The new normal was a nice romance, maybe even more towards women's fiction about two neighbors that both have endured very painful divorces.

The story was well written and an enjoyable read. The characters felt real with real issues.

After her divorce Carli is trying to make the transition as seamless as possible for her and her teenage daughters however between her new job, her ex and her sexy neighbor things are about to get more complicated.

Ben also finds himself divorced as well with two children. His life was turned upside down when he was betrayed by his ex and his best friend who also happened to be his business partner. All he wants to do is focus on his new home and being the best father they can be.

Both Carlie and Ben have so much in common and a friendship develops but only they can decide if they are ready to open their hearts to the possibility of more. This story is more about their new lives and the romance between them is a very slow burn.

2 stars
This one was a little slow for me. The romance, the plot, the relationship. And then the ending!! What ?? It was not really a romance per se.

My first read from this author and it was enjoyable. It did feel rather incomplete with the exes and the epilogue left a lot to be desired but all in all I'm glad I read it. The writing flowed well and the characters were well developed, I just felt something was missing. Good sweet story though and I reccomend if you want to read about moving on after divorce.

This was a fantastic read that kept me entertained all the way through. It's a wonderful story of two people dealing with divorce, single parenthood, as they learn to trust and love again. Beautifully written with well developed characters, an easy pace, and a realistic storyline filled with humor and fun. Definitely one for the must read list! I highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed this one! Carli and Ben were so cute and I liked that they were both single parents, rather than only one being a single parent. I definitely recommend this one!

The New Normal was an easy read, but it was a very slow burn in terms of the romance genre. I wouldn’t characterize it as women’s fiction, more like two people helping each other navigate the world, post divorce. There are some minor misunderstandings and missed opportunities, but no real drama or angst. Even the inevitable ex drama isn’t that dramatic, just annoying, and sort of predictable.
There isn’t even any kid drama with the four teens Ben and Carli have between them. Each is nice and levelheaded. Honestly, if I didn’t enjoy it so much, it would almost be boring. But it wasn’t and I enjoyed it a lot

The cover and blurb of this book led me to think that it was a contemporary romance, but The New Normal is much more about Carli rediscovering herself. And it fell flat for me.

The writing was disjointed in so many places. After all the build up about Carli getting a new job, it was practically brushed under the rug. What does Ben do for a living? I’m not quite sure. Scenes just ended abruptly, and I felt like I was missing out in the build-up to Carli and Ben’s relationship. I lost it after he slept with someone else. They aren’t together at that point, so it’s not cheating, but why would I root for them after that?

The premise is good, and there are some great parts to The New Normal. But overall, this was a miss for me. I received an advanced copy via NetGalley and Montlake Romance and voluntarily left a review.

Unfortunately this was not a good fit for me. DNF @ 30%. I didn’t like Carli at all. Her first meeting with Ben she doesn’t apologize at all. Instead she gets mad at him because he didn’t help her with her dog. Who had just eaten his dinner and broken his grill. And then goes on to bad mouth him. Couldn’t stand her! Which made it hard to keep reading. Then she’s horrible again when she locks herself out. And that was it for me. Sorry, just not for me.

Two families starting over after their marriages withered and died, putting the pieces back together and learning what they want and need again. Slowly a friendship forms between Carli and her new neighbor. Attraction is there, but she is far from ready to do anything about it. She is not even sure he feels the same. Her girls are what matter, and training the beast of a dog she bought for her little family.
Ben was left devastated after his wife's betrayal with his bestfriend. Moving on is not easy, but renovating his new house and finding out what he wants to do have a way of taking away the loneliness and pain. Especially in this new neighborhood with a new event or party atleast once a month and the neighbor he can't stop thinking about. Easy read about two people starting over and learning what they want before they jump onto something new.

I love the friends to lovers trope. This is such a cute story. Really enjoyed this one!

Many thanks to the author, the publishers, and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Good book. Carli is divorced and her husband just moves on with a much younger woman. She is trying to keep the 2 girls stable and happy. A new neighbor moves in and the whole neighborhood is a twitter. This amused me that the women on this street were so nosy. She and the new neighbor did not get off on a good start, but he proves important to her later. The main characters were likeable and their kids were great. Typical teenagers, but good kids. The author addressed well how hard divorce is on kids and the spouse that has been left. An enjoyable book

I'm going to call this one women's fiction, because if it's a romance then... it's an epic fail. I don't normally offer up spoilers, but if I had known (and this is the spoiler, guys) that our hero would sleep with another woman 75% of the way into the book, I wouldn't have wasted my time with it. Our couple wasn't together at the time, but there were definitely growing feelings, and that dropped this book down SEVERAL notches, in my opinion. If you choose to call this women's fiction (because a LOT of the book is devoted to self-discovery), you might find it to be a more successful read.

The story follows Ben and Carli, new neighbors who are each dealing with divorce. They're in their forties with teenage children, and neither one has been single in years. As they transition into the new "normal" of their lives, they get to know each other and form a friendship with a hint of something more. They both know that they're in no place to start a real relationship, and starting something casual with your neighbor is ill-advised, so they're stuck in that middle ground.

Though I wasn't loving the story prior to the other woman drama, I also wasn't hating it. The cover makes this seem like a lighter romance, and I probably wouldn't have selected this book had I realized that our couple are in their forties. Nothing wrong with that, it's just a completely different kind of romance. The writing is too internalized for my liking, but there's a lot of depth there that makes for an intriguing read - I just wish the romance had been stronger. It's central to the whole story, so it's definitely intended to be one, but I CANNOT get behind a book where the hero sleeps with someone else that far in. That's not a slow burn; that's a standstill. Ultimately, I'm going to just consider this to be clean women's fiction, because if I think of it as a romance, then I'll be tempted to drop my rating even lower. I appreciated receiving an ARC via NetGalley (and am voluntarily leaving a review), but this one's both a marketing and storyline miss for me.

This was not a book for me. I don't know if it was the lack of relationship building, the weird timeline jumps, or just the fact that I had a hard time understanding what the point of it all was, but I just did not enjoy this one. I liked Carli and Ben just fine, they were great parents dealing with crappy situations and divorces. Aside from that, I didn't get much else.

There was no real character building or relationship building between Carli and Ben, aside from a few encounters, and discussions of them texting, so the entire relationship just felt superficial and flat to me. The story itself also didn't quite work. We get so much info about Carli's audition for her new job, but then only glimpses of it afterwards. Ben is mentioned going back to work for his family in passing, but there's never anything more about it even though we spend a chapter with Ben agonizing over what to do. We also spend a lot of time with his sister at one point, and there was a great moment where Carli first meets the sister, but then it just cuts and goes to the next chapter. I don't know, it all felt kind of disjointed and almost like a lot of thoughts were being thrown onto paper with no real plan.

It could have been a really good story, and I loved the premise, and some of the bigger girl power moments that Carli had, but the entire story just fell flat and didn't work.

**Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review**

This is a sweet and very well written story about life for everyone involved after divorce. Carli, who is in her early 40’s is divorced and has 2 teenage daughters. She struggles trying to balance all aspects of life and coparenting with her ex who it seems has moved on a lot faster than she seems to be able to. She meets her new neighbor Ben, who is around her age and working on a divorce himself. He has a teenage son who goes to school with her daughters and a daughter. Who is just a little younger than the other kids. This story focuses on how all of their lives are adjusting to their “new normal”. You can feel that at some point Ben and Carli will probably become romantically involved but that does not happen quickly. I actually really enjoyed that though. Their relationship grows more organically through friendship, neighborly bonding and similar life situations. And it seems they both needed each other for that more than anything else. Happy how it all turns out! I really liked this book!

This is an aptly titled slow burn romance about two people healing from divorce and building a relationship that starts as neighbors and friends into something more. Carli's husband was a rat, she's got a new job, and her daughters are teens. Yikes. Ben, a newly single dad whose wife cheated on him, moves in next door with his kids. This isn't the Brady Bunch but more about how you reset your life. This is a great neighborhood by the way- if you like gossip fests. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Nicely done characters and a realistic (albeit a bit too sunny in spots) make this a good read.

Carli is recently and divorced, and when newly separated Ben moves in next door, neither of them are in a place to start something. They become friends, but both secretly want more. Will they be brave enough to take a chance?

DNF’d at 30%. It was a sweet story with likable characters but lacked spark, steam, and couldn’t keep my interest.

This was an enjoyable romance about two neighbors finding their ways forward after painful divorces. Carli and Ben seem to have a lot in common. They’re both divorced and dealing with that as well as with how the fallout affects their teenage children. And both are very hesitant about starting up any new romance. But they are good neighbors to each other in this fictional neighborhood of a small Michigan town where neighbors congregate regularly to celebrate whatever they can think of and they’re always ready to help one another out. And gossip flies around the cul-de-sac at a very fast clip.

I liked seeing how each of these two characters grew new strengths after having rather rotten spouses dump them. I also enjoyed reading about how their children coped with divorce.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Fun, flirty, steamy and sweet. This book will have you smiling from beginning to end. Tracy Brogan has a way with words and this stories are nothing less than brilliant and had me swiping the pages from start to finish. Couldn’t put this book down at all. This is a new author to me and I can 100% say I will definitely picking up more books by this author. Grab your copy today! Happy reading everyone!!