A review by lisibee815
All Signs Point to Malibu by Jennifer Snow

3.0

Hailey is 29 years old, a social influencer and life coach who is helped along by her psychic ability. Warren, who went to high school with Hailey, is a former pro athlete turned high school football coach. They have an antagonistic relationship stemming from a past psychic incident between Hailey and Warren, as well as Hailey's role in breaking up her ex-boyfriend's (and his best friend's) wedding. I think the book description covers things pretty well, so I won't rehash things too much. This book has an interesting concept, channeling one's psychic powers into life coaching. And we see a lot of inner conflict as Hailey struggles to help those around her in a way they'll accept, all without exposing her secret. I just felt like the main source of tension (stopping Liam's wedding to avert potential future disaster) was just kind of 'meh.' I liked the premise but the execution felt superficial. And although Hailey's intentions were good, her actions were manipulative and I had a hard time warming up to her. In fact, I had a hard time caring about these two together, and I wasn't really invested. They're technically enemies to lovers, and there was growing physical attraction but it doesn't feel like enough to want them to be together. The high school connection and their mutual friendship with Liam seems tenuous upon which to base a relationship, and it didn't seem like they tried too hard to get to know one another before they headed to the open-door sexy times. Things just seemed to happen to move them along without a lot of interpersonal growth. There is a dual 1st person POV, which normally I prefer but it wasn't labeled in the ARC when switching back and forth between their viewpoints within each chapter. This was a bit confusing/distracting to follow, so hopefully this is fixed before publication. Overall this book seemed like it would be my cup of tea, and I was invested enough to keep reading, but ultimately I don't think it was the book for me. The story didn't move as fast as I would have liked, it drags but picks up towards the end. Ultimately an HEA and Hailey appears to have grown and understood herself better, but it was a slog to get there. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this story, this was my objective review. Publishes 9-17-24.