Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood books for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Amber has a life plan, to get her grandmas pub back and to have a baby. She has a relationship with Bradley that’s going nowhere and her friend Tyler seems to be head over heels in love with her but how does this all fit in with her life plans?

It was a refreshing start to the book with Amber taking the reins and working out what she wants. It was nice to see a strong female. Tyler was such a loveable character and you hoped he would get his happily ever after.

The characters were great and it was a quick read. I did find the plot quite repetitive and there wasn’t a massive plot behind it. However it was very easy to read. If you like friends to lovers tropes and a slow burn then you will
Enjoy this one.

Well I read the whole thing and I didn’t hate it, but I do have a few thoughts holding me back from loving this novel. First of all, the two leads seem aware pretty quickly that there are feelings and chemistry between each other, and I get why he doesn’t act, but the female lead just needs a bit of a talking to, she puts barriers in the way at every turn and frankly , she needs to get a bit of a grip. Thirty is not that old and her decision to start a business and have a baby seem somewhat unplanned…. But then she spends the entire time hurting this poor chap who is there trying his best to help her and it’s just pretty annoying, I mean, if I was his friend I’d be shouting ‘move on!’ And why she decides it’s an excellent idea to keep going back and re-hashing things with her ex is beyond me, so all these things kind of took me out of routing for the romance and were just generally irksome. But otherwise, it was a traditional, angst ridden ride to that happy ending required.

Interesting story about a woman desiring to have a baby on her own as she is aging and without a partner. I think Dove did a good job portraying the reality of the situation and how the characters dealt with this circumstance. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a lighthearted, quick and easy romance read which moves along at a reasonable pace. However the miscommunication trope is one of my least favorite tropes and this, coupled with a very slow-burn romance, which is friends-to-lovers, had me feeling a bit meh about the story overall. I didn’t particularly warm to Amber, who is a little too headstrong for my liking - not listening to advice from her closest friends and having a real martyr complex. Tyler is frustratingly submissive and slow to make his move and this, coupled with so much miscommunication between the pair gets annoying. Many thanks however to Boldwood books for sending me the widget and to NetGalley for allowing me to get an early copy of the book which is out on 15th November 2024.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

I usually love friends to lovers & pregnancy trope but this one missed the mark for me. It draaaaaaaags on. The idea of them having a baby together doesn’t even come into play until almost 60% in. The characters are incredibly immature. I looked forward to this one but it missed the mark for me.

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

Very boring, immature characters, the story kept dragging on, i couldn't just finish it. It was a dnf for me, unfortunately.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
An enjoyable read but ultimately not for me. I’d still recommend as you could love it and some aspects were really good!

I found this book to be easy to read and I whizzed through it. I was absorbed and I did like the characters and the story was sweet. Friends to lovers isn’t my favourite as I do prefer the angst of an enemies to lovers plot…but I wanted to give this a go as I liked the whole premise otherwise. It didn’t quite meet my expectations but I would still read more by Rachel Dove. Perhaps it’s just the tropes that didn’t do it for me in this particular book.

🌈 Friends to Lovers
🌈Contemporary Romance

Amber and Tyler are the best of friends. When the opportunity arrives for Tyler to finally let Amber know how he feels, Amber realises she's had more than a friend all along.

This was a cute friends to lovers romance, so if you are in the mood for this trope, you'll enjoy this one. I think I might have OD'd on Friends to Lovers recently, so it seemed a little formulaic to me and I found it a bit hard to relate to Amber. The third act was a bit of a struggle for me to complete.

Overall though, a light and entertaining read.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Cute friends to lovers and a really quick read!
Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Dove, and Boldwood Books for the free arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Plot:
Amber is about to hit her 30th birthday, so of course the panicking is starting to set in. She was supposed to have opened her bar by now and most importantly, she was supposed to have a baby too. Her current boyfriend isn't helping her reach those goals. He's grown distant and not responsive to any of her communication, so Amber decides to end the relationship to focus on herself again.
Tyler, her head chef, has been busy pining over Amber since he started working there. Amber is finally single and it's time for Tyler to shoot his shot.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It was empowering to see Amber realize what she wanted out of life and see her go for it. Normally these types of books start with the female lead getting blindsided and heartbroken, so it was refreshing to watch her take the reins back. Tyler's character was also very cute at the beginning. He was good at hiding his overwhelming crush (at least hiding it from Amber) and he was a great friend.

The second half of the book didn't sit as well with me. The relationship felt like more of a high school relationship and Amber was pushing him away every other paragraph. It felt like a huge character shift from who she was in the beginning. The only other big thing was Amber's obsession with having a baby. It was told to the reader multiple times in similar ways. I would have liked to see more of her obsession, not just be told it was still there every chapter.

Overall, I thought this was a refreshing short romance and I enjoyed it!

Not sure who decided that was a good idea but why does this book use ' instead of " for direct speech. It bothered me so much. I know it's not necessarily wrong if your using British English.

Also, for some reason the book is written from the third person perspective, which is fine, but at the same time there is inner monologue from the first person perspective too. I found that to be kinda confusing and also unnecessary.

I guess there is nothing to be done about the writing and probably personal preference if you like it or not but the quotation marks should really be fixed before this book is officially released (propably too late for print, but maybe at least for the epub version).

This book was soooo cute! I love love love friends to lovers and pregnancy books so it had all my favorite things, plus it was so well written. I will absolutely be checking out more from the author!

Oh my goodness, what a book this has been. My poor emotions! I have literally had all the feels and I’m not ashamed to admit I cried reading this.

Amber is just so likeable, you could easily imagine being friends with her. Every single one of us have dated a Bradley. I definitely rolled my eyes at him a few times. I wish I’d had a friend like Tyler. He’s just completely gorgeous, one of those men with a really good heart.

Dove is the queen of a romance. This book is definitely a very strong contender for my favourite book by Dove. I’ve had all the feels, moments of laughing, crying and been so caught up in this one that I’ve devoured it in just hours.

This has all the makings of a screen worthy plot. I absolutely loved this from beginning to end. This has been perfectly paced and executed. Don’t You Want Me Baby is just a glorious comfort hug wrapped in a beautiful bookish gem.

Everything about this book has been brilliant. Our romance queen is back, with a polished crown and a gorgeous masterpiece filled with the best characters.

This is a book that deserves all the praise and recognition. Dove is definitely at the top of her game with this one and it really is a beautiful and wonderful story.

I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this one.

3.5 stars. Overall this book was enjoyable. It was a little predictable and the characters were slightly annoying at times because they weren’t coming out and saying how they felt about each other. But I like friends to lovers and accidental pregnancy so I enjoyed those aspects a lot. Tyler and Amber were meant to be together and I liked that he knew it the whole time. I just wish we got to see a little more of it.

I enjoyed this quick and easy read. It’s great for fans of the friends-to-lovers trope, which is one of my favorites. The plot was interesting; I also really liked the characters and cared about what happened to them. Tyler and Amber are both caring and hard-working people, and it was easy to root for them.

However, this wasn’t a five star read for me for two reasons. First, the premise (about wanting a baby ASAP) wasn’t totally convincing to me; the heroine is only 30 and it seems wildly irresponsible to want a newborn baby AND a new, demanding business working nights at the same time. Additionally, most of the conflict felt unnecessary, just there for the sake of dramatic tension. Tyler essentially had a rational solution to every problem, but Amber kept responding “Oh no! It could never work! I am so heartbroken!” Of course, characters in a novel don’t always have to make the right decision, and growth makes a story more interesting, but it just got tiring after so many times.

It was still a fun read and I found it hard to put down despite my frustrations with Amber. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free eARC.

Content notes in case it’s helpful to someone: language, alcohol use, sex, mild violence

Excellent… I was totally involved in the story, the characters and their lives. Emotional and poignant… beautifully written and so evocative. A truly fantastic read!