Reasons to Be Loved By You by Hannah Brown: My Honest Review
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⭐ Quick Verdict
⭐ My Rating: 4 ★
💭 Quick Take: A messy, emotionally satisfying summer romance packed with reality TV drama, forbidden chemistry, and a heroine finally reclaiming her happily ever after.
👉 Read If You Love:
- Heroines who get redemption arcs
- Cinnamon roll heroes who are actually hot
- Forbidden romance tension
- Summer lake house vibes
- Reality TV-inspired drama
- Wedding sabotage energy
🚫 Skip if:
- You don’t enjoy reality TV-style relationship drama
- You get frustrated when key conversations take too long to happen
- You want a fast-paced romance without family complications
Book Details
Release Date: June 2026
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Forced Proximity, Forbidden Romance, Summer Romance, Celebrity Romance, Wedding Romance
Steam Level: Low
What This Book Is About
Nikki thought she already survived the worst public humiliation imaginable after getting blindsided on the reality dating show LoveBy. But now she’s forced to spend the summer at her family’s lake house preparing for her brother’s wedding…to the woman who had secretly been involved with Nikki’s fiancé during the show.
So yes, tensions are high from the start.
In the middle of wedding chaos, family resentment, and lingering heartbreak, Nikki meets Nate – the kind, ridiculously attractive brother of the bride who immediately complicates everything. Their chemistry is instant, but pursuing anything between them feels completely off-limits considering the messy history tying their families together.
What unfolds is a summer romance full of emotional baggage, unresolved family dynamics, lake days, late-night walks, and the kind of forbidden attraction that only gets harder to ignore.
My Review of Reasons to Be Loved by You
Ever since reading Mistakes We Never Made, I’ve been waiting for Nikki’s story. Knowing what she went through on LoveBy, I desperately wanted to see her finally get the happily ever after she deserved. What I didn’t expect was how much emotional tension Hannah Brown would build simply by placing Nikki at the center of her brother’s wedding weekend from hell.
The setup alone hooked me immediately. Nikki’s brother is marrying the woman who had secretly been involved with Nikki’s fiancé while she was publicly dating him on a reality show, and honestly, the emotional betrayal of that situation radiates through the entire story. If you followed Hannah’s own experience from Season 23 of The Bachelorette, you can absolutely feel pieces of that emotional reality woven into this book, which gives the drama a more grounded and believable edge than typical celebrity romance conflict.
But what really carried this story for me was Nikki and Nate.
Their meet cute was genuinely one of my favorite parts of the book because the chemistry sparks instantly without feeling forced. Nate has major cinnamon roll energy, but he still brings enough confidence and attraction to make the tension between them work. Their relationship develops in a way that feels playful and emotionally comforting at first before the weight of the family dynamics and forbidden nature of their attraction really settles in.
And the summer atmosphere? Hannah absolutely nailed it. Farmers markets, swimming in the lake, catching fireflies during evening walks – the setting gives the romance such an immersive seasonal feel that made me want to stay in this world even when the emotional messiness escalated.
I also appreciated that Nikki wasn’t written as endlessly forgiving or passive. Her anger felt justified, and honestly, I was completely on her side when it came to some of her harmless wedding sabotage attempts. Those moments added levity without undermining the emotional hurt underneath everything.
That said, the pacing did drag a bit toward the end. There were several conversations that clearly needed to happen much earlier, and while I understand that delaying them sustained the tension, there were moments where the emotional miscommunication started to feel stretched longer than necessary.
Still, the emotional payoff ultimately worked for me. This felt less like a fluffy celebrity romance and more like a story about reclaiming your worth after public heartbreak and finally finding someone who sees you clearly after being humiliated on a very public stage.
What I Loved
- The emotionally messy family and wedding dynamics
- A genuinely strong meet cute between Nikki and Nate
- Nate’s cinnamon roll energy paired with believable chemistry
- The summer lake house setting and seasonal atmosphere
- Reality TV drama that felt emotionally grounded
- Nikki’s redemption arc after public heartbreak
- Hannah’s ability to pull from her own experience in a way that added authenticity
Things to Know Before You Read
- Closed door romance with no open-door steam
- Reality TV and celebrity culture are central to the storyline
- Family betrayal and emotional conflict drive much of the tension
- Some emotional miscommunication lasts longer than necessary
- Includes characters from previous companion novels, but works as a standalone
- You’ll get snippets of Nikki’s friend group from earlier books
- Hannah notes in the acknowledgements that the book was written with a ghostwriter
Final Thoughts
Reasons to Be Loved by You delivered exactly the kind of emotionally messy summer romance I was hoping Nikki would get. While the pacing occasionally slowed under the weight of delayed conversations, the chemistry, family tension, and immersive summer setting kept me invested the entire time.
This is the kind of romance that works best if you enjoy emotionally complicated heroines, forbidden attraction, and reality TV-inspired drama layered with genuine emotional vulnerability. And if you’ve followed Hannah Brown’s journey publicly over the years, there’s an added layer here that makes Nikki’s story hit even harder.
Not my favorite Hannah Brown romance overall, but absolutely worth picking up if you want a summer romance with emotional stakes and a heroine finally reclaiming her happily ever after.
I received an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.
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