Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars 

Pages: 331 pages
Published: January 2023

I first learned of Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn through the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club — AKA one of the nicest places on the internet. During Anne Bogel’s spring preview webinar, this romcom was listed as one of the hot ticket items for the year. As Anne mentioned, romance books are a delight because you know there will be a positive, uplifting ending. And I wholeheartedly agree, but the rub is in how you get to that happy ending. 

In this book the main character, Georgie returns home to Darentville, Virigina from Los Angeles, California where set served as a personal assistant — often putting her client’s needs before her own. When her latest client decides to take a break from “Hollywood,” Georgie is somewhat forced to as well. In the midst of that break, she comes home to help her best friend in the latter part of her pregnancy. In doing so, she stumble upon this “friendfic” notebook she and said BFF created when they were in high school. Georgie realizes, like many of us do years post-high school, she hasn’t accomplished a lot of the popular teenagery things she wanted to. Amid recreating some of those antics, Georige meets Levi Fanning, who has a reputation for being a troublemaker as a teen and is now living a fairly secluded life because of it. To boot, Levi is the older brother of Georgie’s high school crush, who happens to take up quite a bit of real estate in that friendfic notebook. Levi offers to help Georgie on her quest of completing her high school wish list. And you can only imagine where things go from there. 

While the book is somewhat predictable, the character development and real life scenarios are what make this romance one of substance. Additionally, the endearing novel contains a variety of plot elements including humor, reflection, forgiveness, honesty … and yes, some juicy love scenes (This is not my favorite thing about romance novels, but I understand it to be a necessary device for the book to be labeled as such.) 

It took me a couple of days to get into the writing style of this book, but I am glad I stuck with it. The payoff in the end was worth it, and I truly enjoyed getting to know all the primary and secondary characters of the story. If I had one criticism to offer, it would be about a tertiary character of the book. Before I offer this, I will say I consider myself to be a progressive and inclusive person. I enjoy the company of a diverse set of friends, and I do believe that representation matters. However, what I don’t necessarily agree with is forcing diversity into a book to check a box. One of the tertiary characters was identified as being in a polyamorous relationship, which really had no bearing on the plot of the book or development of the character, but rather seemed there to check the diversity box. I think when we include characters in any creative form, it should be done with purposeful intent. And that’s all I will say about that. You’re welcome to disagree (respectfully) with me, but keep in mind I rated this book and its plot a 4.5, and I am just as entitled to my opinion as anyone else. 

Recommendation: I truly enjoyed Georgie and the people she met along the way … including her true self. I think the author put a great deal of heart into her writing style and story, and as a reader, I appreciated her craft very much. I highly recommend! 

Until next time ... Read on!

Regardless of whether I purchase a book, borrow a book, or receive a book in exchange for review, my ultimate goal is to be honest, fair, and constructive. I hope you've found this review helpful.