I was so excited to be approved for the ARC of Heart Strings, especially having read Morbidly Yours! I love that we've returned to Galway in the same friend group, but nothing about this story felt repetitive or redundant next to Morbidly Yours. Some interconnected stories can start to feel like the same thing told in different fonts, over and over. But Lo and Aiden are so very different than Lark and Callum that this book very much has it's own identity.

I want to start off by saying that I absolutely adore Lo as an FMC. We got a little taste of her in Morbidly Yours, but I still wasn't too sure what to expect. She absolutely exceeded my expectations and is such a strong and empowering lead. Her incredibly moving backstory behind why she wants to be a doctor really catapulted the book into unexpected territory in the best way.

Aiden is less of a pop-star type than I anticipated and more heart-sick puppy folk singer. This was actually a HUGE relief because I was worried he wasn't going to be down to earth and likeable as someone with a celebrity status, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. He is DOWN SO BAD for Lo and I LIVE for it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Heart Strings and am VERY excited to eventually live in a world where a third book in this universe may exist, because my heart longs for Saoirse's story, too!

This is book two in the Love in Galway series, focusing on Lo, a med student, and Aiden, who has recently left law to pursue a music career. Their relationship ended a few years before the start of the book.

The two of them are abruptly brought back together at the wedding of Cal and Lark (from the first book) as they are maid of honor and best man. As they begin to spend more time together planning the wedding, the bad place their relationship had been towards the end of it begins to repair itself.

The remainder of the book focuses on the returning relationship between Lo and Aiden, as well as their respective careers and personal and family hardships they face.

If you liked Morbidly Yours, you will really enjoy Heart Strings!

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a review.

Absolutely LOVED this story. It was an addicting read and I couldn’t put it down! The characters were so fun and lovable

Thank you so much to Ivy Fairbanks and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for the eARC. I absolutely love Ivy's writing! This book is one i've been so excited to read after reading Morbidly Yours. If you loved that one you will absolutely love this one! Ivy is definitely an auto read author added to my list!!

Loved the continuation of Aidan and Cielo's story in Galway. The settings are beautifully described and made me feel immersed in the castles and pubs. Makes me want to pack up and to go Ireland. Cieolo and Aiden are layered characters that have a deep devotion to eachother and their families. They both have generous hearts. I appreciated the maturity and communication even when facing scary and challenging life circumstances. Sweet, romantic, funny, and enjoyable. Another great book from Ivy!

This was an easy to digest quick read. I’d consider it a decent vacation book. It had its cute moments & even though I didn’t realize this is the 2nd book of an interconnected series, I still enjoyed the parts surrounding Lark & Callum’s wedding more than the story of Lo & Aidan. (Note to self to check out the 1st book) I couldn’t quite connect with either main character and found the constant situations they were put in to be a little juvenile and too much for one book. There was a conflict at the end that felt forced and out of character for those involved, all to just end up being a non issue that left me asking why?? I liked the representation and again there were some cute moments, but this second chance romance was not a love for me.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Heart Strings is a great second book to Morbidly Yours. We get to follow Cielo (Lo) and Aiden rekindle their relationship.

This is a second chance romance that does deal with familial trauma, cancer, and trust issues. I think Ivy Fairbanks did a great job at creating tension surrounding the trauma of the characters without it feeling forced or ruining the story. You do not need to read Morbidly Yours to understand and enjoy this book but it adds to it. Plus Morbidly Yours was so good, it is worth the read.

I loved how independent and strong Lo was but I did want to yell at her about seeing a therapist quite a few times in the book 😂 Overall though, a fantastic book and I am super looking forward to the next book!

I loved this one!! The characters, the story, the writing! So good and happy I got to read it.

Thank you NetGalley and Ivy Fairbanks!

I’ve never read a book by this author before but after a few chapters I was an immediate fan! Such a perfect cozy read!

They fell hard and fast but when Aiden was granted the opportunity to kickstart his career they broke up. Two years have gone by, Aiden’s first album was a huge success but he can’t stop writing about Cielo. Now they’re forced to get along during her cousins romantic wedding weekend.

Heart strings is a sweet and spicy second chance romance novel with a gorgeous setting.

Cielo aka Lo is an incredible fmc, she’s my favorite part of this novel hands down. She’s been thru a lot. Battling cancer, dealing with her family and a rough breakup. You can’t help but root for her

The ending leaves more to be desired, it’s a little rushed and I still have questions. Other than that I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Ivy Fairbanks books in the future.

Read this if you like
🧡Second chance romance
🎶Singer songwriter x med student
🔥Spice
💫Forced proximity

**Thank you Netgalley for the arc**

3.75 rounded up

I enjoyed this book. The characters had good chemistry.
I love the plus size representation with Lo and Aidan was a great mmc who is just so in love.

The beginning was a little slow for me but the middle and end really picked up.

THIS WAS SOOOO CUTE!!!! I honestly loved this! The only part i didn’t love was reading the song lyrics but everything else was perfection

I read or listened to over 300 books in 2024 and “Morbidly Yours” by Ivy Fairbanks, the first book in this series, was in my top 20. That book was just 100% perfection to me. I was so excited to be approved for the ARC for Heartstrings, book two in the Love in Galway series.

This book was fine, but didn’t hit me in quite the same way. Every once in a while, I’m really struck with the fact that a single POV would have been a stronger choice and this is one of those books. Don’t get me wrong, Aidan is a dream. I love the way he cared for Lo exactly as she was and how she needed him. But because we had his POV through it all and knew how GONE he was for her, the book lacked that swoony tension that makes a romance really sing for me.

I didn’t hate this at all and will for sure without a doubt keep reading Ivy Fairbanks’ books (I cannot wait for Saoirse & Gabe!). I was just wanting a repeat of the extreme butterflies I felt with Callum and Lark and it wasn’t quite there for me.

I received this book as an Advanced Readers Copy via NetGalley. It releases on Aug 12, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an advance copy.

———— All thoughts are my own.

3.75 ⭐️
ARC / Releases August 12, 2025

From the first line, I was already enjoying being back in Galway.

I’d definitely recommend reading the first book, Morbidly Yours, before starting this one.

I was excited to get to this one because I went through a rockstar romance phase and I was ready to jump back into that kind of setting. This hit different than those. This was deep and also had some humor. Aiden is adorably handsome when in the presence of Cielo. A singer-songwriter who loses his muse when he gets the opportunity to pursue a music career and leaves the woman behind because she’s too scared to try after being let down time and time again by others in her life before.

I enjoyed the journey that Aidan and Cielo took for the most part, but I have to say it kind of dragged, and maybe that was a me thing. I wasn’t invested as much as I was with Callum and Lark. There were definitely some cute moments and there were some heavy moments. Maybe I would have liked to see their six months and then the heartbreak and then the reunion at the wedding. Not sure.

We get some potential crumbs for the next book, and I think that one will also be a hit.

Trigger warnings: Cancer/Leukemia; an overarching storyline for our female main character, Lo, throughout the book.

First and foremost, this was way hotter than I was expecting! I feel like the spicy scenes were extremely unique and very fun. The timeline was slightly confusing to me at the beginning but I think that’s just because it’s been a while since reading Morbidly Yours and I just needed to think back to it. I loved these characters though, they were awesome and it was really fun reading a bit more about Callum and Lark. The side characters were mostly great too, except Cielo’s mom! She was awful, I know it was intentional for the story but I had such a hard time any time they interacted. What a rough character. Aidan is a delight though. I did also get the feeling there was some set up for Saoirse to have her own story and I hope that’s the case!

LOVE when adults can actually work on their problems!
This was such a sweet and heartfelt read, I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to enjoy it through NetGalley.

There were things I loved about this book and things I didn't.
Lets start with the good:
-The Wedding: I adored getting to see so much of Lark and Callum. Larks love for her cousin was so sweet and the wedding shenanigans were so fun.
-The banter: Lo and Aidan are ex's now thrust back into each others orbits as best man and maid of honor for big wedding. I loved their banter and rivalry and the sass Lo was serving Aidan.
-The SPICE: there were some creative scenes in this one including dom/sub action but with Aidan as the sub, phone sex that included Aidan singing to Lo to give her some VIBES, and dare I say it??? There was action in a HEARSE!!!!!! That's a new one!

Now for the bad:
-Lo: I had a hard time understanding what happened between these 2 but I quickly found out that Lo dumped Aidan so HE could pursue his dream, completely ignoring his pleas to try and make the long distance work. She also manipulated him several times withholding information "to protect him" which is the type of miscommunication that I hate the most. There were so many issues that were easily avoidable if Lo had just talked about things like an adult instead of acting like a martyr the whole book. I get that she was going through a lot and she had issues but Aidan was so upfront and he didn't deserve the mistrust she had for him.

It's with a heavy heart I rate this book 3.5 stars. The spice was incredible and Aidan was a dream but Lo really dragged things down for me.

Thank you to Ivy Fairbanks, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and Netgalley for this arc!

5 stars
3 steamy kisses

One of the best books and sequels I've read so far this year hands down! I loved the amount of anguish portrayed in the characters emotions, banter, and in Adams case, lyrics too. This sweet and angsty second chance romance brings us back to Galway and seeing the wedding of two of my favorite fictional characters as the two exes work out their issues as strangers to friends to lovers all within a short time frame because once again these two soulmates are at a crossroads in life where their love will be tested if they decide to say goodbye now or share a heartbreaking goodbye later.

I cant wait to listen this story and hold a copy in my hands soon!

I highly recommend reading this story for fans of

Celebrity romance
Second chance
Fling to forever vibes
Forced proximity
Romcom vibes
Found family
Small town
Long distance

Stop the presses I just read my favorite romance book of 2025! This book was SO cute. All the feet kicking banter. I adored it all

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam in exchange for my honest review!

Since I loved the first book in this series, "Morbidly Yours," I was super excited to hear that Lo was getting her own story. When I saw it available on NetGalley- I immediately requested it.

If I am being honest, this book was cute- but not what I was hoping for. I felt kind of let down, and that might be on me for the expectation I had for Lo's character. Her sassiness was what made me excited to keep reading, but I found it difficult to want to pick up the book at times. What usually takes me a day or two to read an ARC, this took me way longer than expected.
is.

I loved getting to see Lark and Callum more, and the progression of their story- but the best part of this book truly was truly just the callbacks to the first book.

I would rate this 3 to maybe 3.5 stars. I am very thankful to have had a chance to read it, and I do love Ivy's writing style- so that is not something that will turn me off from future work- but this will not be a re-read for me.

Thank you again to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam, and Ivy for the chance to read this story.