Kelsey Rodkey

Last Chance Books

You’ve Got Mail meets Morgan Matson in this smart, banter-filled romcom with a bookish twist. Nothing will stop Madeline Moore from taking over her family’s independent bookstore after college. Nothing, that is—until a chain bookstore called Prologue opens across the street and threatens to shut them down. Madeline sets out to demolish the competition, but the guy who works over at Prologue seems intent on ruining her life. Not only is he taking her customers, he has the unbelievable audacity to be… extremely cute. But that doesn’t matter. Jasper is the enemy and he will be destroyed. After all—all’s fair in love and (book) war.

Beth Bartholomew

Alessia (Taylor's version) 

A very sweet story. I really enjoyed it, I just wish there was a sequel. 

Brittnee Coffmen

hilda ☆

(dnf) oh i hate overly descriptive books so fkn much like i know how unlocking a door works why do we need two paragraphs describing how you turned the key in its lock?? *gordon ramsay voice* KILL URSELF!!!!!!

lexie

wasn’t going to dnf this but i wasn’t feeling it to begin with, but my audiobook restarted itself and i can’t be bothered. i just couldn’t do it after he got hit by the car 😭😭 also when the fmc got super mad at her brother for working at the bookstore that she has a one sided rivalry with…? idk i didn’t really like the writing. i’m taking my audiobook glitching as a sign lol

emily

dnf at 68%

wasn’t going to dnf this but i wasn’t feeling it to begin with, but my audiobook restarted itself and i can’t be bothered. i just couldn’t do it after he got hit by the car 😭😭 also when the fmc got super mad at her brother for working at the bookstore that she has a one sided rivalry with…? idk i didn’t really like the writing. i’m taking my audiobook glitching as a sign lol

Jess LeBlanc

I liked the book but it just didn’t grab me as much as I thought it would

A cute story but a little aggravating at times. There is not much character development, and the main character can be a bit unreasonable at times

Hong-Lin Stoffels

Just a few days ago, I thought I'd had more than enough of him, marked him as Did Not Finish, but now I feel like every part of him will remain To Be Read."

Houda Allali

Just a few days ago, I thought I'd had more than enough of him, marked him as Did Not Finish, but now I feel like every part of him will remain To Be Read."

😭😭😭😭

If you are looking for a super cute and cosy Book and Bookshops, Rivalry, Friendships and Relationships then this is a book for you. Last Chance Books is the perfect book for getting cosy with a favourite candle, Blanket and getting lost in the lives of Booksellers. 

Madeline Moore and her family own Books & Moore, an indie bookstore, for the last two generations. She’s determined to take over the bookstore after college. However, when a new bookstore called Prologue opens across the street, With the rising costs B&M is close to being put out of business but can anything be done to save it. 

Madeline has one summer to try and save it, can she, do it? That’s the big Question but Enter Jasper Hamada. He’s constantly visiting B&M and asking Madeline questions about the bookstore. Madeline has a little crush on him! Until she finds out that he works at Prologue. Then the bookstore war begins.

Last Chance Books is a light-hearted quirky read. I really loved the characters and bookstore rivalry and the overall flow of the novel. Overall made for a very cute and read for sure.

Ian Brakspear

If you are looking for a super cute and cosy Book and Bookshops, Rivalry, Friendships and Relationships then this is a book for you. Last Chance Books is the perfect book for getting cosy with a favourite candle, Blanket and getting lost in the lives of Booksellers. 

 

Madeline Moore and her family own Books & Moore, an indie bookstore, for the last two generations. She’s determined to take over the bookstore after college. However, when a new bookstore called Prologue opens across the street, With the rising costs B&M is close to being put out of business but can anything be done to save it. 

 

Madeline has one summer to try and save it, can she, do it? That’s the big Question but Enter Jasper Hamada. He’s constantly visiting B&M and asking Madeline questions about the bookstore. Madeline has a little crush on him! Until she finds out that he works at Prologue. Then the bookstore war begins.

 

Last Chance Books is a light-hearted quirky read. I really loved the characters and bookstore rivalry and the overall flow of the novel. Overall made for a very cute and read for sure.

Elisa Bieg

This book is PERFECTION — funny, touching, relatable, with great characters, a proper enemies-to-lovers romance, a good storyline, great banter, some family drama, and BOOKS. 
Books! 
Bookish people are the best people. Even when they are competitors and we end up in a crazy war of gradually escalating pranks until things get a bit too out of control. Even when we exchange love-hate banter with them. Even when we feel they threaten our family’s livelihood and what we live most. 

I did this on audio and in my opinion this is one time when the audio experience and the talented voice actor amplify the awesomeness of the book even more!

5 STARS.  I couldn’t imagine giving it any less!

Alyssa Huffman

sometimes after reading a 4 book series that ends terribly, you have to read a really really cheesy YA romance.

this was so cute. i love romance. i love books. i love romance books. i love romance books ABOUT BOOKS. that's all because it's midnight and im delirious. bye

Sheena

'Last Chance Books' was not much of a stand out. After reading the synopsis I was more than game for epic book store rivalry enemies turned lovers book war, it felt flat. 
 
The characters—Madeline and Jasper lacked the chemistry and depth to pull me in and their childish pranks were just that, childish. More so, the unrealistic dialogue was a turn off and the love hate plot was too abrupt and quick for me. One moment the bitter rivals are trying to one-up another and in the next, wham-bam! They’re coupling up. 
 
So all in all, it wasn't completely terrible read but there are a few things that could be tweaked and adjusted to make this a somewhat more salvageable read.

Beckah brooks

I love reading books about book lovers, and this was no exception. This was a cute ya romance that gave me all the feels. I mean rival bookstores, pranks, sabotage, relentless flirting, and so much more cuteness what more could I ask for. This book also had great depth. All the characters, I mean all of them, had some level of depth and backstory that went deeper than usual. I wish more than anything to have gotten some chapters from Jasper's perspectives, but that might be just me. At the end of the day, it was great.

Skye Landau

This book was quite the rollercoaster. I laughed out loud, I teared up a bit, I stared at my bedroom wall in rage. But in the end it all came together nicely in a perfect book that really shows how difficult it is to be vulnerable and how easy it is to be happy if you let yourself have what you want.

Ipshita Kanungo

3.8 ⭐ Weirdly enough, i REALLY enjoyed it and for a lot of reasons. It wasn't overwhelmingly romance, there were a lot of othe things & they had good weightage not just short cameos- family issues, friendships, sibling shit, event planning stuff, identity, saving a bookstore....I really loved it for that (so maybe those who love to see abundant spice or stuff like that won't like this). All the characters were likable & relatable. Like they were not too good to be true, nor a pain in the ass. The leads had good chemistry, i really dig in the friendship between Zelda and Madeline, Sterling was SUCH a fresh breath of air, like a single father raising his step daughter without her mother being around? That's shit you don't see, still it felt all real because the author wasn't throwing these small details to your face. Then there's the ending. It's not a total happy ending, it's bittersweet looking forward for a new start, like the whole bookstore thing...some people might thing that it was pointless all the saving up money stuff if it wasn't getting a happy ending but that's the point! Sometimes you'll work your ass off and still not get what you want. And that's okay. That shouldn't mean that you don't try. I'll definitely recommend u this, if u r okay with a little less romance. 


Skye

A quick read with enemies-to-lovers, a cosplay contest, family reunification, and a “save the family business” mission, Last Chance Books has a lot of teenage angst without as much action as I’d hoped. Great if you’re looking for a fast, summery read!

Michaela

This book is sweet but I found it a little bit boring. I was looking for a light hearted read after reading a sad book and this definitely delivered in that aspect. I just wish there was a bit more to it. I also wish there was less swearing, it got annoying and felt unnecessary. Overall a good but not great book in my opinion.

Shanthu

JASPER AND MADELINE HAVE MY HEART. This was my first proper enemies to lovers I’ve tried and this was the perfect book I started with

Beth Livingston

Thanks to NetGalley for an ecopy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily. Madeline Moore & Jasper Hamada have started a book store war. Madeline works at Books & Moore. Jasper works at Prologue. What happens when they start to like each other? I enjoyed reading this book. The sparks between Madeline & Jasper were so good. Kelsey Rodkey did a nice job with this book. I did feel like the characters could have grown a little bit more than they did. I give this book a 3 out of 5 Stars.

cossette

Trigger warnings for: absent father, child abandonment, estranged parents, brief mention of car accident (ch 11) 

still thinking about how this is literally just enemies to lovers excellence & you've got mail with teens 

rtc closer to publication date!!

laura

This was a fun read. I really did enjoy the during bookstore elements. I did not love the main character and was not super invested in the romance all the way though the read. I struggled a little bit with the pranking elements in this read. I also did really liked the complicated family elements that were featured on both sides of this read. i think I would have liked this book a bit more if was duel POV read. It was a fun read and a quick one, I will def read more by this author in the future

Loved this, so cute, so wholesome, just a fun YA contemporary for lovers of books about books!

Heather Harrington

There's nowhere Madeline Moore feels more at home than her family's musty old bookstore, Books & Moore. She's waited her whole life to be able to take over the business from her aunt after she graduates from college, but it seems like she may not get her chance thanks to a big chain bookstore that opened up right across the street. Madeline isn't sure how her small independent store can match wits with a franchise such as Prologue, but she does know one thing-- she's not going down without a fight. Madeline sets out on a mission to destroy the competition, focusing all her revenge on its annoyingly charming employee, Jasper. As the pair battle it out through childish pranks, it soon becomes clear that there's a lot more between them than just animosity. With emotions running wild, should Madeline stick to her guns and try to save her family's business or take the opportunity to follow her heart?

I love a good hate-to-love story, so to mix it in with a You've Got Mail type of scenario should be an instant win in my book, sadly that wasn't the case with this one. Sure, there were parts I liked. Sure, it was cute and fluffy, but that was almost to its detriment. It was so cutesy at times it came across as juvenile. I fully get that this is a YA book so that's to be expected, but Rodkey's writing and some of her choices just came across a little too young. I think some of that came from the audiobook. The narrator made the characters, even the adults, sound very whiney which didn't help my enjoyment. Madeline and Jasper also went from at each other's throats to hooking up very quickly and there was no real build-up to make it satisfying. I think this had all the potential of being a sweet funny rom-com it just needed a bit more development.

Kaele Perkins 

This was cute. If you like books about books and readers you will probably like this. Good banter, cute boy, rivals, all good things. I really liked the reader references like tbr and dnf. Overall I enjoyed this book. :)

Yana Khalid

I had mixed feelings about this book. , I really enjoyed the book. It was funny and romantic and amazing. What more could a reader ask for if a book has enemies to lovers , slow burn romance between owners of TWO RIVAL BOOKSTORES. This book is perfect for Sophie Kinsella fans!! 
It was nice but at the same time it was also “cringe” at some moments. 
There was something missing between Madeline and Jasper I can’t exactly point out what. It felt... unreal and forced.
The starting of the book was great but it felt like author tried to make the book shorter in the end and all the information was crammed too fast.

Last Chance Books

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