The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Publication Date: January 26, 2020
This novel follows Shay Goldstein who has been working in public radio for the past 10 years. She loves it and it was her saving grace when her dad died. However, when Dominic “I can’t stop name dropping my fancy master’s degree in journalism” Yun starts working at the station things get tense. Shay can’t handle that Dominic is acting like he knows public radio. Shay has been at this for ten years; she knows public radio. At a pitch meeting Shay casually throws out the idea for a new show featuring two exes who host a relationship show. Her boss decides they are going to do this show and basically forces Shay and Dominic pretend to be exes, or else they would lose their jobs. It is “enemies to exes to lovers” and it is such a fun time.
After I read Today, Tonight, Tomorrow (review) by Rachel I knew I had to read more from her and after reading The Ex Talk and Our Year of Maybe I know I will read anything she writes because wow her books are good. The Ex Talk is her adult rom-com debut and I can’t wait to read more adult romances and YA from her.
What is kind of wild about The Ex Talk is that I remember exactly where I was when it was announced which is weird. I was checking Twitter at work during a rainy day so all the kids were inside. What a time.
*TW death of a parent (prior to story, but discussed)
WHAT I LOVED:
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I love the characters that Rachel writes, this is my third book by her, and her characters are just so flushed out. They have quirks and random personality traits and they just seem like real people
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I loved that this focuses on public radio. RLS worked in public radio too so that is makes it even cooler. As a note, you don’t have to know anything about radio to enjoy this book.
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I loved Dominic and Shay together their banter and flirting was TOO CUTE
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RLS just writes books that are hard to put down and so much fun. I was smiling so much while reading this
- I started rereading part of it and then ended up at 25% without meaning to
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I could relate to both Dominic and Shay’s loneliness in adulthood and Shay’s whole, “I can barely adult” thing.
- I read a review that was critical of this aspect of the character, but I could really relate to it so…
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Shay’s relationship with her mom and her grief about her dad
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Shay’s mom had some of the best one liners I was LOLing
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Just overall the themes of family
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Def cried at one point
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*minor spoilers* Dominic like actually acknowledges a lot of semi problematic things he does and apologizes for it. Often in enemies to lovers they don’t have that communication and it was nice to see
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The ending!!!
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I loved seeing a Korean love interest and when they go get Korean food LOL
- We also have casual Jewish representation too! I love how all of RLS’s main characters are Jewish.
WHAT I DID NOT LOVE:
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I felt that the pacing of their relationship was a bit off, but I can’t put my finger on why
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I did not love how there was so much lying – even though I get that is basically the entire plot lol
Overall, I really loved this novel and preordered a copy back in December. If you order from Rachel’s local indie she will sign copies.
4.5/5 stars
*Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review*
Thanks for reading!
xoxo, Tree
Words About Words 
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