It’s another Ali Hazelwood win in my book. Maybe even a new favorite!

When I picked up Ivy Fairbanks’s debut novel, Morbidly Yours, late last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It did not disappoint.

This book surprised the heck out of me.

After reading Love, Theoretically back in 2023 (and loving it, I should add), I thought Ali Hazelwood had crossed my threshold for steam in her books.

You’ve heard of the forbidden love trope. Sometimes it feels a bit tired and overdone, but I’m not sure I’ve ever quite read it like this.

Here’s the deal. I loved this book, but, and it’s a big one, I kind of had to tell myself that I was not reading an Emily Henry title.

Lana Lord is famous. She’s been acting in Hollywood on a prominent drama that is produced like and often feels like a soap opera. No one even knows her real name is Meg Bryan. No one knows that she and her best friend, Aimee, had planned to study acting in Ireland but ended up staying in Florida. No one really knows Meg at all.

Ellis and Wren grew up together and had their son, Sam, as teens. A decade later, their marriage fell apart. Now in their 30s, they still can’t keep their minds off each other. A summer road trip to drop Sam at college is an opportunity to see whether forever might still be possible.

I love it when a book surprises me, not because it had twists and turns I didn't expect (although I'll take that, too), but when I went in without high expectations and they are exceeded. I read Jilly Gagnon's rom-com of 2024, Love You, Mean It, and I had a good time with it, but there were a few parts of it that just didn't work well for me. It was a solid read, but I didn't find myself immediately wanting to read everything by this author.

Xavier is a veterinarian. He’s known for a gruff bedside manner, but he’s also very good at his job. When Samantha comes in with a kitten who has a life-threatening condition, he gives it to her straight; and she serves it right back.

Margot is a famous romance writer, but after several bad experiences with men, she’s started “screaming into her pillow” by writing alternate endings to each of her books in a secret file called Happily Never After.

Cassie loves a genre-bender and Charlotte McConaghy has delivered. Why am I writing in the third-person right now? I’m not sure, but I think it has to do with excitement level.

Since her best friend died of cancer six months ago, Lenny has been taking temporary nanny jobs–a weekend here or there because that’s the limit to how long she can “hold it together.”