Friends to Lovers

A strong, spirited first novel, a romcom, where friends turn into lovers and then turn into friends again until…Well, that’s to be determined!

Summertime takes a starring role in Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely, a fun, spirited romcom sure to add sunshine to reader’s lives.

Joni and Ren are long-time friends who met as children in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. The two share a long history. Still single, they are both closing in on their 30s. And while Joni set off to take a dream job New York City, the two made a pact kept throughout their 20s: they’d always serve as each other’s “plus ones” (dates) every wedding season. That was, until the last wedding they attended together suddenly transformed friendship into romantic love. Uh-oh!

 

When Joni comes back home to attend her sister’s wedding, she and Ren awkwardly reunite, pretending to pick up as if their rendezvous never happened. In reality, the pair struggle to reconcile their actions and feelings; while also trying to gauge the prospect of what they really want for the future.

 

Short chapters and a staggered time-line narrated by the pull-and-tug of romantic dilemmas faced by these two, endearing characters offer a perfect summer escape. This first novel by Blakely delivers a strong start, sure to develop into a long-term relationship with romcom readers!

 

Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely

Canary Street Press (HarperCollins/MIRA/Harlequin), $18.99 paperback, 9781335014245, 352 pages

Publication Date: July 22, 2025

To order this book on Bookshop.org link HERE

Link HERE to learn more about Sally Blakely

Pickleballers

A flirtatious romcom about a jilted divorcée, a craft artist, who takes up the sport of Pickleball enroute to carving out a brand-new life. 

A craft artist recovering from an abruptly severed marriage takes consolation via the sport of Pickleball in the competitively spirited romcom, Pickleballers, an amusing first novel by Ilana Long.

 

Meg Bloomberg--a 30something Seattle, Wash. native--is struggling after her dentist husband of two years walked out on her. Unmoored, Meg is emotionally cast adrift. But when her bestie from college encourages Meg to take up pickleball as a “mental distraction from her loneliness,” Meg soon finds meaning and purpose for her life again.

 

Meg crosses paths with a diversity of players—each with personal problems of his/her own. But as she sets out to competitively master the game, Meg learns her local pickleball courts are facing closure—environmentalists are intent to restore the area to a nature preserve. This sends Meg to practice with her partner on nearby Bainbridge Island. Via the 35-minute ferry crossing from Seattle, Meg is drawn to a charming stranger with “dreamy eyes” whom, she learns, also plays pickleball. As the two strike up a romance, Meg discovers that her new beau is the very conservationist intent on closing her local Seattle courts. This sets up a host of complications for Meg--both on and off the court.

 

Pickleball history and lore--as well as nuances about the game--flesh out this amusing, flirty romcom. Long serves up witty volleys of banter and clever plot twists that play out with winning aplomb.

 

Pickleballers by Ilana Long

Berkley, $19.00 paperback, 9780593642238, 368 pages

Publication Date: November 12, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (November 15, 2024), link HERE 

Wish I Were Here

An adventurous, open-hearted romcom about an exacting mathematician and a quirky, fun-loving doorman who set out on a journey of self-discovery.

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner is an adventurous and open-hearted romantic comedy about a precise and exacting mathematician whose world is turned upside-down in a case of missing identity. 

Catherine Lipton of Pittsburgh, Penn. is thrilled when she’s offered a university math professorship. However, when the college requests original documents for her employment file, the single, 29-year-old learns she doesn’t exist. Her birth certificate and Social Security information aren’t even found in any databases. This forces Catherine to find a way to substantiate her existence.

Catherine seeks the help of her career-averse, bohemian father, who has lived intent on pursuing his dreams of clown performing—juggling, his specialty. As a single dad who raised Catherine--Catherine’s mother walked out on them--he refuses to help Catherine’s search for her mother who might retain the original documents needed for Catherine’s dream job. Desperate, Catherine accepts help offered by Luca Morelli, the handsome, heavily tattooed, artsy doorman who oversees her apartment building, which is filled with fun-loving octogenarians. The somewhat sinister connections offered by Luca and those in his orbit steep Catherine in unexpected complications, while offering readers amusingly plotted twists and turns. 

 

Female protagonists whose lives comedically derail, forcing them to change, are hallmarks of Wiesner’s (The Second Chance Year) cleverly inventive romcoms. In Wish I Were Here, she builds on this foundation with great charm and wit.

 

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner

Forever, $17.99 paperback, 9781538741948, 368 pages

Publication Date: October 15, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (October 18, 2024), link HERE 

The Match

A poignant, wholesome rom-com about how an epileptic child’s search for a service dog inspires romance for her single father and an epileptic woman. 

In The Match, Sarah Adams infuses serious subject matter with poignant humor and lovable dogs sure to charm rom-com readers.

 

Cheery and optimistic, Evelyn “Evie” Grace Jones is a 26-year-old who suffers from epilepsy. She moves away from her snooty, status-conscious “Charlestonian” parents to work for Southern Service Paws, an organization that led Evie to Charlie, her beloved service dog. Evie adores her job, helping to match other people with canines who offer remarkable assistance to the disabled.

 

Samantha Broaden is a 10-year-old who also suffers from epilepsy. After her parents’ divorce--her mother leaves to pursue acting aspirations--Sam is doted on and cared for by her overprotective, self-sacrificing, single father, 33-year-old architect, Jacob. Sam loves Jacob, but he’s resistant to his daughter pursuing independence by sharing her life with a service dog.

 

When Sam sneakily lures Jacob to Southern Service Paws, he locks horns with Evie, who finds him rigid, but also romantically irresistible. As Evie searches for a loyal canine companion for Sam, Jacob comes to witness Evie’s compassion toward his daughter and her condition. When Evie ultimately finds Sam a beautiful service dog, Daisy, Jacob softens and lowers his defenses. Romance blooms with Evie. However, Jacob’s insecurity from his failed marriage and the return of his ex-wife--along with Evie’s meddling family--set up obstacles to the couple’s happiness. 

Adams’s (The Rule Book) uplifting, wholesome romantic comedy delivers positive messaging and feel-good hope.  

The Match (It Happened in Charleston, Book One) by Sarah Adams

Dell (Penguin Random House), $17.99 paperback, 9780593871713, 320 pages

Publishing Date: July 2, 2024

To order this book via Indiebound/Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (July 19, 2024), link HERE 

How to Age Disgracefully

An adventurous, madcap novel about a group of rebellious British pensioners who must fight to keep their community center ‘hangout’ open.

 

In How to Age Disgracefully, Clare Pooley delivers another off-beat comedy--with a hopeful message--that brings together a cast of quirky, raucous British pensioners whose lively antics will charm readers.

 

The story is set amidst a London-Metro community center in need of revitalization—literally and figuratively. A roof collapse kills the headmistress. Lydia, a 53-year-old wife and mother--and a once in-demand food stylist who is suffering a mid-life crisis--has been hired as the facility’s new Senior Citizens’ Social Club. However, a ceiling collapse kills one of their members during the first meeting. In addition to stepping up to establish the club, Lydia and the group also take on “Maggie Thatcher,” the “ugly-looking,” now orphaned dog of the deceased woman.

 

The small club is comprised of septuagenarians who are vastly different in backgrounds and temperaments who are in search of adventure. The group includes a former businesswoman-turned-loner with secrets; an aging actor with kleptomaniac tendencies, who’s tired of playing grumpy old men and dead bodies; a retired paparazzo; a hardcore knitting addict; and woman who is ‘pushy,’ in every sense of the word, including how she navigates her walker. Lydia learns that managing the health and safety of this less-than-sedate group--on a cash-strapped budget--is no easy task. And when the town threatens to bulldoze their hangout, the group rebels in hilarious ways—complete with help from kids at the nursery school, housed in the same facility.

 

Readers are in for great fun, traveling along with Pooley’s (The Authenticity Project, Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting) assembly of madcap characters who refuse to succumb to age—or play by the rules

 

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin, $29.00 hardcover, 352 pages, 9780593831496

Publishing Date: June 11, 2024 

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (July 5, 2024), link HERE 

Effie Olsen's Summer Special

A fun, delicious romcom about a down-on-her-luck chef who returns to her small Maine hometown and rekindles a relationship with an old friend. 

Second-chance romance, culinary culture, and a beautiful seaside setting sweetly combine in Effie Olsen’s Summer Special, a deliciously appetizing romcom by Rochelle Bilow (Ruby Spencer’s Whiskey Year).

 

Broke and without a backup plan, Effie Olsen--a single, 33-year-old, professional chef--loses her “dream job” in San Francisco. She packs up her “knife bag and a few chef’s coats” and returns, after 16-years, to her “absurdly small, insufferably chatty” hometown of Adler Isle, Maine. Effie takes refuge under the pretext of a summer visit with her father and her younger sister, a “Generation Z financial prodigy.”

 

Effie’s return reunites her with Ernie Callahan, her still-single, former high school BFF. Ernie works as a chef at “Brown Butter,” a “farm to table… Michelin-starred restaurant” operated by a sexist male head chef who offers Effie a job. With Effie and Ernie working under the same roof, the two easily fall into favor and rekindle a “bucket list” of planned field trips of watching sunsets, indulging in giant lobster rolls, and even salsa dancing.  Along the way of their making fun, new memories, a situation arises at the restaurant that calls professional integrity into question—might the dilemma impinge upon the old friends turning into lovers?

 

Bilow’s insider knowledge of the restaurant industry is a key ingredient that adds depth and authenticity to this spicy, richly satisfying story that blends the pleasures of true love with elements of self-discovery.

 

Effie Olsen’s Summer Special by Rochelle Bilow

Berkley, 18.00 paperback, 9780593547908, 384 pages

Publication Date: April 30, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (May 2, 2024), link HERE 

Pets of Park Avenue

A fun, endearing rom-com about how an estranged couples’ dog reunites them, forcing them to reconcile their feelings for each other. 

Stefanie London delivers a hearty helping of dogs and romance in her endearing second novel, Pets of Park Avenue.

Scout Myers, a 26-year-old New Yorker, works for a premiere pet social media and talent agency run by her successful best friend, Isla, the winning protagonist from the first book in the Paws in the City series, The Dachshund Wears Prada. When Scout is tasked with doing a makeover of a socially connected Bichon Frise for a photoshoot, things accidentally go awry—the dog’s cottony-white coat is suddenly transformed into hot pink. Scout, in a bind, is left no choice but to ask her ex, Lane, if she can borrow his Bichon--Twinkle Stardust, “Star”--a well-behaved near lookalike to serve as a stand-in. Lane and Scout had a whirlwind romance and marriage that flopped five years before. The two never officially divorced. What starts as a one-shot-deal to borrow “Star,” soon reunites the former lovers. Lane--a Big Tech genius who runs a multi-million-dollar company--still has a soft spot for Scout, who left him after only one month of marriage because she felt she could not measure up to him and his ideals. Lovable “Star” serves as a bridge in this smart, sexy rom-com that unravels the couples’ challenging personal pasts and explains why things soured between them. Can they make amends?

 

London’s likeable characters resonate with hidden depths as she mines their hearts to deliver a fun, revealing story that will have readers rooting wholeheartedly for love--and dogs--to conquer all.

 

Pets of Park Avenue: Paws in the City (Book 2) by Stefanie London

HQN: Original Edition, $15.99 paperback, 366 pages, 9781335498199

Publishing Date: December 6, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (January 20, 2023), link HERE

 

Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake

A flirty rom-com about a passionate young woman with ADHD who falls hard for an Australian visiting Philadelphia -- a man who suddenly upends her life...and his own.

As in her prior novel, A Brush with Love (see my review below), neurodiverse author, Mazey Eddings returns to share another lively, edgy rom-com about a young, single woman grappling with life, sex and love. In Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake, Eddings introduces readers to Philadelphian, Lizzie Blake, a woman with great intensity and passion struggling with a slew of faux pas that prohibit her from having stability in her life – be it via employment, the acceptance of her parents or beaus. Afflicted with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), down-on-her-luck, Lizzie, who prefers one-night-stands to serious relationships, succumbs to a romp with Rake, a “hot Australian” she meets at a bar, whose past romantic baggage has made him swear off relationships and hook-ups, too, for that matter. But Rake finds the passionate, sexy charm of madcap Lizzie irresistible—and vice-versa. Their one-night stand leads to two, which then leads to an unwanted pregnancy—all of which forces the impulsive couple to rethink who they are and what they really want out of life.

Eddings has professed that her “personal mission in life” is to “destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain.” In her creation of Lizzy Blake, she proves, yet again, she has the knack for capturing the true essence of marginalized characters who cleverly come into their own—with many adventures and surprises along the way. Once again, Eddings delivers a lusty, snarky, “lovers-to-friends-to-soul-mates” romantic comedy that greatly entertains while mining hot-button contemporary issues in a fun, accessible way.

 

Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake (A Brush with Love Book Two) by Mazey Eddings

St. Martin’s Griffin, $16.99 paperback, 9780778312000, 336 pages

Publication Date: September 6, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

Romance

A Brush with Love

by Mazey Eddings

Only a writer as creative and perceptive as neurodiverse author Mazey Eddings could have made a dental school in Philadelphia, Pa., the perfect place to set an edgy romantic comedy. In A Brush with Love, her first novel, she plumbs deep roots, both literally and metaphorically, exploring challenges faced by two young dental students. Their unexpected chance meeting upends their lives.

Harper is an intense person, a driven perfectionist, whose battle with a general anxiety disorder stems from the sudden loss of her parents when she was only 12. She has succeeded in being a top student at Callowhill University's School of Dental Medicine, channeling protracted sorrow by throwing herself headlong into her medical studies. As a senior near graduation--though she intends to continue studies in oral surgery--one day she falls down a flight of stairs onto a freshman named Dan, completely destroying a 3D model made for one of his courses. Dan wanted a career in finance but, faced with familial expectations, he begrudgingly enrolled in dental school. Their meet-cute collision ignites a spark that turns into a romance. Their attraction, however, brings their individual sordid pasts and emotional scars to the fore, challenging what they know about themselves, each other and the push and pull of their lusty passions.

Eddings's energetic story appears, on the surface, entertainingly frothy. However, as she focuses on her quirky characters--revealing who they truly are and why--readers will discover much deeper, thought-provoking emotional issues. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Discover: In this lusty rom-com, two dental students are tested by the truth of who they are on their road to love and self-actualization.

St. Martin's Griffin, $16.99, paperback, 336p., 9781250805980

NOTE: This review for A BRUSH WITH LOVE was featured on Shelf Awareness for Readers on Friday, March 4, 2022. To read the review as originally published link HERE.