Life Derailed was an emotionally heavy hitting book about loss and moving on.

I liked the premise and the execution of this book. it was engaging, it was deep, and it flowed well. The main protagonists both underwent the loss of the spouses and loneliness they feel comes through.
Their interactions were good and real.

Narration by Caroline Hewitt was done well.

Overall, this book was a solid A.

I’m not going to lie, when I started this story I was a little nervous. AI is definitely a real threat to authors across all platforms and artists alike! But this story was not what I was initially expecting at all.

Listening to Remi try to navigate the developing technology advances while working as an editor was very fitting for the common discourse on social media right now. I think the authors did a great job of highlighting what potential positives there could be, while also showing any possibly negatives. I was hooked and couldn’t wait to listen to how everything would unfold for our FMC.

Really enjoyed the narrator as well! She helped bring the story to life and give the characters personality.

I liked the book but it didn’t stick with me. It was a good quick read with some interesting topics and characters. It is a mixture of love, grief and AI. The slow burn romance seemed a little too slow for me. I would still recommend to someone looking for a quick fun read.

This book told you a story about how AI could affect us, even when we don't realize it. It's a story of a widow wanting to find her way back into her life and is ready to let someone in again. But when she finds out what's behind her success story in potential online dating, she's hurt.

I love how well the authors brought in the current craze of AI and showed us what it could eventually be, if we allow it. The characters are great. I loved the banter, and the hope showed throughout.

The narrator Caroline Hewitt did a great job with this book. I'd love to listen to more books read by her.

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Life Derailed is SUCH a great book.

I liked Remi, her dog Fitz, and Jason. Her mother was well-meaning yet meddling. Her comments in the margins of the dating profiles (as well as hers) made me laugh. Maude, the AI assistant's take on the improved version of her profile was great.

I want Maude in my life.

I often struggle to stay interested in books that are in workplaces, but this one had me hooked as it creates the magazine office, and everyone in it, so well. Maude is well created, too.

Life Derailed covers a whole range of subjects, from grief, love and life. I really felt for Remi on the loss of her husband, the book is about moving on and I think that she does it in a very strong way.

The book had me feeling so much: compassion, intrigue, and sadness. It's written in a very real, but very raw way, and is very true-to-life and utterly absorbing. It was also fun, funny realistic, relaxing, emotional, absorbing, escapist and unforgettable.

It's very well paced.

Remi is relatable and I felt truly immersed in hers, Jason's, and her mother's lives.

5 stars

Thanks to Beth Merlin and Danielle Modafferi Caroline Hewitt narrates this really well. It's enjoyable to listen to. Thanks also to Brilliance Audio for my audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

Loved this meet-cute co-worker romance. Such an interesting take with the AI spin on dating and also makes you really think about catfishing! The romance was sweet with a slow-burn, feisty FMC, serious and broody but secretly sweet MMC with a crazy mom.

This was a great romance about loss, overcoming grief and finding love again. This is a great summer romance read!

The narrator was perfect for this, clear and with great emotion throughout that made me feel immersed in the story.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced listening copy.

I couldn’t get to read/hear this audiobook because it expired in like 3 days. Very upset about this fact since I couldn’t wait to get to it, but having already started an audiobook I couldn’t start this one too. I think we should be allowed a bit more time 🥲

This was a fun second chance NYC romance between two widows forced to work together as a magazine investigates the benefits of implementing AI tech. I liked this one a lot. It was good on audio and had tons of Nora Ephron vibes. It was also very timely, exploring the pros and cons of AI. Would recommend for fans of books like Annie Bot or authors like Ali Hazelwood. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was a nice, light read with a good bit of humor peppered in. I liked how we incorporated current events and the looming threat of advancements in AI going too far.

Here are my highlights:

-Ruth is everything. Between her constantly throwing shade at Lea Michele and thinking DTF means "down to fiesta" she is pure chaos.

-Jason and his social anxiety. We love it. He feels like he’s a hottie tiptoeing the spectrum and it’s very endearing.

-FMC has two of the best friends. I love seeing healthy female friendships.

-The narrator is awesome.

My complaints:

-Without spoiling anything, THE big bad thing that happened on Spark was predictable to a degree. As someone who did online dating (over a decade ago, before AI was readily available) I could sniff a suspicious match almost immediately.

-Everything felt so rushed. I would have loved a deeper dive into our main relationship… I could have gotten so deeply invested into those two.

A story about love and loss, the changes that AI is bringing to the world, and second chances. Elements were predictable but there were a few twists that made it more enjoyable. Overall, a really enjoyable ready, especially if you enjoy authors like Abby Jimenez and Emily Henry.

The audio narration by Caroline Hewitt was great. She was entertaining and engaging, and I feel that the audio really enhanced the story.

This story was not what I was expecting, but pleasantly so. The journey that Remi takes throughout this book is inspiring. I feel that more than just a romance, this book explores Remi's journey through overcoming grief and discovering who she is after losing the person who was everything to her. I laughed, I teared up, and I was even surprised at times while reading this book. Those expecting a full-on romance may be disappointed. Still, I felt that the story was very moving, and the character development of Remi throughout the book is relatable and believable. I thought the ending was perfect, and I will highly recommend this book to others.

Life Derailed
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This review contains spoilers.
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This was a cute and cheesy rom-com with an HEA. It was very cohesively written between the two authors, and I loved the narrator.

I love the relationship between the main characters, and how it gradually grows throughout.

The struggles with grief felt very authentic.

I am glad that the AI bot didn't win in the end, but I didn't love how it talks about AI in such a positive light at various points throughout.

The other thing I didn't love was the way in which the FMC so easily forgives and forgets the actions of the politician.

Thank you to Netgalley and Brilliance Publishing for allowing me to read and review this ALC.

Loved this cute rom-com... at first, I was skeptical because I myself do not like AI. However, after reading and listening to the ALC Netgalley sent me proved my point exactly. AI is here and it is here to stay and will sadly take the jobs of people. This story follows Remi and Jason (enemies to lovers) and it was perfect, this slow burn story kept me intrigued from the very beginning. This book has some difficult real topics such as grief and a mother who is wayyyyy too involved. This was a real-life book and Beth Merlin and Danielle Modafferi did an amazing job.

Overall, the narrators in the audiobook did not disappoint.

While I love the cover, that's about all I like about this book. I just couldn't get into it. It was too cheesy and trope-y for me. I'm sorry!

(Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC exchange for my honest review.)

Overall, this was a pretty standard 0-spice romance with an HEA. I do have some gripes about some of the themes in the book though. Story spoilers in the "Weaknesses" section.

Strengths
- I think it's well written. Sometimes it can be hard to tell if books with more than one author will feel cohesive, but this one generally does. I couldn't pinpoint specific shifts where it would be obvious that some parts were written by one author and other parts written by the other. The language felt appropriate for the genre, and descriptively this was definitely a love letter to NYC.
- This book tackles grief in a really thoughtful and realistic way. There is no timeline for when you're supposed to "move on", and the way multiple characters come to understand and process their grief together is actually really lovely.

Weaknesses (in my opinion as a reader)
- While ultimately the decision to use AI at The Sophisticate was scrapped, the novel itself did feel like it was leaning toward a receptive view of AI in general. The novel mentions that an AI program built by the MMC was very successfully adopted at another publication, and to be honest I was surprised to see ANY positive light being shed on the use of AI in creative pursuits. Even thought Jason decided to pull the plug on the project, overall the general feeling toward AI and it's applications remained pretty positive. In my opinion, AI has extremely limited applications that align with my personal ethics, and to see AI given ANY sort of positive platform (but expecially in a work of fiction aka ART) was a little off-putting.
- There is a republican politician that is centered as the antagonist that is responsible for the death of the FMC's husband. She is initially described as a fairly progressive republican, but a republican nonetheless. A significant obstacle for the FMC in the story is to overcome her own anger toward this person and produce an article that shines a light on the senator as a PERSON and not just a politician, specifically with the intent to clean up her image before making a bid for the presidency. Personally, in 2025, this left a bad taste in my mouth. To suggest that a politician voting against the moral/ethical interest of the people they serve can somehow be redeemed by sharing their origin story felt like something cooked up by the republican party themselves. I don't care how small-town you grew up, if you are in a position of power and abuse that power to serve your own agenda, there is no instance where I am going to believe that person is worthy of a vote for president, whether in reality OR in fiction. To reference a current American political party in 2025 means you're invoking the tone of that party in 2025 - there is no argument in my mind that this is some "fake" or "made up" political system in which republicans aren't as bad as they are in reality. The fact that the FMC offers her presidential vote to this person after hearing her backstory for literally an hour was short sighted and honestly a little scary, because I'm sure there are many real life voters who would absolutely do the same. To not take into account the platform and track record of this senator before offering her vote felt like it was leading readers down a worrysome path, suggesting that a sob story is enough to cancel out horrible policy.

Notes on the audiobook - Narrator Caroline Hewitt was FANTASTIC. I listen at 1.5-2x speed, and sometimes the voices can be oddly distorted, which didn't happen with this production. The different characters had subtle differences to distinguish who was speaking, and overall it was easy to follow along in conversations with multiple characters. I would definitely seek out this narrator to listen to other books she's recorded!

Thank you to the authors, publishers, and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book.