Well, friends, this one just wasn’t for me.
I usually enjoy enemies-to-lovers, but it can be a tricky trope to pull off, and I never really bought into the relationship between Maggie and Cooper. Maggie spends so much of the book genuinely angry with Cooper—not just irritated or bantering with him—that it was difficult for me to make the leap from enemies to romance. Cooper, meanwhile, felt like a bit of a non-entity. I finished the book without feeling like I knew him particularly well, and unfortunately, I didn’t feel much chemistry between them either.
The central conflict revolves around Cooper wanting to take over the radio station Maggie runs while Maggie is determined to keep it. But I wanted a stronger sense of why the station mattered so deeply to her. Without that emotional foundation, the conflict didn’t have quite the weight I think it needed.
I really like the concept of this series paying homage to beloved ’90s rom-coms, and Longtime Listener is clearly giving us a You’ve Got Mail setup: Maggie and Cooper are messaging each other without realizing who is on the other side. That should have been completely up my alley! But I was confused about how and why their anonymous correspondence began in the first place, and the storyline never felt fully developed. It seemed like the book borrowed the premise without quite committing to everything that makes it so much fun.
I also wish there had been more humor! With a radio-station setting, workplace enemies, and a ’90s rom-com inspiration, there seemed to be so much potential for genuinely funny moments.
I was happy to check in with the other couples from the series, and I can absolutely see this working better for readers who especially love workplace romances and a pricklier enemies-to-lovers dynamic. For me, though, this was a disappointing installment.
⭐️⭐️½ — 2.5/5
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