I received an ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Fool Me Once is Ashley Winstead's romance debut and lemme tell ya—this is a bold debut. This book not only has an "unlikable" female lead, but it also deals with cheating. I respect the author for writing the story she wanted to write, even though she probably knows that majority of readers are going to dislike the heroine.

Fool Me Once is a second chance romance between Lee and Ben. They dated in grad school, but then Lee thought Ben was cheating on her. What was her response? Revenge cheating 🥴😬 And as it turns out, Ben did NOT actually cheat on Lee. Yes, it's messy 😂Now, 5 years later, Lee and Ben are forced to work together to achieve a shared goal. But of course, they also can't help competing against each other 🤭

I beg you to give this book a chance. Listen, I was close to DNFing early on because I had such a hard time relating to Lee. If you're also having a hard time with this book, I would advise to keep going until you meet Ben. I'm glad I stuck around and waited to meet Ben because that's when I truly got invested. And I really wanted to find out his side of the story.

Lee is a messy, flawed, and narcissistic heroine with major daddy issues. But she recognizes that she's not perfect. Lee loves to party. She doesn't believe in relationships; she's all for meaningless sex. You're not supposed to like Lee right off the bat. But there's so much depth to her. As you get to know Lee better, you'll see that the root of her trauma explains the motivation behind her questionable actions.

This book definitely won't be for everyone. The heroine is hard to love, but she's a very interesting character with lots of layers. And there's also the elephant in the room: the cheating. I have read a couple of books with this theme, but it's always the hero who does the cheating. This is the first time I've read a book where the heroine cheats on the hero. If you're interested in reading a book with a flawed heroine who's not exactly likeable but who also has a fleshed out backstory—and you don't mind reading about cheating—then I highly recommend this book.

I will say that Lee is lucky that she has such faithful friends who love and support her. She's also lucky that Ben sees all of her and can understand the choices she made in the past. I don't know how her story would have turned out if she didn't have the right people surrounding her.

Fool Me Once is not all sunshine and rainbows, but there are also some very comedic scenes. I really liked the romance, despite the cheating. Ashley Winstead's writing style is compulsively readable. And her characters pulled me in, despite my initial reservations.

Tropes: second chance romance, competence kink, workplace romance, only one bed 🛏

This book was such a disappointment. I had really enjoyed Winstead's writing in Midnight is the Darkest Hour so was excited to read this however this spent just under 400 pages trying to justify cheating as a 'mistake' which wasn't really my vibe. 

The female main character, Lee, was meant to be 'morally grey' however I found her insufferable. One of her main character traits is not believing in love; a view which she shares with any couple she comes across whether they want her opinion or not. The male main character, Ben, had zero back bone and almost no personality beyond being cocky and conventionally attractive. 

I found myself disappointed when they ended up together and found the ending very unrealistic.