love felt like this – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 500 pages
Author: Julie Olivia
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: September 8th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A grumpy rock star and a joyful children’s show creator revive television magic in this cozy small-town romance.

Griffin Harvey lives his life in the spotlight. Reluctantly. The brooding famous singer-songwriter is on the cusp of composing his sophomore album . . . if only he could find the notes. But after gaining custody of his two-year-old daughter, the only music he’s writing is about shapes and counting to ten.

Enter Beverly, who lives her life in the background producing children’s television and laughter. Except joy is hard to find when her nonprofit loses funding. She sinks all of her savings to revive the children’s show by herself, but when her variety show appearance collides with Griffin’s, their banter and chemistry is caught on live television.

Suddenly, Griffin is singing a new tune. He needs a muse, and Beverly needs all the help she can get. With his secret daughter in tow, they hide out in her cozy mountain hometown, attempting to script, compose, and revive television magic. Their dynamic shouldn’t work. He’s all harsh tattoos and rough hands while she’s bright colors and gentle touches. Once their three months of work are done, they’ll return to their separate worlds. But what happens when it seems the true magic might be found in each other?

Thank you to PRH Audio (PRH Partner) for the gifted audiobook.

SWEET & COZY.

🎧: Loved the dual narration audiobook. Fantastic narrators and I thought it made the book feel even more cozy. Highly recommend that format!

I would first like to note if you’re like me and don’t usually read the summaries, this book is NOT set in the 1990’s (like If It Makes You Happy — the covers had the same vibe so I thought they were in the same world, they were not and I was confused for a beat).

Now the story is genuinely cozy. It’s slow and steady with a lot of quiet and tender moments. I loved seeing the relationship develop between Beverly and Griffin. It’s very much strangers to friends to lovers. The conversations are good and the build up to that first kiss was amazing. I was full on swooning at the love confessions and thought the closing chapters and epilogue were just right.

I did struggle a little with both MC’s having a repetitive inner dialogue about all of the reasons they couldn’t be with the other person. I understood and didn’t need to be told that many times.

But that small issues aside, I am still a big fan of Julie Olivia’s books. I love that this also wasn’t SPICY (like I know some of her books are). It gave me that vibe of writing spice for the couple/situation rather than making it spicy to be spicy and that is always 100x better. It made the connection and moments that much more sincere.

Can’t wait for her next book!!

Overall audience notes: