Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Right on Cue

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Right on Cue by Falon Ballard

9 reviews

witcheep's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The romance in this book is a cute not-really-enemies to lovers combined with forced proximity story. The premise for the enemity is unsatisfying, which hinders the whole plot. The enemity has begun in the main characters' teen years because of

a partially eavesdropped conversation

that resulted into the FMC Emmy holding a years-long grudge and hostility towards the MMC Grayson. She makes an effort to make up and be cordial with him, and

of course they fall in love

. Unfortunately, throughout the years, Emmy has held her childish habit and ends up eavesdropping a partial conversation, then ghosting Grayson because of what she heard. When they finally talk and

make up again, it is Grayson that says he has issues with his self confidence – not Emmy recognizing that she should work on herself as well.

That is utter bs. Emmy doesn't seem to learn the lesson that she should communicate and take responsibility for her own actions. That is a lesson she needs to face again and again in the book, but even in the epiloque she still thinks all is well with her status quo state of mind. Grayson doesn't really hold Emmy accountable for her shortcomings either.

This character mentality of no self-improvement makes the ending feel unsatisfying: the underlying issues are still there and no one is even trying to work on them. The separate instances of these bigger issues flaring up throughout the book get closure by some childish drama and then getting swept under the rug, where the same issues just keep festering and waiting to resurface again.

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dianaschmidty's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved this book! I’ve loved basically every romance about celebrities that I’ve read, and the fact that this was also second chance romance just made it perfect for me! This book gave me butterflies so many times, and that’s when I know that it’s a least a 4.5 star book!

Emmy and Grayson had amazing chemistry! Enemies to lovers was done very well in this book because it actually felt like they loathed each other (despite one of them actually only ever having lovey dovey feelings🤭) and I feel like that’s rare in romance books. But then once Gemma’s hate turned to lust, it was so much fun to read, especially as their filming scenes got better and better!

I also really liked their backstories and the side characters. The book felt very fleshed out because of all of the little details about both their lives and the lives of the people around them.

I’ll admit that I didn’t really like the third act conflict. I predicted that it would happen at like the 50% mark and then the next 100 pages just felt like I was waiting for the show to drop, which is a feeling I kind of hate having in a romance book. I also didn’t like the conflict itself because I didn’t like how Grayson didn’t just fire his manager. I hope he did after everything went down, but they never explicitly state that.

I will say that I absolutely loved their reunion scene, so much so that I went and reread it again!

Go read this book!

Thank you to Falon Ballard, Putnam, and Edelweiss for providing me access to this book!

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100_pages_hr's review

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fast-paced

4.5

This book was absolutely excellent. I loved the meet cutes, the snark and sass, the forced proximity, the acting scenes vs real life, and most of all how much they truly fell in love.

I did not love the 3rd act breakup, but it was realistic and well written.

This book had a great balance of romance with a few deeper life conversations thrown in. I really like how the open and honest conversations came up organically.

I highly recommend this one if you love forced proximity!

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tamsterdam_reads's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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takarakei's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This is probably the most boring romance I've read. I've read one other book by this author and I also didn't care for that female MC in that book (but at least in that one the guy was interesting). These were just like the two blandest people with no personality. Truly do not understand what these people liked about each other. Insta-attraction, but it's also kind of second chance romance?? (they knew each other briefly as teenagers). They are “enemies” 🙄 (at least in her mind) based on a dumb teenager thing that happened and Emmy has held this grudge since then (like please get over yourself!). She just like decides things and jumps to conclusions which is why she “hates” this guy to begin with. Then they’re just f'ing (literally to get over how much she dislikes him, her solution is just to have sex with him) and all of a sudden are in love cause the sex is so good? I’ll be honest I skimmed the latter 50% of this. The third act break up was also incredibly infuriating, not even miscommunication because she just AGAIN overhears PART of a conversation bc she is dumb and just leaves without the full context and then ghosts him! Besides them being on a movie set together it's not even like a "celebrity romance" in any of the good way that trope usually allows either.

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jennastopreading's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me access to an eARC via Netgalley!

January is traditionally the slumpiest month of the year for me both book wise and personal life wise, and I am so glad that I had this little ray of sunshine in my pocket to cheer me up! RIGHT ON CUE is the Ballard's third novel, and what a fun ride they've all been. I knew that this one would be perfect for me to read when I needed a pick me up.

4 things I loved about this book:
1. The book taking place on a movie set was pretty unique to me as a reader. I don't recall ever having read one before! Along with the setting, some lovely side characters were introduced (Sam being my favorite).
2. The FMC Emmy felt very down to earth and humble. Throughout the story, when she messes up, she admits it. She's never too proud to own her mistakes.
3. The MMC had a unique softness to him that made my heart swell. Any man that not only says, "You can trust me" but PROVES it with his actions is a winner in my book.
4. The third act break up (while in itself is trope-y) was not constructed in a way that made me want to pull my hair out. This breakup made sense, and I sympathized with both Grayson and Emmy.

This book was a bit steamier than I typically prefer, and while I don't knock stars off for steam in romance novels (unless it's terribly overdone), I still like those reading my reviews to be aware. The main reason I didn't give this one 5 stars is because I felt the ending was far too rushed - I wish the story were another 15-20 pages longer! I guess of all things to complain about, this isn't the worst, since I'm basically saying that I loved the characters so much that I wanted to see more of them.

Overall, another knockout from Falon Ballard, and she will remain on my auto-read list!

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readwithria's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Right on Cue was absolutely adorable! It brightened my day, and was exactly what I needed.

The actor in me was so glad to see that there was obviously research put into this book! I could gush about the scene with the intimacy coordinator for ages, but suffice it to say that I was very glad to see my chosen field reflected so well.

Okay, now on to the really important things - Emmy and Grayson! They are so adorable, and I loved seeing them learn about each other and grow with each other. I’m also very glad that everyone told Emmy exactly how silly she was being, because they were 100% correct 😂

Read Right on Cue if you love
🎬 Workplace romance
🎬 Forced proximity
🎬 Enemies to lovers
🎬 Friends with benefits
🎬 Caregiving
🎬 MMCs who have big strong feelings and aren’t afraid to share them

Falon Ballard has never disappointed me, and I can’t wait to read what she writes next! 4.5 stars

Thank you to Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to leave a voluntary, honest review.

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maceyberndt's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Pros

Love the mixed media from articles, online comments, etc! So much fun and brought more of the celebrity aspect into the book - sometimes it was easy to forget they were as famous as they were!
Relationship between Emmy and her mom seems so genuine and real - it really feels like this is something the author pulled from her own life experience.
Grief aspect (both for Emmy and in his own way, Grayson) was effective in making the book more well rounded.
The spice was spicing! There are 3 explicit scenes that can be skipped if you prefer closed-door romance

Cons

I’m personally not a huge fan of the friends/coworkers with benefits trope because I just can never believe there aren’t feelings involved… and this fell into what I usually don’t like in this trope. There were obviously feelings involved from the very beginning. It never actually felt like a “with benefits” situation… it just felt like a relationship with some baggage and a lot of banter.
I didn’t fall in love with Emmy and Grayson as characters separately because they seemed a little immature. But once they got together and in their relationships with the supporting characters, they seemed much more mature and likeable.

Ideas

Grayson’s POV - help us see more of his struggle with his family, his struggle with being perceived as a “himbo” in the industry, his internal feelings for Emmy despite being a jerk on the outside
Timeline including previous movie together?!?!? Would have been a cool aspect to the book to get flashback chapters rather than just memories
Would loooooveeeee to hear more about Emmy’s parents love story!!!! Maybe a future book? 😏

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review!

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alissamargaret's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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