Jade Everly is a twenty-four-year-old native New Yorker, pursuing an acting career while working as a Barista at a trendy cafe. She shares an apartment in Brooklyn with her best friend Reese.
When Reese suddenly springs the news that she is moving out to live with her boyfriend, Jade has no choice but to let good-looking, cocky, musician and true player Colin move in. Now living together, Jade and Colin hardly see eye to eye, especially about the men she dates.
An upcoming wedding of her ex-boyfriend Noah and childhood best friend Suzy has her on the hunt (even more than ever) for a plus one.
Will Jade find love as she searches for the right date or will desperation blind her from finding the love she desires?
If you enjoy slow burn romances, this is a good book for you. Personally, I wish their relationship had been explored more in depth and a little faster. The story takes waaay too many turns for my taste. But it's well written and I'm looking forward to reading more from Emily Sam in the future.
This book was just plain bad. I'm not one to DNF books, no matter how bad they are, because I really like to see the story all the way through - but I just could not even think about finishing this book for the life of me. Ended up DNFing at about 47%.
I've read Wattpad books that were 10x better than this. The writing was extremely lackluster and felt like it was a book about adults, written by a teenager. It obviously lacked a good editor, because there were spelling and grammatical errors up the galore. I think the author definitely fell into the trap of "telling" and not "showing." There's a reason that's one of the first things they teach you in literature/creative writing classes; the best writers know how to show not just tell you everything that's happening. Maybe the writing style just wasn't for me, and that's part of why I hated it so much?
It think the other part was just that the plot was SO BAD (or maybe the correct description would be nonexistent?). The synopsis sounded interesting enough, but execution-wise it really fell below the bar. The main character, Jade, was annoying as hell (and definitely homophobic, which I think is really where I was like, "okay, i'm done reading this.") and all of the surrounding characters were just really flat. I kept waiting for *something* to happen, but it was just the same think day after day. It felt more like a teenage girl's diary then it did a story about a 20-something year old in NYC.
Definitely should've been a KindleUnlimited book - kind of pissed that I actually paid for it lol.
This book starts off with Jade watching a man buy white flowers, he comes every day to the same vendor and the ladies at the coffee shop come up with stories about him and the flowers. Then it goes on to tell you about Jade’s search for love. She meets all types of men until she finally meets the right one. An enjoyable read. I would recommend this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I read this book in the spam of one week. It was that good(with some minor errors).
I actually connected to Jade more than I thought I would. My best friend is in a stable relationship with 2 kids and I'm still chasing daffodils and we're the same age. So I can sympathize with her throughout the story.
Personally, I would've liked to see more of Jade and Colin's relationship at least through the second half of the book. Not the last 40 pages or so. They got along in the enemies to love type trope so well and I just wish we got more of it. It was fun to see them interact.
I didn't like the way we practically got everything about his past at the end...and frankly with the way he acted so secretly about it, the truth was a little anticlimactic.
Finding out his business also seemed like it was just kind of thrown in there at the end randomly and I didn't care for it. Yeah it made me go, "Oh that's where Colin was going all the time during the day" but still seemed random.
The wedding weekend was probably my favorite part of the book. It's not often I cry when there isn't a death, but I cried for Jade when Noah confessed about his cheating. And may I say that Jade handled talking with Suzy the morning after *way* better than I would have. I would've gone off on her, screamed at her, and thrown some petty insults at her. But that's just me, I can be a hot head, haha. Jade handled it very classy and I give her a standing ovation.
I also want to rant about Suzy, like she really thought they could be friends after all of that came out? She's an absolute jo- I'm gonna stop right there. I shouldn't get so heated over a book character, haha.
I thought that someone close to her would've talked to her about what seemed like her excessive drinking. That's why, to me at least, it was brought up so much. Or maybe she would've figured it out on her and stepped away from it —like her sister did— knowing how her dad is with alcohol.
I also would've preferred an epilouge at the end; something to really get an "awe" ending. Does she ever get a big break? Jade's a struggling actress throughout the novel with one show in the entire book. I would've liked to see if she ever made it to Broadway. I also would've liked to see if anything ever happened to Colin's band, or even his furniture business. I would've loved to read about them maybe even having a kid or two.
I don't know, maybe the way it ended was more realistic? Which I can understand but an epilouge is just something I think would've made it four stars.
There was also an obvious spelling mistake for like a paragraph or two where Sam meant to spell Zack with a 'k' and accidentally spelled it with an 'h'. An editor should've caught that.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book besides all these things. I'll definitely pick this book up again. It got me out of a reading slump!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
3.5 stars This is unlike any story I’ve read before. It goes through over a year of Jade’s life. We see ups and downs with different relationships while living her life in New York.
I feel like we got so much detail on who Jade is and what she was going through on a daily basis. This helped me feel more connected to her and caring about her different friendships and relationships. There is a lot of drama which kept the book moving forward. I could see this translating well into a TV show. If all felt very real and relatable!
* I was kindly gifted a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review*
Chasing Daffodils follows Jade, a serial monogamist who has terrible boyfriend after terrible boyfriend but what she really wants is to find true love. Every day from the cafe where she works she watches the same man buy a bunch of flowers every single day. That’s the kind of love she wants.
Her pursuit for true love isn’t helped by her obnoxious, cocky and annoyingly very handsome roommate, Colin, who finds her disastrous love life hilarious. Her best friends wedding is coming up and she needs to find a plus-one and it definitely can’t be Colin….(can it?)
This book has every trope you’d ever want in a romance book, I don’t want to list them all for fear of spoilers but you’ve got fake dating, enemies-to-lovers and slowburn which are some of my favourites! It’s a pretty long book but it’s split into seasons so I found it really quick and easy to read. I really loved this one, and can’t wait to see what Emily writes next.
The only reason it’s not a 5 star is because I would’ve liked a longer ending, after falling in love with the characters I wanted to see how their relationship progressed but I guess there’s always room for a sequel! 🧐
Summary: Jade is 24 years old working as a barista while trying to launch her acting career but all of that is put on the back burner when she is inviting to be the bridesmaid at the wedding to her friend Suzy who is engaged to Jade’s ex this inspires her to get more active in the dating game. It also encourages her BFF Reese, to try to set her up with her boyfriend’s BFF Colin however the set up is a disaster and the disaster continues once Colin and Jade move it together.
Thoughts: This was super precious, I really adored Jade and Colin’s story I do wish we got to see a little more of the happily ever after but overall it was super cute. Her relationship with Reese was also very precious as was Reese’s relationship with Wes, Reese was definitely one of my favorite characters and I love that she kept trying to set Jade up. I also adored Colin despite the fact he’s as far from Prince Charming as you can get, but he does have a sweet side even if he is super dramatic about. He’s sister was super precious as well and I loved seeing more of her and Colin interacting. Overall this was a super cute romcom and I’ll definitely be rereading it.
I wanted to like this book.... but unfortunately it missed the mark for me. I felt like I was reading a teenage girl's diary - day by day by day by day.... I kept reading thinking *something* was going to happen, but aside from a lot of casual sexual relationships and excessive amounts of alcohol - there wasn't much substance to the story.
Jade is looking for her plus one to take to her ex's wedding, but has so far been unsuccessful in love. She refers to alcohol as her "friend" (um.... red flag?!), sleeps with a married man, is involved in an emotionally abusive relationship, finds "love" with an old friend from high school, and engages in a no strings attached relationship with someone named Zack (who the author also refers to as Zach within sentences of each other).
The storyline dragged on and then the ending felt extremely rushed. Jade and her friends lacked any connection beyond socially drinking and going out together. It was rare for them to discuss anything other than their current conquests.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Following the story of Jade in Chasing Daffodils was easy to do. Emily Sam really takes through Jades life finding love in a creative way with her writing. The story of Jade who is a barista and also trying to become a actress has to find a new roommate when Reese her best friend moves out. Jade sets out to find a new love and also to have the new boyfriend before her ex boyfriend’s wedding to her childhood friend..
I really enjoyed the story and the way the friends stuck together and supported Jade when she was struggling. The strong bond with the four main characters made this story feel like it was really happening to someone I know and really believable. I do feel the story was a bit long but I really enjoyed it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an EARC. While I did receive an ARC the thoughts in this review are completely my own.
Jade Everly is a 24 year old barista/actress trying to make her way in NYC. She shares an apartment owned by her parents with her BFF Reese. Reese and her boyfriend, Wes, decide they want to live together after years of dating and leaves Jade to find a new roommate. Wes "helps" with finding the roommate by getting his best friend Colin off his couch and into Jade's now spare room. Jade and Colin were set up on a blind date a while ago ..... it did not go well.
Jade is the bridesmaid in her ex's wedding as she has been a friend of the bride since they were little. Jade decides she will have a date by the time the wedding happens and checks "& guest." Life does not go as planned and what will happen? Will she go alone??
This book was such an interesting romance novel. I really enjoyed reading about Jude! And let me tell you, there was a lot of character development by the end. But the book took way too long. Like it was so long! The plot was very slow and I got bored at some point but the ending was so cute and fluffy!
I feel bad I didn’t love this book. It has a good skeleton, but there was a lot going on and it left me with a ton of thoughts.
The dialogue felt a bit stiff. It was often used to explain things or describe things, but people don’t talk like that, so it felt disingenuous.
There were also many things that felt like an afterthought. I feel like Jade forgot she wanted to be an actor (she was in an off Broadway show that wasn’t even mentioned until way later in a single throwaway sentence) or that she had her ex’s wedding to attend or that this was supposed to be a Jade/ Colin romance. I would forget, and then it would come up again out of nowhere as a reminder, but nothing would come of it.
There was a lot going on and too many storylines. At nearly 600 pages, it’s really long for a romance. Some storylines could have been edited out. There were just too many ideas in one book. The roommates, fake dating, wedding of your ex, wanting to be an actress- those could’ve all been separate novels.
The end was rushed and Colin was never anything but a jerk.
*special thanks to the author for sending me a copy to review
The plot moved at a plodding pace. The author definitely needed to kill some darlings, which would have made the plot move along at a better pace. When conversations took place between characters and changed subjects, the narrator would state the obvious, something along the lines of - that's all we said about that. Unnecessary to state this, as it was obvious. The author did a good job of establishing what life for a partying twenty-something in Brooklyn and Manhattan is like. The author dropped enough breadcrumbs early on to hint at the eventual outcome of the plot. Unfortunately, the ending relationship didn't occur until so late in the story it placed the main focus on the earlier relationships. The discoveries about Jade's final mate could have been better fleshed out, as he was largely an enigma until that point.
I thought this book was fairly good in the beginning, I felt like I couldn’t put it down and wanted to know exactly what would happen with Jade and her love life. Around page 400 or later I began to feel a little bored because the same thing happened over and over again. I don’t really understand how this romance novel was almost 600 pages. I felt like a lot was dragged out and it didn’t necessarily have to be. Not the worst book I’ve read but not the best either.
Jade Everly isn’t usually desperate for love, but when her ex boyfriend invites her to his wedding she can’t help but look for someone to take to the wedding. It’s a rule to attend your ex’s big day with your own lover, otherwise you’d be pitied. Jade Everly can’t stand being pitied. As Jade focuses on her actress career, and as the wedding grows closer, she is no closer at finding a level-headed man that isn’t already married.
When Reese, her best friend and flatmate, decides to move out with her boyfriend, Jade has no option but to have Colin move in. Colin isn’t all that bad, but his weird bandmates and loud rehearsals start to get on Jade’s nerves. Not to mention that they never see eye to eye and fight about the smallest of things.
What Jade doesn’t realize, is that sometimes love is right in front of you. Sometimes all you have to do is open your eyes. • Thank you to @netgalley for allowing me to read and review this #giftedcopy 💛 • My review:
Chasing Daffodils was something I have never experienced before. The story contained a beautiful uniqueness that seemed to envelop the entire book. I can’t express it in words, honestly. I don’t know why, but I adored this story 😍
I loved Jade, she held this energy that kind of floated off the page toward the reader. She had her moments that got me frustrated, but it created a realistic feeling which I thought added so much to the book.
Jade’s character development throughout the entire novel was executed well, and even though the countless men she dated irritated me, I knew it was a part of her development in the book.
Colin...ah, I loved this man alright 😂😍 This was odd for me, because we didn’t have any chapters from Colin’s POV, but his personality really shined through in different situations from Jade’s POV.
Again, it’s odd because usually I wouldn’t be able to connect with a character if they didn’t have their own POV, but this wasn’t the case with Chasing Daffodils. Honestly, Emily Sam executed this brilliantly in my opinion 🦋
There’s just one thing, one thing that I craved for and that was for Jade and Colin to have more time together. I felt that those moments between them were neglected, and I wish the feelings between them were expressed more throughout the novel. Don’t get me wrong, Jade and Colin shared a beautiful bond, one that wasn’t always described, but one that you could feel through the book.
Other than that, I am still in awe! I will say this again, I don’t know what it is, but this book has me in love with the story. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for more books by Emily Sam, there’s just something about her writing that is just purely amazing 💛
I would recommend this book to those who love slow-burn romance, the room-mate trope, and a bit of humour!