I wanted so badly to love this book based on the description and my love for Emma Lord's YA novels but it missed the mark for me. The chapters with Mack and Sam's chemistry were electric but the surrounding plot line didn't catch my attention. I honestly was also distracted by all the kitschy names of the bands and app and I couldn't move past it.

This was a fun, feel good book that's perfect for the summer. With second chance and forced proximity tropes, we get to follow Mack and Sam's lovestory from both their POVs as they go from flirtatious rivals from their former bands to collaborators who can't help falling in love. Sam is a sweet and earnest MMC and I am always a sucker when the man falls first. The third act twist was believable and not a frustrating miscommunication that we often encounter in the genre. And the epilogue ending was truly one of my favorites! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This was really cute! I loved the romance and the music plot. I found some of the book confusing and wish we got to see a little bit more of flashbacks to their time together before in the bands. But it's a really cute read

For The Record is a perfectly fine romance with a fun premise. I personally had a difficult time connecting with the main characters and couldn’t necessarily relate to their conflicts but I thought the romance was enjoyable and the banter was playful. While I think that most romance readers will come away liking the book, I don’t know if there’s much in For The Record that might warrant a reread.

Thank you so much for letting me read this book! Both my tween, teen daughters & i adored it. We love Emma Lord and appreciate her cute, sweet characters with a fun plot. Thank you!!

I can always count on Emma Lord to deliver when it comes to Rom-coms. I loved everything about this book. The characters show so much growth throughout the course of this book. I will absolutely read anything this author writes.

This was an enjoyable second chance romance. I like following Mackenzie and Sam in this story and enjoyed their interactions with one another. This was a quick and fun read that was easy to fly through.

Read this if you like:

📖 Second chance romance
📖 Dual POV
📖 Pop stars & rockstars

Thank you to @youhadmeathea for the gifted copy.

Cute, somewhat slow moving, and the personal journey angles seemed a bit "meh". I got lost in the weeds a bit with what they could and couldn't do with the record label, the music Tik Tok thing, etc. but it didn't really detract from the story for me. The friends' friendships were more interesting to me than the love interest. This reminds me of a fun but not particularly memorable pop song.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love when characters in a romance novel are famous, and in this book the two leads are famous singers from former rival bands. I loved learning the history between the two characters and learning their rivalry may have been something else in disguise. I enjoyed this book and enjoy a lot of what Emma Lord has written. Can't wait to read more of her in the future.

2.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mackenzie (think TSwift) and Sam (punk rockstar) reunite for a second chance romance that doesn’t completely come together. This is more adult than Lords previous YA novels. That part I didn’t mind however the characters fell a bit flat and underdeveloped. I found myself struggling to get through some parts and was a bit relieved to finish the book altogether.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the arc.

I'm a sucker for a good second chance romance so For the Record definitely worked for me. I devoured this! I fell in love with the characters, music scene and romance.

This is a second chance romance and let me tell you it delivers on angst. Mackenzie and Sam had a lot of messy history and have to work together again on new music. The forced proximity and history between these two brought so much great tension. I gobbled it up.

The plot was fun. The side characters were great, especially liked the female friendships shown here. Plus we also get found family which is another trope I love. There were a lot of great elements blending together nicely.

A fun book, especially for the angst lovers.

i love how cute this was. the cover is perfect and if you love romcom you will want to check this one out. emma lord has amazing books

3.75 Stars

This was my first novel by Emma Lord and she will be going on my immediate read list! I am a sucker for a good second chance romance and this one delivered.

If you love music, rivalries, angst and some snark you will love this book. I think the FMC had some good growth and development throughout the book, but there were times where the characters fell kind of flat. The friendships in this novel were amazing and very much give off the "
found family" vibe, which I absolutely love to see.

The novel is dual POV, which gives us a great balance between the two main characters. But I felt the tension between them was gone too quickly; I would have loved for it to simmer on a bit more.

Overall this was a decent, quick read and I would recommend it!

Thank you to NetGallery and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read this eARC!

Unfortunately I did not like this book. It was completely unrealistic to what the music industry is actually like, and it made it hard to comfortable suspend my disbelief. It reminded me of the way I thought the music industry worked when I was 12 writing Jonas Brothers fan fiction, but somehow it knew less than I did at that age. It felt very strange to me and it just made it unenjoyable.

I received an advanced-reader-copy in exchange for an honest book review. Thank you, NetGalley.

Marketed for fans of Emily Henry and Daisy Jones and the Six (both of which I am avid fans of), I was very excited to get an early copy For the Record! I wouldn't exactly say it lived up to the hype though...

I just might market it as something more akin to The Spanish Love Deception (lovey dovey) or Tessa Bailey's novels (loose interpretation of "enemies" to lovers).

Don't get me wrong, the writing was great, the characters were likeable (though wish there we got to know them a bit better), the plot was cute (though perhaps a bit rushed). Call me pessimistic, but I'm personally not a fan of super lovey-dovey, cutesy, sunshine-y characters. And that's what this felt like. Sure, it wasn't always positive, there was some growth - but they were just a little too set in their love and not enough angst for me. I like those raw negative emotions (because hello, I deal with those every day and that's what realistic for me), but that's just me! That's not to say another reader wouldn't enjoy this novel :)

Personally this book is a little too slow for me. I also can’t get the Taylor swift parallels out of my head. I do love Ben though I think his character is really cute. If you enjoy a slow burn and singer rivalry/romance this book will be perfect for you.

This book was a little slow to start. It is described as “perfect for fans of Daisy Jones & The Six”, but the vibe is not as compelling as Daisy in style or compelling characters.

For the Record is a second chance, enemies to lovers trope with a dual POV. Two musicians in rival bands, Mackenzie Waters and Sam Blaze have a simmering do they or don’t they thing going on that guarantees the public can’t get enough. But eventually both bands fall apart, and so does whatever relationship Mackenzie and Sam have. Two years later, both are trying to revive their careers, but according to their record labels, neither is enough of a draw on their own. Both have to get on board with a joint album, and they have to sort out their feelings for each other.

It does pick up in the second half a bit when Sam finds out that he’s a dad to a four-year-old boy, doing everything he can to make up for lost time devote with his son. Meanwhile, Mac has had a surgery, which alters her vocal chords and changes her singing voice. She creates an alter ego, Seven. No one realizes Seven is actually Mac and Seven blows up on the internet. I felt like that story line could have been much more interesting.

The chemistry finally starts to become interesting , and after 100 pages, or so, I was in the story, and it was interesting enough to finish.

Emma Lord is an auto-read author for me, I love all of her books. This one was no different in that I did very much enjoy it, but I did find myself lost sometimes while reading, like for example when something was mentioned that I don’t remember them talking about before. The pacing was also a little challenging for me. I feel like they glossed over things I would have liked more detail on and were detailed and occasionally repetitive on things that I felt like were already well established. But I really liked all the characters and their dynamics with each other.

Oh my. When I saw that this book was being described as perfect for Emily Henry / Daisy Jones fan I knew I had to read it.

The story follows Mackenzie and Sam, two musicians in two different bands.
They are known for the rivalry on stage. Two years after both bands have split, Mackenzie and Sam find themselves back in each other's orbits to record an album together.

I didn't really vibe with this one at first. I found the writing to be leaning towards more of a YA book. Some of the banter was too goofy and had me cringing. I wasn't feeling the vibe with the FMC/MMC up until about 70%. I will give this 3.5 stars because I loved how things started to wrap up near the end, even had me a bit teary eyed.

Craaaaaaaaaaaack!

What's that sound, you say?

It's the sound of this author striking the ball with all the bases loaded and achieving a grand slam !

First, it's a love story. Yes, it's about Mack and Sam. It's also a love story for Mack herself. Who she is now? Where does she see herself going personally? professionally?

Secondly, it's a story about growth and timing. When the two concepts are equally present and balanced, what can blossom ?

Thirdly, it's about the non-conventional definition of a 'family'. Both Sam's and Mack's aren't the traditional variety and their characters are the better for it.

And, finally, it's a reminder that there are authors you should stick to even if her former one "The Rival" didn't meet expectations, they still can bring the magic.....


This ARC was provided by the publisher, St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.