Note: I received an advanced copy of this audiobook and these are my thoughts.

Publication Date: Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Blurb

Eliza Catalano has the perfect life. So what if it actually looks nothing like the story she tells online? As a therapist, it’s part of her job to look like she has all the answers, right? But when Eliza ends up as a viral “Worst Date Ever” meme, everything in her Instagram-filtered world begins to crumble.

Enter the most obnoxiously attractive man she’s ever met, and a bet she can’t resist: if she swears off social media for six months, Beck Carter’ll teach her the wonders of surviving the “real world.” No technology, no dating apps, no pretty filters, no BS.

It seems like the perfect deal―she can lay low until her sudden infamy passes, meet some interesting new people, and maybe even curate this experience into a how I quit the online dating racket book along the way. But something about Beck’s raw honesty speaks to Eliza in ways she never expected. She knows he’s supposed to be completely hands-off…but as complex feelings grow and walls come tumbling down, rough-around-the-edges Beck may be exactly what Eliza needs to finally, truly face herself―and decide who she really wants to be.

Review

This was one of my highly anticipated reads of summer! I ended up buying books 1 and 2 from this series from Barnes & Noble as birthday gifts for myself, and some of my favorite bookstagrammers have been raving about this series. I was lucky to get an ALC from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, and enjoyed listening to this one immensely.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m a sucker for enemies-to-lovers, and this one started off sort of like that. From the beginning, Beckham and Eliza barely get along, and there’s some underlying tension from both characters because they don’t really want to be seen (or they do, but for who they present to the world). Beckham has experienced a lifetime of drama in his early years, and he’d be more than happy to stay in the shadows for the rest of his life. Eliza, on the other hand, needs someone to see her, deeply and fully, after the passing of her parents a few years ago. She struggles because she helps others be authentically themselves, but she struggles to do just that. This story quickly becomes a friends-to-lovers story, where a relationship of convenience blossoms from a beautiful friendship of late nights, meals, wacky animals, and honest conversations, which slowly transforms into something more.

Roni Loren is a beautiful writer and she crafts stories around complex characters with depth who also need to grow, which is a lot like real life. There are times in the story where you as the reader can deeply relate to the story being told – whether that’s by secondhand embarrassment, laughing about something silly, crying about something traumatic, or feeling all the things about a kind gesture from a friend.

In terms of the audio for this book, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I would have just read the story. I still give the overall book, narration, and experience four stars, but at times I felt that the narration pulled me out of the story instead of dragging me in and helping me feel connected. The storytelling involving Beckham was particularly challenging. He’s a younger hero, and the delivery of his lines just made him feel more immature. There were also some awkward pauses, delayed moments, or rushed sentences, and I noticed all of them. I would give the audio of this book three stars. With that being said, I’m still going to go back and read all the stories together again one day in the future. I am not ready to leave behind this friend group who is inspiring and real with each other, accepting and vulnerable, and so incredibly special.

Rating: Book – 4 Stars, Narration – 3 Stars