This was a cutesie feel-good chick-lit novel. Nothing overly shocking or significant really happened, but if you enjoy a found family or a friends to lovers trope you will definitely enjoy this!

The writing was great, I wasn't a huge fan of the narrator. She made June sound like she was in her 70's even though she was in her 30's.

I am a huge fan all of RaeAnne's books and have read probably 15+ of her books and this was one of my favorites of hers in the past few years. I loved both characters and their story lines and seeing their stories unfold. RaeAnne just has a special way of connecting her stories with audiences and making you feel so invested!

The Lost Book of First Loves
By: RaeAnne Thayne

- dual POV
- multiple love stories
- grumpy + sunshine
- finding lost family

I’m always in for a RaeAnne Thayne book and this was no different!! She has mastered the art of bringing together serious topics, family stories, and finding love! I really enjoyed the concept of this plot and the multiple POVs and love stories!

The narrator was great and added personality to the characters!

Content/trigger warnings: grief/loss, health scares

Thank you to NetGalley & the author for access to this ARC in return for my honest review!

I think this was a good story, but not one for me. It was too slow with no big bang. Overall, a sweet story and one I imagine most would enjoy but it just didn’t hit right for me.

Th Lost Book of First Loves by RaeAnne Thayne.

This is a contemporary romance book by Thayne with a found family and sister bond.

This book was great and I rated it 4 stars. ⭐️

The narration was excellent

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

What would you do if you did a dna test to find out your ancestry and learned you had a half sibling you knew nothing about?
For Alison Wells the answer was simple. Find out who the woman was, become her intern, figure the rest out later.
Unfortunately she didn’t plan to literally save her sisters life in the middle of being fired. *see internship may not have been the best idea 😬*
But she doesn’t give up, inviting her former boss to recoup on her (their) Dad’s ranch until she gets up the courage to spill the beans.
This book is adorable, and heartfelt. It explores rhe power of family, both biological and found. The power of secrets. And the lives our parents lead before we know them

ok this was so cute and it felt like the old RaeAnne Thayne was back! I loved the audio narration. I really loved how parts of this were completely predictable and other parts with very original. It was a nice mix.

4.75⭐️ Such a good one. Found family, two romances, friends to lovers, family secrets, heart health rep, and more. 4.5⭐️ narration from Vanessa Johansson. Loved how Ali’s and Juniper’s personalities can to life. Such wonderful transition from a professional relationship to friends and sisters.

Ali is about to be fired from her internship when her boss, Juniper collapsed in front of her. Thankfully, Ali knows what to do and saves Juniper’s life. After all, Juniper is her half sister and she still doesn’t know. Ali just lost her dad, a famous author. She can’t lose her sister too.

When Juniper wakes up in the hospital, Ali is the only one there. She’s so confused. Juniper has always been so healthy. And why is her intern, her fired intern, here.

Ali and Juniper will now go to Ali’s Wyoming home to finally admit the truth and allow Juniper to rest and heal.

Thank you so much @harlequinbooks, @raeannethayne, and @netgalley for the advanced listener copy.

We begin with a casual internship and a casual near-death experience. Juniper is firing Alison, Alison is trying not to reveal she’s secretly her half-sister, and then boom, June faceplants into cardiac arrest like it’s a telenovela twist written by the Grim Reaper. Alison goes full "Grey’s Anatomy." saves her life, and is like, “Hey bestie, want to convalesce at my dead dad’s rustic Wyoming retreat?” Just normal things.

And here’s the kicker: Juniper accepts. No questions asked. Ma’am, she just fired this woman. Now she’s accepting a cabin invite in the middle of nowhere with her emotionally mysterious ex-intern who clearly has “personal agenda” written all over her face? That’s the kind of unhinged plot pivot I live for.

The vibes from here are “quiet summer reflection with potential identity crisis.” Juniper is trying not to spiral about her heart condition or the fact that her life is suddenly sponsored by the concept of gentle living. Ali is over here spiraling very hard about how to tell her “friend” that they share DNA and a moody literary father who apparently left behind a surprise manuscript like he was auditioning for ghost dad of the year.

Listen, nothing wild happens in this book. It’s not a drama parade. It’s more like a slow build of emotional honesty, long hikes with feelings, and the slowest of slow burns. There are two mild, sweet romances (one flirty, one flannel-clad and emotionally brooding), and a dog who deserves a novella of his own. But the real heart of it all is Ali and Juniper’s tentative, awkward, then finally warm sisterhood. You want them to talk it out. You want them to scream into the Wyoming wind. You want them to do therapy, but this is RaeAnne Thayne, so they just journal and make pie and cry on the porch.

The manuscript subplot is like, “Ooooh secrets!”... and then politely exits stage left before causing any real chaos. Which feels very on-brand. It's conflict-averse but comfort-rich. The emotional growth is there, you just have to squint past all the niceness to see it.

The audiobook? Vanessa Johansson gives cozy energy. I wouldn’t say it slaps, but it definitely simmers in a “wearing a cashmere cardigan by a warm fire on a cold night” kind of way. The narration matches the book’s pace: steady, earnest, slightly sleepy. Not mad about it.

Do I wish the stakes were higher? That someone screamed or dramatically drove off into the Wyoming dusk? Yes. But I also kind of loved the low-stakes softness of it all. Sometimes your soul needs a break from plot twists and just wants a heartwarming reunion and some emotionally repressed ranch men.

3.5 stars. Wholesome with a side of paternity drama, like if Hallmark tried to do “Succession” but the main characters kept accidentally baking pastry instead. It might have healed something in me.

Thanks to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for providing access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Juniper’s heart may have stopped, but mine got a little mushy by the end.

A cute book! I loved the setting and the concept of finding family through DNA.

Narrators did a good job.

Thank you to Netgalley, UplitReads and the author for my multiple copies.

3.75 This book starts off with a bang, and then slows down to an easy pace. It was a quick read and a good reminder that sometimes we have to reevaluate life and priorities and make changes.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have loved so many of this author's books, and I loved this one too!!!

Beware, you are in for an emotional roller coaster of a ride!!

So, we OPEN up with Allison Wells, the daughter of a well-known author, who is working as an assistant for a woman named Juniper Connelly. She is NOT doing well there, and Juniiper (June) has called her into her office to give her some bad news... but, as this is happening, she drops to the floor. Next thing she knows, she's in a hospital bed! What the heck happened???

Well, Allison (Ali) can tell you. She was right there. And when June hit the floor, all those classes that Ali took after losing her father, well, they paid off. I mean after all, June is alive!

THIS IS THE OPENING OF THE BOOK!!! WOW!!!

And so, we go on from here...and June, who is well known all over, seems to be alone in the hospital. And so Ali stays with her...
And then, in order for her to have some time and peace to recuperate, she invites June back to her home in the rolling hills of Wyoming... where June is introduced to so much more than just the atmosphere around her....

This is a charming, beautiful, heart-felt story about love, life, family, friends, community... and yet, so much more!

#TheLostBookOfFirstLoves by @RaeAnneThayne and narrated nicely by @VanessaJohansson.

4 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💫 for me, happily rounded up to 5!!!

*** THIS ONE HAS ALREADY BEEN RELEASED!! PLEASE LOOK 👀 FOR IT ON SHELVES NOW!!! ***

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #HarlequinAudio for an ARC of the audiobook, in exchange for an honest review.

You can find my reviews on: Goodreads,
Insta @BookReviews_with_emsr and/or
My Facebook Book Club: Book Reviews With Elaine

Thanks so much for reading! And if you ‘liked’ my review, please share with your friends, & click ‘LIKE’ below… And, let me know YOUR thoughts if you read it!! 📚⭐️

This was my first book by RaeAnne Thayne and I was not disappointed. After discovering she has a half-sister, Ali takes a job as Juniper’s intern, hoping to find the right time to tell her the truth about their shared father, renowned author Carson Wells. When Juniper suffers cardiac arrest and learns Ali saved her life, Ali convinces her to recover at her father’s ranch in Wyoming.

During their stay, the sisters uncover secrets about Carson Wells, deepening their bond as they piece together his hidden past. Both Ali and Juniper also find themselves falling for two local men, forcing them to consider if their futures include these relationships and the ranch. In the end, Juniper must reconcile the life she thought she knew with the truth that has been revealed.

This is a heartwarming story about family, forgiveness, and love set against a beautiful western backdrop. If you enjoy stories about sisterhood, secrets, and gentle romance, this is one to add to your list.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Audio, and RaeAnne Thayne for granting me access to the Audiobook.

What a cute summer read! I listened to this audiobook and loved how the narrator brought all the characters to life. The plot was entertaining and the characters were lovable. The end warmed my heart!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

I listened to this book instead of reading it. Vanessa Johansson did an amazing job narrating this book. This is the first book that I listened to that she narrated, and she is now on my approved list of narrators. A narrator can make or break a book, and she made the book.

RaeAnne Thayne wrote a book all about family. There is a lot of drama, a lot of feelings, and a lot of being lost within your own life. I enjoyed seeing the characters figure out their lives. Ali finds out she has a sister and does what she needs to just to be near her.

I enjoyed the book and the relationships within the book. I would have loved more about Ali and Juniper’s dad. Maybe some flashbacks to his relationships with their mothers would have been fun. Overall this was an easy book to listen to, there were not many surprises. The book revolved entirely around when and if Ali should tell Juniper they are sisters.

This was a sweet, light romance. If you like found family, lightly predictable, and something that has some comfy summer vibes, this will be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I absolutely adore this author but this story wasn’t for me. I had a really hard time focusing on the story and sadly found it uninteresting.

*~ Best Found Family ~*

This book was so interesting to me. I listened to it on audio and while I always feel like a book with multiple narrators keeps me more locked in than a single narrator, this story still had multiple POVs and that helped me stay sucked into the story.

The story of Alison and Juniper is the main part and what I loved most about this story. but their romantic storylines were sweet and complicated as well.

Ultimately, I felt like this was a really cozy read.

Thank you to Net Galley, Harlequin Audio, and RaeAnne Thayne for an ALC of this story.

The Lost Book of First Loves is engaging, beautifully evocative of Wyoming hills, and delivers not one, but two sweet love stories. Alison obtains work under false pretenses in an attempt to get to know the woman a DNA test has identified as her half-sister in the months following her--now apparently their--famous writer father's death. Deus ex machina plot twists send both women to Alison's bucolic home where old and new male friends are standing by to make revelations easier to bear. RaeAnne Thayne knows her way around women's fiction/romance, and I enjoyed my stay with these decent, well-meaning people as they come to understand secrets kept by loved ones don't always spell trouble. The audiobook was expertly narrated by Vanessa Johansson, and yes, the unbearably lovable dog did help bump my score all the way to five stars.

Great four star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️read with all the emotions that keep me engaged - love, loss, and laughter. Narration of this book was great and the characters were perfectly written into the storyline. First read for me by this author and really enjoyed the book. Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the audible arc.