BOOKED ON A FEELING by Jayci Lee

And feeling all the feels

I absolutely a d o r e d Booked on a Feeling 😫😫. The first 90% of the story is just so 🤌🤌 Jayci Lee does such a great job weaving a friends-to-lovers storyline around one of my favorite things--a book store!! This is the third book of A Sweet Mess series, and although the first two books have been on my TBR forever 😫, this can definitely be read as a standalone. There were def some nods to the previous couples though, so I'm excited to go back and read them and see the storylines intersect hehe. My only issue is that I feel like the whole Third Act Conflict was so contrived and anyone could see the proper solution from a mile away, but at least it wasn't dragged out for very long. However, this is definitely one of the cutest contemporary romances I can't wait to come out this year!!

Lizzy (who's fav book happens to be Pride & Prejudice hehe 👀) finally gets to lead a trial--a major step of her lifelong goal of making partner at her law firm. But after she passes out in a panic attack, she begins to realize she's super unfulfilled with her life. And what better way to figure out what she really wants then visiting her bestie of over 20 years in his small town!

On the other hand, Jack feels like he's not really doing anything important in the brewery business he runs with his siblings. He also has been in love with Lizzy for two decades 😶. To achieve his business dreams, he begins recruiting for a consulting company called McBain (every time ii read this I cackle HAHAHA) which is conveniently located in LA, the same city as Lizzy hehe.

Lizzy and Jack hang out together for three weeks in his small town, hanging out with the fam, jogging around to see all the sites, and of course--helping out the ailing indie bookstore that Lizzy is temporarily living above. Through sweaty days building furniture or going on local adventures, can Jack get Lizzy to finally fall in love with him, or do they have to walk away forever repressing their feelings 😫?

His beautiful Lizzy. He drank in the sight of her, happiness curling his toes--but in a very platonic, friendly kind of way.*

Oh the relationship development in this book 😫😫😫 How I love a good old denial of feelings. What absolutely gets me in books is when characters are like "ugh why am i feeling this 🤮🤮 must get away" but also absolutely CANNOT resist their partner 🤩. This book is so filled with the 'i don't want to ruin our friendship but I'm so in love with you' angst. and I AM HERE FOR IT. The inner dialogues of both characters is just soooooo cute. Whenever Jack is watching Lizzy do the most mundane things and then obsessing over how adorable she is but then is like 'no you're supposed to be getting over her you dingus' 🙈🙈. Or whenever Lizzy is like 'muscles? OH MUSCLES! Wait no objectively only ofc' 😫

The chemistry between is S I Z Z L I N G, and they are soooo adorable together. I actually really love how committed Lizzy is to exploring this new ~thing between them even though SHE wasn't the one pining over the other for 20 years 👀. Oh Lizzy, how I totally get you and your thing for seeing Jack with tools 🥵🥵. Ahhh competence is so sexy, and together, Lizzy and Jack are just 🔥. The sexual tension between the two is so palpable, and watching it build up and finally ~crescendo 🥵. HOWEVER, this is a fade-to-black romance so be wary of that 😜.

Too. Many. Muscles. Lizzy didn't have a handyman fetish. She had a Jack fetish. There. She'd said it. Admitting the problem was half the solution.*

In terms of plot, I was able to predict the exact storyline and final resolution within the first two chapters, which is not necessarily bad in romance. In fact, I like it when I'm able to predict the plotwise events so I can focus on the relationship side 🤩. Oh however, HOWEVER, the plot diverged a bit within the last 10% of the book, taking what I feel like is quite an unnecessary turn to exaggerate the Third Act Conflict. As Lizzy says, "It was so obvious. The answer had been waving its hands in front of her face, shouting hellllo."

Certain things seemed very illogical when a quite simple solution to ALL their problems was presented withing the first few pages of the book. I hate miscommunication as a trope, and it just seemed so dumb in this context. The choices they made and the way they treated each other seemed quite a bit out-of-character. At that point, nothing was really concrete yet, and I don't get why certain characters insisted on taking the path that would not lead them to where they wanted to go?? But thank god this didn't last very long at all. Once they got their heads screwed on straight, and pulled back to the optimal resolution, we were able to reach that HEA 😍😍.

So as a result, while for the most part the characters are super likeable and relatable, Certain moments made me really annoyed at them. Argh. Starting with Jack, I am definitely just a little bit in love with him 😫. He's so competent and sexy and HIS FEELINGS FOR LIZZY 😫. Not to mention, we also talk weird in the same way, dropping in those old english-timey words into normal situations. But his insecurity issues and his constant fear of losing Lizzy often manifested in pushing her away from him. While this is a common Romance Thing, I feel like it went on a ~tad longer than necessary. When everything he's ever dreamed of is dropped into his lap, I understand the initial trepidation, but towards the end, his hesitance was getting a bit annoying.

In contrast, I l o v e d how Lizzy called Jack out on his reservations. Cannonball. hehehe. But as I was saying, her quite illogical choices at the end of the book made me feel sooo exasperated at her. Like Girl! What are you doing!! You are clearly looking at the wrong aspects of your life as the root of your unhappiness or happiness!!! I'm glad it only takes her 15 days to realize what a fool she was, but come on honey, it was soo soo obvious. I suppose as a person and not as a character on a page, it's a lot harder to extract yourself and see the Perfect Solution immediately, but for a romance book, I appreciate some slight tension to push plot, but I feel like this could have been avoided. However, I did appreciate how this afforded her the chance to truly sort out her thoughts and realize what she wanted in life, which Jack also realized as well. Oh how we love finding yourself and emotional maturity 🤩🤩.

Overall, I loved this book sooo soooo much. The last 10% did detract a ~little bit from me, but my love of bookstores and angst will always overcome some major character missteps in name of Romance 🤩. Definitely pick this book up if you love friends-to-lovers or want to read a wholesome bookstore romance hehe.

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Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ratings:

⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 overall

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