Ok ok, so reading romance novels isn't my thing. Read Harder has gotten me to read two cover-to-cover now though, and while I doubt I'll ever pick one up on my own, I think I am starting to develop preferences. Like, I want a lot of tension between healthy people, a lot of humor without being ridiculous, and to somehow build up a realistic plot without instalove (I get that that might be unrealistic for the genre). I didn't find it here.

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Read Harder: LGBTQ romance novel ( )

Light, sweet, lovely descriptions on Portland. The main and secondary characters were all interesting. The storyline seemed to veer off track in the latter half and the subplot of the wayward teenager. the ending, even for a romcom, seemed too easy. And yet, there was a lot of good writing and I would read the next in the series. On a separate note, the cover design was terrible. ( )

A pretty good novel.

It's the story of Tate and Laura. Tate is a barista with a past in Portland who meets a mysterious woman at the independent coffee place she works at. They have a one night stand, and Tate thinks that's that. But, then Tate meets Laura. Laura works for a property company that has just bought the building that Out in Portland, the coffee shop, is in. Needless to say, that causes some tension. But Tate and Laura also find themselves still attracted to each other and sometimes in a more than 'one night stand' sorta way. But, needless to say, there are also a ton of roadblocks on both women's sides, which are definitely what make the plot line interesting.

I liked the characters. They were all unique, and they all had their own voices. I do think that it would have been cool to see a little more of Laura's family, but I also see why the author didn't go that way with the story.

There were also twists that I didn't see coming. And being surprised by the plot in a lesbian romance is always nice. The part I liked a bit less was that some parts of it were just a little too 'Tate has to solve --all-- the problems', but those parts weren't the majority of the novel.

It was an enjoyable read and a very fast one too. Once I picked it up I definitely didn't want to put it down.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Forever (Grand Central Publishing). ( )