First book of the year and even more exciting - one of my first galleys that I get to review before it is published!!

Shout out to author @cathyyardley with whom I interacted with on twitter and sent this to me via @netgalley.

Gouda Friends is out March 22!!

A romance where the leading lady is obsessed with cheese?! I mean hello. RIGHT up my alley.

The first week after the holidays is always tough and truly this book was exactly what I needed. It was so cute. Lots of cheese puns. Friends to lovers. Characters who have history but are reconnecting and still very much figuring themselves out. And also an earnestness that was just very sweet.

I’m excited to read more by @cathyyardley and for y’all to read this when it is out in the spring! Add to your preorder and library lists now!

#scottonreads #bookstagram #goodreads #romance #romancebooks

A sexy, fun, heartwarming read that is hard to put down.

I read this book in 2 days! Gouda Friends is about 2 friends, Josh and Tam, who have known each other since high school but have lost touch over the last few years. After Tam leaves her cheating boyfriend she reaches out to the one person she knows will help. Josh and Tam are soon able to rebuild their close friendship, help Tam figure out what she wants from life and fall into a steamy romance along the way.

Gouda friends is well written and easy to read with enough detail to stop the reader from finding the book predictable.

Tam and Josh have been best friends since high school - even through relationships with other people and the ups and downs of life - their friendship has endured. When the story starts Tam is having a VERY bad day. - at the end of that day she calls in her emergency word and Josh comes to the rescue with a plane ticket home and support through her crisis.

When Tam gets back to her hometown - she realizes just how much her ex has isolated her from her group of close friends and her best friend Josh. While staying with Josh - their relationship grows and changes in ways they've never allowed it to before. Where they go with it really depends on what Tam decides to do with her life going forward.

This story shows that sometimes going home again is really the right choice - that those old friends will always be there for you - even if you've been absent for awhile. I loved the growth Tam and Josh showed with each other and individually. They showed that truly the best foundation for a lasting relationship is love.

Overall this is a very sweet and sexy read - and if you love cheese, you'll have a hard time not hitting the grocery store later for a cheese board.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author and the Publisher with providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was having a run of bad luck with reading prior to picking up this book, and so it was a relief to find that I loved this book! The story is a sweet, wholesome romance that executes the friends to lovers trope perfectly. The characters were three-dimensional and I loved that none of them took themselves too seriously. Although some serious topics were covered, the way the author wrote about them was comical without minimising the seriousness of these topics.

There were some laugh out loud moments, as well as some steamy parts (nothing too gratuitous though) and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

When Tam Doan finds her boyfriend in bed with his ex — and that he threw out her prize cheese — she calls her best friend Josh O’Malley to help pull her life back together. But figuring out what she wants for her future might involved her middle school best friend more than she realizes.

This book is a fun friends-to-lovers jaunt that kept me entertained and smiling throughout, even if some of the pacing felt off in parts. The banter between Josh and Tam was so cute and my only real knock on the dialogue was that Tam called her twin “bro” a couple of times. It feels silly to complain about because obviously he’s her brother — it just felt stilted to me, like the author felt we needed reminded who he was.

Overall, the stakes were low but I will definitely be going back to read the first book in this series and probably any others moving forward!

An adorable novel about figuring out who you are with the support of your friends.

Cheese was last straw, but it was the most important. After Tam's boyfriend threw away her gourmet (and favorite) cheese, Tam has had it. She's overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, and being cheated on by her boyfriend who doesn't seem to understand her at all. Tam turns to the one person who has always been there for her, uproots her life from NY to CA and goes on a journey to discover who she is and what she really wants out of this world. I loved the sloppy romance and the process Tam takes to figure out which job is right for her.

5/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was gouda but I wanted more.

This friend-to-lovers story begins with Tam finding her boyfriend plowing his ex in their bed. *Insert cringe emoji* What does she do? She goes for the expensive cheese she recently bought only to find that her boyfriend had thrown it out. The story progresses as Tam leaves her toxic relationship and life to her best friend, Josh. He vows to help her put her life and heart back together any way he can. Tam and Josh have been best friends since high school and they've always been that one person the other can count on when times get tough. The relationship between these two was *chefs kiss*, but I kept wanting more from them. This story has banter, love, humor, raw emotions, and great character development. The overall story was predictable and that's where I wanted the author to give us more.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me an eARC for my honest review.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Montlake and Cathy Yardley for letting me read this book earlier!

This was so cute and fun!

This was so cute and fun!
Gouda Friends was definitely one of the cutest romantic comedies I've ever read! Really so adorable I can't describe it. Josh and Tam's relationship was so perfect! The love between them was so real, so palpable it was like you could touch it! This best friends to lovers romance is the cutest - tears of joy at the end - and the friendships between the main characters and the rest of the herd were also amazing. And of course I must mention that the cheese puns were the icing on the cake!

4.5/5
Tam and Josh are goals!!
Cathy Yardley has written a relatable, funny and enjoyable book.
There was some good spicy scenes too which is always a bonus.
I also feel like I'm missing out by not being obsessed with cheese and trying all the flavours!!
I highly recommend reading this

Thank you NetGalley and Montlake for the advance copy of this book! Gouda Friends will be released 3/22/22!
So this is the second book in Cathy Yardley’s Ponto Beach series about a group of friends who lovingly call themselves The Nerd Herd. I really liked Love, Comment, Subscribe so I was really excited to read this. It definitely is just as good and I really loved it. Tam and Josh are a sweet couple, friends to lovers. Also hello, cheese! 🧀 my heart is made of cheese so like all the cheese references and in this were excellent for me. Definitely would recommend this book and the series in general. I’m excited for a 3rd book!

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

OVERALL 4.5 / 5 STARS - Gouda Friends

4 / 5 STARS - Story Authenticity

4 / 5 STARS - Relatable and Lovable Characters

4 / 5 STARS - Steaminess

#GoudaFriends features a lovable woman, Tam, who, after a crisis involving quitting her job, a cheating boyfriend, and a thrown-away block of gourmet cheese, finds her way back into the life of her best friend and home town. Determined to help Tam find her passion, Josh invites her to stay with him, only for both of them to find that friendship and a love of cheese may not only thing between them.

Cathy Yardley showcases the difficulty of the ultimate adult reset, placing our character in a situation to find a new home and new passion, all while showing her reconnect to people who truly are invested in her happiness. The characters are authentic and vary in personality and attitude, making “the Herd” feel genuine.

I did find that the list of characters was a bit long, and I found myself flipping back to previous pages to see if I had met certain people before. Some I felt were almost redundant of others - such as Emily, who’s role with Vihn could have been replaced with that of Juanita, as their attitudes towards Tam felt very similar.

All in all, Gouda Friends is a relatable story about reconnecting - with old friends, home towns, and, the greatest of all, yourself. It made me want to curl up with fuzzy socks, and more aptly, some delicious cheese. If you enjoyed The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, you’ll enjoy this read!

Thank you so so much to Montlake, Cathy Yardley, and #NetGalley for the read!

An easy going friends to lovers tale. Once they got together it kind of lost its way a little bit as there wasn't much in terms of conflict other than their work situations, which barely felt strong enough to carry it. Good to see more of the Nerd Herd though and would like more development of those characters!

A Gouda five-star read that will fill you with warmness like a good grilled cheese. This is number two in the Porto beach reunion series, I read them in order, and you do get the best that way, but honestly it wouldn’t spoil too much if you didn’t realise and read them out of order. Tam Doan is the type of character who would drop everything for you if you asked her too, I was so glad that she had Josh in her life, as they balanced each other out like a nice sharp mature cheddar and a sweet pickled onion. This has it all, best friends who love each other but do they love, love each other? The harsh reality of being in a relationship where you are gas-light, and the relief when you finally have that moment, no matter what its over, cheese, a cup of tea, a friend or whatever made you wake up and realise you deserve better. I adore Tam and not only because we both have a crazy love of cheese. This story has so much passion, it leaps off the page and into your heart.

Friends to lovers is a very hit or miss trope for me. I will either devour the whole book in nearly one sitting or hate the book, depending on how it’s done. This friends to lovers romance was beautifully written. I loved how in depth it went into their friendship. I love how Tam and Josh act together, all of it. Plus the title is a cheese pun?!? Couldn’t get much better than that!

This book is sweet and adorable!
Definitely 3.5 stars
Friends to lovers is my crack so I was ready to like this book from the beginning. It helped that I love the friendship between the 2 main character and also their found family. Give all this and I will love your book.
So quick review.
Tam is having a bad weekend! First her jerk of a boss cancels her spa weekend. She heads home to find her boyfriend of 6 years in bed with another woman. Then the last straw, she sees that her boyfriend threw away her emergency cheese!!! So after confronting her cheering boyfriend she calls her best friend and heads to California to visit him.
Josh and Tam have been besties since high school. They both had horrible families and help each other when it got bad. So when Tam shows up Josh wastes no time to try to help her be happy again. Together with a group of friend they called “The Nerd heard” they set out to help Tam find her happy again. Of course along the way Tam & Josh realize that their platonic friendship has turned to LOVE but are too chicken to take the next step and risk their amazing friends.
Read this book!

Absolutely delightful! That might sound like a hokey thing to say, but everything about this book just made me smile and feel lighter. Tam and Josh are quite honestly one of my favorite friends-to-lovers couples I’ve ever read. Their platonic love, respect, and support for each other is unparalleled. And while I’m a huge fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, I think there’s always a specific note the author must strike to make it believable why the couple isn’t, well, a couple. In Gouda Friends, Cathy Yardley strikes the perfect balance. We get it. It makes sense. We might not like it, but we understand it. And yet, that does nothing to diminish our desire for these two to find their HEA.

I should also add that I read Love, Comment, Subscribe, the first book in her Ponto Beach Reunion series, previously and loved that as well. What’s funny is that when I picked this up on NetGalley, I didn’t realize it was the same series—until I read the “Nerd Herd,” the term that refers to their group of friends since their high school days. When I read that and realized it was the same crew, I became even more excited. I hope there are plans for some of the other characters to get their stories and HEAs. I, for one, will be first in line to read them if or when they do.

Gouda Friends was handsdown one of the cutest romcoms I’ve ever read in my entire life. It’s been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for almost a month and I’m mad I didn’t pick it up sooner. The love between Josh and Tam was so real.. best friends to lovers.. the herd friendships were complete goals. The cheese puns in the book were also amazing .

I loved the first book in this series, Love, Comment, Subscribe, and I was excited to continue with the series set around a group of high school friends, 10 years after graduation.

This is such a lovely, comfy read. An enemies to lovers, starting from 'We shouldn't do this. It will mess up our friendship." going through "Ok, we do it only once to get it out our systems and then never talk about it again." to finally "You are the love of my life and want to be with you forever."

It was no smooth sailing for Josh and Tam but it was fun, with a touch of angst, and very satisfying in the end. We get to see more of their friends and I love all their interactions - the support, the casual joking, the serious talks about life goals and dreams, it was all amazing.

As usual, we meet a diverse cast and it feels natural and organic to the world of the MCs. Both Tam and Josh come from messed up families and the found family they build around themselves as adults is a thing of beauty.

My complaint has to do with the portrayal of the villains in the story. They were too stereotypical, cardboard figures of what the bad girl/guy should look like and act like. It was unnecessary, it didn't bring much to the story, it just felt like lazy, careless writing to me. Same goes for the constant negative talk about both Tam's and Josh' exes. There is no need to make them all sound like terrible people just to show how perfect Tam and Josh are for each other.

It is a minor thing in the overall story but it kept cropping up here and there and found it annoying and distracting.

On the plus side, like the previous book, here the MCs and the side characters felt really modern, involved in new professions - influencer, youtubers, social media managers, setting up ghost kitchen/delivery service. It was interesting to read, entertaining and I am definitely adding this series to my list of romances with uncommon/unusual professions. .

I would summarize this series as small town romances of a kind - diverse and very much up-to-date.

CW: alcoholism (off page), messed up families, cheating, online smear campaign

Friends to lovers? ✔
Cheese jokes? ✔
Completely heartfelt moments? ✔
Realistic portrayal of someone just trying to figure out what they want out of life? ✔✔✔

Honestly, I wasn't sure if this one was going to be too corny (I can't say cheesy for this book) based on the title, but I ended up loving this book.

I think what did it for me is how completely relatable Tam is. Having a bit of a mid-life crisis - hating her job, boyfriend is scum, but her breaking point has to do with him throwing away her cheese? Yeah, I get it. Even more so, I can't stop thinking about her conversation with her brother and how she came to realize she has continually set herself up for "not failure" by accepting lesser things. Lesser jobs, lesser boyfriends, etc. Truth bomb that also felt like a call-out to the reader (me). I just loved it. Tam is such a great character and I loved her growth, even more than the love story with Josh. (Even though I did get teary-eyed at the end because that charcuterie board 🥺💛) Overall, 4.25/5.

Thank you to Cathy Yardley, her publishers, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!!