Author: Allison Ashley

Falling into Place by Allison Ashley | Book Review

Posted August 22, 2025 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

Falling into Place by Allison Ashley | Book ReviewFalling into Place by Allison Ashley
Published by Montlake Romance on August 19, 2025
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 319
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
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Finding a date for a reclusive bachelor is her job. It’s also a risk when she becomes the perfect match in an emotional and hopeful romance by the author of If Tomorrow Never Comes.

Accountant and freelance personal stylist Carly Porter, daughter of a compulsive gambler, knows the personal cost of a bad bet. But when she partners with her best friend, Sasha—publisher of a floundering fashion magazine—Carly can’t resist. The highly publicized makeover of an Oklahoma City bachelor could boost sales and be Carly’s ticket to her dream profession. The bachelor in question is none other than Sasha’s older brother, Brooks.

Hardly the party boy Carly remembers from high school, Brooks is now an antisocial, work-obsessed physician still struggling with a devastating loss. But if it means helping his sister, he’s in. It’s Carly’s job to get him out of those lived-in scrubs, style him to the nines, and bring Brooks back to life. But so far, the only real connection is between Brooks and Carly—and falling for a client could cost Carly the career she’s worked so hard for.

To move forward, they’ll both have to overcome their painful pasts. And whatever the risk, maybe even take a chance on love.

I’m an Allison Ashley fan, so when I was given the opportunity to review her latest release, Falling into Place, I jumped at the chance. Especially when it was pitched as “Bachelor-style matchmaking” with the best friend’s brother trope. Both are like candy to me! And this story was so, so sweet. I loved Carly and Brooks together. Their chemistry is out of this world, and the entire premise of the story is so charming and wholesome. Carly is working two jobs, but her real passion is the side hustle, aka personal shopper and fashion stylist, that she wants to turn into a full-time career. Her best friend, Sasha, wants to breathe new life into her struggling fashion magazine and reaches out to Carly with an opportunity that will help them both further their careers. Sasha wants Carly to give her brother, Brooks, a makeover so the magazine can do a little matchmaking and find him the love of his life. Brooks is a lonely doctor who loves his cat and his garden. He’s not really interested in finding love, but the magazine’s success is just as important to him as it is to his sister. Their mother built it from the ground up, and now that she has passed on Brooks and Sasha want to further her legacy. So this antisocial workaholic says yes to a highly publicized journey of dating to find his person. He and Carly begin working together to get him looking snazzy for all these dates. I’m sure you know where this is going, because this is a romance novel after all!

Like I said, this was such a sweet story. I loved watching Carly and Brooks become friends and confidants. They knew of each other in high school, but weren’t in the same social circles. Carly had a crush on him, but he didn’t really notice her. He was super popular and sounded like a player, but he’s changed and now he’s noticing Carly for who she is. So you’ve got a little bit of a friends to lovers thing going on with some history, and they have such fun flirtatious banter that I really enjoyed. Neither of them is looking for love, especially Carly who is fresh out of a relationship that ended due to proximity issues and not a falling out of love, so they’re reluctant to let those sparks fly. Their romance is also sort of forbidden. Carly isn’t allowed to get involved with a client and Brooks has to keep dating other women for the magazine, so this adds a very interesting layer of complication to the mix. There’s some heavier issues that come up, which they share with one another, and I love how Allison Ashley is able to juxtapose the heavy with the light. I was never depressed or sad, just hopeful right along with these two cinnamon rolls. I loved their slow burn romance. Some people complain about a slow burn, but I just love it. It feels so realistic to me because I am a very slow burner myself. It also made so much sense for Carly and Brooks for various reasons. I also really appreciated the fade-to-black romance because sometimes I’m not really in the mood to read the spice and want to focus more on the emotional connection.  It was all just so much fun!

I really liked that this book focused on platonic relationships as well. I loved Brooks’s sisters and their relationship with Brooks. What a sweet family trio. Brooks’s relationship with his high school coach was also really nice. But, of course, Brooks and Carly stole the show for me. And that epilogue. Everything was tied up into a swoony little package that I adored. It was lovely watching these two work through their personal issues together and fall for one another in such a deep and meaningful way. I loved how everything shook out, and I’m definitely an Allison Ashley fangirl now. I can’t believe I haven’t read If Tomorrow Never Comes (I’ve seen the cover and heard the title, but for some reason never realized who the author is!), which is set in the same world as this book, so I need to go back and do that! Bottom line, Falling into Place was adorable and wholesome and very, very sweet. Highly recommended.

The Roommate Pact by Allison Ashley | Book Review

Posted July 31, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 1 Comment

The Roommate Pact by Allison Ashley | Book ReviewThe Roommate Pact by Allison Ashley
Published by Mira on August 1, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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All of the fun, none of the heartache…as long as they stick to the agreement.

The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…

Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock-climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving into Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.

I read and really enjoyed Would You Rather, so I was excited to read this companion novel! Would You Rather features Noah and Mia, both of whom make multiple important appearances in The Roommate Pact. Both of them are close friends with Claire and Graham, who take center stage in this book. So while The Roommate Pact works fine as a standalone, I recommend you reading Would You Rather first for Noah’s and Mia’s sweet marriage of convenience love story. One thing you can expect with an Allison Ashley book is an emotional story with some humor thrown in, and that’s exactly what you get with The Roommate Pact! As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite romance tropes, so I was happy Allison Ashley chose to use it again in this book. Claire and Graham are roommates and good friends. He’s a firefighter (mmmmmm) and she’s a nurse. They made a silly pact to become friends with benefits at 40 if they are not in serious relationships at that point, so you know they already have a tiny thing for one another. While chatting outside one night, Claire realizes how seriously Graham took that pact. The feelings start to bloom between them then and there, and go into overdrive when Graham is injured. Claire offers to help him recover at home, and that’s where our love story begins.

2. I really liked Graham and Claire! Both of them have some trauma from their pasts that make them reluctant to entertain any kind of relationship with the other, which is where the friends with benefits idea came from. Graham has a risky lifestyle, being a firefighter and a hiker/rock climber, and Claire experienced loss as a child as a result of someone else’s risky lifestyle, so he’s kind of off limits for her. She doesn’t want to constantly worry about losing the person she ends up. Graham was burned as a teen, and vowed never to fall in love again. Both of them are in for a rude awakening when they discover that love always finds a way around these kinds of rules people set for themselves.

3. I said I liked Claire, but Graham has my heart and deserves a little more discussion. Claire suggests that he journal during his recovery, and he decides to write her long emails while she’s at work instead. He sends them to an email address she hasn’t checked in ages, and finds this outlet to be very therapeutic. He learns a lot about himself and is so vulnerable. I really felt for him and loved seeing him grow and change. He’s just such a good guy. He’s a protector, a provider, and I love him. Oh, and he falls first. So good.

4. GERTRUDE. There is a tiny dog with a huge attitude in this book and I LOVED her. Gertie is Graham’s little princess, and boy is she spoiled. This dog hates Claire with every fiber of her being, and it was the cutest and funniest journey for the two of them. Gertie brought a lot of comedic relief to the story, which I loved.

5. The romance is a little formulaic as far as the friends to lovers trope goes, but it was sweet in the end. Graham is unable to speak for a little while due to a small injury in the hospital after being intubated, so OF COURSE this means Claire needs to sleep in his bed with him every night even though he texts her all day long. How convenient! I enjoyed their friendship and their conversations. I loved the trip they take together to his parents’ house, and Claire’s interactions with his parents. SO sweet. I really enjoyed delving into their minds and learning what they truly think about one another. Graham’s emails, where he pours out his heart had me in a puddle. There’s so many feelings on both sides. On the surface, though, there’s a lot of physical attraction and that’s the bulk of what actually propels the romance forward. Because they decide to become friends with benefits a few years earlier than originally planned their relationship starts out very physically driven, even though the actual intimate scenes are fade-to-black (which I thought that was an odd choice considering the nature of their relationship). Their foundation was formed before the book begins so readers arrive on scene just in time for things to get physical. I guess I just wanted to see more of that depth, rather than be told it’s there. I felt like I was missing a lot of info that I needed to be able to fully believe the love story. There was a lot of telling and not much showing. 

6. There’s a lot of discussion surrounding grief, loss, illness, fear of the unknown, and processing trauma. These topics were handled with respect and sensitivity, which I really appreciated. I don’t tend to enjoy heavier topics like these in my romance because I read to try and get away from my own inner demons. But Allison Ashley does such a good job tackling weightier subject matter, and juxtaposing it with humor and flirtatious banter.

So all in all, I enjoyed this! I really loved Graham and his little Gertrude. I enjoyed seeing Claire and Graham open up and express their fears and grapple with what they have been through individually in their pasts. I do wish I had been able to see more depth to their relationship, rather than being told about it, but I do really like them as a couple. I’m definitely interested in seeing what Allison Ashley has in store for us next.