“Love has the power to strip you raw, to the bone. And that’s the beauty of it. There’s an immeasurable bravery in opening your heart and baring your soul when all hope is seemingly lost. Knowing, even in the face of heartbreak, that this is not the end. That you’re still standing, after it all crumbles around you.”

Thanks to this book, I’m turning my instagram into an Amy Lea fan account. This book was ADORABLE. This is the perfect forced-proximity, funny and swoon-worthy romance we needed in 2022.

Tara Chen is a romance novel obsessed hopeless romantic who is desperately seeking her own story, filled with the important tropes and grand gestures. Unfortunately for her, she’s had more than her fair share of heartbreak and love never seems to work out in her favour. Luckily, Tara has an idea inspired by a recent interview, and that’s to revisit her relationships with her previous exes. What better story than a second chance romance? Of course, all main characters need a sidekick to help them complete their quest, and that’s where Trevor comes in, Tara’s new (and conveniently handsome) roommate. Together the two track down and come up with ideas to get Tara back into her exes lives, all whilst trying my to ignore their growing feelings for one another.

This story was ADDICTIVE. It was actually an inconvenience to have to go work and stop reading. Exes and O’s is a wholly adorable, quirky and addictive slow-burn romance, the emotional connection between these characters was intense and the build up had me screaming. I couldn’t wait for them to finally realise their feelings for each other. It was so obvious to us as the reader as to how they felt about each-other, when they remembered the smallest details about each other and did whatever they could to provide them comfort in any trying situation. Also, Trevor is the ideal book boyfriend, and with Tara being such a romance obsessed romantic, we are very similar in that aspect. So now I’m left with one question, where is MY Trevor?! I hope all romance readers are destined for a story like Tara’s.

I absolutely CONSUMED this book and cannot wait to read more from this author. I highly recommend this book and will now be in the worst reading slump trying to find something that compares to this masterpiece.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books UK/Viking Books UK for sending me an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Jesus the slow burn in this book is painfully real…but like all the best slow burns it hurt in the best way. And the pay off is SO worth it.

I am fairly confident that every woman who reads this is going to immediately identify with Tara…the 30 something bookstagrammer who is a little intense but desperately wants to love and be loved. I loved that Tara had no big character development but instead through the process of trying to date her ex-boyfriends grew to learn her worth exactly as she is.

And Trevor….well he's just an utter swoon feast. He's comes across as a bit of a playboy bro to begin with but developes into an absolute sweetheart.

This story take a really interesting look at how we talk about 'crazy' ex's and the ways in which false promises that are said by partners can be interpreted, leading to someone perhaps reading more into the relationship, leading to a power imbalance in the relationship. Tara comes across as intense when really she just loves fully and believed her boyfriends when they told her things.

Given that this book has a romance obsessed FMC - books, tropes, and romance and almost like a third main character in the book which I adored.

If you enjoyed Set on You, you're going to enjoy this. Crystal and Scott do feature in the book and it's written with the same funny light style which I really enjoyed in Amy's first book.

It absolutely lives up to the hype of Amy's first book.

5 stars!

This was simply delightful. It's sweet, and angsty, and fun, and sexy, and very entertaining.

Tara is a romance novel enthusiast, running a social media account to discuss all her bookish thoughts. Trevor is a broody firefighter who keeps to himself. Tara has had her heart broken multiple times, and is hoping she'll be able to find the One and get herself a happy ending like her beloved romance novels. Trevor avoids romance at all costs.

When Trevor and Tara begin living together, a new adventure starts for the both of them.

This is honestly all I love to see in romance novels. It has a pretty entertaining plot and absolutely awesome characters who grow with the story and with each other.

Absolutely worth a read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Although I haven't read Set on You, I didn't miss any key information or backstory for this book. It's steamy and the most lovely slow burning romance. The writing is exceptional and I really found myself rooting for both Tara and Trevor. Highly recommend

It isn't that I didn't like Exes and O's; I did, I really did. I sped through the entire book in two days. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with Amy Lea's writing. It was good - no, it was great.

But there was something about Tara and Trevor's personalities that really didn't mesh with me. I'm not sure if it was because her actions didn't match up to the age or that I didn't believe they were in love. I thought they were in lust - I felt the chemistry between them, I just really didn't fall in love with their love story, and I felt they would have been better as friends.

Despite that, I ADORED the bookish references, and I would definitely recommend this to a friend

✨Let me tell you now, when I had the email to say I’d been accepted to read this as an arc I was screaming, crying throwing up and it lived up to expectations FOR SURE!!

✨UGH, this is the PERFECT booksta/booktok book everrrrrr. I absolutely loved how Amy included the book community into the story!! I even learnt a couple of new things😉.

✨This is sunshine in a book (with a side of grumpy). It genuinely made me feel happy. It was such an easy, light read that I didn’t want to put down!

✨I adored both Tara and Trevor. Both characters were written so well and were SO likeable you couldn’t help but root for them! In some parts I was internally screaming at them to admit how they feel🙃.

✨The spice scenes are on par with my favourite ones from The Deal. I love when they’re written well without being too over the top and cringey and these were perfect. Let’s just say I’d like a hot tub now….🥵.

✨I’m also now on a countdown until The Catch is released to find out if Evan stays that grumpy because he seems something else😂.

Firstly thankyou to Netgalley for gifting me this ARC.

I enjoyed this read, it was a light, fun romance with a lot of tropes weaved into it. The nods to bookstagram and reading were cute and relatable. And the slow burn of the romance made me want to keep reading.

However there were a few things that I wish were different. Tara is quite annoying, she is so oblivious and naive when hunting down her ex boyfriends. The marriage trope in the epilogue is a hatred of mine so I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to, unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is the sequel to Set on You and follows Crystal's book blogger and die hard romance fan, Tara. After being unlucky in love, she moves in with firefighter and Scott's (Crystal's fiance's) best friend, Trevor. Tara is set on finding love and what better way that going through your exes, as they've already been 'tried and tested', Trevor is roped in and naturally sparks begin to fly.

I loved this book, Tara's character and her optimistic outlook on love is so sweet and naturally the way in which Trevor champions this is so dreamy. I honestly loved the character development and enjoyed the way in which Trevor was roped into all the schemes. I just wish this book was dual POV, I would have loved to have seen Trevor's POV on so many of the interactions.

I could not fault Trevor's character, despite his initial playboy way, Amy Lea does an incredible job of showcasing the backstory and explaining the complex layers of his character. Tara is the same, the way in which some of her exes treated her were horrible, and the subsequent effect on her self esteem was difficult to read, but I loved the way in which Trevor uplifted her, and made her more confident in her quirks.

I wish it was longer, and i wish we got more snippets of their time together, but thankfully, another book in the series is going to be released! I can't wait!

A typical cushy slow burn romance - and that is absolutely the best kind. Amy Lea gives you the warm fuzziness throughout this story and the nods back to the previous book 'Set on You' are amazing.

Loved the characters, pace and plot. Unputdownable!

4.5 ★
I'm going to need everyone to stop what they're doing and read this instantly!

This book is every book lovers dream, it's got forced proximity, grumpy x sunshine and it's a steamy slow-burn
It reminded me a lot of the film "What's your number," having Tara track down all her ex boyfriends in an effort to find a date to a gala but falling for her roommate Trevor, who helps her instead.
It's hilarious, adorable and written beautifully.
Can't wait to read more in The Catch!
Thankyou for this ARC, NetGalley and Penguin

Thank you for providing me with this advance copy through NetGalley.

I was really really excited to read this book and I forced myself to pace myself…. And failed. Which is a very good thing. I was barely able to put my kindle down because I was hooked - not so good when you’re trying to concentrate on actual life and work.

When a story starts off with a Taylor swift quote, you just KNOW it’s going to be a good one.

Tara reminds me a little of myself and she was so relatable. I, like Tara romanticise everything. I also ramble a lot. I love it when I can relate to character so well. All the tropes mentioned by tara made me very happy. I was greedily taking in all of it. Even when it didn’t go so well for the character.

This is also such a slow burn that it made me feel so many things at once. The comedic timing of everything was also just so perfect.

Amy Lea has truly done it once again. I will be purchasing this when it comes out again, maybe the paperback version since I need a physical copy to go back to and annotate.

A fun lighthearted romance with a hint of spice. The pacing was excellent and really helped the reader to get to know both the main character and her love interest. The main character was relatable and funny without it feeling like it tried to hard and the romance was very sweet. Would recommend it to anyone needing a romance read right now!

[I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]

I love a roommate romance and although I’m not loving going back through the exes strategy it did provide key moments and humour.
Travis and Tara are very cute together and I just can’t fault the writing style of Amy Lea I enjoyed this book so much!

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I kept hearin things about this book so i requested it on a whim n i ended up loving it🫶🏼

thank you netgalley for the ARC.

As a huge fan of Set on You, I was beyond myself from excitement when I received the ARC of this book.
And Amy Lea strikes again!
Exes and O's follows Tara, Crystal 's (the MC from Set on You) sister on her path of trying to reconnect with her exes in search for the second-chance classic love story, and Trevor, Scott's (the LI from Set on You) ex-roommate and friend, who joins Tara with his flirty suggestions and mysterious vibes.
I loved this book so so much.
The idea is so fun - Tara, inspired by her Grandma's successful love story, embarks on the scary path of reconnection and it's so fun to witness it all. I relate to Tara a lot. She falls in love and crushes on people quite easily, overanalizing everything and just wanting to be loved. Her personality was so adorable and it made me so happy to recognize myself in her. Amy Lea is so good at writing interesting characters that I relate to - Crystal being plus-sized and Tara, wearing her heart on her sleeve. It's nice (and rare) to see a FMC in a romance book like Tara, who isn't scared to love and fail and love again, and to love the idea of love, without her being presented as "quirky" or childish.
Trevor, who is her new roommate, is also so so good. I love him. While his character is a bit of a cliché, as he's the guy who sleeps around a lot and is a bit emotionally constipated (Tara's words, not mine), he opens up to Tara with a healthy tempo without expecting anything of her besides being a good friend who won't judge him. I admire this writing choice so so much - usually, "the playboy" mysterious character opens up after a spicy night and already a beginning of some kind of intimate relationship. Not here, darlings. Nope, Trevor open up just because he trusts her as a friend.
The whole adventure of reconnecting with the exes made me laugh and want to pucnh some of them (Seth, especially, the classic gaslighter) and I enjoyed how Tara kept standing her ground and trying again and again. I also love how supportive Trevor with the whole ordeal. I love seeing the friendship bloom between them. It was so realistic and fun. Here's annother writing choice I respect - while Tara is curious by nature, she respects Trevor's boundaries, instead of pushing him just so she can learn more of him. It made their friendship much more realistic and healthy and for that, I applaud Amy Lea. You gorgeous soul, you're so good at writing love stories!
The love story was also amazing - the way they slowly build up the tension, the way they deal with awkardness, the way they don't wait around for months after a misunderstanding. I am a huge fan of the miscommunication trope only if it's done right - and here it was. We all know that something will happen in the last 15% of a romance book - it's a classic, after all, to have some new conflict trying to break our lovery couple up. And in this book, everything was dealt with maturelly and realistically. I loved that they just needed a nght to sleep it off and figure out how to fix the issue and talked like normal people the next day.
Overall, I respect and love this book so so much. It was nice to see a realistic connection between 2 characters and Amy Lea did everything right. I had a slight issue with Crystal's behaviour, but it makes sense for her responsibilities as a sister to be protective over Tara. It may have annoyed me at times, which was hard since I loved her in her own book, but overall I get it.

It was such a beautiful story and I would love more of it. I loved this.

This is a voluntary review. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

If you’ve read Set on You, you already know Crystal’s sister, Tara, and Scott’s roommate, Trevor, and this begins with them moving in together so Scott and Crystal can live together. The basic premise of the book is that Tara is tired of being single and, inspired by her Grandma’s second chance romance, decides to find and try again with her exes.
I did get more of the chemistry between Tara and Trevor, more of a slow burn, allowing them to build a connection slowly as friends, but I think there was maybe too much going on with the exes that we never got to fully enjoy Trevor and Tara as a couple until basically the final chapter and epilogue.
Whilst I enjoyed this more than Set on You, there are still things I didn’t like which I am realising are part of Lea’s writing style. Maybe, as a 29 year old, I am just too old for this (despite the MCs both being 30+) but I find the use of current slang odd in books, even if it’s something I use in everyday life. This plus the references to popular culture that may not last the test of time, heavily date this book to a few years and ultimately make it less likely people will continue reading this in the future. This also contributed to Tara seeming more immature and naive than I think she actually was.
Ultimately just not a winner for me, personally.

Reviews will be published on Storygraph and Goodreads on 12/01/23 and on Amazon after publication date.

Ever since finishing Set On You, I needed Tara to have a story and I’m so pleased it was with Trevor! This was a delightful read and lived up to my expectations for the most part.

The story is Tara’s single POV, which isn’t really a favourite of mine. To pull off an entertaining, engaging and endearing single POV romance, you have to make the person’s head you’re living in for the duration of the book unique. And luckily Tara was wonderful. I actually enjoyed her character more than Crystal’s in the previous book. She really took me by surprise— it was refreshing. Honestly, Tara was the highlight of the book for me. She stole the show hands down!

Tara is hilariously relatable but in the non-quirky and insufferable way. I know, it sounds like a myth these days, but Tara’s characterisation was just so authentic— it didn’t feel forced and she just felt real. The humour was casual and was just slipped into her inner monologue, so it took you by surprise and made you giggle. if you love a heroine who can constantly make you laugh, look no further.

Now... Trevor and Tara’s “meet-cute” is something I normally loathe in a romance. it usually kills the vibes for me, but Amy Lea flipped the trope on it’s head and made it truly hilarious.

When I read it on the sneak peek at the end of Set On You, I was giggling the entire time. it’s actually realistic, with how horrified Tara is, how sheepish Trevor is... the endearing awkwardness that ensues. I was living. it made me 10000x more excited for this than I originally was. Just picturing the entire exchange in my head was hilarious. And honestly, Amy Lea did that a lot throughout this novel— subverting tropes, stereotypes and stigmas and bringing you something new and refreshing, rather than the same recycled stuff. I really enjoyed the nods to the romance genre throughout, picking apart different tropes and cliches, and really exploring the intrinsic flaws in the genre while highlighting what makes romance such a wonderfully exciting genre to read, too.

In regards to Trevor and Tara, I loved their dynamic. Their interactions were filled with dry, deadpan back and forth remarks. I seriously laughed out loud at some of their conversations— they just fit so well together. And the slowburn was incredibly satisfying, I think it was the perfect choice for these too, honestly. My only complaint (and why this isn’t a full five stars) is that I was a bit unsatisfied with Trevor and mainly his feelings towards Tara.

At times he was wonderfully soft and sweet, he did and said very small, minute things that if you missed them, you wouldn’t think Trevor was as into Tara as he later says he is. These gestures were achingly swoonyworthy but pretty inconsistent, in my opinion. There were moments where I genuinely questioned if he liked her romantically because he could be so blasé and causal towards Tara. Part of me is unsure and still trying to figure out if this was just Tara being completely oblivious since we see all of his actions through her eyes. And she has no clue has has a thing for her.

For the most part, I adored him and the things he said to her, but I had moments of confusion and doubt towards him that are still niggling at me. I think I need to go back and reread parts of this just to give myself more clarity. See if I can spot more clues— there are a handful I can list in my head but definitely not as many as I’d like.

The times he was openly romantic? I passed away. I had to put the book down and squeal for a few minutes before forcing myself to calm down and resume reading. It’s definitely ideal for the romance readers who adore a good slowburn because undoubtedly delivered on that end.

So overall, this was a phenomenal follow up to Lea’s debut!! I mean... I’m typing this at 2am after I finished this in one sitting because I refused to put it down. I think that gives you a clue. If you love fun romcoms with a twist, unique and hilarious heroines, an achingly intense slowburn with a broody but soft hero, then look no further! Highly recommend if you loved the first book, too.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this before release. After reading Set on you, I was so excited to hear a book would be released focusing on her sister. It really did not disappoint! Of course I Loved the Taylor Swift references. Tara felt relatable, she loves books. I would definitely recommend this, can’t wait to get the physical copy when it is released.

I really wanted to love this but it fell a bit flat for me, I loved the development of Tara and Trevor, the time spent developing their friendship. But at the end everything felt rushed and I was a bit disappointed.