Sarah Echavarre Smith

Nothing like a rocky start between enemy coworkers stuck together on location to prove that love isn't just a ploy for ratings—it's a force of nature. Alia Dunn has finally gotten her big break. After years of working her way up at TV's top outdoor travel channel, she gets the green light from network executives to bring her dream project to life: produce a series about Utah's national parks. It's a touching tribute to her late apong, who sparked Alia's passion for travel and the outdoors as a kid. Alia is thrilled—until she meets her newest crew member, Drew Irons. The same Drew she had the most amazing first date with two weeks ago—who then ghosted her. The same Drew who has the most deliciously thick forearms and who loves second-guessing her every move on set in front of the entire crew. It's not long before the tension between them turns hotter than the Utah desert in the dead of summer, and their steamy encounters lead to major feelings. But when the series host goes rogue one too many times, jeopardizing the entire shoot, Alia realizes that she'll need to organize one hell of a coup to save her show—and she'll need Drew's help to do it. It's the riskiest move she's ever made. If she pulls it off, she'll end up with a hit series and her dream guy . . . but if it all goes wrong, she could lose both.

On Location

aurelia 

OMG AHHHH LIKED THE CHARACTERS SO MUCH!!! I'm not a fan of wilderness journeys and adventures in books, so this theme is not my fave by any means, but I swear if this book was in a different theme, I'll eat this up and left no crumbs. Everything is perfect, the TV show in wilderness theme is just not my cup of tea.

Alyssa O

This was a quick read and pretty steamy! I enjoyed reading about Utah and the plot of filming a travel show. The story was very quick paced but also very predictable. 

Sarah Smith

Nothing like a rocky start between enemy coworkers stuck together on location to prove that love isn't just a ploy for ratings--it's a force of nature. Alia Dunn has finally gotten her big break. After years of working her way up at TV's top outdoor travel channel, she gets the green light from network executives to bring her dream project to life: produce a series about Utah's national parks. It's a touching tribute to her late apong, who sparked Alia's passion for travel and the outdoors as a kid. Alia is thrilled--until she meets her newest crew member, Drew Irons. The same Drew she had the most amazing first date with two weeks ago--who then ghosted her. The same Drew who has the most deliciously thick forearms and who loves second-guessing her every move on set in front of the entire crew. It's not long before the tension between them turns hotter than the Utah desert in the dead of summer, and their steamy encounters lead to major feelings. But when the series host goes rogue one too many times, jeopardizing the entire shoot, Alia realizes that she'll need to organize one hell of a coup to save her show--and she'll need Drew's help to do it. It's the riskiest move she's ever made. If she pulls it off, she'll end up with a hit series and her dream guy . . . but if it all goes wrong, she could lose both.

Deborah Kerr

What a disappointment.

I devoured and loved Simmer Down in one day last year and was beyond excited to read On Location. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything particularly great about this book—in fact, most of it was pretty bad.

1. Alia is 32 and is insanely immature in how she communicates. If this adult woman—who I’m supposed to believe has fought tooth and nail to be a show runner and is super capable at it—just talked to the love interest instead of assuming what he meant, there wouldn’t have been a single conflict.
2. None of these characters, along with their interactions, were believable in any way, shape, or form. The wholesome interactions and unnatural dialogue were painful. No one speaks likes this let alone a group of 30 something’s from NYC (I’m a 30something from NYC).
3. The smut was unbearably cringe. Like, I couldn’t even read it and laugh, it was that bad.
4. There was just some genuinely bad worrying and sentence structure. It was also extremely repetitive.



Sarah Williams

You know what’s better than the only one bed trope? The only one sleeping bag trope. Yep, it’s a new favorite of mine now, thanks to ON LOCATION.⁣
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I really enjoyed ON LOCATION and think that it’s Sarah Echavarre Smith’s best work to date (keeping in mind that I’ve loved all of her books!). It probably would have been a five-star read for me but for the fact that a lot of the conflict stemmed from a lack of communication. That being said, I do think it made more sense in the context of ON LOCATION than in other stories I’ve read given Alia’s trust issues and the very specific way that she’d been burned before, and so the misunderstanding didn’t feel as contrived as it could have, nor did it bother me as much as it has in other stories. I’m just not a fan of the use of miscommunication as conflict.⁣
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What I am a fan of, however, is tension—lots of it—and ON LOCATION delivered! Alia and Drew had unbelievable chemistry from the moment they met. And speaking of their meeting, their meet cute was adorable and perfect; one of my favorite meet cutes I’ve ever read.⁣
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Like all of Smith’s books, ON LOCATION is infused with warmth, culture, and the importance of family. Alia’s memories of her apong were so special and made the fictional show feel that much more real and important.⁣
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I’ve been a fan of Smith’s work from her debut, FAKER, and am always so excited when she releases something new. The world is so much brighter with her characters in it and I’m forever indebted to her for bringing hapa girls into mainstream romance.⁣

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. This has not impacted or influenced my review or opinions.

On Location

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