The Wake-up Call by Beth O'Leary

Title: The Wake-up Call

Author: Beth O’Leary

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 356

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Rating: 3

It’s the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel’s front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it through.

The hotel won't stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest’s lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management that this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in the lost & found, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel—and their jobs.

As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there's more at stake here than the hotel's future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?

I have enjoyed Beth O’Leary’s previous romance books for their realistic characters with a focus on communication. I definitely had to grab this one as soon as it was released. This one is much more rom-com than romance with lots of romance tropes thrown in. We get the quintessential miscommunication trope, the forced proximity trope, and the potential new relationship threatening the inevitable romance trope. They are all mashed up in there in not an annoying way but probably an ultimately forgettable way. I just don’t think that this book will be on my end-of-year’s best list. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the journey of Lucas and Izzy.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The No-Show by Beth O'Leary

Title: The No-Show

Author: Beth O’Leary

Publisher: Berkley 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 352

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR

Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth.

These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: they’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up—Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man.

Once they've each forgiven him for standing them up, they are all in serious danger of falling in love with a man who may have not just one or two but three women on the go....

Is there more to him than meets the eye? Where was he on Valentine’s Day? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?

CW: Sexual assault (off page, but referenced) and death

Ooof… this one left a bad taste in my mouth. I thought that maybe we would get a whole First Wives Club vibe from the summary while the three women all find their happy endings, but maybe not with the guy they thought. As I started reading, I immediately know that there was a couple of big somethings that O’Leary wasn’t telling the reader. Once things started to be unraveled, I really disliked the book. Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane all deserved better than Joseph Carter. One eventually gets better, but only one. Somehow we get to the end of the book and the entire thing became about the redemption of a white man. I just couldn’t believe that was where the book went. And we’re all still supposed to think that Joseph is a catch. I was yelling at all the ladies to get away and someone who can actually give back instead of take. I did not like. I may just have to resist O’Leary’s newest book when it releases. I just don’t think her style of contemporary romance is for me.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

Title: The Road Trip

Author: Beth O’Leary

Publisher: Berkley 2021

Genre: Romance

Pages: 398

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

What if the end of the road is just the beginning?

Four years ago, Dylan and Addie fell in love under the Provence sun. Wealthy Oxford student Dylan was staying at his friend Cherry’s enormous French villa; wild child Addie was spending her summer as the on-site caretaker. Two years ago, their relationship officially ended. They haven’t spoken since.

Today, Dylan’s and Addie’s lives collide again. It’s the day before Cherry’s wedding, and Addie and Dylan crash cars at the start of the journey there. The car Dylan was driving is wrecked, and the wedding is in rural Scotland—he’ll never get there on time by public transport.

So, along with Dylan’s best friend, Addie’s sister, and a random guy on Facebook who needed a ride, they squeeze into a space-challenged Mini and set off across Britain. Cramped into the same space, Dylan and Addie are forced to confront the choices they made that tore them apart—and ask themselves whether that final decision was the right one after all.

I just read The Flatshare for book club and was expecting more of the same. This book is less fun and light romance and more serious relationship drama. But I found that I really did like it. We get a great forced proximity trope to explore the past and potential future relationship between Addie and Dylan. We get a much more nuanced look at romantic relationships. I can definitely see how O’Leary has grown as a writer since The Flatshare. Addie and Dylan are much more realistic characters. Tiffy and Leon were a bit 2-dimensional. This book was much more relatable. While I really enjoyed the story between Addie and Dylan, I loved seeing the other relationships in the book even more. Addie and Deb have an amazing sister bond and I loved seeing them support each other unconditionally. And I loved seeing how Marcus changed and grew throughout the timeline. This book isn’t going to be on my Top 10 list probably, but I really did enjoy this one.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

Title: The Flatshare

Author: Beth O’Leary

Publisher: Flatiron Books 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 336

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.

After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.

Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.

Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.

But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you've never met.

CW: Domestic abuse

My book club has had a string of not great and/or heavy books. We wanted to pick something a little lighter and fun and decided on this one. Overall, I really enjoyed this rom com in the vein of Jill Mansell’s novels or Bridget Jones’s Diary. We get one great in-person meet-cute, fun side character friends, a big conflict, and some sweet romance. I enjoyed Tiffy and the exploration of her life post-emotional abuse. I thought that portion of the story and character was well done. Her new romance with Leon isn’t an instanteous fix to her past trauma. Instead we get to follow along with her as she confronts her past (and present) and attempts to move forward. Yeah! Insta-love this is not. I loved seeing Tiffy turn to her friends for advice and comfort. And ultimately, I loved watching her and Leon develop a friendship and then something more. After reading this one, I’m more interested in reading O’Leary’s two other novels: The Switch and The Road Trip.

Next up on the TBR pile: