It took me too long to read this, firstly because I couldn’t get into the story. So many parts is fast paced and some are too slow. I’m just a bit disappointed.

Hope someone else loves it.

Thank you to Netgalley, for the chance to read and review this book.

I see what you did there with the title. Very cute. I'm giving this one 3/5 stars. It was okay. Not something I haven't read before or that added anything new to similar titles. It had potential, but lacked depth for me to care more.

This story centres two protagonists—the past and the future, history and technology, vintage and vogue—crashing into each other's worlds. There's a small town involved, meddling friends, some ghostly shenanigans, and an adorable orange cat called Mango.

In an opposites-attract story, there's always the danger of making the characters too shallow or insular. And while this last bit was the point for most of the townsfolk, it doesn't work for main characters. It didn't help that attraction blossomed into insta-love, and queer speed be damned if I don't still find it unbelievable. The romantic pacing was all over the place, and it interfered with everything else (including the time; it got to a point where I couldn't tell if it'd been days, weeks, or months).

The town issues could've been so interesting if we'd spent more time doing things related to them instead of talking about it. We also hear a lot about Sena's family and how she hasn't visited for 6 years, but when we finally meet them, they're pretty wonderful? If we're going to explore complex family dynamics, then we need to have proper conflict that isn't resolved within one chapter.

The ending was cute, though, if a bit rushed. Being from a small town myself, I understand the pros and cons pretty well, and maybe that's why I needed more from this book.

With that being said, if you're looking for something to escape into, this could be a good pick for you. We definitely need laid-back queer stories.

Thank you to Netgalley, Bold Strokes Books, and Kelly & Tana Fireside for the chance to read and review this book.

4 stars
This story wasn't what I expected it to be. I thought it would be a typical enemies-to-lovers story, engaging, romantic but nothing more. This is far from that and any expectations I had, it is better. In this book, the enemies of the main characters turn out to be themselves. Life and love stories all crumpled together, creating traumas that built walls around their hearts. Sounds dramatic and I do find some episodes pretty touching and close to home, but it's still a cute rich-falls-for-small-town-girl romance.

Sena Abrigo, an IT guru, who is tired of big-city politics and gender inequality in big tech, comes to a small town to build a place for opportunities for women, especially women like herself. And Hazel Butler, a librarian, who is dedicating all her life to the past, history, and past lives of her family members, and holding on to it for dear life, preventing any change from happening, even when it comes to her lunch.

For me, a bit too much of Hazel's stuckness, to the point you feel her suffocation by the past, and not enough of Sena being the IT guru, although issues of both are shown loud and clear. You can feel their connection from the very beginning with a dash of playfulness, that I would appreciate having more of, yet they moved too fast from lust to love, for my taste. Still, pretty enjoying read, that made me feel emotional from time to time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed diving into this book and learning the characters’ stories. I did think the switch that happened to Hazel’s character seemed a bit rushed. You would think for someone as committed as her to preserving history, it would be a gradual change. I wish the author had spent a bit of time fleshing out that part of the story.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book so much, small-town sapphic romance? It sounded too good to be true and unfortunately, it was. I disliked this book from the start. The writing wasn't the best but I could have looked past It if the plot and or characters were good however they were not. The plot is basically glorified gentrification that's seen as ok because it's been done by a woman and all the people she's planning on bringing in are all women, she also says that she's going to help the people who currently live there but doesn't say how even once which annoyed me so much. Also, the characters were so badly written, Hazel is a juvenile idiot who hates swearing but is ok with talking about orgasms to a Curious George book? Sena was supposed to be a cool savvy business woman but she was so annoying and looked down her nose at everyone around her to the point where I despised her chapters.
The pacing was bad and made no sense, the first half was over the course of less than two days and the second half was weeks later. It didn't flow at all and didn't help develop the relationship between the main characters even a little bit.
And last and certainly least the romance was not good. It was so insta lovy that it was unrealistic, it wouldn't have been so bad if it was lust at first sight and the love developed later on but it wasn't.
Overal this was such wasted potential that I'm so sad about it.

this was what i would consider a smooth brain read. the story was fine, the romance was fine, but it was nothing that i had not read before elsewhere to better quality and interest. sometimes books just have no real substance to them but are cute - especially to read in the summer sunbathing as i have - and that is okay.

considering this is only 200-something pages, it took me way too long to get thru it. mostly kept going bc it was so bad it was amusing at parts so here are some of the things that i found the most ridiculous

it starts with the one main character's goal. sena comes to the small town to build a more inclusive and diverse version of silicon valley, literally going around the town talking abt buying up entire blocks of buildings to then build up the tech world of her dreams. how exactly she is financing this is still not clear to me bc even tho the book keeps on telling me that she is super rich and comes from a wealthy family, when we do meet her family it really doesnt come off that way. suspension of disbelief or whatever but it all just seemed very far fetched to me

our other main character, hazel, is stuck in the past after her whole family passed away. that and being quirky are pretty much her only personality traits. to top it all of, hazel repeatedly sits down to talk to curious george books in the library she works and one time she starts asking curious george questions abt orgasms and i just really had to put the book down and take a break right then and there

the romance is very much insta love. during their first meeting, hazel asks sena one single question (a pretty normal one at that) and sena goes on and on about how no one has ever 'seen' her or understood her the way hazel does. of course, falling in love with each other is the solution to all their issues that they shouldve actually gone to therapy for. and honestly its not even the falling in love part, its pretty much just the sex bc after sleeping with each other, they keep talking abt being completely changed people and that was sooo silly to me. (in general, didnt like how the sex scenes were written and also. wtf did they do to those poor strawberries.)

will not even get into the random paranormal subplot that added nothing important to the main plot

another issue i had with the book was the pacing. we spend almost half of it on 2 days and then boom in one sentence, weeks go by and it really didnt need to be that way. it only really made the progression of their relationship feel even more forced and unnatural. all the conflicts in the book (that didn't magically disappear after the sex) were solved super quickly and a little too easily. i mean the book does have an overdramatic climax but that was also very ridiculous and felt like such an easy way out for a certain character.

breaks my heart to say this abt a sapphic romance but this really wasnt the book for me

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was a book. I think the main relationship needed more time to be fleshed out, but I did enjoy the setting and the conflict of the change taking place in the town.

The plot was interesting, but I wasn’t connected to the characters at all. I understood their plot points and arcs and feelings, I just wasn’t emotionally invested in it. The relationship timing between Sean and Hazel was really weird for, like it happened way too fast, braked hard, then it was thrown back in drive, it felt disjointed to me. Overall it was a mediocre read for me since I wasn’t connected to the characters.

I have mixed feelings about Vintage and Vogue. I think the story started off slow and I am not a fan of instant love stories like what Sena and Hazel have. But, I did like the second half of the story. I liked the socio-political dynamics and the challenges of living in a small town.

This book was well written but I feel like it went from lust to love way to fast. It also ended far to soon in my opinion. But with that being said it was a quick read & a good way to spend the evening.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

This book, for the most part, was very enjoyable. The characters apart of the small town had actual personalities and acted like regular people (unlike some books where all the characters are annoying and make the entire story difficult to read), and the main characters were super interesting. One of my main issues with the book was that by the end, I didn’t feel like the couple had a whole lot of chemistry and just didn’t seem right for each other. All in all, I do think things wrapped up far too neatly and perfectly. For me, that kind of messed up the point the authors were approaching with regards to small town dynamics, complicated histories, and racism and entitlement. I thought they were on the verge of saying something important and displaying how messy and complicated the real world can be, but it ended up all being wrapped up with a nice little bow at the end. I do love that it had a happy ending tho.

Overall, this was a quick, easy read. I’m not typically a fan of love at very first sight. Thought the characters and plot could have been more developed. It’s an opposites attract, small town romance.



Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and bold strokes books for a copy of the eArc. This review is left voluntary.

I loved the idea and the characters in this book. There were some funny, sexy, and heartbreaking moments, but I felt the book was too over the place. I thought that the idea of turning the old town into something new was getting there, but never actually followed through until the very end when everything is just rushed into one chapter. I felt like the on-again/off-again relationship was more of a main storyline, and I get this is a romance novel, but it was slightly too many times considering how fast they feel for each other. Communication is the key.

The authors did well with the world-building, the history and the spice scenes though! I definitely will read something from these authors again, I just didn't feel it with this book.

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I was really intrigued by Sena's plot and her ideas to revitalize a small town; I honestly would have read an entire book about that. I thought it was a fantastic way to show how it's possible to move forward into the future while still respecting the past (yknow, excluding the literal atrocities and whatnot). I really adored Sena and thought she was a great character. She absolutely deserved better than I think what she got in this book. I am a Sena apologist and she did no wrong and she does not need to apologize ever.

However, I hate insta-love and that's exactly what this romance was. Hazel and Sena basically immediately fell in love and I didn't really understand why or feel the supposed connection these two had. It felt like there was a lot of telling us as readers how well they connected instead of showing us. And honestly, I spent most of the book wanting to throw things at Hazel. She was hurting everyone around her and they all just kept forgiving her instantly because she had lost people. Which- that's an explanation not an excuse. It doesn't give you the right to be a jerk to everyone around you for 5+ years. I warmed up to her a bit by the end of the book when she started trying to make things right but I still feel like she didn't really face any real consequences or really do much at all. At least she had acknowledged she was in the wrong and tried to make up for it though?

All in all, I do think things wrapped up far too neatly and perfectly. For me, that kind of messed up the point the authors were approaching with regards to small town dynamics, complicated histories, and racism and entitlement. I thought they were on the verge of saying something important and displaying how messy and complicated the real world can be, but it ended up all being wrapped up with a nice little bow at the end. That's typical romance stuff and I do love that it had a happy ending- but if that was the plan all along I wish the authors hadn't leaned so far into those themes as they did.

A sapphic romance with a very interesting storyline. There were some funny moments, but I still found the story a bit lacking. Regardless, I would recommend as it wasn't a bad read.



Thank you, Bold Strokes Books, and NetGalley for this ARC. 3.5 stars

Good, but could be better. The relationship between Sena and Hazel was fast but I kind of like the love or lust at first sight concept. As for the story itself there could have been more in-depth character development . I felt that the authors only scratched the surface of what really happens in a small town. I liked both characters, but at times Hazel felt a bit naive to me and Sena was entirely too emotional at times even though she kept saying I'm not usually this way. At times I really wanted to shake both characters. I feel like there needs to be a second book to tidy up the loose ends in this book. I would recommend this book and I look forward to what's next from these authors.

I respect what the authors were trying to do here. The concepts work, but the execution does not. Sena and Hazel have a whole opposites attract, enemies to lovers thing going, but it's also far too shallow. Sena is there opening up when they first meet, while actively claiming she never does this. Hazel is somehow supposed to be innocent and yet worldly. The pieces are close here, but they don't all fit together.

strong enough idea but executed sloppily - not enough invested into the central romance to make it compelling, characters a bit twee and schlocky.

When Hazel Butler found out the very rich whiz tech Sena Abrigo had arrived at the small town of ‘Owen Station’ there could be trouble. Never did she expect the trouble Sena would bring to town. Never did she expect to fall for the newcomer, either….but….life happens.
Sena looked at the small town as a stepping stone in her career. Taking slow living communities into the future. She could see it all but standing in her way was the very cute, sexy Hazel.
Hazel has lived in Owen Station her whole life. She loved the people and the small town equally. Now in comes Sena, looking like the sexiest woman Hazel has ever seen. While Hazel was fine protecting her community she wasn’t prepared to fall for Sena too.
The writers of this novel knew just how to navigate making a story with different attitudes towards change. Throw in a little para-normal and here you have a fun, interesting story. I like both characters plus the supporting cast lent it another dimension I didn’t expect. Very nice read.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bold Stroke Books