This is exactly what I imagine when I think of ‘women’s fiction’.

Following Ingrid as she makes self discoveries that are obvious to other people it she hasn’t been willing to face herself, the reader goes on a journey of self discovery that includes a very slow-burn romance. It’s a sweet read (though at time I just wanted to shake Ingrid and knock some sense into).

Thank you to Stephanie Perkins, St Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's 1:56am and I just finished and I adored it.

As a debut, Stephanie Perkins has given us a really stellar story and a whole host of characters that are relatable, flawed and amazing company to walk besides for their story.

Ingrid shows amazing growth through the book and I'm so pleased where she ends up by the end of the story.

I found the story engaging and the writing style was smooth and funny and while I normally would worry about second-hand embarrassment from a character I felt so close to, Ingrid has more grace than I think she realizes and we made it through smiling.

There is love and romance, but no spice, but all the chemistry and slow burn pining. I loved all Ingrid's friends (especially Kat), Macon, the library patroness and the charming side characters that made a big impression.

I, like Ingrid, have never used dating apps or online dating so I found her navigation through it super interesting.

I got super nervous towards the end of the book since there was so much story left, but love the happily ever after

Also, I was pulling for "Bacon Books" or something else ridiculous about bacon being a bookmark for the name.

As soon as I saw this was a librarian romance set in North Carolina, I jumped on it (I live in NC myself). The longing and tension between Ingrid and her broody coworker, Macon, were done so well that I was invested in their HEA. The imagery involved with the food Macon cooked added to the story for me, although man, did it have me hungry lol. Macon and Ingrid were both flawed in their own ways, but found solace and acceptance in each other, and it was beautiful. This was much more than just a romance, though, with the many real-life/adult topics it touched on that make you feel a little more normal. I loved how the story wrapped up and thought it was fitting for the story.

Overdue is a charming debut novel that captures the complexities of love, change, and self-discovery. Ingrid Dahl, a 29-year-old librarian in the small town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. When her sister gets engaged after just two years of dating, Ingrid and Cory decide to take a one-month break and date other people to figure out their future. Ingrid's quiet crush on her grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, becomes the catalyst for unexpected emotions as the month progresses. What starts as a harmless fling quickly turns into something far more complicated. Perkins masterfully builds the tension between Ingrid and Macon with slow-burn romance, vulnerability, and longing. The chemistry between them feels authentic and evolves naturally, making their journey both heartwarming and heartbreaking. What makes Overdue stand out is its delicate balance of humor and emotion, exploring themes of growth, change, and the unpredictability of relationships. It's a beautiful, introspective love story that doesn't shy away from the complexities of figuring out who you are and what you want in a partner. Overall, Overdue is a delightful, heartfelt read that promises great things for Perkins’ writing future. Perfect for fans of slow-burn romance and complex, evolving relationships.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publishing house for the chance to read this book in advance.

I was excited to read this as a major fan of Stephanie Perkins’s other romance books. This certainly didn’t disappoint. Having read her earlier works as a teenager myself and reading this as an adult, it was great to see my favorite aspects of her writing haven’t changed, but she was now able to really tie in more mature themes about adulthood and growing up.

While the love interest was clear from the beginning it didn’t take away from the joy of seeing their relationship blossom. The friends were loveable, and I was so pleasantly surprised to find just how much I adored Cory despite him being a chicken nugget adult.


I also really enjoyed how the author was able to explore this relationship while depicting grief, growing up, and entering new phases of life and what that can look like. It was honestly a little upsetting how called out I felt in this book. Too relatable


I give this four stars because in spite of all the great things in this book, the ending felt a little out of step with the rest of the themes of exploration and growth. It felt a little rushed and given how level headed and thoughtful the characters are, I was shocked at the decision they made in not necessarily a great way. I wish we had more time to explore the friendship of Ingrid and Cory, and there were actually so many characters I wanted more of I wonder if this maybe had too many?

Overall a very enjoyable and fantastic read. I’m so happy to see Stephanie Perkins has still got it and I cannot wait to see her continue exploring the adult romance genre.

I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but how am I supposed to resist when it looks this stunning? I mean, seriously — LOOK AT IT.

Overdue is told from Ingrid’s point of view, beginning just as she and her boyfriend of eleven years agree to take a short break to explore other options before settling down for good. But as weeks stretch into months, Ingrid’s journey of self-discovery reveals that sometimes the life — and love — we truly need has been right beside us all along.

Ingrid and Macon completely stole my heart. This is perhaps the slowest of slow burns, but every lingering moment was worth it. Neither character is perfect, and that imperfection only made them more lovable and real. I found myself rooting for them with my whole heart.

I also have to give major credit for the cleverness of the title. It ties in beautifully with both the library setting and the long-overdue realizations between the characters. So simple, yet so perfect.

If I have one lingering thought, it’s that I wish we had a little more closure when it came to Gareth. Will he ever set foot in a library again, or has he been permanently scarred? The open-endedness makes it feel more true to life, but part of me was really hoping he’d get his own happy ending too.

Also, a fair warning: do not — I repeat, do NOT — read this book on an empty stomach. I wanted to devour everything Macon cooked. Honestly, I wanted his food, his cat, his house… by the end, I basically just wanted to be Ingrid.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / Saturday Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a fun and cozy story. Definitely looking forward to reading more from this author.

A slooooooow burn, but that time was spent on building Ingrid and Macon into complex enough characters where I was either loving or disliking their decisions, while still hoping they would end up together. Their imperfections made them realistic enough characters to me and I was emotionally attached to them and the different life situations they both faced throughout the story.

I really enjoyed that this story touched on topics everyone eventually has to confront in adulthood like taking the next step in a relationship, family responsibilities, taking career steps or leaps, and overall life stability represented through finances and housing. Even with the 10 year age gap, these topics and adulthood looked differently for Macon and Ingrid who were at different stages across these topics.

The thing I enjoyed most was the emphasis on protecting the relationships that mean a lot to us and recognizing when others have come to a limit. Relationships can be overdue to end or start.That to me was probably the sweetest thing about this book.

My one dislike was how the story immediately jumped into explaining the breakup yet Ingrid already had her sight set on Macon. This made me initially dislike Ingrid and it was hard to empathize for her relationship situation, given she recognized having unresolved feelings for her coworker that she always questioned. I think if she really liked Macon, she should not have been so willing to cheapen their relationship for a short term fling. I still forgive it because it was part of Ingrid's growth and sort of giving Guilty As Sin by Taylor Swift vibes but I just wish this was executed better.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC!

3 stars! ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC!

This was a cozy, sometimes funny and relatable journey to finding oneself in life and in love.

This was the textbook definition of a friends to lovers, age-gap, slow burn romance. Though I went into this excited for the romantic possibilities with some of my favorite tropes lining up, I was more impressed with Ingrid’s personal journey than I was with the romance. In fact, I think the romance fell quite flat for the majority of the book and that kept me from truly enjoying the entire story the way I wanted to.

What I liked:
- I really enjoyed Ingrid’s character. I found her relatable, realistic, rooted and interesting to follow.
- A book about books is always my favorite thing. The library and book store settings were very cozy.
- The writing was digestible and refined.
- I loved the way the story wrapped up. It left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

What I didn’t like:
- MMC Macon never pulled me in. I found it extremely hard to root for him, like him or find him interesting at all (until the last 50 pages or so)
- The romance burned much too slow. For the majority of the book I found myself rooting for Ingrid to find her way back to one of her exes because I just wasn’t convinced of a 30 and 40 year old not being able to address very simple topics.
- There was so much repetition and focus on trivial things that I felt could have been used to give more life to Macon and Ingrid.
- The pacing was very slow.

⭐️ Overall I do recommend this for a comfy, cozy read!

Quick synopsis: When Ingrid and Cory decide to take a break from a decade long relationship to explore other options before deciding on marriage plans, Ingrid sets out on a dating journey that leads to more than she originally intended.

Key elements:
- Friends / coworkers to lovers
- Slow burn
- Age-gap
- Self-discovery

An enjoyable slow burn, cozy romance. I love Stephanie Perkins' writing, it's very detail-oriented and lightly humorous while still easy to read- if you loved Anna and the French Kiss, I can't imagine that you wouldn't enjoy this. I liked Ingrid's journey and where the story ended up taking us, and the slow pace allowed me to really get to know all of the characters (especially Ingrid's background) and the setting. I also appreciated how the book addressed being a librarian/public servant in this political climate. I understand that this romance was a slow burn, but I struggled with the pacing of the book and staying interested through the middle portion of the book. There was a lot of excessive detail, which can be nice in developing the setting, but reading about each room in Macon's house (there's 4 of them) and every little thing about them caused the book to drag for me. I think that if you go into Overdue knowing it's a slow burn, no stakes romance focused on character development, you'll really like it!

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Stephanie Perkins & the publishing team for this eARC in exchange for a review.

This was actually my first read by this author and this book started slow but really captured my attention all the way through. At first I did not think I was going to come out of this book as a fan but it was truly a slow-burn that won me over in the end. This book starts out with our FMC dating other people after a long 11 year relationship. It was clear that Macon was going to be our MMC but it felt like it took a LONG time to get there. I did enjoy reading about the FMCs experience with disastrous dating but i personally wasn't a fan of her sleeping with other people knowing that she was going to end up with our MMC. Speaking of the MMC, I feel like Macon himself is a slow burn - the author starts off describing him in an odd way that wasn't insanely appealing, but your understanding of him, and why Ingrid cares for him so much is a slow burn through every page. By the end of the story, you really have an understanding of who the FMC and MMC are as people and why their relationship makes so much sense.

Something I found appealing was a different family dynamic - a lot of stories focus on families that are crazy, all up in each other's business, etc. I liked that Ingrid was focused on making her own family, and that her parents and family weren't overbearing in her story. I thought this book did a great job of expression vulnerability, and a rawness to starting over in your 30s even when it seems impossible. The length of the story was great for me - I don't like a story that feels too short, when I invest in a world and in characters I really want to see it through.

In the acknowledgements the Author mentions her lifelong love for books and reading and you can really feel that all the way through this story.. This book is not for you if you do not enjoy slowburn, complex characters but I am super thankful that I read it and I will think of it fondly.

Overall rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall spice 🌶️

Overall, 4.5 stars, this book was so realistic and gave me all the feels.

**Fans of Mariana Zapata will probably love this book. If you don't like a slow burn romance, then this is not the book for you. Overdue is more realistic than most contemporary romance reads, it's not really an escape book, I would put it more in the Women's Fiction genre than romance.**

I loved so many things about this book, the friendship between Ingrid and Macon and the quirkiness of their friendship, Ingrid's change in career path, the burden of aging parents, the library setting, and most of all, Macon. Macon is so prickly but in such a charming way. This book did a wonderful job exploring the idea of an "ideal" life trajectory, college, job, marriage, kids, happily ever after, but that doesn't exist for everyone. Ingrid measured herself against her friends and found her life lacking. I enjoyed seeing her finding her way through trial and error and some mishaps along the way. The friendship between Ingrid and Macon was so special and I just loved them so much. During the book I really wanted a dual POV to see Macon's side but boy, I was happy that it ended up being just Ingrid's POV, it would've taken away from the ending. The only downside to this book was the beginning, I felt that the book started way too slow and I almost lost interest, it started to pick up around Chapter 4.

Format: ebook

Thank you so much NetGalley, Stephanie Perkins, and St.Martin's Press for this arc.

*Friends to lovers
*Slow burn
*Grumpy/Sunshine
*Single 1st person POV - Ingrid

"Libraries were a safe and warm space for vulnerable people, and our downtown location received the highest volume of them by far."

I really wanted to like this book, and while i loved the character development, the pacing was just SLOW and off. I did LIKE the characters, but I feel like about 100 pages could've been cut out of this book with the same result.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cozy and charming, Overdue follows Ingrid’s journey of starting over after a long-term relationship ends. Though I loved the small-town vibes and the slow-burn romance, the story felt overly long, and I struggled to understand her bond with her ex.

This book is fine. When Ingrid and Cory realize that neither of them have ever had a different significant other, they decide to take a month “off” from their 11 year relationship to date other people, and then get married . Ingrid has had her eye on a coworker and friend Macon, but everyone except Ingrid seems to know she and Cory are not getting back together. I was hooked by the beautiful cover, and I did like the library setting as well as the Ingrid’s dream to own a bookstore. However I just didn’t really like Ingrid at all. She goes on a lot of dates with men but doesn’t tell them she’s planning to get back together with her boyfriend. The author also was trying to shoehorn a whole lot of political messaging into this story and it was overdone. I honestly thought this was a boring story that I could easily have put down halfway through and not finished.

*I received an e-copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed above are my own.

What a lovely story!

Ingrid and her longterm boyfriend Cory decide that after 11 years together, they both need a break to see other people before settling down into married life. Macon has been Ingrid’s work husband (and secret crush) for years and now that her relationship is on pause it’s the perfect time to do some lovely making out with Macon. Only Macon says “No, Ingrid, no,” stopping her in her tracks. Will Cory ever man up and marry her? Can Ingrid convince Macon to give her a second chance?

The first third of the book was hard to get through (let’s serial date other people even though neither of us are the dating/one-night-stand type), but after that it settled into something really lovely. A real journey of healing after a breakup and finding new love that was really there all along.

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

This was the slowest of slow burns. Like I found myself dozing off while waiting for something to happen. This book was at least 100 pages too long.

But with that said, the book was sweet. I liked the supporting characters, and the book theme (both library and book store). I liked Macon more than Ingrid, but Edmond may have been my favourite.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I'm not sure I would classify this as a romance. Do that's my first issue, maybe the biggest issue. It's more like women's lit. When the book of more about a woman finding herself than a relationship with the MMC, I just can't say it's a true romance. I also don't like reading details of her hookups with someone other than the MMC. Lots of angst to get through, but at least the writing was good.

Ingrid and her boyfriend, Cory decide to take a month long break to see other people. They have been dating for 11 years. They met the first day of college and neither one had ever dated anyone before. Ingrid decides to kiss her coworker Macon. They work at a library. She has chemistry with him. He rejects her immediately and she spins out and tries to find someone else that very night. Ingrid and Cory soon find out that a month isn’t nearly long enough so they extend it. They do the same thing the following month and before the third month Cory tells her he has met someone else. Ingrid was going to break up with him anyway. She realized he wasn’t the one. She decides she is going to take a break from dating. She also decides to leave the library and open her own bookstore.

This is a slow, slow burn, grumpy vs sunshine romance that takes place in both a library and bookstore. All of my favorite things. I really enjoyed the settings.i liked how heartwarming it was. I loved how all of her friends came together to make owning a bookstore really possible. My only complaint is that it was a tad bit long. I mean it really was a slow burn. But I would still recommend this cozy romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins for providing me this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review..

Oooohhhhhhhh…this book. Such a lovely, surprisingly deep, introspective, and heartwarming story of grief and expectation and love. It was so easy to envision the shy curmudgeon and the sweet soul who loved him before she knew she did. I have such bad a perfect picture of the house and the town and the library and the bookshop. The setting was such a huge part of this experience and I just loved loved loved it. Macon and Ingrid are dear to me now. 💜💜📚

I enjoyed Stephanie Perkins's YA titles and was pleased to see her giving adult rom-com a shot. Honing her skills with YA "coming of age" stories does indeed transition well to an FMC in her late 20s who is still figuring out her life after stalling out a bit in her career and love life. Ingrid's slow-burn romance with Macon is sweet and just frustrating enough, and the cast of supporting characters is full of funny and supportive friends.