Goode News (Goode Girl, #2) by J.J. Arias

Goode News (Goode Girl, #2) Reviews

• 
  pipsqueakreviews

  Rivalry.
  
  This is the second book of the Goode Girl series and since there isn't much connection to the first, it can be read as a standalone. And I would recommend this book because it's really good. A couple of reviews have referenced the Morning Show and I suppose this book has a similar storyline but I can't say much about it because I haven't watched it yet.
  
  But I'd like to say that this book is so much smoother than the first and I think J.J Arias put up a good story on rival news anchors to lovers. The rivalry in the workplace felt real and I think Arias really nailed the pacing of the transition from rivals to lovers. I really love how Valentina and Madison built their relationship with a lot of thought and reflection, open communication and by setting expectations. And I love the dynamics between them. It was so hot!
• 
  Linda

  Enemy-to-lover, age-gap, workplace romance – which is so up my alley. I decided to take a chance and just plunged right into it. The book didn’t disappoint me and I actually enjoyed it. Plot was interesting and story was well written. Uptight 45 years old Valentina, a great believer in a monogamous relationship, locked horns with her newly appointed co-anchor, the much younger and charming Madison who is not a believer of having a monogamy relationship. In the initial phase of the book, you have Valentina ignoring Madison who tried hard to be on Valentina’s good side, they eventually locked horns and tried to get under each other skin, off and on air. And like all good romance, both got attracted to each other but since they both had different beliefs on relationship, it was a bit difficult to ‘steer the boat’, so to speak. So what do they want in a relationship and how far are they willing to sacrifice to make their relationship works – that’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question for both Val & Madison.
• 
  Jacob Proffitt

  This is second in a romance series but they aren't very related. You can certainly read them out of order and not miss anything, I think.
  
  Ugh, Valentina. The first, um, third? was her being really mean to Madison. Yeah, I get it. Her presence derailed a plan you thought was in the bag. Get over yourself and stop taking it out on the innocent bystander. It was petty and unprofessional and I kept going solely because Madison was interesting.
  
  I had an initial concern that Madison's beef with monogamy, and accompanying poly-leanings, was going to be shallow or played for titillation. But it actually held together fairly well and had some nuance to it* so I bought it as background and was looking forward to her developing a connection and what that would look like in a relationship.
  
  And I got nearly half a book of fun relationship developments. Valentina was pretty cool once she let go of her resentment and her care for Madison was nearly as engaging and Madison's care for her. I particularly liked that Valentina was clear about her relationship needs (monogamy, essentially) and stuck to her guns even though she really liked/wanted/lusted for Madison.
  
  And then Valentina decided to manipulate through information-withholding in the way romance authors do to setup future dark moments. And then Arias asks us to believe that a national talent search for news anchors would have it's first and second pick come from the same local news show. This seems dubiously unlikely, particularly given how different the two are and that there's a specific slot/dynamic that needs filling. I'm sorry, but I couldn't come up with a decision-making process that would come up with very different people being considered top-shot to fill a specific news-show opening. So I felt manipulated and all my sympathy for Valentina dropped on the floor and I was done.
  
  I'm going to give a second star for Madison and her strength in standing up to the people who needed to be stood up to. And a bit of that for Valentina in the one issue she had a backbone for.
  
  * A note about Madison's poly thing: Her point is that asking one person to fill all your engagement needs is a big ask. It's an interesting point. Having one person for lit fic and another for night on the town etc. makes sense to a certain extent. But only because Madison is highly desirable and can command her own terms in relationships. I kept waiting for someone to call her on (or her to realize/acknowledge) her strong position in the sexual marketplace and how that maybe she can arrange things to suit herself more than most can. So her philosophy breaks down if you aren't her, essentially. I'm okay that that didn't happen before I stopped reading because it worked as her starting position just fine and I'm good with her growing out of it in finding her person in Valentina. But it would have been an interesting conversation if/when someone called her out on the glaring flaw in her poly position.
• 
  hubsie

  A solid 4/5, not quite as engrossing as the Governor, and started eerily similarly to The Morning Show which had me suspicious at first. However due to the author's writing flow, I quickly enjoyed this take on an early morning show, the characters, the horrendously early hours, the jealousy and assumptions of one MC getting in the way of seeing someone's true self. Another slow burn but once that match was lit, shaZAM ladies, pass me some bubbly.
• 
  Aamina

  Not as awesome as Goode Governor but I liked it enough. Hot MC alert people!
• 
  LE

  Loved the co-host setting, crushed on Valentina, loved their banter and Madison slowly melting Val's ice queen facade. Overall well written age gap with a slightly short but sweet ending.
• 
  Celina

  *swoons*
  
  *drools*
  
  *stunned*
  
  *high*
  
  I have read sex scenes, but HOLY FUCKING GOD, SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. That was EPIC. I still feel effing butterflies... the fires. Damn. Crazy writing, I kid you NOT.
  
  Bye.
• 
  Lara

  Goode read
  
  The tight POV control really helped this story keep its tensions realistic. I liked the dynamics between the leads a lot
• 
  Sam

  Honestly, I thought Valentina was just too annoying.
• 
  XR

  Entertaining. Sizzling. Hilarious. Loved it.
• 
  Kexx

  Enjoyed the begining of this but slowly found I was becoming bored, didn't really gell with either character and though the story demanded excitment it didn't rock my boat. Finished with relief not pleasure.
• 
  Jaie

  I really enjoyed this one!
• 
  Jennabeebs

  I enjoyed this book a lot, just like I’ve enjoyed every other J.J. Arias book I’ve read. Once again we have an enemies to lovers plot going on and I found Val and Madison to be great leads. I liked the witty dialogue as well as the sexy scenes. Normally in lesfic, the main characters have a conflict about 75% of the way through and readers wait with baited breath for them to work it out. This one was a nice change of pace because while there’s a small conflict, our mains didn’t break up unnecessarily. They talked like mature adults, acknowledged, learned from it, and moved on. Thanks JJ for another great read!!
• 
  Orcbard

  A great slow burn. I'm conflicted about the first third of the book because of how much a hypocrite Valentina was. She got better though even if her personality shifted a bit abruptedly once she finally realised her affection for Madison.
  
  I'd like more talk and exploration of Madison's polygamy. For an open relationship woman, she settled into monogamous lifestyle too readily?
• 
  Zingari

  26% in and I can't find anything to like about Madison. Nothing.
  
  She embodies the reason why older people refuse to view anyone in their twenties as actual adults. She has no boundaries and isn't self-aware thus far. She isn't afraid to take petty arguments and turn them personal. She will bring up Valentina's divorce (*later found out there was no divorce, so why mention it?*) in a room full of people and humiliate her without a second thought all because someone is pushing against an idea of hers. Seriously, why is she a protagonist?
  
  Walking into a meeting late because you think you're special and disrupting the presentation of an almost nameless background character just because you can...without any remorse... Who behaves like this?
  
  She is so used to everyone liking her that she can't just walk away when one person doesn't. She needs to push. Poke them to piss them off. Her personality is so personally grating I'm struggling to get through this.
  
  Couldn't really warm up to Madison. Some story inconsistency, some trails that didn't lead anywhere. Rivalry. Intentional humiliation. Confidence that borders on being inappropriate. Some hypocritical moments that forced me to think "If this were a man it wouldn't be okay". An, at first, almost endless war of generational differences.
  
  *See highlights if curious.*
  
  Not the kind of enemies to lovers I was looking for. HEA
  
  Only my opinion, so I say give it a go.
• 
  Zayne

  It is a bit of slow-burn kinda romance, but there is still hotness when they finally come together. Of course, things can't be easy when one is a lonely 45-year-old single woman who hasn't been with anyone intimately in over 5 years and another who is a more free-spirited, hard-to-handle, and, as she states, poly practicing person. I've met a poly person in my life, and while she's a fun-loving person at heart, I knew that she didn't have a clue as to what she really wanted out of a relationship and that's why she would gof rom partner to partner and eventually settled for one of them. Still, Madison, calling herself poly when she was in a committed relationship was something that kinda pissed me off. I understand that it is now 2020 and a new decade, but millenials and my generation (Gen-Z), don't all understand the complexities of what it means to be in a healthy, monogamous relationship and this story really brought that whole concept to the forefront. It casted a shadow over the whole story, but when Madison wanted Val and went after her, she knew she had to give up her old ways of being poly. there was a few scenes where I thought she might slip up, like the one with Alex, but then we see that she realizes what she's doing is wrong and feels bad for somehow secretly hurting Val.
• 
  currentlyreadingbynat

  I'm at the end of my free month of KU and was searching for a book that I hadn't heard of before. This popped up and I decided to give it a go due to the promise of an enemies-to-lovers, age-gap, workplace romance (three of my favourite tropes!). I am so glad I took a chance - this was really great.
  Initially, I was a bit unsure whether Madison was a likeable character and whether that would skew my enjoyment. However, I think in hindsight this was what made this book so good. As soon as the conflict resolved between the characters and Madison became likeable, I became completely invested in the slow burn romance between her and Valentina.
  I think another reason why I liked Goode News so much was due to the plot being something I hadn't seen in lesfic before. As much as I have enjoyed discovering lesfic in the last year or so, sometimes lesfic novels can feel a little too familiar and a bit cookie cutter in their structure. This was a read where I couldn't guess what would happen and I absolutely loved that.
  Highly recommended and I'm looking forward to reading the
  The Goode Governor: A Lesbian Romance Series.
• 
  Anne

  This book is well written on a sentence and paragraph level, but the various pieces didn't really hang together for me. The whole set-up was a leap too far for suspension of disbelief (they decide to change the entire format of a news show against one of the anchor's wishes? sure. without her knowledge?! ... no.) Valentina and Madison's transition from enemies to friends was way too abrupt and not particularly believable. And the way Madison's character was handled really rubbed me the wrong way -- first she repeatedly pressures a friend and a coworker to kiss her, despite that person clearly saying no; then she gives up polyamory without a backward glance because it turns out she just needed to meet the right person.
  
  Not for me.
• 
  Teddy

  I love JJ Arias but not this book. I didn’t get into it until the last 50 pages, which admittedly, went in a better direction than I expected. But until that point, I could not get into the story or the characters who didn’t have chemistry. Madison came off as predatory initially and I didn’t love the way polyamory was portrayed; seemed like Madison was collecting traits she liked best (like twisted friendship) vs falling in love with multiple people. I wanted more about why Madison was how she was. Roxanne was my favorite- her commentary on pregnancy cracked me up.
  
  Short summary: like the Morning Show but without the scandal and if the co-anchors were 20years apart and enemies to lovers.
• 
  CK529

  Overall, I enjoyed this book. I thought it went too quickly from icy to dating and then the ending resolved too quickly as well. The storyline was relevant and interesting, however, given that while I was reading this book (for 3 days) I read two stories in the news of older women broadcasters being fired/discriminated against. Also, the hurricane storyline was of extra interest after the horrific hurricane that hit Florida not too long ago. I liked Goode Governor a bit more than this and will continue the series.
• 
  Kerry

  Great story
  
  Beautifully written with age-gap characters who start off resenting each other but end up falling in love. Loved that the author touched on pansexuality, I understand it better now. I liked the characters and the storyline and would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves sweet lesbian romances.