I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy this one but it turned out to be utterly amazing!! I was wary because the premise of an ace person going online to almost auction off their first kiss sounded like it was trying to cure their asexuality. This book isn't that at all!!! I really loved how ace positive it was and how it showed many different aspects of being ace. My one criticism would have been the amount of sex scenes for it being an ace romance was a bit much for me, but that's a me thing. The chemistry between the two main characters was perfect and I really was rooting for them the whole book. This was a really fun romance filled with tension and it was such a great reading experience!

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, The Next Best Fling, so I was happy to dive into this one!

Librarian/late bloomer Angela Gutierrez has never been kissed, but after going viral for sharing her ace identity, she’s ready to change that. She plans a romantic scavenger hunt where the winner gets her first kiss and enlists help from Krystal Ramirez, the bartender she’s secretly crushed on for years. As they work together, sparks start to fly, and Angela begins to question whether she wants a random winner or the woman right in front of her. The only problem is Krystal doesn’t believe she’s capable of love, and Angela might be falling for someone who can’t love her back.

I thought this book was great, low stakes, and a really nice way to learn more about the ace community! There are so many variations of how people identify, and I thought this book did a good job of exploring a lot of that. The storyline was cute, and the spice that was in there was sexy! Loved to see those sides of Angela and Krystal.

Thank you NetGalley, Hachette Audio, Forever, and Grand Central Publishing for this ALC/ARC!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Librarians in Love #2

Out now!

Librarian Angela Gutierrez has never been kissed, but when she posts a video about being asexual and a late bloomer, she decides she is ready to do some firsts. Being a new influencer, she comes up with a scavenger hunt where the winner will get her first kiss. Krystal, who swore that romantic love wasn’t for her, is determined to help Angela bring the scavenger hunt to life and find true love.

In all honesty, I should have DNFed this book. There were multiple points where I considered it and wished I had. I read the first book in this series, The Next Best Fling, last year and I only gave it 3.5 stars, so I wanted to give this author another chance.

Unfortunately, I was not invested in this story and found the story boring to follow. The idea of the scavenger hunt with clues coming via social media was interesting, but ultimately there were times where I felt that it was pushed to the back burner and forgotten about. I also had a problem connecting with the characters, which didn’t help with me wanting to keep reading. This book has lots of hispanic, ace, and queer representation which is amazing, but I was really bummed that I was not enjoying the story.

For the audiobook, I liked the narration, but I wish there had been more differentiation between our two main female characters. Even a second female narrator would have been great. Other than that, the audiobook production was done well.

Overall, I am bummed that I have not enjoyed anything from this author. I am unsure if I will try another book from them. I am giving this book a 2 star rating.

As a late-to-dating-asexual myself, I absolutely loved the premise of this novel! Angela's experiences and self-discovery around her asexuality were so comforting and beautiful to read. I loved the way her relationship with Krystal developed and how they both really grew into themselves throughout the novel. Such a lovely romance for ace and sapphic readers!

I absolutely loved The Next Best Fling, so I was really excited for this one. However, I was a bit disappointed. I adore that there is Latinx, ace, and lesbian rep, and there was some great discussion around these topics. But I couldn't connect with the characters, and I was not a big fan of the love interest. There was great communication but a lot of messy communication. Most of the exploration of asexuality and queer identities felt like textbook discussions and didn't feel natural. I was also not a fan of the TikTok scavenger hunt, but that is a personal preference. I did enjoy that Angela is full of love, and Gabriella Gamez did a good job of showing the power of connection and community. This one just fell short for me. I'm definitely interested in reading more of Gamez's work in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 13%
Thank you so much to Forever, Hachette Audio, and Netgalley for providing advanced copies of this book. All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

I really wanted to love this one... I think this author is featuring a lot of amazing representations but I just haven't loved the execution of either book in this series.

As an asexual romance reader, I am ALWAYS looking for more ace rep. So I was insanely excited to see not only that, but ace rep in a sapphic romance. I also really appreciated that this heroine was older when she discovering her ace identity (I was in my 30s before I figured it out).

But I just wasn't loving the execution of the story itself... while the MC was older, she didn't read her age. But instead very young. I also have a lot of trouble when pop culture things appear in books. And TikTok was biiiiiig in this book. It inherently time stamps your story and limits its long term relevance.

I also the juxtaposition between her being so terrified to simply talk to love interest but totally cool with auctioning her first kiss on TikTok was.... odd.

Kiss Me, Maybe is a sapphic romcom following a 27 year old who's never been kissed, and puts all her potential matches up to a test with a scavenger hunt. It's a ridiculously cute premise, very befitting of the romcom genre. The characters felt fleshed out, and there are some really important conversations about sexuality and representation. Overall, it's a quick cute read, but it's also got some depth (also the cover is gorgeous). I'd definitely recommend it!

The book started out sweet and promising. Unfortunately, after I got a new phone, I was not able to download the book again on my new device, so I could not finish it.

Overall all I would say I enjoyed this book. It’s an interesting premise that I feel doesn’t get a lot of representation. Angela, a late-bloomer ace spec lesbian accidentally goes viral in tiktok. She gains popularity for her story on never having kissed/dated anyone and her story snowballs from there.

Focusing on the audiobook narration- I enjoyed it. I thought the narrator did a good job of keeping a consistent pace, though at times I wished for a little more animated emotion. I understand that audiobooks should be easily understood, but at times the tone felt a little too robotic and a mismatch to what was happening.

I was surprised by how well the TikTok comments and moments translated to audiobook version, the narrator did a great job with making that all easily understandable. Sometimes there are spcwcially formatted things like that that make sense in the physical book but get lost in translation in audio- but that was not the case here!

Overall enjoyed it, and lived hearing a story with a Latina asexual spectrum and lesbian woman representation because often asexual representation is overlooked, and BIPOC LGBTQ stories are so important.

Thank you to NetGalley, and Gabriella Gamez for allowing me to enjoy this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

i was really really into this book through 78ish% but then i was just frustrated. i hate esme and i kind of hated that plot line but overall i love the gays

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

When I started this book I was really excited and intrigued about reading it. The story was cute however I was unfamiliar with some of terminology which made it challenging to keep up initially. The main character was likable and I wanted to love this book but I didn’t love it. The plot of the story made sense for the most part but it didn’t keep my attention. The narration of the book was done very well.

This was very cute but I didn’t love how involved with social media it was. The romance was cute but I didn’t enjoy the TikTok aspect of it all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this alc. All opinions are my own. I absolutely loved this author's debut, so I was excited to read the second book in this interconnected series. Loved getting to know Angela more and follow her on her journey. Really appreciated the queer representation. While the contest fell flat after a while, I still enjoyed the story over all. The narrator did a great job as well. Will definitely continue reading more from this author.

I listened to audiobook for Kiss Me, Maybe and I was so excited for it because 1. A scavenger hunt sounded so fun, and 2. I really loved the first book in this series, The Next Best Fling.

Honestly, I should have read the full synopsis before requesting this book because I felt like the whole TikTok thing was a bit cringe. So, that was my fault, so I won't hold that against this book too much. My main faults with this story is that Angela aka Angel had a love interest from the very beginning of the book, so why was she still trying to go forward with the scavenger hunt to find love? It was a bit pointless. Then I felt like I was being strung along the whole book waiting for this fun scavenger hunt only for it to be canceled in the end (which was not even Angel's decision).

It would have been much better if we got to see a cute little scavenger hunt and Angel found a love interest through that event.

I also felt like I was being told a lot of stuff instead of being showed, so I felt disconnected from the story and characters.

As for the audiobook narration, something was off about it. I think it was that the narrator had a repetitve cadence.

Overall, I was disappointed in this one. I hope the next in the series is better.

Thank you Netgalley, Hachette Audio, Forever, and Gabriella Gamez for the advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest review.

Kiss Me, Maybe is out now.

I enjoyed this book, and the audiobook was good.

The reason why I’m giving it a 3.5 is because the story fell kind of flat for me. There was nothing wrong with it per Se, it just felt like something was missing. That little extra spark you know.

I enjoyed reading about the mc’s coming to terms and figuring out her sexuality, as well as seeing how her family took it. Perhaps a reason why I didn’t like the story so much was because of Krystal, and her constantly being like “nobody can love me” or whatever. I didn’t really get why she felt so strongly about that. It didn’t quite make sense to me.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: contemporary romance📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A sweet and spicy sapphic romance

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Romantic comedies
Scavenger hunts
Found family
Friends to lovers
Slow burn tension
Social media fame (Tik-Tok)
Great chemistry
Self identity exploration
Librarian/ bartender

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Ace rep
Latinx rep
Emotional growth
The narration was good

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
I didn’t love the tik-tok aspect but I see how it was essential for the plot
The scavenger hunt was fun but it felt a little childish for a grown adult
I felt like all the drama sometimes took away from the romance

𝙵𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚀𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:
★ “After so many years… I had an answer.”
★ “When it comes to experiencing romance… there isn’t a right timeline.”
★ “She’s raging into love the way soldiers rage into war.”

I ADORED this book. I felt like such a goofball reading it because it gave me all the feels and I felt myself smiling like an idiot at some parts.

I listened to the audio of this. I was so excited for this book as I read book 1 in this series and loved it. This story is about Angela, who is a librarian and is determined to embrace romance and get her first kiss. She uses Tiktok to share her story and create a scavenger hunt for people to participate in, with the winner being Angela's first kiss. She enlists the help of bartender and crush, Krystal, to come up with clues. While I enjoyed getting to read about Angela's journey and her experience with her identity, I felt a little disconnected to their romance. I feel like there was a lot packed into this story and some of it overshadowed the romance. I am interested in reading more from this author but this wasn't a favorite.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Maybe I purposely kept my expectations low because I was too scared to hope for more."

Title: KIss Me Maybe
Author: Garielle Gamez
Pub: Hachette Audio
Narrator: Ruby Corazon
Time: 10h 21min

🍸Book Review🍸

Angela, a 27 year old librarian from Texas, latest tiktok went viral. When she is forced to remove it she makes a follow-up post explaining her dilemma on finding love and her first kiss as an Acespec individual. It hasn't been easy for her to find her place, with family that are bullies, and trying to fit in. However she is determined to not let anything stand in her way and ellicits an idea for a scavenger hunt, where the winner will be her first kiss.

I enjoyed Angela's story, she's determined and standing up for herself, trying to find her identity and place in the world amidst all the chaos, however she has a great support system, her parents, cousin Julian and her best friend Marcella, not to mention her crush Crystal. But Crystal comes with her own limitations and set backs but as they grow closer you can see Crystal's walls crumbling.
The author brought across varying important topics which made this story interesting and diverse.

What to expect/ triggers:
🔻Online Bullying
🔻Queer
🔻Mexican American
🔻Sexual Content
🔻Homophobia
🔻Toxic Relationship
🔻Friends to lovers
🔻Librarian x Bartender
🔻LGBTQ
🔻Romcom


Thank you @hachetteaudio and @gabbywritesalot for the review copy. This was such an enjoyable audiobook.

3.25
We follow an ace-spec lesbian who is on her personal journey to find love.

Angela and Crystal genuinely built a connection. My favorite thing was that they actively and openly worked on communicating with one another to be able to better understand each other. Which made me want to root for their romance throughout the entire book.

The only thing that I did not really care about this book was the scavenger hunt. Every time that the scavenger hunt came up I rolled my eyes because I could have cared less about that. Especially because it continuously had mishaps that prevented it from happening which felt a bit repetitive.

I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and the narrator. My only gripe with the audiobook is that in some chapters it would switch from one type of sound to the next. For example the production would sound scratchy but then in the next chapter it would sound smooth. But Other than that I enjoyed the audiobook. I also would listen to anything done by this narrator.