At Her Service
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Amy Spaulding

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley. One More Chapter and Kensington and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Max Van Doren has a wish list, and a great career and a girlfriend are at the top. But despite being pretty good at her job as an assistant to one of Hollywood’s fastest rising talent agents, she has no idea how to move up the ladder. And when it comes to her love life, she’s stuck in perpetual lust for an adorably perfect bartender named Sadie. Her goals are clear—and Max has everything but the self-confidence to go for them. Even her mother seems to assume she’ll be crawling home to her childhood bedroom at some point . . .

When Max’s roommate, Chelsey—an irritatingly gorgeous and self-assured influencer in plus-size and queer spaces—offers to sponsor her for a new self-actualization app, Max gives in. If she can’t run her own life, maybe an algorithm guiding her choices will help? Suddenly Max is scoring big everywhere, and her dreams are achingly close to coming true. But when one of Chelsey’s posts reveals Sadie’s part in the app’s campaign, Max is poised for heartbreak on all fronts. Tired of the sponcon life with its fake friends and endless selfies, Max realizes that to have true influence, she’ll have to find the courage to make her own, totally authentic way in the world . . .

My Thoughts: This is the second book in Out in Hollywood series, however, it could be read as a standalone. This was a cute queer romcom that I enjoyed very much. Max wants more than anything to have a great career and a girlfriend. She is currently the assistant to one of the top talent agents, is really good at her job, but makes next to nothing. Max’s own mother believes that she will come home eventually. Max’s roommate, whom she finds slightly annoying, offers to sponsor her in a new self-actualization app, Max eventually gives in. Through this app is expensive shirts, a professional gym trainer, smoothies, a dating coach, and even a life coach. When one of Chelsey’s post shows Sadie leaving the apartment, not only does it go viral, but causes Max all sort of problems. Can Max find the courage? This follows the tropes of queer romance, friends to lovers, and FMC secret.

The story is narrated in Max, through her POV. Max lacks confidence in all areas of her life, and hopes to find it through the self-actualization app. Max wants a fulfilling career, a sense of community, and a solid girlfriend. She stops by the local dive bar just to see her favorite bartender every night, whom she secretly pines after. Sadie knows what she wants, at least career wise, but has struggled with relationships. The angst, tension, push and pull of Sadie and Max is beautiful, yet frustrating at times. More than once I would yell at them to get it together. The characters were well fleshed out with depth, witty banter, chemistry, intriguing, and growth. I really loved how much both of our MCs grew during the story. The supporting characters also elevated the story to another level. The author’s writing style was complex, compelling, funny, swoony, heartwarming, and beautiful. The characters are relatable, even as someone almost 50, have aspects I can relate to.

Overall, such a cute romance that I absolutely adored. The only con is I would like to have seen more focus on their relationship, however, I think the focus on improving themselves took priority over that, and that is more than okay with me. I highly recommend this to other readers.

The messy characters are easy to cheer on, and the romance is satisfactory. It is an enjoyable read, however some parts felt predictable, and the pacing occasionally lagged.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I just loved this story. I haven’t read as many book in this category as I should but if this is what awaits me, then sign me up for all the books. The characters and their journey was just lovely and I really hope to read more like this as soon as possible.

This was a really enjoyable read with a fun premise. I adored the characters and the romance within, it definitely made for an easy read!

My first novel by Amy Spalding, I really enjoyed this romance. with witty and fun characters trying to find their way in the world, and hopefully fall in love in the process. The Romance elements were good, without being OTT or unrealistic. A fun read.

I have really enjoyed this series so far. This book was really enjoyable and the perfect read on holiday.

This was a simple, fun, easy and quick read. The perfect type of book for your holiday, beach, pool kind of read. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

I had mixed feelings about this read. Going into the book, I expected it to be more of a sapphic story (which it is, of sorts) but is more about the character finding herself rather than a romance book.

Saying this, the story was good and fairly short so an easy read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Very lovely continuation of this series by amy spalding! I read part one when I got it as an afterlight (illumicrate) special edition, and im so glad i got to learn about amy spalding's existence through it! She captures sapphic love stories in the best way possible, and she perfectly manages the "awkward gay" relatability with max. This story has the best relatable characters, with real life problems. I loved reading this and i recommend it to all the gays (and allies).

Thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

This book had a lot of promise but fell short in the execution of the characters unfortunately. Not always personable this ruined my enjoy,eat of the book at times.

Something I really love about Amy Spalding's Out in Hollywood series is how smart and honest it is about working in the entertainment industry. Even something as simple as buckslip hierarchies are true to life details that make her books stand out. I also love her focus on found family and queer community, and in honoring people and paths that don't follow a certain type of middle class ideals of success. I really loved seeing Max come into herself in this book, and I strongly related to changing paths in Hollywood. I accidentally requested the UK and the US arcs of this book; whoops! That's how excited I was to read it.

Max can't seem to find her place, after moving to LA she never quite fell into her found queer family liked shed hoped for. Which is why after a drunk night out Max agrees to let her roommate convince her to join this self actualization app. One of Max's main goals is to "find love" and she's hoping it's with the bartender down the street.

After having loved "For Her Consideration" I was eager to jump into "At Her Service". However, I hate to admit it feel a little short for me. This turned out to be more of a self discovery journey than it was a romance as Max seemed to prioritize everything in her life above the single task that Sadie had asked her for help with.

I also wanted to love Chelsey but I felt she was so untracked always shoving her phone in Max's face and caring about the clicks and views instead of actual caring about a roomate that she seemed to genuinely want to care about in the end.

Max is stuck, in her career and her love life. She knows what she wants, but doesn't have the self-confidence to go for it and is getting tired of it.

When her influencer roommate offers her to try a new app for free. The app can potentially change her entire life, so she goes for it. But there is a catch, she needs to lay it out and document every little step.

It's a story of discovering who you are and having the guts to go for it, with a love story in between.

I like the storyline but had a hard time connecting to Max.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this one, including most aspects from the characters to how they and the plot developed. Would absolutely recommend to anyone interested in the genre. Taking all of this into consideration, I am giving it 4/5 stars. Can’t wait to read other works from this author.

I liked this sapphic romance. The main character was layered and I enjoyed the whole project with her roommate. It kept me on my toes. I also enjoyed seeing the main character at her job and see her dreams evolve throughout the story. I also enjoyed reading about her friendships.
I don't know if I'll remember this well in a few months, but this was a fun time overall and I'll be reading more romances by Amy Spalding.

At Her Service by Amy Spalding is a sapphic rom-com about a woman stuck in a bit of a rut. Max is 26 and works at a talent agency in L.A. When she moved from Kentucky, she thought that she'd be living the dream - an out and proud lesbian, working a great job, with a wide circle of queer friends hanging out in cool queer spaces. Maybe even a date with a hot bartender with "DiCaprio hair and a great ass"...

But L.A. hasn't exactly gone to plan. Max's job is great, but her lack of confidence is holding her back from promotion, she's lonely, and she just embarrassed herself in front of Sadie, the aforementioned hot bartender.

When Max's influencer roommate suggests that Max come on board for a sponsorship deal with a self-actualization app that claims to change your life, Max isn't convinced it'll work.... but it can't be any worse than the loneliness she feels now, right?

This was cute, and it was nice to read a contemporary rom-com featuring two women. I didn't always find Max likeable, and I didn't like some of the decisions she made (or how she treated Paige) but I was still invested enough to find out whether or not the app worked for her. I actually loved how the author handled the sponsorship deal storyline by drawing attention to how unattainable some of these products would be to a paying customer, and how the products only work if the customer puts in the effort. Too often, people are swindled by the promise of a life-changing product when, in reality, it's YOU doing the work, not the product.

I found some of the other characters a little one-dimensional, but it was still an enjoyable story and I loved the side arc about the importance of preserving historical queer spaces 🌈

I also loved this line from the author: "To anyone who's ever felt like a child cosplaying as an adult" (it's me, hi 😘)

Thank you to @onemorechapterhc for approving me to read this via Netgalley!

I received At Her Service by Amy Spalding for free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you so much for my advanced e-copy!

I really liked For Her Consideration so I was really looking forward to reading At Her Service! I like that both of these books give you a little taste of Hollywood, it's a really fun setting and I enjoyed seeing the sides that aren't always the most glamorous!

This was a fast paced and cute read that I absolutely flew through! I ended up reading it in one sitting and I really enjoyed seeing Max's growth as she became more self-confident and not only realised what she wants in life but also how to get it. I feel like I need the app in my life to be honest! I found a lot of her struggles very relatable, especially being a 26 year old who doesn't feel like an adult and has no idea how to get to the next stage of my career! Plus, I loved seeing some of the characters from the first book appear too, that was so fun!

I only now realized this was part of a series. It can definitely be read as a standalone as I had no idea this was a follow-up book.

This was a good contemporary romance book. It won't be making any top ratings lists for me but it wasn't bad, just nothing special really.

3.5🌟
A cute LGBTQ+ novel, based on a main character who really wants to make her goals and dreams come true. Paired with an influencer as a roommate who has a new opportunity, she is able to start taking the steps forwards and achieving the goals she wants.

A cute story, with plenty of romance, comedy and character development!

would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this awesome book

its a slow burner and sometimes feels like a therapy book but the actual storyline about max and her life is very interesting and compelling

max arrived in LA hoping to change her life around, coming out and making friends and meeting her forever partner, but she felt she sucked at it all

she has a massive crush on sadie the bar tender at her favourite bar and a job that was going nowhere right now

so after a crushing nightmare of a date with someone else she ended up agreeing to her flatmates and for 30 days her life could change...

it helped that her flat mate was an influencer and before long max did find that her life changed and with the help of the app giving her goals to maintain ...things were on the up

until....

have to say at times i felt like i was in therapy but the draw was max and sadie to see if they could work through the issues they encountered... interesting read and cant wait to see what else this author brings out