This book has been a discovery!
I really liked the chemistry that Remi and Maya, our protagonists, have, since it develops in a way that convinces you that they feel attracted and then fall in love.

Many label it as enemies to lovers, but for me it is more of a rival to lovers, since both protagonists work in a bar and there are confrontations.

The characters are adorable, double pov, chapter titles that leave you stung and spiced, great depth in each character, a supporting cast with character.

A good LGBTQ cocktail that is served alone and leaves you in a very good mood with an engaging rhythm and fun companions.

With a backdrop of the city of Seattle, this story is light, fun and just the right amount of spice without generating hives on your stomach.

I recommend it? Clear. It's fun and you have a great time with each drink that is mentioned at the beginning of each chapter.

#InWalkedTrouble #NetGalley.

Thank you NetGalley and Dana Hawkins for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had never heard of Hawkins until this book but honestly I would read more. This story in particular wasn’t my favourite but it was a cute slight enemies to lovers and of course who doesn’t love a sapphic read but it almost felt rushed in some parts.
The way the characters are developed and we get to hear of their past and how things have shaped them into who they are, I really enjoyed, I liked that we got that depth and had characters who were flawed and had experienced heartbreak and were afraid to be themselves at times and to truly feel safe in someone else. The way their relationship shot from 0-100 was a little too quick for me and I feel the “I love you” was premature and the quickness of the relationship felt over the top but thats just personal preference. The tension built in the beginning and how that was explored and then finally had them get together I felt was really well done and I highly enjoyed.
Overall it was a good read and I really did enjoy all the characters, even the background ones who played major roles in these characters journey.
The author isn’t afraid to show darkness in her characters and I think thats a great quality in this read because it allows you a better chance to feel the story.
On the whole, its a good read and I would recommend to anyone looking for a quick and easy read with some fun and a cute love story.

I really enjoyed this book. The chemistry between Remi and Maya is wonderfully developed and their relationship is perfectly paced. I loved the supporting cast of characters and was excited about the inclusion of the bonus chapter for the next book in this series. I really enjoyed the humor that was scattered throughout the story. I laughed and I cried, which to me is the perfect combination. Simply put this book gave me all the feels.

Lesbian enemy-to-lovers romcom? Yes please! This book is filled with all the ingredients for a loved romcom: lovable characters, spice, dual POV, catchy chapter titles, backstories with depth, fun side characters and a clear love of the Pacific NW. This book is a clear love story to both Seattle and the LGBTQ community….oh and to a good cocktail!

If you enjoy witty lgbtq romcoms, then this one is for you!

I loved that this book was set in Seattle! Workplace rivals to lovers is one of my very favorite tropes and this one was so fun and well done. The pacing was great and it was easy to read. I recommend!

In Walked Trouble ARC Review!

To catch you up on this one:
💕 Sapphic Romance
💕 Rival Bartenders
💕 Enemies to Lovers
💕 Set in Seattle

…which means of course I finished it while I was on a flight leaving Seattle.

So Remi and Maya are rival bartenders in Seattle who are trying to get this bonus from their job for totally different reasons and competition ensues.

This is such a cute and light read, and I love that this book contains so much communication. These characters talk so much about their lives and troubles and try to understand each other while also empathizing.

I really resonated with Maya, who struggles with being perfect and achieving goals that she set and has to reassess throughout the book. Comparatively, Remi felt like way more of a wild card, and I wanted to protect her at all costs while also wanted to occasionally punch her for being so stubborn. It made them such a nice duo to root for!

Some pieces of this book felt a little convoluted when I started reading it but then added to a lot of “oh NO” moments later on, so it panned out just fine.

A thing I did appreciate so much, and will also throw random kudos to Devil’s Chew Toy for this too, was the love for Seattle. It’s such a specific city and to mention so many places like UW and Green Lake and Renton and setting the bar near Pike Place? I love it, I always love when books are set in my city so I get to see how much other people love my city and why they love it.

This was a really fun romp, and I actually appreciate that it wasn’t too spicy. I’m not a big spicy gal, so this was perfect for me.

Anyways, go pick it up, this book drops March 29th! 💕💕💕

#sapphicbookrecs #bookrecommendations #queerbooks #sapphicbooks #arcreview #arcrecommendations #arcreader #bookstagram #bookreview #danahawkins #inwalkedtrouble

Another fabulous book by Dana Hawkins. Her books drag you in so much that they are hard tomout down. Nice that Charlie was part of the storyline too. Can't wait for her next book!

3.5/5 stars
In Walked Trouble is a cute sapphic workplace rivals to lovers romantic comedy story that is short, sweet and to the point.

I enjoyed both Maya and Remi as characters. I thought their driving backstories were wonderfully written, with a lot of acceptance around found family that juxtaposes with Maya’s family and their loss. I understood *why* Remi wants to own a house, I just was not convinced the whole time that it was a serious goal for her, especially because of how the epilogue ends. We all look at Zillow and gawk at the unaffordable housing market, so I don’t think that was a strong enough driving force for the rivals to lovers aspect of the story. Some flaws with Maya’s character was the description of loans - as a person who has taken out multiple loans in graduate school, it was reading like a person who doesn't understand how higher education and loans work, which caused a lot of incongruity for me. Overall, I really appreciated how different Remi and Maya were as characters from their physical description to how they handle conflict. Remi’s trauma and Maya’s grief are well handled and addressed. You see how it affects them as people, but doesn’t define them either. It makes them seem more realistic. Also, I do not usually like the miscommunication trope, but because of how it was done with the character’s backstories/ traumas it did not have the whiny, almost grating, feel that most communication tropes have and it added a realistic touch to the story.

I enjoyed the pacing of this book, and how the chapters each have a drink that give a little summary description for that chapter. I wish the romance was more built up? It had an instant “I love you” aspect which I don’t love in romance books, I would have liked to see them fall in love with each other instead with maybe one or two more chapters. The plot was pretty good, but some of the drink combinations sounded HORRIBLE. I literally wrinkled my nose at some of the drinks they were making. I also loved all of the side characters and how diverse the story was.

There were a few grammatical errors in the book and some conversations/ fights were difficult to follow. I’m not sure if some of the fights were convoluted because I was not reading a paper copy or what.

I also had no idea this was a second novel! I am super interested in reading the first one because of the coffee shop theme. This book reads as a standalone and the brief stint we see of the women in the first book actually made me very interested in reading the other novel!

Dana Hawkins is an amazing artistic writer. This is the first book I have read about lesbian love but funny thing I didn't feel like I was reading anything different from a fantastic love story!

Dana writes about two young women coming together in a workplace and them being basic enemies only to find out that they were very attracted to one another.

This amazing story takes place in the Seattle area. Remi has been working at Nueve for Gabriella. It is a moderately upscale Puerto Rican bar and restaurant. Gabriella is bringing another bartender to be in competition with Remi for a cash bonus at the end of the summer. Remi thought she was being called in early for her shift but instead she was being introduced to Maya. The trouble that walked in!
Maya had come home from Minnesota as she was done with her four year degree and was now waiting to go back for her nursing degree. She came home home to help her mom with her 12 year old sister. Mayas sister's name is Harper and she has diabetes. Their mom has been raised both girls by herself for as long as she can remember. Harper was three when their father passed away.

Remi grew up in foster care. She lived in 8 different homes. That is where she met her very best friend Ben. He is and will always be her roommate. That is unless he finds The One! Remi's parents were both drug addicts and had both past away.
It was because of all that Remi had gone through and continued to go through she did not trust and she didn't want to love again because of what had happened to her last time.

I will stop there as I don't want to give away anything Suffice it to say that this has funny parts and joyous parts and rather sorrowful parts.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and Remi and Mayas journey.
I recommend this book it was very well written and I quite enjoyed it!

This was a bit of a skim read for me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The characters were fine. The main relationship was too. The enemies to lovers aspect was fun at times. There just wasn't enough to really pull me in.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

3.5 stars rounded up
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In Walked Trouble is a delightfully queer workplace, rivals to lovers, dare I even say forced proximity romance sure to get your feet kicking. Short, cozy and right to the point.

I loved the pacing on this one, with just the right amount of slow burn. It does have an element of instant love to it I didn’t quite care for. But overall, it was the ideal length to establish the relationship and follow through on it without it dragging. It’s not a very spicy novel, which I personally enjoyed, but allowed the relationship to shine in its own way. The plot was pretty good, albeit a little cringey in some aspects, the competition bits especially. I felt content with the story and relationship I was given and how it progressed. I even enjoyed how miscommunication played into the relationship, with its roots in the characters trauma and insecurities. It added a realistic touch to the story.

The characters were really well defined and written. Remi and Maya are so different from each other and you really got to see that in the writing of them and their narration. Remi’s trauma and Maya’s grief are well handled and addressed. You see how it affects them as people, but doesn’t define them either. It makes them seem more realistic.

I was unaware going into this one that it’s the second in a series. But it reads very much as a standalone. I’m curious about the other book now. I had a lot of fun reading this one and will definitely follow the author for future books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the chance to read an ARC of In Walked Trouble.

In Walked Trouble is a delightful queer romance about two rival bartenders who, in the process of competing for the same bonus, fall in love.

This book was not without its dramatic elements, and it was unputdownable from the very first page. I was immediately drawn to Remi and her tragic past, and found myself wanting to know more. Hawkins was quite skilled at making Remi's trauma both grounded and believable, both in what it was and how to effected her.

Maya, Remi's love interest, was equally as compelling. She harboured a broken heart after the death of her father and was desperate to connect to him. As she and Remi grew closer, they began opening up to each other about these things, and it was genuinely healing to read these characters healing themselves.

I will say I found the third act breakup to be contrived and I absolutely detest miscommunication. All they needed to do was talk to each other! It felt a little unrealistic as I was reading it, but as the story went on and Remi's trauma came to the forefront, it became a little more understandable. However, it was the one part of the story I didn't enjoy.

There were a few odd mistakes in the text that I found jarring, but they didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading about competent women falling in love. I will be seeking out the first book in the series to read Charlie's story.

"in walked trouble" is a workplace, rivals-to-lovers romance, the second in dana hawkins's series "single in seattle." i really enjoyed maya and remi's chemistry, their progress from disliking each other to becoming friends and then falling in love, and i felt like their character arcs were really fulfilling, i would've given it four stars except for some issues i had: 1) the ending to epilogue felt extremely rushed and like their conflicts were resolved way too quickly and almost glossed over, considering that the rest of their relationship developed in such a good way. but this was only a small portion of the book at the very end so it wasn't a dealbreaker, but 2) gabriella's spanish. now, i don't claim to be the expert of bilingualism, but i am a bilingual latina woman whose first language is spanish and who spends a lot of time around other bilingual people. and gabriella's spanish didn't feel realistic to begin with, and it felt like she was supposed to be puertorican but spoke like a spaniard. that, along with the grammatical mistakes was very frustrating.

I read the first few chapters and just wasn’t pulled in. I didn’t care about the characters or the plot. Some of the metaphors or descriptions used were too wordy and pulled me away from the actual point of the story. I found it distracting enough I couldn’t finish the book. It has potential but in the end I don’t think that it is enough for me to want to finish it.

I’m gonna be honest… when I read the description I was not aware of how strong the enemies to lovers plot was. I don’t like enemies to lovers plots so much so this book was not my favorite.

The writing and concept was cute but I didn’t like the enemies to lovers :(

Rating: 3.5

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Genre: Sapphic romcom

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Tropes: enemies to lovers, found family

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Main Concepts: Remi really wants to buy a house and to do so, she needs to get promoted. Her boss, Gabriella, calls Remi into her office and in hopes that it’s the news Remi finally wants, she calls her loan officer to tell him she’ll have the money soon. In walks Maya, the new bartender that Gabriella hires to shake things up and bring in new sales, becomes way more than Remi could have ever imagined.
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Spice level: 1/5

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Overall thoughts:

Overall, I do think this book is a cute sapphic read and does have a lot of character growth and depth. Remi and Maya are super cute together and really balance each other out. On the other hand, I do feel like the pacing was fast and somethings were kinda of just thrown together. The time jumps were a little unexpected to me and I would have enjoyed the book more without them. I do recommend this book for the cute found family trope and some of the chemistry though.

In walked trouble is a well written book, it has the characters handling trauma impeccable, it’s a slow burn romance which a lot of people love, it’s easy to follow the story line, Dana Hawkins has truly captured everything within this book

As someone who loves enemies to lovers. This was cute. I enjoyed the chemistry between the two main characters, and I was rooting for them to get together. The setting being in a bar felt different too, and I enjoyed how it all played out. It all felt like a nice cozy cup of tea and I will keep an eye out for more books from this author!
This was cute

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for giving me the chance to read this novel in advance in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my early e-arc copy of this book.

I am a huge fan of sapphic romances, so this one was an easy pick up for me!

The book takes place in Seattle, which is also a huge bonus for me! I loved the PNW vibes.

However, the overall story wasn't anything revolutionary and I felt myself wanting more from the character development and the plot.

This book is cute and I liked it. The characters are deep, their traumas very well written, and the chemistry between them is really hot. I love slow burn and I love enemies to lovers (also here it’s not an enemies to lovers but a rivals to lovers, please tagged the books properly!) and this book left me satisfied in that way.
But there was something off for me. Remi never get the psychological help she needed and Maya is always the one who had to resolve things between them. The final resolution felt a little bit rush, but in the end the book was cute. It’s an enjoyable reading.

Thank you Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the arc!