This is a friends to lovers meets inception kind of book. The book is definitely for those who like cringy romance in the best way possible. I was on edge the entire time just waiting for the characters to realize they love each other.

I give this book three stars. Honestly, it was hard to be invested in this book. It relied too heavily on exposition that you don’t really get to bond with the characters or see them bond together. This is a dual pov, closed door romance and it feels like it. We hear all the love interest’s thoughts and feelings about what good chemistry they have and how they love to flirt, but we never really get to experience it with them. There is very little dialogue and the characters don’t end up spending much time together. Their intimate moments where they really connect are summarized instead of flushed out. I would have liked to get out of their heads a little more and actually been involved as the scenes were happening. It ended up making the book a little boring and repetitive.

This book was so so cute!! I love Mia so much. She is incredibly relatable and I loved her and Gavin together so much. I’m a huge fan of friends to lovers and this was done so well. Read if you love books with an author main characters, friends to lovers, forced proximity, and so much more!

I loved this book! I thought it was so cute!

Mia has a rule against dating friends, but pressure from a looming book deadline pushes her to agree to test out romance tropes with her best friend. Writing a friends-to-lovers romance while experiencing tropes with her own best friend blurs the lines between fiction and reality, leading Mia and her bestie Gavin to become more than friends.

I LOVE Chandra Blumberg and I feel like she is SO good at writing romance tropes! This book is the ideal friends to lovers story.

Thank you so much to Harlequin Trade Publishing/Canary Street Press and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Love Is an Open Book was a cute and light read, but ultimately it didn’t leave a lasting impression for me. I really enjoyed the friendship between the main characters,it felt natural and had some sweet moments, but the romance itself just didn’t quite hit the mark. It was an easy read, but not one that stuck with me. A solid 3-star read: enjoyable, just not especially impactful.

I wanted to love this but had trouble connecting with the story! Wished the characters were a bit more developed.

This story follows Mia, a romance author struggling to write the finale of her hit series, which centers on a friends-to-lovers arc she no longer believes in. Her own heartbreak, still close to home with her ex now her brother-in-law, makes the task feel impossible.

Gavin, her best friend of nearly ten years, quietly fell for her the night they met. Rather than act on it, he chose to be a steady, supportive presence. His emotional journey, shaped by family pressure and the aftermath of his parents’ divorce, added another meaningful layer. He is the heart of this book, and I appreciated how grounded and sincere he felt.

While the writing is strong and the themes are well drawn, I personally never felt fully immersed. The meta structure may have created some distance for me. Still, I see this resonating with readers who enjoy character-driven romance and introspective storytelling.

I also appreciated the side characters (Morris, Riley, Evie, Joe, and Sera) who were introduced with just enough intrigue to leave me wanting more. Much like fans of Mia’s fictional series are invested in her supporting cast, I found myself feeling the same way here.

A quiet, thoughtful book with emotional complexity and a strong central friendship.

Thank you, NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing, for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was such a fun, feel-good read. I loved the trope-testing setup and the friends-to-lovers vibe between Mia and Gavin. He’s seriously the sweetest, and their chemistry felt so natural. It was cute, creative, and totally hit the spot.

I eat up tropes for breakfast and the fact this one had all of them? I devoured this immediately.

Friends to lovers is the superior trope here though and it was done well.

Thank you to Harlequin and Canary Street Press for the advance reader copy of Love is an Open Book by Chandra Blumberg.

Mia, a bestselling romance author, has had her books adapted into a hit TV show. As Mia needs to write the next book, she is struggling with writer’s block. In order to help inspire Mia to write, she partners up with her best friend, Gavin, to test out romance tropes together.

I adored Mia and Gavin from the moment these two meet! Gavin is the absolute sweetest. I thought that their friendship was lovely and I enjoyed the reading these two develop from friends to more. I also love a romance where the two MCs explore romance tropes and I can’t resist when one or both characters hold unspoken feelings for the other!

If you enjoy a friends to lovers romance, this is one to check out!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced reader copy.

Mia Brady, a famous romance novelist, has learned that dating her friends only ends in heartbreak, so she has never tried to be more with her best friend, Gavin. But when she's stuck writing her next romance book, Gavin volunteers to help her, in the hopes that she will see him as more than a friend.

I'm often a sucker for book with characters who are writers, or who work in the literary world, so I was intrigued by the notion of a romance writer with writer's block. Unfortunately, the book became to convoluted in trying to do something fresh with the genre. Mia creates a binder of romance tropes, but then complicates things by saying she and Gavin won't do the tropes (because she's afraid of the feelings she has for him coming through if she does), so it becomes...something else. It became hard for me to really follow what was happening, which pulled me from the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC.

I... did not like this book. It was honestly forgettable; I forgot I had to write a review on it. It's also a closed door romance, which is fine, but if I'm reading about two thirty year olds falling in love and there's no payoff from sexual tension, it kind of kills it for me. Bro, they didn't even CUDDLE.

I feel like the writing was fine, the characters fleshed out and not 2D. However Mia, the FMC, started getting annoying in the last 1/3rd of the book. Gavin is literally pouring his heart out for her, and she just keeps freaking out because "love is chaos". I totally understand her hesitation, but to have this level of anxiety because a guy you dated for a couple months (if that) was actually into your sister TEN YEARS AGO is kind of outlandish. Mia even admits she was never in love with him. So her reasons for being afraid of love didn't make sense to me.

This book just wasn't for me, but I'm sure it has an audience that loves it.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

a writer and landscaper are best friends for over 10 years and start doing some trope activities to find her writing spark and to fall in love. this was a closed book romance and there was a lot of kissing. loved that this had both of their point of views.

Gavin and Mia are two friends that met in college thanks to Gavin’s roommate, who also happened to Mia’s ex. They pretend they and much more in the blossoming. The book is a slow burn in all the right ways. I think a literary falling in love might be my new rom com trope. The book is a playful rendition of a friends to lovers trope.

I actually thought this was such a cute and heartwarming romance!
I really enjoyed the story of a romance writer trying to write a romantic comedy book and then slowly realizes, while she is writing her book, that those events are actually happening in her own romance life! It was cute, and I don't think I've read a book like this one before!
I love a good friends-to-lovers romance, and this was honestly perfect in capturing that trope beautifully. I will definitely be reading more from this author because I really enjoyed her writing style and her characters!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC!

I found the premise, a romance story about an author who writes romance stories, to be quite delightful.

In summary, Mia has trust issues due to “once bitten, twice shy syndrome.” She got her heart broken when she was younger, and chose protecting herself at all costs, good or bad. Gavin is the epitome of love and patience, choosing to stay close and wait it out (whether he realizes it or not).

I found the writing to be enjoyable, and will definitely be seeking out more books by Blumberg.

I realize this is an uncorrected proof, but I still have a few notes:

Continuity: right at the beginning, during the meet-cute, Mia goes from using toilet paper to paper towel as a tissue

There are still a concerning amount of punctuation and spelling errors

ALSO:
I don’t care if it’s a “common” insult these days; I don’t like it and find it offensive. My parents are Baby Boomers; I am not. I don’t take kindly to that kind of attitude that gets thrown around these days, even in jest.

•𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨/𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴/𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.•

I do not often read contemporary romance but I really did enjoy this. The way what the author is writing and how it mimics in subtle ways what the FMC is going through while she is also writing, was brilliant. A comment about how "the characters in a romance realize how they feel about the halway point" mirrors what is happening in the story at the halfway point was genius. Well written, good pacing. Will definately read from this author again.

Friends to lovers romcom about an author writing a friends to lovers romcom. Trying to get past her writer’s block, Mia and her best friend, Gavin, test out some tropes to see what would work best for her characters.

Another great book by Chandra Blumberg with interesting, smart, and funny characters in both the lead and secondary roles.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Canary Street Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Watch for Love is an Open Book to come out August 12, 2025.