No one does sexual frustration like Ava Wilder. “Some Kind of Famous” follows Merritt Valentine, a disgraced singer/songwriter living in a self-inflicted (but necessary) exile after years of exploitation in the music industry.
I went in with high expectations, as her two previous books have become comfort reads of mine. The first 60 pages or so dragged for me. The writing, on a sentence level, felt a little flat during those initial chapters. It took me two days to get through those pages, but I blew through the rest in one sitting.
What I love most about this book, and all her books in general, is the way it doesn’t shy away from the character's imperfections. I feel like most romance novels deal with mental health issues or character flaws like a box that needs to be ticked off, but Wilder makes them an integral element of the story. She seamlessly blends literary fiction characteristics with romantic tropes to create a rich and compelling storyline that’s about more than just sex or the relationship between the two leads. But that’s not to say the sex portions of the book aren’t also great.
People are not going to like Merritt. I know this in my heart. People want morally grey characters, but won’t even be able to handle her.

This book had all the makings of a sweet small-town romance, and the fun celebrity characters that I love from Ava Wilder. I really wanted to love it, but ultimately, I didn’t feel like I connected with the characters, and didn’t end up enjoying it quite as much as her other books.

We follow Merrit Valentine who years prior had taken the music world by storm, who has moved to a small town to escape the hard life she lived in Hollywood to live with her twin sister. She hires the local handyman Niko to help her renovate her house, and as they spend more and more time together on the house their relationship grows deeper and deeper. They both help each other navigate through past family and relationship hurts and become the best versions of themselves. But the real question at hand is has Merrit matured enough to have a stable relationship without blowing it up, and can Niko be enough for her?

I look forward to more books for Ava Wilder, can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

I liked this book, but I went back and forth with how much do I like it. I think there are quite a few of the characters that had a lot of growing to do and while it touched on it a little bit. It was still a lot.

Merritt was a huge start at one time that went through a downward spiral and her twin Olivia doesn't want her to get involved with anyone because she feels like she will harm them. Enter Niko who they automatically have a chemistry but Merritt has sworn that she will not get involved with him to her sister.

There are times that I wanted to scream for them all just to talk to each other. Wouldn't that just make life easier? However, I understand that some people struggle with communicating their feelings with others. It still just baffles me.

Thank you #NetGalley for the advance copy

3.5⭐️

The connection between Merritt and Niko was sweet and tender. I loved how soft Niko was. Merritt wasn’t perfect, but it was hard not to root for her. This is not rom com and touches on mental health issues (read trigger warnings!). I hated Merritt’s sister and BIL. I understood her sister’s fears, but Merritt wasn’t ignoring her mental health, she was actively working on it, and I felt like a lot of it seemed out of line.

Ahhh. This one was a miss for me. The sisters' dynamic was really icky. Merritt is a teen star turned pop diva. She has some serious mental health issues that lead her to leave the limelight and move to small town Colorado. She struggles to start over and find a life and lover for herself.

I feel like Merritt's family were unbelievably cruel for behaviour during the height of her fame when she didn't have tools to navigate it.

This won't be a recommended read for my audience. I am thankful for the review copy.

This was a really cute book. I loved the connection between the main characters and the steamy scenes were perfection. Thank you!

I’ve loved Ava Wilder’s past books. Some Kind of Famous was a good, but not great, read.

I admire that Wilder writes imperfect, complex characters. The problem was that Merritt wasn’t always likable.

Read if you like:
🩵 Small-town romance
🩵 Celebrity/normal person

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the eARC!

It was endearing, while also heart wrenching, to watch Merritt and Niko dance around their feelings for one another due to their beliefs about what a relationship between them might look like. I thought Wilder did a great job of showing that tension on page and really drawing it out of the characters. This was a beautiful, angst-filled book.

Fun and cute read with deeper themes but still funny and easy to read. I love a cinnamon roll boyfriend. Highly enjoyed!

This story absolutely wrecked me in the best way. The writing is gorgeous, intimate, and unafraid to sit in silence with these characters. There’s something so raw about Merritt’s grief for her old life, and the tenderness Niko offers her, even when he’s trying not to, just completely undid me. The romance is deeply emotional, with that perfect ache of two people holding back because they’re scared to hope again. But when they finally let go, it’s honest and passionate and beautifully earned. I love stories that give broken people room to stay broken without being punished for it, and this one did that with so much heart.

Time of DNF: 50%

ok why did i weirdly want to give this a 3/5 despite the fact that I was halfway through and still didnt really connect with the characters…I think Ava Wilder’s themes may not entirely be for me because I felt similarly reading “Will they, Won’t they” but the second hand anxiety was almost so strong that I don’t have any more room to even enjoy the romance (which made me constantly not want to read it, even when I was enjoying the story?)

I will say I really enjoyed the mental health representation (though Olivia and Dev’s behavior at the beginning really soured me and made it difficult to care about them in general ngl) and I liked Niko’s background and how it informed his personality (I literally cheered when Merritt smoked with him and his roommate like that was sweet), I just didnt feel 100% connected to their dynamic and it really was making me sadder than I’d like to be as a perpetual mood reader

I also personally think celebrity romances have yet to really work for me ever so that might be a strong influence in my final decision to DNF cuz I did think the writing followed enough that I easily could’ve finished it but I am in a season of choosing not to suffer through books I’m not feeling 100% about

thank you nonetheless to netgalley and ballantine for this arc to review!

I absolutely love Ava Wilder’s books. One of my favourite parts of them is how messy her leads always are. This book in particular, had one of both her most complicated and sympathetic leads, Merritt. Merritt’s history and emotional arc throughout the book was heart wrenching at times. It was overtly apparent how hard she was trying, and equally, how difficult it can be to overcome maladaptive behaviors. I really loved her and Niko’s relationship, and how clear it was how much they cared about the other independent of their romantic relationship. I really loved seeing them grow together.

I also loved the cameos from How To Fake It In Hollywood, and while I loved to see Ethan and Grey, I really loved seeing Nora!!! I think Nora is by far one of my favourite of her characters, so any chance to see more of her is always welcome.

Highly recommended!

Disappointed with this after two strong books. The leads are like wood, and all I can see between the leads is physical attraction. I also can’t tolerate the girl’s thin skin for no good reason. Some kind of trauma must have affected her, but to start the story as a loser with no reason why just tries my patience. This isn’t a mystery book. And the leads are like wood.

Super sweet easy read! Really enjoyed reading about Merritt and Nikos stories. I loved them both dealing with their own external family issues and how they both got to the place where they were able to really help each other. It was a really sweet story about how the best relationships come from strong friendships and I really enjoyed reading. Two gripes on the book - Olivia was intolerably annoying. Her complete lack of understanding in Merritt and the literal 45 second resolution to a lot of deep rooted issues felt crazy to me how they were all of a sudden all good. I also am not a fan of a pregnancy scare, it just felt unnecessary to me. Overall I did like this book, but probably falls somewhere in the middle of Ava’s other books ( I LOVED will they or won’t they). Thank you for the ARC!

Love this culmination of Merritt and Niko in the adorable Colorado town. All I could think was Alanis every time they described her and her final power move to help the next gen of young women in music was epic.

This was a cute love story! I loved the small town vibes & the creative passions that the main characters had. I just had a hard time to connecting with them which made it a slower read for me.

im so sad to say this but im so so so so bored.This unfortunately is not for me. I don't know where the story is!

Ava Wilder is one of my favourite romance authors and this new novel of hers was such a delight to read. To start, I want to talk about how Some Kind of Famous gets this one specific dynamic so right: when you keep running into someone, and they keep running into you, and you're both in each other other's orbits all the time and so extremely aware of each other's presence that it feels like you've lived novels' worth of history together, even though the most you've done is make eye contact and maybe say hi. This is how Merritt and Niko's relationship starts, these moments where their hyperawareness of the other's presence is almost palpable, their interest in each other clearly there even when nothing has happened between them (yet).

From there, we get to see how Merritt and Niko finally break the ice and, slowly but surely, start to get to know each other. I loved their dynamic and relationship in all its stages--hesitant beginnings, small overtures, comfortable conversation, vulnerable self-disclosures, close intimacy--but I especially loved that initial slowburn, "I have a crush" stage. Nothing is more entertaining to me than watching two adult characters have to admit to themselves that they have a crush on someone. What can I say, I just eat it up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The more tentative and slow the beginnings, the more invested I am--and the more earned it feels--when the characters are able to finally break down those barriers and trust each other.

As for our two main characters, Merritt and Niko, I thought they were just lovely together. Merritt has been through a lot, and she's definitely not a perfect person--but that's exactly what makes her so compelling. I love a messy female main character, and I especially love that throughout this novel she works so hard to get to a place where she feels strong and steady in her life. (I also loved her relationship with her sister!) As for Niko, he is the sweetest man, so kind and considerate and generally just the nicest man on earth. Together, Merritt and Niko's romance is a gentle, slow-building one, not about major drama or miscommunications, but more so about them overcoming their hang-ups and letting their walls down. When I read a romance, what I'm always looking for is a sense of intimacy: do I feel like the narrative effectively conveys a sense of intimacy, like I'm close to the characters' feelings, and like the characters themselves feel close to each other? And that's something that Ava Wilder absolutely manages to do here. She's such a confident author, her writing always assured, hitting all the beats it needs to, whether comedic or dramatic.

Some Kind of Famous was just a lovely book. If you haven't read any of Ava Wilder's novels yet, I highly recommend checking out any book of hers (they're all great). Personally, I can't wait for more romance novels from her and I will absolutely be reading anything she comes out with next.

Are you ready for an entertaining read? Check out Some Kind of Famous. It was a great read. Ava Wilder fans will love her latest book. It's available later this year.

Some Kind of Famous by Ava Wilder starts strong with an intriguing premise—a disgraced ex-musician and a local handyman navigating a slow-burn romance in a small Colorado town. The initial chemistry between Merritt and Niko is palpable, and their interactions are engaging. However, as the story progresses, the pacing slows, and the narrative loses some of its initial momentum. While the characters remain likable, the latter half of the book may not sustain the same level of engagement for all readers.