Finders Keepers
Thank you, Berkley Romance, for the gifted copy of Finders Keepers {partner}
 
Genre: Romance
Format: 🎧📖
Pub Date:  6.24.2025
Pages: 400
Star Rating: ☆☆☆

“Sometimes, not intending to hurt each other isn’t enough to keep it from happening anyways.”

I was hoping Finder’s Keepers would live up to the magic of Adler’s Happy Medium, but sadly, it didn’t grab me.

The romance between Nina and the MMC felt stuck in place, as if they were tangled in their doubts and fears instead of stepping into the future together. I’m not a fan of couples who can’t communicate, and this back-and-forth indecision from Nina kept pulling me out of the story.

The treasure hunt and the flashbacks to the past had potential, but ended up feeling flat and underdeveloped. I waited for a spark or a twist, but it never came. It all just felt so underwhelming and left me disappointed.

Read if you enjoy:
💛 Second chance romance
🏘️ Small town
🫶🏼 Slow burn
🔥 Minimal spice

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading Happy Medium by Sarah Adler! While Finder’s Keepers wasn’t for me, I’m still looking forward to reading whatever she writes next.

Finders Keepers is a cute romance novel by best-selling author Sarah Adler. Told through the viewpoint of the female lead Nina whose life as she's made it falls apart. Nina loses her boyfriend, apartment, & job all in a short period of time. Nina returns to her childhood home in Maryland for the summer & eventually learns the life she had was one she never really wanted in the first place. 60% of the story is in Nina's thoughts & anxieties as she re-evaluates her life.
There is also the romance component between Nina & her childhood neighbor/friend Quentin. A falling out when they were 15 years old caused a lengthy time to pass without any communication. Now they are both back home in Maryland, working together on a project they started as kids. The romance in this story is sweet, not much for spice, but plenty of funny one-liners, & great dynamics between the characters.
Thank you, #NetGalley & Berkley Publishing Group, for the ARC of the #FindersKeepers. I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book, with all thoughts and opinions being my own. If you enjoy a bit of history, some funny one-liners, & a sprinkling of passion, then you'll enjoy this cute story.

This was delightful. Writing? Fabulous. Characters? Funny, relatable, and cute. Plot? Loved it.

What’s a fun treasure hunt between old friends? It’s tense, humorous, and ends with fireworks (wink, wink). I truly just had a great time reading this book. At times I found the writing a little muddy to get through, lots of internal monologue but a quick skim here or there and bam, right back on track. It didn’t take away from the overall book experience for me personally.

A book similar in vibes would be Maggie Moves On by my all time favorite author Lucy Score. I found the writing to be very similar in terms of quick wit and humor mixed with tender romance. That book also had a similar ‘treasure’ element if I’m remembering correctly (lol, sorry if I’m wrong✌🏻).

If you’re looking for second chance, childhood friends to lovers, a sorta mysterious, twisty plot, and great writing read this book.

Incredibly charming slow burn of a romance, gave me all the feels and made me feel like I was reading about young adult characters from a book I loved all grown up

I'm so sad to say I didn't love this and this one wasn't for me. The premise of a treasure hunt they started as childhood friends and continued as adults/second chance sounded so cute and fun but it was missing something and I wasn't invested at all. I felt like the characters were still acting like they were in high school.. the lack of communication became so hard to read and their dialogue was so cringey most of the time. I enjoyed Sarah Adler's other books but this one was my least favorite sadly.

Thank you Berkley for the arc!

Nina is back home after losing her boyfriend, job, and life in Boston. She assumes it can’t get any worse, but when she arrives home to see Quentin Bell of all people she knows she’s hit rock bottom. After a 10+ year friendship and almost something else Quentin ghosted Nina. After all this time he wants to work together to finally find the treasure they had been searching for as kids, but Nina is hesitant. He broke her heart once, what’s stopping him from doing it again?

This was a bit slow for me. Sarah’s previous books pulled me right in but I struggled with Nina’s character. I think because I too have anxiety but it manifests very differently. It was just really hard to relate to her character. And the romance with Nina and Quentin really lacked sparks. If you like adventurous romances with a touch of spice you’ll enjoy this one!

Thanks Netgalley and Berkley romance for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

An incredibly sweet and hilarious second chance romance between two former childhood friends. Sarah Adler again masterfully weaves together two stories: the romance between Nina and Quentin and a quest to unravel Julius Fountain's history to find a hidden treasure. This book is perfect for anyone looking for a unique plot, plenty of laugh out loud moments and a slow burn romance with phenomenal banter.

Finders Keepers literally made me feel all the feels - I laughed, I got choked up, I giggled, I gasped… all of it! This book comes out in a little over a month and I need everyone to bump it to the top of their lists!!! Preorder it!! (I did months ago and cannot wait to get it to put it on my shelf). I promise you will love it as much as I did!

There’s three things certain in life: death, taxes, and me snorting, chortling, and wheezing in a Sarah Adler novel. There’s rom, there’s com, there’s twists and turns! This was so FUNNY (the French moon bit got me), the chemistry was delicious (someone come talk to me about the WINDOW SCENE) and I was so moved by Nina and her mom’s relationship. Sarah’s fans will NOT be disappointed, and fans of childhood friends to lovers will love this sparkling, fresh take. A sheer delight!

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review 🙂

4 ⭐️

Overall vibe: estranged childhood friends reconnect after 17+ years apart when both end up back in their parents houses, treasure hunting, finding your joy again, mostly closed door but one spicy scene
Could I put it down? I kept falling asleep until I hit 60% so kinda?
Would I recommend? Yes!

I really enjoy Sarah Adler’s books (she also wrote Mrs Nash’s Ashes 5 ⭐️) and was granted this early copy via @netgalley. It took me a bit to get pulled in but once I did, I flew through the second half. Would have loved another steamy scene (or 20!) but it’s a good reminder that we can use our imaginations 😏. The slow burn was burning and at one point I thought we would never really find what they were searching for but our gal Sarah wrapped it up perfectly 🥰

Comes out June 24th ish so mark those calendars!

I absolutely adored this book! I’m such a. Big fan of adventure romances and this really hit the spot! Nina was such a relatable main character who is having just the worst luck ever. Quentin is dreamy! Their romance and childhood friends to lovers story was adorable and perfect.

I liked this one a lot! I wish the treasure hunt had been a bit more involved (I love a series of riddles and clues) but I thought the relationship aspect was well done. Quentin and Nina were both characters I enjoyed spending time with and rooting for and they had great chemistry together.

Buckle up folks, this is going to be a longer ARC review. First, thank you @berkleypub for the E-Arc by @netgalley. This story follows Nina, who’s a 33 year old a bit down on her luck, what with losing her boyfriend, her job, and her apartment all in the same week. She moves in with her parents and lo and behold her childhood best friend Quentin has also moved back after ghosting / (or Goblining) her for the past 2 decades. With a tentative deal to find a treasure that ruined their friendship struck, will these two survive the miscommunications of old? Or will they rekindle something new and hot? 🥵. You’ll just have to read and find out. I literally squealed when the title of the book showed up in the book, and I loved seeing the reflection and growth of long dead characters show up in the interviews. Only thing that kept this from being 5 stars was the 3rd act breakup and the miscommunication. Perfect summer read. Smart, sexy and funny!

This was a fun romance with a bit of mystery thrown in. I did wish, at points, that the characters were a bit more straightforward with one another, but their explanation of feeling like teens back in their hometowns did work, I suppose. This was my first book by Adler and I'd check out more of her titles.

This was not my favorite of hers books, and I'm usually a fan. It felt a little cheesy and trying too hard. I wasn't connected to the world building, but I do like the premise.

3.75⭐️
This was such a sweet and funny read! I am usually not a fan of second chance romances but this one had me hooked! There was a lot of heartfelt moments between the characters that I found very realistic. They also had such great banter which made it that more enjoyable! I was drawn to the treasure hurt aspect of the book. I felt like it kept the book rolling and on a good pace.

I especially liked the anxiety representation. I found myself relating to the FMC, Nina, because I saw similarities between us. Always trying to be the best version of yourself for others and not really knowing who you truly are inside really hit close to home. I also enjoyed the historical aspect of the story! It was intriguing to see it woven into a romcom setting!

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC and the opportunity to read and review honestly 🫶🏻

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for the advance copy of this!

This book will be out on June 24th!

I am such a big fan of Sarah Adler and she was an auto buy/read ever since her first novel Mrs. Nash's Ashes which if you didn't know, I am obsessed with even still years later. She is back with her friends to lover romance as they work together to find a treasure that they started when they were in high school.

"Did you know that every single version of you..Is the perfect one? Because they're all just you. My Nina."

I just am such a fan of the way Sarah writes - between her characters, the location and just everything overall. She is so good at incorporating humor and pop culture without it being too much (I giggled at the Pierre Escargot reference). I love the dialogue between Nina and Quentin and their banter often made me smile. I think them having so much history being childhood friends played in part as to why their dialogue/banter was so fun to read. I often wish in romances that we had dual POV because I love to know what goes on in the male brain but in this case I felt like he gave hints to how he was feeling throughout the book towards Nina. I was internally screaming and even ran to Sarah's DMs to scream about the chapter where they go visit a high school peer's bar. "And you look...You look so fucking beautiful, Nina." SWOOOOOON! Nina grapples with how she feels about Quentin as a misunderstanding from their youth caused them to be estranged for 18 years. And by the end of the book, you can't help but feel for Quentin as he is just so madly in love with Nina.

I will admit I am not always the biggest fan of treasure hunting books as I always seem to be confused as to what is happening. But in this one I felt like I was easy to follow along and could picture things as they were happening. The treasure hunt was a big part of Nina and Quentin's relationship which we learn more about the whys of that. I thought it was a great way for them to bond and to get to spend more time together.

Nina, Nina, Nina. I felt so much of her in me especially with her brain and how she felt like she needed to be. I always find it so relatable when authors incorporate when their character feels like they are behind in life. It truly makes me feel as if I am not alone in feeling like that. One analogy that Sarah used in describing how Nina was feeling which I thought was very clever, "Sabrina has been not only my closet friend but also a helpful yardstick by which I can measure my progress toward the life I want." Now in a way that Nina and I are different, I do not my personal feelings/"failures" take over my life and consume me. Don't get me wrong Nina had a lot of things happen in a short amount of time that anyone in her position would spiral but as the reader I just wanted to shake her and say girl take a deep breath! Look at what's in front of you. She has such a growth from the beginning of the book to the end with her personal journey.

I just really loved this one! It had me smiling and I was pulled into the story from the start. If you love banter, friends to lovers with some treasure hunting - give this one a read!

I will say, I've spent much of today waffling between giving this book 4 stars or 5 stars. (I really wish GR allowed for half stars). This is a well written book and I loved almost all of it. But there's a part of me that saw the big reveal coming and still, when it actually landed, I was like *insert shocked Pikachu face*. And I really really wish that reveal had come just a bit earlier in the book to give it time to land, to resonate and reverberate and give Nina a bit more time to wrap her brain around it. Because it is a massive reveal and a big shock for her and I think from the moment of the reveal to the end of the book, it feels like time sped up a bit and I would have liked to have seen Nina grapple a bit more with the enormity of what Quentin reveals to her.

There are also some interstitials within the book that have to do with the treasure Nina and Quentin are hunting and the long-deceased millionaire who hid it. And some of the interstitials were initially a bit confusing and only really started making sense towards the end of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book but I do think the reveal and how it's done and Quentin's explanations will leave some readers feeling a bit miffed. They might feel like they were manipulated or betrayed by his actions. (I don't, but I'm saying I can see how some MIGHT feel that way).

I do have to say one other thing that I really loved about this book was the relationship between Nina and her mom. There's a passage in this book in which Nina is reflection on her mom's capacity for love and how it's the most limitless thing on the planet and will be felt long after she's gone. And reading this book and that passage on the lead up to Mother's Day weekend really moved me.

ARC from publisher, review is all mine.

Content Notes: FMC's dad had a workplace accident off page in the past, MMC's parents had an acrimonious divorce, MMC's fiancee cheated on him with his best friend, FMC has anxiety and depression.

Quentin Bell is Nina Hunnicutt’s former next door neighbor and childhood best friend who broke her teenage heart and then ghosted her. Now thirty-two Nina and Quentin find themselves back in their hometown and are once again neighbors. This time Nina is determined to a.) never let Quentin know how much his abandonment affected her and b.) keep Quentin at arm's length.

However, Nina is desperate to get her life back on track and she reluctantly agrees to resume the treasure hunt that ended their friendship seventeen years ago. While Quentin hopes to rekindle their friendship and their missed promise of something more, Nina is less than willing to revisit their past and open old wounds.

Nina and Quentin’s journey to Happily Ever After was full of ups and downs, laughs and tears, a bit frustrating at times and still completely worth the ride.

Nina was a professor about to move in with her long-term boyfriend. Now, she's single, unemployed, and living at home with her parents. Quentin, her childhood neighbor and long time crush, is also back in town and wants to resume a treasure hunt that ended their friendship almost 20 years ago.

As they resume their hunt, Nina and Quentin begin to rediscover all the things they once admired about one another.