I loved every page of this read!!!!! Morgan’s gnawing anxiety, Frankie’s journey with chasing her dreams towards a photography career. The two interacted like oil and water, but each held tender memories and experienced a unique type of pain during their breakup. Both characters were so complex experiencing grief, and mental health struggles, from ADHD, to the plight of owning a struggling business. The character’s families were so rich in their backgrounds and interactions with each other that a mere 15% in it was like we had known these people and been in this community for YEARS. This story was fascinating, but the writing was also gripping from a sentence level, to the paragraph level. So many passages packed such an eloquently conveyed emotional punch.

I love the exploration of true growth with time. You can mentally preserve a previous version of someone, the someone that they were at the specific point in time that you knew them and hold that against them forever… or you can give people the opportunity to surprise you. Freezing someone’s worst moments in time can disservice everyone involved. A bit of space and grace and a relationship can be entirely different if each party is coming in with the willingness to allow a true clean slate.

This was SUCH a quick and fun read. Dual POV, author LOVES a fun simile… another gay banger, in the books!

The tension in this book is delicious and the chemistry is off the charts, overall it’s messy, flirty, and full of heart.

Morgan Rose and Katey Lee were high school girlfriends but they broke up in graduation because they were wanted different things for their future. They broke each other’s heart and both think the other left them. Morgan stayed in their hometown and Katey left for New York. Fifteen years have passed and now Morgan is a wedding planner but her business is struggling. She accepts a job to plan a wedding in 90 days, she has no other choice but to make this happen, otherwise she’ll have to close down. Finding the venue, cake, catering in such short notice will be difficult but at least she doesn’t need to find a photographer, the groom’s family knows one who will do it, Frankie, and they’re coming to help Morgan scope out the available venues. There’s one big problem though, Frankie is Katey.

Can they work together to make this wedding happen or will past grudges be the final nail in the coffin for Morgan’s business?

I liked both Morgan and Frankie. I do believe they evolved throughout the book, they slowly began to understand each other’s reasoning fifteen years ago and also now. In my opinion, most of their spats are a matter of miscommunication, of withholding information and expecting the other to magically understand their point. Most of Frankie’s personal growth happened “off screen”, she came into herself in those fifteen years that are not part of the plot of the book. They both definitely still had a lot of accountability and growth to be done but I was satisfied with how the book ended.

I really liked the way the book was written, it didn’t feel convoluted or confusing. It was a straightforward, easy read and I was so enthralled that I reached the epilogue and wondered how I got here so quickly.

I’ll definitely pick up a few more Dana Hawkins books.

Thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Ex Effect follows wedding-planner Morgan, who is used to having a colour-coded plan for everything and running a tight ship for her small business, which has been struggling lately. Planning the perfect wedding in less than 90 days could be an impossible challenge, but she needs this last minute booking to save herself. Frankie is a photographer. and she's doing a family friend a favour by working at their son's wedding. Except, she's also Morgan's ex, and they left each other heartbroken over ten years ago. Can they overcome their differences and their past to work together?

I was super excited for this one because I’ve really enjoyed Dana Hawkins’s previous romances, but sadly this didn’t land for me the same way. I rated it 2.75 stars.

On the positive side, I enjoyed the wedding planning aspect, the final third of the book, and Frankie’s close bond with her sister. I also appreciated Frankie’s eventual openness about her ADHD journey.

However, I really struggled with Morgan. Her lack of patience and constant nagging grated on me, and her insistence on her version of their breakup (while being so bitter about it!) was frustrating, especially since it wasn’t even all that accurate. Add to that the fact that both women are in their thirties, yet still seemed incapable of communicating like adults, and it just left me more annoyed than invested. It didn’t even feel like a case of miscommunication - more like a complete absence of communication altogether.

Overall, while this had glimmers of what I love about Hawkins’s writing, it just didn’t come together for me this time.

Morgan and Frankie had a relationship as 18 year olds but drifted apart as they went their separate ways only to be reunited 15 years later. They then discovered that come what may they wanted to be together. I enjoyed the book and look forward to further books involving the same characters. Think I can count myself as a fan of Dana Hawkins having read and enjoyed three of her books now. Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins tells the story of Morgan, a wedding planner, and Frankie, a professional photographer. Childhood best friends, they dated throughout high school—but when Frankie decided to leave for NYC to pursue her photography career, Morgan refused to follow. Fifteen years later, they find themselves thrown back together in their hometown when Morgan is hired to plan the wedding of one of Frankie's family friends… With just three months to pull together a major celebration.

As an ADHDer myself, I really liked the representation offered by Frankie in this book. The portrayal of how executive dysfunction impacts her life was accurate without becoming a caricature, and the amount of growth she'd had in the wake of her diagnosis was evident. I also enjoyed seeing the main characters effectively working through miscommunication and knee-jerk reactions with maturity and thoughtfulness. There wasn't drama for the sake of drama, and overall the story felt very believable and appropriate for a couple in their thirties.

The Ex Effect was an enjoyable sapphic read, and will be a good fit for those who like second-chance romance, forced proximity, and/or small town romances.

Review Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7828475304
StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/2b6b3a62-04f0-4933-ab46-e3ab02c44e30
It is currently listed as not available to be reviewed on Amazon, but I will publish a review there once I can.

Review Text:
The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins (Meet Cute in Minnesota #1) [ARC - Releasing 19 August 2025]
4 Stars
Spice - mild/moderate
Tropes - Second Chance, Forced Proximity, Small Business (Wedding Planner), Small Town, Dislike-to-Lovers
Format - Dual POV, First Person Past Tense

Thank you so much to Dana Hawkins and Storm Publishing for the ARC!

The Ex Effect is a sapphic romance about a wedding planner desperately trying to save her small business and the woman she hasn’t seen since they broke up in the carpark on the day of their high school graduation 15 years prior, who may just hold the key to her success or failure. What’s not to love?

Characters
Our wedding planner, Morgan, is a planner, deeply tied to her community if a little high strung. She is determined to save her small business, even if it means biting off a little more than she can chew. Frankie never got the small town appeal, and moved to New York City immediately after graduation to pursue her dreams as a photographer. She is an edgy, motorcycle-riding, bad bitch who is afraid that everyone around her sees her as nothing more than a fuckup.
We are also introduced to the cosy town of Spring Harbours and many of its residents. I had a blast meeting a bunch of the townspeople and small businesses within it, and trying to guess which of them might feature in future Meet Cute in Minnesota installments.

Plot & Pacing
Dana Hawkins really knows how to flesh out her books; there are multiple plot threads woven throughout the book besides the romance itself, and each of the characters has goals and storylines that take pressure off of the couple to create all of the drama themselves.
Frankie is in Spring Harbours to clear out her late grandma Peaches’s house, a place that holds a lot of memories for both her and Morgan. She is waiting to hear back after an interview for her dream job in New York. Morgan is desperately trying to pull off a big wedding in 90 days, knowing that the outcome will be make or break for her wedding planning business. They are both still harbouring a lot of hurt about their breakup, which both consider to be the other’s fault. The biggest conflict of the book is the simple fact that to be together, one of them is going to have to give up everything she has worked for.
The pacing was pretty solid, with a bunch of little microtropes sprinkled in for fun. The romance develops slowly, with a first kiss around 70% of the way in, and a singular sex scene a little past 75%. The book gives you a lot to anticipate early on (Why did she change her name from Katey to Frankie? Who was really at fault for the breakup?) which kept me engaged with the story.

Representation
Both leads are queer women (with Morgan explicitly gay and Frankie unspecified). Frankie was diagnosed with ADHD in her early 20s, and takes medication to manage it. Her diagnosis, as well as Morgan’s unspecified anxiety issues, are a big part of the book, and through conversations both characters are able to understand each other better than they were able to the first time around.
Both characters read as white (and both are specified to have German ancestry, which is interesting). There are few to no disabled characters or characters of colour in this book.

Spice
As mentioned above, the spice in this book is minimal, with only one sex scene (which fades to black after only one of the characters has finished, with no aftercare scene). It was fairly well written, with more set up than payoff.
Outside of the sex scene one of the leads refers to her vagina as her “hoo-hah”.

Final Thoughts
The Ex Effect is a fun, tropey sapphic romance. It is perfect for readers who love second chance romance, not too much spice, and that cosy small town vibe. It serves as a great set up for the fictional town of Spring Harbours, and I cannot wait to see where Hawkins takes the series next.

Content Warnings - coarse language, terminal illness (mentioned), breast cancer (mentioned), death of a grandparent, emotional infidelity (mentioned), surgery (mentioned), childhood neglect (mentioned), alcohol, divorce, car accident, attempted sexual assault

The Ex Effect is a second chance forced proximity sapphic romance that has a lot of shining moments. I’m not the biggest fan of every book by this author but parts of The Ex Effect really took me by surprise!

We have Morgan, a type A control freak who lives her life with a “if you’re not early, you’re late” mentality and Frankie, an artsy photographer managing ADHD who spent most of her youth being told she was chaotic and then we have their history and their love story. When the pair is unexpectedly brought back together after parting ways with a bad breakup after high school, tensions between the two women are at an all time high but it doesn’t take long before sparks begin to fly again. Is it messy? Yes. Do they have chemistry? Yes.

I really liked the wedding planning aspect of this story and I did like how the women were brought back together but too much of this story is told in past tense/summarized by a character. There are not enough important conversations taking place on the page to really make sense of the past for these two women and there were a lot of things I wish I got to read them actually talking to one another about, like the significance of Frankie’s ADHD diagnosis in adulthood and why she actually changed her name to Frankie/the significance and choice of that specific name.

The third act of this book is absolutely the strongest part of the story and I felt the characters really came alive individually. I appreciated the way their history and their choices as adults was handled but considering they spent the first third of the book disliking one another so heavily, I’m not sure if enough leg work was done in the middle of the book to make the true love part entirely believable.

Overall, this was a really quick read and parts of it had me swooning and even wiping a tear from eye. I think this is probably my favourite book to date by this author and I look forward to seeing what they do next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an ARC of this book!

💐 Bookish Thoughts
The Ex Effect is a second chance sapphic romance that is mostly lighthearted, and perfect for summer reading. Overall, I really enjoyed this one and gave it a solid 4 stars. But I definitely liked Morgan a lot more than Frankie.

Our FMC Morgan is a wedding planner who desperately needs this wedding to go off without a hitch because her business is struggling. She is a perfectionist, overly organized, and thrives on having a plan for everything. Enter Frankie, Morgan’s ex girlfriend and the photographer assigned to this wedding. Forced to work together, the two have to get over themselves and make this wedding happen! They definitely didn't get along for like the first 40% of the book!

Their high school relationship did not end well, and honestly, it is not surprising why. Morgan is a planner who finds comfort in structure, while Frankie had undiagnosed ADHD and lacked the support she needed at the time. As they work together they clashed, held on to old drama, and never worked well together.
As adults, I found Frankie unlikeable, overly judgmental, and critical of Morgan, with very little accountability for her actions. While Morgan could be prickly at times, she showed more self awareness. By the end, I could not shake the feeling that Morgan deserved better 🤷🏽‍♀️

I read both the ebook ARC and the advanced listening copy, and I have to give major props to narrator Katie Beudert. She did a fantastic job differentiating both FMCs, which I especially appreciate in sapphic romances with solo narration. The audiobook performance was a solid 5 stars and made the story even more engaging.

🩷 What to Expect
• Sapphic romance
• Wedding planner FMC
• Photographer ex FMC
• Second chance romance
• Small town setting
• Forced proximity
_____

📅 Pub Date: August 19, 2025
Thank you to Storm Publishing, Dreamscape Select, and NetGalley for the advanced copies. All thoughts are my own.

In The Ex Effect, Morgan‘s life is kind of falling apart. Her wedding planning business is failing, and the love of her life moved to New York for college, never coming back. When Morgan lands an extremely short term wedding planning gig, she knows she needs to nail it in order to keep her business afloat. The couple leaves everything up to her, except for photography. When the photographer comes to town, it is none other than Frankie, the love of her life that moved to New York. Can they work on this wedding together without things blowing up?

This book reminded me a lot of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake. I really enjoyed the revival of Morgan and Frankie‘s relationship throughout the book. I really also enjoyed the backdrop of the wedding, and getting to see all of the hard work that the two put in to this wedding. Another aspect that I liked was watching both Frankie and Morgan grow into capable, confident adults.

If there is one thing I didn’t like about this book, it was that it was completely founded on miscommunication, one of my least favorite tropes. I know the point of the book was them rekindling their relationship and finding out how they have grown apart from each other in the time that they have been separated. However, the fact that they split in college was a complete miscommunication on both of their parts could have prevented this whole story from happening to begin with. So while I enjoyed almost all of the rest of the aspects of this book, it’s not my favorite when an entire book is reliant on a miscommunication that could have easily been solved before the book even started.

Overall, I would give this a 3.5 star rating and I had a really good time. I would recommend this book if you like sapphic romance, if you like a wedding themed setting, if you like photography, or if you like DIY aspects in a story.

This was a super cute read, it definitely isn't anything groundbreaking but the plot is super cute, the characters are fun to read about and it kept me engaged the entire time!

This was my first book by Dana Hawkins and I really enjoyed her writing style. Her writing kept me engaged from start to finish and her characters were really relatable to the reader!

I loved the setting of this book! I love the wedding space so reading about a wedding planner and photographer was really fun to see the wedding world from that POV.

I really liked Frankie, but Morgan did annoy me at times but it didn't take away from the story as a whole.

The Vibes:
-Sapphic Love
-Second Chance Romance
-Wedding Space (Planner x Photographer)
-Enemies to lovers
-Forced Proximity
-Opposites Attract

The audiobook was really well done! I was engaged from start to finish and the narrators did add to my overall enjoyment of the story! I would def recommend listening to this audiobook if you're wanting to pick up this story!

I truly hate to give a book a low rating, but reading this felt like a chore. The characters weren’t very distinctive, and their personalities seemed almost completely defined by ADHD and anxiety. As someone with both of these things they are just not that interesting and are not a substitute for personality.

The pace was incredibly slow and the stakes were low. This one didn’t work for me.

A great sapphic romance about second chance love and following your dreams.

This is my first Dana Hawkins book and I was hooked from the first chapter.

We meet two high school sweethearts who went seperate ways after graduating and are forced back together to help create the perfect wedding.

I loved both characters, their flaws, their quirks, their bad communication to start with, and watching them learn to trust not only each other, but their own instincts and ability to open up, be vulnerable and risk everything for love.

Great book.

I received an ARC of The Ex Effect in exchange for an honest review. This book, out August 19th, 2025, is a delightful mix of romance, suspense, and genuine emotion that kept me hooked from start to finish.
At its core, The Ex Effect is a compelling sapphic second chance romance filled with enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity tropes. Morgan, a wedding planner on the edge, is racing against time to pull off her biggest event yet when she unexpectedly has to work with Frankie—her ex-girlfriend who once shattered her heart. The story explores themes of forgiveness, personal growth, and the messy reality of love that’s worth fighting for—twice.
What made this story especially stand out for me was how authentic the characters felt, despite their flaws. Frankie’s ADHD and her journey to understanding herself add much depth and awareness to her character, making her even more relatable. Morgan’s organized exterior hides her vulnerability, which she slowly exposes as she confronts her past. Watching these two work through their differences—and their shared history—was both adorable and emotionally satisfying.
The romance develops gradually, blending humor with tender moments, and the tension is perfectly paced. I appreciated how the story tackles complex issues like insecurity, self-discovery, and the importance of communication. It might start with some bickering and uncertainty, but that authenticity makes the characters’ growth feel genuine by the end.
The narration by Katie Beudert was warm and engaging, enhancing the reading experience. Overall, The Ex Effect is a satisfying late-summer read—full of sparks that evolve into something much deeper. If you’re into stories about healing, second chances, and beautifully flawed characters, this one is absolutely worth your time.
I highly recommend giving it a read and look forward to more sapphic romances from Dana Hawkins!

Okay- at one point I was somewhat torn on whether it was a 3 or a 4 star for me but honestly? The story itself isn’t something I (personally) have seen in a sapphic rom com so for that alone… it pushed it to a 4 star.

It’s a little corny but hey! It kinda feels like a ‘chick flick’. Some of the arguements or the stuff they disagree on etc felt a bit bleh to me but I have to remind myself that often that’s how a lot of these rom comes are!! Haha it’s part of it all.

Plus it’s a second chance!!! There has to be a little bit of friction even though we know the outcome. It was fun and I recommend that

The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins was such a fun read! It was a complex, immersive, and it had me hooked from the first chapter.
What I really enjoyed about this story was the depth the characters and their stories had. The story didn’t shy away from the confusing and sometimes complicated parts of life, and it made me understand and route for the characters even more.
Morgan, a well-planned wedding/event planner, always has her ducks in a row when it comes to almost everything. However, when she needs a spur-of-the-moment photographer for a wedding and it turns out to be her high-school ex, things get complicated. While she struggles to include this plot twist into her daily life and schedule, the photographer, Frankie, grapples with family loss and seeing her estranged ex.
The girls try and work together to create a dream wedding for the clients while also learning from each other again and ironing out their issues. Watching them navigate this story was such a beautiful journey!
Thank you to Storm Publishing and Dana Hawkins for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley!

I loved the Single in Seattle series and was really excited for a midwestern Sapphic series, which makes this super disappointing. I'm all for banter and tension, but I don't think Frankie and Morgan were right for each other. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for second chance romance. I related a lot with Morgan's anxiety and Frankie's grief. I loved the ADHD rep. But I couldn't stand them together and that made the romance really hard to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

Morgan and Frankie have a history. High school romance and first love - that kind. Toss in a heartbreak. Now Morgan lives in their hometown and is trying to keep her wedding business afloat. It all depends on a lavish wedding planned and performed in 90 days. And it will all be photographed by none other than Frankie. Sparks fly. Stories are told. Love prevails.

Thank you for the ARC NetGalley & Storm Publishing - all opinions are my own.

This is a sapphic second chance romance, I felt it fell in the midrange for me. Not the best not the worst. There was some good banter and spice. Like others I felt like this could've ended on a cliffhanger with the sequel picking up years later.

3.5 ⭐️

Morgan lives in a small town in northern Minnesota where she runs a wedding planning business that is in precarious financial condition. When she agrees to take on a wedding with only 3 months to prepare, she finds out the photographer hired is her former high school sweetheart, Katey, who now goes by Frankie. Both of them are angry about their long ago breakup and are resentful that they now have to work together.

This second chance romance is framed by the details of a difficult wedding plan. It's also a small town vs big city theme since Frankie left Minnesota to seek her fortune as a NYC photographer. In these situations, the small town always wins out.

The book is long and a bit sloggy. I wanted more background about the early connection between the two--what made them fall in love as teens that was so intense, they never got over it completely?

I was provided an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley.