Georgie, All Along

by Kate Clayborn, Amelie Griffin (Narrator), Alex Kydd (Narrator)

11 hours, 39 minutes

Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.

But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a "friendfic" diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary's simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path.

Georgie's plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.

Contains mature themes.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Audiobook, Chick Lit, Adult

Audiobook

First published January 24, 2023

About the author

Kate Clayborn is the critically acclaimed author of six novels. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Bookpage, and more. By day she works in education, and by night (and sometimes, by very early morning) she writes contemporary romances about smart, strong, modern heroines who face the world alongside true friends and complicated families. She resides in Virginia with her husband and their dog.

Reviews

[Ali Hazelwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

so i just finished this book and i'm a bit shell shocked at how good it was so this review is not gonna be coherent at all, more like an unhinged list of all the things that made me fall so hard for this book. i mean, at heart Georgie is such a simple story: girl goes back to small hometown to figure herself out, girl meets older brother of her high school crush (who also happens to be the former town bad boy), they fall in love. but kate clayborn takes a simple story and makes it SO SPECIAL AND MAGIC AND CHARMING and before you know it you're ready to abandon your spouses and your cats and move into her books permanently and never look back.

okay, i loved:

- honestly, Levi. he's the best grumpy hero ever. and like... the way he loves his dog? men who are overprotective of their formerly mistreated dogs have rights. THEY HAVE SO MANY RIGHTS.
- GEORGIE MY CHAOTICALLY RESOURCEFUL MOONBEAM GREMLIN
- the friendfiction
(i truly have no idea how to insert images or gifs but pretend i'm inserting 69 tina belcher gifs here)
- THE FINAL REVELATION OF HOW AND WHY THE FRIENDFICTION STARTED i was tearing up
- that scene with Bel toward the end in which George really finds herself
- i mean the entire friendship with bel... i love them, your majesty
- okay i also just want to say that the first time georgie tells levi "i love you" is probably my fave scene i've read in a book in a long long time it's just UTTER. PERFECTION.
- also georgie's parents are my faves????
- okay not true georgie is my fave
- actually levi is my fave
- or hank. let's say hank.
- okay, no: the sex scenes are my faves. like, the sex scenes are 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ this book is STEAMY AND GOOD 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
- k i'm done i loved it i'm in love
- wait i just remembered Levi saying "i'm afraid of zombies and man enough to admit it" and literally fell in love with him all love again
- but also like... the way he talks about georgie. god he loves her so much. those idiots *cries into her cereal*
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

disclosure: i received a free ARC from the publisher, Kensington 🌶️

[Christina Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outright perfection! With every new Kate Clayborn novel, I think, ‘This. It cannot possibly get better than this.’ And then Georgie comes along and blows every other book out of the water. It is rare to fall in love with characters at the same pace and to the same depth that they do on the page, but Clayborn’s writing is so immersive, so exuberant, it’s a truly multisensory experience. A classic author writing in the modern age, Clayborn is in a league entirely her own. And Georgie, All Along is her best yet.

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy Publication Day!

4+⭐

When her famous screenwriter boss decides to make big changes in her own life and step away from the limelight, personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy finds herself unemployed and unsure of what she wants to do next, Georgie decides to head home to the small town of Darentville, Virginia, where her parents still reside, to take some time for herself and make plans for her future . Georgie is more that a little surprised to find that she has a temporary housemate. It appears Georgie's father forgot to inform her that while they are away, they have invited Levi Fanning (who was also unaware of Georgie's plans to visit) to housesit while Levi’s house is undergoing some repair. Levi (the older brother of Georgie's teenage crush) was known as a troublemaker in his youth and is a loner, estranged from his influential family, running his own business. Needless to say, Georgie and Levi are opposites but as the story progresses we see how these two very different people bring about positive changes in each other's lives, ultimately bringing them closer together. Georgie’s best friend from school Bel also just moved back with her husband and is expecting her first child. While going through some old boxes they find their “friend-fic” diary from their high school years where Georgie had jotted down a wish list of high school adventures - some dreamy fictional stuff and some she had hoped to experience. Encouraged by Bel she decides to follow through on some of those adventures in an attempt to rediscover herself and fill in the blanks for what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Initially Bel and later Levi, help her go through her list and what follows is a beautiful journey of love, friendship and self-acceptance.

The narrative is shared from PoVs of Georgie and Levi in alternating chapters. I loved Georgie! She is so real and relatable. Quirky and sweet, she is a good friend, a loving daughter and someone who is always willing to lend a helping hand. But underneath she suffers from insecurity and confusion about what her next step should be and is more than a tad hard on herself. The author’s portrayal of Georgie and Bel’s friendship is grounded in reality. Even the most enduring of friendships go through ups and downs and moments of resentment and envy along with a deep level of understanding and love for one another. Georgie’s journey is one of self-discovery and more importantly self-acceptance, becoming comfortable with who she is and doing what makes her happy with the love and support of her family and friends. Not everyone has to have lofty ambitions to be happy and Georgie’s realization that she was happy being just the way she is and all she needed was the space to be herself is a beautiful message that this story offers. Levi is an admirable character and I liked how the author gives us insight into his character and his family dynamic without reverting to melodrama. Touching upon themes of loneliness, isolation, family, friendship, love and kindness, this is a story that will strike a chord in your heart.

With a perfect dose of humor, wisdom and insight and an endearing cast of characters, Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn is an emotional, heartwarming and feel-good read that will leave you with a smile on your face.

Many thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Alexis Hall]

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.

Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.

*******************************************

What a beautifully *expansive* book.

I usually think of Kate Clayborn’s as being a focused and detail-orientated (that’s not any sort of backhanded compliment, it’s a …a … front-handed compliment because it’s something I really love and admire about her work) writer but there’s something undeniably sweeping about Georgie, All Along. I think in the emotional sense, more than anything, because it also retains the tight character work and intricate writing that has characterised all of KC’s previous books.

Georgie, All Along is basically a “returning to your small American hometown” story—which, I will say right now, is not my favourite trope because I simply lack the required cultural touchstones. But, hell, if KC writes it, I’ll read it, so here we are. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure she’s *doing something* with the return-to-hometown trope/premise, because the hometown is itself complicated (it’s currently reinventing itself from backwater to tourist trap) and the characters have complicated relationships with it. In any case, our heroine Georgie (not short for anything), the daughter of amiably chaotic parents, has always had a reputation in Whereveritisville for being flaky, unreliable, and unmotivated. Since leaving, she’s worked as an executive assistant in LA, where she is known for her dedication and efficiency. Her boss, Nadia, however, has spontaneously retired, and Georgie—facing up to the reality that she’s never really known what to do with her life—has decided to temporarily return to the town where she grew up.

There’s things for her to do there, of course: support her best friend, Bel, who is married and pregnant, and has just moved back herself, and housesit her parents plants. But there are complications too, for example, the presence in her childhood home of Levi Fanning and his neurotic dog who Georgie’s parents have managed to double-book with Georgie (something that feels like plot necessity initially but makes perfect sense when you meet them) and the re-discovery of the “friend fic” Bel and Georgie created before high school—a repository of all their hopes and dreams that Georgie feels might somehow help her unlock her future.

As you can probably tell there’s a lot going on here. There’s Georgie’s relationship with Bel, Georgie’s relationship with her family, Georgie’s relationship with the town, Georgie’s relationship with herself, her past, and her future, and—finally—Georgie’s burgeoning relationship with the initially closed-off Levi. And, because of this, there are times when the book feels a little sprawling and structurally chaotic (although there’s a degree to which this is very reflective of its heroine, so I’m inclined to see this is a feature, not a bug) but, ultimately, all these connections come together absolutely beautifully---rendering this one of the most emotionally kind of nourishing? romances I’ve read for a very long time.

It's not a book without hardship—there’s genuine suffering in Levi’s background and Georgie’s sense of herself as blank and ambitionless can be hard to read at times—but it’s mostly a profoundly warm, hopeful, and accepting book. I’m a bit surprised its scheduled for a January release because I read it on a piece of decking overlooking the Cherwell, with the sun pouring over me, and my hair trailing in the water to keep me cool, and I felt very much connected to Levi and Georgie on *their* decking overlooking *their* river. Perhaps I’m just over-invested in the sunshine/grumpy dynamic of the central couple but it seems so fundamentally a summer read to me. Although probably come January we’ll all need a little literary brightness in our lives—in which case, Georgie, All Along will be a balm so, y’know, get it on pre-order ASAP.

There’s a lot I could talk about with this book, but I’m worried about spoiling it. Not that it’s really built on mysteries, exactly, (although there’s a bit of “why is Levi so grumpy all the time”) but it genuinely feels like a journey best shared with its characters. But in summary some of the things I loved: both Georgie’s and Levi, with all my heart, the gorgeous, gorgeous writing, the setting, Georgie’s benignly chaotic parents, Georgie’s relationship with her best friend, Bel, which is deeply loving and supportive but also complicated as most long-standing friendships are, the broader cast who are mostly characterised just enough to feel fully-rounded, Levi’s neurotic dog who constantly farts at inopportune moments, the way that, while the book sort of has a villain (or at least an antagonist), the character is never centralised in the lives of the people he’s hurt, the fact that Georgie and Levi’s relationship is simultaneously quiet and breathtakingly romantic, the conclusions Georgie comes to at the end of the book and the book’s broader exploration of its themes and questions.

There are, however, a couple of specific things I want to get into specifically, just because I think I can celebrate them without wrecking the book, and also because they meant a lot to me personally.

One: the writing. Just, the way KC writes consistently rocks my socks. Compared to something like, say Love Lettering, which has a more self-consciously artful style, reflecting the way the heroine perceives the world, Georgie, All Along has a deceptive simplicity to it which means it bounces along very readable and very funny (dropping lines like this like they’re nothing: " 'Okay, so,' I finally say, which everyone knows is the agreed-upon code for best friends when one of them is about to drop some kind of bomb." I cackled uncontrollably) and then just catches you right in the feels with its unabashed emotional clarity:

“I clench my back teeth, letting a wave of old, familiar embarrassment pass over me. I thought I’d let go of the shame about this part of my life, the way I was basically medicating myself twenty-four hours a day. It’s no different from what millions of people do, good people who are in pain or unsure of where to turn; good people who need a break from everything in this world that’s hard and sad and unforgiving.”

I know there are some people for whom the self-conscious carefulness of KC’s writing can sometimes jar. I am, like, a gazillion not one of those people. Gimme all your wild stylistic experiments, I want to roll around in them and call them daddy. But this book … I honestly think there’s a kind of magic in it: the writing is just this perfect balance, I think, reflective of its two protagonists and effortlessly resonant to the reader. If you’ve bounced off another KC book, this might be your re-entry point.

Okay two: I’m always nervy of over-talking about this because I’m sure there’ll be people to whom it comes across as mansplainy or like I’m somehow trying to make broader statements about women writing men or whatever. These are literally just my personal feelings as an individual who has experienced life in a particular sort of way and responds to books in ways that inevitably shaped by that. I don’t think there are good or bad, or wrong or right ways to write men (or people in general): I just happen to really like the way KC writes romance heroes. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s 100% okay to write a hero who is some walking abs, whose penis bobs up and down like it’s not waving but drowning, and who maybe has a feeling in the final 10% of the book.

But I think, for me, what KC balances exceptionally well is a hero who can exist both as successful object of desire (Levi does manual work, for God’s sake, guy is ripped like woah) and is a fully rounded, emotionally nuanced human being in his own right. And what I find it particularly fascinating the way she tends to use typical hero “tropes” (the hero of Luck of the Draw is a taciturn alpha, Reid in Love Lettering is Mr Buttoned Up, and Levi is, of course, Grumpy) to gently interrogate the way socially constructed gender codes shape and affect her heroes. To put in super blunt terms, the fact that it’s damage and toxic masculinity that creates these paradigms we are taught to find so desirable and admirable. Ultimately her men are always so much more than their tropes and, by the time she has peeled back the layers of them for us, we realise it is no longer the trope we are finding attractive but the person, with all his complexities and frailties and rough human edges.

All of which contributes to some (I mean, in my opinion, your mileage may vary) really delicate explorations of vulnerability, especially male vulnerability, in KC’s books, and Georgie, All Along is no different. I’ve burbled on before about the romance genre complicated relationship with vulnerability. I think, to me, one of the strengths of the genre is that it does create safe space in which vulnerability can (and should?) be explored. But where exploration ends, and fetishization begins, especially when if it’s the vulnerability of people who may not share an identity with the writer, is … I mean … that’s a line so thin as to be invisible, and is necessarily hugely subjective. I do think, however, there is a tendency, especially in m/f romances, for male vulnerability to almost be … a prize that is offered to the heroine, either in penance for the hero treating her badly, or as proof that she’s “the one” for this particular man in that he has dared to show weakness in front of her. For me—and again, I am speaking purely personal—there’s something very natural about the presentation of male vulnerability in KC’s writing: it may be shared with the heroine (and, indeed, the reader) but it always ultimately belongs to the character and the text treads as gently as the heroines do around these socially-charged exchanges of intimacy.

Levi is potentially one of KC’s most vulnerable heroes—he has gone through a lot, and made some bad choices, although this part of his history is never dwelled upon or treated casually—but I loved how carefully he is treated. While Georgie always calls him on his bullshit, when his damage begins to negatively impact her, she never pushes him for more than he is able and willing to share, and the reader, likewise, is encouraged to interact with Levi’s past in a similarly respectful way. Romance is a genre of emotion and connection, but there are times to allow characters privacy. I never felt that I needed more from Georgie and Levi than I was offered—I felt terribly close to both of them by the time I finished the book and full of tenderness—but I also deeply appreciated the text’s willingness to draw away as well as pull my close.

And finally three: this is another complicated one, because aren’t they always. Listen, I love KC’s writing, I sincerely do, and I read romance for *romance* not sex (although, obviously, sex can be part of romance). But for me personally, I’ve never super connected with the sex scenes in the other KC’s books I’ve read. I mean, they’re fine, but they always felt oddly heteronormative to me as well as occasionally disconnected from who the characters. Like in Luck of the Draw where Zoe and Aidan bang in a shower they have explicitly described as gross on several previous occasions and, let’s be real, shower sex is bobbins even when the shower isn’t gross, or Love Lettering, where the heroine has had issues, in the past, with reaching orgasm through PIV but the hero hammers it straight home. And I recognise it may sound weird to be “complaining” about heteronormativity in books that are ostensibly about straight people but, well, heteronormativity is like the patriarchy. There are people it is doing very direct harm, but basically it’s hurting everyone. And I should add that it’s not wrong to want to either have or read about heavily PIV-cantering sex. It’s just neither the only nor always the best way for a P and a V to interact, and the problem with all sex scenes hinging on this specific act, and a specific version of this act (he enters her in one smooth thrust, she is immediately internally stimulated by this, he whams himself back and forth, they both come simultaneously) is that it confers a universality on what is actually a fairly, um, atypical way to guarantee satisfaction for both parties.

Anyway, where I’m going with this, is that Georgie, All Along has some really lovely sex scenes (including one where the heroine gets herself off, and the hero doesn’t) that both reflect the characters involved and contribute meaningfully to the emotional trajectory of their relationship.

Err…okay. So that’s a lot. But hopefully testament to how much I loved this book, and how rich and satisfying I found it. There were a couple of things that didn’t wholly land for me—I honestly found the whole friendfic concept a bit twee, but that’s a me thing, and I felt it worked in the context of the book of the whole, there’s a nonbinary character who literally has zero personality apart from being a waiter and having they/them pronouns (I’m all for inclusion but this strayed perilously close to tokenism for me—again, your mileage may varied), Levi is absurdly coy about the existence of his own aroused dick, no idea why (probably another me thing, just I’m a call a spade a spade kind of person, and it strikes me as weird in contemporary-set books to have characters who will contort themselves into linguistic pretzels rather than name a body part, unless it’s directly part of their character that they will), and there’s a scene at the end between Levi and his estranged brother that is really cathartic and powerful but also involved two men discussing feeling weak and being strong very explicitly. As in they say the words weak and strong about six times between them in a single page of text which … err … is a lot. Don’t get me wrong, the scene as a whole works wonderfully, but those are such significant and loaded words, especially for these two characters, especially at this moment, so their overuse makes the scene emotionally and thematically blunter than it needs to be. But this is also the kind of thing that might well be caught in a proofing pass, since it’s not about the scene itself, it’s about literal word positioning: so another mileage may vary / might actually not exist when the book comes out type situation.

Long story short, and this was—looking back—an incredibly long story (sorry): Georgie, All Along is an absolutely phenomenal book. It’s not my favourite KC—Love Lettering takes that spot, simply because it speaks to me very personally—but I think it might be her best work to date. There’s an ambition and a boldness to it that belies the smalltown setting and the quiet connections it celebrates, and above all such a non-obnoxious sense of hope. This is a book that is not afraid to be messy sometimes and—like its heroine—is only the more beautiful for it.

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, this book is my favorite work by Kate Clayborn! The genuine and vulnerable nature of the characters, as well as their poignancy, are reflected beautifully in the pages.

Both Georgie and Levi are special and extremely likable characters who seem lost and exhausted, unsure of how to move forward with their lives. Their paths cross at their lowest points.

Georgie reluctantly leaves her PA job in Los Angeles and returns to her hometown, where the townspeople see her as a failure. Levi, on the other hand, is the black sheep of his family, estranged from his father and siblings, and shunned by the townspeople because of the damage he caused in his youth. The only person who gives Levi a chance is Paul, Georgie's peacemaker father, who invites him to stay in their vacant house until his house’s construction gets finished. However, he didn't expect Georgie, who is jobless, homeless, and aimless, to also return to her childhood home at the same time. Eventually, Levi and Georgie become roommates for a limited time.

Georgie, used to putting others' needs first after working as a demanding assistant, now feels a sense of emptiness. She has no idea what the future holds and has forgotten how to make choices for herself. When she finds her teenage fiction filled with her younger self's ideas, she sees it as a sign and a new guideline for her future.

She joins forces with Levi to fulfill her bucket list, not expecting to enjoy spending so much time with the grumpy, troubled man, who also happens to be the brother of her high school crush. She also didn't expect to fall for him so hard.

Levi, in a complicated situation, feels like he doesn't deserve happiness or the love of Georgie, who is chaotic, messy, smart, funny, and beautiful. However, he falls hard for her too. Can they overcome obstacles and find happiness in each other's arms?

This book is a beautiful story of self-growth, regret, unresolved dreams, forgiveness, and love. The characterization is perfect and it warmed my heart. It is one of the best books I have recently read!

I would like to extend a special thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing me with this amazing digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

[Val ⚓️ Shameless Handmaiden ⚓️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

I'll be honest and that say this didn't pack quite the emotional punch I was expecting, but I did think it was really cute and I appreciated a lot of the elements, especially the grumpy/sunshine dynamic I wasn't expecting. And I'm always a sucker for some good forced proximity. Georgie (and her family) were borderline Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but managed to just squeak under being over the top. Barely. So congrats to this book for getting me on a day when that didn't drive me batshit as I typically loathe it. Timing, timing timing...

I enjoyed Georgie working through her list and the way her and Levi connected and came together. I saw the ending tension issue coming the moment the catalyst element was mentioned, but whatever. I also thought that Levi's talk with the brother at the end was super contrived. But again...timing, timing, timing. And whatever. A cute, sweet read overall.

[maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

unfortunately, this was a miss for me. it just moved far too slowly. this is an incredibly internal book and i felt like you got far too much of the characters thoughts and not enough plot. the book easily should've started at least 40 pages in. the book did not need to open with georgie thinking to herself in the car, we should've been thrown into plot much quicker. despite all the time with internal thoughts and feelings, i felt that it was still rushed in terms of the relationship

sigh, not for me

ARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own

[Jaden · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rescue dog Hank was the star of this book 🥹🫶

[PamG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn is a captivating and witty contemporary romance set in Darentville, Virginia and featuring Georgie Mulcahy, a long-time personal assistant to a screenwriter and director, Nadia. When Nadia decides to retire, Georgie needs to make some decisions on what she wants to do.

Georgie’s best friend, Bel Reston-Yoon and her husband Harry have recently moved back to Bel and Georgie’s hometown. At a loss, Georgie decides to pack up and move, at least temporarily, to Virginia. She can help Bel get organized from her move and stay at her parents’ home while they’re traveling. While unpacking boxes at Bel’s house, Georgie finds an old journal that she and Bel had written in when they were thirteen. It was filled with ideas and things they had wanted to do. She hopes it will help her decide what to do with her life.

However, it turns out her parents had forgotten to tell Georgie that they were letting Levi Fanning stay at the house for two weeks. He was the town troublemaker when he was young and the older brother of Georgie’s high school crush.

The character development in this novel is excellent. Georgie is impulsive, flighty, flexible, funny, a great organizer of others’ time and things, and she’s confused about her future. Small towns tend to have long memories. Levi is still remembered as a young troublemaker. However, he has a successful business now, is somewhat antisocial, and is tenderhearted with his dog, Hank. Both of these main characters go through dramatic transformations during the course of the storyline.
The author brilliantly portrayed the small town attitudes and changes. The story is well-plotted with a few unpredictable moments and some humor. Despite a somewhat slow pace, the focus on friendship, love, career, and much more, makes this an entertaining read.

Overall, this story is captivating and enjoyable. The author delivers a heartfelt romance with occasional spicy scenes that tackles some deeper themes if one reads it in its entirety.

Kensington Books provided a complimentary physical copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The publication date was January 24, 2023.

----------------------------
My 4 star review is coming soon.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Special thanks to Edelweiss, Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book for an honest review.

HAPPY PUB DAY, GEORGIE!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

*deep breath* Hi. Hello. Get ready to go on a journey with me. 😌

When I tell you I wasn't expecting to get an ARC of this book, I mean that I genuinely didn't think the universe would be so kind to me after punching me in the face repeatedly this year.

And yet, one sunny Wednesday, there it was. An ARC in my inbox. This must be what it feels like to see the sun for the first time. But, like, more exciting.

This truly feels like a fever dream to me. Kate Clayborn is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE authors, and I would probably have murdered someone just to get to read the first two chapters early. And I would have been right, because this was EVERYTHING I could have ever hoped for and more!!!

Georgie, All Along is a masterpiece. A MASTERPIECE. It's heart wrenching, spellbinding, magical. A romance that will stay with me for the longest time.

This is the story of Georgie Mulcahy, who was considered flaky and uninterested and unmotivated by her small town while growing up. A couple years after high school, she transitioned from waitressing to working on movie sets, and ended up getting a great gig as a personal assistant to a famous writer/director, which she kept for years.

After the writer/director decides to unceremoniously quit Hollywood and go live on a farm, Georgie finds herself unemployed and, once again, uninspired, with absolutely no idea what she wants to do with her life. Lucky for her, her best friend Annabel, who has just moved back to their hometown, calls her for help getting settled in her new house and getting it ready for her baby, who'll be making an appearance in two months.

Being back in her hometown just shows Georgie how much everyone's unflattering impressions of her have stuck, and how much she lived up to them. The one thing that gets her out of her funk is that, while helping Bel unpack, she finds a friend fic they wrote together in middle school. A friend fic, apparently, is like a journal where kids would write about their future dreams and adventures and stuff (if this is a real thing, I'm sad I missed it, lol).

The fic inspires Georgie to do all the things she and Bel planned to do in high school, but never got around to. It gives her a purpose, which is just the thing she had been looking for.

Just as Georgie makes this decision, she's surprised by a new development: it turns out that Levi Fanning – once a troublemaking, angry kid who became infamous in the town, and now a quiet, grumpy dock construction worker with a face carefully carved by God – has been promised by her parents that he could stay in their house for the next two weeks. Except, you know. They promised the same thing to Georgie. So, what to do? 😏😜

Important note: Levi is also the older brother of Georgie's high school mega crush, Evan, and it makes her feel very confused that she's now so intensely attracted to his black sheep older brother and can barely remember Evan's golden boy face.

Levi's history with the town and with his family is so tragic and heartbreaking. His journey towards getting past his mistakes and learning to be kind to himself is beyond emotional. Not going to lie, tears were shed.

Georgie and Levi's romance is Kate Clayborn at her absolute best, and keep in mind that her worst is still legions above everyone else. There's so much tension, and so much work done in trusting each other and confronting each other's demons and learning to move forward.

I can't even with how amazing this book is. It broke my heart into a million pieces and put it back together. The characters, the romance, the writing, the setting, the friendships... everything!

I'll never get tired of saying Kate Clayborn is unfairly talented and could write the fuck out of a grocery store list if she wanted to. And we would all be lucky to read it. ❤️

[Dab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This time, instead of a review, I’d like to just leave a big, fat, red heart emoji, if that’s okay with you guys. Because - this book!!! This beautifully written, hilarious and wholesome book!

❤️❤️❤️

Georgie comes back to her hometown after her LA boss decides to quit show business. She also cheerfully announces that Georgie now has time to do the “things she’s always wanted to do”. The problem is, Georgie is not quite sure what those things might be.
Help comes in the form of an old “friend fiction” notebook which becomes her guide and sort-of-but-not-really a bucket list. Her bff and co-author of the notebook is heavily pregnant and can’t do it with her, but there’s Levi, Georgie’s very unexpected roommate…

I want Georgie to be my bff, guys. She’s the most lovable, spontaneous and caring mess of a person, it was love at first sight. And Levi, the troubled soul? With his cold and aloof facade, that you call bs on immediately because of the way he loves his dog? I swear, this guy is exploding-ovaries level hot!

Then, there are Georgie’s parents! I want them to adopt me. Or better yet, I want to be that kind of parent for my children. They’re so easygoing, supportive, and accepting and always there for her, it was so comforting and wonderful🥹 (You can go home now, Pinterest mamas. Don’t forget your homemade quinoa patties on your way out.)

The cherry on top is Hank the dog and his awkwardness-melting farts 🤡

I can’t wait for you guys to read this book!! Counting down till January 24!!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Kensington Books for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review, it was a treat!

[K.J. Charles]

A well-written romance about a woman who feels aimless and a man with a past.

The conflict is very much located in the protagonists' heads. Georgie is a highly successful Hollywood PA, returned to small town to help her heavily pregnant bestie. She's convinced she is a failure because her job came to an end for reasons of her boss leaving the industry. She's been fully and gainfully employed, got connections, got savings, but has a huge feeling of inadequacy because she hasn't made lots of plans for the future in her late 20s. (I will admit this part never quite came into focus for me: she appears confident, capable, happy, and professionally successful, and I just couldn't quite understand why she still cared about teachers and teenage dreams from high school, or why she was down on herself because a PA job came to a natural end on good terms.)

Levi does have issues: horrible parents, teenage misbehaviour, sent to one of those evil boot camp places, lots of trauma. He's had his head down ever since working to prove he's a good person, and he needs to see a lot more sun in his life. They're well matched, Georgie really stands up for both herself and Levi, and Levi values Georgie and works to change himself once he understands what he needs to change. If you like internal conflict and heroes who are angsty without being arseholes about it (rare and precious), this is the book for you.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for my daughter to read, and here is her review!

Loved the book! Hooked from the start. It was grumpy guy meets happy girl. Hometown story, dual POV, and super romantic!

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Georgie, All Along
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.5/5, Romance)

I adored this book.

While it may have started slow, it picked up in a big way and left me with huge hearts (and a few tears) in my eyes. I love the delightfully whimsical way this book is written and tell me… is there anything better then butterfly inducing banter!?

This story is about Georgie, formerly a PA living in LA serving the ultra demanding, and now she’s unexpectedly returning to her small home town. Quickly George realizes this time back home brings back her insecurities and she feels more lost then ever trying to figure out what exactly she wants in life. When she stumbles across her old “highschool fic” a journal filled with all the adventurous things she hoped to accomplish in high school, she realizes she accomplished basically none of them and now is a great time to start. Oh… and did I mention that she’s house sitting for her parents and finds she unexpectedly has a roommate… the gorgeous and troubled hermit Levi Fanning. NOTHING IS BETTER THAN FORCED PROXIMITY!!

I found her obsession with the high school “fic” … immature? That might have been the point but I didn’t find it relatable. But, that’s probably because this book isn’t about me! It’s about Georgie who somehow was totally endearing pulling the whole “fic” thing off! The only thing that wasn’t pulled off was the use of the word “FIC”… omg! Use a new word!! It made me feel about a million years old but then I asked my 20-year old sister if it’s like cool term I’m unaware of and she said it was “cringey”. So what generation is using this word!!? Can we just call it like a diary or a bucket list?!?! Ok- sorry I digress.

I want Georgie to be my best friend (no offense to my current best friends) and I have a big fat crush on Levi (no offense to my husband). This book shows you how hot it is to be vulnerable & have a Pinterest board!!!! It also teaches a lot of other sweet lessons but those two are my favorite

This isn’t a BRAD but it has a bit of spice (🌶️) which was a real treat!

Best paired with a bottle of cider & a big fat slice of carrot cake.

For those who is may concern: This is a dual POV and I think it’s done well!

[b.andherbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO yes, I think this might be my favorite ever Kate Clayborn. I got a print ARC and used up one whole, brand new sharpie highlighter on it and made so many hearts.

What the author does best, for me, is the repetition in allusions and moments. Georgie is EXPANSIVE; Levi & Hank are like an owner//dog pairing from 101 Dalmations. The callbacks! The robe! THAT ENDING (THE BOWTIE).

I am interviewing Kate for work on 2/15 and I'll hope to have better words to write about this story after that, and when I have my annotated copy in front of me, but seriously, I just adore this romance so much.

Did I just read my new favorite Kate Clayborn? I mean, Zoe & Aidan supremacy 4eva, BUT BUT Georgie & Levi, maybe just maybe have joined them on that top tier??

I think I will need to re-read a dozen times to make sure, so stay tuned. That said, I've read this ages before y'all can, I'm so sorry, but this is going to be my favorite romance of 2023. Yup, I called it already. Everyone else can go home (jk I still want to read your books).

Somehow the author writes the romances of my heart, including moments that are so absolutely personal to me yet must be universal to a slice of people in the world like me. Her words make me feel seen and also make me feel the absolute love the characters have for each other too. The sentences? I die. I highlighted the heck out of my digital copy, I would love to have an annotated edition of this cleverly crafted romance.

Levi, his dog, and Georgie; the friend fic, the friends. The {redacted] & [redacted]. SO MUCH MORE.

Thank you to the publisher for the early copy.

Content note: secondary character, a friend of the heroine, lost her mother to cancer. It is mentioned, but is not a major part of the story beyond explaining the heroine's connection to her best friend's life.

[Rachel L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a review on here that said this book is mostly just character thoughts with little to no plot and I would absolutely agree. I had trouble connecting because it was a lot of telling and not showing. Plus all the things I loved most about it were skimmed over more than I'd like, mostly Levi and his siblings and Georgie actually figuring out what she wants. Bonus points for the cute dog.

[h o l l i s · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a few authors I should know better than to pick up late at night, thinking I'll only read a few chapters before going to bed. Clayborn is one of them. I finished this after midnight on a work night but the next day sleepies were w o r t h i t.

Additionally, on a related note, there are only a few authors who make me want to flip over, upon finishing the book, and start again. Surprise surprise, Clayborn is also one of those. I have yet to do that but the urge is there. Also, immediately reread all my favourites (of which there are many). But I digress but what does any of this have to do with GEORGIE, ALL ALONG? Nothing really. Except that hopefully it conveys the all around good feeling it gave me.

I will be very curious to see if people find this vibed a little different from past Clayborn's. Maybe it's just me and my headspace. But that's not a bad thing. It just feels very far away from LOVE LETTERING and more in line with her debut series. Again, not a bad thing. It's good to mess up your expectations a little.

What never ceases to amaze me are how much I fall in love with this author's characters. And this crop is no different. From Georgie, to her love interest Levi, to her bestie Annabel, to Hank the dog, arg. Everyone stole my heart. But when it came to Georgie, can I just say, that few people do messy eccentric-adjacent characters like Clayborn? In many other hands, Georgie would've been OTT and cringey but somehow she was made to be loud and chaotic and it feel genuine instead of put on. I loved, too, the theme of the story, of trying to go back, and how that was woven through for so many of these characters and yet they each had different emotional beats to tackle and resolve, things to face, and how those all shook out.

Also, can I just say, Levi's style of texting? Outstanding. Ten out of ten.

Start to finish there was just so much great here and I honestly don't know what else to say about it except : read it.

4.5 stars

** I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **

---

This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because for some reason, I decided to keep reading. But honestly this was painful in the kind of way that accidentally cutting your nails too short is painful - it hurts, it’s annoying, and you feel really freaking stupid for having done it to yourself.

Reasons this was a challenging read for me:

- every time the term “friend fic” or “the fic” was used, I wanted to burn my kindle. I feel like Regina George - “stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s not gonna happen”
- the looooooong mental interludes and descriptions of things that were either not additive to the book, or worse, had already happened and the characters were just repetitively ruminating. I skimmed probably 40% of the book.
- Levi’s voice. I actually looked up whether Kate Clayborn was from Virginia. And it seems that she does live there… but it was written like a low budget movie character might speak in a Southern accent. I felt offended for Americans everywhere.
- the angst was too much for me. It might resonate with some people and I hope it does. But it felt like bad therapy to me. Like the book tried to really dissect some topics that were pretty heavy for the characters, and just didn’t do it all that well.
- the plot was exactly what you thought it would be. To a tee. In the first 2 chapters, you know exactly the entire book.

I thought about DNF-ing MANY times and I’m not sure what propelled me forward. There was a part about 85% of the way through that I remember liking and thinking, “aww maybe this will have a strong ending!” But it didn’t.

[Wulf Krueger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Georgie, 28 years old, in spite of being highly successful at her job as a personal assistant has recently been let go by her latest employer. She takes a break and comes home to her rural hometown due to feeling like huge parts of her are simply “blank”. She finds an old notebook she created when she was 13, shortly before entering high school. So what’s a successful 28 year old to do? She decides to do what her thirteen year old self considered great ideas: Like jumping into a river from a dock that was probably “safe enough” some 15 years ago but has been neglected since… What could possibly go wrong, eh?

In the process, Georgie meets Levi and proceeds in her teenage rampage with him - including heavy petting and extensive dry-humping on her parents’ couch… I could certainly relate to that - not at 28, though.

Then there’s Levi. For most of the book, Levi “who is very nearly in [his] midthirties” is brooding, angsty, anxious and insecure. He, too, has come a long way: From local troublemaker to local dock builder, Levi rose to many occasions - just not confronting his toxic father and, thus, he’s also estranged from his siblings for no good reason at all.

Yes, I get it, it’s certainly possible to deeply and thoroughly internalise parental abuse but Levi is in therapy and yet never addressed his daddy issues?! Sorry, that’s hard to believe…

Also, dear Levi acts immensely immature at a certain point. That scene was so mind-numbingly stupid I could hardly believe what I had read. The “big reveal” about the “blankness” Georgie feels was another major let-down; the explanation of it all is so ridiculously simple that only our 28-year-old going on 13 could come up with it.

At several points I wondered how those two people had even made it alive to 28 and mid-thirties respectively…

Thankfully, there are some redeeming qualities: Once everyone starts actually talking with each other, things start making some sense at least. A certain scene between Levi and his brother actually felt real and believable.

All in all, this read like a shallow “dramedy” rather than the romantic comedy I expected but this novel failed to realise its potential.

A generous three stars out of five.


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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

[Shelley's Book Nook · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Reviews Can Also Be Found On:

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3.5 Stars

I so enjoyed Love Lettering by this author. She really knows how to write touching, romantic stories. This one is a heartfelt, yet slow-going, touching story about Georgie and how she returns to her hometown to start anew.

I loved the characters in this book. They were real, true to life, and similar to people everybody knows. Georgie and Levi were so adorable together and I liked them as a couple. I appreciated the way the author wrote chapters from the point of view of each of them. The side character of Georgie's BFF, Bel is exactly the type of best friend any woman would be lucky to have. I loved that the book told the story of two youngish (compared to me) people growing and learning to love themselves, people can learn a thing or two from this couple.

The plot had my emotions all over the place. One minute I'd be crying and the next laughing my butt off. The sex scenes in this book we hot and steamy. I am not usually one who goes for that sort of thing but with the romance factored in Clayborn nails it. Just a warning though, it tends to get a bit graphic so if that is something that would bother you as a reader be warned.

While I enjoyed a lot about this book it was a little too slow going for my tastes and a little long in the tooth for what it is so I can't bump it up to four stars but I think many people will like it and I would read more of this author's work for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

#GeorgieAllAlong #NetGalley

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Georgie, All Along is the small town, grumpy-sunshine book I needed. Georgie is back in town (temporarily) and ends up in a forced proximity situation with Levi Fanning. Georgie was great and all, but I loved Levi! It was sweet and fun, but also emotional.

Audio book source: Libby
Story Rating: 4 stars
Narrators: Alex Kydd & Amelie Griffin
Narration Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Romance
Length:11h 39m

[Madison Warner Fairbanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn
Contemporary romance. Grumpy sunshine.
Georgie returns to her childhood home to help her best friend set up her new house before the baby is born. Georgie has to decide what she wants to do next in life since her last boss retired, leaving Georgie as loose ends. A journal written in junior high might be just the thing Georgie needs to make some decisions.

Georgie wants to try to figure out what to do in the future as a career. She feels empty and hopes the goals she had as a teen will direct her in the future.
Levi keeps his head down but is drawn by Georgie’s effervescent smile. As Georgie and Levi spend time together, Levi also has work to do on more than just building a dock.
I fell in love with the characters. I highlighted a few passages of Levi’s thoughts about Georgie and I also cried as life throws them a few hurdles.
A heartwarming and emotional novel of discovery, self analysis, and personal growth. For the characters.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am I ever going to get the feeling back that I had when reading Clayborn's Chance of a Lifetime series? Because her standalones just don't seem to do it for me, sadly.

This book is sloooooow, and I don't mind slow books at all because it usually means that there's also a slow-burn romance at the heart of it, which is my favourite. But this is different, because while the plot is slow, the romance is actually close to insta-love and moves far too quickly. From the moment Georgie and Levi meet, there is instant attraction, lust and full-on pining. They were both thinking words like "forever" and "mine" and "infinite" when they had barely even kissed. It made me cringe, to be honest, because it came across as forced to me and there was little to no chemistry there.

Despite this being - in true Kate Clayborn style - an internal book, with lots of inner monologues and thought processes for both MCs in switching POVs, I felt there was not much depth to the characters. The reason why Levi is the black sheep of his family doesn't get explained until somewhere around the 70% mark, but it does constantly get teased.

The family stuff in general was problematic for me, and I wasn't fond of the resolution.

On top of that, the central premise of the story just isn't something I typically enjoy. A nearly 30-year-old girl goes back to her hometown and wants to do a list of things she wrote about in her journal at the time? That is not going to appeal to me, and I was also constantly confused as to why Georgie kept referring to this journal as "the fic". (sidenote: I should've counted how many times the word fic was written down, that got on my nerves real quick)

Both the story and the romance did pick up for me eventually, but by then I think I was 75% in and I had already been too annoyed by most things. I did like Levi a lot as a character and I loved the friendship between Georgie and Bel.

But it wasn't enough to make me like or enjoy the book as a whole. Hank the dog is pretty much the best thing about this and no one can convince me otherwise.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the cute, sweet, rom-com I needed in my life right now. The beginning was slow but once it got going it moved pretty well. The characters were great and while I am not a huge fan of instant love and this one came close to that I thought it worked. I liked the squishing of an extra trope of forced roommates in there. I mostly loved the grump and the sunshine as they were both bright and vibrant (in different ways) and I love what they brought out in each other. Georgie has been an assistant in LA for years and it has kept her from thinking of what she wants in her life. When her boss decides to retire and advises her to figure out what she wants she heads home to visit her pregnant best friend and parents. Levi got into a lot of trouble as a kid and teen but he’s worked hard to build a respectable life and show how responsible he is. He sticks to himself (and his adorable dog) but he doesn’t mind. The two meet, collide and CHAOS. Beautiful, romantic, sweet, chaos.

[Kiona (Books & Cafes) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished with this book and grateful I never have to read about these people again.

Georgie is a personal assistant in Los Angeles who loses her job when her boss decides to leave the big city and live a simpler life. While she regroups, Georgie heads to her hometown to stay at her parent’s place and support her childhood BFF Bel in the late stages of pregnancy. Unfortunately, her parents forgot they’d already asked Levi to housesit while they’re out of town, so both Georgie and Levi find themselves with an unexpected roommate.

I didn’t connect to these characters AT ALL so this story was a major slog. None of the characters felt fully realized and the story was all tell, no show. A lottt of inner monologue.

Georgie is described as “a mess” throughout and for the life of me I can’t understand why. She seems to have been exceedingly capable at her job before her boss retired, and just very adaptable in general. She goes on tangents but that doesn’t qualify someone as a mess? What am I missing? And aside from not being a mess, she has no other real personality. She could be anybody in any town. Very Hallmark movie character.

Levi has more backstory I guess (mostly told, not shown) but I don’t understand what at all attracted these two characters together. They spent two nights together, exchanged all of five gruff words, and next thing they’re all hot and bothered for each other. And then after legit two weeks of knowing each other — in which they spend more time apart than together — they’re in love. Nope. NOPE.

Also Levi will not stop describing Georgie as “expansive,” which drove me literally insane. What does he mean by this? Even Georgie questions it. When I think expansive, I think a big personality, someone who fills a room, always on the move, never settling. Georgie has little actual personality and very much settles in her hometown so… what?

The plot largely — and slowly — revolves around Georgie reliving fantasies she wrote in a high school journal she unearths (her “fic”?). This isn’t enough to carry the story. The ideas in the fic are boring — jumping off a dock, going to an antiques store, spray painting her initials on a rock — and don’t lead to any real moments of growth for any character. I mean, The characters think they’ve grown, we’re told they have, but I don’t really see it.

I seem to be in the minority here though so if you’re in the mood for a Hallmark read, this might be up your alley.

[Celene Seals · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get into this book. It was way too slow for my taste. I'm clearly an outlier and there are some great reviews for this book, so if you have read this author's previous books and enjoyed them, or in the mood for a cute, Hallmark-esque romance then maybe it will be for you. But, unfortunately, it was a miss for me.

Full disclosure: I was only able to make it 50% before I called it. I thought the book was lacking in plot and focused more on the two alternate POVs thoughts. I did not feel any connection to either of the main characters. I couldn't stay focused enough to push myself to the end and I don't see it turning around for me, so I'm DNF it, sadly.

**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account immediately and will post it to my Amazon & Instagram accounts upon publication.

[Sarah | Kerosene.Lit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been delaying this review simply because I loved this book SO MUCH. I almost have no words. These characters have been living in my head since finishing.

Having lost her job as a PA in Los Angeles, Georgie is back in her small town facing lost questions of who she is on her own, what she truly wants for herself. And thanks to a notebook filled with words from her teenage years, she's hoping it'll guide her way.

Who she doesn't expect to cross paths with is Levi Fanning, the small-town grump and reformed bad boy. You'll love him (and his dog Hank) instantly; I know it. As it slowly reveals his troubled past, there's a bit of a mystery regarding the ties to his family. And oof. It was heartbreaking. There's a wonderful storyline of forgiveness in this that made me want to hug my book after finishing. I even shed a tear.

"He's tough because he's never had a soft place to land."

Not once did Georgie place judgement on Levi. I cannot express how much I loved their delicate, slow burn, unexpected connection. Seeing Georgie nuzzle her way into his lonely, quiet life ... Georgie taking over his everyday thoughts ... I melted. I think this will be one of my favourite reads this year!

(heat level: 1-2 open-door scenes, moderate details)

[Charlotte (Romansdegare) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgie, All Along has the bones of a highly-recognizable setup: Georgie Mulcahy has just lost her demanding, high-powered job as a personal assistant to a Hollywood star, and responds by stuffing her (very few) belongings into trash bags, throwing them in the back of her car, and driving home to the small Virginia town she grew up in. Once there, she discovers that her parents, off on a road trip, have "double booked" themselves a set of house-sitters: Georgie, and Levi, the taciturn, bearded older-brother of the golden-boy football star she used to be in love with in high school. 

Hello, familiar genre waters! "Returning from your high-powered job to your small hometown only to find love with the hot older brother of your former crush" is one of romance's tales as old as time. And something I really appreciated about Georgie, All Along is that - while it inspects and questions and deepens its own relationship to this well-trodden genre staple - you never get the sense that it's looking down on it, or denying why it attracts readers. 

That being said, this book is very much offering its own take. One way it does that is via its flashy "pick this book up" hook: upon returning home, Georgie discovers a "friend fic" that she and her best friend Bel wrote. And so Georgie - who is lacking direction in her life after losing her job - decides that maybe going back and living out her high school dreams, one by one, might give her a better idea of who she is and what she wants. And who better to help her than the grumpy older brother of the very same high school crush whose name is all over this friend fic in puffy sparkle pen? The fic is, on the surface, Georgie, All Along's principal invention - the hook it uses to bring readers to this iteration of a romance plot classic, rather than any other. 

And... I don't want to say the "friend fic" has nothing to do with how this book creates its own version of a genre staple. But rather than being the fundamental innovative element, it served more as a thematic touchstone. One that the text could return to as it developed an incredibly nuanced deconstruction and exploration of two questions at the heart of its own genre referent: what is the appeal of "going back" home? And what is it that connects readers, on a human level, to the archetypes of a "flighty and somewhat aimless" heroine and the "taciturn outcast" hero?

So here's where I start to fall apart and lose coherence, because I kind of cannot believe how well this book does both of those things. I must say, I had my skepticism firmly in place for the "going back" element of this story from the very start. I have... the opposite of any interest in going back to where I grew up, either physically or (perhaps especially) emotionally. So Georgie's idea that she could somehow gain clarity on her life by returning to who she was and what she wanted when she was in high school was, to be perfectly frank, not appealing to me in the slightest. But I should have trusted Kate Clayborn, because if there's one thing she does well (though, trust me, there's more than one), it's having a central a theme in each book, and finding all kinds of interconnected ways to explore it without letting it take over the emotional experience of the novel, or crush it with thematic didacticism. This is A SKILL. I just love how the author creates these grounded, enormously specific stories about things like "going home and relocating my high school friend fic" or "feeling blocked in my job as a hand-letterer of bullet journals" or "trying to help my fake fiancé buy a summer camp because of our shared guilt over his brother's death" without ever sacrificing the breadth or universality of her thematic threads. 

So even if, like me, you would sooner throw yourself off a pier than be anything like you were in high school... there's something intriguing here about the idea of what it means, in a broader sense, to go back. To pick a point in your life where things went down one path, and imagine what it would be like if you took another. And the truth - which I think this book understands - is that on a macro level, we can't ever really do that: go back and do life differently. Nor, necessarily, should we want to. But I loved the small moments where Georgie and Levi mess up with each other, and extend each other the grace to go back and try the interaction differently. There are all kinds of returns in this novel, large and small, but that was probably the one that meant the most to me. Even though this book depicts new love, the thematic exploration of ...  iterativeness, for lack of a better word,  really resonated with my experience of a longer-term relationship as well. Sometimes you have to keep going back to the same points, the same fights, the same apologies, and keep trying until you know how to progress away from them differently. And it can be really hard to extend the patience to someone to keep trying to go back. I loved how Georgie and Levi did that for each other. And I loved how "going back" felt, all at the same time, like an exploration of a familiar romance trope, a very specific story element for Georgie and Levi's narrative, and a universal consideration of what it is we're really seeking when we try to return. 

(Sidebar that nobody asked for: I actually think though that, maybe, while this book starts out with time and "going back" as its major theme, it gently morphs that into being about taking up space and finding place? I know "this book is about space, not time" sounds horribly esoteric but I promise it's just so gently woven into the book that it works perfectly)

Anyway. I have already taken up too many words of this review without talking about the characterization of Georgie and Levi. Which is just... masterful. Especially, I think, in the way it interrogates the "flighty, quirky, disaster heroine" archetype with Georgie. I mean, she starts off the novel in a car full of her belongings in a trash bag, wearing quirky, wrinkly overalls, and forgetting her wallet while trying to buy strawberry smoothies- a predicament she needs to be rescued from by the hero. But as the book unfolds, the writing lends that characterization SO much depth. And, crucially, it asks readers to consider how at least part of our haste to label women as flighty is (gendered) misunderstanding and stereotype, but also how some of those same characteristics - creativity, adaptability, responsiveness to others - are in fact great strengths. I loved how Georgie's personality made her a good friend and an amazing asset at her (current and former) jobs, and how the book never, not once, lost sight of that. Also, the book is able to really clearly distinguish between how others see Georgie, how Georgie sees herself, and how the people who love her see her, and yet combine all three for a fully-realized, three-dimensional character. 

I think what's going on with Levi is a bit more subtle, but no less powerful. He has a pile of romance hero stereotypes to match Georgie's: he's got a beard, he's the town hermit, he's shy, he's gruff, he's good with his hands, he's the Older Brother. A lot of this seems like very straightforward code for Romance Novel Man. But I think - as with Georgie - the author is very thoughtful in showing the reader what elements of Levi's personality are external misunderstanding and gender stereotype, and which elements merit a much more thorough grounding via backstory and exploration and understanding. Something I thought a lot about while reading is the idea I came across recently in an unrelated reading, positing that books don't belong to genres so much as they use genres. And I think that's exactly what Kate Clayborn does with Georgie and Levi: rather than trying to make them belong in genre-hero-and-heroine boxes, she uses recognizable codes of "romance novel depictions of masculinity/femininity" to create characters, but also deconstruct where those codes are coming from. Genre in Kate's work - especially the characterization - often feels like the terms of what she's working with, rather than its boundaries or its limits. 

And I think part of what is so magical about these characters who come to us with so many different dimensions, is that almost every reader will find something about them to connect to. Even if neither Georgie nor Levi feel exactly like us. In my case, while I don't think I've ever really read to people as flighty, there was something very relatable in Georgie's feeling lost in her career, and her deeper worry that everyone around her knows what they want from their life but her. And Levi. Obviously I am not a beardy man with a checkered past who builds docks for a living. But I connected really deeply to the specific depiction of his shyness and introversion ... the way it's both just a part of who he is, and an outgrowth of his bone-deep fear that people will dislike him for taking up any space in their lives.  

Anyway, I say this not to get overly personal but to point out that... this depth of characterization is what made the ending of this book work so well for me. Without going into detail, both Georgie and Levi go through some tough stuff at the end, and while I didn't love exactly how those hard moments were catalyzed (this is maybe my only major complaint about the book), the emotional aftermath of the low moment is done really well. And throughout it all, I kept coming back to the fact that while these characters were suffering... the book was taking so much care with them, and extending them so much grace. By giving them space to learn and grow, even in the tightly-packed pages of the final 20%. And most of all, by creating moments where both Georgie and Levi benefit from others' kindness and support, while being really compassionate about how they react in the absence of those things. And I think, precisely because these characters are so dimensional and so open to points of personal connection with the readers... reading it felt like seeing those parts of myself treated with care, as well. Which is a very special thing. 

Anyway, this is a very moving, well-written, thoughtful, and lovely book, which might just make you feel a bit of much-needed care while you read. I highly, highly recommend. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC from the author, with whom I am friendly on Twitter.

[Ellie J. (semi-hiatus with 👶🏼🎀) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Levi Fanning,” I say softly. “Are you calling me trouble?” He lowers his mouth to kiss me, slow and perfect. “I’m calling you the best thing that ever happened to me.”

So sweet! 💞🥰💫 Heart-warming and refreshing, this is the perfect read to curl up on the couch with.

After losing her job as an LA personal assistant, Georgie Mulcahy returns to her hometown only to run into her teenage crush—scratch that, his grumpy, handsome older brother (swoon). Uncertain about the future, Georgie decides to take a walk through her past with the help of a teenage bucket list that reminds her of the bright and expansive person she was all along.

Funny and relatable, I appreciate that this book skips over all the recycled romance tropes in favor of telling an honest story about life and how beautifully imperfect it is.

Shout out to Hank 🐶 who made me laugh more times than I care to admit.

[Jennifer Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ‘Levi Fanning’ STARS

The hero’s back story and growth is written perfectly. I felt his vulnerabilities and fears and found him completely developed. Dare I say…



The story is told in dual povs and gifts insight into both characters. Georgia Mulcahy returns to her hometown after closing the chapter on her job and supporting her best friend’s upcoming baby arrival. She finds herself sharing her parent’s house with Levi Fanning, the brother of her high school crush and one-time bad boy. Their fall into love was built on trust and understanding and gets Levi to start to see outside the small space in the world he has created for himself.

The love that Levi has for Georgia is butterfly-inducing.

“I don’t have to be any kind of small, not anymore. Not even with my wishes.”



I loved the Fanning Family side of the story. I would recommend gifting Levi’s brother and sister their own books.