Came for the spice and got it. The story was a brave attempt at reconciling failed dreams and trauma/grief. Wished there was more focus on the writing challenge.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

GENERAL INFO

Year Pub: 4/12/23

Date read: 5/15/23

Format: Kindle

Source: e-ARC, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Page Count: 326

Setting: Starling Hills, Michigan and NYC

Genre: CR

Tropes: 2nd chance romance, bisexuality, friends to lovers

Standalone/Cliffhanger/Part of a Series: standalone

HEA/HFN ending: HEA

Epilogue Included: six months later

Character(s)POV Spoken: H/h Julia and Thomas-alternates between them

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary:

Thomas Callaghan’s return home to Starling Hills, Michigan is meant to be temporary. But he’s not ready to go back to New York City yet because he’s home to care for his sick dad. He's also a romance author w/ writer’s block and…maybe he’s not quite happy in NYC anymore.

He hasn't spoken to his ex-best friend, Julia Ward in twelve years. She moves back home to Michigan with her parents after her fiancé cheated. She becomes a workaholic at her corporate job. When she sees Thomas, it stirs up memories of their childhood and dreams for the future. They planned to move to New York City together and become writers.

Rekindling their friendship and love for writing, they make a bet to see who can research and write 50,000 words first w/ a HEA.

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F, M/M

Contains Children: yes, H/h as teenagers.

Flashbacks: yes, Julia and Thomas as teens writing fanfiction together dreaming of NYC.

Overall Smex Rating: 5, a little too much for me

OW/OM/Exes: Julia's ex-fiancé Josh-together since she was 17 years old.

AUTHOR OVERVIEW
Alaina Rose
New or read before & any favorites: new author

CONTENT/TRIGGERS WARNING:
death of a parent, grief, cheating,

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4*

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books By This Author: yes

Comments/Notes: I enjoyed Thomas and Julia's characters and how they slowly came back to each other after over a decade. They both had struggles to face in their personal and professional lives. Thomas had hard choices to make. His grief over his dad was written so well and I really connected with him. The side character Susan was great. Julia needed someone like her who could tell her like it is.

This book was a mess.

You’d think a story about ex-best friends who try to rekindle their friendship with a low-stakes writing bet would be cute. A nice lil second chance romance.

You’d be wrong.

There wasn’t enough chemistry in this book for a high school science class, let alone a romance novel. Also, Julia and Thomas go from getting to know each other again to semi-public sex in the space of like… ten pages, which is not very realistic. Normally I’d give something like that a pass but like I said, no chemistry to speak of.

The side characters are all shit. Their personalities change from chapter to chapter and it makes no sense.

Every mention of gender, sexuality, and race felt like grandma saying “I had black friends growing up!” every time. Big try-hard energy throughout the whole book. It was forced and awkward.

And my biggest pet peeve: it was all tell, no show. Very action by action descriptions of each scene. Rambly internal dialog for the characters instead of actions that show us what they’re feeling.

Hard pass.

"Relative Fiction" by Alaina Rose is a small-town friends-to-lovers romance featuring ex-best friends Thomas and Julia. While the premise is appealing, the execution needs to be more consistent with chemistry and character development.

The novel explores themes like trauma, mental health, and grief, which the author provides content warnings for, and there is commendable bisexual representation. However, the writing style needs refinement and growth. Overall, "Relative Fiction" is a 3-star read with potential for improvement in the author's future works. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC for an honest review.

Dual POV
Second chance romance
friends to strangers to friends to lovers
Small town romance
Bisexual representation
Sadly, I didn't really connect to either of the main characters even though both have a huge passion for writing. . I really enjoyed the author's general voice though, as well as the sibling relationships. If you're really into circa 2015-tumblr-fandoms, writing and friends to lovers, this might be for you!

I really liked the premise of the book, with it being a second chance for two estranged friends to get their love story that weren't able to explore back in high school. However, it was hard to root for the couple, as the love interest, Thomas, didn't quite appeal to me. He was pretentious and rude most of the time, and seemed to think that everyone around him should cater to his needs and his dreams. I kept waiting for his character development to kick in, but every time I thought he was getting a bit of growth, he'd take one step back again, which personally I wasn't a fan of. Julia's characterization, however, I did like. She started the book as a woman who was unsure of where she was in her life, what she wanted from the future, and trying hard to figure it out and be okay with herself, and through the story that's exactly what she did - she learned more about herself, who she was as an individual and how she wanted to approach her future. I did also like how the book was a dual pov, so we got to see the viewpoints of both Thomas and Julia, as well as the chapters that delved into the past to show us the beginning of their relationship and how it ended. Overall, it was a decent book; I think I would've just liked the love interest to have been a bit more worthy of being the love interest.

Thomas Callaghan’s return home to Starling Hills, Michigan is meant to be temporary. But he’s not ready to go back to New York City yet either—back to his three jobs, sky-high rent, and the dream he’s been running down since high school—because he’s home to care for his sick dad. Add on his tumultuous career as a romance author and crippling writer’s block and…maybe he’s ready to admit that he’s not quite happy anymore.

Enter his ex-best friend, Julia Ward, who he hasn’t spoken to in twelve years.

Julia’s stuck, her trust in herself shredded, and she’s left in proverbial and actual ruin by her cheating ex-fiancé. So she does the only thing she can do: throws herself into her corporate job. And unfortunately moves back in with her parents in Starling Hills. But seeing Thomas stirs up parts of her that she’s lost. Her fingers begin to yearn for the keyboard, like back when she wrote fan fiction and the two planned to study in New York City together and become writers.

One awkward get-together later and Thomas is desperate to rekindle their friendship, despite his lingering attraction to Julia and looming deadline for his next book. So they make a bet to see who can write 50,000 words first before Thomas returns to NYC, while studying romantic comedy films for inspiration in their writing…and in life.

As their deadline grows closer, they learn that happiness is relative and fleeting. But between the loss of a parent and career shake-ups, past secrets and new betrayals, they realize this could be their second chance and that their love is worth fighting for.

I really enjoyed the story. Will recommend to others.

ex bestfriends to lovers
writer x fan-fic writer
booklovers
moviegeek

Thank you NetGalley & publisher for this eARC.

The only relationship that I cared the most in this book was between Thomas and his dad. Thomas and Julia? I don't really feel the chemistry. I am 31 years old myself and I don't feel related at all. Even the conflict (towards the ending) was not reasonable at all to be mad and start a conflict like that. And the fact that Thomas never mentioned Micha at all (eventhough they're platonic) and how casual he mentioned they were only f8cking each other but as friends really makes me ...idk, does he really thinks it's okay to Julia who had been cheated by her ex-fiance and has trust issue? does not make sense at all.

also I actually laugh when they proceed to actually have sex in the room in his family house...31 years old... and those casuals in the car, I mean.... book a hotel room or something.

and I wished there were more on their writing dare. because it would be so cute. both mc has a lot of conflict in their private lives, it has so many things going on.

A fun second chance romance. Julia and Thom reconnect, but he is only in town temporarily so will it lead to heart break? Looking forward to more books from this author.

This debut novel from Alaina Rose had a lot packed into one book. Personally, I feel like a little too much to be able to adequately give ENOUGH to each moment. I had a very hard time finding any redeeming or likable qualities about Julia, which made it hard to root for her. I did love how Alaina was cognizant of pronouns and preserved sexuality and gender.

Special thanks to Net Galley and Books Go Social for sharing this digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read a copy of "Relative Fiction", written by author Alaina Rose.

This novel tells the story of Thomas & Julia - they are ex best friends. He has come home to care for his sick father and to hopefully dislodge his frustrating writers block - he writes romance novels. Julia, on the other hand, has had he trust destroyed by her cheating ex-fiance and moves home with her parents. She works at a corporate job. The two of them get together and challenge each other to see who can write a 50,000 word book first before Thomas has to return to his home in NYC.

Overall, I rated this novel 3.5/5 stars!

Julia's life is in shambles. After she broke off her engagement with her lying, cheating ex, she couldn't feel worse. Then, she recieves a text from her high school best friend Thomas after not having spoken for over a decade. He's back in their home town and he wants to see her. While Thomas and Julia try to rekindle their friendship and restore Julias faith in love they both have to deal with their own feelings about their lives, their homes and each other.
Oh boy. I absolutely thought I'd be the target audience for this book. Writers and rom coms and a dash of friends to lovers? Sign me up. Sadly, I didn't really connect to either of the main characters even though both have a huge passion for writing. The large amount of fandom references - even though I have seen and/or read the majority of the relevant stories - made me feel like I was a little too young to grasp what exactly the characters were drawing from their preferred pieces of media. I really enjoyed the author's general voice though, as well as the sibling relationships. If you're really into circa 2015-tumblr-fandoms, writing and friends to lovers, this might be for you!

Thank you to NetGalley, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

This was very close to a DNF for me. I didn’t care for the characters, they lacked chemistry in my opinion, and the plot in general was just boring. Julia is one of the most annoying characters that I have read in a long time. It has potential to be a good read in the description, just didn’t follow through in the writing of the book.

🍂Ex-friends to lovers
🍂Slow burn
🍂Small town romance
🍂Dual third-person POV
🍂Second chance

This book covers the story of two ex-best friends that reunite after 12 year. These relatable characters struggle with family pressures and are trying to find what makes them happy.

It was engaging, enjoyable, and a fast read romance that had me rooting for Julia and Thomas the whole time. I couldn’t put it down the first night, I was up until 2am. This novel touches on trauma, mental health, grief, and it is supported by some great family dynamics and friendships that provided many lighthearted and funny moments.

I also appreciated that Alaina had clear content warnings at the beginning of the book, here are some of them:
Loss of a loved one
Cheating
Cancer

If you enjoy a friends to lover trope with small town vibes and a bit of steam, I would highly recommend you pick this up.
Congratulations to Alaina on this debut novel!! I look forward to reading your future books.

Thank you to Alaina Rose, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded cute, hence the reason I chose to read it from NetGalley, but from the beginning I was disappointed. About 80% of the way through I had an “Aha!” moment and realized I think I am not the intended audience.
Julia and Thomas were best friends in high school and had plans to leave their home state of Michigan and go to New York for college and chase their dreams of becoming writers. Julia backed out at the last minute, creating a rift between them. 15 years later, Thomas, who accomplished his dream, finds himself back in Michigan and he decides to reconnect with Julia, who never left and is at a dead end job and has given up on her dream.
I found the writing of this to be very juvenile. While it’s told from 3rd person, the narrative is written as though it’ should be told from a first person perspective and I probably would have enjoyed it a tad more if it had been written that way.
I know I’m a harsh critic, but certain things jump out at me and can completely ruin a book despite how good the storyline is (full disclosure: this one was just meh). I am a stickler for grammar and one of my biggest pet peeves is the use of pronoun and proper noun followed by the subject (her and Thomas went to dinner.). Even if it’s used only once in the book I’m immediately turned off and it takes a lot to get me back. Unfortunately, this novel didn’t have enough substance to reel me back in after that one particular sentence.
The writing was flat and very one dimensional. Alaina Rose made sure to include the fact that her characters are Zennials several times throughout this book, so I figured it meant that their parents are my generation, but I didn’t connect with them at all. It felt like they were there to add substance to the story, but in the scenes with them, they barely popped up from the background.
When I was in my 20’s my favorite books were the romcoms published by Red Dress Ink and while this reminded me greatly of those, the writing was subpar to what I remember. It makes me almost want to go back a reread one just for a better comparison. Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an advanced copy of this book. This hit the shelves on April 12.

I didn't like it. The main characters had no chemistry, the sex scenes were boring (I skipped through them cuz I just couldn't stand them – they felt so unnecessary), and Julia was so annoying. She didn't make sense at all. By 44%, I felt like DNF-ing the book, but I don't ever DNF books, plus I had to review it on NetGalley (and I currently want to keep my 100% feedback ratio going), so I decided to push on, keep an open mind and PRAY that I will grow to like it again.

Honestly, the book started out strong. Julia Ward broke her engagement with her boyfriend of 12 years from high school because he was a cheating liar. Thomas Callaghan, her best friend from high school, returned to town because his father was dying from lung cancer. It had such a nice setting, but the book failed to live its potential.

First point: The main characters had no chemistry.
Look. I like Thomas. He was a nice guy. I think he was such an amazing friend to Julia. But Thomas and Julia started to lose chemistry as the book went on. I just couldn't feel the spark between them. I couldn't feel the pining that was supposed to be there.

Second point: The sex scenes were boring.
As I said, I skipped through them. I just couldn't stand them. They felt like they were there for the sake of having smut. Maybe it's cuz I didn't feel the chemistry between them to begin with, so the build-up to the sex scenes just felt so bland.

Third point: Julia was so annoying.
She was so annoying. Full stop. I'll need a spoiler tag if I elaborate on it, and I recently decided not to include spoilers in my reviews because the Goodreads app just blocks off the entire review instead of just selected portions of the review. Anyway, I think she's unrealistic and toxic when it comes to what she got upset about at the 81% mark, which is where you saw me go WTF in my progress update. Her anger made no sense to me. She just came off as an unreasonable person. Whatever character growth that supposedly came about after didn't make sense to me either. Nothing made sense after that outburst. It felt like a forced third-act breakup. And I felt that Thomas deserved better.

This story is about two writers. I'm glad that the story stayed true to the theme, with consistent mentioning of their bet to write 50,000 words first. However, that's it. It's just mentioned. They didn't talk about the writing process at all. It's just done off the pages. That's not really an issue, though. But for people who were expecting lots about writing, there isn't.

The saving grace of this book was the twist at the end. I had a good time swearing at you-know-who, which was that one moment when I was on Julia's side after starting to lose my liking towards this book. Another great thing about this book was bi rep. That felt natural (or at least, more so than the other woke stuff in the story). Unlike the unnatural parts in other parts of the book where it started to feel like this book was woke for the sake of being woke. And I hate that so much. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be woke to the point that it was so cringe-worthy. And insensitive.

This book was available to be read on NetGalley. Since it was free, and it sounded nice, I thought, "Hey, let's give it a go!" The average rating on Goodreads was 3.62 at the time of writing this review, so it couldn't be that bad. That's what I thought. In all fairness, this book wasn't utter trash, which is why I rated it 2 stars and not 1, but it wasn't good. I'm sorry. There were so many problems to point out. That's just how it is. And I'm the type of reader that's very lenient on ratings. Most of my reviews have 5- or 4-star ratings. I'm sure there are people who are more simple-minded and can easily enjoy this book. I did enjoy it fairly well at the beginning. But it just got worse.

I'm not going to nitpick on the grammar because it's an ARC that I read, but they were definitely there. BUT they were also not that jarring. I wasn't exactly looking out for mistakes because it's an ARC, so that's that.

I believe that every book has someone who likes them, so while I wouldn't particularly recommend this book, I think that people who like second-chance small-town romance stories between high school best friends who reunite after 12 years might enjoy this. I mean, clearly, a lot of people enjoyed this book, judging by the 3.62 average ratings (at the time of writing). I highly do not recommend this book to people who hate forced wokeness and unreasonable main characters.

To the author, this book had potential. I'm so proud of you for publishing this book as an indie author. This book wasn't for me, but I'm sure many people will enjoy it. I'm sorry for the low rating, but this is my honest opinion. Maybe if Julia had a better reaction at that 80% mark, this might've been a 3- or 4-star review. All the best for your future stories! If I ever read them in the future, I hope I'll enjoy them better than this one <3

I really wanted to love this book, and while it wasn’t a bad read i had some issues with the writing and characters.

I was super excited to read about authors! It’s become a fun niche i enjoy being in and getting to see an author’s process / behind the scenes of a successful knowledge. I feel like Relative Fiction mentions a bet between our two MCs to see who can write more and while there mentions of writing goals you don’t really get to see anything of the writing.

The third act breakup / conflict just really irked me. It was something really stupid and cuz of that it wasn’t believable. While the characters had a strong backstory to believe on for this romance i felt the last 25% of the book was rather rushed and because of that the romance side of their relationship was somewhat silly.

Overall, this one was a miss for me. It felt like i was struggling to get through it. It’s giving friends to enemies to lovers.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me so long than usual to finish this book. And not because I’m busy or distracted, and that’s saying a lot since the trope of this book is childhood friends to enemies to lovers (aka one of my favourite tropes ever). One of the promos I saw for this book mentioned how the characters are millennials, and in my mind I thought, I hope the author doesn’t make it the entire book’s personality being a millennial. And boy, was I wrong. I’ve read other books that are painfully millennial and this was no exception. In fact, I think this is worse because the previous books I’ve read, I don’t think they were intentional, but this one is. And this is just a personal preference but I hate it when the pandemic is mentioned in recent FICTION books. I’ve lived it! Everyone who’s going to read your book has lived it! I don’t need a reminded of it, especially if you’re going to poorly integrate it in your story. It was just so cringey over all. It was painful to read that I had to force myself to finish it because I don’t DNF a book. Anyways, I think it could be better. I know most if not all of the current popular contemporary authors are millenials but this is just bad writing overall.

I unfortunately couldn't get into this book. I didn't gel with the characters or the themes. The chemistry was lacking and I wasn't really rooting for them to get together.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. All views are my own.

Relative fiction is a friend to lovers and the second-chance love trope. Julia broke up with her fiancé Josh after finding out he was cheating on her. Thomas is an author; he returned to Starling Hills, Michigan, to take care of his father. Julia and Thomas were best friends in high school. They reunited with each other after 12 years.

Julia tried to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Thomas was balancing between taking care of his father, helping his mom run their restaurant, and stressing to complete the writing before the deadline. Both Julia and Thomas were caught up in their problems and feelings about each other.

The book was based on writing, but we didn’t see it that much in the plot. It was also about finding your passion and yourself, but we only see Julia’s development; she got back to writing, which makes her happy, whereas, for Thomas, there was not much development; there was no mention of what he was writing or if he got rid of writer’s block. There was no depth to their romance and friendship.

Both Julia and Thomas acted like teenagers. Julia acted childish when she blamed Thomas for her miserable life with Josh.

Sometimes things are repetitive, like when they meet, then something happens and they run in opposite directions confused without having any proper conversation. The ending was predictable.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me.

The author has provided a list of trigger warnings at the beginning of the book.