**** I received an advanced copy of this book through Net-galley in exchange for an honest review. ****
After two years Meg Delany if finally ready to face her former fiancée and ask for his forgiveness. She left Matt standing at the alter. Arriving at the hospital where Matt is having a procedure where Meg runs into Matt’s brother Kyle. Meg quickly learns that her goal will never be met because Matt has suddenly passed.
Kyle and Meg move through the grieving process together. Both had unresolved issues with Matt. Kyle and Meg’s relationship grows and changes, but can they move forward.
I really enjoyed this book immensely. I loved the writing. The characters were wonderful I laughed and cried with them as they dealt with Matt’s death, the fall out of it and their developing relationship. I am so glad I read this book and look forward to reading more by Ms. Fenske.

The premise caught my attention, so I wanted to read it. The books starts out really good. Two years after leaving her fiance at the alter by saying “I can’t”, Meg feels she can put everything aside and forgive Matt. She decides to visit him at the hospital after a minor surgery to have some closure. Then the bad news: Matt died in surgery. Here comes his brother Kyle into the picture. Kyle has been in love with Meg during her entire relationship with his brother. Then Meg’s self published cookbook all of a sudden becomes “the next 50 Shades” and a legal battle with Matt’s family begins.

Typical with “chick lit” Meg and Kyle start a relationship. Well, more like have really great sex. They are both conflicted the whole book with Matt being brought up CONSTANTLY. You have to almost think, “Would they even be together if Matt had not been around in the past”. For me, Matt was brought up way too much. He was a constant in their conversations. And their conflict on if they should be together or not because of Matt- For me it was “hurry up and make up your minds and stop talking about Matt so much!”

Another thing that was an annoyance was the constant referral to Matt’s mom as Meg’s “former-future-mother-in-law”. She was referred as this the whole novel. Did the author have a word quota she needed to reach? Why not just call Matt’s mom by his name or Mrs. Midland?

For me the best part of the novel was the cookbook and the legal battle that Meg faced. I enjoyed how all of a sudden the book became wildly popular and Meg trying to deal with the after effects of everything that entailed. That part seemed real to me.

Of course towards the end of the novel there is a surprising reveal on a secret Kyle kept. The way that Meg reacted about it and her ultimate decision at the end was not satisfying for me. She forgave him way to easily in my opinion. Books, even “chick-lit” books don’t always have to have a “Happily Ever After” ending.

The issue of grief is in the novel as well. Tawna Fenske did a good job portraying that. You could feel Matt’s family dealing with their grief in various ways.

Overall, I give this novel three stars. I don’t really recommend it. There are some humorous parts to the book. I enjoyed parts of it, but the issues I had keep me from recommending it.

**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don't normally go for romances where 1 person has relationships with multiple family members (I'm looking at you "Dan in Real Life") but this one was REALLY good. The relationship between Meg and Kyle felt organic, especially since there was 10 years of backstory between them.

I could have done without some of obstacles that Meg and Kyle are supposed to overcome

(the whole Kyle set up Matt to cheat was really aggravating)

, but on the whole I was really rooting for them the entire time. Plus Meg was just plain likable and I wanted her to have a happy ending.

10/4/2017

I didn't like this. At all. The main characters are horrible and their situation is ridiculous.

So basically Meg ran away at the altar and she, filled with guilt, offered to pay off the wedding (even though her fiancé cheated on her) and then she had to pay 10.000 dollars for photos her ex offered to take? AND THEN she has to give all her royalties to his money-sucking family? WHY THE FORK WON'T SHE STAND UP FOR HERSELF?

And Kyle is such an endearing and good man (sarcasm) that he never supports her and even sides with his family but, he LOVES her so much. Note: he doesn't. He's psychotic and obsessed with her.

The only thing this book does is aggravate me. Urgh, never going to pick it up again or any of this author's books. If this is what she's capable of, then no thank you.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I struggled to assign a star rating for this book. I adored the characters and the premise--I think Meg is probably one of the most realistic female protagonists I've seen in quite a while. Kyle was a good character too, at first. However, the things that are revealed about him and what he did while his brother was still alive made me think he was petty, immature, manipulative, and spiteful. I could not trust him, and I didn't think Meg should have either. I understand what the author was trying to do but in my opinion she went too far.

I received a complimentary copy from Montlake Romance via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A bit on the nasty side for this old prude.

The characters and story were pretty good and except for a few explicit and to me, nasty scenes. Other than the Yuk factor, I enjoyed the book!

A nice romantic comedy with a quirky twist. I think romantic comedy readers will like this.

I'm giving this book 2 stars only because it started out so promising and there is genuine chemistry between the main characters.

But it all started to go to shit (for me) at around 39% and never redeemed itself. The entire Midland family is full of assholes. Matt, for being a ROYAL DICK to Meg throughout what seems like their entire relationship, and insisting that Meg pay him $10K for the pictures he took for her cookbook when, while they were together, he wanted no repayment (other than BJs. Wow, how super male of you).

Sylvia, for hating Meg for dumping Matt (he deserved it) and then suing her for half the proceeds of her cookbook. Oh, and also for saying truly horrible things to Meg basically up until their last conversation.

And Kyle, basically for breathing. For agreeing that the lawsuit was valid and gaslighting Meg into believing the same (I hate that she capitulated on this at the end. Matt didn't deserve that money and neither did his estate/the family. She had PROOF that he didn't want money or credit). For encouraging his brother to cheat on Meg just because he didn't want them to get married. I would have maybe been more sympathetic to this - and by that I mean I would've thought he was a major asshole instead of thinking he was a morally corrupt asshole - if Matt was a serial cheater or something, and Kyle was like "let this be the nail in the coffin!" But he had never cheated on Meg before, and Kyle knew this was her weak spot given the history with her parents. He knew exactly how she would respond. He took the choice from both Meg and Matt to decide that their relationship wasn't going to work. He took away a sense of closure for both characters that I think is completely unforgivable. That, above everything else, makes me really, really dislike him. Which I'm pissed about, because he was wonderful up into the point he started saying his mom was right for demanding a cut of the cookbook profits.

And I kind of hate Meg, too, for allowing people to walk all over her during the entirety of this book, and also for the ten years she was in a relationship with Matt. She defends herself several times throughout the story, but her actions reflect the EXACT opposite of what she says. I literally groaned out loud when I got to the part where she agrees to give Matt's estate a cut. For fucking what?! FOR WHAT?! That money wasn't his! He took some pictures and she used it in her book. She did 95% of the work and he didn't care about repayment until they broke up and he decided to be a big prick about it.

Ugh.

It also got really cringeworthy reading Meg's internal monologue about Matt when she was with Kyle. Especially when she was *with* Kyle. It ended up taking me away from the connection between the two of them because this ghost (I mean, kind of literally?) would pop up in the middle of it. And all of the talk about Kyle's ex-girlfriends too. It just felt like they were in a constant cycle of revisiting the past for reasons that became very tiring.

Oh, and when Kyle helped her prep for the bachelorette party and he refused her offer to pay him? And she paid him with dessert instead? Dear Meg, that is the thing that got you into this huge ass mess in the first place. You should have paid him. And gotten a receipt. I mean, Jesus.

I think this could have been a really wonderful, really beautiful book had the whole lawsuit not come into play. Or even if it did come into play and Kyle acted as a mediator between his mother and Meg. I would have been okay with that. But his weird mama's boy, guilty-conscience white knighting of the whole thing was just gross. And that paired with his role in Meg and Matt's breakup made it all too rage-inducing for me.

3.5 stars

A solid, quirky contemporary read. Sometimes a little off the wall but fun to listen to. Good narration.

Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up because it was quite enjoyable

I love the idea of requited love, and that is exactly what we have in Now That It's You. Meg had dated Matt, Kyle's brother, for a decade before she became a runaway bride. During her "Matt years", Kyle was pining for her. Matt's death brings them back into each other's lives, and sparks fly.

This book is filled with so much awkward. Some of the awkward was really funny, and I laughed or giggled. There were also a bunch of quirky things that I loved, and they made me smile. As for the romance,I would say that I liked this couple. There were a few Kyle moments that I struggled with, and I do understand what Fenske was trying to do, but it didn't make me necessarily like what happened. But the real star of this book was Meg. She just stood out as a beautiful human being. She was not perfect, but she was able to step back, evaluate, and choose the solution that was in everyone's best interest. She had regrets, and she took the opportunities presented to her to re-evaluate and remedy some of those situations. There were so many little things she did, that made me love her more and more. I felt like the author did a great job of developing the main characters. Heck, I even felt like Matt was quite developed. Fenske let us peek into the charactera' past and present in order to allow us to properly assess their motives and evaluate their actions. This story has a lot of ups and downs, so be prepared. It was a roller coaster, but Fenske did a nice job of wrapping it up, and giving us closure.

Overall: Great romance with a bit of melancholy, but a bunch of humor too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake Romance for the ARC of this book.