The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon: Book Review

The Ex Talk Rating: 4.5/5

The Ex Talk Synopsis: Shay Goldstein loves her job at the Pacific Public Radio in Seattle. She doesn’t love her coworker Dominic Yun, a new hire that’s a little too sure of himself. When funding starts to run out, Shay puts forth an idea: a show about exes discussing dating. Her boss puts her and Dominic in the booth. This is a dream come true for Shay even if that does mean she has to spend time with Dominic. But as the show gets stronger, so do their feelings for each other.

Review:

When I first saw the overview for this book online back in December I was hooked. The premise is interesting, the characters sounded fun, and the author had been there before. Let me say that it did live up to most of my expectations! I loved Dominic. He was such an interesting character to me and I wish there would have been more of his family in the story. Shay’s backstory and her family and friends were beautifully created and I really appreciated the growing pains of adulthood that were put in there. The dialogue was out of this world and literally made me laugh out loud. This book is cute and fun. I loved reading it.

Likes:

• Dialogue: I had the best time reading this book because of the dialogue. Yeah there are moments when it gets a little cringy, but c’est la vie. Don’t we all have those conversations? But overall it was great, witty banter that I will forever be looking for in future reads!
• Realities of Adulthood: I’ve had a couple of conversations with people about this book and one thing that people said was that Shay was a little immature. I can get that, but I think her “immaturity” is a good thing in the book. Not everyone grows at the same rate. Sometimes awful things happen and you’re stuck at that age. It reminds me of something Taylor Swift said (I think in the Miss Americana doc) that you stay the age of when you became famous–or something like that. I think that’s true in a way here. You stay the age that you dealt with trauma. I appreciated all the issues Shay had. I thought they rounded her out.
• Plot: Yeah, there are ethical issues around the premise of the story, but it’s a fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed the twist on the workplace/enemies-to-lovers/fake dating tropes. I felt like the trip in the middle of the book was out of left field, but it was cute. Plus the age gap being where Shay was older was a nice change (although it was brought up a bit too much). It was fun and you know that there’s going to be fallout, but it’s done in a decent way that definitely harkens back to the beginning of the book that’s nice.

Dislikes:

• Beginning: It took a while to get into the novel and get the ball rolling. There were a decent amount of scenes that didn’t really need to be there and by the time we got to the real plot of the story, we were a decent way into the book. I get setting a story up, but it felt really long to get there. I would have liked if the front half were to have been shorter and those pages had been used in the middle of the plot I would have liked it better. But that’s me being nit-picky!

Long Story Short

Do I recommend this book? Yes! It’s fun, it’s informative (on public radio), and it’s steamy. I experienced some of the best written dialogue that I have ever read in this book and I know for a fact I will be going back to it. While I did have a few issues with the novel all of the positives definitely outweighed them. I have already handed it out to a few people to read and I know that I will continue to do that in the future! Whatever else Rachel Lynn Solomon decides to publish in the adult fiction world will definitely be purchased in this household!

I purchased my own copy from my local bookstore!
Here is the Amazon Link (I am NOT affiliated with Amazon)

What were your thoughts on The Ex Talk? Obviously I liked it!

All opinions are of my own are not reflective of anyone else. I buy/loan all of the books I review unless specified and I only give my 100% true opinion on them.

If you liked The Ex Talk I would recommend trying out The Roommate by Rosie Danan. Clara moves across country to escape her controlling family and to spend a summer with her childhood crush. When said crush rents out a room to a stranger, Clara finds herself in close quarters with a man who’s job would not just make her family blush but might be the biggest scandal of them all. Read my full review here.