3.5 stars, thoroughly enjoyable and substantive romance novel. Dragged in the middle without really any twists and turns to justify the length. 25% shorter and this is a slam dunk! Def recommend reading — or listening, as the narration was excellent, added to the depth and likability of the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for an opportunity to read this advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! Jo is a founding instructor of Haven, a Peloton-like streaming fitness platform. She has become a celebrity through the platform and she struggles with anxiety, especially the “what if” type. Jo was so relatable and I loved her character, as well as how her anxiety was portrayed. Silas is a journalist who is working on a story about Haven, and he ends up surprising Jo with his authenticity. There is an aspect of Silas withholding some information from Jo in the beginning. I am usually very bothered by the MMC being untruthful to the FMC, but it wasn’t a problem for me in this book. I loved that Jo and Silas developed a true friendship before feelings ever even emerged. Their slow burn was full of great banter, cute adventures around NYC, and true connection.

The audiobook is narrated by Maria Liatis and Kellen Boyle. Both of these narrators were new to me, and they were great! Their voices matched what I imagined for the characters, and they each voiced all of the characters so well. As I read and loved this book with a combination of e-book and audiobook, I recommend it in any format you typically prefer!

Thank you to Ana Holguin, Forever, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted e-ARC and gifted ALC; all opinions are my own.

Read if you like:
💕 Celebrity fitness instructor FMC x journalist MMC
💕 Group fitness classes
💕 Anxiety rep
💕 Supportive female friendships
💕 Slow burn
💕 Dual POV

A sweet romance about two MCs who need to look inward to find where they need to me. The MMC tricks the FMC into writing a news story about her wildly successful fitness career. He believes she is shallow and her fans/followers are vapid and fan-crazy. She challenges all these thoughts and more.

The FMC struggles with her future and career. She experiences online bullying because of her very public job and needs to learn to trust herself again.

Thank you to Ana Holguin, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the ARC!

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I don’t know why but I kind of got a “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” vibe from the MMC. Maybe because he’s a writer? But yeah, I kind of didn’t like him. He comes in with STRONG preconceived notions about the FMC. I didn’t like the sneaky/scheming aspects of him.

The FMC seemed okay. I liked that she was good at what she did and her followers genuinely liked her.

The side characters didn’t feel that flushed out. Some of the scenes with them felt like filler.

Overall I liked the premise even if it felt predictable. The mental health rep was nice to see.

Audiobook-
The audio was okay. I’ve gotten spoiled with audios who act the book out more than just reading it. But you do get duel POV and two narrators.

This was such a fun romance that started with an interview of Jo by Silas about being a fitness instructor but turned into so much more. I loved their relationship here. The reader really gets to see these characters go from strangers to friends to lovers in a way that felt authentic and so supportive. I really loved how Silas showed his caring nature throughout this story. I thought the behind the scenes view of being a famous fitness instructor was fascinating. Jo had so many complex layers due to her job and I liked the pace at which she slowly opened up about her journey with her job and mental health. This was a stellar debut, and I look forward reading this author again in the future.
I also loved the dual narration here. I always feel that it adds so much depth to a novel. I could hear the tenderness of Silas from Kellen Boyle's performance. For Jo, Maria Liatis managed to capture her full range of emotions wonderfully.

Jo is a famous spin instructor, riding both in the Haven studio in NYC and streaming into thousands of people's homes everyday - she's an inspiration to many. Silas, a slightly grumpy journalist, is assigned to write an article about her for his magazine and goes into it assuming that he will be unimpressed with both the culture at Haven and Jo herself. However, like the good reporter he is, he begins taking the classes and getting to know Jo better. Very soon he realizes that there is more to Jo than just amazing hair and high energy, and Jo begins to fall for Silas as well.

I get the spin culture, I'm in it -- I go to Soulcycle way too much and my instructors know me so I was intrigued by this one. It's cute and it fully kept me entertained, especially the audio which was great with dual POVs; but it wasn't anything super special. I get that romances are comfortably predictable, but this one was just too predictable. One of the things I like most about rom coms/romances are the fun ancillary characters - they add humor and that extra element to the story; except I didn't love the friends here and the relationships felt a little flat. Cute and entertaining but not memorable.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the ALC to review

I’m so sad because I really wanted to love this but it just kind of fell a little flat. There was nothing wrong with the book it was just not as exciting as I hoped. I wasn’t attached to the characters or the story. I was hopeful that by the end I would be but it just was not for me.

The characters were okay. The storyline was fine. And I guess that’s just the problem for me. It was just fine. 😩

The narration was good. The voices were fantastic.

Thank you for the alc!

Book Rating: ⭐️ 5/5
Spice Rating: 🌶️ 1.25/5

Everything about this book was an absolute yes for me. I devoured it, and I’m still thinking about it. Ana Holguin did such an incredible job with this story, I even had to take a beat before writing this review just to process how much I loved it.

This book wasn’t just fun and funny, it was deeply emotional and brought up so many feelings I didn’t expect. Jo’s journey hit so close to home. I saw so much of myself in her, especially as a young adult trying to balance cultural expectations. I was never a national fitness sensation (lol), but I’ve definitely dealt with feeling like a disappointment to my family, especially growing up in a mostly white area as a brown girl and feeling disconnected from both sides of my identity. It was powerful to see those feelings explored so authentically.

The mental health representation for both Jo and Silas was beautifully done. Ana handled the topic with such care and sensitivity. It was a strong reminder that behind the highlight reels of social media, we’re all just human, something that often gets lost.

And let’s talk about the slow burn! Silas and Jo had me absolutely feral. I wanted to scream at them to just admit their feelings already, which is exactly the kind of delicious tension I crave in a slow burn. Silas falling for Jo’s infectious energy? Swoon. His pining was perfection, and I was obsessed. Usually I gravitate toward grumpy x sunshine couples, but these two brought such light while still carrying their own emotional weight, and I loved every minute of it.

I have zero complaints. If you’re a fan of Katherine Center or Mazzy Eddings, do yourself a favor and read this book. You won’t regret it.

A wonderful Debut!

when journalist and lowkey hater, Silas, has to do a piece on famous spin instruction/influencer Jo and her place of employment Haven Fitness under perhaps not the most honest of terms. He uncovers a different side of Jo & Haven.

Delves into deeper topics like depression & anxiety, while still having light hearted moments.

For the enjoyers of slowburn and an nyc setting. A dual pov with the narrators in the audiobook being nothing less than amazing

2 ⭐️ This book had so much potential and I was so excited to read a debut author but it fell so flat that I almost DNFed it multiple times. The story itself sounded so fun, a writer who thinks badly of fitness and cycle instructors and is tasked with writing a story on one and over time he falls for the complex girl she ends up being. Unfortunately it trips over itself multiple times with repetitions, poor writing and never capitalizes on some important messaging on mental health and BIPOC struggles. For starters Jo, the FMC is a Latina woman from Mexico but it is barely mentioned and nothing stands out about it but her wild hair, groan, it felt so white washed. As a Mexican woman myself I’d love it if she screamed it and owned it. This book has so much mental anxiety and depression representation but again, it feels stilted by the story and overshadowed by how this amazing man came into her life and changed everything for her. Okay maybe I’m downplaying her own journey but that’s how I felt the book did her dirty.

There were so many repetitions, any conflict, let’s go for a walk…. I can think of 5 or more instances where the solution to talk was “let’s take a walk”. Or Jo is constantly taking a walk around her destination for 10-15 mins so she avoids being too early to things. The writing is very juvenile/basic, it would benefit from better editing and advanced prose. So many repetitions of all kinds, I mean so many repetitions. See what I did there? I repeated myself like 6x to show how annoying it is.

There was zero chemistry between Jo and Silas, not a single butterfly or hint of any sparks between these two. It was a sloooooooow burn, so slow I was bored out of my mind. Overly vague descriptions of these characters gave me to clear picture of who these people are, I couldn’t tell you a single physical descriptor of Silas besides he’s a runner. 🤷🏻‍♀️ They also raked their nails against each other… a lot. The tension between these two was non existent and I made me want to skip over any open door scenes because it felt so off. Also, Silas is a walking 🚩 with the main conflict of this book being so drawn out. I could never get behind them because of it. Miscommunication is already the worst, add in making the FMC apologize for the man’s lack of communication, super gross. I did not like this conflict and how it resolved.

I listened to an ALC (advanced listeners copy) and I did not like the narrators, the story came off very monotone/flat but again, I think that was the not so great writing. I typically love dual POV with multicast narration but Silas was like a blank piece of paper, I have no idea what kind of guy he is and it showed through the non-memorable voice acting. I just did not connect to these characters at all.

I’m super bummed by this book. I hope it finds an audience that enjoys it. Even as a previous avid home cyclist, it just didn’t hit right. I will say, I love the point of Silas’ article at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio and Forever Publishing for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!
3.5 stars rounded down

This book is pretty good. It was fun seeing Silas get his prejudice proven so wrong so hard, and it has a really positive mental health message. It also tackled the interesting idea of why people gravitate toward one 'celebrity' or another (though I do think it could have done more with it). I also liked that both of them felt like actual down to earth people rather than exaggerations of a caricature.

However, something about the style never really connected with me, so I never got into the book too much. The most intense feeling I had was frustration at the third act 'break-up' which was a bit silly (not because one of the parties didn't act in a logical way, but because the process needed to get this to happen was illogical. why would they snoop, why would this thing they're snooping about be there, why was other person so insistent on keeping the negative thing so present?).

Overall, though, pretty good book that would probably work better for others than it did for me.

Thank you to the author, narrators, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-audio version of this title in exchange for my review.

This was an interesting, cute rom-com book taking place in the workplace. Pacing of the book was good, full of "will they, won't they" vibes. However, the characters seemed a bit flat, little character beyond their jobs. Very predictable, which is good, it's why I read or listen to books like this!

Enjoyable, fun. 3 stars.

This was a cosy read. It was easy and I didn’t feel like it was taking over all my brain capacity.

I loved the touch on anxiety and depression, coming from someone who suffers with both I feel the author handled it with care. It did make me a bit upset at one point because I realise I’ve allowed my condition to take over my life for the last 10 years and these managed to find solutions to help with there’s within a short time.

I think the characters were likeable and being over the age of 30 is also a bonus! Us over 30’s need more representation!!

I have 3 stars because it did feel slightly boring in the middle like not a lot was happening a bit of ‘dead air’ but it wasn’t a bad book at all.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

An absolute gem! This story was heartfelt, funny, and full of personality. The characters felt so real, and their connection was electric. Every page pulled me in deeper, and I didn’t want it to end. A perfect blend of emotion, charm, and romance

Up Close and Personal is a captivating, feel-good romance that truly shines in audiobook form. Ana Holguin's storytelling effortlessly pulls you into a world of chemistry, charm, and emotional depth, with the added bonus of a narrator who brings the characters to life in such a way that you feel like you're part of their journey.

The pacing is perfect, and the narrator’s voice has just the right balance of warmth and energy, making it easy to get lost in the story. The romance feels real, the characters are easy to root for, and the story touches on themes of love, self-discovery, and taking risks. There’s an undeniable chemistry between the leads that makes every moment feel like a sweet, slow burn.

What really makes the audiobook stand out is how the narrator captures the emotions—whether it’s the fun banter, the heartwarming moments, or the more tender, vulnerable scenes. It’s a story that leaves you smiling, and you’ll find yourself pressing play for just a little longer each time.

If you love contemporary romance with great character chemistry and a dash of humor, Up Close and Personal is a perfect audiobook to listen to while driving, relaxing, or just needing that extra boost of feel-good vibes.

Thank you Hachette Audio and Forever Pub for my gifted copies. All opinions are my own.

I was intrigued by the premise of this one as the main character is an instructor at a studio similar to Peloton. I’m a relatively new Peloton member (joined within the last year) and haven’t been to a class in studio.

Jo seems like she’s on top of the world at their studio and they’re on about to be part of a major merger. However she’s feeling unhappy and looking for change. She meets Silas, a journalist, through a mutual friend and agrees to be interviewed by him for his magazine. They start a tenuous friendship that slowly turns into more. I loved seeing Silas take her classes and realize not only how challenging they can be but how they can make you feel. For me at least, Peloton and the community has a similar sort of magic! I don’t want to say too much or give anything away, but overall I really enjoyed this. The narration by Maria Liatis was fantastic! I will definitely check out future books from Ana Holguin!

Up Close & Personal was so cute and fun! I did not know I needed a fitness instructor x journalist romance in my life but I could not put it down once I started it! The mental health representation was wonderfully done and even had me teary eyed at least twice. I found Jo to be so relatable; minus the 12-15 hours of cardio a week. This book has trauma, mental health, drama, friendship, and it’s a slow burn! The slow burn had me begging for it to happen in the best way possible. So when it did happen it did not disappoint! I highly recommend picking this up if you are looking for a swoon worthy quick read!

This debut was so cute, super swoony. I knew I had to read this book when I saw the first line “I’m getting bangs.” Many of us are all too familiar with the circumstances that can lead to making a drastic change like getting bangs. Thank god for beloved friends and hairstylists who have our backs and talk us off that metaphorical ledge. But I digress…

Up Close & Personal at its core is about prioritizing your mental health and protecting your peace, especially when it comes to parasocial relationships. I appreciated how authentically Holguin wrote about lived experiences of individuals with anxiety and depression. I personally felt seen by Jo’s character at times and her journey with anxiety was very relatable.

I really appreciated how Silas, though he initially had preconceived notions about Jo and the cult-like fitness empire she built, opened his mind and was willing to admit that his stance was incorrect and came through with a solid grand gesture and apology.

Incredible story with big and tough topics to cover. Mental health problems are a red flg in our society but are more common that it seems. A jaded journalits is set to prove that the fitness world is a scam. A famous instructor needs to show him different and, in the process, find her way to happinness again. Jo and Silas's story will touch your heart. The audiobook with Maria Liatis and Kellen Boyle makes the story an even better one. Thanks to NetGalley for the ALC copy. This is my honest review.

It has been a while when a book has captured my attention so thoroughly as this one. From the get go, Ana Holguin opens with engaging chapters. The mental health representation and the exploration of perfectly curated social media lives makes this a unique take on social media anxiety.
Jo and Silas are likeable if flawed characters. Their story is a page turner and the surrounding cast just aids to move the story along. This is a slow burn, he falls first love story with some open door spice. The best bits are those between Jo and her friends.
I read to this book with my ears, Maria Liatis and Kellen Boyle conveyed the perfect performance to tell this beautiful tale of love and healing.
This book would appeal to fans of Abby Jimenez, Emily Henry, and Katherine Spencer.