Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC!

I really wanted to like this book, and the meet cute was amazing! But the book quickly went downhill from there for me. I did love the bookstore and the range of representation (both gender and sexuality). But Kat was so annoying - I'm sure she would have become more likeable by the end, but I gave up at the 40% mark.
I would have appreciated having the trigger warnings in the blurb or mentioned on NetGalley, because I wouldn't have asked for this one - disordered eating is not for me.

Kat, a famous former child star, is desperate to revive her career as a serious actress. Part of that revival is introducing her queerness to the public. When she meets Jude, a reserved butch bookseller running a queer feminist bookstore, Kat and her manager hatch a plan: a fake relationship to spark media buzz and help her come out publicly. But as the lines between act and reality blur, both women are forced to confront their fears, feelings, and what they’re willing to risk for love.

I love the idea of this story. I’m a sucker for the Notting Hill “celebrity vs normie” trope. I loved even more that the main characters were both queer. The first chapter had me so excited to find out more about Kat and Jude and see Kat explore her queerness and identity.

As much as I loved Jude, I had a really hard time liking Kat. I know she has some serious trauma, but the whole story was her making selfish and/or thoughtless decisions over and over again. So by the time she was making amends, I felt Jude was too good for her. Unfortunately, by the end, I was not rooting for the main characters to be together, which made the end of the book less impactful for me.

However, I really loved the side characters and their fun personalities. The book overall had really thoughtful and relatable queer and disability reps. And Jude’s kindness while Kat was exploring her new identity and the love all the friends in the group showed to one another was so refreshing.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Next Chapter.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. Thank you for the opportunity.

I really enjoyed The Next Chapter! It’s a heartfelt, queer-positive story that centers on Jude and Kat’s relationship, which I found sweet, endearing, and emotionally resonant. The book does a fantastic job of weaving in meaningful representation—mental health, eating disorders, and the pressures of being a child star in the entertainment industry are all handled with care and nuance.

I especially appreciated the thoughtful LGBTQ+ rep, including lesbian, non-binary, and trans characters, as well as disability rep. It never felt performative—just real and respectful. At its heart, this is a story about a girl learning to be herself, even after years of scrutiny and pressure to be someone she’s not.

My only critique (and it’s a small one) is that I found some of the miscommunication a little frustrating—Kat was a bit of a pushover, and Jude tended to shut down and give up when things got tough. I understood why it was written that way, but it did make parts of the story feel a bit drawn out.

Still, the payoff was so worth it. The ending was satisfying and sweet, and I closed the book smiling. I’ll absolutely be reading more from Camille Kellogg in the future.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own!

I chose to DNF this book. I was not a fan of the prose - the sentence level writing didn't grab me. I also didn't like the plot device of dating someone as part of a publicity move that is one-sided.

Perfect, perfect, perfect. I truly enjoyed Kellogg's first novel but this one is even better. If you are a fan of Notting Hill, you will love the tiny nods to it throughout this book. However, this book truly stands on its own. Kellogg has found a way to capture the essence of the movie but to so lovingly transform it into a perfect queer romance.

Truly cannot recommend this more highly. It's really perfect.

Thank you to Random House Publishing for this eARC. This was an interesting read. I was kind of...mad at both of the main characters the whole time? They are just consistently making decisions and having conversations that made me so frustrated - which is good for characters to have that place to grow from. The chemistry was good and I believed their connection I just perhaps was not in the right mindset to take this story in.

This sapphic romance was cute and the couple was easy to root for. I found it hard to believe they could recover from the lie at the start of their relationship, but the repair and growth on both sides felt believable.

I loved the bookstore plots and friends. Jude's friends, who were queer and trans, felt organic to the book rather than a checkbox for representation sake. I loved the way they supported Jude!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 If Camille Kellogg has no fans, I am dead. This book has EVERYTHING and everything is done PERFECTLY!
1) A cast of diverse, beautiful characters who are fully flushed out and no one feels superfluous, no matter the size of their role in the story
2) It discusses real issues that are impacting the queer community (and the entertainment industry) in a way that doesn't feel like pandering, and for me it didn't bring me back out of the escapism of a book.
3) The romantic plot is a predictable scenario, but the readers doesn't know HOW the plot is gonna plot, and the way Kellogg writes the HOW is chef's kiss perfection and is soooo satisfying for the reader.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House / Dial Press Publishing, and Camille Kellogg for my copy of the eARC and the opportunity to leave my honest review!

I am so glad that this book is being published during Pride Month (US)!!! It's a great summer release to pick up and lose yourself in by a pool or while waiting for friends at your local gay bar (or is that just me?). I'll be thinking and talking about this book so so much for the foreseeable future and reading anything that Camille Kellogg writes forever

I adored this book! The plot was well executed and writing style was right up my alley. It included a diverse cast and pulled me in from page one. Readers who enjoy a romance book about books will devour this

This warm, queer take on Notting Hill pairs a former child star trying to reinvent herself with a endearing, kind bookseller in the West Village. The story balances charm and authentic emotion, offering thoughtful moments around identity, vulnerability, and public vs. private selves. Katrina’s messy, fame-tangled journey contrasts nicely with Jude’s quiet stability, and their chemistry feels both playful and genuine. The plot effectively leans into familiar rom-com vibes and the characters’ emotional growth and the bookstore setting make it a satisfying, affirming read.

A fun concept that came to life beautifully! I’m never a fan of the miscommunication trope, but it didn’t bug me too much in this one. It took me awhile to connect with Kat, but I think that was by design. All in all, this was a great rom com. I LOVED Jude’s found family. I wish we had gotten a little bit more resolution on Kat’s family/friend situations.

Great read!

I can't really say I liked this novel. And that is in large part because one of the main characters was so...not nice. She lied to her love interest, multiple times, in pretty big and deceiving ways, and I just felt like all of this was extremely shaky ground to build a romance on. It was hard to buy into and root for a romance that is essentially built on lies and deception. And I'm not going to lie, also, I was actively rooting against the romance here because I felt so bad for the love interest being lied to. It was all not very romantic, unfortunately.

This is a super cute romance with some excellent supporting characters and interesting storylines. I haven't seen Notting Hill but I still really enjoyed this, even though I was hoping for some sort of unexpected twist. It felt very predictable and I wish it had taken a bit more of an original turn.

This was a cute queer twist on Notting Hill, and something I think fans of my book (Because Fat Girl) would love. I was pulled in by the characters and story from the start.

Spoiler ahead:

My only critique would be that the last few chapters follow the Notting Hill storyline so much that I found myself wanting a different twist or turn. But otherwise a fun read.

I loved this book. The characters were well-written and real, even the secondary characters. I wanted to hang out with them and go to one of their bookstore get-togethers!

Thank you to Dial Press and NetGalley for the arc of this book. While this was my first book by Camille Kellogg, I had really high expectations, and this really hit the mark! If you’re looking for a sapphic rom com this summer, this could easily be devoured in one or two reading sessions!

I loved Jude so dang much, and the sparks between her and Kat were undeniable. I don’t always love a third act breakup, so I struggled a little bit with this one. However, the ending of this book choked me up, and I couldn’t stop smiling while I was reading it! 4.5⭐️

Camille Kellogg did it again! I absolutely loved Just As You Are and The Next Chapter was just as sweet, real, emotional, mature, and wonderful. I hope everyone picks up a copy of these two books. Who doesn’t love a nod to Notting Hill, You’ve Got Mail, and all the 90s gooey romcoms but with a contemporary queer lens? Can’t wait to see what Camille does next. This is an auto-read author for me now!

When I say this book had me immediately hooked, I mean IMMEDIATELY! I loved that the story got straight into business with the meet cute and getting into the core of each of our perspective characters so quickly so that we could get right to the good stuff.

Following Jude (bookstore manager scared to move on) and Kat (former child actress desperate to move on) was such a trip, and I really enjoyed getting to know each of them. Watching them tackle the challenges being thrown their way and seeing how they navigated some pretty odd situations was a blend of funny, heartwarming, and a little sad here and there. They’re two characters who I very much wanted to reach through the pages and hug.

I really enjoyed that this book had a POV of one of the characters who is doing something objectively deceitful and pretty damaging, while still making it easy to root for the character. I could see the trajectory she was on and anticipating the blow up, but I was still absolutely locked in waiting to see how things would end up for Kat and Jude, and if they would be able to make it work. Along with these two main characters, there’s an absolutely delightful cast of side characters (and a few less delightful) that all feel very well fleshed out and like very solid three dimensional characters.

The only things that I didn’t fully love were the dialogue and the open door scenes. Granted, it’s a romance novel, so there’s going to be a certain level of cheesiness to it, but some of it felt a bit too on the nose and a bit forced, particularly during some of the zestier scenes.

All in all I really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend it!!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc of this book. All
Opinions are my own.

This was good! I enjoyed it. I read a lot of romance, but I always love new to me authors and this was one. I enjoyed the writing style and think this was super good! Definitely intrigued to read more.