Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabelle Popp follows Sadie Fox, a California textile artist. She is asked to come back to her childhood home in Pea Blossom, Indiana so her dad can take care of her ill uncle in Florida while she watches over his pumpkin farm. Although Sadie’s relationship with her father and Pea Blossom in general is strained, Sadie accepts. She then meets Josh, the ex-game developer who lives next door and dreams of having a successful squash farm of his own.

Thoughts: Josh and Sadie are so cute! I like the black cat/golden retriever and grumpy/sunshine tropes. I really enjoyed the pumpkin patch setting and the autumnal vibes that this book contained, it's a quick and fun read to kick off the fall season. The overall story spans over a couple of months (I think?), and ends in October with a gigantic pumpkin weighing contest and fall festival. There is a time gap of three weeks where their relationship gets increasingly closer, but the reader doesn’t get to witness it, which I thought was a shame. It is duel-POV, which I love, but I wish we got a bit more of Josh and his story. It would be interesting to return to Pea Blossom, but get Grace's love story next. But for now, I want to learn more about growing pumpkins.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabelle Popp. My comments are an independent, honest review.

Grumpy/sunshine?
Squash competition?!
Small-town charm with emotional depth?
Check check check ✅✅✅
A perfect cozy read for sweater weather. Sadie’s sarcastic in all black and Josh is sunshine in flannel. Together they are a spicy pumpkin filled autumn latte.
🎃Let’s Give ’Em Pumpkin to Talk About is absolutely worth adding to your TBR.🎃

What a good fall audiobook! This hit a bunch of my most loved tropes: reverse grumpy x sunshine, small town, rivals to lovers.
Easy listen with lots of spice!
I liked the narrator, but would’ve loved two narrators for the FMC and MMC.
But otherwise really enjoyed!

I listened to the audiobook for Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About. It's a shorter book, with the audiobook being around 8 hours at 1x speed. I did listen to it on 1.5 speed, but that's pretty much my normal listening speed. It's a perfect small town romance to read in the fall. The MMC was very likable & the FMC was a little harder to connect with for me. The spice is spicy. It was a change of pace & didn't feel like a cookie cutter copy of any other books I've read, so that was refreshing. The writing style is a little formal at times, but I found it very enjoyable overall. The narrator was very good at portraying all of the different voices.

Sadie moves back to her hometown for the summer only, with the intention of growing a massive pumpkin for her dad’s farm, in order to win a contest. But, she finds that all of his pumpkins have been destroyed, and her dad also has an attractive young neighbor next door.

Despite the two of them not having much in common, Sadie & Josh hit it off and begin a whirlwind summer romance.

LGEPTTA for short, was a pretty cute book. It provided lots of laughs while also providing some good background for the characters. Additionally, once the romance started, it was actually pretty spicy, surprisingly so, which I was all for. However, the romance and characters fell a little on the flatter side for me, and the ending felt somewhat like too many things just fell into place too conveniently.

Overall I enjoyed LGEPTTA. Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Books, & Harlequin Audio for the ARC & ALCs of this book.

Great story and loved the town and characters and premise of what was going on. Loved the love story unfolding as well. What I can’t get into is how over the top smutty this was. Paint her body in cum? In a fall pumpkin book? Yeah no thanks I’ll pass. I’m not a prude by any means but it just wasn’t written in a normal adults who live in the Midwest in their 30s sex life. Also Indian is the opposite of woke and some small farming town would NOT have the gays theys and them all just openly being themselves. It’s a very very red state and you’d be hard pressed to find someone as woke as this.

This is such a fun read to kick off the fall season. Perfect small town vibes with an edgy FMC and a golden retriever MMC. There are pumpkins, dogs, parental conflict, and cheesy moments to top it all off. While this definitely is a fluffy read, it also has some moments that give it a lot of depth. The FMC is so sassy and I just loved her so much. If you are looking for - cozy, feel-good read, look no further.

I listened to this one on audio and really enjoyed the narration. It’s a quick and easy listen that will leave you feeling all ooey gooey inside.

Thank you so much to Isabelle, Harlequin Audio, and NetGalley for this ALC in return for my honest review. My opinions are my own.

Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About
✨4/5

Thank you to Harlequin for the ARC of Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabelle Popp!

This was such a great way to kick off my fall reading - the closer and closer we get to September, the more I'm just ready for pumpkin spice season and this book fit right in! It was sweet, it was spicy, just like the perfect PSL and I thought the pacing was great as well. There were some moments I wanted more of, but overall it was a great read. I found myself rooting for the characters in both their relationships and just overall growth throughout the book.

Read this if you like:
- Grumpy (her!) x Sunshine (him!)
- Small town romance
- Bi rep
- Body positivity & rep
- Fall vibes

Additionally, I thought the audiobook was really well done! The narrator did a great job differentiating each of the characters. Because it's dual POV, I do wish there was a second narrator for the other character's chapters. There were a couple times I had to remind myself who's POV chapter I was in, though they were pretty few and far between. I think it helped that the POV chapters also felt different to reflect the different characters when the narrator stayed the same.

Ahhh loved this one so much cozy pumpkin fall vibes & spicy! The story follows their rivals-to-lovers dynamic as they navigate a hog-destroyed pumpkin patch, a competitive state fair, and a budding romance, all set against a small-town fall backdrop. Thank you so much Isabelle Popp NetGalley, afterglow, harlequin books for the ARC

An adorable, cozy read to get you ready for fall! Sadie is such a lovable FMC, and there's nothing I enjoy more than a grumpy x sunshine moment. While I think I would've enjoyed this story either way, the narrator really brought it to a new level. This is one of those times I desperately wish NetGalley would allow half starts. 4.5/5 stars, would absolutely recommend for anyone who's impatiently awaiting autumn.

I love anything fall, so I was excited to dive into this one. Unfortunately, it just did not grab me the way I hoped. There was room for greatness in the story, but overall it fell a little flat for me.

Sadie returns to her hometown of Pea Blossom to help with her father’s pumpkin patch, hoping the change of scenery will also help her work through her artist’s block. She never expected her pumpkins to be destroyed or to fall for her dad’s tech millionaire neighbor, Josh. The setup had all the right pieces for a cozy fall romance, but Sadie’s constant focus on her parents and her past started to weigh the story down. I understood her struggles, but at times it felt like she was stuck in place with no growth.

Josh had potential as the grumpy neighbor turned love interest, and their romance had cute moments, but it never fully pulled me in. I enjoyed the pumpkin patch backdrop and the nods to fall traditions, but it did not leave the impact I was hoping for.

The narration was fine. Adelaide Fernport did a solid job with different voices and her pacing made it easy to follow along. While her performance did not stand out as a top favorite for me, I did not have any major complaints either. It was clear, consistent, and easy to listen to.

Overall, this was a quick fall romance that had a cute premise, but it did not completely work for me. Still, if you love cozy small town settings, fall vibes, and pumpkin patch romances, you may enjoy it more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the ALC.

This is the perfect book to start the cozy fall season

Quick, cute, cozy and a some well placed steam - I ate this book and its audiobook UP!

There’s nothing like a black cat x golden retriever moment when our fmc is the black cat. I really do this it’s superior to the vice versa lol

Sadie comes back to her hometown to help care for her father’s pumpkin patch (my dream job really) and while she’s there she’s to grow one of those massive pumpkins for the state fair! Seriously, my dream job.

But after, I kid you not, a group of hogs, destroy the patch, she gets help from our golden retriever, Josh.

They were so cute. Two that shouldn’t make sense but really do. There were heartfelt moments and men on horse back and communication that I loved.

The audio book was 10/10, the narrator (Adelaide Fernport) did an amazing job with passing and the different voices/tones for different characters. Overall, the best time!

I’m not sure if we’re going to get more from this quirky, small town, but I would love nothing more than to dive back in one day !

This one is out a week from today! Mark your calendar friends. Thank you to NetGalley and @harlequinbooks for giving me the chance to get into the season early!

Thank you so much to @netgalley & @harlequinbooks for an advanced listener copy of this book! Audiobook & Ebook are available now & the physical copy comes out August 26th 🥳🧡!

Quick Synopsis: Are you looking for the perfect fall to summer transitional contemporary romance book? 🍂
Well look no further because 𝙇𝙚𝙩’𝙨 𝙂𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙀𝙢’ 𝙋𝙪𝙢𝙥𝙠𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 is the perfect book for just that! Nestled in a farming town in Indiana, Sadie out edgy and bold, textile artist & Black Cat FMC heads back to her hometown where she thought she would never find herself after moving to California. Her dad needs help growing the pumpkins at his farm for the season and she agrees to come help. Little does she know she’s gonna run into Josh our millionaire tech turn farmer neighbor, who helps her with growing a pumpkin for a pumpkin contest, coming up in the local area. Giant pumpkins are not the only thing that grows between them though 👀🖤

My thoughts: 💭
As a small-town Indiana born and raised girl, I was instantly drawn to this book, and it delivered all the cozy Midwest fall vibes 🍂🎃. I loved following Sadie and Josh as they navigated change, opposites-attract sparks, laugh-out-loud moments, and heartfelt growth. Sadie’s journey, plus the layered family dynamics with Sadie’s Dad & sister, gave this romance the perfect balance of cute, spicy, and emotional depth. Definitely don’t let the cutesy name fool you as well… this book will add the spice to your PSL ☕️ 🌶️🤣!

Bonus points too for thoughtful plus-size rep in our FMC , I loved that👏🏻. The audiobook was fantastic too, and the narrator did a great job bringing the story to life! Definitely add this one to your fall TBR. 🍁

🎃Let’s Give Em Pumpkin to Talk About 🎃

Thank you to Isabelle Popp, Netgalley, and Harlequin Audio for this ARC.

I thought this book was really cute!! Honestly found this book to be more about the romance and character development than the plot. The pumpkin growing was the MFC’s main reason for staying in town to help her father who had to leave to care for her uncle. This gave the MFC a reason to stay for an extended period of time and form a relationship with the MMC. While I enjoyed the fall vibes I sometimes forgot about that part of the story as it didn’t feel like a huge part of the book.

What I thought was done really well was the character development. Both Sadie and Josh learned about themselves, why they are the way they are, and how they liked to be loved. They learned to give and take as well as to analyze situations they were in with a new perspective. Sadie in particular had a lot of character growth throughout the book and Josh was always there to support her in whatever ways she expressed she needed. I thought they are absolutely adorable together and would definitely read this again.

Loved the romance, loved the spice, and loved the characters.

Tropes:
Small town romance
Grumpy x Sunshine
Golden Retriever MMC

🎃 Let’s Give ’Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabella Popp
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (4 stars)
🎧 ALC Review
📅 Releases July 1, 2025

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Audio, and the author Isabella Popp for the advanced audio of Let’s Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About

Synopsis:
Sadie Fox returns to her small Indiana hometown to grow a giant pumpkin and finally earn her father’s approval, but a herd of wild hogs destroys everything. Enter Josh Thatcher: the hot, sunshiny, gourd obsessed next door neighbor who’s a pumpkin growing tech millionaire (yes, really). He offers to help her start over, despite being her biggest competition. Their chemistry grows faster than their pumpkins, until his secret threatens to ruin it all.

Tropes:
•Small town romance
•Grumpy (artist) x sunshine (gourd nerd)
•Golden retriever MMC
•Forced proximity / neighbors
•Fall vibes / harvest festival
•Competitors to lovers

My Thoughts:
This was such a fun small town FALL romance! 🎃🍂 I loved that it was centered around growing massive pumpkins! Such a random but adorable concept. And yes… it’s SPICY 🌶️🥵. Josh is the ultimate golden retriever man, just doing whatever he can to make Sadie happy and get her to stay.

Sadie is grumpy, sweary, and honestly relatable. Their dynamic had me hooked. This was such a good time and made for a perfect cozy, spicy palette cleanser. The narrator also did an awesome job bringing both of them to life!

Thank you so much to Harlequin Audio for the alc, all opinions are my own.

I really struggled with this one. The characters are likable enough. It is definitely a goth, misunderstood, plus size fmc vs golden retriever, sub mmc. The overall story is fine, but the writing feels clunky and over explaining in some areas, and not enough in others.

A cute fall read if you especially like small town romance, enemies/rivals to lovers, and black cat/golden retriever vibes.

The narrator did a good job differentiating the characters and having enough emotion to make the story engaging.

Book 109 of 2025. This book has all the fall vibes, a pumpkin contest, rival farms, black cat/golden retriever trope, with a few spicy scenes! The banter was great, cute, and hilarious! The narration is well done, but a little slow-paced, I listened to most of the book on 1.75 speed. A great fall read! Fans of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe would love this!

Ok I really liked this book. It had the combination of a cozy low angst romance, coupled with a LOT of detailed kinky sex between a cinnamon roll sunshine hero and black cat grumpy heroine. And the setting is small town Indiana during squash growing season; this had all the makings of a Hallmark movie, which are not my cup of tea at all, but I couldn’t believe how much I liked this. Did I mention this is also fairly feminist and progressive? which totally surprised me.

Plotwise we have Sadie, our “sad face” heroine who’s returned to her childhood farm to help grow pumpkins in the wake of her dad’s call to be a caretaker in Florida for his brother. Sadie is literally screaming into the void and hurling chunks of squash when she meets Josh, riding in on a horse like a medieval knight. Josh could not be more of a people pleaser and his saccharine kindness throws Sadie out of her rampage. This is a case of opposites attract, but when you have farming, two former California transplants with nothing but time on their hands and a giant squash to grow, the chemistry kicks into high gear quickly.

I was surprised (and also wanted to applaud) the way Sadie and Josh get down to business so quickly. It made sense that Sadie was vocal and take charge in the bedroom when she couldn’t be that way in her personal life. These two are so horny for each other that even if it’s kept a secret initially, in a small town someone (Sadie’s sister) is bound to figure it out eventually. I loved that therapy was discussed openly and it felt like the characters gave each other grace for their unsuccessful dating pasts. Josh is just so dang adorable and one of those hidden treasures that no woman has yet to unlock. I mean his brand’s name is Josh’s Squashes and as a former tech bro he uses engineering and technology to attempt to grow the biggest pumpkin. I was so happy to see Sadie bring out his wild side—can we say nerd in the streets, freak in the sheets? And Josh tempered Sadie’s rough edges and showed her the possibility that she wasn’t the difficult person she always believed herself to be based on how her family treated her. I also loved how Sadie’s career as a textile designer was incorporated into the story and how art was used as a way for her to make connections in the community and with Josh. Overall this was a delight to read and I look forward to more small town unique romances by Isabelle Popp. I received an early copy from Harlequin Audio. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5️⃣
Steam: 🪭🪭🪭.5️⃣ (they get down A LOT for a book under 300 pages!)
Narration: 📣📣📣 📣Adelaide Fernport was a pleasure to listen to and a new to me narrator. She was a great voice for this story.

This book had the perfect amount of friends to lovers and finding yourself and family. I love a good fall and Halloween theme and this had such great fall vibes. The spicy scenes were great. They weren’t overly explicit but had the right amount of spice. I hope there is another one about her sister and life in their small town! The narrator did a great job and I really liked her voice.

I anticipated a charming fall romance book, but I was disappointed to find it prioritized explicit content far more than I had expected. It veered into raunchiness instead of delivering genuine romance. Aside from a pumpkin weigh-off, it lacked the quintessential fall vibe I was hoping for.

Thank you @NetGalley, @HarlequinAudio and @IsabellePopp for providing me with this pre release audiobook of #LetsGiveEmPumpkintoTalkAbout in exchange for an honest review.