Title: All the Feels (Spoiler Alert #1)
Author: Olivia Dade
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: November 16th, 2021
385 pages
5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Following Spoiler Alert, Olivia Dade returns with another utterly charming romantic comedy about a devil-may-care actor—who actually cares more than anyone knows—and the no-nonsense woman hired to keep him in line.
Alexander Woodroe has it all. Charm. Sex appeal. Wealth. Fame. A starring role as Cupid on TV’s biggest show, God of the Gates. But the showrunners have wrecked his character, he’s dogged by old demons, and his post-show future remains uncertain. When all that reckless emotion explodes into a bar fight, the tabloids and public agree: his star is falling.
Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn’t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional remove and her heart intact, especially when she discovers the reasons behind his recklessness…not to mention his Cupid fanfiction habit.
When another scandal lands Alex in major hot water and costs Lauren her job, she’ll have to choose between protecting him and offering him what he really wants—her. But he’s determined to keep his improbably short, impossibly stubborn, and extremely endearing minder in his life any way he can. And on a road trip up the California coast together, he intends to show her exactly what a falling star will do to catch the woman he loves: anything at all.
Review
“Sometimes I want to burn down the fucking world for what it’s done to you.”
Olivia Dade, All the Feels
I absolutely loved Spoiler Alert, because it combined two things I’m passionate about – body positivity and nerds. So I knew I was going to pick up All the Feels when it came out because Alex and Lauren practically leapt off the page in Spoiler Alert – and they were background characters. They clearly had off the charts chemistry that presented in bickering and insults, my favorite kind of flirting.
Alex is the actor who has a reputation for being difficult to work with, a party boy, and a reckless pot-stirrer. So when he gets caught up in a bar fight, the show runner insists he needs a handler (i.e. babysitter). In comes Lauren, the show runner’s cousin who recently left her emergency psychology job after being burned out. Lauren doesn’t have conventional good looks and she is used to being looked down upon for that and for her size, and she is frankly a doormat for her whole family and friends. Alex brings out a more opinionated and confident Lauren and it’s a beautiful sight to behold. And there is so much more to Alex than a playboy party boy. He has serious dreams and ambitions, and there is more to the incidents that led him to needing Lauren.
Absolutely loved every page of this book. The conflict damn near broke my heart, but it was so well done. Sometimes you can tell the conflict isn’t well thought out and is just there because it needs to be – but this conflict truly brought together Alex and Lauren’s insecurities and made them think about what they want and need out of life with themselves, and with each other.
I’m told there will be a third book, and you’re damn right I’m going to be reading it ASAP.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 