was over a chunk of time and locations we really got to see the redevelop of their relationship and the slow reveals of the level of his pining. He absolutely groveled enough to make up for it. Thank you to Atria for the eARC.

🏈⋆⭒˚｡⋆ “𝓜𝓪𝔂𝓫𝓮 𝔀𝓮 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓷’𝓽 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓷. 𝓜𝓪𝔂𝓫𝓮 𝔀𝓮 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓹𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓪𝓲𝓽 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓮 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓭𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓵𝓸𝓽, 𝓽𝓸 𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓸𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻.” 🏈⋆⭒˚｡⋆

Tropes:
🏈 Second Chance Romance
🏈 Childhood Friends to Lovers
🏈 Brother’s Best Friend
🏈 Black Cat x Golden Retriever

What I Liked:
🏈 Zac. This man was perfect. He was so dedicated, so sweet, but he never made Mel feel like she had to do anything for his benefit.
🏈 I also really liked Mel! It was great seeing her get her groove back after Connor
🏈 The side cast. I feel like it’s well set up for the series I believe is planned, and I reaaally hope Parker and Summer are going to be love interests. I need it like I need air
🏈 The spice. While it was spicy when those scenes started, I never felt like it was misplaced and I was connected enough to the romance to feel like it was warranted. They had a lot of time to make up for!

What I Didn’t Like:
🏈 I feel like Mel was a bit mis-characterized. She’s described as being grumpy, but she’s…not? Maybe as a teenager, but as an adult not really. At worst, she has black cat energy.

Final Thoughts:
🏈 This was SO cute. I loved it. The romance was believable, the writing was excellent and I love how the book wrapped up. I also loved that, because this is going to be a series, the epilogue wasn’t set like years in the future. I can’t wait to read more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the advanced copy and the opportunity to review it early!

Only In Your Dreams by Ellie K. Wilde is second chance rom-com with a (tolerable) amount of football. I'm not really a sports fan, so I've always been hesitant to read these types of books, but I do not regret my decision. If you are a sports fan, you'll love it. If you aren't, you'll still love it! So, if you're on the fence about reading sporty rom-coms, here's your chance. It has just the right amount of sports, sexual tension, and humor.

I'm not going to give you a synopsis because you should just read it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Ellie K. Wilde for opening my horizon to a new genre.

After moving back to the town she grew up in hot on the heels of a breakup, Melody is immediately thrust into what could be arguably the most awkward situation she’s experienced in a while—a camping trip with her twin brother’s best friend (and teenage crush) Zac. Ten years earlier, Zac messed up his opportunity to tell Melody how he truly felt about her. Melody is dead set on avoiding him rather than rehashing what happened 10 years prior (seriously, 10 years—has no one heard of a phone?!). Now that she’s finally back, can Zac make up for the mistake he made and show her how he truly feels?

Only in Your Dreams was the perfect balance of sweet and spice. I loved the depth of the characters and the strong side characters—I need to know their stories too!!!

A huge thank you to Atria books & NetGalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review! [publish date: January 21, 2025]

This was a cute small town second chance romance! I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. At the beginning I was put off by the camping trip because I didn’t find it realistic. I also don’t really think if you hate someone so much you don’t mess around with them after spending one day together. I think at the beginning it was trying too hard to be an enemies to lovers trope. After that, I began to enjoy it! I loved Melody starting to figure out what she wants out of life. It was great to see her go after her dreams after dealing with her emotionally abusive ex. I also enjoyed understanding more about Zac and what caused their situation in the first place. He was very supportive of Meoldy which she deserved after everything she went through!

Overall, I enjoyed this! It was kind of confusing in some places and I felt myself feel lost. However, the story was super cute!

If you enjoy a spicy, sports romance with lots of tropes- this is probably the book for you!

Brothers best friend
Forced proximity
Second Chance (ish?)


Melody is back home after a breakup with an abusive ex. The story starts with her twin con on ing her to take his spot on a camping trip with some friends- the problem is his best friend Parker will be there, someone who broke her heart ten years ago.

The camping scenes were funny and was a good start but how did their friends just forget about them in the woods and then not notice they were missing for days? I get the setup but my brain couldn’t get there logically lol

I felt this book was a bit long and yet I wanted more from the characters. More depth, more plot. I really didn’t feel like anything was actually happening and found myself skimming quite a bit.

Melody’s ex was awful but honestly her twin was icky too!

This wasn’t for me but I could see it being very popular on booktok, booksta etc because it is spicy and it’s just a fun, easy read. Even better? No third act breakup!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Atria and the author for this ARC

2.5 rounded up to 3
Only in Your Dreams was fairly lighthearted but felt messy. There was certainly a lot of spice despite minimal chemistry. I did like when Zac became uber-protective of Mel, otherwise their relationship kinda just fell flat for me. The book had a lot of potential, but unfortunate it fell short IMO.

Zac and Parker were childhood best friends, and along with Parker’s twin sister, Melody, they made up the childhood trio. Zac knows that it’s wrong, but he can’t stop himself from being in love with his best friend’s sister. Melody has always had the biggest crush on Zac, although she never acted upon it as he has never shown her that he was interested. Right before Melody went off to college, she decided to act upon it, but Zac fumbled the interaction. Ten years later, she finally returns to her small hometown of Oakwood Bay and runs into him. Oh, did I mention? Parker’s pushing Melody to go camping with Zac.

I am such a sucker for the brother’s best friend trope 🤤 The forced proximity after years apart, in the beginning, made me giggle and kick my feet. Although I love slow burns, I feel like this story progressed slower than I anticipated. It made sense because of how the fmc wanted to get ahold of her life and future, and I love the build-up of this. But at the same time, I’m itching for the mcs to get together. I just love how in love Zac was with Melody. He’s so patient and loving with her like he keeps waiting for her although he knows what he wants. I would DEFINITELY recommend anyone to read this to fall in love with Zac and Melody’s love story.
I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cute and sweet!

10 years old built up tension - sometimes you felt it but also sometimes it felt like no time had passed between these two characters! They played off each other so much, Melody’s snark and sass was balanced with Zac’s thoughtfulness and caring nature. Zac and Melody are def the type of characters that need time to grow and let things happen without outside opinion and it was hilarious the lengths they went to keep things secret.

I was a bit frustrated with both of them at times because I wish they could’ve been more mature and had a deep conversation about things than dragging it out (but then we’d be left with no book so I get it lol). But no one frustrated me more than Parker iykyk

I found the reason for what happened 10 years ago to be predictable (and weird tbh) and was waiting for the reveal so bad! But thankfully they were finally mature adults and talked things out!!

Thank you to Atria Books for the ARC!

Absolutely loved this book!

This was a ton of my favorite tropes all put into one perfectly cheesy romcom with an adorable happily ever after.

I loved the authors use of multiple settings and how they gave us some glimpses into the characters pasts without fully time hopping in between chapters.

Overall a strong 4/5 stars and I’ll highly recommend this to my friends and followers!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC! 🤍

I really loved the prologue, but that was about it.

The camping trip was ruined by a storm, and somehow, they were left behind for multiple days without anyone noticing? I was so relieved the camping/woods portion didn’t last more than 30% of the book—though, honestly, that was still way too long. This could’ve been a great opportunity to build proper tension and a slow burn, but it completely missed the mark for me. Especially after the bizarre dry humping in the mud…what was that?

The second-chance trope didn’t even feel accurate. They were never actually together, just best friends with unspoken feelings. Then, they suddenly hooked up in the woods without much tension or buildup. Afterward, they kept sleeping together, supposedly because of the camping situation and a wild animal near the campsite.

By 68%, the story had been dragging for over 35%. It turned into boring day-to-day moments with some football thrown in. Despite the steady progress of time, the flow of the relationship felt off. One moment, it was a hard “no,” not even a kiss, and the next, they were noisily 69ing in her bedroom, shocked that her brother heard them? Then Zac got upset over the fake dating situation like it wasn’t 100% his idea in the first place—leading to a really manipulative bathroom scene.

Oh, and it had only been “just over a month” since they’d reunited!

The pacing was messy, nothing felt cohesive, and the story didn’t make much sense.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶🌶

Love this book!

Ellie's storying telling and writing were wonderful. Her spice is pretty spot on as well.

Zac Porter is currently the number one book boyfriend for me. The way he loved Mel for so many years and built his life around one that she wanted in hopes that she would come back to him was incredible.

This is out on January 21 2025. Make sure you grab it!

Thank you to netgalley, Ellie K Wilde, and Atria books for this ARC

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f contemporary romance
-second chance at love
-mutual crush
-sneaking around
-brother's best friend
-pining
-small town
-just a hookup
=it's always been you
-starts with a bang

This book I just couldn't put down. Two former best friends, a messy estrangement, and life after a toxic/abusive relationship. I adored how soft and gone Zac was for Melody, contrasting with her prior relationship. About picking yourself up, and fighting for the love you deserve, all while sneaking around as these two try to figure out what they're doing. Messy in the best way and steamy I can't wait to read more from this author.

I really don’t even know how to put into words all of the thoughts I’m having…I’ll summarize by saying I’m giving myself permission to DNF at 50% for the rest of 2025 after reading this. 😬😞 I’m usually able to suspend reality for romance books, but not this one.

This book is spicy… 3 or 4 🌶️. The book is long, too long. I really just want the FMC to go to therapy, along with the MMC. I also want the entire friend group (that includes the FMC’s twin brother) to GROW UP and have some adult conversations about the things they see happening or *think* they see happening. I have been trying to figure out what triggered me in this book to not be able to enjoy it. The FMC is just starting to grasp and truly understand how she was emotionally abused and manipulated/controlled by a narcissist for SIX YEARS. What does the MMC do after hearing what she went through? Green lights having a fling in the mud 3 days after they are flung back into each other’s lives after 10 years (by her twin brother no less! talk about manipulation). THERAPY is needed, not dry humping in the woods. Rant over.

I struggled to connect with this story and didn’t finish the book. Thank you for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this small town, second chance romance and all the feel good feelings that came with it!! I loved how perfectly Zac & Melody meshed together; the bather, snark and chemistry had me kicking my feet. Some parts of the story were slower paced which made it difficulty to stay engaged and the reason they spent a decade apart? not my favorite. but overall was a great, cozy small town second chance romance that is for the girlies who need the comfort of two people coming back together.