A great coming of age story, lots of bumps in the road for the FMC but leading into her full growth by the end.
Tons of focus on friendship and love. It was a great read.
The pining?? the chemistry?? the drama and jealousy?? I ate it up.
Definitely one of the slowest slow burn books i've read and it kept me on my toes to keep rooting and seeing where their lives would head next.

I related a lot to the FMC, ending my relationship with my longterm relationship, self discovery, taking chances, being with friends, growing pains and taking chances. It really was well written and done. I would highly recommend this.

Steph Perkins absolutely shines in her adult debut. It's full of heart and feels like a big warm hug. Fans of her YA stuff will not be disappointed.

Ingrid has been stuck in somebody else's dream job for too long. (You might say she's overdue for a new job.) Her coworker Macon goes a long way to keeping that position tolerable—but Ingrid has never been able to act on her attraction, because she has a long-term boyfriend. But when Ingrid and her boyfriend Cory agree to take a month-long break, a hiatus to explore dating other people (which they both think is...overdue) before getting back together and planning their long-awaited (overdue?) wedding, it seems like the perfect chance to hook up with Macon.

One minor snag: Macon doesn't agree. And that complicates things.

I read all of Perkins' YA books back in the day, so I was eager to see what she'd do with an adult romance. This is both slow and lively: "Overdue" takes place over a year, and it's late in the book before Ingrid and Macon have a real conversation about their feelings and decide to give it a go; consequently, a lot of the book is about Ingrid dating around with other people, and figuring out next steps with her career, and building a stronger platonic friendship with Macon. It sounds like some of the career stuff might be inspired by Perkins' own trajectory, though of course I don't know how much of it.

Two favorite things about the book: first, there are no evil exes. I comment on this all the time when I read romance novels, so I know I'm a broken record here, but I *love* it when the ex is allowed to be, like...just a person. A good person, even! Just not the *right* person. Cory, Ingrid's boyfriend-turned-temporary-ex-turned-whatever could so easily be a cliché; instead, he's allowed to be a decent person and decent boyfriend who just isn't sure that this is the right relationship for him. He and Ingrid talk about their relationship and their break like the adults that they are, and when they get jealous or have questions they, well, talk it out. Macon's ex is a little less fleshed out, but she's not evil either—again, she's just not the right person for Macon. As ever, although this feels like a small thing, it does a lot of work to elevate the book. And the second, related thing: Ingrid does date around while on her break from Cory. Sometimes it's terrible one-off dates (I hope the more entertaining and less traumatic ones are pulled from real life), and sometimes things go further—and, again, it's not all smarmy assholes who are just after one thing. She meets good people and people she clicks with...and that doesn't mean it works out. Romance-novel heroines who get to date around in a way that is completely normal are freaking unicorns. (Weirdly, this was more common in 1960s romance...but I digress.)

All of this makes for a pretty slow burn, though. On the one hand I'm glad of it—I don't need (or want) a rapid-fire friends-to-lovers-in-under-two-weeks sort of thing. On the other hand I started wondering whether a plot point could be taken out to tighten the book somewhat. (Macon's mother, maybe? I get why she's there, and she adds a different dynamic to the relationship, but the stuff with his aunt might be enough.) I'm on the fence about the house makeover; part of it sounds delightful, but part of me thinks that it's a little...not red-flaggy, but yellow-flaggy for a friend you aren't actually all that close with yet to let you redo their house entirely in your style. (Also. This is neither here nor there, but the cupboards should have been white or wood, and the curtains should have been blue and white, dang it.)

At any rate, a nice shift to adult fiction—I'll be interested to see where Perkins goes next. I'm not quite sure where this lands for me on a no-half-stars scale, but let's call it 3.5 stars.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This book was the slowest of slow burns and felt more like a women’s fiction than romance because of it. The last 20% of the book did pick up, but I wanted to DNF well before that point. This book wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me.

Overdue is a slow burn romance following main character, Ingrid, who is struggling to decide what she wants out of life both professionally and romantically.

I really loved both main characters, Ingrid and Macon, because I found them very relatable (as a bookish homebody myself 🤭). I definitely felt their chemistry throughout the book and loved their banter/humor. The concept of Ingrid and Cory taking a month long break was interesting even if the outcome was a bit predictable. I did appreciate that there were many anecdotes, big and small, about Ingrid’s dating trials and that she didn’t just end up with someone right at the jump.

This book was a slow burn but maybe a bit too slow? It felt a little longer than necessary but I enjoyed where the story went. A minor detail but I really dislike when books mention Covid when it’s not essential to the plot. Ingrid even voiced a similar opinion that she lived through Covid so she didn’t want to relive it through books and neither do I 😂

Read if you enjoy:
🩷 Friends to Lovers
🩷 Slow Burn
🩷 Grumpy x Sunshine
🩷 He Falls First
🩷 Book Lovers

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Overdue is a sloooooooowwwwww burn romance following Ingrid and her stagnant love life. After 11 years with the same guy, Ingrid is ready to see if he's the one or if she's gotten used to who she's with. The first half of this book and the second half felt like completely different novels. In the first half, Ingrid is a hot mess, treats everyone terribly, and has 0 responsibility for her actions. In the second half, she somehow figures out how to care for herself, complete a huge life dream, and get the man she really wants. This book happens in a year. One year. You go, girl, but it is a drastic shift in the book. This one just didn't do it for me. But if you like a good slow burn and self growth, this one is for you! A big thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced e-copy.

I've always been a big Stephanie Perkins fan with her YA books (Anna and the French Kiss!), but this book didn't grab me as much as some of her others. The library setting is absolutely great, and I love the characters that Ingrid and Macon work with, but I didn't care for the premise of their relationship. Overall, still love Stephanie Perkins, but this book wasn't one of my favorites.

I loved this book! Libraries and romance and slow burn--perfect. I love that the book focused on the people around the couple as well, their friends, found families, etc.

I read this author as a teenager, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her adult romance !!! I understand what Perkins is doing here, and the structure/setup is definitely experimental, which I appreciate as someone who reads a *lot* of romance galleys. And obviously, I am a HUGE fan of a friends-to-lovers slow burn. I just wish Perkins could sustain that burn more.... steadily.....in the first half of the book. It starts off strong and then we get soooo little for AGES. I think many readers will quit before they reach the point where the romantic arc starts working toward a beautiful payoff––which it does!––and that's a shame!

This is a slow-burn romance novel about two librarians falling in love, surrounded by a colorful and diverse cast of small-town characters. It sounds amazing. What could go wrong?

As it turns out, a LOT.

I’ll talk about the aspects I liked first. Macon, the male main character, is really lovable. A grumpy, reserved 40-year-old librarian who is a grown up? Who owns a house and a car, knows how to take care of himself, and doesn’t like anything except gardening, cooking, reading, and the FMC? I mean, it’s great. He’s a hunk. I loved him, and he’s about 98% of the reason I finished the book.

I did like the slowness of the burn, though I felt the pacing of the book was way off. The small moments between Macon and Ingrid were really sweet, but then things had to move so crazy fast at the end. I think the slowness could have been balanced better with the traditional timing of romance beats.

Okay, I’m realizing I really only liked Macon. LOL. I kind of liked the small town setting, and all the quirky characters therein. All of Ingrid’s friends and coworkers were fun even if we didn’t get to know them much. And as a recent homeowner myself, I enjoyed the home renovation content (though I noticed they left out, for obvious reasons of no one caring or wanting to hear about it, all the stress that would come from renovating a 1930s home that’s probably full of lead paint).

ANYWAY. Unfortunately pretty much nothing else about this book worked for me. Ingrid seemed like a caricature to me—she became hysterical so many times in the book, and to such an absurd level, that I almost couldn’t believe the author really wanted me to buy it lol. Ingrid doesn’t just cry. She WAILS. She screams and throws up. And not just for like, 10 minutes. For HOURS. She specifically says it goes on for HOURS. It’s actually wild. I love emotion, but I really prefer it to be expressed in a more understated way. This was like…should inpatient care be considered? Which isn’t what I want in a romance.

But my main issues aside from Ingrid was the story construction and prose. As I said before, the slow burn is SLOW. Ingrid goes on a break with her long term boyfriend when the story starts, and then she’s doing this whole dating-around-finding-herself thing for a good 40-ish percent of the book. It’s painful. It’s time I would have much rather spent with Macon—but he’s barely there, other than a few miscommunications and jealous moments. Then, once that’s finally done with, it takes another 40% of the book for them to get together. If you’re doing the math, that leaves only 20% of the boon for the rest of the romance beats to play out, which is not a lot of time.

I’m just baffled as to why the author chose to spend so much time on Ingrid’s dating adventures—they help her become who she needs to be, but the amount of detail we get on the whole thing was, in my opinion, really unnecessary.

Meanwhile, barely any time is spent on some of the incredibly heavy things Macon is dealing with—the opioid crisis, hoarding/agoraphobia, and an absent father, to name a few. The book is from Ingrid’s perspective, but I think it would have been a much better use of page space to see how she deals with and learns about the serious crises in Macon’s life rather than showing her have another complete meltdown over ghosting someone she doesn’t really like.

The prose was just not special. No artistry, and so many moments where I felt the author was rushing to get words on the page rather than really being thoughtful about how to convey something. Scenes were full of details that I just didn’t understand including. I feel like the whole thing could be tightened up much more—less wailing and agony, fewer random mentions of Ingrid texting someone and not getting a response, richer details that actually serve the story. Some of this, I think, might come from the author’s background writing YA. A lot about the way Ingrid’s voice was written reminded me of a younger character navigating high school life rather than 29 year old.

So this was a tough one. Interesting premise, amazing love interest, not great execution. I know some people will love it, but it wasn’t for me.

I am a huge Stephanie Perkins fan and I adored her adult debut - it is sweet, sexy, clever, and just incredibly happy-making. Reading about Ingrid and Macon somehow felt like returning to old friends, and she made Ridgetop feel like such a real place. She always peoples her books with such charming side characters, and this was no exception - everyone from Bethany to Mika to Macon’s mother was well considered and well drawn. I would love to see more novels set in Ridgetop!

I expected this book to be a romance genre book. It was women's fiction. The focus was on Ingrid's growth; Macon was secondary. I love romance. I don't love women's fiction. I was disappointed.

The romance between Ingrid and Macon was so slow burn it didn't even ignite until 60% through the book. I want romance and I'm not getting it (sorry but I don't find it romantic for the female lead to sleep around and get notches on her bedpost) so the story dragged. Majorly. By the last 20% (when there was an actual visible flame) I just wanted the book to end already.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. Unfortunately this one couldn't really grab me the way I wanted it to, the plot was extremely slow paced, and the slow-burn was (in my opinion) TOO slow. I thought the plot was interesting, and the characters were OK, but the pacing really stopped me from wanting to pick this one up long enough to power through. 2.5 stars

This is a book that follows Ingrid as her and her longtime boyfriend Cory decide to take a bit of a "break" to date other people. What was meant to be a one month break turned out much longer. Cory seems to be having a great time, but Ingrid is more reluctant to pursue others romantically. She does begin to date and become more adventurous, but her mind keeps going back to her co-worker, Macon. Macon doesn't seem to have any interest in her, but she secretly pines for him.

I believe this is the first adult romance by this author. Overall...it wasn't a bad book, but the way the characters were written was a bit immature for my liking. I actually didn't like any of the characters and was not interested in the slowburn romance between Ingrid and Macon; I just didn't want to see her back with Cory.

This is a 3 star book for me. It wasn't bad, but wasn't great. I will not remember this book a month from now.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Overdue by Stephanie Perkins.

This book, for me, was not a page turner; rather it was one in which you needed to immerse yourself. The theme appealed to all of us who have defaulted to doing the expected because it seems easier than facing the scary prospect of stepping outside our comfort zone, even to discover or develop a passion. I did not particularly like the main characters and wouldn’t want to be seated next to them at a dinner party. But they had a characteristic that I find missing in so much fiction today: they were both interesting and relatable. This book is as much about their journey of self discovery as it is about the outcome, and anyone who has time to savor it will enjoy it.

If you want a true slow burn, this is it. It builds you up and the pay off is worth it!
My first book by Stephanie but not my last!

I'm a big fan of slow-burn romances. I love the tension as the main characters begin to realize that they have feelings for each other—how will those feelings finally come to the fore? If you share my preference, "Overdue" is for you.
Ingrid and Macon work together at a branch library in a town seemingly inspired by Asheville, NC. She's 29, he's 39; she's been with her boyfriend Cody for many years, and he broke up with his girlfriend a couple years earlier. When Cody says he wants to take "a break" so they can date other people before settling down (they were each other's one and only), Ingrid tries putting the moves on Macon. Haven't there been sparks between them for a long time now? When Macon firmly rebuffs her, she feels humiliated, and gets on the apps in order to find a fling.
Ingrid and Cody's "break" keeps getting extended, and her friendship with Macon grows, even as her dating experiments don't quite work out. Ingrid behaves pretty inconsiderately with one of the men she goes out with, a library user who comes in every week to check out DVDs. She is definitely a flawed character who does a lot of learning and growing throughout the year covered in the novel.
I read this book on an airplane—I'm a bit of a nervous flyer and there was something really soothing about it, which made it an ideal choice. I also liked the fact that it dealt with real issues real-life librarians face, like book bans and dealing with challenging patrons.

Ingrid and Cory have been together 11 years. They never discuss marriage. Now, Ingrid sister is getting married. Why not them. So they break up for a month to see if they are right for each other . But one month is extended. Ingrid feels like her job is not what she wants. But what about Macon, her co-worker. Can there be something there?
I loved this book. I love how she decided to move on with her dreams and I was happy to see who she ended up with in the end. North Carolina, library, stained glass and bookstores? A dream book!
NetGalley thank you for the opportunity to enjoy this. Stephanie Perkins, I loved this book!!

Thank you to Netgally and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this ARC 💕

FMC - Ingrid: 4 🌟
MMC - Macon: ♾️ 🌟
Spice: 🌶

LIKES: I absolutely adore Macon. He is one of the most sweet, thoughtful, respectful, wonderfully green flag men I've ever read 💕

The book was well-written and possibly one of the most realistic romance novels I've read in a while. I liked all the characters, and I was so beyond happy that Ingrid and Cory managed to stay friends in the end!

DISLIKES: It is a verrrrrrrrrry long slow-burn and slow-moving plot. I was a little disappointed that it took that long for Ingrid and Macon to become an item, though it warmed my heart when they did finally make their feelings known.

And throughout Ingrid's Tinder adventures, which I felt was my least favorite part of the book, I didn't like how she ended things with Gareth. But that's just a small tidbit I didn't like :p



While it wasn't the most memorable romance book I've read, looking back on it now that I've finished it, I genuinely enjoyed it! I appreciate how real the characters and their experiences are, making it a relatable and sweet romance story that I'm so happy I had the chance to read 😊

Favorite scene: Ingrid and Macon's first "I love you"s

Overdue is a love letter to late bloomers, quiet libraries, and the terrifying freedom of rewriting your life.

Stephanie Perkins delivers a deeply human story about Ingrid—a librarian who’s always played it safe—stepping out of a decade-long relationship and into the uncertainty of wanting more.

The romance between Ingrid and Macon isn’t flashy or instant; it unfolds in dog-eared pages, whispered jokes, overgrown gardens, and the spaces between what’s said and what’s felt. Honest, awkward, and full of charm,

Overdue is a reminder that real love doesn’t always come with fireworks—sometimes it arrives with a cup of coffee and a question you’ve never dared to ask.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Stephanie Perkins for the ARC!