Thank you to NetGalley for this e-audio arc! I very much enjoyed this book! It tells the story of Angela discovering her identity, both as a lesbian and aspec person through TikTok. I thought it was really sweet how she was always open to new things on her journey and I related to the baby-queer feels so strongly. There’s so much discovery AFTER you come out and I felt like that was portrayed really well. This is definitely a different type of love story and I liked Krystal as well. I wish I knew more about her and sort of wish it was written in dual POV for this one. I’m glad she got some redemption in her story but I felt like we didn’t get to see it as much as I wanted to. That being said, I still really enjoyed this!

In order to find someone to kiss her for the first time, an asexual woman who has never been kissed goes on a scavenger hunt on TikTok.

I was initially drawn to this book by the beautiful cover and vibrant colors. It's so good! The book is a charming sapphic romance that balances fun with genuine emotional depth. The MC, Angela, is an asexual lesbian trying to navigate viral fame with a fun citywide scavenger hunt, which was a fun twist. Her slow burn romance with bartender, Krystal, had refreshing chemistry and super sweet moments. Overall, the pacing occasionally wanes, but the book is a delightful celebration of queer love with diverse sexual representation.

The audiobook production was seamless and added a richness to the story. The characters personalities really shown through!

Sincere thanks to NetGalley, Forvever, and Hachette Audio for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kiss Me, Maybe is a sweet and surprisingly spicy novel set in San Antonio where we follow the life of Angela Gutierrez. She shortly become a Tik Tok local influencer after posting a thirst trap and begins to "date the internet." Angela is 27 years old, lives at home and is just leaning more into her own sexuality. This is very much a coming of age story audiences in their 20s. For some reason as a millennial, it felt too young and naive! The MC should have been highlighted as a 24 year old, not 27. Even listening, the narrator sounded very immature. Possibly this character was just not for me. Either way, I am still interested in the author's other books.

This book was cute - the idea of a scavenger hunt to get closer to your crush and ultimately have your first kiss was a clever one. I enjoyed seeing a book with an openly ace character and delving into how that looked for Angela was interesting! I loved Angela and Crystal’s journey through this.

This book was super cute. The premise, the characters, the writing were all very well done.

I found Angela to be surprisingly relatable and funny, and enjoyed the dive into the asexuality spectrum. It was a little repetitive for me, but I did appreciate the normalization of being aspec. And who wouldn't have a crush on Crystal?? Very swoon-worthy and also relatable.

Side note: I did not think a book about an ace woman would be SO spicy!! The scenes were HOT, original, realistic, and (importantly) anatomically possible.

There was some repetition in the writing that took me out - I personally have a strong dislike of the phrase "never been kissed" and the author used it a LOT. And in the later chapters, I noticed the same phrases being used to describe Angela's feelings for Crystal, which felt like overkill.

Overall, I loved this book. The characters were fun and likeable and relatable. Though I'm not on TikTok, the plotline seemed like real stories I've seen play out on social media. And it didn't feel overdone or too bogged down by tech/social media language. I would recommend this to everyone looking for a cute rom-com with pining, flirting, and found family.

Thank you so much Hachette Audio and Forever Publishing for the Advanced Listeners Copy!

Kiss Me, Maybe is an excellent example of the fluidity of sexual identity and how identities can change as you grow and discover more about yourself as a person. It also was a great representation of how supportive and, at the same time, horrible the internet can be when putting yourself out there. Plus not only how the internet may perceive you but how relationships with people in your personal life can change so rapidly when faced with something that might make THEM feel uncomfortable.

Crystal's character was a great representation of how easy it is to be sucked into relationships and the damage that comes with family and friend pressure and the mess of indecisiveness and hiding how you really feel. I personally drifted more towards Crystal's character but also at times felt quite frustrated with her and her inability to communicate with Angela in full honesty.

I did find at times the plot was going in a bit of a circle and it got to a point around halfway through that I was getting angry with Angela because she was disregarding the commitment she made to the scavenger hunt and deceiving her followers about her relationship with Crystal. Which is also why I was glad that it was brought up as a plot point later on because to go unmentioned would've made for a frustrating conclusion.

I do think overall though that the story fell a bit flat for me and the whole concept of the scavenger hunt just wasn't enough to keep the plot interesting and engaging all the time. I often found myself a bit bored of going in the same will they won't they circle with not a lot being added to create extra conflict.

As for the audiobook itself, the actors did a phenomenal job at capturing the emotion and personality of all the characters and the pacing was great! It was one narrator for the entire thing which worked fine as I didn't think the story really needed multiple narrators. She did a great job of capturing both Angela's youthfulness and inexperience as well as Crystal's more mature and "edgy" (if you can call it that) tone.

Overall, I think if you're looking for a queer story that explores a more unique and fluid asexual experience I'd give it a go.

Final Rating: 3.75

This is a cute sapphic contemporary romance with great ace rep. Angela is just trying to figure herself out and shares on the internet about how she hasn't had a first kiss. This leads into a quest to have a scavenger hunt and her getting closer with her crush, Crystal a bartender at her regular bar.

Overall this was cute. Some of the spicy activities happening before kissing were a fun and different choice. I loved Angela and Crystal's journey.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio arc.

Angela is in her early 20s and has never been kissed. She puts out a TikTok video about how she identifies and being a late bloomer that goes viral. Then, she decides to put on a scavenger hunt, and the winner gets her first kiss. The bartender, Krystal, she's been crushing on jumps in and helps with the scavenger hunt.

This was a mid romance for me. I liked the representation in this book and how the characters explored and learned about themselves. Angela was a little too oblivious at times. Both about herself and Krystal's feelings toward her. If you like sapphic romance with a little bit of spice and self discovery, definitely pick up this book.

Ruby Corazon did a great job narrating. You could pick this up in any format.

What a cute and fun read! This novel explores the trials and tribulations that come with social media fame, the pain of having family members who don't accept you, and the confusion mixed with joy of coming out later in life. I found Angela to be a realistic main character facing genuine questions and challenges. And who doesn't love a hot bartender love interest? Ultimately, I think this was a lovely story centering ace representation, and I'm glad it exists!

Obsessed with this book and the narrator was everything! I loved learning more about the ace spectrum and Angela's identity and journey.
Can't wait to read more by this author and listen to more by the narrator.

I read a lot of YA and this book screamed YA novel to me in so many ways. I appreciated that it was about a person in their late 20s questioning and examining their identity, but the inner monologue that went with it felt more like it belonged to an undergrad than someone old enough to have a fully developed brain.

All that being said, it was a fun book. I enjoyed the way social media played into it and the complex relationships the characters had with each other.

This one was fine. It may have been that I read it on audio which seemed to drag. The narrator was fine, but it was hard to distinguish characters and follow what was going on at times. The TilTok influencer storyline wasn’t really my cup of tea. I understand the slow burn aspect of the storyline, but it felt very slow at times and seemed a bit repetitive. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ALC.

Of course the cover is gorgeous - one of my favorite all time illustrators.

When I picked up ' The Next Best Fling,' Gamez' first book in this series of interconnected standalones, it was because of several book influencer's claims that it was the most delightfully messy thing they'd ever read -- the plot, not the writing. Naturally, I expected a messy lil romance here too, and I wasn't disappointed. 'Kiss Me, Maybe' centers two FMCs: Angela, an ace-spec, never-been-kissed, lesbian still struggling to define her identity and who decides it'd be easier to come out to the entire internet than to individual people in her life, and Krystal, a bit of a disaster bisexual who doesn't believe she's capable of love.

We came for the mess, we stayed for the mess, the pining, the moderately mature communication skills, and the solid narration by Ruby Corazon (her voice had me falling in love with Krystal too).

I had a good time, but it felt a bit long to me. There were a few plot and character points that got a little repetitive/maybe could have been wrapped up more efficiently or evocatively - I can't pinpoint if it's a matter of Gamez needing to trust her readers more, or needing to deepen the well of story or character. Maybe I wouldn't have noticed as much had I been reading myself, but having the story read to me inspired a few moments of "we get it already!" or "how are we still fixated on this?" in regards to plot and pacing. By the eve of the scavenger hunt, I didn't really care about the scavenger hunt anymore...and it low-key felt like Angela, Krystal and Gamez herself didn't either.

All-in-all though, I had fun and look forward to seeing how Gamez grows as a writer and tells the next story in this series. A successful sophomore novel by Gamez. If you liked 'The Next Best Fling,' you should like 'Kiss Me, Maybe.' I'd say it's a slightly different shade of spicy given Angela's identity and lack of experience, but it is still thirrrstyyy.

As soon as I saw this book had Ace representation, I knew I wanted to listen. And it did not disappoint. I loved not only that the main character, Angela, was Ace but also that she was questioning and discovering more about her Ace identity as the story progressed. Angela has had a crush on Krystal, her friendly bartender, for five years, and after Angela goes viral talking about her identity and never having been kissed, she and Krystal start spending time together and working on a scavenger hunt—the winner, gets that first kiss. I adored that Angela was a librarian and the whole going viral and the implications of that, but the time we spend with Angela and Krystal is the real winner, you could feel their connection. I did get a little frustrated that it took so long for them to kiss—especially when they did everything else. But otherwise, it was a really lovely listen. Ruby Corazon was the solo narrator of the book and did a fantastic job of giving life to these characters and conveying the emotions they were experiencing. At times, it wasn't always clear which character was speaking, but it wasn't too much of a distraction and not something that happened all the time. Overall, a solid listen.

I adored this story of LGBTQIA self-discovery and love. I hadn't previously read a book with an Ace spectrum character, and their narrative behind the interactions with platonic and romantic relationships. I am so happy to see the representation Gabriella Gamez portrayed and am excited for more similar stories.

I finished the book already a few days ago but decided that I need some time to properly form my thoughts about it. I totally understand when people loved this book because the writing style was captivating and made me want to continue the story but I think I just expected something else.

I liked the diversity in it and how different the characters were from each other. It was also not only about Angela figuring herself out but also about her friends and family.

It was a bit weird that tt was mentioned in the first 5mins and she of course went viral without even wanting to. The idea of the scavenger hunt was fun but it could have been executed better. It was probably difficult to explain it in a written way rather than really doing it but it felt a bit boring.

This book was a bit too spicy for me and the way those scenes were written, weren't really sexy for me. But it was still nice to see an acespec person discovering their own sexuality.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for this Audioarc!

At 27, Angela is sick of waiting for her first kiss, so she turns to social media to host a scavenger hunt of eligible women who might be up for the job. As an ace lesbian in a Mexican-American family, she is used to trying to mold herself into what people want her to be. But as her scavenger-hunt planning continues, she starts to realize that being herself (and following her own desires) is just as important as this one milestone, especially when she begins hanging out with the jaded bartender she has always had a crush on. This was a charming book about finding your people.

Loved the story arc and the laughs. Really good spicy scenes. I appreciated how it dived into and explained different sexual identities and preferences.

I enjoyed the heck out of this book! Angela, an awesome ace spec librarian goes viral on TikTok for never being kissed. And then she dates the internet…sort of! She shares this with her long time crush (not Sophia Bush, but a real life human in her zone of folks!) Krystal, and they come up with a plan to get Angela her very first kiss! A scavenger hunt around their city! They grow closer as they scope out stops and locations for the scavenger hunt, and Angela talks to a few folks online, growing her community! Angela’s crush grows much bigger, and Krystal struggles with thinking she’s capable of love. And they get rather intimate without even kissing! Some of the hottest intimate scenes I have read, despite the lack of touching and things! All of that sprinkled in with family discord and a reluctant artist, this book has a lot of folks to root for, and I enjoyed doing it!