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Exes & O's Book Review

Amy Lea's latest, Exes & O's, is for the girls. Full of the slowest burn, a celebration of romance's well-known tropes, and the best pop culture references, Tara's journey through ten of her previous exes in order to find The One will surely have you as engrossed as I was, and cheering for romance as a whole by the end (if you weren't already!). 

Amy Lea is a Canadian bureaucrat by day and a contemporary romance author by night (and weekends). She writes laugh-out-loud romantic comedies featuring strong heroines, witty banter, mid-2000s pop culture references, and happily ever afters. When Amy is not writing, she can be found fangirling over other romance books on Instagram (@AmyLeaBooks), eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and golden doodle. You can find more of my reviews of Amy's books here.

Romance book connoisseur Tara Chen has had her heart broken ten times by ten different men—all of whom dumped her because of her "stage-five clinger" tendencies. Nevertheless, Tara is determined to find the One. The only problem? Classic meet-cutes are dead, thanks to modern dating apps. So Tara decides to revisit her exes in hopes of securing her very own trope-worthy second-chance romance. Boston firefighter Trevor Metcalfe will be the first to rush into a burning building but the last to rush into a relationship. Love just isn't his thing. When his new roommate, Tara, enlists him to help her reconnect with her exes, he reluctantly agrees. But Tara's journey is leading him to discover his own new chapter. The more time they spend together, the more Tara realizes Trevor seems to be the only one who appreciates her authentic, dramatic self. To claim their happily ever after, can Tara and Trevor read between the lines of their growing connection? 

Room-ance fans will delight in Amy Lea's Exes & O's—I didn't even know this trope has such a savvy nickname, and I'm a big fan of it now. Tara and Trevor live together because of sheer convenience, but that's not how they end up falling for one another. They grate against each other at first, as they find their groove to live together. Through the ensuing shenanigans, Lea is able to craft a romance that's as real as it is funny. Living together, each character expresses a vulnerability to the other that might not otherwise come to light. Lea takes advantage of that situation and develops a strong bond of friendship between the characters, before they come to express their romantic intentions. I loved the progression of roommates to friends to lovers—it all felt like a very natural love story, and I loved how everything fell into place.

Tara is not like other romance novel heroines: she's described as the "crazy" ex-girlfriend, the clinger, the one who is "too much." Every girl at some point in their life has probably been described in one of these ways, and it's really gratifying for Lea to write it down, and to demonstrate that there's no such thing as too much. Tara's journey to understand and accept who she is while she finds love is refreshing and thoughtfully handled. While the novel is humorous and romantic, Lea doesn't pull punches describing the effects of traumatic relationships or losses. This balance is what makes Tara's and Trevor's story real and strong.

Exes & O's is the second novel in The Influencer series, and I was super excited that Tara's journey took us to her bookstagram/BookTok pages. I'm also a bookstagrammer (@reviews_by_nat), and I was excited to see the romance books community on the page. Unlike in Set on You, social media is a safe place for Tara. She is able to share her journey with her followers, and how it relates to some of the most loved romance novel tropes. I love how bookstagram and book social media was depicted in a positive light, because it's such a welcoming and uplifting community. Tara's vulnerability on her platform and the way she engages with her followers by sharing about her life is refreshing, and makes for a novel that depicts the positives of social media. 

The third and final book in The Influencer series follows Tara's and Crystal's good friend, Mel, a lifestyle Instagrammer as she falls in love. I can't wait for more news to be announced. In the meantime, you can find Amy on Instagram @AmyLeaBooks. You can find more of my reviews of Amy's books here.

*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*

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