it's not that I hated this book or thought it was boring. I just didn't connect with this as much as I thought I would. I guess the third act was like messy in a way I don't like. They could've talked about ti.

I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

I really enjoyed this book, and how the title is both the name of the bookstore where Jude works, but also about the next chapter in Jude and Kat’s lives. The cover is also gorgeous! Camille Kellogg is a really great writer and really pulls you into the story, getting you invested in the characters lives and the decisions that they make.

Notting Hill is a huge fav of mine, so when I read in the description that this book is a homage to it, I was so excited to read and it didn’t disappoint! Kat is a former child star who’s trying to revive her career, and Jude works in a bookstore that her mother used to own, but is now run by someone who cares more about money than the store and the people in it. Jude gets swept up into Kat’s life in that way, and here is our story!

Jude was really great as a main character. I loved the backstory about her relationship to the bookstore, and she was so easy to root for! I also really liked her friends, who also all work with her at the bookstore. They were there to provide support to Jude but they were also properly fleshed out as characters. I did like Kat, but some of the decisions she made did give me pause, and I do think that the conflict with Jude once things came to light was resolved rather quickly.

There’s also a dual POV (which is always a plus), and it’s decently spicy, but nothing too extreme. The little except at the end was a fun surprise too! Overall, a very entertaining read- I’d love to read a sequel about Rhys and LJ!

I loved the idea for this book from the get go - and continued to throughout the book! There were a few odd moments between characters that (personally) didn't connect from one place to the other, but I loved getting a 'behind the scenes' glance at a public relationship and how sacred keeping information close to your heart truly is.

Kat was not easy to love but I enjoyed revealing the layers of her character throughout the story. The romance felt so authentic. The spice and romance were top tier.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I found Kat a very unlikable character. I can relate to coming out later in life and being unsure. But with all her childstar quirks and problems, I found her very annoying. I didn’t feel like she deserved the forgiveness. The spicy scenes were very well written.

I love the journeys that both of these characters took. Kat just discovering who she is was so inspiring. Both Jude and Kat are going through a lot and they met at just the right time. Kat does some questionable things but I never doubted her feelings for Jude.

I received an arc through netgalley.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: June 10, 2025

An open door sapphic celeb x normie romance. This had a cute premise but was fatally flawed for me from the start. Kat starts everything off on a lie…a completely unnecessary lie that prevented me from investing in her character. It predictably backfires so you get your third act breakup and makeup. I did really enjoy Jude’s friend group though!

I struggled with this one because I loved Jude, but I didn't care for Kat. It's hard to root for a couple to be together when you don't like one of the people in the couple. I loved Jude's bookstore and all of her friends/co-workers were awesome. Kat came off as selfish and her dishonesty/miscommunication is something that I can't get over. I can't believe that Jude would take her back after finding out that their relationship was built on a lie.

4.5 stars

I devoured this book in one day, which speaks to how easy it is to read and how addictive the characters are. I love Jude. Everything about her was full of depth and relatable, and I just wanted to be part of her awesome friend group. Kat was less easy to love, but her backstory eventually made that understandable. I don't know how Jude forgave Kat at the end, honestly, but I was glad that Kat was actually taking steps toward change. I had to keep reminding myself they'd only known each other for such a short time, their chemistry was that palpable.

Definitely recommend to those who enjoy messy Sapphic romances!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This book was such a sweet read. It was like a coming of age read but Kat is an adult trying to figure out her level of Queer-ness and I was here for it. I adored Jude and her friends are hilarious. These two women are trying to navigate life, Jude with losing her mom and wanting to claim ownership of her mothers shop, and Kat trying to stay relevant and in the scene but also trying to stay true to her TRUE self.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

2.5/5 stars.

i have yet to find a sapphic book that gives me all the feels! i was really hoping this would be the one. the premise of this sounded promising and the first 20% of this book started off great. kat is a former child actor hoping to break out into theater while also navigating publicly coming out as gay. she meets jude at the bookstore where jude works and sparks fly. i was into it!!!!

but quickly, it fell off for me because of the romance and the main character, kat. she was genuinely a terrible and selfish person who should not have been involved with sweet and perfect jude at all. she did jude so dirty! jude was innocent! my shayla!!!!!! there was no coming back from what kat did for me. i honest to god was SHOCKED jude took her back and they had their happy little ever after because in no world do they last as a couple lol.

i enjoyed the writing! i would definitely read something by this author again (preferably without kat). i also adored the side characters that were employees at the bookstore. i loved the diversity and i really hope they get their own books!

I was sadly very MEH on this book as a whole.

Kat is a former child actor who is trying to break into more adult roles, while also coming out as queer, so she and her manager decide she should fake date a woman as a publicity stunt. In pursuit of this, Kat is a spineless lying liar who lies.

Jude is an orphaned bookstore manager, stuck working at the store her mother used to own, but sold to pay for medical treatment. Jude is very earnest and can be a bit naïve, but is mostly likable.

They meet at Jude's bookstore and start dating. No, wait, sorry, Jude thinks they are dating. Kat is just trying to get media attention and a new role in an awful play. And that's where the problem is. Generally, I love fake dating in a book, but both parties have to know it's fake!!! Otherwise you are just lying to a person who cares about you and using them. I did not want Jude and Kat to end up together, but, alas, it's a romance novel, so of course they did.

I really appreciated the complex themes explored in this book, which were grief, anxiety, identity, and the pressures of social media. All pf these complex themes and struggles of the characters were handled with care and covered well. I love dual POV, so I was excited to see that this book was dual POV. The chemistry between Kat and Jude was definitely there from the beginning.

That said, I struggled to fully connect with the characters. Kat’s selfishness really took me out of the story at times, and their romance didn’t quite meet my expectations as I expected from the beginning of the book. The pacing also felt uneven, with some parts dragging and others moving too fast.

Overall, it had strong elements but it didn’t fully land for me. Still, fans of queer romance and emotional character journeys may find a lot to enjoy here.

I will be posting my review on Fable, but may not share much of my thoughts on my social media platform, TikTok, as my review may not be as positive as the author and publishers hoped. That said, I will continue following along with Camille Kellogg and hope I am able to read another one of her books!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an E-ARC of this book.

Unfortunately while I adored Kellogg's first book, this one did not live up to the shine of the first. This book moved to fast, had characters I simply did not like, the drama felt ridiculous, and the resolution, while romantic, felt unearned.

While I haven't seen Notting Hill, it is one of the most popular rom-coms ever, and I feel like this is a bad retelling of it.

I absolutely loved Jude from the very beginning. Her fears and anxieties felt very genuine and were very relatable. Especially after loss and heartbreak, it is easy to lose yourself and crave an easy and stable life. Despite everything she was going through, I found that she was always putting Kat first which was very endearing at first. But when Kat’s lies and manipulation started to catch up to her, I hated seeing how badly Jude was treated and taken advantage of. Even though they had both made mistakes, I feel like Kat was a bit too selfish for me and wish their relationship had been more 50/50. Not saying I didn’t like Kat, she had her own difficult struggles to overcome, but I think she still could have been nicer to Jude and communicated way better. At first, Kat felt like a typical spoiled rich girl who threw tantrums when she didn’t get what she wanted, but after hearing her backstory and the things she went through at such a young age, her behavior made a little more sense. Her coming out journey and realizing her self-worth were the best parts of her story for sure.

Kat and Jude’s chemistry was definitely undeniable from the start. But towards the middle when it seemed like Kat was stringing Jude along and not being honest with her, I started to feel less unsure about their connection. I liked the emotional tension and high stakes, but I wish there had been more genuine romantic moments that were not based on lies and Kat wanting to up her performance. I also had mixed feelings about the spicy scenes, especially the first one, given Kat had never had sex with a woman before and it seemed like she did everything perfectly on the first try and was all of the sudden super confident about everything going forward. So even knowing that a part of her knew she liked women, I still think it was slightly unrealistic to have her be so good at intimacy and being okay with coming out so fast, especially in the public eye. Once Jude and Kat became aware of all the secrets and lies and actually showed true vulnerability, it was easier to root for them. And I did like how they were both strongly developed and matured by the end.

The supporting cast was very well done. I loved Jude’s core group and even came to appreciate Madelyn once she revealed her true story. L.J. and Rhys were especially memorable, and I adored their side plot love story. Talia was just down right hilarious, loved her personality. The whole friend group from the beginning was something special, I just really appreciated how they had each other’s backs, didn’t give up on one another, and were able to have tough conversations revolving around things like self worth, identity, grief, anxiety, and queer community struggles, in a way that wasn’t preachy or forced. Other heavy topics such as eating disorders, social media, horrors of childhood acting and its repercussions, and coming out were handled with a careful yet realistic approach. Overall, I very much enjoyed the premise and the characters, but would have liked for some situations to have been wrapped up or handled better, especially in the middle, and for there to have been a bit more authentic romance without the lies and manipulation driving the relationship.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this book. There seemed to be a lot of promise but it just didn’t quite pull through for me.

The chemistry between Kat and Jude was definitely there but I think I struggled with their two characters individually? They both acted in ways that bothered me and made me want to reach through the pages and shake their shoulders lol. Specifically with Kat, I found her so selfish and it was pretty obvious from the beginning that building their relationship on a foundation of lies was going to come back and bite her. As for Jude, it seemed like she was almost self-sabotaging at times by not choosing the obvious best thing for her. If you can overlook things like that, you might enjoy this one more than I did.

I did like the dual POV, the plot and the supporting cast but this one unfortunately fell short for me. Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for this eARC!

The plot can feel a bit predictable at times, and some side characters are underdeveloped, which makes the emotional stakes feel a little lower than they could be. Pacing lags in the middle, and while the conflict is relatable, its resolution feels a bit too neat. Still, The Next Chapter is a delightful read with plenty of heart, and it’s a great pick for a cozy weekend escape. It doesn’t quite hit the heights of top-tier rom-coms, but it’s a solid addition to the genre—and a promising step forward for Kellogg’s voice in queer fiction.

The Next Chapter begins with one of the main characters, Jude, working in a bookstore and crying over a Sapphic romance novel. She's interrupted by Kat, the other main character, to ask for queer book recommendations. Jude's sincere thoughts and love of queer books here will resonate with many queer readers and writers.

We learn that Jude works in the bookstore that her mom used to own. With her mom's death, a wealthy businessman purchased the store and is slowly making changes that Jude isn't happy with. Jude also still lives in her mom's increasingly expensive apartment and has been stuck in a rut since her last breakup. Kat is a former child star who is trying to reinvent herself to secure more mature roles. As she is just discovering her queer identity, her team suggests using her queerness to get some press. Her manager decides that having Kat publicly date a girl will gain her both attention and a new demographic of loyal fans. Since Kat recently had a moment at the bookstore with Jude, Kat decides to invite Jude out.

Kat isn't exactly likable for some of this book. Her actions are selfish, and there were moments when she made me frustrated with her snowballing lies. Jude also has a few moments of selfishness. Both characters are dealing with several heavy, stressful, and emotional issues in their lives, and neither is in a good place to start a stable, healthy relationship. This makes their early relationship bumpy!

Thankfully, in the second half of the book, the characters and their relationship go through some major growth. The longer Jude and Kat know each other and the deeper their relationship gets, the more they inspire each other to make changes and improve their lives. By the third-act breakup, I was fully rooting for both and wanted to see them work through all of their relationship issues.

My favorite part of this book is Jude's three friends and co-workers, Rhys, L.J., and Talia. These three characters are a fun, loyal, and diverse group. Lovers of the Found Family will love what they add to the story. Their support of Jude is lovely and all the best scenes in the book involve these three!

I'd recommend this most to romance readers who don't mind their romances a little messy. These characters aren't likable at times, and their relationship isn't healthy for much of the book. If you're willing to go on a journey with them as they grow into better, more mature people together, then I think you'll likely love where they end up. Like Jude, you too may end up crying at the end of a Sapphic romance; I certainly did!

THIS BOOK WAS SO READABLE.

We have our two main characters- Jude and Kat. Jude works at her mom's bookstore, but it's no longer owned by the family. Right before she passed, Jude's mom sold it to an outsider, who promised that Jude would be able to buy it back someday if she stayed on to run the shop. Jude is also afraid to live her life after losing her mom and her romantic partner back to back two-ish years back. Enter Kat, a former child star who is trying to transition into an adult career... oh, and she's also queer and is trying to figure out how to become who she is and present herself to the world. She's in New York to try and make it in the theatre world as a way to jumpstart her adult career.

Jude and Kat start to date and be seen out with one another, but Jude doesn't know that Kat asked her out because her agent told her to. However, Kat does start to feel real things for Jude, but has real trust issues and, at this point, will listen to her agent over everyone else.

This is a story about becoming who you are, living your life, moving on, forgiveness, and realizing that there's no timeline to life.

Dual POV alternating chapters made this really readable and hard to put down. Check trigger warnings, though. There's some disordered eating, grief. Also, not a trigger warning, but there is some miscommunication, so if you hate that trope, just know that it's in here.