Member Reviews
It's been a while since I've read one of Teagan Hunter's books and I'm always down to read a book that reminds me of You've Got Mail so I was excited to start this one. The concept was cute and I loved the side characters, but I never really felt connected to either main character and found myself skimming a lot. I'm hoping that Jasper and Dylan get a story next!
Who doesn't love banter?! I couldn't get enough. I smiled way too much, I laughed out loud. If you are in the mood for make you feel good book - this is it. Fast paced, witty, cannot put it down book - it will suck you in. You won't be able to get enough of Olive and Jude. I would have read it in couple days if the flu hadn't knocked me down ( I can't read book in a day - I have responsibilities - work and children to take care of).
This book has everything romance novel should have - meet cute (I might be stretching with cute, there were some swear words involved), endless wit and sarcasm (there are plenty) and irresistible main characters that you just cannot avoid not falling in love with (this is true), you cheer for them all along.
Go read it!
I’ve really enjoyed many of Teagan Hunter’s previous books so was looking forward to reading this one too.
It’s a cute, lighthearted and easy read. I liked both main characters but didn’t love them- I struggled a bit to connect with them and to truly believe the depth of their feelings. Possibly because I’m not a huge fan of Hollywood/ social media/ influencer romances in general. I didn’t feel like much happened in the story, it just kind of ticked along nicely but there weren’t many stand out moments for me.
There were some good side characters and possible set ups for future books if this becomes a series- I’d really like Jasper (with Dylan!) and Cait to get their own stories.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this arc in exchange for my honest review.
I received a copy of this for my honest review.
Our FMC is a plus size model living in New York. As an exercise from her therapist she's been writing down all her feelings, like a diary. But instead of a journal or even a word document, she has been writing them as DMs to one of Hollywood's biggest actors. He's never read them, so it's a fun little secret. Until our MMC has a humiliating interview and his publicist makes him take over his brother social media. That's when he finds the messages, and being bold, responds. They start messaging, each other but he doesn't say that he's the brother. Will they go beyond DMs? Will he reveal who he is? And what happens when you're thrown into the world of Hollywood?
What a delightful story! We follow Olive, a plus size model and influencer, who has recently lost her father and started using a large celebrity’s DMs as a type of diary to work through her grief. Sure it’s a little weird that she shares all her secrets with a celebrity, but with so many followers her messages have always gone unread. That is, until he responds.
I love the way this story’s plot unfolds. There’s enough to keep it interesting even when you can see where things are going. What I really loved from this story were the characters and their other relationships. We get to see siblings from a big Hollywood family and best friends that really take care of each other!
There were some moments and dialogue that didn’t land for me, but over all it was a sweet and fun romcom that I really enjoyed reading!
🌶️🌶️🌶️
3.5
*Thank you to Montlake pub for this ARC via NetGalley! All opinions are my own and given freely*
#TheDMDiaries #NetGalley
This book was so much fun!
Olivia, a plus size fashion influencer, uses social media not only for her job, but as a digital diary - the catch being she spills her heart and hopes and dreams out into the DMs of famous actor Jasper, believing he will never see it.
Jasper’s brother, Jude, is going through a PR crisis after a bad live interview to promote his latest movie, and takes to managing his brothers social media in order to post more content of him living life ignoring the press. He stumbles across Liv’s messages and responds pretending to be Jasper. After having a meet-cute in real life, Olivia and Jasper soon realise who the other is.
I’m obsessed with Jude’s siblings and their relationship. They seem to be the perfect support system and are so welcoming to Olivia! Olivia also has the best friends who will do anything for her.
I really enjoyed the majority of this book, except the third-act breakup, where it seemed Olivia just cut off Jude without giving him an opportunity to talk. It felt very high school and not very mature at all. Especially when Jude is the cutest MMC and so totally head over heels for her! And talk about that grand gesture from Jude at the end, swoooooonworthy!
Thank you to Teagan Hunter, Montlake and NetGalley for this ARC!
The start of this was great! But as things progressed, it became more and more unlikely and unbelievable in terms of situation. I was a bit disappointed that this didn't deliver but perhaps I'm just a curmudgeonly old lady.
Thank you netgally and montlake for the ARC.
So i really like the first half then not so much, it felt too long.
it was entertaining though and Jude was cute.
Spicy: PG-13
Last weekend I went on a romance reading binge, this was the first of three I tore through over a dreary, rainy weekend. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I have not read anything from Hunter and the premise, falling for someone’s false identity, can be a tough one to pull-off. It is a fine balance and they don’t always work as well as You’ve Got Mail. I am really happy to say this one succeeded.
Olive O’Brien is a plus-size influencer with a crush on Jasper Rafferty, one of the biggest actors in the world. For romance reasons, she has started using his DMs as her personal journal, telling him about her life, her hopes, her fears. She knows he will never respond, he barely uses social media. Until the day he does. Thing is, it is not Jasper that is responding, it is his brother Jude. And so starts a flirtation between OIive and Jude, all while Olive thinks she is talking with his brother.
Spoiler Alert here: this does not go on for long, which I very much appreciated! Olive and Jude figure it out fairly quickly and move on. I liked that Hunter did this, the initial getting to know each other was under pretense, but it was sorted out in short order so these two could go on to build a relationship. There is of course a 3rd act breakup of sorts, but it felt organic and true to the story.
I’m going to highly recommend this one and I am going to be heading off to read some of Hunter’s back catalog. I also cannot wait to spend more time with the characters introduced in this book and hope there will be more books forthcoming!
This one is out in July and I would plan on grabbing for a great vacation read.
This was a brilliant romcom. I was rooting for jude the whole way through and i loved all the characters and their dynamic. The book was slightly long however it was a good read
This book was a sweet, heartfelt romance that had me swooning and falling in love right along with our two quirky characters!!
Jude and Olive cross paths by chance and it ends in disaster, but unbeknownst to them, fate has more planned. When Jude comes across his brother’s Insta DM’s he can’t help but feel a connection with the beauty on the other side. A friendship quickly starts and an undeniable connection made. The only problem, she doesn’t know it’s Jude she’s talking to!
I absolutely love Jude and his crazy family. They balanced one another out and I love how they had each other’s backs. Olive, her roommate and Mrs. Hammish are a hilarious trio and I loved everything about them.
The storyline, characters and overall plot was original, and refreshing! I laughed so much and enjoyed this book. There isn’t a lot of spicy time which I didn’t mind because I love that these two were building something and you could feel they had a solid foundation.
A must read romance to warm up the spring!
I really liked the idea of this book and I think the story had so much potential, but it just missed the mark for me.
The characters were fun and the book had a solid foundation, but I just lost interest in the storytelling. I didn’t think there was a whole lot of character development, it was two dimensional and the whole book just felt very surface level.
The part of the book that intrigued me most was the secret pseudonym identity. I really enjoy when that trope is done well! But sadly I don’t think it was done as well as it could have been. Olive found out Jude’s identity too soon (before 40%), so the whole premise of the book was lost after that.
There was a lot of repetition in the professional / career side of things, and quite frankly a lot of complaining on both parts. There were some whining inner monologues that just bored me to tears and I couldn’t relate to the characters.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Tropes:
- Celebrity Romance
- Secret Pseudonym Identity
- Plus Size FMC
- Romantic Comedy
The DM Diaries tells the story of Olive and Jude. Olive is a plus size model and influencer with big dreams. Which cause a considerable amount of stress. She copes by sending all her dear diary thoughts to The DM of jasper Rafferty-a famous actor, thinking he will never see them anyway. Well turns out she's partially right, because it's not Jasper who finds them.. it's his brother Jude. And when messages are exchanged, a connection is felt, but it's only a matter of a time before Olive learns she's talking to a fraud.
I loved the plot and the characters, but I do wish they had a little more depth.
Thank you NetGalley for gifting me a copy of this eArc in exchange for an honest review
This story started off strong, but I had to DNF at 57%. The writing was great and the characters were fun, something just happened early in the book that I just didn’t love. This story was set up as a “mistaken/hidden identity” and I was here for that. I’m obsessed with that trope honestly. The fact that they worked out who the other person was by 40% kinda ruined it for me. Then it flows into silence, which I could’ve worked with, but then the story immediately picks up with contact and groveling (though we can see she doesn’t need much before she is thinking about forgiving him.)
Th writing style and the characters and the beginning of the plot were absolute bangers, I just really fell off after 40%. I wish we could’ve stretched the mistaken identity thing until much later in the book personally.
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of the dm diaries.
I really liked this book! I enjoyed the complexity of both main characters. I thought Olive was shown to have so much personality and not kept in one box.
I also liked seeing Jude’s family dynamic highlighted.
I would recommend this book.
What a great story! I absolutely devoured this one. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for letting me read this early. I love all this authors books!
Olivia is a NYC influencer who uses Jasper’s (a famous actors) DMs as her digital journey thinking he will never see him. So when Jasper’s brother Jude stumbles on the account and starts to respond as if he were Jasper, it is only a matter of time before Olivia realizes who she is talking to.
Teagan always has a knack for banter and of course, this was done so well. I loved how close Jude was with his siblings as well as Olivia’s relationship with her roommate. The influencer angle felt realistic and complimented the celebrity component, as both MCs were used to being in the spotlight. What I did not love about this one was the third act break up situation. It seemed kind of immature from Olivia’s part just because she did not give Jude a chance to talk it out. I also thought the couple did not have date for a long time before this happened! Still, I will continue to read all of Teagan's book and am excited for the next one.
Read if you like:
-Fashion influencers
-Celebrity romance
-Strangers to lovers
-Close siblings
-NYC setting
This was a sweet romantic comedy with what I would consider a moderate amount of steam. Olive is a plus-size model with a mission to highlight sustainable, environmentally responsible brands and an abiding love for both coffee and wine (my kind of girl), and Jude is a movie star from a famous family looking to make his big comeback after taking some time off from acting. A few chances encounters - along with Jude's famous older brother Jasper's Instagram account acting as Olive's online diary and Jude's "accidental" perusal of Olive's innermost thoughts - put them together in one adorable meet cute after the next.
The plus-sized representation was well executed, and I loved seeing a bigger bodied main character who is successful in a career field that her body type is not typically written into. I also fully appreciated the very real and relatable moments in which Olive and Jude both struggle with their respective pressures.
There were moments, however, that I found just a little tough to believe. NO SPOILERS, but it truly didn't click in my mind how they would encounter each other in person as often as they did without recognizing each other, particularly given their professions.
This is a sweet story with a very cute couple that evokes some strong emotions, and I enjoyed the push/pull of their journey together.
DNF at 20%. I just couldn't get into this story. I struggled with the characters...they read one-dimensional. I think the author could have left some things out of the story. Some of the descriptions and monologues felt like overkill. This book just didn't work for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me this book to read in advanced!
this story was very entertaining at times! But I found the 2 main characters lacked a lot of depth in my opinion! But I loved the concept of a plus sized model being added to this story! But I would of loved to have known more about the characters.. I feel like all I really know about them is Jude is an actor from a rich family and olive is just a plus sized model.. nothing else. I did. love Jasper his brother and would love to know if a story will be written about him and maybe Jude’s publicist?? (Wink wink) anyway it was a very lighthearted/fun read!