Honestly the premise of Follow Your Bliss really intrigued me and seemed like something I would love, and while this is definitely a cute... It just wasn't for me.

Thanks NetGalley and Holly Rose for the e-arc on exchange for my honest review!

Super cute and cozy! Loved Rose and Jason's banter! However, the religious drama kinda sucked the fun out of their quirky relationship imo. Also the mommas boy dynamic and too scared to stand up to his mom kinda rubbed me a little bit.

You may enjoy this book more than me so don't let my review scare you away from picking this book up! While it was cute and cozy, parts of the storyline just weren't for me.

This was an enjoyable read! The steam was well-done, and the attraction felt very real. My one qualm was that Rose was a liiiiiiiiiittle cringe in the first few chapters. But if that's who she is, that's who she is, I guess! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I picked this up as it seemed like a light, cute palette cleanser read between my usual darker reads - and it delivered with extra depth than expected! As a seamstress who has always dreamed of living in a converted church, I was easily drawn in by the premise and it didn't disappoint.

The story is a fair bit more complex than I initially perceived - it's not a simple "seamstress meets DIY-er" light romance. There's some meaningful, but light, exploration of healing from abuse and abandonment, and an interesting contrast between her being commitment-wary and sex positive against the MMC's religious background and voluntary celibacy. While I wasn't expecting religion to have as such a role as it did, it was an interesting new dynamic to explore.
Sex positivity is always something I embrace however at times it felt a little too much like a lecture? The FMC's quirkiness was also a little too forced at times, and some of the dialogue occasionally a little too juvenile/over the top sexual, but thankfully fell more into the background as the book went on and didn't detract from the enjoyment of the story overall.

All that being said - a lovely, enjoyable book that grew on me as I read. The spice was original and well balanced, and the relationship development felt natural over the course of the book. The dual POV really enhanced the experience giving us insight to both characters and their growth.
Overall a happy and easy read, with plenty of charm and unexpected depth - would definitely recommend to romance reading friends looking for their next read and I'm looking forward to the next instalment of the Dream House Girls series!

Thank you Star Siren Press & Holly Rose for this ARC!

I love the wedding dress designer because I always love a wedding trope and that was a fun spin! The spice in this book was a good time but I could have used a little more plot per spice.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

This was a pretty fun read! Rose is a bridal gown designer who is desperate to have her designs seen and bought by women in high-end boutiques. She's moved back to New Orleans from New York City after her internship and is feeling pretty down on her luck after being unable to get her dresses stocked in shops there. Despite this, she's got an order to fulfil for her sister's best friend, and we start the story with her going to dig up a time capsule to get her sister's necklace. Apparently, she needs to wear it for Becca's shower, as otherwise, Becca will go to Bridezilla.

The capsule is at Rose's old church, St. Dorothy's. Only it's not a consecrated church anymore; it is instead owned by Jason, Becca's younger brother and Rose's crush from many years ago. Jason renovates and creates custom furniture with a side business as a social influencer, and they're both surprised to see each other. Shenanigans ensue, and she ends up renting the completed rectory from Jason while he works on the main church and community hall to turn into his dream hall.

The sparks are flying between them both, but we've got two issues - Jason is a die-hard romantic who wants to find a wife, have a family and reconnect with his faith. His partner has to be mum-approved. Rose is a die-hard marriage sceptic and has no interest in getting married, alongside also not being mum-approved at all.

Despite that, these two cannot stop themselves from coming together, and they're really sweet. Jason is attentive, loving and all the things you'd want in a boyfriend. My only complaint about him is that he definitely feels like a man written by a woman, but I didn't care too much. Sometimes, we need that! Both characters had things they had to look at and re-assess - she needed to work through some deep issues regarding marriage and men, whilst he needed to acknowledge the abuse and desperation to avoid the conflict he was feeling.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and thought it was a fun, quick, romantic read. I'll definitely be checking out the author's other contemporary romance books!

This book was a cute read! There are some mentions of religion so please be mindful of that and take care of yourself if that’s a trigger. The MMC gave such golden retriever vibes, so adorable. The FMC was highly independent and was wary of relationships; casual being her go-to. Her character development of opening her heart to someone was highly relatable and I admired her for sure! They made a creative pairing and I liked the professions they had of seamstress and construction, and their support of one another was definitely shown. I’d recommend this if you want a fun and romantic, fluffy read!

Review
🎀🧵Follow your bliss-Holly Rose (Romance) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(EN)
I loved this book from the first page (chef’s kiss!). The book was easy to read, which allowed me to immerse myself in the story without any problems. I loved how the author balanced comedy and romance. The character development was fascinating, how they grew and evolved throughout the story. And it has a touch of spice 🤭. Without a doubt, I’m excited to read the next book in this series 📖.

(SP)
Me encantó este libro desde la primera página (¡chef’s kiss!)
El libro fue fácil de leer, lo que me permitió sumergirme en la historia sin problemas. Me encantó que la autora logró equilibrar la comedia y el romance. La evolución de los personajes fue fascinante, cómo crecieron y se desarrollaron a lo largo de la historia. Y tiene un toque de spice🤭
Sin duda, estoy ansiosa por leer el siguiente libro de esta serie.📖


🪡Friends to lovers
📝childhood crushes
🌹 cinnamon roll MMC

Thanks to Holly Rose and NetGalley for the opportunity💕

Follow Your Bliss was such a heartwarming story about love after heartbreak. The two MC’s were so funny and fun to watch learn and grow together that it pulled at the heart strings. If you like the golden retriever or he falls first tropes, this book is for you. It’s spicy, laugh out loud funny, but will also have you crying over heartaches and heartbreaks. The minor characters shine loud and proud and I cannot wait to read their stories in future books (I hope).

Holly Rose is an author to watch as she creates magic with words that not only make you laugh, but cry and remember that love is a messy, but worthwhile endeavor.

I received an ARC of #FollowYourBliss from #NetGalley in lieu of my honest review of the book.

Unfortunately this just didn't really do it for me. I liked that the FMC was confident and funny and the MMC was sweet, they were good characters overall but that was kind of all I enjoyed. The dialogue and inner thoughts were cringey and vulgar for no reason, and I am no prude but it felt out of place and forced. It was also really weird that the MMC was such a mama's boy and not in a good way.

This was cute until it wasn't, I absolutely loved the premise of this book, the romance plot was so cute, the Rose being a dress designer who after not being able to kick-start her career in NYC decided to come back home, needing a place to stay the brother of the bride who commissioned Rose a dress ;Jason ( also Rose's crush since school) offers his apartment. -- Jason is a famous social media craftsman who's ready to date again after leaving a toxic relationship but this time he made the decision that the girl has to be mum-approved due to lingering regrets -- his mum is religious and unfortunately Rose doesn't check all her boxes... Personally the family drama sucked out the cuteness of this book that I didn't know how to feel about the ending anymore... This aside the "unfiltered" dialogues felt so forced and overdone

This was a good book. I liked the characters but felt the overall book had it faults. I wanted more depth and the writing at some parts were just lacking something.

Thank you to NetGalley, Holly Rose, and Star Siren Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly thought I was going to like this one but I unfortunately did not enjoy this. Firstly, I enjoyed the first 20% of the book. I liked Rose as the FMC. I would have loved to see her coming to terms with dating again. She had a lot of self-work to get through and I was here to experience that with her. But that is not the direction this book went. I didn’t like Jason at all. He gave me the ick. But I felt like he made contradicting actions. He is also a momma’s boy. I don’t mean that in a good way. His character frustrated me. Rose would put things in a mature perspective but he and his mother couldn’t. Unfortunately, I will not be continuing this series. Just note that there are religious aspects to this book.

DNF'ed at 15%; if I'd known how much the MMC would talk about religion, I wouldn't have picked this book up. It's well written, and the FMC is interesting and compelling, but I couldn't get past the MMC's whole personality revolving around the church. If that's your thing, great, but not for me.

This should have just been a cute feel-good read, but I wasn’t vibing with it for a few reasons.

So almost immediately we’ve got some slut shaming, which had me side-eyeing a bit. It felt unnecessary.

Main character is religious - attends church Christian singles groups, and regularly talks about his faith. That just doesn’t do it for me - I’ve no interest in reading about people who are Christian (and celibate at the start of the book which links to the religion). I’ll be honest and say that if anything in the blurb had mentioned how much MMC would mention his faith, I wouldn’t have picked up this book to read.

The dialogue in the sex scenes was a bit cringe at times, and they felt a bit…I can’t put my finger on it, but something didn’t feel right. And the internal monologues of the two characters was childish at times.

I did like the dual POV, and the plot was cute - just overall not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I have one big issue about this book, which unfortunately run through all of the story; it’s that I strongly dislike stories that put a big emphasis on religion.

It’s simply not something I want to read about. I don’t mind characters being religious but I do when it drives so much of the book - in this case, Jason’s celibacy (he could have been celibate due to his personal history without bringing religion into it tbh) and his mother’s behaviour. The mother was completely unlikable because she put religion above common sense and that’s really a complete no-go for me, and so many of Jason’s actions took her into account that it affected the MCs’ relationship.

Even with Jason being much more progressive, this just wasn’t for me. Had I known about this I just wouldn’t have requested an ARC. That’s very personal so if it doesn’t bother you, you may enjoy the book.

Putting that aside, I did like Rose. She was funny and smart and she clearly drove the dialogues and was the more interesting character. There were a lot of really good dialogue around a variety of relationship topics. The story was mostly cute. I just wished it hadn’t included so much religion talk.

Jason wasn’t a One. And he wasn’t a Two. He was so much more. I’d been too late to shut the door to my inner heart.
-Rose Guidry

3.75 stars from me. I really enjoyed this.

I’m a sucker for a contemporary romance and this was such a short and sweet one.

The characters were well written and had some depth to them that I enjoyed.

I really enjoyed Jason, he truly was an ideal MMC. He was tortured but could also pine after Rose for as long as he did. He also wasn’t shy about his past, he was open and vulnerable.

Rose also a very believable FMC, she was real about what she did and didn’t want and Jason was so respectful with it, as was she with him.

My only flaw was his breaking his celibacy for her since that was such a prominent plot in the first half of the book!

Overall I truly recommend and the spice did not disappoint.

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Tropes:
✨ one bed trope
✨ cinnamon roll golden retriever MMC
✨ long time pining
✨ badass FMC
✨ childhood crush

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5 stars)
Follow Your Bliss by Holly Rose is a quirky, lighthearted read filled with laugh-out-loud moments and an engaging storyline that keeps things moving at a fun pace. The characters are charming and likeable, each adding their own spark to the overall vibe of the book.

While it didn't completely blow me away, I appreciated the humor and the playful tone. It strikes a nice balance between comedy and spice, making it a solid pick for readers who enjoy rom-coms with a bit of heat.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I’d recommend this to fans of flirty, feel-good fiction who don’t mind a little extra sizzle with their laughs!

dnf at 23%
The book is perfect for readers that love a free spoken, humorous, confident and hardworking heroine, a creative, kind and attentive mmc and complex family dynamics.
Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me, I had a difficult time getting into the story and I wasn’t captivated enough to keep reading.
What caught my attention is that Rose is a seamstress, a job I wanted to do when I was 6, so I was excited about her character. After failing making it big in NYC Rose comes back home, looking for a place to finally start developing her business as a wedding dress seamstress. Jason, a social media famous craftsman and brother of the bride who commissioned Rose a dress, offers her an apartment he just restored near the church he’s is renovating and turning into his house.

The premises really hooked me but different things pulled me out of the story: I found dialogues a bit unnatural and forced, especially the dialogues between the protagonists, also they had a lot of sex jokes and double meanings and the inner monologues of both the mcs were packed with sexual thoughts about the other since chapter 2. I like spice and how sexual positive Rose was but it made me a bit uncomfortable how explicit their thoughts were, also because they haven’t seen in each other in years.
About Jason I liked how he was described and it intrigued me that ha was celibate and was looking for the right woman, but not that he had to find a woman who met his mother’s (who’s very religious) standards: we know from the beginning that Rose isn’t the perfect candidate and that Jason’s mother doesn’t have kind words for her and her family; so the possible family drama and toxic religious environment put me off.

Thank you Netgalley, Star Siren Press and Holly Rose for the arc

⭐ 3.75 stars ⭐
🌶️ 3 peppers 🌶️

○ Plot: 3/5
○ Characters: 4/5
○ Romance: 4/5
○ Writing: 3.5/5

Rose is a wedding dress designer that vowed to herself she’d never get married, while Jason is a woodworker looking for a mom-approved woman to tie the knot. She just moved back from New York and needs an affordable place to live and Jason, who also happens to be her high school crush, offers her to live next to him in an apartment in the converted church he is currently renovating.

I really liked the contrast between the main characters. Rose was confident in her beliefs, funny and sweet, while Jason was a supportive Golden Retriever MMC. The relationship between the FMC and her mother reminded me a bit to Sex Education, which created some hilarious situations.

Plot-wise, it was nothing too special, but that didn’t bother me much, because the characters had very detailed personalities and were the star of the book. The writing was very colloquial and modern, perhaps a touch forced sometimes, but, in general, it felt natural.

What I did not like was the religious background of, mostly, the MMC and his family. I read in the content warnings that there was some religious bigotry, which I am OK with, but I didn’t expect religion to have such a prominent role in Jason’s life and decision-making. It blindsided me and made me enjoy less the MMC’s character. Having said that, I did not find the book preachy and I might have thought differently hadn’t this taken me by surprise.

Overall, this was a fun, sweet and light-hearted read, perfect for those looking for a cosy story featuring tropes such as opposites attract, forced proximity and a confident FMC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Star Siren Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!