EXES AND O'S

🏠 Second part of the series "The Influencer" (The first book is Set on you) They can be read independently, but I advise reading them in order
🏠 Book to be published on January 3 in English 🇬🇧
🏠 Tara is a nurse and bookstagrammer. Trevor is a firefighter
🏠 Cliché roommates and super slow burn romance 🔥
🏠 Romantic comedy. There are several scenes that will make you smile
🏠 That the couple from the first book and Grandma Flo reappear is a success 👌
🏠 It reads super fast and is very entertaining. Also, the second half of the book is tremendously addictive.
🏠 This series of books have become my favorite romantic comedies because in addition to the love story they always bring a message with an important meaning in their stories 👏
🏠 I loved the story of Tara and Trevor 💗

✅ Score: 10/10

Exes & O's by Amy Lea is a sweet rom-com about a book-obsessed social media influencer's quest at finding her 'second chance love'.

Tara is actually the sister of the Crystal, the MC of Lea's previous book, Set on You. There's some crossover in terms of characters, however, it can definitely be enjoyed as a standalone.

Tara is the 'dumpee'. She has been dumped by 10 different men, 10 separate times. Her ex-fiancé savagely labeled her as a "stage-five clinger” and it's obvious from the start that her confidence has taken a serious blow as a result. As an avid romance reader, Tara decides it time to secure her very own trope-worthy second-chance romance by revisiting all her ex-boyfriends. With the help of her new, devastating handsome tattooed commitment-phobe flatmate (yes, we all know where this is heading) she manages to track them all down in the hope they'll reconnect and that she'll finally find her happily ever after.

I loved the playful way this book poked fun at romance clichés and tropes whilst fully embracing them. There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments and pop culture references that made my book-obsessed millennial heart burst with joy. However, even though I found the inner monologue of our 'adorkable' MC strangely relatable, I also found her a little neurotic and shallow.

Whilst I adored the two-fingers Lea gave to the whole concept of "crazy ex-girlfriends" and the misogyny it's clearly wrapped in, I found Tara's obsession to find a man in order to achieve happiness slightly cringeworthy. Also, yes, she likes books but this quirk become one of her only personality traits. Her family, friends and work were totally glossed over and I really would have appreciated more time to figure out who Tara is instead on focusing solely on her quest to find a man.

Even though I found myself wishing Tara would embrace her own awesomeness and sexuality, Exes & O's was a cute, fun, yet slightly predictable read that I'd definitely recommend to any of my fellow Booktok obsessed romance-readers.

Tara Chen just wants her own happy ending like the heroines in all the romance novels she reads. But thanks to modern conveniences and dating apps, the meet-cute style romance she longs for no longer exists. Determined to find the one, she decides to follow in her Grandmothers footsteps and look into her dating past. Dragging her roommate, Trevor, into her master plan, Tara whittles down her past lovers to try and find 'the one,' but the more time she spends with them, the more she realises why, exactly, they broke up. Dismayed, Tara feels like she will forever be the side character in her own life, but sometimes romance crops up in the unlikeliest of places and if she wants to claim her 'happily ever after' she might have to look a little closer to home.

Having read Set on You by Amy Lea last year and loving it, I was so happy when the publisher offered me the chance to read an early copy of her new novel. Set around the same bunch of characters, Exes and O's follows Tara, the younger sister of Crystal who was the MC in the first book. After being dumped by her fiance she needs a new look on life, and she quickly finds that when moving into her new apartment and being greeted by her new roommate who is completely naked. An avid romance reader and blogger, Tara knows this is about as far away from a meet-cute as you could get but, Trevor, her roommate, is also as far away from boyfriend material as you could get so she doesn't really mind. She is full on in most ways of her life, something she owns and doesn't shy away from, but she is also someone so incredibly desperate to be loved and have someone to spend her time with. She truly grows as a character in this story & I enjoyed following her on her journey.

Trevor is the love interest in this story and it someone who, at the start, is so unbelievably far away from boyfriend material. He spends his nights with one night stands, never being willing to settle down, but the more time Tara spends with him, breaking down his walls, the more we realise his reasoning, and you can't help but empathise and fall a little in love with him. There are also a lot of cameo's from characters in the first book, but my favourite by a country mile was Grandma Flo. I adored her in book one, and the more time we spend with her, the more in love I fall. She is your stereotypical Grandma in so many ways, never afraid to ask the awkward questions, stick her opinions in where they're not wanted/needed, but she's also an incredibly wing woman and I loved all the scenes she was in.

I think one of the reasons I loved the book a little more than the first was the fact that Tara was a book influencer, something I could relate to. She reads and adores romance novels and would love nothing more than to fall in love like one of the heroines in her novels... the smuttier the better. But what I loved was how Lea included little snippets from Tara's streams which she uses to include some much loved tropes from the romance genre, as well as showing how these apply to Tara's romantic exploits. She also shows how unrealistic some of them are and how wanting things to fit a certain mould can leave you with blinders to those things right in front of you.

The romance in this book was so incredibly well done. Slow burn, forced proximity, idiots in love... what more could you want. Both Tara and Trevor are a little damaged from past relationships and, while Tara just jumps right back in determined to find her Mr right, Trevor does the opposite and swears off relationships entirely. They are two very different people, and I enjoyed how Lea showed this and, instead of having one personality take over the other, allowed them the chance to express themselves and learn how to work as they are. Their relationship is filled with tension, drama as well as some truly humorous scenes, their first meeting had me in stitches, but it was such a joy to follow them on their journey and seeing them finally come together.

I truly loved this book. It was fun, fast and filled with some brilliantly written characters you will adore. If you're looking for a wondrously slow burn romance filled with all the tension, a little drama and plenty of laughs then look no further and, while this does follow on from the first book 'Set on You' you don't need to have read it to fully appreciate this book (although you should because it's brilliant.)

i was super fortunate to receive an ARC of this from netgalley for an honest review!!

i loved it!! trevor?! every girls wet dream i swear! the first time him and tara meet?! actually incredible! i found it so funny and couldn’t stop laughing!

i loved tara and her character. i felt for her throughout the book but this GIRL was BLIND when it came to her mr right?!

10/10 would recommend

I was very kindly sent a copy of this by Penguin in return for an honest review.

Amy Lea really knows how to write a mature but well-rounded, sweet, funny, and utterly romantic read. Plus it's a book built around everyone's favorite trope in itself... The Book Boyfriend.

I really enjoyed Lea's inclusion of the pros and cons of social media in both this book and 'Set on You' and that the relationships built through and around it aren't dictated through image or standards.

My favorite character by far was Grandma Flo, who is the most socially in-tune retiree I've ever encountered! But honestly, the roommates-to-lovers trope in real life was handled really well and Tara and Trevors developed a friendship, and then romantic attraction was really sweet. Plus the most unique if not bizarre first meeting of roommates I think I've ever read!

A lovely read for all of those who dream of meeting a person like their favorite romantic book interest in real life.

This book was exactly what I hoped it would be and more. The way it had me smiling and giggling and kicking my feet should honestly be embarrassing but I don’t care.

I loved everything about this book. The characters, the storyline, the twists, the swoon-worthy moments. Honestly, the amount of times I had to put my kindle down to compose myself…

Tara maybe be up there for me as one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever read about. From he love of rereading books to typing out messages in her notes app before she sends them to her hate of people ending text messages with full stops. She was so easy to love and to root for. Though I’m not sure why I’m surprised by this because bookstagrammer and also Taylor Swift fan, it was bound to happen.

Trevor was really every book hero wrapped up in one. He was the cocky playboy, the secretive grump, the roommate turned best friend, the best friend turned lover. Plus he’s a tattooed fireman? God, I’m obsessed with him.

Watching their relationship grow was just so good and watching Trevor go from don’t ask me questions to I love listening to your ramble on was 🥹🥹 all the moments they shared as well. I thought I’d gotten over his grand gestures and then he pulled out the shoe box and I lost it. Don’t even get me started on the epilogue because I think it’s up there with the best I’ve ever read because it made me feel so much.

I was a little frustrated at their miscommunication at the end but the resolution made it worth it and characters then actually talking about things in a romance book was wonderful to read.

I thought it would be tough to beat Set On You, but Exes and O’s smashed that out of the park, it was exactly what I needed to read. Already can’t wait to read it again!

I struggled to get into this book at first, but once I did, I loved it.

Tara's ex Seth is the perfect example of a misogynistic man that can't see anything wrong with what he does. Trevor is the perfect counter to him.

I love that Trevor accepts Tara for who she is, "craziness" and all.

Who doesn’t love a forced proximity romance with a male lead that you love to hate!

Romance -a-holic Tara is determined to find her “one” she’s so desperate to find true love she’s willing to revisit her old flames to make it happen!
Enter Trevor who’s going to help her learn what to do in the dating scene.

I really enjoyed the chemistry between the main characters, it was an easy to read romp and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

‘Exes & O’s’ is a romantic comedy that captivates you from the beginning. With fun and original characters, with a relationship between them that goes beyond the pages and without a doubt with a lot of chemistry. You have to read it.
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Another romantic comedy that has enchanted me and has made me sigh at every moment? Yes, I am not surprised anymore. Of course, these types of books are hurting my life because later I have very high expectations, but what can we do, life is like that. Really, give this book a chance, if you read in English, because it is very worth it.

Sometimes I think I'm very basic with how many I like depending on the books, like this one, but it's a fantasy from start to finish, really wonderful. I believe that any lover of the romantic genre and romantic comedy will enjoy this book because it has everything to earn five stars (as it has from me).

The characters are super cute and the relationship they create is delightful. There are really times when I don't know how to explain it, it depends on things so that it doesn't seem like I'm embellishing my opinion, because many times it's like “it can't all be that good”, but for me in this case it really is. I have enjoyed every second, I have fallen in love with the characters (separately and as a couple), I have laughed with the touches of humor, I have suffered with the touch of drama that there is. But good that I think of this book and it fills my heart. READ IT, THERE IS NO MORE.

It's the first I've read by the author, but I've seen that she published another book before (the first in this series, because they're independent books) and come on, I'm sure I'm going to get to it as soon as I can, and this book as soon as it comes out Physically I will buy it because I want it in my collection. I loved the way Amy builds the story, the way she conveys feelings, the way she writes, simply. I loved it, I can't say more.

Tara is a romance obsessed book influencer desperate to find her happily-ever-after. After her engagement ends she decides to go back through her exes, get in touch with them all - see what went wrong and whether one of them could be her soulmate.

She enlists the help of her very handsome but very much not her type roommate Trevor to help her track them all down.

This is such a good romcom! It reminded me of the film What’s Your Number? with Chris Evans (it’s actually mentioned that Trevor resembles him in the book) which I loved. It also has echoes of High Fidelity which is one of my all time favourite books.

Tara and Trevor have such great banter and I was rooting for them sooooo hard!

Definitely one of the best romance books i’ve read in a long time - both main characters are great and fully fleshed out with their own back stories as to why they are they way they are. The side characters are also great! I haven’t read Amy Lea’s other book but I think this story features the characters from her book too.

One thing I would’ve loved though would’ve have been a split POV rather than the whole book being from Tara’s perspective - but that’s just a personal preference!

Also any book that mentions Taylor Swift’s All Too Well (Ten Minute Version)(Taylor’s Version)(From The Vault) is a winner in my eyes!

Forced proximity? Roommate? Grumpy tattooed fireman? Slow Burn? This book has got them all.
It is a slow burn to rival Mariana Zapata, he looks at her once and you squeal kinda slow burn 😂😂😂.
The story of this book reminds me of the film got your number with Anna Faris and Chris Evans, really enjoyed it!

I really enjoyed reading this book, I thought the concept was so comical and I the bookworm main character was very relatable. I thought the romance aspect was a little bit predictable but I still enjoyed reading it. I fell in love with Tara and Trevor, such a funny pair, especially when Tara was on the hunt for her ex boyfriends. The plot of a second chance romance was very entertaining and I feel like a lot of bookworms will relate to how sweet that troupe can be. Although, Tara unfortunately isn’t so lucky. The romance that does happen its 100% a slow burner and a friends to lovers situation (this troupe is still very cute).

This is the first book I have read by this author but I definitely want to go back and read the first one. I thought the writing was easy to read and the plot was light hearted. There were some serious moments but it made the book even more interesting. I also enjoyed the character development in this book. I feel like Tara definitely learnt a lot about herself and her self-confidence grew by the end of the book, especially in the epilogue. At times, I did want to tell her how she shouldn’t be wasting her time on her ex’s but going through that was all part of her journey.

I would 100% recommend this book to everyone. Especially all book content creators, got to appreciate that representation. There were parts of the book where Tara would chat to her followers on social media which I absolutely loved. This was such a unique way to bring in other ways to tell the story which incorporated an aspect of the main character. I feel like I took a while to read this book because I wanted to stick with these characters for as long as possible, they were so sweet.

I just want to say that i have not read this book yet as i am a mood reader and have not been in the mood to read this and don’t want my percentage to go down 😊

This book was so cute! I was so excited to read Tara’s story after meeting her in ‘set on you’. She’s loveable and quirky and a perfect match for Trevor Metcalfe her grumpy, playboy, firefighting roommate. The characters work so well together.

This author did an amazing job addressing multiple issues such as gaslighting, emotionally abusive exes, child Illness and breaking down the impact of the term ‘crazy’ when used to describe women and their emotions during relationships.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC.

I devoured this book.
Tara is such a sweet and relatable character. She loves her job as a nurse and her hobby, which is reading romance books and talking about them online. She has a big heart and she's waiting for her book trope worthy romance.
Trevor is a firefighter and he most definitely has a different take on relationships and romance than Tara.

I loved the forced proximity (the room-mate trope). It was fun to see their different personalities and how they could bond with each other and how they helped the other grow.
This book made me laugh and giggle, I had such a good time reading it.

If you're looking for a fun, sweet romance book, that you can't put down then this is your book!

This book took me by complete surprise!

I adored the whole premise of the book and trying to recreate a second chance romance.

Trevor was an absolute angel with so many layers.

This book blended perfectly the level of spice and heart warming moments

This book follows Tara who is an avid romance reader looking for her meet-cute! When she has no luck she makes a list of they 10 guys who broke her heart and is on the path for a second chance romance. She uses her roommate Trevor for help and we slowly see this amazing friendship blossom! I loved the dynamics between this relationship and how everything came together. I’m not going into any detail as the book isnt released for another 2-3 months yet, but it definitely did not disappoint and should be on everyone’s tbr for 2023!!!

Thank you for this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was a great book from the get go, one that I knew I was going to love. It has everything you need the banter, the friendships , grumpy sunshine, amazing chemistry you name it.
As a bookstragrammer I can attest that Tara is a very reliable source on how we feel about fictional men and how they make us feel that our expectations are too high but then Tara realises that her expectations aren’t too high at all, she’s looking for the basic things needed for a relationship and it’s so empowering when she realises that.
Trevor is a great mmc in that this book starts them of as being friends which means we get a side of him not trying to pursue her romantically but just them two together organically as friends and their chemistry flowed perfectly from the start especially with their funny as hell meet cute.
This is very much a character based story and I think this suited the storyline to not go into all the exes and their stories in a lot of detail and instead we went through the motions of Tara and her own development.
I feel like the pacing was slightly of in stages and some scenes could have been more developed but other than that this was was a fabulous book and I would definitely recommend it.
Also- the epilogue was stunning and I am such a fan of the way he proposed to her, it made my heart melt.
Spice level 1 and a half.

UGH, I'm so sad about this one.

Ultimately a DNF for me at 30% in, There was too much run-on dialogue with not enough between to make the scene feel authentic. The characters talked like reciting a script and it didn't feel organic to the scene. Tara's internal monologue was hard to vibe with imo. Aside from being all about love, I got over 100 pages in and knew absolutely nothing personal about her outside of her ex dumping her, her profession, and the fact she has a best friend (who I'm not entirely sure she didn't imagine because she was never there), and a sister we know (Crystal, Set on You), who sadly also doesn't appear on-page (at the point I DNFd anyways), and a grandma who has a second-chance love story.

Tara was just *that* character. The best way I can describe her is that she was like Giselle from Enchanted but without the fairytale world background to explain why she was the way she was. She was just... annoyingly naïve.

In the beginning, I didn't mind that because I'm someone who expects character development to occur throughout a whole book, so despite this, I was willing to keep reading with the hope that she would mellow out as her relationship with the intended love interest developed, but the problem with this is: THEY DON'T HAVE ONE.

At 100 pages in, there was nothing between the main couple who I SO wanted to root for. Tara was much too in her own head and the stereotypes of romcoms, and Trevor was so underdeveloped as a character. He had his moments of charm, but the will-they-won't-they flirtatiousness I expected between the two was non-existent and their scenes fell flat. There just wasn't enough to make them feel like they were moving forward, and at that point, there should've been *something*.

I LOVED the beginning. (spoiler alert) Robbed by a meet-cute and walked in on Trevor banging a one night stand: AMAZING. Being a girls girl and becoming friends with that one night stand: IMMACULATE. But (up to where I got to at least) that girl was mentioned once or twice and never seen again.

I thought the premise was super cute, very 'what's your number' with Anna Faris and Chris Evans, but Chris Evans Trevor is NOT. He was kind of boring tbh.

I stopped reading because there was nothing to keep me pushing forward. I wanted more sexual tension to at least allude to the possibility of Tara and Trevor ending up together. To me, they weren't great as characters. Trevor seems like he *could've* been a great Love Interest, except his back story, his personality, and the heat/flirting, were all so lacking I couldn't deal.

I understand slow burn and i LOVE slow burn, but this was the slowest of slow. I so badly wish the two MCs had more heat between them, or even a genuine friendship and smallest hint of attraction, so when Tara said things like "is this a ploy to hook-up with me" and Trevor replied "god no", we as the reader could side-eye him like, 'yeahhhhh sure, Trevor. We totally believe you...'

But no, I actually did FULLY believe that he didn't want to hook up with her because, despite her reluctance at being told she was too full on, she *really was*.

Most of the scenes in the book (Up to DNF point) were between Tara and Trevor, yet they advanced nothing. We know she thought he was hot as hell, but we know nothing of how he viewed her because he showed no emotion outside of being tired and he seemed kinda irked by her presence tbh. Usually, I adore sunshine/grump trope, but Tara and Trevor were the extreme ends of the spectrum. It was too much work to pretend they had any chemistry when she was a ball of blazing sunshine and he was SO apathetic.

Perhaps the book would've worked better dual-pov, so we could see Trevor's internal monologue, because with Tara's only, it didn't work.

FOR ME, at least.

It's a shame because I loved Set On You so I really wanted to enjoy Exes & O's. But it wasn't for me. I'm sorry.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amy Lea and Penguin UK for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Exes and Os will be a great read for the New Year. It feels like a warm hug. The perfect thing to get over the Christmas season.

Tara Li Chen is such a great character. I felt such a kinship towards her. My heart broke for her in the beginning.

This book exceeded all of my expectations. It was polished, funny, and so cute. It was a love letter to people who romanticize love letters and entirely-innocent-but-what-if… eye contact in public spaces. It is also the perfect read for Valentine's Day.