A love letter to reading and bookstores — I could not put this book down.

Rival bookstore managers find themselves competing for the same promotion. Unbeknownst to Josie and Ryan, they’re also online friends in an anonymous online book forum. As they vie for the promotion, their online relationship grows and romance sparks.

Heartfelt and steamy, this is one of my favorite romances of the year. The chemistry between Josie and Ryan is undeniable, and their banter is so fun. The dual points of view are perfectly balanced, and the pacing is just right.

Read if you enjoy:
📘 opposites attract
💕 open door spice
📘books about books
💕 rivals to friends to lovers
📘 charming settings and details
💕 vulnerability and emotional depth

Karissa Vacker and Brandon Francis were great on audio. I especially enjoyed the duet style narration during the online epistolary sections of the book.

An enemies-to-lovers romance about two rival bookstore owners? Sign me up! This book is giving major You've Got Mail vibes! I had to sit down and watch it when I was done with the book!

I have to admit, at first, I had a hard time understanding why they were enemies besides them being set up to fight against each other by the landlord. Josie had some super strong negative feelings for Ryan, but it didn't feel like there was a purpose behind it. I liked that they got under each other's skin so well. And when the tides changed and they ended up helping each other towards the end, it was just so wonderful. I also enjoyed that the romance bookstore was Ryan's store, pushing some of those gender norms about men and reading romance.

I liked that we got both characters' perspectives, even sometimes from the same events. I also like how it passed on into the anonymous text convos they were having with each other without knowing. The mystery of wondering who would find out first and how they would break it was delectable.

The family drama was very interesting. Josie and her sister don't have a great relationship with her mother, and it was interesting to see it play out throughout the story. Meanwhile, Ryan's family is like the picture-perfect family you expect in movies, but he doesn't feel like he fits the mold of his family. Overall, there is a ton of plot and romance packed into this one!

Read if you like an enemies-to-lovers romance with a ton of representation (Dyslexia, physical disabilities, Jewish rep, and LGBTQIA+ rep). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book is out now!

First, I would like to extend a big thank you to Berkeley Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the advanced copy of this book.

Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites find themselves competing for the same promotion. When the owner decides to combine Josie’s store that focuses on serious literature and Ryan’s, a romance only bookshop, the two soon find that the competition may not be the only thing heating up.

This was a fun, sweet rom-com with so many great moments! I will say, I had a bit of a rough start trying to get used to the writing style. The author uses a lot of acronyms and shorthand’s and while I may have understood most due to having recent social media exposure, I feel that an author should write with the expectation that not all readers will know what they mean (examples: ARC, YA, fomo, loml, irl- to name some off the top of my head that were in the book)- but that is just my opinion. Aside from the acronyms, the writing style was fine, the book flowed nicely and I never found myself bored.

The characters were enjoyable- their backgrounds and struggles provided nice depth, adding a lot to their personalities and growth throughout the story. Josie and Ryan were both relatable, funny and characters you could root for. I will say that Ryan’s character was hard to visualize- don’t get me wrong, I liked him a lot- he was adorable and definitely my favorite. I’d say if ever there were a male character that very much felt written by women, it was Ryan- A sexy, tall, super sweet, romance novel obsessed man in touch with his emotions, who runs a romance only bookstore, who says things like “# SorryNotSorry” or “To quote Miss Taylor Swift”, hosts work events called Knotting & Knitting annnd “who has a TON of pillows on his bed? Let me meet this man and shake his hand.

Overall, this was such a cute, breath of fresh air and I had a lot of fun reading it!

Read if you like:
🔎 Enemies to Lovers
🔎 Slow Burn
🔎 All Things Bookish
🔎 You’ve Got Mail vibes
🔎 Dual POV

I loved this book so much. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. It’s fast paced, two POV’s, and centered around two bookstore owners who are competing to become the manager of their merging stores.

I thought both characters personalities were complex and well laid out. I feel in most romance books one character is “perfect” and the other is drastically flawed. Both Josie and Ryan have a past that impacts their everyday life and behaviors, which I found relatable.

I also enjoyed how this was a book about books. The characters being indie bookstore lovers, sharing how much reading means to them, and how it impacts them, was written in such a beautiful way that it made me pause and reflect on my own love for reading. I highly recommend this one, out on June 3rd!

Thank you NetGalley for the arc! This was a love store to indie shops, for bookish people and for people who have lost themselves in books to escape the reality of life when it’s hard. I loved every single page I read. I loved the growth between Josie and Ryan, the mother/daughter relationship and family dynamics representation. This books follows two booksellers throughout their journey of competing to falling in love. I love how it was enemies to friends to lovers. This book was perfection and would recommended to all my friends and book lovers.

Josie Ann Klein is 30 years old and manages Tabula Inscripta, a book store that sells serious literature and non-fiction. Her nemesis is Ryan James Lawson, who manages the romance book store, Happy Endings, two shops down. In between both shops is a coffee shop. Where Josie is serious and organized, Ryan is messy and a fly by the seat of his pants type. Two people couldn't be more opposite! When the three stores find out that they have a new owner, Xander Laing, their lives blow up. It seems Xander wants to knock down the dividing walls and make one big book store. Oh, and only one manager will stay. The manager who stays is the one who makes the most money during the summer. As Josie and Ryan both come up with ways to compete against the other, they both start to realize that the other isn't as bad as they thought they were. In fact, their feeling start to grow.

At the same time, both Josie and Ryan participate on a website called Bookfriends where people in the book industry can anonymously converse with each other. It turns out Josie aka BookshipGirl and Ryan aka RJReads have been having conversations together for a long time, not knowing who the person is that they are talking to. They can open up and be honest with the other person and over time they both start developing feelings for the other.

It will take some fun and humorous moments but eventually Josie and Ryan start to realize that their feelings are real and finally give into their desires. Now they just need find a way where both of them get to keep their jobs and they can have their happy ever after. In the end something surprising happens and they both find their happy ending!

I just adored this opposites attract love story. I loved how throughout the entire book the authors kept using all the different types of romance tropes that there are. I really enjoyed the way Josie and Ryan played off of each other. This story has fun characters, a great story line and a happy ending. What more could you want!

This book follows Ryan and Josie, their steamy rivalry, and their mysterious online friendship. Josie and Ryan are placed into this competition to see who should become the new manager whenever their stores merge. Josie and Ryan are complete opposites when it comes to the books that they enjoy and sell. If you love rom-coms, enemies to lovers, banter, and a swoon-worthy MMC, you will adore this book. It was a quick read, mainly because I could not put it down!

Ah, this one wasn't for me... I DNF'd this one pretty quickly at 15% because I had a strong feeling it was either going to put me into a slump or get a rating that was lower than it actually deserved. This was definitely a me thing. I didn't see anything that I think was objectively bad but there were choices the author made that I personally dislike.

One was modern, real life references. There were two author references in this first 15%. I only recall one but it was something about the guy saying he wouldn't want to read a long book unless it was a Lucy Score. Listen... I HATE real life references. It's a major ick for me. But that's obviously very personal.

There was also a lot of diversity thrown at us immediately. I know what you're thinking - wow, you think diversity is a bad thing? Definitely not. But when I am introduced to a cast of characters that is clearly MEANT to be diverse, I have now become aware that I am reading a book where the author sought out as many different character types as possible - as opposed to being introduced to characters naturally.

I guess what I am trying to say is that everyone felt like a caricature and none of the introductions to characters or plot unfolded naturally at all. We even got into a very meta vibe where the character started talking about disliking enemies to lovers - as we were reading a book clearly about rivals to lovers.

It was all just too much to me and I had to step away. I know this is all very subjective and I'm sure so many people will adore this book. I hope it gets into the hands of people who will love it. 3 stars because I have to rate it something and don't want to be too unfair.

This book was so much fun and I loved the twist on You've Got Mail. If a book has a bookstore, a romcom movie vibe and enemies to lovers, I am all in. Ryan is the sunshine here, he owns a romance bookstore and Josie is the grumpy one of the pair. She owns a bookstore that is more "high brow" as she thinks of it. When their landlord tells them that he is renovating and combining the bookstores and doesn't have room for two managers, they are pit against each other for the job.
Ryan has always been captivated by Josie, and Josie seemingly doesn't even know Ryan (Brian's) name. But as the two work closer together, she sees they aren't so different and she also is beginning to see the appeal of those romance books because maybe real life can resemble books.
I related to Josie on a really high level. I was so similar to her when I was younger and I felt for her deeply. I adored Ryan and how he brought out the fun in her. This book was adorable.
Thanks to Berkley, Netgalley and Ali Brady for an early copy.

Two neighboring bookshop owners are pitted against each other in an only-one-survives showdown. Meanwhile, the same two owners develop a growing friendship on an online booklovers forum.

This is 100% my favorite Ali Brady read so far. A modern day You've Got Mail (with a nod to the film with a quote that did in fact make me cry, 👏), this book was everything I hoped it would be. All of the romance tropes were rolled up into one heart-warming, funny, charming, spicy summer read. Josie and Ryan were enchanting (if you will) and their chemistry was something else. The small cast of supporting characters added just enough side story while keeping the focus on the important stuff. I highly recommend this book.

Rival bookstore owners, Josie and Ryan, must compete with each other to keep their job as the bookstore manager when their two stores are up for merger. Unbeknownst to them, they have been the best of friends online through an anonymous book seller forum. As they spend more time together unintentionally, they learn little facts about each other that lets the pieces fall into place. It was like watching two couples falling in love and double the amount of meaningful conversations. I loved the brewing tension and chemistry between the two of them so much. This was such a fun read and almost felt like an ode to readers and bookstores. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the gifted eARC. All opinions are my own.

5 ⭐️

I devoured this book in less than 24 hours because of how amazing it was! 🥹🩷

This book had everything perfectly wrapped up in the most beautiful story!!! 🩷 We have rivals to lovers, romance, all the bookish mentions, disability and mental health rep! 🩵

Let’s talk about my girl Josie real quick. This girl!!!!🩷🩷😭 I wanted to hug her SO bad!! My heart broke for her when she talked about the situation with her mom and sister and what her sister went through, and she was such a selfless character because of how much she took care of her sister making sure she was okay 😢😢🩷🩷 it reminded me SO much of my own sister 😭

Ryan was just literally the SWEETEST MMC!!! At the beginning you don’t see it but as the story develops I loved how you can just tell he slowly falls for Josie and when he does he falls HARD!!!!🩵🩵 Josie finally deserved someone who loved and took care of her the way he did and it made me so happy how much he did for her 🥹🥹🩵🩵

I also really enjoyed the bookstore settings, we saw the lit fic side of Josie and the romance side of Ryan and his coworkers were HILARIOUS 😂😂😂😂

Josie and Ryan were truly the CUTEST!!! They made me laugh and made me kick my feet with all their banter!!!🥹🩵

I can’t wait to read more from this author because this book completely sold me!!!!🥹🥹🩵🩵

Thank you Berkley Romance and PRH Audio for the ALC! 🩷🩷🩷🩷

This story was a little slow out of the gate. I didn’t love the book space name dropping that much and the characters were a little slow to develop. I thought that we were in for a very long drawn out miscommunication trope but by the end I was seriously misty eyed with the strength and growth in both characters. Their willingness to talk out their fears and desires and not just let emotion take over!

This is a cute story for book lovers, I mean who doesn’t want to fall in love with their rival bookstore owner!

Solid 4 star read!

This book was EVERYTHING TO ME 😭 Was the MMC totally unrealistic? Absolutely but I dont even care 🙂‍↔️

Two book stores and only one will remain. The managers, Josie and Ryan, are forced to compete and draw in the most sales. Whoever succeeds gets to be the manager of the book store.

The banter is fantastic, this is truly a rivals to friends to lovers book, and Ryan, the MMC, was the sweetest man ever. He's a romance book lover through and through and he's the real life book boyfriend we would all want 🥹 The relationship progression was so raw, real and mature. I love a book with some emotional depth. It was a bit of a slow burn which I loved and the epilogue at the end made me SWOON. Ryan's big declaration had me giggling and kicking my feet. His love language is acts of service and romantic gestures and wheww🤭

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here aer my own.
I will admit, I didn't even read the blurb for this one. I saw it was Ali Brady and I requested it. I loved their book Until Next Summer, so I was convinced this one would win me over just as much. Then I read the blurb and all I could think was a book about bookstores? What book lover wouldn't love that story?
Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson are rival bookstore owners pitted against each other by their mutual boss. Both are determined to make their store the winner and keep their jobs. As their rivalry fires up, they both turn to their online book friends for advice. But when Ryan finds out Josie is really his online friend, he's determined to move them in the direction of real life friends, even if it means giving up the one thing that has gotten him through the toughest times in his life.
Josie was a fun character with so much emotion. She is a giver and someone who takes care of those around her. She gives a lot of herself. So much so, she is missing out on giving things to herself. I truly enjoyed her relationships with books. It was very relatable for me. I would have liked to see her grow just a bit more. Her trust issues don't resolve for me.
I think Ryan was probably my favorite character in this book, besides the cats in the bookstore! I love that he has a found family. People who surround him and lift him up and show him his true potential. I also love his connection with books. How they helped him throughout his teens years and into his adult years. I will say it was hard for me to actually picture him. His a giant of a man with Clark Kent looks, but it just didn't click with me. My only issue with him was his knowledge of who Josie is, his online friend, and how he uses that to find out more information about her. It felt unethical and secretive. Knowing Josie's trust issues, I can't believe the guy who is falling for her would do this.
This writing in this book was very different from other Brady books I've read. I have to admit it didn't pull me in as much. I found it difficult to completely connect with the characters because of this.
The story gives a bit of You've Got Mail vibes with is online relationships where people are connecting through their love of books. I really liked this idea. It took You've Got Mail into this century. With all the online forums we have now (Discord, Reddit, etc), it was great to see this woven into a story line.
I will admit, I went into this story with very high expectations having loved Brady's other works. Unfortunately, it didn't meet them as much as I would have liked. Was it cute? Sure! Did the author make it fun to read? Yes! Did I want to put it aside? Nope. As a matter of fact, I read it rather quickly. I just didn't think the writing had the same quality as the other stories I've read. This one read almost like a YA book. The characters did not strike me as what age they were supposed to be. This is what kept me from truly loving the story. I was looking for an adult romance but I didn't get that.
The story is fun with good banter, some fun side characters, and some cute romance. I'll definitely be keeping Brady on my list of go to authors and hope future books are just a bit better than this one.

Such a delightful, funny, bookish romance, with just a hint of spice! I really enjoyed getting to know the two bookstore managers, Ryan (or Brian) and Josie, who each have their own style and reason for loving what they do, but share a fierce passion for connecting readers to books. The way Ali Brady develops their relationship kept me reading long after my bedtime, wondering what was going to happen next. The side characters were also very real personalities and the dynamics between everyone made the story come alive. This book is a great, lighthearted read for anyone who loves books and feels connected to the stories and impact that reading can have on all of us!
Thank you to NetGalley and the Berkley Publishing Group for an early galley copy of this book!

I’m such a sucker for books about books, and this one completely delivered! 📖

Overall, I really enjoyed it. I loved Josie and Ryan! They had great chemistry, and I was rooting for them the whole way through. Their banter was fun, and I loved how their connection grew over something as nerdy as rival bookstores. 🥰📚

Lately, I’ve been drawn to stories that feel light and fun on the surface but have a little more going on underneath, and this definitely had that vibe. It touches on family expectations and finding your own path, all while keeping that feel-good rom-com energy. ❤️

If you love New York settings, bookish rom-coms, and stories with a bit of heart, definitely add this one to your TBR! ✨

You've Got Mail x indie bookstore vibes. This book checks ALL the boxes: enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, forced proximity, one-bed. The bookstore setting is pure catnip for readers.

Josie (literature snob with trust issues) and Ryan (romance-loving optimist) are competing for the same job when their bookstores merge.
Plot twist: they're also anonymous online book buddies. The tension? Off the charts!
Josie's got good reasons for her walls—mom who bounced for Mr. Wrong, leaving her to care for her sister after an accident. Loved how her secular Jewish identity was woven in naturally with Shabbat dinners and Yiddish expressions without being heavy-handed.
Ryan's family basically expects him to find his soulmate on the first try. No pressure or anything!

Honestly couldn't put it down!

Thank you to Berkley's Underrepresented Readers program for an eARC!

I really enjoyed this book, I think that book lovers will really enjoy reading this story. It had a ton of book related commentary and I liked both of the main characters. I think it was interesting how both characters mention several books that are trending right now within the plot.

I also love that this book takes place in Boston! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes romance and reading. I knew when I read the description of this book that I would want to read it. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I intend to read more.


Thank you to Berkeley Publishers for the ARC via Netgalley.

Playful, fun, and full of banter! A competition arises between two completely opposite bookstore managers who fight for the chance to keep their job after threat of merging their stores become a reality. Josie, an orderly eldest daughter who reads strictly literary fiction sees the manager at Happy Endings as a means to an end. Ryan, lover of romance books and helping others find their happy ending feeds the feud between him and Josie. The only solace is his anonymous friend in an online book forum, who happens to be Josie. The rivalry continues, sparks fly, connections deepen, and identities are revealed.

I really enjoyed this one! I loved the initial rivalry and watching them slowly connect and realize that they aren’t the real enemies. I love how realistic and genuine the romance and story felt between Ryan and Josie. This story weaves in dyslexia, disability, and Jewish identity in a way that brings representation to the heart of the story.

If you like a rivals to lovers, banter off the charts, secret identities, and stories about your favourite books, add this one to your tbr! Thank you Berkley for the arc in exchange for an honest review <3