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sewster314's review
slow-paced
2.0
DNF 55%
Bree just sits around and pines. She drags her feet on leaving for her dream job. I’m just so sick of reading about it. Leave! Have a backbone! Blech.
Bree just sits around and pines. She drags her feet on leaving for her dream job. I’m just so sick of reading about it. Leave! Have a backbone! Blech.
malpal132's review
funny
4.75
i enjoyed this thoroughly. it's basically impossible to sell me on a male comedian and somehow this author did that. they're usually my worst nightmare, lmao. i liked how each character stayed true to themselves in their relationship, how their fears and strengths made so much sense and clashed together and ultimately worked. i had a very good time. (to be fair, i read this a week ago and don't exactly remember the ending or what my quibbles were with it so i might be upselling but i don't think so?? it was genuinely good.)
amlibera's review against another edition
4.0
I read 80% of this on a plane back from Phoenix and then stalled at the second turning point where the couple deals with with a crisis that splits them up (not a spoiler, just every romance novel) when I went back I discovered that it was handled in a way that felt really good and smart. Also, a second romance novel set at a fictional SNL but despite the lack of obvious research, this one felt a touch more true to life- I'm picky about my comedian characters and Sam felt much closer to reality than some.
samnreader's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was a deep dive to childhood friends - best friends - and it was very internal by and large. It also felt real in a way that I think is very hard to convey in friends-to-lovers. There was whiffs of codependence and acknowledgment of deep flaws in the characters. it was angsty, heartbreaking and explored vulnerability for both characters but Sam's was particularly raw given his profession and Taylor-Swift-esque recent breakup. You also understand their respect regard and the upshift to a romantic relationship. Bree and Sam were both equally frustrating and endearing - and felt dimensional.
Definitely worth a read if you don't mind heavily internal books with characters who have struggled to reveal their deepest truths to each other.
I really like Emma Barry!
Definitely worth a read if you don't mind heavily internal books with characters who have struggled to reveal their deepest truths to each other.
I really like Emma Barry!
raeread's review against another edition
2.0
Thank you netgalley for the e-arc!
I love a good friends to lovers story, all the angst and the mutual pining but with this one I don't know I just didn't really get that.
In the book it mentioned how bree has been in love with sam since forever but the moment they got together there's barely moments between them. I didn't feel their love and connection within each other as it just went flat.
I had trouble when sam's comedy hour show involved, I think it was fine in good amount but when it got little bit too much i got bored. I mostly just scan through that quickly.
I love a good friends to lovers story, all the angst and the mutual pining but with this one I don't know I just didn't really get that.
In the book it mentioned how bree has been in love with sam since forever but the moment they got together there's barely moments between them. I didn't feel their love and connection within each other as it just went flat.
I had trouble when sam's comedy hour show involved, I think it was fine in good amount but when it got little bit too much i got bored. I mostly just scan through that quickly.
amyreadsandsails's review against another edition
4.0
mf - contemporary romance - moderate steam - white MCs - ARC - best friends to lovers - celebrity - childhood friends - forced proximity - sickbed. The MMC is a comedian (like on SNL) and the FMC is his best friend. They grew up super poor in terrible households. This book wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be, but I enjoyed a hero who is completely different than I’d ever read before. He was a walking disaster in that he struggled so much with emotions and abandonment issues that he imploded. I got a little tired of the heroine and the predictable break up, but will read more Emma Barry.
smalltownbookmom's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 rounded up.
A fun, steamy, dual POV, friends to lovers romance set in NYC that sees Sam and Bree, two childhood best friends finally taking a chance on love when the playboy sketch comedy actor finally decides to admit his feelings for his friend who has secretly been pining after him for years.
I didn't like this one quite as much as Chick magnet - Sam was a little bit too much of a playboy rake/badboy and Bree felt a little too much of a wallflower for my tastes but they definitely had a sweet friendship and great chemistry. Good on audio narrated by Lucy Rivers and Teddy Hamilton.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Recommended for fans of authors like Vi Keeland or Pippa Grant.
Steam level: open door
A fun, steamy, dual POV, friends to lovers romance set in NYC that sees Sam and Bree, two childhood best friends finally taking a chance on love when the playboy sketch comedy actor finally decides to admit his feelings for his friend who has secretly been pining after him for years.
I didn't like this one quite as much as Chick magnet - Sam was a little bit too much of a playboy rake/badboy and Bree felt a little too much of a wallflower for my tastes but they definitely had a sweet friendship and great chemistry. Good on audio narrated by Lucy Rivers and Teddy Hamilton.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Recommended for fans of authors like Vi Keeland or Pippa Grant.
Steam level: open door
tessisreading2's review against another edition
3.0
Barry's writing is great, as always, and the hook of this one is fantastic - MMC Sam's ex-girlfriend, a British Taylor Swift analogue, wrote a hit song about their breakup that is everywhere and causing a lot of judgment - but the book on the whole was a flop for me. Two reasons, the first romance-related: Sam is an oxygen-sucking drama fest. He desperately needs therapy. He has a ton of issues which he ignores in favor of jumping from relationship to relationship while maintaining a codependent and frankly pretty exploitative friendship with his BFF, the FMC, Bree. He's charismatic and successful but has low self-esteem and is constantly self-sabotaging, while Bree - who is in love with him and acknowledges it to herself - struggles to help him maintain his interpersonal relationships while providing a never-ending stream of love and emotional support to his constant drama. Barry knows all of this, which is better than books where it's never acknowledged, but she can't make it actually work as a romance. Possibly a longer timeframe - in which Bree - would have been manageable, but this was not that.
Secondly, the book was so, so much Saturday Night Live fanfiction, and I read [b:Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|62365904|Burn It Down Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|Maureen Ryan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675644029l/62365904._SY75_.jpg|98193672] way too recently. Instead of Lorne Michaels, the boss is a female head of show who is crusty with a heart of gold; while actors and writers are assholes to newbies, Sam mentors them and the showrunner disapproves of the bullying behavior (but somehow can't stop it?). The cast is diverse and the meanies are less-talented white dudes, who aren't going to get anywhere in their careers. There is a pivotal comedy sketch which isn't actually very funny. I always have issues with books about sketch comedy because sketch comedy is hard to write, and Barry doesn't really do it well, but that in turn means that the focus of the parts of the book about Sam's job is, of necessity, his workplace rather than his work; and the real SNL is (per Ryan) so toxic and problematic that reading a lovey-dovey sanitized version of it wasn't something I found rewarding.
Spoiler
actually left Sam for a considerable period of time and built an independent life for at least a couple months, and Sam put in the necessary work, including therapy and managing his career instead of leaving it in the hands of the boss of his show and his agent ("you can fire me if you want!")Secondly, the book was so, so much Saturday Night Live fanfiction, and I read [b:Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|62365904|Burn It Down Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood|Maureen Ryan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675644029l/62365904._SY75_.jpg|98193672] way too recently. Instead of Lorne Michaels, the boss is a female head of show who is crusty with a heart of gold; while actors and writers are assholes to newbies, Sam mentors them and the showrunner disapproves of the bullying behavior (but somehow can't stop it?). The cast is diverse and the meanies are less-talented white dudes, who aren't going to get anywhere in their careers. There is a pivotal comedy sketch which isn't actually very funny. I always have issues with books about sketch comedy because sketch comedy is hard to write, and Barry doesn't really do it well, but that in turn means that the focus of the parts of the book about Sam's job is, of necessity, his workplace rather than his work; and the real SNL is (per Ryan) so toxic and problematic that reading a lovey-dovey sanitized version of it wasn't something I found rewarding.