Charley was dumped on Christmas from her boyfriend of 10 years. Her life is flipped, and she decides to go back home to her parents. They then invite Charley on vacation with them to have a getaway where she meets Ed, who was left at the alter by someone he never met.

The very beginning started out strong, and I was generally interested in Charley, and I was thinking it was going to be a cute romcom. Then it really started to drag to the point that I didn’t really care about the characters or story at all. There was too much fluff for being such a short book.

It took way to long to finally meet the love interest, and then there was no chemistry between Charley and Ed. This book was lacking a lot of character development, and there was nothing really memorable about it either.

Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books for my eARC copy!

Quick, fun read! Makes for the perfect book to take with you on vacation this summer!

Someone Else’s Honeymoon by Phoebe MacLeod was a pleasant surprise. I wanted to read a book that would keep me interested, but not take forever to get through. This book is just that. I found myself lost in the story and before I knew it, I had finished it.

The book is not going to win any awards, but that is okay. Sometimes we want to read to be entertained and charmed. MacLeod managed to do just that while writing mainly about a character going through a breakup or missed opportunity with a new love interest.

As a fan of reality television I thought the tie in to a show like Married At First Sight was smart. It added a bit of a new twist to a regular troupe.

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Boldwood Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

This one was very slow to start and it took me a while to connect with the main character. The love interest was also not introduced until nearly halfway through the book. At one point I actually wondered if this was more a contemporary fiction rather than a romance! However once they did meet, the pace picked up (in a very much instalove kind of way).

It's a closed door romance so there's no real spice for those who enjoy that side of the romance books, but I didnt feel this took away from the book and I enjoyed the relationship that built between Charley and Ed.

Not a favourite one of mine but a light-hearted, fun bit of escapism that would be perfect for a bit of holiday reading by the pool!

This was not my favourite read…
I went into this book thinking (from the description) it was going to be a cute summer romance, and that was not the case. I would more say it was a general contemporary fiction, with a sprinkle of romance.
The overall premise of the book (a woman trying to find herself after a ten year relationship) is good. However this is a very slow paced book and you don’t meet the male love interest until 40% into the book. I felt that most of the first half of the book could have been condensed alot.
But, unfortunately, my main problem with this book was that I just didn't like the writing of the main character. The way she was written made her seem a lot older than she was. The writing seems dated. The use of a menstrual cup is presented as gross and weird, the main character "rediscovers" Facebook and the main antagonist is a vegan trying to save the earth. It just feels like some dated takes that make the main character seem like she judges these characteristics in people. Small choices of phasing as, "she is in a lesbian relationship" and "I'll whatsapp you a picture" dosent seem like something in their twenties would say, in my opinion.
So overall if you enjoy a descriptive book, insta love, and a post breakup transformation, you might enjoy this book. Just don't make the same mistake as me and think it is a romance.

Thank you to NetGallery and Boldwood books for this eARC!

I liked this book. It's your typical easy read, albeit slightly unbelievable at times (which I suppose is true rom0com fashion). The main character in this book finds out her long-term boyfriend has been cheating on her at Christmas. She moves back in with her family while she's waiting for her apartment and goes on a Carribean holiday with her family. She gets a new wardrobe, new hairstyle and a new love interest on her holiday but all is not what it seems!

An enjoyable read however it does need some tidying up - some parts are too descriptive while others are not descriptive enough!

Bahhh I keep going back and forth on whether this is a 3 or a 4, because in reality it’s a 3.5 and I can’t decide if I want to round up or down.

First, thoughts on what could’ve been better The romance was not a slow burn, it didn’t not include much banter, and the steamy scenes cut out all the steamy parts. The writing seemed a little bit novice to me - certain things were included that didn’t actually move the plot forward and some of the dialogue was just short of feeling natural. Everyone liked each other too much - her parents were so kind and generous and there was no conflict, same with her brother and SIL, same with her colleagues at work, and her best friend, and so on. Everyone just…got along. Even the “blow up” with her boyfriend in chapter 1 was fairly tame and resolved easily. The way she spent money to curate her brand new post-relationship life reminded me of how I used to play SIMS as a kid - just repeatedly hit that money cheat code until I had so much that I could build whatever I wanted. It was fun to read about, but not exactly believable.

All this being said, it was fun, lighthearted escapism. It was a quick beach read, and served that purpose. But it could’ve been better in a number of ways. Going to round down on this one.

3/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I honestly felt the book was very slow going and I couldn’t connect with the characters and it didn’t really feel like a rom com tbh. It’s not like I just couldn’t read the book at all but it was very slow and the characters didn’t really fascinate me either. It’s just my opinion it may vary for other.

Sadly even though it’s pitched as rom com it was I feel more a personal growth story.

Main focus is around Charolotte and her post break up with her long time boyfriend. As you slowly watch her out her life together she gets to opportunity to go to the Madives with her parents where she meets Ed, whom is recovering from being left at the alter via a reality tv show.

Honestly It didn’t get the chemistry from these two. They were sweet together and seemed to have fun but the sparks just weren’t flying off the pages for me.

Also certain things were focused on at length that I thought were unnecessary and could have been better used describing the feelings between the couple in my opinion.

I felt the story more focused on Charlotte’s personal growth which was nice to see a character have healthy coping mechanisms but meh. I mean I would have loved some more passion or something to really fall into the story and the main couple.

I will be honest, Someone Else’s Honeymoon was not a favorite of mine although I did try to like the story. I found it to be very slow moving and the characters lacked depth.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This starts out with the common trope of a woman finding out that her long-time boyfriend has been cheating on her and so they break up and that means she’s not only lost a boyfriend, but also a place to live since it was his place. Add in that Charley’s boyfriend is a sanctimonious and humorless bore about the environment and living naturally and it’s clear that she’s well rid of him.

Fortunately, she has a loving family who are happy for her to live with them until her new apartment will be ready. And even better - they offer to pay for her to vacation with them in Antigua. She also has a firecracker of a best friend who guides her in buying a new wardrobe and getting a new hairstyle so now she’s ready to live her best life on the shores of a Caribbean island.

And once she gets there she meets a super-great guy - Ed. Ed had been participating in some reality show that sounds positively dreadful about having the show match you up with someone whom you end up marrying without having met each other until after the wedding. What an awful idea. So it was never believable to me that Ed, who is a very successful divorce lawyer, would have opted to participate in such a show. Wouldn’t a divorce lawyer who has seen so many marriages fall apart be especially wary of such a cockamanie idea? I guess this is how the author can get Ed to Antigua to have a luxury vacation for free since his prospective wife backed out at the last minute.

If you can suspend disbelief for that plot point and also believe that Ed and Charley would spend a week falling in love at this resort and never exchange their contact information, phone number, or even information about where each of them live in the UK, this was an enjoyable read.

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.

I thought this book was adorable! I was rooting for Charley and Ed the whole time and I loved the setting. I thought it was cute that they went on all the adventures together and got to know each others strengths and weaknesses. Would definitely recommend.

I thought this was a really cute book! I enjoyed reading it and it would be the perfect book to read on the beach! I liked that it didn't seem to follow the traditional romance book format and instead it had her life with Josh, her family time, Ed time, and then independence time. The book had a nice balance of everything and I enjoyed the continuing friendship with Mads the entire time. The epilogue was perfect and I really enjoyed how it wrapped things up.

Okay, I'm going to be honest here, the writing in this book made me feel like I was reading Wattpad... It wasn't very descriptive, and the author DID NOT use the Oxford comma, which did make me a wee bit angry if I do say so myself... Anyways, there was just so many random little scenes and details that were written into this book that did not need to be there. FOR EXAMPLE, there was this scene where the main character goes bra shopping and the author just describes every little thing that happens? And then all throughout the book the main character just keeps bringing it up that she's a 34C. Like I really did not need to know that. And then the main plot of the book doesn't even start until around the 50% mark, when they go to Antigua. Honestly I feel like they should have spent the entire book there, and not wasted half of it doing random stuff. It was also just very instalove and I didn't feel as though the romance was very well written.

Someone Else's Honeymoon was a cute book. It didn't reach the level of current popular Rom Com authors like Emily Henry, Christina Lauren, or Ali Hazelwood, but it was still entertaining and I definitely enjoyed it!

The story follows Charley who finds out her longterm boyfriend is cheating on her on Christmas. She moves in with her parents and reinvents herself. After a few months, her parents invite her on a vacation to Antigua where she meets Ed, a man who is supposed to be on his honeymoon, but was left at the alter. Charley and Ed get to know each other and spend time doing activities Ed would have been doing with his wife on their honeymoon. When Ed leaves the island, a series of unfortunate events lead Charley and Ed to be unable to get in touch with each other and Charley is left picking up the pieces after falling in love with a man she spend a week with in paradise.

I really felt for Charley 'in the beginning of the book. She immediately breaks up with Josh and Phoebe MacLeod did a great job describing what a break up after 10 years of a relationship would look like - lives so intertwined it is hard to figure out who to turn to. I enjoyed watching Charley put her life back together and laughed out loud at some of Mads's (Charley's best friend) antics. Ed and Charley's relationship was also no-drama which I liked. I feel like a lot of recent rom-coms focus on an enemies to lovers trope or a broody guy. Ed seemed fairly normal by contrast so it was a nice change! The way MacLeod developed her character's relationships was realistic and natural, which was refreshing, too.

One thing that I think could be improved was the "perfection" in the book. Yes, Charley was going through a rough patch, but everything seemed easy for her. She was sad about the break up, but she didn't seem to struggle getting back on her feet at all. Everything was just....easy.... it all fell into her lap. The book was also less com and more rom. Which isn't a bad thing, but not what I was expecting.

Overall I did enjoy this book, but I do think there are a few things that could be improved upon. (3.5 stars - I wish we could give half stars!)

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I didn't love it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this advanced reader copy.

The premise of this book (and the cover) seem delightful. Charley a recently dumped woman moves back in with her parents after her 10 year old relationship comes to an end. Her parents decide to whisk her away on a beach vacation where she can get her mind off of things. This is where she meets Ed, a man left at the altar by a woman he has never met before. Naturally they bond over their unfortunate previous experiences and become quite close. However, while this book had some good things going for it some of the issues where in the execution.

So right in the first few pages we get some very aggressive slut shaming against a teenage girl for being interested in a teenage boy (I.e. she got what she deserved for getting accidentally knocked up at 16 for liking someone else’s boyfriend. Is 2022, we don’t shame women for getting pregnant anymore). It seems unnecessarily harsh and kinda set the tone for the rest of the book. Where women, besides Mads, are generally seen as villains set out to thwart Charlie’s plans. Or they are just “bad guys” in general, which is just overdone.

Here’s a problem: Mads is more interesting that Charlie. Charlie comes across at times like a wet paper towel. She critiques women for being “doormats” without acknowledging that she essentially was one in her relationship with her ex. Her character growth is adequate for such a short book but she’s not that dynamic and her spark with Ed was entirely lackluster.

It is a little odd to wait until 43% to introduce the love interest. I genuinely thought I was reading something more in the “woman fiction” versus an actual romance because I couldn’t see a romance plot line coming for almost half of the book. Finally he is introduced and they definitely fall into the “instalove” category and they really didn’t spend a lot of time cultivating their relationship. They spent less than a week together in total but they really didn’t have the connection that I was hoping for.

Ed’s dialogue isn’t authentic sounding at all, it felt very formal and at times robotic. Charley on the other hand sounds like she is his therapist and not a girl suntanning on his private beach chairs. The whole first encounter was clunky and very info dumpy. The conversation felt so stilted and it sounded more like people pretending to have a conversation than an actual one.

The author should have created a scene beforehand where we actually see Mads and Charlie watching the show and commenting on it so it isn’t just another info dump to find out that she’s a big fan of the show that we find out in retrospect. It’s one of those plot devices that feels very convenient and not entirely thought through. It’s shoehorned in to make the plot progress without actual character work to explain it.

The story seemed really promising but the chemistry between the characters isn’t there and I find it highly unlikely that 6 months after the characters spent less than a week together they still have this unbelievable spark. By now he would definitely have been shacking up with someone else (seriously, he only has two sexual partners? That is the most far fetched part of the story), and she would undoubtedly have accidentally stumbled into the man she was subletting her apartment from and they would have started dating. Ed felt more like a rebound than a leading man.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I finished reading this a few days ago, and unfortunately, the characters did not stay with me.

Charley, fresh off a breakup and moving in with her parents, tags along on their holiday and meets newly single Ed.

The story just didn't work for me, nothing incredibly memorable.

Sometimes you just need a lighthearted read about friendship, broken hearts, exotic locations and love affairs. That’s exactly what Someone Else’s Honeymoon offers the reader.

When Charley’s ten-year relationship with Josh ends on Christmas Day, over a toothbrush she does what any sensible woman would do - she picks herself up, goes to her parent's house for Christmas Day turkey, which she enjoys as she’s no longer trying to adopt Josh’s vegan lifestyle, and starts again.

Of course, starting over isn’t always easy, she’s been living with Josh, in the flat his father bought him, so she needs to find somewhere else to live, but she starts living in an admirable fashion.

With the help of her friend, Mads - who I loved reading, because it’s clear from the start that she has her friend’s best interests at heart and she’s pushy, but not to the point where she becomes annoying - she gets a new wardrobe, a refreshed look and starts to discover who she is outside of a relationship that wasn’t working. Of course, the fact that Josh was cheating on her didn’t really help matters. But anyway…

Charley’s parents are clearly quite well off, taking several holidays a year, and when they invite her along for their two-week luxury holiday in Antigua she knows she’d be a fool to turn it down.

Antigua is everything and more than Charley expects, and it’s there she meets Ed, a lawyer who, for some unfathomable reason, decided to take part in a reality TV show to find a wife - this bit just made no sense to me, but as a plot device it does work. Of course, things don’t work out as planned and Ed is sunning himself alone poolside until Charley shows up and takes the empty sunlounger where Ed’s wife should be.

I’m not going to lie, there is nothing original in this book, but to be fair, sometimes that’s just what you need. It’s the perfect sunlounger book, the sort of story you can put down and pick up and not feel as though you’ve missed something important. I would definitely recommend it as a holiday read. I sat on my balcony and enjoyed it in the sun with a glass of wine.

I enjoyed the characters, I liked the fact that we didn’t get chapter upon chapter of Charley miserable because her long-term boyfriend cheated on her and then unceremonially dumped her on Christmas day (because that particular situation entitles you to behave pretty much how you want). I liked the fact that despite Josh being the true villain of the piece he wasn’t someone who was constantly harped on about. Did she mention him when she was doing things she knew he would disapprove of? Yes, but they’d been together for 10 years!

I liked Mads and her gung-ho attitude, Charley’s parents were the sort every girl wishes she had when a relationship ends and Ed? He wasn’t the traditional romantic hero, but he was sort of real. There were moments I felt he was too good to be true and was a tad suspicious of his motivations, but he was evidence that nice guys don’t always finish last.

Overall, a summer book that will give you exactly what you want and should be something you pack in your suitcase.

This was a really great beach read. I read this while on my own honeymoon which made it really easy to relate to the storyline. Although parts of the story were pretty predictable the story and characters were engaging and I did find myself rooting for charlotte to get her happy ending!

When Charley becomes single and thus homeless on Christmas Day, she’s forced to move in with her parents, who are kind enough to invite her on their trip to Antigua. She inadvertently sits on a beach chair meant for newlyweds, but the man who takes the other seat was stood up at the altar. He takes the activities meant for his new bride and him with Charley as his partner instead.

In terms of escapist fiction, this is cute enough, but unless I missed that this was set a while ago, this feels dated. Flight attendants are called stewardesses, and some of the jokes about things like online dating are worn out and not fresh.

I never felt the heat between Ed and Charley. Also, Ed is a successful lawyer in his thirties, and, after college, he had only one brief fling with a woman but has only had two sexual partners in his life? I don’t care how demanding your career and the fact you’re not normally a fling sort of person—you can find the time to date.

NetGalley provided an advance copy. This romance will be RELEASED AUGUST 9, 2022 in the United States.