Sunday, March 10, 2024

Noticing Natalie by Belinda Mary: Book Review

 *Book received for consideration. All thoughts are my own.





What happens when the boy you crushed on in high school—the one who crushed your heart—turns up 6 years later…and he needs your help?

Natalie Henderson was 
that girl in high school. The invisible one lost in her books; going unnoticed in the hallways. Until he paid her attention. Matthew Barkly was that boy in high school. The star of the soccer team and all-round Mr Popular, and he’d started noticing her. Under the guise of studying together, Natalie was swept into his spotlight and started believing that perhaps she wasn’t invisible after all. But turns out…it was all a lie.

Six years later, Natalie is taking her first steps into adulthood. Leaving behind the shy, awkward girl from high school and embracing her new role as a nurse in a busy hospital, she has everything carefully planned out. Until her one and only crush comes barrelling back into her life, disrupting everything.

Matthew is a national soccer hero and has the world at his feet. He’s also wondering if any of it—fame, attention, money—is worth it. And then he sees her again. The one he always wanted, the one he can’t forget. Grasping at any opportunity to spend time with her; he begs Natalie to pretend to be his girlfriend to help fix his playboy image. Unbelievably, she agrees to play along, and soon the lines between what’s fake and what’s real are blurred and all those long-forgotten feelings are flaring back to life.

But as Natalie navigates the pitfalls of fame and media attention that follow ‘dating’ a celebrity sports star, will the distrust and uncertainty from their past stand in the way of them becoming something more in the present? Or will Natalie have the courage to believe that Matthew could possibly notice her…for real this time?

Find out in this delightful celebrity romantic comedy with a splash of fake dating and no third act breakup. Noticing Natalie is a closed-door romance that will make your heart swoon with steamy kisses and has no explicit content.


Belinda Mary is a long-time lover of all the books and has dreamed of being a writer her whole life. Since picking up her first Judy Blume novel at the age of ten, she has been happily lost in the world of fiction, and ask anyone around her, when she has a book to read, she turns into a very unproductive member of society.

After studying for ten years and obtaining her PhD in molecular biology, she pursued a career in the healthcare industry, and has recently taken the leap to make her lifelong dream of writing and publishing a novel come true. And when she is not looking after her two kids, her husband of eleven years and her crazy spoodle, she can be found on the couch reading, watching all things Bravo TV, or listening to true crime podcasts.

Belinda writes the kind of stories that she loves to read; filled with laughs, longing and love.

For the latest news, book information and bonus scenes—sign up to Belinda's newsletter at https://belindamary.com


Noticing Natalie is a prequel to the Love Always series and can be enjoyed as a standalone. 

This was such a sweet read! It has all the vibes of a second chance romance, but really there wasn't much of a first chance to start with... perhaps more of a missed chance? Either way, I couldn't get enough of Matthew and Natalie's sweet relationship. They had a friendship in high school that ultimately ended badly. When he is injured and finds himself in the ER where she has just started working as a student nurse, it seems like fate is stepping in to give them the chance they never really got back then. The story goes back and forth between past and present, and I loved seeing their history play out. There really was just something so sweet and genuine between them that I absolutely adored. I tend to love nicknames in a romance anyway and thought his calling her 'New Girl' was really cute... but when we finally find out WHY he started calling her that to begin with? Oh my heart... so stinkin' sweet! 

Noticing Natalie is a closed-door romance with kisses only. It does have just a handful of minor language. 



Get your copy: https://amzn.to/4c2moCf

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