While not my favorite by Josie Silver, I still really enjoyed. I felt like it lacked Silver's typically ability to evoke deep emotions while reading. This one was more fun and light. While it's a romance, the main plot is more about the main character becoming a ghost writer and her journey to self-discovery. I felt the romance portion was a bit rushed and was hoping the letters to "H" would end differently. This is a fun light-hearted read with a unique plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Slow Burn Summer is the third of Silver's books that I've read, and I've enjoyed them all. The concept of Kate being a "ghost author" was completely unique, and the result was a super delightful read. Kate's character was utterly relatable and likeable (her relationship with her big sister and protector even more so!), and she felt like a good friend. Romance is certainly a big part of the story, and Charlie is a wonderful love interest, but at the heart of it, Slow Burn Summer is really about Kate herself and her self-discovery and growth. I loved it!

While I enjoyed the book, I feel like the characters didn’t have enough chemistry and the romance was just not there for me. It did not get me feeling the deep emotions I usually have

Slow Burn Summer was yet another endearing read from Josie Silver. I love a book with a cast of quirky, fun characters, and this fit the bill.

The book's highlight was not the romance but the delightful relationship between Kate and her sister.

The “slow burn” in the title was a bit of a miss, as the romance felt rather abrupt and undeveloped. I would’ve loved more of a slow burn.

Overall, the storyline was fresh, and it was a fun read! A solid four stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book comes with love, sweetness and a splash of humor! While I enjoyed the book, I feel like the characters didn’t have enough chemistry and the romance was just not there for me. It did not get me feeling the deep emotions I usually have while reading a romance. Furthermore, I was not fully immersed into the book while reading it. The setting fit the storyline and it was beautifully written. I do feel that it is an overall good book for the Summer! I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars rating.

Slow Burn Summer is about a thirty-nine year old divorcee woman named Kate who is seeking a job and a guy named Charlie who is a talent agent. Charlie is also a divorcee and is seeking out someone to play the author of a book. Kate ends up being the novelist who plays the romance author. Does this story end up as a happily ever after between the two of them or do they go their separate ways?

Thank you to NetGalley, author Josie Silver, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for this digital advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Forgive me if this review makes no sense- I'm operating on almost no sleep. Darn book kept me up most of the night!

Books in this category have a formula- this did not past the predictable HEA. But even if there had been no HEA or even romantic male lead, there would have been a really good book (but he's a good addition so happy he's there!). It's so unpredictable and went to crazy unexpected places- I mean a man in a t-rex costume driving on a motorway is so unexpected. I kept trying to guess what was going to happen but the book goes to such better places. And the writing is fun and some truly laugh outloud comments. And it sticks with you- I kept putting it down last night to go to sleep and would lie there thinking about it and deciding "one more chapter won't hurt." But the chapters are really short, so why not one more? I finally went to sleep with 30 minutes left and sat at a restaurant finishing it during dinner. trying not to be seen crying.

Also- this book is glorious is the logistics of publishing! I love logistics! 10 stars!

There are some handwritten notes in the book which are pretty important to the plot. They could not be seen on the kindle. That was annoying. Not as annoying as books with lots of texts which also can't be seen on kindle, but annoying still. You would think by now publishers would know their way around that.

My only gripe is the title. Has little to do with the book. She threw "slow burn" into the last couple chapters a bunch of time as if her editor had the same note and they decided to slip it in. I worry the title will discourage people---- ignore it and focus on the description. If you love books, you'll really love this one.

I loved this book and could not put it down. There is definitely a slow burn romance that I adored along with hilarious banter between the love interests. However, I laughed out loud at the banter between the female main character and her sister, along with the hilarious emails between the FMC and a reclusive author.

The premise is that newly divorced and broke former actress Kate takes a job posing as the author of a romance written by a popular writer in another genre who does not want to be connected to the romance book. Kate’s musings, observations, and views are hilarious and kept me reading.

However, the book also has emotional resonance in discussing grief and surviving, all with an upbeat resolution. At the risk of being trite, this was my ultimate feel good book, and I am going to reread it.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for allowing me to read this book early. The opinion in this review is my own.

Kate is a former actress who has gone through a rough patch. She needs to find a new job, and through a series of circumstances, she gets a job acting as an author for an actual author who wants to remain anonymous because they don’t want to deal with publicity.

This started off great, and I loved the concept. It was an original idea. Unfortunately, the romance fell flat. It didn’t seem as though Kate and Charlie had any real chemistry, and the dialogue felt stilted. It was more insta-love than slow-burn. It was cute, and I would still recommend this book if you want a quick palate cleanser. It was still cute literary fiction with a subplot of romance.

Kate Elliot has a gap in her résumé—she started her career as a young actress but stepped away when she met and married her husband. Now, twenty years later, she has a 19-year-old daughter, Alice, an ex-husband, and a desire to return to the industry. Reconnecting with her former agent proves challenging when she learns he has passed away, leaving his son, Charlie Francisco, to take over. Charlie is also navigating his own past, dealing with a divorce and self-imposed exile from Hollywood. The two cross paths when Charlie offers Kate an unusual job: posing as the author of a book for interviews and publicity while the real writer remains anonymous. What could possibly go wrong?

I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but this book completely surprised me—in the best way! I devoured it in just two days. Kate and Charlie are adorable, Kate’s sister Liv is EVERYTHING, and the writing is so fluid and effortless that I was completely drawn in. Silver crafts a rom-com that goes beyond romance, exploring themes of grief, divorce, and starting over in your 30s with authenticity and depth. Perhaps most striking was the book’s take on internet culture—how quickly people can gang up on someone, the dangers of mob mentality, and the very real consequences of cancel culture.

What a fantastic novel—I highly recommend it, especially for fans of Emily Henry, Katherine Center, and Sarah Adams.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Loved this book! Josie Silver never disappoints and has quickly become an autobuy author for me. Definitely worth a read if you’ve liked her past work.

I really enjoyed this story. I like a romance that also addresses other adult topics like guilt and grief, stories that make you feel deeply for the characters and their struggles while also letting you cheer them on in their successes. This book does that. You just want them to succeed and figure out a way to get exactly what they want and what they deserve (that happy ending).

This is the first Josie Silver book I've read and I will be reading more of her stories.




Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for my honest review

I freaking loved this book. Kate is former actress with a daughter in college. When her marriage comes to a sad end, she moves into the apartment above her sister's shop and writes to her former agent to try to get a job to support herself. Unbeknownst to her, her agent has passed away and his son, Charlie, has taken his role. Charlie offers Kate a role as a ghost author - a new concept where she'll be playing the part of an author because the author doesn't want to put the book under their own name. When the book takes off, Kate finds herself in need of help in the form of her agent, and sparks fly between them. Can they both find the happiness that they deserve? Or will their work roles prevent them from finding true love?

I've said before that Josie Silver doesn't really write romances, but this one comes pretty close to the traditional romance formula. As close as Silver has ever come, anyway. Kate is willing to take any acting job to pay the bills, and Charlie needs someone to pose as the author of a romance novel, since the real author wants to stay anonymous. Hijinks ensue, but we all live happily ever after.

The "slow burn" of the title is more like "non-existent burn." Charlie and Kate are just suddenly attracted to each other after starting off not even particularly liking each other. I would have liked to see some more build-up to this, and some more reasons why it made sense. As it is, it comes off as though they're both thinking "well, you're here in front of me, and you're kinda cute, so . . ." Not a great basis for a romance. We know they're both coming off painful divorces, but we don't get a lot of back story on either of them -- Kate has the cliched cheating husband, but we never even find out exactly what went wrong between Charlie and his wife. Everyone's motivations are a little vague.

The actual author of the romance novel makes an appearance, and there's a silly scene where he's wearing a t-rex costume to avoid being recognized. But I felt like this part of the story didn't have the payoff that it deserved. To me it would have been more effective if the author had been Charlie's dad or Fiona. Having a relative stranger pop up as the author was pretty anticlimactic.

I liked that the whole "when will the deception be discovered" thing wasn't drawn out and silly. It happens quickly thanks to one person's bad behavior, and then we're dealing with the consequences, rather than watching while everyone tries to keep the secret under wraps. I did think the potential consequences were a bit exaggerated. Kate was doing what she was paid to, and this was hardly the kind of thing that would ruin her life. So I could have done without all the excess drama around that, as if it were the end of the world.

I liked the sister. Not sure why a pregnancy needed to be thrown in there.

Overall not bad, but not my favorite of Josie Silver's books. It lacks the heartstrings-pulling of some of her other books, it has some loose ends that need to be tidied up, some characters who could use some fleshing out, and some storylines that tucker out into nothing. But still charming, and romance-ish enough to satisfy rom-communists. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book!

Recently divorced Kate is looking to restart her career as an actress. The problem is that the only gig she can find is pretending to be the author of a moving romance novel. The actual author has no interest in press or having their name associated with the work so it’s up to Kate to promote the novel as if it were her own. It’s more complicated that she could have imagined, but Kate’s sister and her handsome talent agent are here to help.

The plot was fun and while I would have loved more scenes/development between Kate and Charlie, I thought they were a cute match. A sweet read if you’re looking to relax and unplug.



Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

3.5 stars! I enjoyed this book and love Josie’s writing style! I really enjoyed the plot about ghost authors. I loved the bookish references and content; how reading a romance book(specifically the book in the story) affects readers. That felt relatable!

A lot of the details made things seem slow. There were a lot of chapters and it was a lot of information. And I think that made me feel that the romance aspect was underwhelming. (The slow burn was tooo slow)

Overall, nice read!

I thought this was going to be a regular old romance but this is definitely more of a woman's fiction novel. Lots of describing pretty outfits and mainly about the process of publishing a novel that isn't under your actual name, essentially a ghost author. Was pretty slow and this id for sure more of a slow burn romance as well. Not one of my favorites by far but for sure people who love Danielle Steele.

I love a good Josie Silver book, so I was excited when this came up on NetGalley. The book centers around Kate, a divorcee who is trying to start over and gets the opportunity of a lifetime…a chance to be the public face of a novel whose author does not want recognition for it. In the middle of it is her new agent Charlie, the son of her former agent from long ago.

I enjoyed Kate as a character and was rooting for her the whole time. I just felt that the romance lacked the sparks that I’m used to reading in Silver’s books.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

Josie, Josie, Josie... she can do no wrong! This story took me in and left me wanting more. I adored the characters, and the setup of the plot was refreshing and fun. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

LOVE a slow burn romance and this had the right amount of yearning for me to make it through the whole thing even though I think I am not in the mood for romance anymore. I enjoyed this book, I liked the simple story line, I like that the characters were older and actually acted their age when in a lot of rom coms the characters who are grown adults act like they 16 and it is just so off putting.

Overall I liked it and I would recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a good old rom com with a summery vibe.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Josie Silver never disappoints! I liked this book a lot, especially the two main characters. The plot had lots of holes. I actually would have liked to see more of them together, which is the only reason I'm rating it 4 instead of 5. Also the title makes no sense.