Mazey Eddings is the author of several books, but I first encountered her work with Late Bloomer. While I really enjoyed the setting and inciting incident for that book, I felt the pacing and chemistry fell off a bit, and I ended up giving it a three-star rating.

I’m a big fan of queer romance, so I’ve returned to read Well, Actually as well. Though this is only the second book I’ve read by Mazey Eddings, her catalog includes four others, most of which include neurodivergent characters and classic romance tropes, like enemies-to-lovers, surprise pregnancy, and fake dating.

Content Warning

I always like to give a quick content warning for any sensitive topics. These are some content warnings for Well, Actually:

Explicit intimacy.
Mental illness.
Sexism.

Quick Synopsis

Well, Actually follows Eva Kitt and Rylie Cooper, who flirted in college lectures, went on a few dates, and got together—only for Rylie to ghost her the moment he graduated and moved away.

Which is fine. Eva has moved on, and even if she’s not yet achieved her journalistic dreams, at least she’s the host of an hotdog interview show, which should help her get her foot in the door and work up to working on stories she actually cares about.

Rylie, despite being the villain in Eva’s story, is now a beloved internet personality—the kind of guy who talks about dismantling the patriarchy and doing away with toxic masculinity. When Eva comes home from a particularly rough day at work, she ends up stitching one of his videos and calling him out on his hypocrisy—telling the entire world about how he treated her in college.

Of course, the video goes viral, and Rylie is invited as a guest on her hotdog show, where he goes off script and asks for a chance to redeem himself. The whole thing will be public—with them re-hashing their dates on his podcast so Eva can tell him—and everyone—exactly what he’s getting wrong.

Throughout the story, Eva has to grapple with the walls she’s put up, the reality that people can change (and, more specifically, mature), and how to pursue the career you want when it feels much safer to stay in the job you have.

My Rating

Everybody has to come up with their own system for judging and rating books, and here’s mine:

One star: I couldn’t finish the book. (DNF)
Two stars: I struggled to finish, but I did.
Three stars: This book was okay and worth reading.
Four stars: I liked this book and I would recommend it to a friend.
Five stars: I’d read this book again, and it’s going on my favorites shelf.

By no means do I think this is a perfect rating system, but I had to come up with something that would help me avoid arbitrarily assigning ratings. This provides a solid guideline for rating qualifications.

I gave Well, Actually an four-star rating, because I liked this book and I would recommend it to a friend. My favorite thing about this book was the humor—in many scenes, Eva and Riley have great chemistry and really funny moments.

But, unfortunately, in reaching for some of those moments, I felt some of the jokes ended up being a little more cringe than funny, which kind of flies in the face of Eva’s character a bit. All in all, though, I enjoyed this one, thought the main characters were interesting, and it’s definitely worth the read if you’re into this kind of dynamic.

My Recommendations

If you enjoyed Well, Actually and you’re looking for more books to read next, here are some of my suggestions:

Back After This by Linda Holmes

Funny, media elements.

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

Black cat girlfriend.

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Second chance romance.

Summary

We’re now entering the spoiler-y part of this review. If you think Well, Actually sounds like your cup of tea, click away, read it, and come back to see if you agree or disagree with my critique. If you like the sound of the book but you don’t want to read it, don’t worry, I’ll give you the full rundown.

SPOILERS

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SPOILERS -

Well, Actually starts with Eva hosting her hot dog interview show, giving the camera plenty of her dry personality. We learn right away that she’s not happy with what she’s doing, and would much rather be working on real journalistic pieces—all she has to do is stick out this job so she can work her way up, make connections, and eventually find a role that allows her to pursue her real passions.

It doesn’t help that the company she works for—Soundbites—has recently brought on the owner’s son to the executive team. After a rough day, Eva returns to her place and pulls up TikTok, only to see Rylie Cooper staring back at her.

Despite the fact that he was horrible to her in college—being distant and avoidant, leaving her less than satisfied after her first time, and generally being a bad boyfriend before ghosting her altogether—he’s now famous on social media for being a “good” man and boyfriend.

Specifically, she sees a video in which he’s describing red flags to watch out for in men, and says to run the other way if he’s in a frat. Eva can’t resist responding to this—not only was he in a frat when they dated, but that’s where she had sex for the first time. With him, on a mattress without a bedframe, and without much satisfaction or intimacy.

So she stitches his video, laughing and pointing out that he’s a hypocrite. She goes to bed, feeling satisfied, and when she wakes up, the video has—of course—gone viral.

She wakes up to Aida, her best friend and the producer of her show at Soundbites, telling her that Landry, the owner, wants her on a video call immediately. If’s it’s slander, they might need to get legal involved, and Eva starts to stress that she might lose her job.

But when she gets on the call, it’s the opposite—they want to exploit this newfound internet fame by making content with Rylie and Eva together. And Rylie has already agreed to come on the show. This video call is the first time we meet William, Landry’s son. He’s humorless and direct, one of those guys who thinks being shitty at communicating and having no emotional intelligence just makes him more efficient.

Landry basically hints to Eva that if she goes through with this, interviewing her ex-boyfriend on her segment, that she might get a promotion she’s been waiting for. So Eva says yes.

Rylie comes on the show, and the chemistry between them is obvious—as are hints that he might not be the exact same guy he was when he ghosted her. During this interview, Eva struggles against her attraction to him, and when Rylie suggests a re-do (in which he can prove he’s not as bad as she thinks) Eva has no choice but to accept. Especially with William watching, once again implying her promotion relies on her going along with it.

And so she agrees—they’ll go on a series of dates, then debrief on his podcast after. Rylie seems thrilled. Eva, less so.

For their first date, Rylie picks her up at the crack of dawn in a massive SUV, with a driver and everything. Eva is not impressed, and gets into the car with him. When he tries to open a bottle of champagne, the cork hits her in the throat, and she throws her hands in the air, hitting the roof.

The driver slams on the brakes from the noise, and they’re promptly rear-ended. The date is off to a hilariously horrible start, and they get out of the car as the drivers shout at each other in the street.

But Rylie isn’t phased—they have to make it to the place on time, so he says they’d better start walking.

Eva resists. She’s wearing heels, and not willing to walk an undetermined distance in them, so Rylie calls a cab and they get in, heading to the Met. Eva is actually pleasantly surprised by this—Rylie has somehow recalled that she enjoyed art so much, she was thinking of taking it on as a minor in college.

They get to the museum before opening, and Eva is actually really enjoying herself, following the guide around and learning about the different pieces without the pressure of a crowd around them. The private tour ends, and they’re allowed another hour alone in the museum before opening, but Rylie insists they have to go, in order to make the next thing on the schedule.

The next thing turns out to be a helicopter ride. Rylie takes Eva to the top of a building, not realizing she’s afraid of heights, and when he throws open the door, revealing the helicopter, she breaks down a bit, turning and leaving the date altogether.

She admits afterward that she may have overreacted, and goes to Rylie’s place to debrief on his podcast. This is when she meets his roommates—a trans woman named Lilith and a guy named Steve. Lilith runs an organization for queer youth in the city. When Eva says she’d love to interview Lilith for her blog, she’s surprised to find Cooper has read her stuff, despite the fact that she doesn’t have a very large following.

They sit down for the podcast, and banter, with Eva teasing him and Cooper defending himself. There’s a moment where she holds her hand up in a hold on gesture, and he thinks she wants a high-five from him, and gives it to her. Eva gets overwhelmed with the way she feels—mostly finding it difficult to parse who he is now with who he used to be, and how he hurt her—and leaves.

Then we have a scene in which Lizzy Blake—the main character from one of Edding’s other books—is a guest on Wiener Talk. After, Eva, Aida, and their friend Ray go to brunch together, but they’re struggling to get a table. So they end up sitting at the community table, and who’s there but Rylie and his roommates.

Eva and Rylie have more chemistry, we see Rylie’s ironic crewnecks make an appearance, and Lilith brings up a charity event she’s hosting. Because her caterer cancelled, she’s looking for a chef—which Ray happens to be.

After, Eva is trying to gather herself in the bathroom, not liking that she’s getting along with Rylie so easily. She runs into him outside and they have more sexual tension—only for Eva to get the last word and declare this brunch one of their official dates.

She goes on his podcast again, and this is when she learns that Rylie is actually bisexual, a fact about himself he explored more and understood better after their brief relationship. Eva once again starts to pull away when she realizes she’s starting to like him, but this time, Rylie asks her to get coffee before she can.

Eva agrees, and while having coffee together, he admits to her that part of the reason he was so shitty in college is because his sister had just died. He acknowledges that it doesn’t make how he acted any less shitty, but says that his entire life was falling apart, including his parents’ marriage and his family unit.

People online are really into their whole dating thing, and right after this, they do a segment where they read mean comments about themselves. Most of Rylie’s are thirst comments, but when it’s Eva’s turn to go, hers are about her personality, and genuinely start to hurt her feelings.

William presses her, saying he expected more professionalism from her. Rylie defends her, reminding William that his contract specifies he gets a say in the final cut. After more horrible comments toward Eva, Rylie calls out the unfairness, and William snaps at them before logging off.

Aida is upset, saying she’s going to have to smooth things over. Eva says she doesn’t care about the jobs—she doesn’t like being treated like that. Things are tense when Aida leaves. Rylie is still on the call and stays to comfort her, then tells her what their next date will be—couples therapy.

At the couples’ therapy appointment, Eva opens up about how the experience with Rylie in the past affected her, even though she tries to dodge some of the questions and has a hard time being honest. Rylie admits that he’s always felt guilty about what happened, and is trying to fix it, or to make up for the way he acted.

After, Rylie asks her about the past, and if he’d acted better, would they still be together today? This sets her off and she runs away from him again, only to come to her senses when she runs into a couple on the train who change her mind.

She goes to Rylie’s apartment, and they have sex, but Eva sneaks out while Rylie is in the bathroom, feeling too raw about her feelings to stay. Pictures pop up online of her fleeing his place, and people are gleefully picking them apart.

Rylie comes to her apartment despite the fact that she left, bringing her food and admitting to her that he likes her, and wants to make a relationship between them work. For the next week, they’re together, firmly into the honeymoon period.

Then Eva gets an email from Landry, talking about how she expected more from her, since she and Rylie haven’t been putting out any content. Rylie is there to support and comfort her, reassuring her that Landry’s opinion of her isn’t close to the truth of how brilliant she is. He also says they can just blame the lack of content on him—saying he’s sick—so she can keep her job.

But then William finds Eva while she’s recording a segment of Wiener Talk, and says they’ll be having their legal team get in touch with Rylie. This freaks Eva out until Rylie tells her he has everything under control—his contract specifies he’s allowed to pull out whenever he wants.

They go to Lilith’s charity event together and have a great time. Things have still been tense between Aida and Eva, but they make up at the gala. Then Landry and William arrive, spotting Rylie and Eva together. Landry and William and cordial to Eva at the event, which makes her have hope for the future of her job. She and Rylie go upstairs together, and she’s very happy.

Things fall apart when she goes to work on Monday to attend a meeting, and Landry and William are nasty to her, firing her on the spot for lying to them. A video comes out of Eva and Rylie making out in the hotel, which mortifies Eva.

She goes home, hiding from everything and everyone, but Rylie is there for her, not letting her push him away. Aida is able to rally, finding out it was William who took the video and posted it online simply to generate more interest. Turns out, Eva is not the only person at Soundbites experiencing mistreatment.

At the end, Eva writes up and releases an article talking about the toxic environment and workplace abuse going on at Soundbites. She’s finally able to start pursuing journalism the way she wants, and the book ends with her going on Rylie’s podcast once more to talk about the experience.

Okay, now that you’re up to speed on what happens in Well, Actually, let’s get into some of my thoughts and opinions on this book.

Deep Dive

Praise

I always like to start with praise, so let’s start first with the fact that I thought this book was pretty funny. Overall, I appreciated how Eva and Rylie played off once another, and thought the book did a good job of setting up amusing scenes. For example, when Eva and Rylie go to a cafe together, she orders him a latte with oat milk, because he has lactose intolerant vibes.

Another piece of praise I had for this is the characters actually feeling queer in the reading. Sometimes—and I think many of us have read these books—a character might be bi just for the sake of diversity, without ever actually feeling queer in a cultural sense. Throughout the re-development of Eva and Rylie’s relationship, I felt they were true not only to being members of the queer community, but to staying consistent as characters, period. For example, the book didn’t just tell us Rylie is a good guy deconstructing toxic masculinity, it shows us through his vulnerability and kindness.

And finally, while there were some moments in which elements were overplayed, I did think Eva’s resistance to emotional vulnerability felt relatable to me. She’s constantly monitoring herself, catching strong emotions and responding to them with the urge to run away. It was enjoyable to watch her grow throughout the story, and to see Rylie’s approach and support allow her to confront those feelings in a healthier and less avoidant way.

Criticism

My first and biggest critique for this book is the plot line around Eve wanting to do “serious” journalism, and our bad guys—William and Landry. I would have liked to see a little more nuance with them, and a little less straightforward evil. Additionally, we’re told a lot that Eva is interested in journalism, but I didn’t feel we got to see her inquisitive, journalistic side, and it would have been nice to see that backed up through her behavior.

While I enjoyed a lot of the humor, there were some moments I thought it overreached and crossed the line from funny to cringy—but that’s just my personal opinion and humor. If your humor preferences are different from mine, you could definitely have a different experience with some of these moments.

Additionally, I was not a fan of the cameos from other books. If you’ve ever read one book in a romance series, you’ll understand the feeling of disconnect that happens when you’re left feeling you’re missing some information, or confused on why the book is placing so much emphasis on a very minor character.

Considering the fact that some readers will have read the other books, and others won’t, it can be very tricky to have a little character cameo that is fun without being awkward. As someone who hasn’t read the books about Dan and Harper or Lizzie Blake, I found the scenes took me out of the reading a bit.

Finally, my last criticism is definitely very subjective and not really important to the book, but I just did not like the kitten nickname Rylie had for Eva. I kept waiting to warm up to it, for it to feel natural, but every time it came up I ended up wincing just a bit.

All in all, I liked the humor in Well, Actually. If you’re into second chance and the black cat, golden retriever dynamic, and hoping to get in some more romance before the end of the summer, I’d recommend you check this one out.

As always, you can find all the titles I mentioned in this video linked in the description below, through Bookshop.org. If you’re not familiar with it, Bookshop.org is a site that supports small bookstores, rather than big chains. When you use my link, I’ll get a percentage of the sale, but you can always search up a local book store in your area, too. If you’re not looking to buy, you can always find or request the book through your local library. As readers, I encourage us all to find better ways to access the titles we love.

Book Review | Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings