I just finished book number two of 2026! It was a romance, which I haven’t read in a while… unless you count romantasy as a love story 😂
First Time Caller by B.K. Borison made a lot of Instagram readers’ “top 5” or “top 10” lists. Is that BookTok? I honestly don’t know. But it landed on my TBR and my Libby holds, and when it became available, I dove right in.
First impressions: I loved how different the love story felt. A lot of romance arcs are depressingly predictable. People meet. They fall in love, but one or both don’t realize it. Then they do. Something blows it all up. Everything feels stressful and hopeless. And finally, it all works out. This one starts differently and it hooked me right away.
The gist: a woman calls into a late-night romance radio show in Baltimore. Actually, her 12-year-old daughter calls in for her, and things spiral from there. Lucy is incredibly lovable and relatable. You can see yourself in her—and also wish you were a little more like her. She’s cool, honest, funny, and real.
Aiden, the radio show host and male protagonist, is also very likable and relatable. He has his issues. His childhood was hard, but his parents are loving. He’s closed off and defensive. I saw parts of myself in Aiden, too.
The story alternates between the two main characters’ points of view, and between chapters we get dialogue from the radio show itself. (This would actually make a great audio book!)
I’ll share some spoiler thoughts below, but first, my overall review.
Rating: 8/10 stars.
Around 70% of the way through, I genuinely thought I was going to quit and give it a 6/10. I’ll explain why below without spoiling anything here. But the story turned itself around, and I was honestly surprised, and delighted, by how it ended. It was truly heartwarming, only mildly frustrating, and felt very earned.
The characters were the absolute best part. Even the minor ones, Lucy’s daughter, her baby daddy and his husband, and her coworkers, felt kind, honest, and real. The story was feel-good in a way that still felt believable.
Yes, I definitely recommend this if you enjoy love stories. It’s easy to read, genuinely heartfelt, and might surprise you.
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Spoilers below
Stop reading now if you don’t want spoilers!
Okay, about 70% of the way through the book, Lucy and Aiden finally sleep together. There’s so much flirting and tension leading up to it that you’re glad it’s happening… but the way it’s written really threw me off.
The scene felt completely out of character for who I thought these people were. And it just kept going. It felt like the author was experimenting with how many ways she could make it “hot” instead of staying true to the characters.
I’ve read a lot of fantasy smut, I know it’s popular right now, but this felt like trying too hard to fit into that space. It honestly pulled me out of the story. At one point, Aiden even uses the “c” word, and listen—if even hot faeries don’t use that word, Aiden definitely shouldn’t.
That whole chapter almost ruined the book for me. Luckily, we didn’t get more scenes like that, and the story recovered enough for me to still love it by the end.
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