really liked it

Willow is the first in a new series that focuses on a group of friends. In this first book, we meet them and learn about that dinner club that they have set up. Willow is the one behind the club and it's her story that we begin with.
This is a fun, opposites attract story. When we first meet Willow, she's still suffering from the hurt that her ex-boyfriend West caused her. She hasn't had a relationship since, even though she is over him. She certainly doesn't think that owner of the cafe she and her friends are holding the dinner club at is for her. The more time that she spends with him though, the more that she begins to understand that perhaps this man who is the complete opposite of what she wanted, is actually for her.
This is a fun romance that doesn't really take itself too seriously. I really enjoyed it and enjoyed the growing relationship between Willow and Thomas. While Willow might not have been convinced that he was the one for her, it was obvious to us that they were perfect for one another.
I think that Willow's twin sister will be the next to get a story. I'm looking forward to finding out what is in store for her.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Willow by Grace Parks is a contemporary romance and the first book in The Pepper Lane Club romance series. It features Willow Lawson, a social media expert, who helps companies improve or set up websites and their social media sites. Willow suggests to her twin sister, Riley that they start a dinner club. They plan to have it at the Pepper Lane Café. The restaurant has no web or social media presence and Willow is determined to meet owner Thomas Greer and convince him to be her client.

While she has an outgoing personality and goes to a lot of events, her circle of friends is small. She’s a people pleaser, acts confident, but isn’t, hates her boss, and is messy in her personal life and her work desk; but she’s great at her job. Thomas is unsociable, doesn’t like social media, serious, and doesn’t want her help. However, the reader doesn’t get to see enough of Thomas’ life to get to know him well. The other five women in the dinner club are introduced, but didn’t have a lot of depth. Their characters will likely be fleshed out in later books in the series.

The story line is straight-forward without a lot of twists. However, besides romance, themes include friendship, sisterhood, interoffice politics, betrayal, and family. Truman, Willow’s dog, provided some adorable moments. The one major problem I had was that Willow was an hour late to her first meeting with Thomas. This was so unprofessional that it grated on me.

Overall, this novel is light, funny, and entertaining. It’s a good start to the series and I look forward to seeing what happens to each of the other five women in the dinner club.

Author Collective 20 and Grace Parks provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date was April 19, 2019.

This book is an amazing start to The Pepper Lane Club series! Willow is a social media guru and has met her match in Thomas, the owner of Pepper Lane, where the girls have their monthly dinner club meetings. Thomas has no social media presence whatsoever and Willow makes it her mission (and job) to change that. Somehow along the way Thomas changes in Willow’s eyes causing her to question everything she thought she had figured out especially when an old flame comes back to town.

I read this book in a day! It reads so quickly and easily that you feel like you are part of the dinner club and completely invested in their lives. I can’t wait to read the remaining books in the series.

Thank you @netgalley and publishers for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you #Netgalley fo the read.

The is the first book in the Pepper Lane Club series, and I can't wait to get my hands on the next books. This book follows Willow a social media content creator, a twin, a girl looking for building up her friend group. Willow decides on a whim to start a monthly meet up with her sister, a few coworkers and friends. Her sister Riely suggested the Pepper Lane Cafe. The girls instantly loved the spot and Willow felt the need to build up their customers and get the name out for this amazing spot. Though the owner, Thomas, does not agree. The book follows Willow during her professional career and romantic feelings for Thomas.

So, I gave this book three stars because the writing is decent. There were grammatical and structural errors, missing words, that would take you out of book for a moment, but nothing that would make you yell at the author. I'm going to give you all the reason I took two stars off and then finish it with some redemption. There will more than likely be spoilers, so be aware as you read this. My main problem was with the main character, but I will get to that last. Okay! Let's start with the Pepper Lane Club. There are 5 members, and I can't really tell you much about four of the ladies other than their occupations. In fact, if the author hadn't almost always mentioned what type of job 3 of the characters had, you couldn't really tell them apart. They are old, young, short, tall. The same with male characters. I know that the Ex is Brad Pitt like. The new love possibility is tall compared to Willow's short. But that could mean anything. I didn't even know that Thomas wore glasses until the last few pages (though I'm not sure that matters). I just would have liked a few more details about each character. Aria is the only one that sort of stood out because of her wild hair, but again that could mean several things as well. Now, for Willow: I read one of the reviews about how they couldn't read the whole book because they despised the character of Willow. I agree with about 95% of that statement. I don't think I've ever actually rooted against our lead character for things to fail or go wrong for her. There are way too many things that annoyed me as much as they should have annoyed Thomas (which they did until her started trying to change himself to fit into Willow's mold) to list here. I guess you might chalk it up to generation gaps. Though I'm not crazy older than the character of Willow, I was hoping she would have a little more substance. Though she had until 35 to grow up according to Willow. I think in the end the author was trying to make you see Willow’s revelations as a redemption point. The problem I have with that is that Willow was so dislikable without really any reason on the other side that it was hard to like her even with her transformation (don’t hold your breath because it wasn’t earth shattering). Maybe if Thomas could have balanced her out a little more, then she would have been a likable redemption in my opinion. Again, this maybe a perfectly fine book for some. I just couldn’t get past Willow’s personality even in the end.

This was a great book. I thought it was a sweet story. This being the first book in the series we meet 6 woman with very different personalities and lives. This books main character is willow. She is a social media specialist. She seems very busy but in fact is kind of bored. She calls her twin sister, a writer, and next thing you know we have the Pepper Lane Club. Willow has more going on then you think and soon I found myself thinking she is in over her head. She then surprised me with how she turned things around. I think anyone looking for a good easy read will enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed this book.
I started it this afternoon and found myself mesmerised and could not put it down.
Willow is a young Bridget Jones a character that you just can’t help but love.
Funny and romantic and a club with your best friends.

Willow is a sweet, romantic novel. It will appeal to lover's of romantic series, and those who enjoy light, fun reads.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

This was my first book written by Grace Parks and the first in her Pepper Lane series. Willow is the story of Willow (a social media expert) and Thomas the owner of the Pepper Lane Cafe who is resistant to embracing technology. After Willow starts the Pepper Lane Club and meets Thomas she offers her assistance to expand his business/marketing. With ex-boyfriends causing drama, a weird boss and a loveable group of dinner club girls this was an interesting read.

Things I liked:
- The idea of the Pepper Lane club as a dinner club is brilliant. A little different to the regular book club storylines etc. This was really the highlight if the book and was well written.
- The characters were all different and really seemed to complement one another.
- Book as a whole was quite well written and interesting.
- Its the start of a series but all books seem to have been released!!!! More reading!!!

Things I didn't like:
- not a lot of character development which was disappointing with the primary and secondary characters.
- Not a huge fan of the 1st person account as I really like both perspectives.
- Didn't really seem like a romance novel more of a young adult fiction/ adult womens fiction.
- Very clean and the most adult thing to happen was a hell of a lot of alcohol and some kissing. My preference is for something a little steamier.
- The whole thing with Willow's boss was plain weird and not realistic at all.
- I don't feel we really got to know Thomas at all.

Looking forward to reading the next in the series!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Willow is twenty five and recently broke up with her boyfriend. She and her sister and several friends get together once a month at a small Cafe near home. She meets the only who is very old school. Willow works with social media to help businesses. She decides she's up for her new challenge. She decides to help the owner of the cafe who is not interested in social media. I liked this book and can't wait to read the next book in the series.

This is a cute little romcom about a young woman who prides herself on her job and loves shopping and teasing her twin sister. When she and her sister decide to start a dinner club, Willow winds up deciding to make social media for the restaurant, because she loved the place so much. Only, the owner isn’t too interested.

I didn’t care too much for Willow as a character personally, finding her too annoying and too childish for someone in her 20s/30s. YMMV, though.

Thanks to Netgalley, IMAG Social Media and Authors Collective for allowing me the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. The friendship of all the girls was something I really enjoyed. A very diverse group who allowed that diversity to bond them together. Willows’ family is also a wonderful part of the book. They have a closeness that many of us want in real life. As for Willow and Thomas...a happy love story. To realize that it is your differences that bring you together and make you a fabulous couple is exactly what they did. There were many laughs throughout also. This was an all around enjoyable book!!

It sounds like fun. There's a reason book clubs are popular.

Why is Aria stirring up trouble?

I still wear a watch.

West was a twat.

What on earth is wrong with Willow? She claims to be successful at her job, yet is a slob at work and home. Seriously, how can she live in a house that stinks? (More than one person points this out to her and she still doesn't clean??) How can she be successful when she disregards time-coming as much as an hour late for appointments-is a mystery to me. And the ultimate confusion for this reader, how can she be maudlin when the businesses she was hired to help achieve success?

So to sum up the main character, she is rude, slovenly, and has questionable judgement. She does, however, adopt a very sweet and smart dog. But then she fails to discipline him and allows him to be the sole occupant of her new couch! Not someone I would want for a friend! What makes up for it somewhat are the other characters. The majority are interesting, positive people.

The other characters and the dog boosted the book from three stars to four stars.

This is not a series I am interested in finishing. I do appreciate Author Collective 20 and Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read the first book of the series and let me give my honest review.

I got this as a widget via netgalley, and it looked right up my street so downloaded it and definitely wasn't disappointed.
It was quite a short book - less than 200 pages, and was the perfect easy to read book to read while soaking up the sun in the garden.
There are several books in this series, and the first book is about Willow who is part of a group of ladies who meet for dinner once a month - I have already looked up the other books and the second one is called Riley, who happens to be Willows twin sister.
Great book but the ending of the book was so abrupt and i definitely felt it could have played out a bit longer.

This is a rom-com, this is the story of Willow and the first in the series. The story is funny, sweet with a bit of romance, this is the first book by the author I read and the blurb caught me, however, it felt a bit flat on some character development, and during some situations, I even felt it ab it more like YA than NA. Overall it was entertaining.

It was a very short, cute, funny and charming book. I loved that fake dating trope, it's my favourite trope. I basically flew through the book in one afternoon. I loved the easy friendship between the girls. It was the perfect introduction of the series for the girls. I lived all the characters and can't wait to read all about them and how their lives unfold.

Willow and Thomas are opposites but as they say Opposite attracts. It proves true again. They are very cute together.

Just a lovely RomCom, easy read with loveable characters. Although very predictable and not too deep, a perfect light and fun read!

Willow and Thomas are complete opposites. I really enjoyed reading their story as each of them grew and changed. This is a page-turner. Didn't want to put the book down, just wanted to see what happened next. Definitely recommend to all!

After starting a lunch club with her twin sister, Willow meets an obnoxious Thomas, the cafe owner and tries to convince him to let her put the cafe on Facebook. He is adamant he isn't interested. Does she convince him and is he really that obnoxious?

This is a romance that if fast paced, but a little run of the mill, and not really believable.

The characters are well rounded and relatable however.