I Want It That Way

Thanks to Home Cooked Books for the ALC & chance to give my candid review. I Want It That Way by Karen Grey (Book 3 in the Carolina Classics series) Narrated by Amy McFadden & Alastair Haynesbridge Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 4.75/5 Audiobook Rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5) Overall Rating: 4.875/5 😜 Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 (0-5) What I’m Starry-Eyed Over: 🤩 Retro 90s, small Carolina beach town setting. 🤩 Entertainment business/sitcom production world. 🤩 Great prologue—I love both MCs already, especially Luke because my love language is gifts/giving. 🤩 I love a let’s make a deal—you do this for me, I’ll do this for you. 🤩 Fake engagement/arranged marriage—two of my favorites. 🤩 One bed & forced proximity—thank you for these fantastic tropes. The Two Truths & A Lie is my absolute favorite part of the whole book. ❤️‍🔥 🤩 The way they so lovingly help each other. 🤩 Reproductive rights and women’s health care issues. Lukas Keith is total book boyfriend material for supporting Dani in this area!! And he’s a hottie! 🤩 The two narrators are so entertaining. They express feelings really well: excited, worried, teasing. . . 🤩 Slow burn that I could not stop listening to once I started. 🤩 The first (and second) kiss yumminess. 🥵 🤩 When Dani drinks too much wine without eating all day. 🤣 🤩 And then George & Tina show up. 😂 You can meet them in the series novella What Happens in Carolina and I highly recommend it. 🤩 These two MCs are so absolutely supportive and encouraging of each other—that is true love. 🤩 Secret pining and attraction at its BEST! 🤩 Laugh-out-loud funny. 🤩 Beautiful family/side character LGBTQ+ representation. What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About: 💫 Please tell me there’s a fourth book in the series. I’m crossing my fingers for Whitney & Ford. 💫 I believe in the HEA, but I just really love some physical connection (steam) after the drama/time apart. But, I still want to listen again, so I guess I’m just being a brat. 🌟

This is the third book in Karen Grey’s Carolina Classics series. While each book focuses on a different couple, there’s definitely some story lines that will weave throughout the whole series making these best enjoyed reading them all and in order. There’s a fine line to balancing a fiercely independent main character with providing readers a believable romance story all while maintaining the essence of who they are. Grey accomplishes that with Dani & Luke in this fake-relationship-becomes-true-love. I love how Luke supports Dani’s mission to permanently prevent becoming a parent while unpacking how her fears are impacting the rest of her life. Dani helps Luke discover who he is outside of the roles he’s been playing his entire life. These two also have a lot of fun on the beach and in the bedroom. Add in two adorable dogs and it’s a great story. As with the others, we catch up on how the previous couples are doing, there’s a HFN for Dani & Luke, and a cliffhangerish tease for the next book. Note (spoilerish): I just want to say how awesome it is that Grey gives us a character who doesn’t want children and that her HEA isn’t predicated on changing her mind about that. I received an advance copy of this book from the author and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

When I pick up a book by Karen Grey, I know I'm going to get a healthy dose of nostalgia for the 1990's, along with smart, likable characters working their way through their own personal challenges. In this book, we have Dani, age 29 and trying to find a doctor who will agree to perform a tubal ligation, but being thwarted at every turn thanks to the medical establishment's absolute conviction that she's too young to be sure she doesn't want kids, and "hey, you may get married some day and what will you do if your husband wants them but you've had your tubes tied?" She reconnects with Lukas, a former child actor, whom she chauffeured for 2 yrs previously, and who is back in town to direct a TV show, hoping to finally change gears and put his acting career behind him. Somehow it comes up that Dani needs a fake fiance in order to get her medical procedure and almost before they know it, they are suddenly involved in a very real marriage. At the same time, sparks are flying all over the place between them making it hard for them to think straight. Although they both agree to keep the marriage quiet and to divorce as soon as Dani gets her tubes tied, these two have chemistry that is very obvious to everyone and are laughably bad at hiding what's going on from their friends and colleagues, so the complications from their real but fake marriage just keep piling up. By focusing on Dani's inability to obtain a tubal ligation, Karen Grey came up with a brilliant way of illustrating our current bitter debate about a woman's right to control her own body, while not having the plot go near the subject of abortion. The plot also shows both Dani and Lukas finally facing the past traumas that are preventing them from fully living and enjoying their lives. I was totally rooting for them to work out their relationship as they were perfect for each other. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

This is my new favorite Karen Grey book! Dany and Lukas are an amazing pair that take us on an adventure of big life decision, taking chances and ultimately an amazing love story. Dany is a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants. She’s on a journey to find a doctor to help her get what she needs. Lukas is embarking on a new adventure but some baggage is holding him back from being all that he wants to be. Dany and Lukas have known each other casually over the years but begin a deeper friendship, learn to trust one another with their life stories and realize how much they can help one another. What starts out as a casual agreement turns into an amazing love story filled with laughs, fears and a lot of patience

I liked that it was a fake relationship/celebrity/90s style book. I thought I would just start with a couple chapters, but I ended up using the rain outside to justify reading the entire book in one day (it's raining, so why not?). I had previously read the other books in the series and I like the additional character development that happens over the course of a series vs. meeting characters in just one book. I'm already looking forward to Whit's story. I've read all of the Carolina Classics books, and while I Want It That Way could be read as a stand alone, it's part of a series of interconnected characters that appear in each of the stories. I received a copy of the book at my request, and the opinions here are my own.