Fated Mates Live is happening March 23, 2024 at the William Vale Hotel in Brooklyn, and we'll be joined by Kate Clayborn, Nikki Payne, and Lauren of Christina Lauren!

On Kate Clayborn

Ok. So I know everyone knows how fabulous Kate is. Besides being brilliantly funny on Twitter (RIP? Are we saying RIP for this yet?) and also having a tremendous Substack that you should subscribe to, she just so happens to be one of the best contemporary romance novelists writing right now.

This is not hyperbole. Every time I sit down with a Kate Clayborn book, I think, "Good God. She is fucking great." (Her heroes also fuck great, iykwim)

It's hard to choose a favorite of her books -- I adore Love Lettering, which is lingering and romantic...and Love at First is so gorgeous...the writing, the romance, the wonderful world she builds for us to get cozy in for the duration of the book (both free right now in KU!). And Georgie, All Along, which is coming in January, is for sure one of my favorite romances of all time (preorder it right now is what I'm saying).

But I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Chance of a Lifetime series, which follows three best friends who go in on a lottery ticket and win. It's not enough money to quit jobs and buy islands (Did y'all see that $2 Billion dollar jackpot? Wild.), but it's enough to change lives. And each of the books in the series follows one of the friends making the choice to change her life. My favorite is Luck of the Draw, in which the heroine has to atone for her actions and, in doing so, trips into a fake relationship/forced proximity situation with a hero who is absolutely ON FIRE SEXY.

In very fun news, the first two books in the Chance of a Lifetime series are getting new covers! Kate revealed them today -- Beginner's Luck and Luck of the Draw -- and you can find them on shelves starting in December. LOOK HOW CUTE! They will make the best holiday gifts to the romance readers in your life!

Anyway. All this is to say, Kate writes bangers. And if you haven't read her, you should. Immediately.

There’s a new Kate Clayborn next week?????? I was just rereading Georgie, All Along and luxuriating in that world.

So pumped there’s a new book to look forward to!

read my full review of georgie, all along by kate clayborn here.

In this heartfelt tale of one woman’s quest to reinvent herself, the acclaimed author of Love Lettering and Love at First delivers a poignant, witty reflection on how the hopes, dreams, and stories from our past shape our future . . .

Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.

But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path.

Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.

Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . . .

my review:

A friend had recommended me this book and, trusting their judgment, I immediately requested it. And I’m so glad I did! Georgie, All Along was a sweet romance between two people who’ve spent their entire lives being misunderstood.

Georgie Mulcahy‘s back in her hometown, reeling from being let go from her long-time personal assistant role, having been told to go find herself. She’s ostensibly there to help her best friend Bel move into her new home and prepare for her new baby, but she arrives there to find that she’s got everything figured out. Bel unearths their old friend-fic, where the two of them had planned out their high school lives. Georgie sets out on a mission to accomplish everything in the journal, eventually with the help of Levi Fanning, whom she ends up being roommates with due to a misunderstanding.

I wasn’t aware that this was a dual-POV book going in, but I ended up really enjoying having both Georgie’s and Levi’s point-of-view! They’re both going through their own things: Georgie’s rediscovering herself and trying to accomplish the items on her list, while Levi is trying to make a life for himself in a town that only knows him by his bad reputation.

read my full review here.

📖: 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 🧚‍♀️📝🔢

✍🏽: 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧

Get the book!🌟

15 (Sometimes) Grumpy Neighbor Romance Books

15 (Sometimes) Grumpy Neighbor Romance Books

Neighbors to lovers might not be the first trope I think of when discussing popular tropes in romance novels, but it is one that delivers again and again. Initially, I wasn’t sure that I’d have enough solid recs to put together a list with this theme, but I ended up being overwhelmed by the choices! There are so many great books that feature couples who start out as neighbors – often as strangers…

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Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

Georgie, All Along by: Kate Clayborn Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.  But then Georgie comes across a forgotten…

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Review : Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 Stars

I loved this book. I was completely hooked from the start and it’s yet another page turner by Clayborn. This is a classic grumpy/sunshine story which is one of my favorite dynamics, and the dual POV lets you deep into the MCs thoughts and insecurities which I also love. At its heart it’s a hometown story about self-discovery that’s incredibly romantic, charming, angsty and poignant and I cried during the ending. It’s just so romantic!

Georgie is a personal assistant in Hollywood whose hectic job ends and she goes back to her hometown in Virginia to stay at her hippie parents house, only to find they have let Levi Fanning, a local who builds docks on the river, and his adorable dog Hank stay there. This turns into a “forced proximity” story that does not disappoint. Georgie finds her old “friendfic” wishlist notebook at her best friend’s house and decides to go back and do all the things she never did in order to find a new direction in life.

I fell in love with messy, spirited Georgie and troubled, handsome Levi (in fact, Leviiiiiiii is going on my list of Best Book Boyfriends) and his rescue dog Hank. Hank of course falls for Georgie instantly as she talks to him like he’s human, which is the cutest thing ever (and something I used to do with my beloved Leon). Since her best friend is too pregnant to participate, she invites Levi to do her wishlist with her which makes for some cute scenes that I won't spoil. Of course they both have past issues that they need to come to terms with and the character growth over the course of the book is lovely. The story proves that you don’t always need to have everything figured out in life. You can choose to live in the moment. You don’t need a plan. It's ok to be a little messy and chaotic. You can enjoy life as it comes, rekindle old connections, and choose love as a commitment.

I will definitely be listening to the audiobook when the book releases.

Out on January 24, 2023

••••••••

Thanks so much to NetGalley & Kensington for the ARC !!!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!!

This is the perfect romcom. Two characters working with themselves, through their own emotions, and Voila! True love! This has the angst, the humor, the romance and spice I needed for romcom bliss.

Georgie moves back home after being retired from her job as a Personal assistant in California with her screenwriter boss, she decides to take a long vacation. She is at once overwhelmed and underwhelmed by going back to small town life. At least, until she meets Levi Fanning.

One of my favorite parts of this story was Levi's dog, Hank. Hank is a constant source of comic relief and loveable cuteness that cannot be ignored.. So, yeah. A perfect romcom with a cut doggie. I cannot ask for more!

Out January 24, 2023!

The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn Published by Piatkus on March 26, 2024 Genres: Romance, Contemporary Pages: 320 – paperback, 420 – Kindle Edition Format Read: physical ARC Rating: 4 stars Source: Publisher Previous Books in Series: – PURCHASE LINKS Note: As an Amazon associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases! Blurb: Hairstylist Jess Greene has spent…

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Seven-timer Kate Clayborn returns to the Fated Mates studio (lol, jk there is no studio) to talk about about going home again in romance and to celebrate the launch of her new book, Georgie All Along, which you can get this week wherever books are sold! We talk about all the ins and outs of homecoming romances, what sends characters back to the beginning, what readers expect from these books, why they hit so hard and in so many ways, and how this trope intersects with small town romance. All that, and Sarah’s brought an X,Y chart to class.

You can find links to all the books we talked about in show notes.

Jess Greene has spent the last decade raising her sister Tegan, after her mother took off with her boyfriend. It was only when a popular podcast drew her attention that she realized the man who her mother left with was the subject of The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore. Keeping that secret to herself, Jess is one day surprised when the host of that podcast and her producer Adam Hawkins, show up on her doorstep. Tegan had found some correspondence Jess had hidden and contacted them. They were going on the road, using the postage dates of those post cards, to track down their mother and Lynton Baltimore. Kate Clayborn has a style of writing that holds a readers attention. From the opening page, I knew that it would be a hard story to turn away from. Our heroine Jess was so strong and yet also very delicate. Adam saw that from the very start and the way that he quietly admired and protected her was very compelling. The dynamic between Jess and Tegan was also very complicated. Jess had hidden things from her sister, in part because of Tegan’s age, but also because she herself was so young when she took charge of raising Tegan. She was embarrassed by her mother, as well as insecure over why their mother would leave her children. This story made me feel so many different emotions, not all of them happy and good. Yet they felt true and believable, which kept me turning the pages. The dynamic between Jess and Adam was truly spellbinding. Adam felt so much, right from the moment he met Jess. I found that really interesting because in this situation, Jess was not at her best. On the surface she was holding it together, but she was boiling with tension and feelings underneath. Despite all of that tension and turmoil, they were drawn to each other and gave strength to each other. The romance portion of this book was very well done and did not disappoint. So, why did I only give it a four rating? I’m not exactly sure, but maybe because Jess and Tegan’s story was so sad and frail? I’m still mulling over my response but I do know that I liked this book quite a bit. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest! Click this link to purchase this book!* The Other Side of Disappearing Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved *Amazon Associate- if you purchased this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

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REVIEW: Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

A wise and witty new novel that echoes with timely questions about love, career, reconciling with the past, and finding your path while knowing your true worth.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. PUBLISHER: Kensington PUBLICATION DATE: January 24, 2033. GENRE: Romance / Contemporary Romance A big thank you to Kensington for providing me with a review copy in exchange of an honest review. I have been reading and hearing about this book for months. How fantastic it was, how it became a new favorite for a lot of readers, and so on, so when asked my Twitter…

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Books I Read in 2023

#18 - Beginner's Luck, by Kate Clayborn

Rating: 3/5 stars

An extremely solid 3/5, with points given for an unapologetically intelligent heroine, and points subtracted for one of the major conflicts in the romance involving a high degree of miscommunication, which I generally dislike.

Oddly, for me what I liked best about this wasn't either of the leads (they're fine, but I didn't fall in love with either) but the nesting factor. A large part of their interactions involve fixing up Kit's house, or shopping at Ben's dad's salvage yard in order to fix up the house. I am one of the many people who, confined to home by the pandemic, got the urge to improve my living space, aided by a planned-but-delayed full apartment renovation in 2021. While I'm not out there scrounging for vintage chandelier parts and hinge plates for the historic home I don't have, I was completely in sympathy with the thrill of the hunt for the perfect item and the joy of small changes, the patience of respecting the process competing with the desire to make your space as perfect as possible.

I realize that's not going to speak to everyone, and it's sort of damning with faint praise that I enjoyed and remembered that aspect of the story more than the actual characters. I also think it's a little weird, and could have been addressed better or more thoroughly, the conflict between Kit's father's gambling problem and her lingering issues with it, and the fact that the entire premise of this series is that she and her friends went in together on what turned out to be a winning lottery ticket. What little page time was devoted to it seemed more like lampshading, "let's acknowledge this but move past it as quickly as possible." And in terms of series progression, would it have been better to start with a friend who didn't feel conflicted about her winnings, and save the one who felt conflicted about the money for the end? I think it might have been.

Book Notes: Georgie, All Along

To end February, Becca and I wanted to read and chat about Georgie, All Along, a new romance from Kate Clayborn, one of my favorite authors in the genre!

When Georgie Mulcahy finds herself unexpectedly unemployed from her PA job in L.A., she retreats to her hometown of Darentville, Virginia. Her immediate plan is house-sitting for her parents and helping her pregnant best friend baby-proof her house. But really Georgie is trying to figure out what direction her life should take next. Not an easy task when she has no clue what she wants, only how to organize the lives of others. Or when her parents double-book house sitters and Georgie ends up with handsomely taciturn Levi Fanning as her reluctant roommate, along with his adorable rescue dog, Hank. When she finds an old journal from her middle school days, filled with fictional musings of perfect high school days and dates with dreamy boyfriends, Georgie decides to use it to go on some adventures and maybe find herself along the way. Levi surprisingly offers to help and in the process Georgie gets to know the sweet (and quite sexy) side to a guy the whole town has written off.

Lori: Becca, so fun to read this with you! What were your first thoughts?

Becca: First, I loved that Kate (the author) didn't lean too heavily into the miscommunication trope. I appreciate it so much. Having a misunderstanding be the central conflict, where the girl sees the guy with another girl and just assumes things and they never talk about it drives me insane. Georgie and Levi, on the other hand, act like adults. They take a few steps back, breathe and regroup, and then they communicate. I love it.

Lori: In every Kate Clayborn romance I’ve read, she is so good about giving her characters a depth that goes beyond the tropes. They are flawed human beings doing their best with where they are, usually with some emotional scars in their backstory. She never takes the easy way out with her plot lines. This is just one of the reasons I love her novels. Her characters are always three-dimensional. And she puts them in some interesting situations too.

Becca: Like how Georgie heads back to her hometown and immediately runs into all of the opinions that people had of her when she was in high school? How well do you think she handled that? What would you have done in her place?

Lori: I think in the beginning it’s really hard for Georgie to separate out what other people think of her and what she thinks of herself. To make a conscious choice to not let their opinions influence her. In a way, Levi has to go on a similar journey. He’s let other people, namely his dad, define him based on who he was in his younger years. Now he’s so conscious of not giving anyone a reason to think he’s like he’d been in the past. Speaking as a person who does work in the same town where I went to high school, and regularly runs into old classmates, what comes up most for me is the reminder that I’m not that person anymore. Which is kind of where both Georgie and Levi land in the end. But it’s also interesting that Georgie goes back to something from high school to help her figure out her next steps.

Becca: I personally love the way she kick-starts figuring out what she wants from life. I think it's such a fun idea, to go back and do things from her high school "fic", or bucket list. Do you think that was what allowed her to get to the point where she's okay with who she is?

Lori: I do. I think since she feels so lost and blank in the beginning, it was helpful for her to revisit some of the things she thought could happen in high school, even as she recognizes they are over the top. I liked her attitude going into it, not necessarily expecting firm answers, just wanting to get back to a place where she had some imagination for her future. And it turns out to be what reconnects her to who she is at her core.

Becca: Yes, Georgie's flightiness and inability to plan for the future, which everyone sees as a quirky bad habit, ends up being her saving grace. I love that she turned that “flaw” on its head and comes to accept it as a special part of who she is. So much of life is people asking you what you're going to do next.

Lori: So true.

Becca: It's nice to see a character who doesn't have it all planned out, and to have that shown as being okay. You don't always need to know what your next step is.

Lori: Such an unexpected conclusion for Georgie to reach, and one I love for her as well! As much as romance is about the happy ending, it was so refreshing that Georgie didn’t have her life tied up in a bow at the end.

Any romance readers should be sure to add Georgie, All Along to their TBR’s!

— Lori & Becca