Booked on a Feeling

On the surface, this book is everything that I love in a romance novel. We have a bookish theme, characters burnt out from their careers who need a new path, and the friends-to-lovers tropes. Those story pieces do play well together and have played well together in the past. However, this book was missing one fundamental piece to tie everything together: a plot.

Before jumping into the nitty-gritty, I want to start with what did work in this book. The Korean and Korean American culture that seeped through the pages was amazing to see. Not only did the descriptions of food make me want to locate a local Korean restaurant in my area, but the descriptions of the food made it easy to imagine in my mind. (Although, I do draw the line at the three-sentence description about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.) If you read this novel, be warned: it will make you hungry.

Unfortunately, the food descriptions were the only strength the writing had. This novel heavily relied on telling, not showing, which provided a choppy story flow. I found myself craving setting descriptions, more figurative language, and less on-the-nose adjectives/adverbs to describe emotional states. That was the writing style aspect I struggled with the most. When I read a novel, I want to be able to feel what the character is feeling, and that best comes through inference on a character’s emotional state. But you can’t have that inference when the novel is reading as “Lizzy felt anxious.” I wanted to see Lizzy’s palms getting sweaty, her heart fluttering in her chest, her stomach feeling as if it’s crawling up the back of her throat. Those descriptions make a reader feel something, and that was the spark this story needed to add depth to the descriptions.

Compounding the lack of descriptions was, frankly, the lack of plot. By the 23% mark, this was all that had happened:

- Lizzy won a trial.
- Lizzy took a leave from absence from work, went to her BFF's (Jack) hometown.
- Lizzy and Jack had developed mutual (but unspoken) crushes on each other.

Normally, that would have been fine if there were multiple sub-plots running beneath the surface. However, there weren’t true sub-plots in this novel (or prolonged conflict, for that matter). All I can tell you is that the plot consisted of Jack and Lizzy mutually pining for each other, Lizzy rebuilding a bookstore (which only lasted from 25-75%, approximately), a third act breakup happened (over a brief, and their first, argument as a couple), and a resolution. Again, on paper, it looks like a plot; but, with the amount of meandering, brief conflicts, and lack of engagement from the characters, there wasn’t much plot working on the page.

A further issue was the lack of characterization and development. This was unsurprising to find, as there weren’t many conflicts for the characters to grow from. If characters aren’t engaging with conflict, aren’t pursuing goals, aren’t actively changing, they then have no agency. And no agency in characters makes for a boring story. I would argue that this story was flirting with the characters having no agency. While both Jack and Lizzy had personal goals (of discovering what they want to do with their lives, where they belong, etc.), there wasn’t a greater goal or conflict putting pressure on the characters to cause change. I just wanted more engagement between the characters and the plot to add that tension and growth that make a romance novel shine.

Lastly, the anxiety representation wasn’t well done. Early on, Lizzy describes herself as being anxious and has a panic attack that causes her to faint in the court room. But when she leaves LA to travel to Weldon, she stops taking her anxiety medicine and has “no anxiety at all.” As someone who has generalized anxiety disorder, I can absolutely say that is not how it works. I would love for my anxiety to simply shut off depending on my location or situation, but that’s not how it works. Anxiety isn’t a condition that just comes and goes; it’s something that you learn to manage overtime. It felt like anxiety was a convenient character trait and not something that Lizzy, or the story, truly cared to grapple with.

Overall, this book failed to execute and tie together known tropes in a new, original way. There were many execution issues that were not only distracting but weakened many aspects of this novel. As I’m walking away from this novel, I can’t help but think how much more this could have offered to the reader.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed reading this best friends to lovers romance. Lizzy and Jack have the cutest and most genuine friendship. Their mutual pining and yearning led to a swoon-worthy romance.

Lizzie is a lawyer in LA who is burnt out and has been pushing herself too hard to win her mother’s approval. Jack is her childhood friend who does a lot more than just accounting at his family’s brewery, but doesn’t seem to give himself enough credit or feel satisfied in his job. After a panic attack during a trial, Lizzy finally decides to take some time off, and what better place to unwind than in her best friend’s hometown of Weldon.

I liked that this book had a good mix of inner dialogue and actual communication between our main characters. Even though this book is about their romance, I appreciated the way the author explored anxiety, self-doubt, job dissatisfaction, and the importance of focusing on one’s own needs.

Reading Lizzy and Jack’s relationship go from friends to lovers was so heartwarming. They have always supported and trusted each other, and navigating being more than friends was a mixture of both funny and really sweet moments. I just love them so much!

Wow, this one really didn't work for me. I found the writing style here very immature, and I found the storyline stilted and awkward, and unfortunately, with nothing that held my attention. The characters are unrealistic and the story is painfully cringey.

eARC kindly provided by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. Opinions shared are my own.

Childhood friends to lovers? Say no more… except I will. Lizzy is on her way to become partner in a successful law firm. Jack feels stuck in the family business and is desperate for a change. When Lizzy shows up in town Jack has to decide what to do with a 20-year long crush on his best friend. What mess will the inevitably make of their friendship? Let’s find out!

Read if you like: friends to lovers, second chance, following your dreams, falling in love in a bookstore, the guy falls first, clueless yet driven leading lady.

Lizzy’s life is going according to plan. She’s on track to live the dream her family has helped build for her, but something is off. So, she turns to her most reliable source of comfort, her best friend Jack. Jack has been in the same town for what feels like his whole life. He’s been vital in launching his family’s brewery and putting them on the map. But now, he’s an unessential part of the team and he needs a change. Just as he’s contemplating his next step his best friend and long-time crush shows up for an extended vacation. The next 3 weeks will change everything.
Good thing the local bookstore needs remodeling and our duo both need to be productive to feel fulfilled.

I really wanted to love Booked on a Feeling. But I’m just in like with it. The second half of the book was better than the first so it ended on a high note but, unfortunately, a lot the writing fell flat.

The first half felt a little perfunctory. Phrases were repeated too often. Basic side characters were plugged in for plot. And our leading duo’s personalities didn’t shine through. Heck, we have a friends-to-lovers plot and NOT A SINGLE CHARACTER commented on their chemistry until they were at least realizing there was a page for them both to be on… and that was over halfway through the book. And there were ample opportunities: friends, family members, and even a random dude in a park… nothing. Where’s the lead up? There was none. It’s just Lizzy and Jack against the plot.

The way it felt to me was the plot from 60% to the end was what she knew wanted to write but then had to figure out how to get to that point in the story. The beginning was a bit bland to be honest. I was gearing up for a total Halmark-esque no spice, maybe some steam, romance until about 30-40% through and Jack finally felt alive on the page and made me think otherwise. I’m giving it a 2 on the 5-point pepper scale. It probably has too much spice for the non-spicy folks, but spicy folks will scoff at the setup and fade to black. Basically, you get spice prologue and spice epilogue but no spicy chapters.

However, after 60%, there were times I was laughing out loud and I never stopped rooting for our duo. It just seemed that everything else was basic. Family. Basic. Background. Basic. Actually, I never did understand how these two met. Was it a prep school? Their families knew each other, but other than that it was very unclear. I did appreciate Jack; he maintained a great mindset through the whole story when he’d been pining for so long. Poor clueless Lizzy.

I liked this book - it took me a while to get through the beginning but then the story took off and I really enjoyed it!

I didn’t like this book much, so I’m just going to break it down into pros and cons:

Pros:
1) all the food sounded amazing
2) bookstores are cute
3) Asian romance representation!

Cons:
1) all the tension felt very overblown and contrived to me, even for a romance book.
2) the sex scene in this book felt very rushed and unsexy
3) there were several moments of weird critical body and food talk that felt unnecessary and out of place. I would not recommend this book for people with body image self consciousness or bad relationships with food.
4) Jack’s “I’ve loved you for 20 years” storyline and his obsession with being in the “friend zone” came off kind of creepy to me?
5) I’m job hunting, and Jack’s job hunt plus Lizzy’s dissatisfaction with being a lawyer (my field) just made me stressed the whole book.

I was so glad to read this book by an Asian American author, and see two Korean romantic leads. However, despite centering around bookshops (my favorite things) this book just did not land for me. When I finished it, my first reaction was “That was the most hetero thing I’ve ever read,” if that tells you anything. (No hate to straight romance novels more generally, which, as a woman interested in men, I read and like all the time.) I’m sure it will work for some romance readers, but it felt very cringey to me the entire time I was reading.

Booked on a Feeling is Jayci Lee’s newest romantic comedy. Lizzy Chung is a 30-year-old overachieving lawyer who is conflict-averse and has serious anxiety issues. She is five years into her seven-year partner-track at a Los Angeles law firm and is serving as the Lead Counsel in a trial for the first time. After having an anxiety attack while delivering her Opening Statement, Lizzy questions if she is really cut out to be an attorney. She decides to take three weeks off and visit her hometown and lifelong best friend, Jack Park, to decide what she wants out of life.

Jack Park is a 30-year-old mathematician who works as a bookkeeper at his family’s microbrewery in small-town Weldon, California. He has been secretly in love with Lizzy since they were 10 years old and is plotting to move to LA to be closer to Lizzy. When Lizzy decides that the Weldon bookstore needs a little revamp, Jack helps her bring it back to life. They finally both admit that they have romantic feelings for each other.

I did not enjoy this book because I didn’t find any humor in it. Neither Lizzy nor Jack acted like 30-year-olds; their thoughts and behaviors were more like teen-agers. Lizzy’s anxiety issues were mentioned often, so this story was more realistic fiction than comedy. If Lizzy was ill-suited as a trial attorney, there were other types of law that she could practice instead of leaving law altogether. Financially it didn’t make sense for her to buy a bookstore in LA.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This one was a fun, adorable, and at times frustrating read! I did not realize it is the third in a series, but looking at the description of the other two books, I don’t believe you need to have read them first. We have Lizzy who is Asian, which was a nice change as we get to see a small side of Asian culture and families.

Lizzy has just won her first big court case, and to celebrate she takes three weeks off! A lawyer taking off 3 weeks?!?! That just doesn’t happen. But it was needed because Lizzy passed out due to a panic attack in front of the jury….

Lizzy returns to her hometown to relax and meets up with her lifelong friend Jack. And Jack has been in love with Lizzy for 20+ years, yet she doesn’t know it. She sees Jack as her life-long best friend. While on ‘vacation’ Lizzy decides to help out the owner of the local bookstore and try to revitalize it. Jack also decides to help as it lets him spend more time with Lizzy. But can friends become lovers and not lose what they have had for their whole lives?

We also have both Lizzy and Jack having to discover what they want for themselves in their selective careers, which they actually keep from each other. And being part of an Asian family can complicate things with parental expectations, which we see over the course of the novel in several ways.

Booked on a Feeling surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. Jack was so adorable with his feelings for Lizzy and what he should do. His internal dialogue shows how much he truly loves her, but afraid to share his feelings because he doesn’t want to lose her. And then her internal dialogue! It just became frustrated because I just wanted them to hurry up and get together. And there is some really good sex in this one too!

If you enjoy the friends to lovers trope with family complications thrown in you should enjoy this one. If you love books and bookstores, (and what reader doesn’t?) you must read this one! Close to the end it becomes a sort of Gift to the Magi type story and I was hoping we get to see Lizzy and Jack finally get together!

Cindy Kay also did a great job with her narration!

I really enjoyed this one and I find myself wanting to check out the first two novels in this series! Many thanks the publisher Dreamscape Media for granting me a copy to listen to and review.

Unfortunately this did not work for me. I DNF'd at 28%. The premise of this book was cute -- a young, female lawyer realizes that her job isn't satisfying and she takes a break to explore her interests. There is a friends to lovers element as well. However, at 28% of the way in, nothing had really happened and the writing is tedious and disjointed for me. The chapters are long with a break in the middle where it switches from female to male perspective. I would have rather had those be different chapters instead of both parts in 1 chapter.

I wanted to like this because books, high achieving MC, strong own voices/multicultural rep. It just didn't do it for me, and life is too short. Maybe it will work for someone else!

This book dragged and it caused me to stop reading. DNF 1.5 stars