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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.

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Alison Wells has a secret reason for going to Seattle to be an intern for Juniper Connolly. She doesn't get a chance to reveal the reason before Juniper has a health crisis.
Alison does manage to convince Juniper to come home with her to Wyoming to recover.
From there the story blossoms into how each woman grows from the book's starting point.
It is a sweet story that suggests a happy ending as each woman continues along the paths that open during the book.
I enjoyed listening to the audiobook. The narrator does a good job.
While there is romance in the story, this book falls into the women's fiction category for me. There is a big growth arc for both Alison and Juniper and a big secret that are the main focus of the book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Audio for the opportunity to read the book.

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Alison, one of our MCs, is mourning the loss of her father (who was a famous author) when she finds a secret sister via a DNA test. To be in her sister's life, she decides she is going to intern. Leave it to a book character to logically think that the most illogical way to meet someone is to literally get them at work. But it sets us up for the story. She ends up fired by the way.. imagine that?!
Juniper - Alison's sister, who clearly needs to decrease her stress, ends up being saved by Alison when she goes into cardiac arrest.
To recover, Alison offers Juniper the opportunity to recover on her ranch. This piques Junipers interest because it is the ranch of the late famous author, who Juniper happened to love.
Between trying to figure out direction in life, their career paths, feelings, Juniper realizing Alison is her sister, and the coming to grips with the past, the book takes you on an emotional journey.
The characters were well developed and complex. I was more engaged with Alison than Juniper for some reason.
The plot was well structured and the writing is well done. I had a problem with the pace. It just felt so slow, so if you love a slow emotional story, you will love this book!
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!
Happy Reading!

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This novel was a sweet, comforting story about finding family when you are in the midst of loneliness.

Allison Carson takes an internship an an assistant for successful businesswoman, Juniper Connolly. Juniper doesn't realize that Allison has a secret that involves Juniper. When Juniper suffers a tragedy while firing Allison, Allison not only saves her life, but rushes to care for her boss by allowing her to rest at her family's country home in Wyoming. Allison and Juniper's friendship grows as Juniper recovers and Allison decides what to do with her career and her big secret. Juniper meets a local small town man and Allison is torn between her high school crush and her best friend. When secrets are revealed, the two friends are on a hunt to discover the truth.

This cozy novel about friendship, family and secrets was the perfect book for when you need an uplifting story.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. The narrator was very good at distinguishing the characters, but I felt like the voices of Juniper and Beckett were a couple in their fifties or sixties, When the story mentioned that Juniper was in her early thirties, I was surprised, but this did not affect the story. I will recommend this book to my friends who need a feel good novel that is completely enjoyable. #NetGalley #TheLostBookOfFirst Loves @Harlequin Audio

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The Lost Book of First Loves was a heartwarming story with all of the makings of a Hallmark movie. After the death of her father, Alison takes a DNA test and learns she has a half sister. She finds herself taking a job as an intern to get to know her half sister, Juniper. Juniper has a medical emergency before Ali gets to tell her the life changing news. Ali decides she will offer the family's cabin in Wyoming to Juniper as a peaceful place to recover. While recovering Juniper searches for a lost manuscript written by their literary icon father, Carson Wells. Secrets and lies are uncovered and new romances are formed. This book is light, cozy and a bit predictable with likable characters. I had the pleasure of listening to the narration performed by Vanessa Johansson. She was an easy narrator to listen to and kept me interested.

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Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed Th Lost Book of First Loves. I love the premise of the author and a long-lost sibling. This was a light cozy romance with a new sibling relationship. I enjoyed it. It is also book about self-discovery and chasing your dreams.

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A touching, well written story that seamlessly melds two plots and wraps them up with a satisfying conclusion. The excellent narration on adds to the quality of the work.

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Thank you to NetGalley, RaeAnne Thayne, and Harlequin Audio for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook of The Lost Book of First Loves.

While I liked the concept and saw a lot of potential in the plot, the story just didn’t quite land for me. I found myself wishing for more natural banter and genuine human moments. The characters felt a bit robotic and lacked emotional depth, which made the dialogue feel somewhat forced—leaning heavily into that overly polished, Hallmark-style charm.

That said, this could serve as a light, easy palate cleanser between heavier reads. It just wasn’t quite my style.

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I did a combination read, both audio and digital. The narration by Vanessa Johansson was perfect.

This lovely book by RaeAnne Thayne is a fine example of women's fiction with romantic undertones. There are actually two romances that develop in this book (yeah!).

The book centers around two women working for a large successful corporation--one is the boss of the other. When Juniper, who had just fired her, has a cardiac event, Allison offers to take the other woman home with her to Wyoming to recover. Little does Juniper know that there is another reason behind her invitation.

This is a book of secrets, lies, family, and taking chances on love. It had a very satisfactory ending, aside from the fact that it WAS ending. I really want to go to Wyoming now!

Thanks to the author for the digital copy. All thoughts are my own.

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I had a hard time deciding between 3 and 4 chairs. I really do like a good sister relationship story - so this made it a 4 for me. The pacing seemed a little slow and the repeating of information made it a 3 for me. So with those details you can decide if this would be a good book for you.

There were a couple of romances going on. They were clean and predictable.

Overall this a good RaeAnne Thayne book, but not one that took my breath away. I am ready to read her next one.

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Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I probably should have DNF'd this because this book was just not for me. This is not to say that the book is bad in any way, it was just not for me. The book started off interesting, and there were some side romances that turned out to be ok, but the book just dragged for me. The ending was also just ok, nothing mind-blowing or giving those feel-good moments. Definitely give it a try if the premiae interests you as you may like it. It just unfortunately did not work out for me.

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Are you looking for a good book to read this weekend? Something easy and sweet, Center around family? Check this out, The Lost book of First Loves by RaeAnne Thayer.

While there is definitely romance in here, I felt like my focus was on family, found family and legacy. I sunk right into this group of characters. They were very likable and relatable.

After taking a DNA test and learning she has a sister she had never heard of before, Allison takes a job as Juniper’s intern in order to get to know her and find out what happened. Juniper doesn’t know she has a half-sister. She does know that she has a new intern to fire.

She does that and next thing she knows, she is dealing up in the hospital after a cardiac arrest, and that intern, Allison, is right there with her, offering her a place to rest and recover.

The narrator for the audiobook did an excellent job of keeping me entertained and engaged.


There is so much more to this than that very brief and basic overview. So much that is worth you discovering. This book has been recommended to me and now I am recommending it to you.

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I'm relieved I didn't purchase this book; while it wasn't terrible, it felt rather simplistic and reminiscent of the kind of stories you'd find in a grandmother's collection. I sometimes indulge in Danielle Steel's novels, so I can't be too critical, but this one seemed very much in the vein of Debbie Macomber. I found myself a bit uncertain at the start, as June didn't come across as very likable, and Ali felt like a bit of a pushover. The story only picked up when June experienced a health crisis and Ali stepped up to help. It became more engaging once we discovered Ali's true motivations for seeking the internship.

It struck me as odd when Ali offered her home in Wyoming for June's recovery, yet June didn’t seem to find it unusual that Ali had just saved her life. The slower pace of life in Wyoming provided a backdrop for both women to reflect on their lives and contemplate their future paths. I found it frustrating that Ali kept her reasons for wanting the internship from June for so long; it really affected June, especially when they stumbled upon the secret manuscript. Even though they uncovered some answers, it seemed to cause more confusion for June.

However, I appreciated how the story wrapped up. Both women pursued their desires, even if they hadn't figured everything out just yet, and I really enjoyed witnessing the development of their newfound relationship.

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It gets tricky for me to rate books that are good because the rating system is not nuanced to take in that fine line between good and great. With that said, it’s better than a 3 star book but not quite a 4 star book for my rating system. With that said, sometimes a reader wants a straight forward story that’s not full of twists and miscommunication tropes. Sometimes a story that’s weaves in found family with love stories is exactly the kind of beach read you need. Nothing that requires you to stress. Plenty of space to enjoy their journey. This would be THAT book. I listened to it on audiobook and the narrator was decent but her voice lent a little older sound to the characters ( like 50 something) and her characters were mostly in their 20’s and 30’s. I think this author would have made this book a 5 star read if we had an epilogue of the main characters and/or she would have had a flashback of Juniper’s Mom meeting Carson.

So it’s a 3.75 star read for me with a decent audiobook narration rounded up.

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RaeAnne provides a solid story about a variety of ways to love as well as stories of friends to lovers. The importance of finding family, love and friendship. Allison's beloved father passed away suddenly, one of the last things they did together was take a DNA test to find out whether there are any long lost relatives. Allison is shocked when the results show that she has markers that reveal that she has a half sibling. Research shows that Juniper Connolly a high power executive is that person. Working undercover as her intern to get to know Juniper better isn’t really her dream job and after a few weeks she is in the process of getting fired when Juniper clutches her chest and passes out. This time Allison knows what to do, not like when her father passed away and she takes charge starting CPR immediately. Which per the doctors had saved her life. Now told to take it easy and adjust to her new lifestyle Juni is surprised when her intern invites her to her ranch in Wyoming. That she would be welcome to stay if she prefers more privacy at her dad’s writing cabin. Once she realizes that Carson Wells was Ali dad and also a favorite author of her mother and herself, although confused about the offer from Allison being almost a total stranger, she decides to go. The plot centers on how and when to tell Juni about her father. A few are in on the secret and the more they get to know each other the harder it is to tell the truth. The story has several versions of love, lost love, new love, friends to lovers. Many thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity.

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I was excited to listen to this book, but it was just okay for me. It was a perfectly fine story, but there was nothing gripping or unique about it. I finished it a few weeks ago and can’t even remember much about it, if that tells you anything.

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Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Audio and RaeAnne Thayne for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5⭐️ Overall, I enjoyed it. This is the second book I’ve read by RaeAnne and I liked this one more. I listened to the audio and I would skip that and get the physical/ebook instead. I was not a fan.

This story is about sisterhood and found family. This is about realizing what you want and deserve (and what you may have been overlooking).

The book started off with an impactful scene and then the story slowed down considerably.

It was pretty obvious from the start what was going to happen but I’m not reading romance for the mystery!

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Very sweet story about family. Some of the dialogue is quite repetitive, and certain thoughts/themes keep coming up in an annoying way. I did like the way the story unfolded in some respects, but a lot was predictable and simplistic. A nice book and the narrator did a nice job.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the ALC.

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I just finished listening to this book and I am a little bummed it was over. I adored reading it and listening to it was even better. It’s a wonderful story to get lost in. It’s about family, known, unknown and newly found, love, death, loss, friendship, careers, and discovering what really matters most. Alison lost her beloved famous author father, All she has left is her grandmother, or so she thinks. A DNA test proves otherwise. She decides to surreptitiously meet and get to know her before she shares the news to her surprise sister, Juniper. When she gets a job working for Juniper, things don’t go well and as she is being fired, Juniper experiences a literal life altering incident and Alison saves her life. Their story from being strangers, to friends to family is wonderful. They untangle family secrets, open their hearts, discover and find love, themselves and the true meaning of family. The writing is fabulous. I want to go to Wyoming and spend some time at The Painted Ranch with all of them. The narration was fabulous and added to the experience of the story.

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The Lost Book of First Loves Honest ARC Review:

Raised by her literary icon father Carson Wells, Allison had a nice upbringing in a beautiful ranch set in Wyoming. Allison’s mother passed when she was only fifteen.

When Allison took a DNA test while in her 20’s, she discovered that she had a sister she hadn’t known about previously. Allison’s drive to get to know her sister led her to take a position as an intern in a corporate world, working for her half sister, Juniper.

Before Allison had a chance to truly connect with Juniper and inform her of her DNA results, Juniper had a cardiac arrest, leaving Allison to perform lifesaving CPR. One tho no led to another and Allison was not able to confide in her half sister, placing her in quite the interesting situation.

This story is heartwarming and entertaining. I enjoyed seeing the characters open up and reflect on their own respective lives. Poignant and beautifully written, this story takes a wonderful turn as Juniper is able to see into the life of an author she admired, with a glimpse into her biological family’s home.

With unexpected romance and revelation, this story is enjoyable to read. The characters were complex and added depth to the storyline. The Lost Book of First Loves is a wonderful addition to your TBR.

Thank you so much Net Galley and Harlequin Audio for sharing this ARC with me.

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