I got the ARC and I absolutely wasn’t sleeping until I finished! This was such a perfect story to start this series my new grumpy x sunshine favorite! I adored Willa and Archer- they were made for each other! This book was the Perfect blend of conflict/ struggles, sweet moments, kisses, and funny/ banter moments between the two. I am now so ready for Sophie’s story! I loved the touch of the magic- the closet portal- such a fun element to the story.

I’ve read indie author Emma St Clair’s Love Cliches series and really liked it, so I was eager to get my hands on this book, The Serendipity, which is the first in a new series about a magical match-making apartment block.

In this first book we meet Willa and Archer. Archer is the new owner of The Serendipity. He is hiding out in Serendipity Springs to escape the media frenzy surrounding his father’s arrest and pending incarceration. His plan is to distract himself from the chaos of his life by overhauling the building — tenants included.

Willa is a down on her luck baker. She’s suffered a few romantic and professional hiccups and has found new beginnings in the whimsical building until the stiff and serious Archer descends to wreck it all.

The building intervenes in a very Narniaish way and the pair find that the harder they try to avoid each other, the more they seem to find and fall for each other.

Emma St Clair has the uncanny ability to make lobsters funny. I liked her Love Cliches series, because it had all the cliches and tropes with none of the cheese. In this book however the cheese factor was a little higher.

This book also didn’t have as many periphery characters storylines — which was one of the things that I liked a lot in Love Cliches. I suspect this is because their stories will probably feature in the other books but the tidbits of it in this book left me feeling a little unsatisfied.

As did the ending. To me it felt like the story was just getting going when suddenly it ended — without a big romantic gesture or the main characters’ triumphant moments. The story seemed to be building towards it when it suddenly changed gears, which was a little anticlimactic.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, which was a quick, clean, uncomplicated read that made me giggle.

I think the series’ interlinked plots, multiple authors and covers that fit together like a puzzle — is clever and innovative. I am holding thumbs that it works.

I’ve read indie author Emma St Clair’s Love Cliches series and really liked it, so I was eager to get my hands on this book, The Serendipity, which is the first in a new series about a magical match-making apartment block.

In this first book we meet Willa and Archer. Archer is the new owner of The Serendipity. He is hiding out in Serendipity Springs to escape the media frenzy surrounding his father’s arrest and pending incarceration. His plan is to distract himself from the chaos of his life by overhauling the building — tenants included.

Willa is a down on her luck baker. She’s suffered a few romantic and professional hiccups and has found new beginnings in the whimsical building until the stiff and serious Archer descends to wreck it all.

The building intervenes in a very Narniaish way and the pair find that the harder they try to avoid each other, the more they seem to find and fall for each other.

Emma St Clair has the uncanny ability to make lobsters funny. I liked her Love Cliches series, because it had all the cliches and tropes with none of the cheese. In this book however the cheese factor was a little higher.

This book also didn’t have as many periphery characters storylines — which was one of the things that I liked a lot in Love Cliches. I suspect this is because their stories will probably feature in the other books but the tidbits of it in this book left me feeling a little unsatisfied.

As did the ending. To me it felt like the story was just getting going when suddenly it ended — without a big romantic gesture or the main characters’ triumphant moments. The story seemed to be building towards it when it suddenly changed gears, which was a little anticlimactic.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, which was a quick, clean, uncomplicated read that made me giggle.

I think the series’ interlinked plots, multiple authors and covers that fit together like a puzzle — is clever and innovative. I am holding thumbs that it works.

#onlymagicinthebuilding #NetGalley

Set in the New England small town of Serendipity Springs, Archer purchases The Serendipity apartment building and sets about making changes. He is perplexed when one of the tenants Willa shows up in his new apartment claiming to have been transported there from her closet two floors below. Willa is struggling to keep her bakery open and pushes back against Archer's changes that would mean closing her business. After starting off on the wrong foot, they start to work together to help the building.

What a fun read! It had a touch of magic while also dealing with heavier issues. I thought the author did a great job handling the anxiety topic. I can't wait to read more in the series!

Things I loved:
Magical Realism
Grumpy/Sunshine
Billionaire MMC
Baker FMC
Anxiety Rep (and therapy)
The (o)possum
Cookie Decorating
"Willa the Person"
Dual POV

5 / 5 stars

Closed door / kissing only

Thank you to the author, Victory Editing, and NetGalley for this eARC!

This book was so good. I cannot resist a hero that is not perfect!

Archer has just purchased The Serendipity, an apartment building in Serendipity falls. He has plans to make changes and make this a profitable business. However, the building has other plans. He cannot get anything done and his cookie baker tenant keeps showing up in his closet.

Willa is struggling to keep her bakery business open. If the new owner raises rent and makes her start paying for the use of the kitchen, she will close for sure. She wants to dislike him, but she sees a vulnerability in him that she recognizes in herself. Before she knows it she is helping him with the building.

This is such a cute book, but it does touch on some serious issues like agoraphobia, anxiety, and panic attacks. I love it when an author inserts real issues into books. I can only stand so much perfect in a book. It made the characters feel more relatable. The banter between the main characters was cute and fun. I appreciate a good, closed-door romance and this book delivered.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for this title. This was my honest review.

Loved this book. A quick easy read that was a fun adventure, a little bit of Harry Potter’s moving staircases morphed with a grownup love story. I genuinely liked both main characters almost from the start and was cheering them on the whole way. I particularly appreciated each one’s coming to the other’s rescue, a mutual “I’ve got your back.” Looking forward to the other books in the series as well as the Bellamy bonus.

A new multi-author series based in an apartment building with a little light magic - sign me up! It is standalone so you can read it without reading the other in the series which have not been released yet.

This book had laugh out loud moments. I enjoyed the comedic nature of this story and the personalities of both of the leads. I also liked the side characters, so much so that I intend to read the rest of the series - I'm particularly looking forward to Sophie's story.

I receive complimentary books for various sources, including Netgalley, Authors, and other such sources. I am not required to write a positive review and have not received compensation.

What do you get when you put two people with very different but equally severe anxiety issues together??? This story!
Our MMC seems to lean to a need for order, for alone time, quiet, alone time and then not being around people???? 😂 With his trusty side kick, his version of Alfred (the only person he can stand) Bellamy, he moves to a small city to buy an old building to renovate.

Inside are a bunch of quirky people. The building is barely holding on and everyone living there is nutty in some way! From birds with anger problem, to a grandma you wouldn’t wanna mess with, they are all living in bliss. Cheap rent, fun neighbors and even a roof top garden.
But when the rich snob from New York buys it, determined to turn a profit, all their lives become chaos and the building isn’t gonna let that happen.

Imagine you are in your closet looking for your favorite sweater, when you blink and are suddenly somewhere else, an empty closet and you’re not staring at the most handsome man you’ve ever seen. What the heck are you gonna tell him that with end somewhere other than the back of a police car???

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the e-arc!!

this was so cute!! i didn't realise this was part of a series when i requested it so now i'll have to hunt the rest of it down. this was short, yes, but it was also such a cozy romcom with magical building shenanigans, and i absolutely loved the characters!! ahhh i haven't read a good grump x sunshine romance in awhile and this was it.

i have to say i love the setting of the story in the Serendipity. the whole kookie, financially struggling baker and the jaded billionaire cynic who bought the building really was very cute. i loved reading the interactions between Willa and Archer. their banter was so cute, and truly that is all i can say. through cookies and experiencing life (ie grocery shopping and attending a kid's birthday party), it is nice to see them grow as people first and as a couple later on. i just wish we got to see more of how they dealt with (spoilers!!) Willa's agoraphobia and Archer's anxiety other than just plonking in therapy.

i am very interested to see what happens with Sophie and her UFO (unidentifiable floral object), or even Bellamy (the mvp of this book).

I really like how our two main characters come together for this one. I appreciate an authors talent all the more when tropes(don't get me wrong we love them) are done better or done without the "oh this again" I got none of that here and just soaked it all up.
It was a talent too to make the length of books like this still a success in showing depth and growing romance between our two main characters.
The whimsical edge has me stumped at first. I went into it unsure. But shame on me! This was done so well. No,no better than we'll. Brilliantly. It added more to it infact.
I also can't wait to know more of the others in the building and think it a gem of an idea to do s series with each book revealing each of the residents stories via each book.

Absolutely adorable and fun!!

I have enjoyed every Emma St Clair book I've read so far! She makes all her characters fun and relatable and draws me right into the story.

I think this series is such a unique idea! The magic building aspect could have been so corny BUT it was handled so well and was so clever! I enjoyed the Narnia type aspect. Willa and Archer are so cute I just couldn't stand it.

I'm very excited to see where the series goes!

This book was such a fun and magical read! I absolutely loved the idea of having a magical building bring people together. The concept was perfectly executed.
The pacing was fast but not too fast and I felt like it hit everything I could possibly want. I really loved the depth we got from Willa and Archer. I enjoyed how the growth they had not only together but personally. They were characters I could relate to very easily and I enjoyed that a lot.
I honestly loved this book! It was an easy five stars for me!

Such a cute, heart-warming story about two protagonists who are navigating life with hardships in their past, but brought together through the magical building, The Serendipity, a historical building in Serendipity Springs. Archer buys the building and attempts to bulldoze his way in, without realizing the history or inhabitants of it. I adored Willa, and her ability to see the good in Archer despite his grumpy demeanor. The details in the building are so magical, which makes sense as the first of a building series. The magical realism felt cute and well done, as a hard-to-believe magical element bringing the two together. The inclusion of anxiety and deception were an added bonus and I adored Bellamy, the foil to Archer. Hoping Sophie and Bellamy get a story in the series!

One thing about Emma St. Clair is that she'll make you fall in love with romance. There's just something about her books that make you feel giddy. This book took that giddiness up a notch. The description of the book is definitely accurate. It is ✨️ Magical ✨️

First some details about the book:
It is a cute rom-com with no spice but lots of swoonworthy moments
It is grumpy×sunshine with a touch of magic *wink*
It is set in a small town
It is a standalone but there are more books to come which will probably be set at the same place

Now let's get to how much I'm obsessed with it.
The book was a perfect blend of emotional, swoony and funny. If you know me then you know that I love me a grumpy man whose soft at the inside and Archer was absolute perfection. I loved him so much and him along with our sunshine girlie Willa were a match made in heaven. I loved everything about this book from plot to characters to side characters (yes I'm especially talking about Bellamy) to setting to literally everything!! I ate this book up, right from the dedication down to the acknowledgement I couldn't stop, I was hooked that's why I'm calling it Magical, it sucked me right into its world.

I'm really excited for more books to come in this series I have huge expectations after this gem of a first book.

Archer acaba de comprar el Serendipity, un edificio de departamentos y espera convertirlo en departamentos de lujo. Para lograrlo, tendrá que sacar a todas las personas que viven allí. Wilma tiene un negocio de repostería que no está siendo tan exitoso como esperaba, y, por si fuera poco, Archer quiere cobrarle por usar la cocina del edificio. Desde el primer momento en que se conocen, sus personalidades chocan, y aunque intentan mantenerse alejados, el Serendipity tiene otros planes y hará su magia para juntarlos.


~

Necesito saber la historia de Bellamy.
Aprendí algo nuevo: siempre creí que solo existía un tipo de agorafobia, pero en realidad hay varios.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a sweet and easy read! The relationship between the two main characters felt a little rushed but I still adored them together and really appreciated how well they cared for and understood each other! I would've loved to have seen more depth to the characters and how they worked through their respective struggles (separately and also together). I enjoyed the touch of magical realism in this book; it always brings a fun element to stories. I couldn't stop giggling and laughing out loud!

Thank you so much Emma St. Clair and NetGalley for the ARC!!!

Review posted on Goodreads 2/28

This is another amazing work of Emma St. Claire that I loved reading. The plot, the characters, everything is well written and the story kept me hooked to the pages.

This was such a cute and light romance read. Set in the magical Serendipity Springs, our broody (but big softy at heart) MMC, Archie purchases the Serendipity—a renowned apartment building known for its magic and luck in the heart of the city. He meets our FMC, Willa, a resident of the building, when she stumbles out of his closet.

The characters were so likeable and quirky, I instantly liked everyone.

I wish the author had let the magic the building holds be more prominent in the story. I was looking forward to all the ways a magical building could help our MCs with development their romance.

This book was magic! I am now obsessed with Serendipity Springs and want to move into The Serendipity as ASAP as possible! Willa and Archer are two of the sweetest protagonists, ever. I loved everything about them including their imperfections which were, in all honesty, charming. I enjoyed the magical elements of the story and was drawn into the entire concept of it. This was a read in one sitting romance and has me thirsting for more! I’m giving THE SERENDIPITY the judy.ann.loves.books stamp of approval, TBR and Enjoy!

i adored this read from Emma St. Clair! I cannot count how many times i laughed out loud! I love love love love the grumpy x sunshine trope! and this one had an age gap too! I couldn’t get enough of this story!

this was such a cute story. I liked the little bit of magical realism and I loved all of the baking details. I have ran a home bakery. I dont do sugar cookies, but I definitely know the effort that goes into those details. I appreciated that a lot of those details about drying and icing consistency were included.

I plan to share this title on Wednesday, March 5th on my instagram.

www.instagram.com/robinashleyreads