What a beautiful story Dumond tells in Bed and Breakup! Molly and Robin's journey is fun, but not easy. It's not often we get a romance with older adults, and this second-chance love story is a complete and heartwarming journey through healing and letting oneself forgive and be happy. I could not stop rooting for them from the first page, and didn't put the book down until I knew everyone was okay. I'll be recommending this to everyone.

This book was a cute lovers to enemies to lovers. I loved all the side characters and the themes of found family. It had arguing, loathing, friendship, longing, self discovery and romance.

Bed and Breakup let me channel all of my b and b dreams! I now want to go to Eureka and see this magical place for myself! I loved seeing both characters grow and their different arts shine through!

I liked the characters but the story at times seemed superficial. I wanted them to be a little spicier, a little less stereotypical, and a little more real. In the end I was happy for them but not fully invested in the story.

Some people break up and move on and some just breakup. Molly and Robin went their separate ways when it became obvious that their goals were not comparable. However, instead of selling the Bed and Breakfast that they created together, they left it in the hands of others and came back to a mess. Both return to lick their wounds from disappointment and are surprised to encounter each other. You can see where this is going, but Susie Dumond takes the reader on a wonderful ride to reunion. Susie Dumond is a must read for me!

Okay so Molly and Robin are married, they used to run a bed and breakfast but 7 years ago Robin up and left to become a celebrity chef, didn’t consult her wife Molly, its implied that she cheated on her? Sort of unclear unless I missed that.

But now they find themselves back in their still joint owned bed and breakfast that was being poorly run by a management company, Molly in my opinion is too forgiving of Robin but it’s a rom com so it’s fine, and it seems like the whole trying to drive the other person crazy so they’ll just leave doesn’t last long enough before they’re falling for each other again.

Also? They never divorced.

Overall this is a really sweet second chance romance, about separating and coming back together, the characters having grown up and learned more about who they are and what they want to do with their lives, and falling in love again.

Thank you @netgalley and @thedialpress for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press Trade Publishing.

4.5 rounded down! I typically don't love second-chance, but I ate up this FF romance with a Bed and Breakfast setting in a small town that has become known as a safe place for queer tourists. I loved the way Molly and Robin came back together. I appreciated the lack of a third-act breakup/ conflict.

This was fine for me but not great. Loved the characters in town and the bits about Eureka. The Molly and Robin relationship just didn’t work for me. Both very messy and a seemingly bad match. Felt like a very bad idea to throw them back together. Even their friends seemed to agree. The ending felt unsatisfying after the buildup.

🐈🛠️🍳🛏️🌻🧰🫐

Date idea: renovating an 8 bedroom bed and breakfast while working through the issues leading to a 7-year separation from your wife 😍

The small town vibe in this book was super cute and I loved the whole community of queer artists/chefs/business owners. I enjoyed reading about Robin’s cooking (even though it made me hungry) and Molly’s glass-blowing (which I now want to learn how to do); everyone was so passionate about their creations which was fun. And I was soooo relieved when they decided to get rid of the millennial gray (my worst enemy fr) and restore their inn back into the original colorful oasis it once was (also loved the details of the flower-themed rooms!!)

I do have some qualms with the romance. I was disappointed that we never got deeper into their first breakup, I would’ve liked to know more about what happened that led to them not speaking for several years. I didn’t like how they seemed to gloss over their issues rather than working through them, and a lot of their actions felt juvenile despite them being in their mid-thirties.

Overall I’m glad they got their second chance romance, but I’m even more glad they restored the inn back to its vibrant, floral glory!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!!! 🫶🏼

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The story kept me engaged from start to finish and had some moments that really stood out. Overall, it offered an entertaining reading experience.

Such a nice change of pace to read a second-chance romance about a married couple. Robin and Molly were young when they met and bought a historic inn that they lovingly restored. Years later they both find themselves back on Eureka Springs, Arkansas at the Hummingbird inn. Robin, Molly, and the Inn are all in desperate need of a little restoration to their previous glory.

As much as this book is a love letter to second chances it’s also a love letter to liberal southern towns with big personalities. This one was a joy to read.

Silly, fun, and lighthearted. Did it change my life? No. Did I have.a blast? Yes. Lovers to exes to ? is one of my favorite tropes, and while I've seen reviews complain about the "trope-y-ness" of this book, I'll never turn down a fun sapphic romance. Immensely fun.

Robin and Molly were the type of couple who were great in their twenties, but weren't meant to last. This second-chance romance really should have just been a first-chance romance and the characters should have moved on. I really wanted to like this one, but if these two were a high school report cart they would have failed chemistry and passed history with flying colors. These two had no tension or pining or anything like that. Every single time they were having a fight or would get annoying by one another one of them would be reminded about something from the good days and it would take them out of the fight and make them ignore what their actual problems were. There was no groveling, no apologies that didn't hinge on the other party also apologizing, there were just two women who seemed like they were having a bit of a mid-thirties crisis. Obviously the only way to solve it was to jump back into a relationship with their estranged spouse.

Robin was the villain of this story. I know that they both kept insisting that "they were both in the wrong" but did Molly leave Robin to run off to greener pastures with the woman she had a flirtationship on national television with? Of course not! (& how are we just accepting that Robin had a long term relationship with this other woman and went into business with her? How are we all moving past that? I'm not.) Not to mention that when Molly got to the inn Robin automatically assumed that she was some "starving artist type" and was low-key belittling her accomplishments. I genuinely cannot stand that Molly decided to take her back.

Bed and Breakup had the potential to be great, but it fell short of my expectations. The setting and side characters were great, which is the only reason this is being rated as highly as it is. The romance felt so unrealistic and I can't see it lasting long term. I felt that the reasons they ended things in the first place were still issues that needed to be solved.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the copy of this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a fun read, and I enjoyed that it didn't take itself too seriously. I do wish that it had been less trope-focused and that there was something that felt more unique in this story so that it could stand apart from a lot of the other sapphic romances that I've read recently.

I really enjoyed this book lovers to exes and what comes next. This author has written several books that I have enjoyed. Always an engaging, fun plot and pace.

This one wound up being a pretty midline read for me. It’s inoffensive in many ways but also personal biases got in the way of me enjoying it entirely, which is not the book’s fault.

The setting is by far the strongest and most enjoyable part of this book. I’m a sucker for a community in a story and this novel has a good one. The author’s end note about the town was great and there’s a lot of love conveyed for Eureka Springs. The author also does a good job at showing multiple facets of both MC’s, which helps the reader not hate either of them.

I do think there’s a lot of “show don’t tell” that this book could have benefitted from. Excessive details followed by time jumps make the pacing feel off, and I frequently had the thought, “People don’t talk like that,” while reading. It comes across Hallmark-y, which is not always a bad thing. But it hampered this from being a 4 star read for me. The ending also felt pretty rushed and I didn’t find the tiny fire to be a big enough catalyst to warrant it.

One big outstanding question I’m left with is if Robin actually cheated? It seemed like Molly thought she did but Robin’s POV never said so directly. I could have used a clear conversation outlining what actually happened.

Thank you Dial Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really did not enjoy this book, it wasn’t for me. I didn’t feel enough chemistry between them to buy their romance. I enjoy second chance romances, but I just didn’t feel their connection at all. Kind of a weird vibe between them.

I adored these two together! Even as bitter exes, I really liked the chemistry that brewed beneath the surface. Their pranks cracked me up (even if it is a low blow to use someone’s worst fear against them 😅). Lovers of second chance romances (especially those set in a small town with a sweet side of found family) need to check this one out asap!

I’m not generally a fan of second-chance romances and this kind of solidified it (I was offered this book and thought the blurb was good so I took a risk). While I understand the reasons for the original breakup (young love, conflicting future wants), the lack of communication drove me up a wall. However, the characters do work on it consistently and (bonus) no third act break up! I liked the main characters, but at times they felt too similar to each other, and I had to double check which POV I was in. The side characters definitely kept the book going in the first part, bringing more life to the small town. It definitely got better towards the end, once they got out of their “I want to make you miserable so you leave” phase. I really liked the descriptions of the art and food, they were beautiful and left me wanting more. While I likely wouldn’t read this again, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys second-chance romances, particularly of the sapphic, small-town variety.

This felt like it went in circles in a bad way. I didn't like them, I was bored and I wanted it to end since the first page.