Juniper is navigating the grief of losing her beloved podcast when she gets the chance to be part of the audiobook of her favorite paranormal romance series. Then, she finds out the other voice is someone she has a past with. She has to begrudgingly work with him for this opportunity, and that means she has to revisit the reasons things went wrong the first time around. This was about second chances, but also about revisiting some tough emotions from the first time around, namely around grief and loss. This was definitely an emotional read, but I loved how that realness was woven into the story and how Juniper figured out her way throughout. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the look at this September 2025 release!

This was an enjoyable read, even if the main character cried entirely too much. There was good chemistry between the two leads and humor throughout. Some of the podcast and industry stuff seemed a little dated. However, library patrons should enjoy this read.

To start I would like to thank Random House Publishing for providing me this ARC via Netgalley. I would rate the book a 3.25, as I enjoyed the book overall, but just felt the romance was too slow-burn for my preference. However the romance was cute and characters are so lovable. I would recommend this book to those that prefer a slow burn romance.

Firstly, thank you to Ashley Schumacher, NetGalley, and Penguin Random House, Del Ray, Random House Worlds, Inklore for early access to an ARC. All opinions are my own.

Sigh... I tried picking this eARC up multiple times before I finally sat down and pushed myself to finish it. I think I’m in the minority here, but Say It Out Loud just really didn’t click for me.

It had a sweet premise, and I actually enjoyed the Twilight-esque vibes throughout, but the FMC Juniper felt very immature for her age, and it completely took me out of the story. Her reasons for disliking the MMC James were flimsy at best, and there was a lot of blaming and floundering that didn’t feel like character growth. I went in expecting a romcom with a touch of magical realism, because that's what it was marketed as... but the “magic” elements were confusing or missing, and didn’t quite land for me.

The setup was fine, but halfway through, the pacing and relationship development got weird, and the flow just fell apart for me. I struggled to connect with or care about either of our main characters, which made it really hard to get invested in their romance.

I think my expectations were high because of the way the book was marketed, but ultimately, this one just didn’t work for me.

ARC Review: Say It Out Loud by Ashley Schumacher
Pub Date: September 30, 2025

Thank you Del Rey for the eARC and to @just_talking_to_myshelf and @bookswithnopictures for including me on the traveling ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

When Juniper was growing up, she and her mom loved to read the book series The Meadow. Now, years later and with her mom gone too soon, Juniper is struggling in her career and gets the opportunity of a lifetime - to narrate the new dramatized audiobooks for The Meadow. The only problem? She'll be narrating alongside James Neely - now a relatively famous actor but who once starred across her in a college adaptation of Romeo and Juliet who broke her heart.

Listen...this one is 100% for the Twilight girlies - of which I guess I am?? I did read the books as they came out and definitely went to see the movies. I'm not kidding when I tell you that The Meadow is Twilight but with different names. There are vampires, wolves, a human who just wants to become a vampire to be with her boyfriend. There are scenes (think the baseball scene) that are 100% from Twilight.

And you know what? I was fricken delighted by it! I just had such a fun time and was so excited with each Twilight reference (both overt and subtle). I hope my other traveling ARC readers enjoy my excitement! I will say that while we do get some snippets from their time narrating the audiobook, we don't actually get full scenes from The Meadow which I think was a great thing - that probably would have been a little too heavy handed.

I really liked Juniper and James' relationship and how they worked together when the other was struggling. I think both characters grew together and separately which made their relationship seem all the more real.

The ending really got me - I thought it was perfect and fit the characters so well. The little bit of "magic" (really more like coincidence) here was just lovely to see.

This book wasn’t really for me. It felt like quite a childish and immature concept and was executed in the same way. Maybe this was my issue as i went into it expecting an adult novel, and this was not that. I found myself not believing the connection between these characters and really can’t explain why.
One thing I did appreciate was the authors attention to the experience of grief. This was crafted with care and understanding and I related to the FMC because of that.

* I want to start by thanking the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced release copy of this book. Very good!

This book had a super interesting premise, but sadly I just couldn’t get into it.

The Twilight series was the first mainstream YA romance I ever read, so I was really excited to see how it inspired the audio drama and pop culture references here, but it ended being just exactly… Twilight… by another name. Not a bad thing necessarily, I think I was just personally hoping it would pull some inspiration and then take some interesting creative liberties.

I also struggled a bit with the pacing and writing style. Juniper had SO much inner monologue. Again, not always a bad thing when used to deliver really poignant reflections and emotions, but in this case it started to feel flat and repetitive. I found myself skimming entire pages which signals that the style isn't really working for me.

I think there’s absolutely an audience that will enjoy this book, it just wasn’t for me!

I really enjoyed this book and the nostalgia it gave me. Juniper and James were truly perfect for each other. The connection and mutual grief of both loosing their mothers. Over all loved this story but the ending was fantastic. James know exactly want he wanted and not caring what his dad wanted or thought was best for him.

Yay that was so cute!!! I had a really good time reading this and was hooked from the start! even though all of my fave tropes were present they still somehow felt new and different in here which i appreciate.

Review also posted on goodreads

Thank you Del Ray, Random House Worlds, Inklore for providing me with this ARC for free via NetGalley! All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, despite being a Twihard, this one just didn’t work for me. I found the pacing to be a bit off (e.g., introducing the fake dating trope halfway through) and the longer chapters had my attention waning.

I enjoyed all the Twilight references — they had me feeling very nostalgic. If you are intrigued by an Edward Cullen-esque MMC and enjoy a quieter kind of love with minimal spice, you could give this one a try.

this book gave me mixed feelings bc i liked the dynamic between juniper and james but at the same time i was kinda expecting more?? idk it just had a solid 3 star vibe overall, but i feel like if i were a twilight fan i probably would’ve enjoyed it more lmao

I truly enjoyed Ashley Schumacher's Say It Out Loud. It was laced with all of the nostalgia that I expected from reading the description. As someone who went through a massive Twilight phase in high school, I was able to relate to Juniper. The plot did often feel a little surface level, but the emotional growth Juniper and James go through makes it worth it. I do feel that some of the characters and actions didn't feel as fleshed out as I would have liked, but for a book based in nostalgia and reconnection it was enough. I highly recommend it for someone who is looking for a lighthearted read with emotional depth and who can relate to utilizing nostalgia to heal as an adult.

Say It Out Loud is a great adult rom‑com. Juniper Green was such a relatable character. Her overthinking is my every day life. I loved her and was rooting for her the entire book.

The novel is charming, funny, and heartfelt. It was a witty rom‑com that blends fake dating with second chances. I loved Juniper’s emotional journey and James’s grumpy‑tender character evolution.

The book felt very nostalgic, especially for those of us who grew up on vampire romance books.

If you love quirky, rom-coms, relatable characters, and a cozy/magical feeling, Say It Out Loud is a truly enjoyable read.

*Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this as an ARC.*

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review. The plot of this story was interesting and I was excited to read more. I was not a fan of the narrator and female main character as she was constantly negative, but would occasionally mention she had hope. The two narratives didn't add up for me. Several other components of her character came off as immature and those of a young adult, rather than a 32 year old. Some sentences were a bit wordy for my liking. I enjoyed the reference to the well known young adult Romantasy series from the 2000s!

As a 30 year old who read Twilight at 14 and loved it, I was excited for this! I was hoping for something that would feel like an homage to Twilight somehow — in tone, in aesthetic, in story — but also bring something new.

Unfortunately, it fell flat. It made a bunch of Twilight references (technically “The Meadows” references but they books are identical) without actually trying to emulate anything lovable about Twilight. It spends a decent amount of time discussing Twilight discourse, trying to convince the reader to appreciate it — but I already do! Why would I pick this book up if I didn’t?

This book couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. Second chance romance? They have “history”, but not enough to be meaningful. Enemies to lovers? She’s weirdly antagonistic to him at first but it feels forced. Fake dating? Sure, but introduce it halfway through and then completely abandon it. It’s also aggressively 2025, which makes it feel even farther away from the source material.

I thought the dialogue at times was cute, but overall the story just didn’t work for me.

Thank you to Net Galley, Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

After loving all of Ashley Schumacher’s prior work, I was eager to read this one, and I loved it! This story follows Juniper, who met James during a Romeo and Juliet production in college where she stepped in as Juliet, but they then lost touch; leaving Juniper heartbroken. Ten years later, after losing her podcast, she gets cast in an audiobook production for The Meadow, with James as her co-star. Magic, fate, or coincidence brought Juniper and James back together, and we follow their story of reconnecting.

I fell in love with this story so quickly, and in particular with Juniper Green; she was such a relatable character, who dearly loves books, is a bit clumsy, deeply overthinks everything she does, and struggles with grief over her mother. Schumacher writes about grief in a magnificent way, in both Juniper and James’ story, it was intertwined with their choices and thoughts beautifully.

The dynamic between Juniper and James was lovely; the moments of banter, of tension, and many heartwarming scenes too. Their journey both individually, and together, was captivating. I couldn’t put this book away!

I also loved Juniper’s friend and her dad, they were both so funny! I liked the way they were there for her, and saw her. There is a particular conversation between Juniper and her dad that stood out to me, after her first week on the job.

Overall, this book was everything I wanted it to be. The subtle references to Twilight were fun, and throughout the sweet development of the romance there was still plenty of moving scenes surrounding grief too; a great mix of it all.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"I’m so used to writing myself into the stories I wish I were living, I accidentally blur the lines just enough to forget what is real."

Say It Out Loud reads like an early 2000's romance movie and is a love letter to the Twilight fandom.

The plot was slow to start, but the book was specifically targeting me because I love fake dating and when characters meet when they're younger and chance brings them together again. This was my favorite type of second chance where it's the second time life has brought them together, but the first time they took a chance with each other. Admittedly, the fake dating plot was so clearly a ruse and crumbled so quickly, but I enjoyed it as much as Juniper and James did, haha.

Along with the rom-com plot, themes of grief and loss were expertly explored. In fact, I'd even say that the heart of the story for both Juniper and James is about finding themselves after loss and the process of healing after years in grief.

“If you’re lucky, you never come of age. You’re always striving toward the next age and mining the last ones for ways to make the path smoother and truer."

As much fun as I had with the romantic scenarios and the resonance I felt with how grief was portrayed, there was a shallowness to the narrative voice and characters. A lot of references to millennial pop culture and memes about burn-out and social media made me feel like the book was trying too hard to be relatable since it glossed over character building details. For instance, as Juniper goes to sleep, she has "two remember when embarrassing memories before" she decides to go back to scrolling on her phone. It's an action many can relate to, but it felt hollow and just there to be "#relatable." It was a missed opportunity to build Juniper's character further (what were the memories? what random embarrassing moments haunt her specifically?). To me, she exists as a stereotypical millennial that readers can self-insert into which can be a hit or a miss depending on the reader.

If you've ever felt lost in life or ever went to a Twilight movie midnight premiere (or any movie's midnight release for that matter), give Say It Out Loud's sweet romance a try.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for the advanced copy to review!

alexa play invisible string by taylor swift

I really enjoyed this. The writing was so pretty and I really enjoyed watching these characters fall in love (and denying it adamantly) while also trying to figure out themselves and what they wanted in life. Juniper and James had such a unique way of finding their way to each other that was so fun to read.

This really reminded me of the way Ashley Poston writes, but with a lot less actual magic in it. While I really enjoyed the plot of this, marketing it as magical realism is super misleading, because there really is no actual “magic” component. That being said, I still had a great time.

Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I knew that AS was writing this love letter to Twilight. But had no idea what that was going to look like. So I went in with only that nugget of info. I loved all of it.

It is indeed a love letter to Twilight. But it's also love to fans and to audiobooks and to works of art that bring us together and shape our lives in ways that we don't know. It's about the moments that are big that seem small. It's delightful.

AS uses words in a way that is art. No one will hold a candle for me to her skill and her love of words and stories. I love her view of the world and it shines in this story that feels like a peek into how her heart works. I am here for her as a YA author but staying in this adult book space with her always.