Julie's Review: In a Not So Perfect World

Author: Neely Tubati Alexander
Series: None
Publication Date:  March 19, 2024
Publisher: Harper Perennial 
Pages: 328
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Find someone who pushes you
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Sloane Cooper is up for her dream job as a designer for a top video game company. During the interview, though, she somehow promises the all-male panel that she’ll remain single and fully dedicated to the work. It’s actually fine—after her last boyfriend cheated on her, she vowed to focus on her career anyway. Enter Charlie, aka Hot Neighbor Guy, a near-stranger who shocks her with the offer of an all-inclusive trip to a Turks and Caicos resort. The catch? Charlie originally planned the trip with his ex, and asks Sloane to pose as his new girlfriend to make his old flame come running back. Against her better judgment, Sloane says yes; she can use the time away to develop a game design that will dazzle the Catapult team and get her a job offer. Despite sparks flying in paradise, the trip can’t lead to more. As their connection deepens, Sloane is reminded that she can’t fall for Charlie and get knocked off her professional path. Besides, he’s trying to win back his true love. Can Sloane figure out a way to move past heartbreak, land the job of her dreams, and avoid catching feelings? The zombie apocalypse would be easier to solve—at least she’s prepared for that. ~amazon.com

Review: It is rare that I get time to myself but I had that after dropping my daughter back at college after Spring Break and in that time I finished this absolutely delightful book. Love Buzz was a favorite in 2023 and In a Not So Perfect World is in no way a Sophomore slump by Ms. Alexander. The characters in this book are just delightful but not without their share of foibles. Sloane has always loved playing video games and is now poised to get her big break at the biggest gaming company. Coming off a pretty bad break up, she doesn't even flinch when the 3 men ask her to basically devote herself to the company and stay single. Yes, it's all kind of illegal but I get the feeling this isn't uncommon in these types of companies. Enter, Charlie, the hot neighbor guy she kissed at the bar the other day and his offer for a paid vacation after his horrible break up. 

Sloane thinks that she can use the vacation to work on her game demo for her final interview without interruptions but her best friend, Tess knows that she's going with the biggest distraction there could be, Charlie. While he is a distraction, he's also encouraging to Sloane and understands how much this interview and job mean to her. He even plays her games.

Of course it's not without misunderstandings and wrong turns and silence. Both Charlie and Sloane have baggage and Sloane has some control issues she needs to deal with as well. I did love the ending to this book and hope that they both get their happily ever after. 

Julie's Review: Love Buzz

Author: Neely Tubati-Alexander
Series: None
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 304
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Stunning debut
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: A wretched maid of honor. A hangover from hell. Raucous Mardi Gras crowds. There isn’t much Serena Khan is enjoying about this four-day New Orleans destination bachelorette party for her semi-estranged cousin, the bride-to-be. UNTIL sparks fly with a handsome stranger, who—like her—is also from Seattle, at the ladies’ last stop of the evening, a Bourbon Street bar. After their conversation is cut short, Serena is overwhelmed by the desire to find the charming man with the brooding eyebrows, but her list of clues is pretty short:

His name is Julian

He lives on Chamber Hill

He works at a tech company

He loves Lil Wayne and Nirvana

The need to find him is, for Serena, both irresistible and totally irrational. In a few short weeks, her college alumni magazine is featuring her in a “Life at Thirty” feature, cementing her as a success story. She will have officially achieved the safe, stable life her late mother insisted upon. Julian is not part of the plan. As she combs Seattle for her New Orleans flame, stripping away the perfectly curated life that would have made her mother proud, Serena must decide if the pursuit of real passion is worth it, and fast, before she destroys the life she always thought she wanted. In a sharply funny, thoughtful, and romantic debut combining the wistfulness of Rebecca Serle with the witty sizzle of Emily Henry, Neely Tubati-Alexander prompts us all to ask if the life we’re living is a life worth loving. ~amazon.com

Review:  Love Buzz captured me from the opening lines and didn't let me go. If I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it or thinking about reading it. That says something to me about a debut novel, that it pulls you in so easily. What could have been a novel about only the "meet cute", it was so much more than that. Serena is on a trip that she didn't even want to take for a bachelorette who she hasn't been close to in 8 years but yet she's in New Orleans bored out of her mind. That is until a mysterious stranger approaches her at the bar and sets her life in a tail-spin. 

Serena has always played it safe. It is how she honors her mother and the hard work her mother had to do for her to go to college and make a better life for herself. She has a plan and that plan does not take into account meeting a handsome stranger and having feelings you've never had before. She is methodical and strategic definitely not whimsical and dreamy. 

I really can't tell you much more or I'll give away the whole story. Ms. Tubati-Alexander does a fantastic job of describing someone who is really having a total change of heart regarding her life. What it's like to question every choice you've made and who it is you are trying to make happy with those choice? It's also about letting go of the past and realizing that your view isn't the only one, especially when dealing with grief. 

I will tell you this, I'm buying a copy of this book and will pre-order anything Ms. Tubati-Alexander writes in the future. She knows how to tell a beautiful story.