Kiss me maybe

I very nearly DNFed this audiobook at about 30% because I was getting bored but decided to keep going and I’m so glad I did! Although it was a slow start, from about the halfway point, I found myself thinking about this book whenever I wasn’t reading it. It was sweet and romantic but in a way that stayed true to the Angela’s journey into better understanding her asexuality. I found that aspect really interesting as she explored the different ways people can be Ace to see what felt the most like her experience.

The ‘spicy’ scenes were also so well done, they felt so natural for the journey that Angela was on.

The only drawback for this audiobook was that I felt that the narrator sounded like Siri whenever she was narrating but not when she was reading dialogue which was a little jarring at first.

owwww this was a good time. Miss never been kissed is on a search to find someone worthy. Angie has the bright idea to use a scavenger hunt of all things important/meaningful to her and enlist the assistance of a hot bartender Krystal to put this plan into play. We see where this is going right?!

This story loosely reminded me of Curvy Summer with the banter, the background family drama and the tension. Whew baby the tension. While the tension and yearning was there, the spice wasn’t explicit or cringey.

I also loved the ace representation and the exploration of other sexual orientations/labels. I left this story feeling like I had a deeper understanding of ace folx.

I enjoyed the narration however there were a lot of long pauses and breaks between chapters. I wouldn’t say it was enough to mess with the flow.

Thank you NetGalley, Forever and Hachette (ALC) for a chance to enjoy this book before its release.

I struggled with this book (specially the written one as I had an audio cope as well). I wasn't sure what age/target group this book was written for as it came across as YA besides a few places (but was marketed as adult). There was great representation (hispanic, ACE, LGBTQ+), which I really enjoyed but struggled with the plot and didn't really love the relationship between the main characters. The audio version of this book earns a 3.5/5 and brings up this overall rating! Thank you to Netgalley and Forever Publishing for the advanced readers copy and advanced listeners copy!

Figuring out your own identity is hard enough without family members breathing down your neck. Angela’s journey to eschew expectations and societal norms in relationships led her to Tiktok virality. She had never been intimate with someone, or in a relationship, or kissed. With the new asexual community she found on Tiktok, she devised a plan. A scavenger hunt to win her first kiss. The only problem? The hot bartender that has been catching her eye for years, Krystal, who has watched her videos too.

I love Gabriella Gamez’s writing! Her characters feel so real, flaws and all. I related to Angela so much. Her struggle with her identity and trying to fit into how she thought she was supposed to be hit close to home. I liked that you saw Angela figure herself out as she explored. That even though she began with an identity in mind, it changed as she reflected and experienced more. The relationship between Angela and Krystal felt well balanced. There were minimal communication issues. Neither was a pillar of perfection that the other thought they didn’t deserve. They each came with baggage to work through, which was nice to see. I loved the side characters as much as the main characters. I hope to see more of Julian and Letty in the future!

The audiobook was well produced. I never felt confused about who was talking or what was said. It was clear and easy to listen to. It enhanced my enjoyment of the book, especially in emotional or intimate scenes. I could hear each character’s emotions through the narration.

I wanted t0 read this book because it is about a librarian and it's a romance. While I couldn't really relate to the MC journey of her romance, I still liked the book. Social media is a big part of some people's journey to find love and it was interesting to read. I would recommend to anyone looking for a different kind of love story.

First off, the cover for this book is absolutely stunning. It is so colorful and fun and really drew me in to want to read this book. I thought this story was beautiful from start to finish. I really liked the blurb in the beginning about TikTok and how they can't take away our form of art even if it gets banned. Angela is a TikTok influencer who is finding herself and her identity. She hasn't had her first kiss yet and is ready to try and find that person. Oddly enough, what made me originally want this hunt was sort of a scavenger hunt also! A local bookstore placed some indie books in several Free Little Libraries around the city. This was one of those books! However, many people seemed to be after this book and I wasn't able to grab it. I am so glad that I got the chance to listen to this book because the story was amazing.

Angela decides to set up a scavenger hunt that is meaningful to her and whomever wins gets to be her first kiss. Along the way she starts to develop stronger feelings for a bartender named Krystal. She has had a crush on her for several years, but as the two start to hang out Angela gets the opportunity to explore her identity in depth. The two have some internal struggles that make things a bit difficult for them to overcome to try to grow closer. I absolutely loved the mention of Stardew Valley in this book multiple times as this is one of my favorite cozy games and is such a great way to escape from the real world.

The narration didn't have any flaws in my opinion. I was able to vividly imagine all of the characters in the story and felt like they did a perfect job. Thank you to Netgalley, Hachette Audio, and Gabriella Gomez for an ARC of this audio book. This review is my own honest opinion.

Kiss Me, Maybe is so fun and addictive that I was consumed by it for the past couple of days. I was unable to put it down even when I wanted to, the writing is just that good. This is my first by Gabriella Gamez and it definitely will not be my last. The romance is off the charts and while I had some disbelief in terms of the bathroom scene (iykyk), I still really liked it. Also, overlook the fact that the love interest has been calling the FMC "Angel" for the past couple of years. While it gave me the ick at first since they were not dating, it did kind of grow on me!

All that said, I have a hard time believing some of the plot. My main set-back was the the scavenger hunt... this is happening at 27 years old? Yeah I don't know about that. It's a fun concept but it just doesn't seem plausible OR likely. I did enjoy the social media aspect of the book and I thought it was great that Angela was able to connect with others on there. I also thought it was a good way to provide insight and representation for the ace community too! So while the scavenger hunt part may not have done it for me, the actual social media aspect was good!

I also want to shoutout Ruby Corazon. Her narration was on point in this and I thought it added so much to the story. I think I am going to go back through her other projects because she was the perfect narrator for this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the ARC!!

Thanks to Hachette Audio for the audioARC.

I was so excited for this because of the rep (MC is Latinx, ace-spec, lesbian, and has never been kissed at age 27). Unfortunately it didn't hit the spot for me.

Angela is doing a scavenger hunt with her first kiss as the prize. Very unrelatable that she was so confident that people would want to participate, but good for her. However I didn't really like the TikTok aspect, especially not the drama. Angela turns her first kiss into such a big deal, but then she's suddenly having sex and that's totally chill??

Anyways, I do like "late bloomer" stories bc it's so normalised to have done Everything™ at like 16, and it does make you feel different when you're older and you don't have much experience.

This just wasn't a good fit for me and I didn't connect with any of the characters.

OH MY GOSH!!!! I absolutely ADORED this book and these characters. This is the second book in the Librarians in Love series by Gabriella Gamez. I read the first book for a book club and thought it was just okay, so I was a little hesitant to read another book similar to that one, however this book is so SAPPHIC AND SO QUEER, its wonderful. I also thought the representation in this was well done and informative. The whole TikTok/influencer part of the book was kind of boring, but that's okay! This book was GOOD!

I think if I was more interested in influencers, then I could have enjoyed "Kiss Me, Maybe" more. While I liked some aspects, my thoughts overall are just meh - this mainly comes from feeling that some conversations were revisited too many times between Angela and Krystal.

I am new to the author but I couldn’t resist a book that is part of a series called Librarians in Love. The first book in the series 'The Next Best Fling’ (Jan 2023) has the romance of the best friend and co-worker of this FMC. Angela Gutierrez is 27 and has never been kissed. She has been slow to figure out her sexual identity, deciding the ace spectrum fits best. Her videos about her coming out experience are hitting her into influencer status. She comes up with the idea for a scavenger hunt to find a person who understands her interests and who will be her first real kiss. The one person she has had a crush on for the last several years is bartender Krystal Ramirez. Krystal has been off relationships since her last big break-up but she is all in for helping Angela plan her hunt.

This is one of the best books featuring an ace MC that I have read. It explains and educates on nuances of ace sexuality that I wasn’t aware of. I love the Mexican American representation and how that factors into Angela’s coming out to her parents and extended family. I really appreciate how well Angela and Krystal communicate and are honest with each other. The writing style is easy to read and the pacing is good. I am happy that f/f romances are getting more attention from larger publishers.

A lot of this story felt more YA because of the first kiss storyline. But Angela is 27 and an adult and the book goes spicy while holding off on that kiss. The story spends a lot of time on the celebrity of viral videos and the pitfalls of social media, which is real, but of less interest to me. I listened to the audio book and enjoyed the narration. The story is told from Angela’s POV so a single narrator is great. (3.5 Star)

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2025, but honestly, I’m a bit let down. I was so excited for a queer Latinx romance AND it’s based in the city I live in!! While I absolutely loved the queer representation and ACE education, I feel underwhelmed by the romance. More so, I feel annoyed with it. I wish we got to connect with Krystal more and watch Angela focus more on her rather than the TikTok plan. The care towards each queer character’s journey was something I really enjoyed, but that’s about as far as my attachment goes. I kept waiting for their relationship to elevate romantically which it never really did for me.

As a San Antonio reader I was able to see all the Fiesta elements for what they were, but they definitely weren’t explained or emphasized enough for readers outside of the area to understand the celebration. It would’ve been cool to see it make a bigger experience given the cover.

Now as far as the Latinx rep goes, I absolutely understand we (Latinx people) are not a monolith and our lived experiences are all so different! That being said, if you’re a Latinx reader not from SATX and pulled towards the book because of the beautiful cover thinking you’re going to see a heavy dose of your culture, I unfortunately have to say that’s not necessarily the case here. While there are a few small things throughout the story to let the reader know the characters are Latinx, they didn’t feel done in a way that displays the characters connection to their heritage, but rather just randomly dropped. I thought there would be significantly more cultural displays throughout. Maybe some Spanish/Spanglish between the characters! I also acknowledge that being able to speak Spanish does NOT correlate to someone’s Latinidad. Spanish is the colonizer me language and I would never hold the ability to speak it or not against anyone. Traditions, holidays, music, etc. But again, given the cover and marketing, I was just waiting for…more.

Plot wise a few pieces felt unfinished, unnecessary, or not properly explained. For instance Angela’s job and the cousin drama.

Overall I’m happy I read it so I could give my thoughts, but left it feeling meh.

I’m crossing my fingers for more Latinx experiences to be showcased in romance because our culture and stories deserve to take up space!💕

I received an ARC of both the Book and Audio via NetGalley. Thank you to Forever Publishing as well as Hachette audio for the opportunity to review this book. This was my first Gabriella Gamez book but it definitely will not be my last! I truly enjoyed this story. This book follows Angela a 27 year old late bloomer who has never been kissed. I really loved the TikTok element to this book as I felt it really resonated with how most of us get more information in today’s world. With the help of her friend/bartender at her local bar Krystal she goes on journey of self discovery and learning more about her identity. In addition to her finding her identity she is dealing with real world things like her work place finding her TikTok and some family members who are not as supportive as they should be. The Latinx and LGBTQIA+ representation in this book was top tier. I loved the Narrator Ruby Corazon and will definitely be looking her up for future audio books!

Angela’s cousin, Julian, faced a lot of backlash from their family when he came out. Angela herself was bullied by two other, female cousins when they learned she still hadn’t had her first kiss by twelfth grade. Because of this, she struggled with her identity as an ace-spec lesbian for many years. This is something a lot of queer people, myself included, encounter when we experience such deep, personal trauma as we’re entering those formative years when one’s own sexuality starts to truly blossom. It was refreshing to see Angela’s journey portrayed in such a frank, thoughtful way. It was especially refreshing to see ace representation in a contemporary romance.

At twenty-seven years old, Angela—a librarian and avid reader of historical romance—is tired of waiting for love to find her, especially when she isn’t sure what love might look like for an ace lesbian. After posting an “accidental thirst trap” on TikTok that goes mega viral, she decides to use her newfound fame to get her first kiss out of the way by making it the prize in an elaborate scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, she’s also juggling a massive crush on her favorite bartender, Krystal Ramirez, and grappling with the continued fallout of Julian’s rejection by his own father and other members of their extended family.

Angela’s evolving understanding of herself and her desires is a central theme of the story, and it’s written masterfully, allowing readers unfamiliar with asexuality in particular to understand the gradations and complexities of one of the most misunderstood queer identities. Her confusion and frustration as she navigates the swell of online attention (and, inevitably, trolls and bullying) alongside her growing feelings for Krystal was painful and relatable and beautiful.

While everyone’s queer identities are handled with care and thoughtfulness, the rest of the plot falls apart quickly. It relies heavily on convenience and coincidence. In the most glaring example of this, despite the size of San Antonio, everybody seems to know absolutely everybody else: one of Angela’s TikTok friends moves to the area without knowing she’s there; Julian has dated said TikTok friend in the past; Krystal just so happens to know a friend of the reclusive artist they’d otherwise have no way of contacting; Krystal’s ex shows up at Angela’s house as her cousin’s date right in time to deliver some crushing exposition. If this was a small town romance, I could believe it, but I checked and there are 1.5 million people living in San Antonio.

An enormous amount of focus and importance is placed on Angela getting her first kiss, but she has two (super spicy) sexual encounters with Krystal during which they don’t kiss on the mouth because I guess we’re just being picky and specific. I read a lot of romance (nature of the business and all), and while Kiss Me Maybe hits all the expected beats at all the expected times, Angela’s obsessive dedication to pulling off this TikTok stunt because her followers expect it makes all of her encounters with and feelings for Krystal seem cheap. She purposefully holds back from the love interest of the story because she’s worried about fake internet points. Her following is more important to her than Krystal’s feelings. While this might have been at least somewhat believable in a YA novel with a protagonist still in high school, it’s frustrating and bizarre for a main character scraping thirty. It’s impossible to believe this is a couple built to last, which is what most of us pick up a romance novel expecting to find.

At the end of the day, I would heartily recommend this book to other queer people looking for representation of identity groups that are woefully absent from mainstream media, but if you’re here for the romance or the overall plot? Pass.

It’s rare that I have such visceral reactions to a book, but Kiss Me, Maybe had left such a huge impression on me that has put this book on my favorites list. I was moved to tears, TWICE!! Which is not a common occurrence for me reading or listening to books! Not only is Gabriella Gamez’s writing incredibly beautiful and intelligent, but this particular story made me feel so seen in ways I didn’t even realize I needed. As a queer Hispanic woman with similar identities to Angela, her journey in life and love as a late bloomer hit very close to home.
This book has moved me in so many ways and I think it’s an important story to share and I highly recommend this book and the audiobook. I am an avid audiobook listening and it was really gratifying listening to an audiobook with a narrator that talks and sounds like me. Spanglish and all! The audio production was so well executed that it felt like I was actually having a conversation with Angela and listening to her tell her story. I want to thank Hachette Audio for allowing me the opportunity to listen to the audiobook as a Reviewer on NetGalley, and thank you Gabriella Gamez, for writing a story that I really needed to hear.

This was a cute friends to lovers story. Library assistant Angela finally feels confident in her identity as an asexual lesbian that she is ready to start dating and have her first kiss at 27 years old. But online dating, meeting someone at a bar, or asking out someone she already knows has no interest to her, so she comes up with an idea to make an online scavenger hunt where the prize at the end is getting to be her first kiss. She enlists the help of Krystal the bartender at her favorite bar, who Angela has had a crush on for 5 years, to help her plan the scavenger hunt which may end up being a terrible idea since with the more time they spend together the harder it is to avoid the chemistry between them.

I really enjoy getting to read books with Ace characters since that’s the LGBTQIA+ identity I’ve read the least about in romance books. I think the story does a really good job in exploring how much of a spectrum sexuality truly is. Since we see Angela try to understand what it means to her identity that she’s experiencing sexual attraction to Krystal.

I know some people don’t like books that are super pop culture/social media related. TikTok does play a HUGE part of the story and is the tool Angela uses for coming into her identity and online haters are the main antagonists of the book.

This was a 3.5 star read for me, but I’m rounding up since I felt like the narration made the story feel a little cheesy at times. Even though Angela is still figuring out her sexuality identity, she does about it with determination and her head held up high. But something with the narration (maybe how slow it was since I had to go up to x1.5 speed when I’m a dedicated x1.25 gal) made her seem super timid and shy.

Thank you Hachette Audio and NetGalley for an ALC of KISS Me, Maybe!

Librarian Angela Gutierrez has never been kissed. But after posting a video about her late bloomer status and ace identity, she's finally ready to get some firsts out of the way. Using her new influencer status to come up with a scavenger hunt idea in which the winner earns her first kiss, Angela realizes she may need some help to pull off the event. Enter Krystal Ramirez, hot bartender and Angela’s unrequited crush of five years. Despite vowing that romantic love isn’t for her, Krystal seems awfully determined to help Angela pull off the scavenger hunt and find true love.

Absolutely loved the representation in this one, and I think it offers such a great insight of the queer community. I feel like I definitely learned a lot myself, and it's always so nice to read about others' experiences, even in works of fiction. I really liked the journey Angela goes through, and I think it was very realistic and well executed. I think I would have liked this more had it also included Krystal's point of view; I found her story to be really interesting, and I would have loved to know more about it, and it would have added some depth to her character.

It's such an easy, fun read, while still maintaining some depth and some very interesting and important topics of discussion, and handling them well. There were some bits that had me confused, or rolling my eyes a little, but it's nothing too excessive and definitely a me issue. The writing is really great, and incredibly engaging, it makes really easy to want to pick this up and keep reading. Sometimes I did forget about the whole TikTok side of things, and it did take me out of it a little while I got reused to it, but it's not bad at all, and I feel like it could also open an interesting conversation on social media and parasocial relationships.

I listened to the audiobook for this one; it really made for a fun listening experience, and the narrator does an incredible job bringing to life these characters.

This listen was a gentle course in sexual identity laced with romance and spice - and I had a lot of fun with it. In an ideal world, learning about your sexuality should come naturally as you grow and have experiences. But we all know life doesn't allow this to happen without some drama. This is exactly what the story served, providing an entertaining and heartfelt story while keeping it real with familial, friendship, and social conflicts. I especially appreciated that this was a story of various, dynamic Latin characters navigating the conversation of sexuality. I did find the characters came across a bit younger than expected - minus the spice, this could have easily read as a YA novel. It was entertaining, nevertheless. I was really impressed by the narrator and their ability to carry this story alone, portraying so many characters! I really enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Gabriella Gamez for this advanced listener's copy!

I really enjoyed the first book of this series and excited to read Angela's story. She is a late bloomer and accidentally gone viral for posting a video about never been kissed.

There are few things that were a miss for me:
- For age, 27, she acted very young
- The scavenger hunt idea was just weird for me
- The ending was a bit of a let down
- I didn't buy the romance between Anglea and Krystal
- the never been kissed part confused me a little as usually, the kiss leads to other levels of spice. However, it got spicy for an asexual pretty quickly

I did enjoy aspects of the story:
- Angela finding her voice and standing up to her family
- Her friendship with her coworker, Marcela
- The representation of asexual

Ruby Corazon did a good job with the narration but the story was not the right fit for me.

Thank you @hachette.audio @readforeverpub for a copy of the audiobook.

This was a cute and sweet audiobook. The story was quite predictable but it was easy enough to get lost in and the characters were loveable (especially the hot bartender). I also felt like the narrator was a great addition to everything. All in all, it was a good read.