Dolly All the Time: A GMA Book Club Pick
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script.
“A luminous story of love, duty, and the tension between the two, Dolly All the Time is less like a novel and more like a place I never wanted to leave. This might be my new favorite!” —Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author
If they start by pretending, can they end with something real?
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.
So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high-society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself—can she really start now?
“This book is like a spicy margarita…sweet and a little salty, tart and hot…I have fallen in love with Dolly and with funny, fizzing Annabel Monaghan!” —Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich
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Community Reviews
A tiny bit predictable? Yes. Did I still smile like an idiot the entire time? Also yes.
Dolly Brick is the kind of heroine who can solve everyone’s problems except her own, which means she spends most of the book carrying the emotional weight of an entire ZIP code while insisting she’s “fine.” Naturally, this makes her wildly relatable and mildly exhausting in the way all good romance protagonists should be. She moves back to Rhode Island to save the family home, wrangle family chaos, and apparently become an emotional support human for a handsome rich guy having the world’s most public breakup.
Enter Stewart Whitfield: wealthy, polished, absurdly attractive, and somehow completely helpless when faced with a flat tire. Romance novels remain committed to the fantasy that beautiful rich men are one minor inconvenience away from complete collapse, and honestly? I support it.
And while the plot absolutely leans into familiar romance territory, it works because the emotional chemistry feels genuine. The quieter moments were actually my favorite parts. Beneath all the banter and “we definitely shouldn’t catch feelings” energy, the book is really about learning how to let other people show up for you. Which is lovely and accurate at the same time.
My only complaint is that parts of the story felt a little too polished. The emotional conflicts wrapped up a bit too neatly, and some of the wealthy-family chaos occasionally drifted into Hallmark-adjacent fantasy territory.
Still, Annabel Monaghan writes warmth exceptionally well. The dialogue sparkles, the setting feels cozy without becoming too Hallmark movie-ish. Watching Dolly slowly realize she might deserve help—and maybe even happiness—was the emotional equivalent of being handed a warm cinnamon roll against your will.
The romance delivers exactly what it promises: comfort, charm, emotional vulnerability, and one emotionally constipated rich man slowly realizing he’s in love.
Perfect for readers who enjoy fake dating, seaside small towns, and men whose lives improve dramatically after meeting one fiercely capable woman with a practical attitude.
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