This was an easy and quick read! I enjoyed the supporting cast however I would have liked to see more chemistry between the main character and the love interest. For me, it was a little too ‘Insta-love’. Overall a lovely and fun read though!

This book was an easy read that only took me about 2 days to read. I’d give it 3.5 stars, but I’ll round up to 4 stars. I’m not a big fan of stories where the characters fall in love in 5 days, basically, and this was one of those stories. Others may not be as turned off by that, but I guess I’m more of a longer, slow burn romance fan.

The way the two characters met was original, and I don’t remember many (if any) books having a character that was agoraphobic. It was nice to see Gia get re-introduced into the world. I also liked that both Gia and Lindsey had a lot of baggage when it came to their exes, and weren’t shy to admit it. Added a bit of realism to the story.

So yeah, overall a decent story that wasn’t edge of your seat, unbelievably good.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

What can come from a lie? Gia has been lying for years until she's confronted. What comes next is a mix of romance, new discoveries and fun. Be careful who you share your secrets with.

Very easy book to read with nice characters. and supporting characters. I enjoyed the read, even though the chemistry between the two main characters was almost non-existent so the almost insta love connection was a bit difficult to swallow. And the agoraphobia Gia suffered from was handled a bit like it's a choice and over as soon as you step outside your door. Eh.
Both best friends and new friend Paul really saved the book for me that had a nice and rather original plot. So, I would recommend it if you're in the mood for a light fluffy read while not needing a romance that sweeps you off your feet.

***Thank you Netgalley and Bold Stroke Books for the chance to read and review this book.***

What do you do when you are afraid to leave your home, but you dream of travel and need to pay your bills? Readers will find out by reading this new novel by Toni Logan.

In Gia’s Gems the two main characters are Gia Williams and Lindsey Speyer. Gia is a successful travel columnist who provides her readers with wonderful ideas for getaways. Unfortunately, Gia is agoraphobic and has not left her house in years. She uses her best friend’s trips around the country as inspiration for her writing. Gia even photoshops her face over her friend’s face for inclusion in her articles.

Lindsey Speyer had planned to leave her small town of Jacobe, Missouri after graduating from college, but family health problems caused a change of plans. Instead of moving to California, Lindsey becomes an avid follower of Gia’s column to fulfill her hopes of travel. Through reading Gia’s columns, Lindsey has also developed a crush on Gia.

When Lindsey discovers Gia’s secret, she blackmails Gia to come to Jacobe, experience all the tourist-type attractions, and write about them in her column. She hopes this will help to boost the town’s struggling economy.

When reading the synopsis for this book, my interest was immediately sparked. The plot was different and made for a refreshing romance. I found Lindsey and Gia’s characters to be appealing and very well developed. I felt that the supporting characters, Jenn and Stacy, helped to deepen the story.

I certainly look forward to reading more of Ms. Logan’s books. I rate Gia’s Gems with 4 out of 5 stars.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Gia's Gems was a very cute and entertaining story. The relationship between Gia and Lindsay was very low key and there wasn't a lot of drama or passion, and the love between them kind of came on instantly. I wish there was more written about their romance. I got the sense that this book was more about friendship and family than a romance between the main characters. The supporting characters were really what drove this story especially the best friends of each woman. Jenn and Stacy stole the show they were very supportive of Gia and Lindsay and wanted their best friends to do well in life. Gia's parents were just over the top funny, I laughed out loud in some places, just from the phone calls Gia received from her mother. I would definitely recommend this to my friends and family, and I look forward to what this author writes next.

Lindsey Speyer isn’t living the life she’d always dreamed of. As happens she was just about to move to California when her father and mother started having health problems. They’d had Lindsey later in life and gave her the best life they could afford and now when she was ready to spread her wings and fly the coop she was needed at home. Before she knew it, years had passed, her father and her mother were gone and she was still stuck in the small town of Jacobe, Missouri. She had her best friend Jenn and some friends from the neighborhood. What she didn’t have was someone to love. One thing she did was follow the ‘Gia’s Gems’ article, written by a woman who was lucky enough to have made a career of traveling and then writing about the places she’d visited. It was just the articles Gia posted, it was the woman herself.
Gia Williams dreamed of traveling but he didn’t leave her own home, not to travel, shop or do all the things people normally did. It’s when her best friend Stacy, who traveled for her job, started sending Gia pictures of the interesting places she visited. When Gia wrote about Stacy’s trips she pretended it was about herself and her travels.
When Lindsey finds out that ‘Gia’s Gem’s’ was nothing but a lie she emailed Gia telling her that she knows Gia’s been lying she agrees not to say anything but she does want Gia to visit her small town and write about how amazing it was. Now Gia, with Stacy’s help, decides she’d better go see just what Jacobe has to offer.
Toni Logan has got herself a wonderful book. Easy to read with great characters. Very enjoyable read.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bold Stroke Books

This was quite entertaining and also a good read. The main characters as well as the secondary were lovely.
I recommend 4 stars.

Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

This is a really nice easy read. In parts its funny and in others you can actually connect to the characters pain.

Gia is a travel writer but she is a fraud. She writes about places but its her friend Stacy does all the traveling and supplies pictures for Gia to work from. Gia made it sound like she had done all the travelling. Her articles explore small towns and places people don't usually visit. And she is successful at it. But as I said earlier she is a fraud.

The two main characters I would have liked to have seen more development. The twist is Lindsey doesn't know this. But when she realises that Gia is a fraud she emails her and threatens to expose her unless she agrees to visit her own small town in Missouri.

It's a good read and is quite entertaining. The romance is pretty quick. I would have liked to have seen more development to the romance. Also Gia hadn't left her house for five years. Then suddenly she is well enough to not only go out but take a flight. I just feel that this was quite a dramatic recovery.

I'm going to give this 3.5 stars, because I feel certain areas needed more. But overall I found it an enjoyable and light read.

Gia is finally making a living as a writer for a travel magazine. Her Gia's Gems articles have her exploring small out of the way towns and places. It's too bad that is all fake. Her best friend travels for work and takes the photos and Gia uses her creativity in writing. Lindsay is a fan of Gia's and when she learns the articles are fake she threatens to out her unless she comes and spotlights her small town in Missouri.

I read this book in just a couple of hours. Both MCs have decent back stories; Gia's heart was broken by her ex and Lindsay gave up her hoped for career to take care of parents. The attraction is going to be insta because Gia only plans on five days in Missouri. The two just kind of jump in together when all I know is they think each are nice and cute. It is fairly low angst with two friends that help things move along. But I wish there was more to the relationship for me to sink my teeth into. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Stroke Books for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review. (3.5 stars)

I really liked this one! It was definetely a new plot and very entertaining. The both MCs were very well writtem and their sttuggle realistic and not much overdone. I also very much enjoyed the sidestory about their best friends. The reason for their kind of split was obvious and I was little annoyed at first. But the way it was solved got it right again for me. So very well done and big thanks!

A good read, with some cheating ex’s to make you proper grumpy on behalf of the two leading women. These two are rather lovely and their getting together dialogue plays out well. Gia overcomes her agoraphobia rather quickly, and not just a small trip outside, but a flight on a plane, which seems very advanced in terms of her therapy. She also didn’t seem to be bothered about it once she had ventured out; again this is a very fast recovery. Also Lindsay doesn’t really pull off the blackmailer role all that well. Despite this lack of bite, the plot still hangs together fairly well and I particularly liked the friends, especially Paul. Who wouldn’t want to stay at his place?

Gia is a fraud. She has not left her home for years because of being dumped by her abusive ex girlfriend. Yet her online travel column has grown large enough to become her sole source of income.
Lindsey was one day away from leaving small town Missouri to begin her dream job in California. A family emergency grounded Lindsey and for the next thirteen years she was her mother’s primary care giver.
Gia’s Gems has a number of good qualities going for it. The story holds your interest from the first page. It has an intriguing and unique plot which allows Toni Logan room to grow the story. The characters are developed quickly yet are still very well rounded. The writing is solid for the most part.
There were also a few stumbles unfortunately. I was thoroughly confused around the family emergency and why Lindsey had to take care of her mother. This was not explained until much later in the book. Withholding the explanation did not add to the plot. The self pity of both characters ran on a little too long and disrupted the flow at times. It left me wanting more time with their up beat best friends as they out shone Gia and Lindsey in every way.
By the end the story became predictable which let me down from such a promising premise. I still recommend Gia’s Gems because of its plot uniqueness and entertainment value.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Really light read that I just couldn't connect with. I liked the concept of the book, but it just fell flat for me.

Gia's Gems is a fun contemporary romance. Gia is an agoraphobic individual who has a successful travel column. Lindsey is a fan with a celebrity crush who lives vicariously through Gia's column when life got in the way of her dreams. When Lindsey stumbles upon Gia's secret, she blackmails Gia into coming to her midwestern town to give it an economic boost. No one saw the adventure that would come.

Overall the book is an easy read. The plot is fun with some interesting secondary characters and relatively low angst. In fact, what angst there was felt like it was added to add dimension. The chemistry between Gia and Lindsey was sort of hot and cold. It did not jump off the page and sweep me up in it.

I think I would revisit this story again, if in the mood for something light.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC ebook from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for this review.

This is a read about moving forward. However, one cannot move forward without processing and reflecting on the past (especially in regard to relationships). Over two days, I read the unfortunate backstory of Lindsey Speyer and Gia Williams. Both characters are likeable and dealing with past relationship issues. Lindsey, broken hearted with an interest in media. Gia, broken hearted with an interest in writing. Gia's parents, especially her mother are quite a pair and provide humor to the story. The best friends, Jenn (Lindsey) and Stacy (Gia) are characters that need their own story. Cute story with little angst.

Read this book because I enjoyed Share the Moon by the same author, she really has unusual settings for her books. In this one the two main characters have both retreated from the world, one following a messy break up and the other following an even messier break up and loss. It is therefore an interesting premise that they break out of this space and become attracted to each other. Toni Logan's skills lie in her surrounding characters, she creates wonderful friendships and idyllic settings. Places and communities that you can both imagine and envy. I was less convinced by the romance and there are a couple of typos towards the end which is unusual. An enjoyable light read.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very easy book to read, albeit a bit flat.

The premise of the book is really interesting; Gia has been pretending to travel the US and writing about all these quirky towns she goes to, when in fact she hasn't left the house in 5 years. Her friend provides the pictures and Gia writes the stories. It's wildly successful until someone finds her out and starts blackmailing her. This someone is small-town woman Lindsay who recently lost her mom and purpose in life. And blackmail is a really strong word, all it takes is one email. And that's the problem with the entire book. Everything is easy and flat, there is no depth at all.
You'd expect a character that hasn't left the house in 5 years to have a lot more issues adjusting to the outside world. Not falling for the first person they meet and after about 48 hours of knowing each other stripping to go skinny dipping (and more) in some stranger’s pool. It's all a bit much and wildly unbelievable, but not ridiculous enough to just tag along for a fun ride. And when I say falling I mean instalove like you haven't read before. I don't do well with instalove in the best of books and this one doesn't come close to the best of them. Look, within 48 hours you can decide you like someone just fine, but planning your entire life with them after “blackmail”, come on... *insert eye roll*
There is more spunk in both Gia’s and Lindsey’s best friends as secondary characters than there is in our mains. And even those characters fall flat for me so saying they have spunk also is too big a word for it, but they do bring a bit of life to the story.

I enjoy Logan’s writing style, it's very easy to read, but the story itself is just flat add to that boring characters and it's all just a bit below average. The premise sounded so good and a lot more could have been done with this story, so I'm a little disappointed. For the writing style and good readability, I give it 2,5 stars

Gia’s Gems is a new contemporary romance that is a quick and easy read by Toni Logan. The premise of the story attracted my attention as did the beautiful cover. I enjoyed this tale, though there are some aspects that needed a bit more work.

I really liked the premise. The main character (Gia Williams) has been a recluse for years, but is being forced out of her “safe place” by the other main character (Lindsey Speyer) through a bit of blackmail. Having both characters dealing with some trauma in their past gives lots of room for conflict and angst. Setting a major part of the book in a small Midwestern town adds to the charm of the story.

I had a few problems with the book, mainly with the characters themselves. I had trouble connecting with the people in the tale, both main and secondary. Both Gia and Lindsey, as well as their two best friends, who are important secondary characters, seemed rather flat and one dimensional. They also acted kind of immature for their age, which was irritating. This lasted through the first half of the novel. The character development improved some during the second half of the book, but it should have happened much sooner. The tale does have a satisfying ending, which I liked.

Overall, I thought this was a satisfactory read. If you enjoy short, easy to read love stories, you might check this one out.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

Gia’s Gems focuses on Gia Williams who hasn’t left her apartment in Phoenix for five years following a bad breakup. She has people that take care things in the real world on her behalf. Her best friend even travels for work and sends Gia photos for Gia’s travel articles. This has been working out quite well for Gia, except on day she is contacted by Lindsey Speyer from Jacobe, Missouri, who reveals to Gia that she knows her secret. Lindsey blackmails Gia to come to Jacobe and write a travel article in hopes that it will revitalize her small hometown.

We find that both women have suffered from bad breakups that have scared with romantic feelings. But after a couple of days in Jacobe, both Gia and Lindsey are fighting their attraction for each other. The book is pretty low on drama and is an easy read. The secondary best friend characters, Jenn and Stacy are also enjoyable and Paul as the B and B host is a hoot. 4 stars

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.