*+:｡.｡“𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓷𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝓯𝓪𝓼𝓽.”｡.｡:+*

𝑀𝑒ℎ , 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘥. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝐴𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑒𝑙 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑔ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘴𝘰 𝘐'𝘮 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘴. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 "𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘" 𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒 😂

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

𝐷𝑎𝑛 (𝑀𝐿): I feel indifferent about him TBH I didn't connect with his character at all

𝐽𝑎𝑛𝑒 (𝐹𝐿): she's a girl's girl. She has kinda low self-esteem, but she's acting confident. She went a 180 change from not believing in love to falling in love in one week.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕮𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖗 𝕸𝖔𝖉𝖎𝖋𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕡 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣: 𝟚𝟞, 𝟛𝟞

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖘˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆
🌸 𝙴𝚗𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜
🌸 𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎
🌸 𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕱𝖆𝖛 𝕼𝖚𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖘˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

"I know about relaxing because I live in the world, but it is not a thing I seem capable of."


“Sometimes the simplest facts are the most painful ones. They’re the ones that cut to the essence of who we are.”


“Sometimes love is totally illogical.”


But Dan is a once-in-a-lifetime person and I am having once-in-a-lifetime feelings.


“And I love that you follow your heart around looking for beautiful things. I love that you’re quiet, because when you do say something, it’s perfect. I love that you want to make things that matter. I love that you know how much you matter.”


⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝕻𝖗𝖊-𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆


I'm in my lucky book era I think
I got approved for The eARC 🥹 Thank you so much Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam 🫶🏻

Ohhhh my gosh, love love love! I have read all of Annabel’s novels, and this is hands down the best one yet. The romance of it all, I have serious heart eyes.

Read if you love:
*** Instant chemistry
*** The great big family dynamic
*** The “life-changing” first kiss
*** The hunky MMC that says all the right things

The family dynamic in this novel was great. I tend to get lost when novels concentrate a lot on side stories of family that feels like it’s taking away from the romance. This was not that novel. The family completely complimented the storyline. I loved seeing Jane mixing with Dan’s family.

Perfect romance! Needed this read!

Run to grab a copy of this for yourself when it hits bookstores in May - can’t wait for my own copy to arrive!

Thank you to Netgalley and Putnam Books for the ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

I have so far loved everything Annabel Monaghan has written, and this is no different. The book takes a few chapters to find it's footing, but by the time our leads make their way to Long Island, it has kicked into gear. On the surface, the story is about a creative executive and a cinematographer trying to get a pop star to agree to write an original song for a film they are desperate to get made. But it's really about two people learning to love themselves, and each other, and especially about our female lead trying to discover who she really is when she's not trying to be someone else.

There's miscommunication (ish) which I don't always love, but the way it played out here felt authentic and organic and it broke my heart in the right way. The ending was sweet and not over the top, which is funny considering how it plays out but also worked so well for these characters.

I love spending my summer nights reading the new Annabel Monaghan release each year, and this is another great one!

4.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an early copy of this book! Below is my honest review.

Summary of the plot:
Jane Jackson needs to get her film project approved, but Dan Finnegan, a cinematographer, is pulled into the meeting to analyze her script and basically calls it boring. So she claims that she knows a famous singer, Jack Quinlan, and can get him to write a song for the film. Jane knows Jack from decades ago when she was a child film star and co-acted with Jack on a show. But it's been years since she has talked to Jack, so she knows the chances of him getting to write her a song is very slim. Dan proposes an idea: there's a festival near his hometown where Jack will be playing. Go to it, try to walk around and find Jack, confront him them. Jane, seeing no other better choice, goes with Dan to his hometown and meets his family, and romance starts to build.

Thoughts on the plot:
My number one thing about romance is when the characters build connections with each other, not just sex and kissing and making out. Jane and Dan did a lot of activities together, and I loved seeing Jane come out of her comfort zone when meeting his very chaotic, loud family. You as the reader spend a lot of time seeing how Jane and Dan fall in love with each other, and it's amazing because the romance makes sense. It's a much deeper connection than "hey I think you're cute, let's become a couple now".

My few minor issues with the book were:
1) not having enough context related to film and cinematography. Considering that this is their livelihoods, I thought we'd get a little more in that field. Super minor, so not a big deal.
2) I actually thought that Jack was going to be the love interest for a hot second. Or that there would be a love triangle of sorts. Maybe I was the only one confused, but that was something that caught me off guard a little bit.
3) I didn't like how Jane exploded on Jack during the third act break up scene (sorry, a bit of a spoiler). It seemed very unlike her character. And I couldn't quite understand why she acted the way she did. I sort of understood it, but it was a little lost on me.

Overall, I thought this was an awesome book! Would recommend it to people.