Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake

This story is a fun open-door romance read. The first half of the book had me laughing and coming to like the characters, particularly Lizzie. She has ADHD and has spent her life apologizing for it among people who didn't understand her or try to understand her. The second half of the book had me cheering her on as she found her place amongst people who cared enough about her to understand and love her.

Sex-Positive Neurodivergent Rom-Com. Straight up: If you don't like damn near erotica level sex scenes... this book probably isn't your thing. If you're one of the “THERE CAN BE NO SEX AND IF THERE MUST BE SEX IT MUST BE STRICTLY BEHIND CLOSED DOORS AND THE MAIN COUPLE CAN BARELY KISS OR HOLD HANDS ON SCREEN” types... yeah, just skip this one. You're not going to like it, and you one-starring a book over your own hangups does no one any favors.

For the at least 80% of us who aren't like that... this is a fun book. Lizzie, and the author herself, has ADHD. (Serious question - for Autistics we have “Autistic” rather than “has Autism”, and the community tends to prefer the first one. Is there a similar name for people who have ADHD?) And this book shows the struggles that can come from that - but also shows how it can be managed and even worked into a strength, with proper preparation and training. (Which is similar for Autistics as well.) This is also a very neurodiverse-positive tale, showing that not everyone has to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer or anything else to have a fulfilling and meaningful life and be able to support and take care of themselves independently. Indeed, even with Lizzie's titular “mistake”, there is quite a bit about her life and actions here that are to be readily commended, and it is refreshing to see authors willing to do just this in this era and with these types of characters.

Even though this is listed as “Book 2” (and wasn't when it was presented to me), there are really only a couple of sentences in the entire 300+ page tale where this is even obviously hinted at inside the tale itself, so it actually works pretty well as a standalone, which is how I read it.

Overall this was truly a fun book with a lot of upside, and it is very much recommended.