This was such a let down of a read. I had really high hopes when going in and I feel extremely disappointed. There was no development of the relationship, the backstory was so poorly done. Without spoiling too much, Kara's reason for not returning to Ryan was so deep and she seems to get over it in a span of one chapter? Does she not care anymore? Does anything of the past actually matter? And Ryan? He's simply, as his past has shown, an unreliable boy after the girl who is willing to give him everything. Their relationship was toxic, illogical and based on nothing more than attractiveness. This was an entirely poor, let down of a rom-com read.

The story - ⭐⭐
The writing - ⭐⭐⭐
Overall - ⭐⭐⭐

I was all ready to absolutely love this... And then I got 75% through it and it was ruined.

The second chance, enemies to lovers tries are usually a fave and this hit all the right spots at the right times... Until we get to the 75% mark and there's THAT reveal and then THAT ending.

I don't want to give anything away bit if it had left in the reveal and had an alternative ending where Kara worked on her grief and moved on, developed as a character and found enough self worth I think I would have preferred it. Instead I was FUMING.

It's well written, the banter between characters is great, I actually enjoyed the excerpts from Kara's novel interjected, the ending just let this down.

Fave quote - Edgar, once tried to teach me the basics but I’m fairly confident I looked like a plank of wood that was given the gift of limbs. Cristina recommended dance lessons. Edgar suggested a bottle of aguardiente and prayer.

Fave moment - all the banter, maybe the awkward jenga moment in the bar the most

I was expecting a cosy and warm rom-com and that is exactly what I got. Great debut novel for Kate Bromley.

Kara (a romance novelist and bookstagrammer) and Ryan were college sweethearts but events pulled them apart. 10 years later they are suddenly back in each others lives thanks to links with the same wedding couple. From here they knew that their feelings for one another never did truly fade and both have been comparing relationship after relationship to what they had together.

However nothing is always as easy as the romance novel Kara writes, and they are destined for some troubles times ahead again, with history repeating themselves Kara and Ryan have to decide whether their relationship can survive or do they call is quits for the final time.

This book's trope is second chance love and my gosh was I loving it and eager to see what would happen! With books like this you know what the ending will be like, and I suppose that is the comforting thing about reading them, however the characters and settings were really brought to lift for me making me fall in love with them fast. I found so many similarities between Kara and her best friends that I do with my own.

This book ended only being alright for me. Let me get the few things that I didn't like out of the way first, so we can end this on a positive note later. I will preface this by saying that those are just things that I personally didn't enjoy, which does not mean the book is bad in any way. It just wasn't for me.

My average rating came down to a few of things.

The big ones:
1) My favourite characters ended up being the supporting characters rather than the leads. Which as a plus means that I ADORED Liam and Maggie. Liam was adorable and Maggie actually made me giggle. However, this is a bit of a problem for a romance.
2) I truly and honestly disliked the reveal about Ryan. This is not something I enjoy reading about in my romance books, especially in light of how their relationship ended when they were in college. Not a fan.

The minor ones:
3) The fact that Kara refers a couple of times to her size 8 (a 12 in UK sizing) in a way that makes it sound like she needed to be skinnier, even though I'm fairly sure it's the average size in most countries. I always dislike stuff like that.
4) The few times where it was said that Kara is now 30 and absolutely MUST start making babies before her body withers to dust. Well, it wasn't said like that, but the idea of women having an expiry date or even the fact that they NEED to have children also annoys me.


Now for the good things, because there is actually quite a bit of good.

I thought the writingstyle was really good, and I enjoyed myself enough that I read it all in one afternoon. I am usually not a big fan of the book within a book thing (I have been known to skip those entirely in other books), but I actually didn't mind it here, and I'd happily read the historical romance that was being written by Kara. I also enjoyed the outpouring of love for the romance genre on the pages of this book. The author loves romance and it truly shows. Now, what I really appreciated was the shoutout to bookstagram and how nice of a community it is for us bookworms. I also enjoyed the steamy scenes.

So all in all, I'm sure loads of people would really enjoy this book. It was an easy read and I did want to know what happened next. It just had a some tropes and things that I personally am not a big fan of, but that's ok!

2.5/5 stars (rounded up to 3)

This was a fairly enjoyable read. The two leads Kara and Ryan had some really nice chemistry and I liked how their interactions developed from that initial friction and mutual ‘hatred but not really hatred’ which was clearly coloured by their past relationship to friendly banter and then to much more. I felt the author did a good job of making you root for them to get their second chance. However I was not too keen on the reveal about Ryan that came later, especially given how and why things ended between them the first time and his own family history. Some nice supporting characters as well in Maggie and Liam (I didn’t warm as much to Christina who I found a bit pushy). There was also an appreciation of romantic fiction running throughout the story which as a fan of the genre I loved. (3 1/2 ⭐️)

This is probably one of my best reads this year ALREADY! Absolutely loved the characters and their story together. Took me a few chapters to get into but I was so glad I stuck around. There were laugh out loud parts and really steamy parts.
A very enjoyable read!

Kara writes romance novels so we also get an historical romance she is writing within this story. I didn't see the need for it.

Kara & Ryan dated for two years at College but when Ryan got a job they were separated and that's when their relationship started to go wrong and they split up. Ten years later Kara's friends are getting married and Ryan turns up as it transpires he grew up with the groom.

Kara has had writers block for a while but once she sees Ryan again, she is able to start writing again. Ryan has brought his dog Duke with him and so gets kicked out of his hotel so Kara says he can move in with her (hoping it will help her writing). Obviously it doesn't take long for them to reconnect. The sex scenes aren't very well written! There is no foreplay, just straight to it!

I quite liked Ryan until three quarters of the way through when we learn that he's engaged to be married! Not only that, it's to the girl who 10 years previously Kara thought he was been unfaithful with (he wasn't). I hate reading of things like this in romance books as not only do I feel for the heroine, but the poor innocent 'other woman'. In this case, we don't really get to know the other woman as she only appears briefly but still..

Kara and Ryan had spent a week together reconnecting but she forgot to tell him she was going to Italy for six months after their friends wedding so only tells him the night before the wedding. She finds out about Ryan's engagement at the wedding where he also tries to blame her for keeping Italy a secret. Hardly comparable!

The story then moves to Italy where Kara doesn't seem that heartbroken to me. In fact, she meets another man! They start off as friends, share a kiss but then as they're both getting over exes, they decide to stay friends but I just didn't feel the need for this part (unless he's going to write a book about Liam?!). I got bored reading the Italy part as it was dragging on and reading about her and another man felt wrong in a romance book!

Kara hears from Ryan while in Rome and even sees him on his way back to the airport but decides to let him go and carries on her six months in Italy. When she returns, all is forgiven and they get back together!

As a debut, the writer has potential but I feel this book had too many parts that weren't needed and I didn't really sense Kara's heartbreak over Ryan. I could sense Ryan's heartbreak but not hers. I also found that Kate has a lot of good friends, a sister and a mother but she seems like quite a selfish person. It was all 'me, me, me'. One friend was really upset Kara had ignored her for two month and had a family emergency during that time but even then, the whole conversation was mainly about Kara and her problems!

I also found it a bit immature that at 30 years old Kara was hiding her relationship with Ryan from her sister and mother. Yes her parents were upset for her when she split with him as a 20 year old but it seemed immature to me when she was trying to hide him from them. At times she came across more like a 20 year old than a 30 year old.

Kate is suffering from writers block and has a deadline looming. Then she meets her ex at a party and she is writing again. Although he broke her heart last time, she is soon spending time with him knowing it will help her meet her deadline. But he is keeping a secret that will break her heart once again, so will she ever be able to forgive him?

A great read.

What’s better then one romance book. A book with two separate romance books within. This story of a writer who is accosted by her first boyfriend, at her best friends pre wedding party is a typical romance. The story that she is writing is also a romance story as well.