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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Re-read 8/15/23: Finally cracked the longest reading slump of my adult life, and of course it would be with re-reading a favorite <3 this book is iconic and I am so!!!! excited!!! to finally now be able to re-unite with these characters by diving into The Boyfriend Candidate!!!
Re-read 5/27/22: This is a damn near perfect book for me and I loved it even more on re-read than I did the first time I read it back in January. Our main character Lee is the definition of a hot mess, but she crawled right under my skin and into my heart and I just adored her, questionable morals and all. This is definitely a book following some ~*unlikeable*~ characters, but I found myself constantly rooting for all of them. The story revolves pretty heavily around cheating, and while there isn't any physical cheating going on during the present timeline of the story, I can't deny that there are definitely some lines that are being crossed by Lee and her love interest, Ben. If emotional cheating done by a main character is a hard line for you, I would maybe skip this one. But with all that being said, this book just worked so, so perfectly for me. It was somehow both hilarious and heart-wrenching in all the best ways and I will absolutely be re-reading it for the rest of my life. Crossing my fingers and toes that Ashley Winstead has plans to write more rom-coms in the future because I need so much more!!!! So, so good.
Original read 1/14/22: This was EXQUISITE. It may only be January but I already know that this is definitely going to be right up near the top of my 2022 favorites list.
CW: cheating, death of a parent, alcoholism, drug use
Re-read 5/27/22: This is a damn near perfect book for me and I loved it even more on re-read than I did the first time I read it back in January. Our main character Lee is the definition of a hot mess, but she crawled right under my skin and into my heart and I just adored her, questionable morals and all. This is definitely a book following some ~*unlikeable*~ characters, but I found myself constantly rooting for all of them. The story revolves pretty heavily around cheating, and while there isn't any physical cheating going on during the present timeline of the story, I can't deny that there are definitely some lines that are being crossed by Lee and her love interest, Ben. If emotional cheating done by a main character is a hard line for you, I would maybe skip this one. But with all that being said, this book just worked so, so perfectly for me. It was somehow both hilarious and heart-wrenching in all the best ways and I will absolutely be re-reading it for the rest of my life. Crossing my fingers and toes that Ashley Winstead has plans to write more rom-coms in the future because I need so much more!!!! So, so good.
Original read 1/14/22: This was EXQUISITE. It may only be January but I already know that this is definitely going to be right up near the top of my 2022 favorites list.
CW: cheating, death of a parent, alcoholism, drug use
I feel rage. This was a disaster. I’m so tired of all the “woke” bullshit! I read for enjoyment. I’m not looking for an agenda in my romance novels! Lee was a horrible character. I didn’t want her to find happiness, and Ben, how could he love someone like that?? I just can’t! And the drugs, and alcohol abuse, and so much cheating, by everyone! Can’t recommend this one!
2.75 stars
This book is a lot, but it would have benefited from being perhaps 50 to 100 pages shorter. We followed Lee Stone, a girl who after her Four Major Heartbreaks has given up on finding true love and instead only lives on flings with no emotional attachment. In fact, it was her last heartbreak that pushed her over the edge but that time she was the "bad guy". Now, as she attempts to pass a bill for greener energy in Texas, she is forced to work with the most unexpected individual. Turns out the governors new employee is her ex: Ben Laderman aka that last heartbreak. From there the book takes on a dual narrative where on one hand we follow the love story between Lee and Ben and on the other hand we have this plot of the two of them trying to get this bill passed. This is a romance that I thought would work for me because there's more than just a romantic self, but the latter half of the book was so convoluted and repetitive I ended up rolling my eyes a lot.
Honestly, the beginning was really good. Did we get hints of what I like to term "overly quirky language", sure, but it wasn't overbearing and it worked with the tone of the narrator. Lee definitely doesn't take herself very seriously (I mean her nickname is Stoner) thus the over the top quirkiness sometimes is thrown in for *spice* but it's self aware so it's not too distracting. I thought the set up of Lee's past influencing her future, in all her characterisation is quite Freudian, was a realistic approach. Did I love the info dumps? Not really. Especially since the same things were then repeated at least three times later in the book in more detail and in a better fashion. Nevertheless, by chapter 3/4 you have a good idea of who this character is and what her internal versus external conflict will be and how they coincide. We love to see it. The politics were also heavily featured and we quickly come to understand Lee's perspectives and morals which was central to caring for the politics plot line. So, as a character, I thought Lee was handled well if not a bit overly overtly.
The romance was fine but it didn't have that magical element that are the romances that I've read had. In The Brown Sisters latter half of the book things get very repetitive. The author loves writing scenes where one person storms out of the room and the other runs after them to have a dramatic conversation. I swear this happened at least six times in this book. Other than that we had the same beats of Lee messing up the relationship a few too many times for my taste. Like I understand that the point is that she has these worries ingrained in her because of her childhood trauma regarding her father but it was just a few too many times; at least we could've had these scenes be shorter. This prolonged the "will they, won't they" but in a really annoying way. They were also things with bands other love interest that kind of got on my nerves. She honestly felt like a throwaway character that was there just for the drama. We could've done without her, she was kind of useless. She essentially serves one important function (the run) but that could've been done through the fact that Ben's brother is a medic so… What was the point? By the end it was just annoying.
Everything I'd like to talk about is the absolute shxt-show that politics storyline turns into. Almost as if the author was trying to show how clever they were or maybe they just wanted to throw in more drama for the sake of drama but it didn't work. Every character in the story gives up on their morals, becomes a cheater, or both. Do you know how usually there is one third of conflict that is resolved in like 10 pages and no one likes it? This happens in this book like four times. FOUR TIMES! It was ridiculous. It made reading it so exhausting.I must say though that chapter 27 was hilarious and a much-needed reprieve.
Fool Me Once ended up being a story that I could've loved but it became too "clever" for its own good. It kind of sucks because I did really enjoy the first half.
This book is a lot, but it would have benefited from being perhaps 50 to 100 pages shorter. We followed Lee Stone, a girl who after her Four Major Heartbreaks has given up on finding true love and instead only lives on flings with no emotional attachment. In fact, it was her last heartbreak that pushed her over the edge but that time she was the "bad guy". Now, as she attempts to pass a bill for greener energy in Texas, she is forced to work with the most unexpected individual. Turns out the governors new employee is her ex: Ben Laderman aka that last heartbreak. From there the book takes on a dual narrative where on one hand we follow the love story between Lee and Ben and on the other hand we have this plot of the two of them trying to get this bill passed. This is a romance that I thought would work for me because there's more than just a romantic self, but the latter half of the book was so convoluted and repetitive I ended up rolling my eyes a lot.
Honestly, the beginning was really good. Did we get hints of what I like to term "overly quirky language", sure, but it wasn't overbearing and it worked with the tone of the narrator. Lee definitely doesn't take herself very seriously (I mean her nickname is Stoner) thus the over the top quirkiness sometimes is thrown in for *spice* but it's self aware so it's not too distracting. I thought the set up of Lee's past influencing her future, in all her characterisation is quite Freudian, was a realistic approach. Did I love the info dumps? Not really. Especially since the same things were then repeated at least three times later in the book in more detail and in a better fashion. Nevertheless, by chapter 3/4 you have a good idea of who this character is and what her internal versus external conflict will be and how they coincide. We love to see it. The politics were also heavily featured and we quickly come to understand Lee's perspectives and morals which was central to caring for the politics plot line. So, as a character, I thought Lee was handled well if not a bit overly overtly.
The romance was fine but it didn't have that magical element that are the romances that I've read had. In The Brown Sisters latter half of the book things get very repetitive. The author loves writing scenes where one person storms out of the room and the other runs after them to have a dramatic conversation. I swear this happened at least six times in this book. Other than that we had the same beats of Lee messing up the relationship a few too many times for my taste. Like I understand that the point is that she has these worries ingrained in her because of her childhood trauma regarding her father but it was just a few too many times; at least we could've had these scenes be shorter. This prolonged the "will they, won't they" but in a really annoying way. They were also things with bands other love interest that kind of got on my nerves. She honestly felt like a throwaway character that was there just for the drama. We could've done without her, she was kind of useless. She essentially serves one important function (the run) but that could've been done through the fact that Ben's brother is a medic so… What was the point? By the end it was just annoying.
Everything I'd like to talk about is the absolute shxt-show that politics storyline turns into. Almost as if the author was trying to show how clever they were or maybe they just wanted to throw in more drama for the sake of drama but it didn't work. Every character in the story gives up on their morals, becomes a cheater, or both. Do you know how usually there is one third of conflict that is resolved in like 10 pages and no one likes it? This happens in this book like four times. FOUR TIMES! It was ridiculous. It made reading it so exhausting.
Spoiler
first off, the fact that Alexis goes back to the boyfriend and he cheat on her again. We get it, Chris sucks. Next, the entire governor and Dakota thing was a lot. Wasn't necessary? This one yeah probably, but at that point it was tiring. The thing that did piss me off was Dakota planning on bribing and actually bribing the senators. Babe??? What was that? It literally undermined everything that happened in the first half and it made me so angry. I actually enjoyed going to all the senators and seeing Ben and Lee trying to figure out how to target each one individually. And in the other like actually no screw we're going to bribe them. AGH. This entire time Lee talks about how cool Dakot is but in the end it just pisses everyone off. Then the fake out breakups also got on my nerves it after like the second time. Needless to say I rolled my eyes a lot.Fool Me Once ended up being a story that I could've loved but it became too "clever" for its own good. It kind of sucks because I did really enjoy the first half.
I loved In My Dreams I Hold A Knife so much that when I heard that Ashley Winstead wrote a rom-com, I knew I had to read it!
Lee Stone is a kick-ass comms director at a women-founded electric car company called Lise. She's dealt with a lot of cheating in her life - her father cheated on her mother, she's been cheated on by past boyfriends and she cheated on her last real boyfriend, Ben Lederman, in grad school after she thought he was cheating on her - oops! Completely heartbroken, he moved to California right after they broke up and they've both moved on with their lives. Because of these past experiences, Lee doesn't do relationships anymore - she never lets guys get the chance to get too close - that way she won't get hurt.
Five years later, as Lee is trying to get a clean energy bill rolling in red, conservative Texas, Ben reappears in her life. Ben is working as a policy expert for Texas' most liberal governor and they are forced to work together. Things get competitive - and complicated - as they try to get pitch the energy bill to stakeholders and get their buy-in. As they spend more time together, old flames reignite. But will their past indiscretions, insecurities and competitiveness get in the way of their second chance at love?
I absolutely adored this enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance! The book is so well-written - the plot flows effortlessly, is captivating and downright hilarious! A true rom-com at its finest, with a healthy amount of steam. The main characters, Lee and Ben, were well-developed and both complex in their own right. And even though Lee comes off as unlikeable at times, you can't help but root for the both of them. I loved that Lee was strong and ambitious - she was flawed but her independence and ambition was super sexy. There was some sexism and misogyny in the book but the feminist themes outshined all that - I am always here for feminist vibes!
Overall a fantastic rom-com debut from Winstead. She's quickly become one of my favorite new authors and I'll be waiting with bated breath for her new releases!
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Graydon House / Harlequin Books and Ashley Winstead for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Lee Stone is a kick-ass comms director at a women-founded electric car company called Lise. She's dealt with a lot of cheating in her life - her father cheated on her mother, she's been cheated on by past boyfriends and she cheated on her last real boyfriend, Ben Lederman, in grad school after she thought he was cheating on her - oops! Completely heartbroken, he moved to California right after they broke up and they've both moved on with their lives. Because of these past experiences, Lee doesn't do relationships anymore - she never lets guys get the chance to get too close - that way she won't get hurt.
Five years later, as Lee is trying to get a clean energy bill rolling in red, conservative Texas, Ben reappears in her life. Ben is working as a policy expert for Texas' most liberal governor and they are forced to work together. Things get competitive - and complicated - as they try to get pitch the energy bill to stakeholders and get their buy-in. As they spend more time together, old flames reignite. But will their past indiscretions, insecurities and competitiveness get in the way of their second chance at love?
I absolutely adored this enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance! The book is so well-written - the plot flows effortlessly, is captivating and downright hilarious! A true rom-com at its finest, with a healthy amount of steam. The main characters, Lee and Ben, were well-developed and both complex in their own right. And even though Lee comes off as unlikeable at times, you can't help but root for the both of them. I loved that Lee was strong and ambitious - she was flawed but her independence and ambition was super sexy. There was some sexism and misogyny in the book but the feminist themes outshined all that - I am always here for feminist vibes!
Overall a fantastic rom-com debut from Winstead. She's quickly become one of my favorite new authors and I'll be waiting with bated breath for her new releases!
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Graydon House / Harlequin Books and Ashley Winstead for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This had me trying to hide my giggles at work lmaoooo like, what a delight. A DELIGHT.
I would love to be a brat with Ben Laderman, pls.
This uggghhhh I can't stop grinning about this book.
I would love to be a brat with Ben Laderman, pls.
This uggghhhh I can't stop grinning about this book.
I loved this book!! It had heart, sass, banter for days, and a lot of character growth. There's a fun workplace/political setting that provides a ton of unique situations. Fool Me Once is my first Ashley Winstead book but it definitely won't be my last!
Second chance romances are usually not my favorite but this one is so well done. Ben and Lee dated in grad school, had a brutal breakup, and five years later are thrown back together due to a work situation. I loved Lee, who is frankly a total mess emotionally at the beginning of this book. She is also smart and driven and ready to take on the world in her professional life. She's definitely got some growing to do, and that development is done in an organic and thoughtful way. Ben is a sweetheart, but he has his own smaller issues that he has to deal with. There is a great group of friends and family to round out the characters, and they are all fairly well developed.
This book is actually funny, rare these days even with books promoted as a romantic comedy. It's also really smart and challenging. I loved the political setting and the passion for environmental change the characters had. It made for some great situations and conversations.
I'm off to add all of Ashley Winstead's back list to my TBR. I had never heard of her before this book but I can't wait to read the thriller that is apparently amazing too! Fingers crossed she writes more romance!
Second chance romances are usually not my favorite but this one is so well done. Ben and Lee dated in grad school, had a brutal breakup, and five years later are thrown back together due to a work situation. I loved Lee, who is frankly a total mess emotionally at the beginning of this book. She is also smart and driven and ready to take on the world in her professional life. She's definitely got some growing to do, and that development is done in an organic and thoughtful way. Ben is a sweetheart, but he has his own smaller issues that he has to deal with. There is a great group of friends and family to round out the characters, and they are all fairly well developed.
This book is actually funny, rare these days even with books promoted as a romantic comedy. It's also really smart and challenging. I loved the political setting and the passion for environmental change the characters had. It made for some great situations and conversations.
I'm off to add all of Ashley Winstead's back list to my TBR. I had never heard of her before this book but I can't wait to read the thriller that is apparently amazing too! Fingers crossed she writes more romance!
This was a fun read! Loved the political aspects and that it was set in Austin! Lee and Ben were
I really enjoyed Ashley Winstead’s last book In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, and I love that she can write across genres. Cheating as a plot theme isn’t always my favorite. If I were Ben’s friend I would tell him to never speak to Lee ever again. But as a reader, I couldn’t help rooting for her.