This book truly lived up to its name. I LOVED the romantic tension, right person wrong time and enemies to lovers masterpiece this was. The characters were funny, flawed, realistic and filled with chemistry for each other. This is the perfect romance to talk about with your friends and get that heartwarming happy feeling with all the adorable scenes. Overall an amazing romance you’ll want to read in one sitting.

"What if we're different now?"

Lilah and Shane haven't see each other for a few years and are reunited again to finish the last series of the tv show they use to both be on until Lilah decided to leave at the end of season 5 to presume other roles. On screen they both are in love with each other. But during series 1 they had a fling for a while, which ended badly and they both have hated each other every since.

I have never wanted to bang two peoples heads together more than Lilah and Shane. There was so much tension and energy between the two and they both are their own worst enemies. They just need to communicate more and just say what they are really feeling but they are both stubborn as each other. Throwing insults at each other whenever they are in the room together as a way to deal with everything.

I really liked how the struggles of the acting world was portrayed and that both Lilah and Shane suffered with mental health which was shown in a way that wasn't the main focus of the book. But showed a bit of a reason to why they acted in a way as they did and it shows it took time to rebuild their relationship back from enemies to lovers.

I loved this book and I was invested in both Lilah and Shane from the word go. Ava's writing is so easy going and flows really well that I flew through the book. I will definitely be reading Ava's work again.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of the book for an honest review.

This book contained some of the best romantic tension I have read in a while - I was completely engrossed in Lilah and Shane’s love story!

When we meet Lilah and Shane, they are both holding onto resentment for each other that they don’t know how to get past.

I loved their journey from being combative to being vulnerable and trusting their hearts to each other. We even got some “couples” therapy sessions; which I would have loved more of!

The flashbacks in the novel helped us understand their present - the attraction was always there, they just needed time to grow up, so they could truly learn each other. Shane describes it as “a love that felt old and new at the same time” which I loved.

I also loved how we got a glimpse of the chemistry between the characters they play on their show - particularly when they were prepping a kiss that had been years in the making! (Those of us with shipper hearts will know what I mean about the power of a long awaited kiss!)

The third act tension also didn’t feel forced or dragged out and I loved how they resolved it - it felt unique!

You’ll love this if you love:
🤍Enemies to lovers
🤍He falls first
🤍Will they won’t they
🤍Forced proximity

Thank you NetGalley and Headline Eternal for the DRC!

“Maybe she didn’t need to worry about faking the chemistry, after all.”

“They weren’t going to have sex ever again, unless it was for keeps.”

“Maybe he was reading too much into it, but it didn’t just sound like an apology. It sounded like a lament. For the lost versions of themselves they could’ve been, for the different future they could’ve had, for every choice they’d made along the way that had carried them further away from each other.”

In the past 12 or so months, I’ve read quite a few books that I was anticipating for MONTHS, and there’s a certain exhilaration that comes with being so rightfully excited about something and it living up to your expectations. Ava Wilder’s sophomore, Will They or Won’t They was one of those books. No one's fighting me on it, but I still have the strongest urge to scream in everyone’s faces “I WAS FUCKING RIGHT THIS BOOK WAS A DAMN MASTERPIECE JUST LIKE I SAID IT WOULD BE”

Lilah is my Scorpio icon. There were so many things about her that I felt in my soul, like this quote:
“She’d accepted long ago that she wasn’t for everyone.”
One of the recurring nightmares she talks about is one that she used to have as a kid where she would be in the backseat of a speeding car that had no driver. LITERALLY SAME. It’s insane how much I relate to this woman, she even has that signature Scorpio hypocrisy where she’s hurt by the fact that the person she’s dumping isn’t even putting up a fight. Love her.

Shane. A soft, fiercely sweet man who’s so quick to love, and lose, and then ready to do it all over again. I often struggle to verbalize my love for some male main characters because my feelings take shape in the form of keyboard smashes and screaming into the void. Shane has me feeling that type of way. I just adore him.

So many aspects of this book had me by the neck since the time I heard about: just the fact that Ava Wilder wrote it, since she became one of my favorite authors with ONE book because she’s one of my “perfect for me” authors, of which there are less than five, the fact that I get another Scorpio female main character since there is quite a shortage of us, the fact that this synopsis reminds me of The Vampire Diaries/Nina and Ian, AND that it was a second chance romance.

But once I read it, it reminded me of other books that I loved, in the BEST way possible. The ANGST from The Roughest Draft by Wibbroka, the actor-coworkers trying to resist temptation from Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade, my other Scorpio icon Indira from The Plus One by Mazey Eddings, and an almost toxic push and pull dynamic from a new adult romance that didn’t handle those complexities well, but Ava definitely did. I feel like I talk about this all the time but characters in a romance don’t HAVE to be likable/lovable; not everyone is, but readers have to be able to root for them and their happily ever after. Not to say that either Shane or Lilah are unlikable, in fact, I love them with my entire being and would perish for them. That doesn’t mean they don’t have flaws, or do shitty things for “no reason”, or are super quick to rectify their mistakes.

Ava Wilder was the first author I ever got the courage to message on Instagram, just a long text about how much I loved her book and all that good stuff. I’ve also continued to bother her over the last 10 months, more gushing about her and her books and, more recently, us trying to manifest an ARC for me together. She had no actual power over me getting this, but I appreciate her humoring me every time I whined about not having it yet.

MVP: Ava, I love you <3

(THANK YOU to NetGalley and Headline Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

Ava Wilder has done it again. I didn’t think she could top her previous book “faking it in Hollywood” but there we are.

Lilah Hunter finds herself compelled to revisit her previous acting gig when her latest film endeavor takes a turn for the worse. However, the situation becomes even more challenging as she is forced to work with Shane, someone she had a secret relationship years ago that ended on a sour note. How did they end up hating each other and can they come back from it when they are forced to work together again?

Fantastic book with amazing leads. And something I absolutely loved was the “forced” couples therapy they had to attend, it felt very fresh, but I wish we had seen more of their sessions,

Lovers of romance will totally love this!

Second chance
Enemies to lovers
Forced proximity

However, one thing I wished had been discussed a bit more was Lilah’s family and how her relationships have been affected by it.

A special thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.