In the follow-up to Spoiler Alert, we follow Alexander Woodroe who ostensibly has it all—charm, wealth, fame, and an irresistible smile. As part of one of the biggest TV shows, God of the Gates, Alex should be happy. But as the producers destroy his character on screen and he powerless to stop it, Alex turns reckless and ends up in the tabloids one too many times. Everyone agrees: Alex’s career is on the downslope.
Enter Lauren Clegg, a former ER therapist who is hired to keep Alex in line. Compared to her previous work, being a glorified babysitter shouldn’t be a challenge—but she didn’t expect Alex to be quite so difficult…or charming. Yet the more time the two spend together, the harder it gets to keep their professional distance. When another scandal lands Alex in major trouble and costs Lauren her job, she’ll be forced to choose which side to fight on—and whether to protect her heart or the man who’s trying to steal it.
Truth be told, I initially had a hard time reconciling the charming Alex we met in Spoiler Alert with the one in All the Feels. In the first few chapters, Alex is everything but charming, and often made me cringe with the type of blatant mean thoughts he has about Lauren. And though, yes, we get to see Alex’s point of view and realise that he sometimes says things he doesn’t mean, I honestly couldn’t move past a certain few thoughts he had about Lauren, not to mention how he talks to her. There were instances where it was made plain that Alex was kidding but other times, when he called Lauren “dense” or belittled her, I really just wanted to wave all the red flags and call it quits. There’s a thin line between something being said in jest and just plainly insulting someone. However, and I say that very candidly, I’ve read through quite a few reviews and odds are that this was a me problem—it just didn’t suit my reading tastes. And Alex did eventually win me over once the story got going.
Putting all of that aside for a moment, I really enjoyed Alex and Lauren on their own. Alex has ADHD and the representation of that was just so relatable for me. He is hyperverbal which causes a lot of fun banter between him and Lauren, who is rather reserved and quiet because of her former job. While Alex talks about everything and nothing, Lauren keeps her feelings to herself in an attempt to protect herself from the horrors she has seen in her ER line of work. Both of these characters have a lot of issues on their own, especially with self-image and self-worth and I enjoyed the deep dive Dade took into how their actions informed their feelings—for each other but also for the person looking back in the mirror. There was also some great growth for both Alex and Lauren and I loved how we got to see them grow into more confident individuals as the story went on. While I wasn’t super on board with the romance, toward the latter half of the book we get Alex and Lauren playing around with a few tropes he wants to…investigate and that aspect was so much fun and reminded me a lot of the entertainment I felt while reading Spoiler Alert.
Unsurprisingly, my favourite part was everything surrounding the actual show and the fanfiction Alex finds himself enamoured with as the story goes further. I love how we got to explore what tropes Alex likes and which he wants to chuck out the window. We also get some hilarious fanfic excerpts and cringey excerpts from the show scripts that make it plain just how ridiculous the things Alex has to portray are and why so many fans ventured into fanfiction to give their characters the ending they deserved.
With All the Feels, Olivia Dade delivers a satisfying follow-up to Spoiler Alert, perfect for fans of slow-burn romances, the forced proximity trope, and everyone who needs a bit more fanfiction in their traditional romances!
All The Feels is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of November 16th 2021.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Following Spoiler Alert, Olivia Dade returns with another utterly charming romantic comedy about a devil-may-care actor—who actually cares more than anyone knows—and the no-nonsense woman hired to keep him in line.
Alexander Woodroe has it all. Charm. Sex appeal. Wealth. Fame. A starring role as Cupid on TV’s biggest show, God of the Gates. But the showrunners have wrecked his character, he’s dogged by old demons, and his post-show future remains uncertain. When all that reckless emotion explodes into a bar fight, the tabloids and public agree: his star is falling.
Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn’t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional remove and her heart intact, especially when she discovers the reasons behind his recklessness…not to mention his Cupid fanfiction habit.
When another scandal lands Alex in major hot water and costs Lauren her job, she’ll have to choose between protecting him and offering him what he really wants—her. But he’s determined to keep his improbably short, impossibly stubborn, and extremely endearing minder in his life any way he can. And on a road trip up the California coast together, he intends to show her exactly what a falling star will do to catch the woman he loves: anything at all.
