{"id":63488,"date":"2022-02-18T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=63488"},"modified":"2025-08-29T00:57:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:57:43","slug":"blog-tour-excerpt-arc-review-no-match-for-her-berkeley-hills-5-by-stacy-travis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=63488","title":{"rendered":"Blog Tour, Excerpt & ARC Review: No Match For Her (Berkeley Hills, #5) by Stacy Travis"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Match for Her, an all-new swoon-worthy slow burn romance from\u00a0bestselling author Stacy Travis is available now!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Amazon<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Apple\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Nook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Kobo\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Google Play\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\r\n <\/div><\/div><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

Blurb<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I need a fake date to my brother’s wedding, and billionaire Charlie Walgrove owns a tux. Simple, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s also my sister\u2019s boss, and I agree to let her set me up with the awkward genius, who apparently has even less luck in the dating game than a struggling artist, aka me.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re total opposites, but the date goes okay. We agree to be friends, the kind who won\u2019t become lovers.<\/p>\n

Famous last words.<\/p>\n

On a series of \u201cfriend dates\u201d involving bar snacks, acrylic paint and hedgehogs, I discover that Charlie is nothing like what I expected. Under his hoodie and glasses, he\u2019s handsome and down-to-earth, stuck in a job he hates and afraid to disappoint people by walking away. His heart is as gorgeous as his hidden face.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always felt like the flaky sister in my family, but Charlie sees me as the artist I want to be. As our friendship deepens, so do my feelings for him. Maybe I\u2019m even falling in love.<\/p>\n

But gambling with my heart feels dangerous when all my relationships end in failure\u2013especially if he\u2019s only looking for a friend.<\/p>\n

Is it only princesses that get a Happily Ever After? Or is there hope for a hot mess like me?<\/p>\n

No Match for Her is a STANDALONE friends-to-lovers, opposites-attract romance. It is part of the Berkeley Hills series.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Add to Goodreads<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

5 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

I love this book! It\u2019s a fun read and a beautiful love story that had me feeling all the feels, with a gorgeous friends-to-lovers, opposites-attract, slow-burn romance between two unforgettable characters.<\/p>\n

This is the final book in the Berkley Hills<\/i> series, and Cherry is the last of six siblings to have their stories written (five sisters in this series) but like the earlier books, this one can definitely stand alone.<\/p>\n

Cherry needs a date for her older brother\u2019s wedding, so her sister, Tatum, steps in and sets her up on a date with her workaholic, billionaire boss. Charlie was introduced in the last book of the series, and he\u2019s such an intriguing character, I was so excited for this set-up and couldn\u2019t wait to get to know him!<\/p>\n

Cherry is an artist, though currently working in an uninspiring design job, and she feels like the odd one out in a family full of Type A personalities. Though she loves them all deeply, she feels like she\u2019s the \u2018flighty\u2019 one, who doesn\u2019t stack up against her siblings. And now that they\u2019re all paired up and she\u2019s the last single one among them, with her bad luck with men she\u2019s feeling even more isolated. Seemingly her complete opposite, Charlie is a tech genius who has just taken his ground-breaking virtual reality company public. He has been harbouring a crush on Cherry since seeing her from a distance a few years ago, so he is super nervous for their blind date, and it does not go well.<\/p>\n

But when they accidentally run in to each other again, they end up sharing a meal, and things go a lot better the second time around. They both see a potential for friendship, and when Charlie agrees to be Cherry\u2019s platonic date for the wedding, they decide to have a series of friend-dates to get to know each other better, setting the scene for a gorgeously slow-burning friends-to-lovers romance.<\/p>\n

Firstly, bravo, Stacy Travis, for giving us a neurodivergent hero, and making it not a big deal. It’s a part of the story, but also not – it’s just noted that Charlie processes things a little differently, but it’s not a huge part of the storyline, and Cherry accepts him exactly as he is. Charlie is sweet, fun and sexy, charmingly awkward, and a little bit vulnerable, but completely alpha when he wants to be. I absolutely adored him, and reading from his perspective was so entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the way you speak. I find it pleasant to listen to.\u201d
\nDanger bells ring in my ears.<\/i>
\nYou\u2019re not winning her over. Pleasant is not synonymous with sexy, fucktard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And OMG, I love these two together! They are both a little quirky, but they fully embrace it in each other, and they are honest and open about everything as they get to know each other. Their friend dates are fun, interesting and I loved seeing them together, especially because attraction sparks pretty quickly. But they don\u2019t expect anything from the other, so neither of them even try to make a move\u2026 that doesn\u2019t stop their growing feelings though.<\/p>\n

Oh, my soul. This man is going to make it ache and squeeze it dry. He\u2019ll probably make me fall for him and break my heart. Crazy thing is, I kind of want to let him. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s a fantastic sense of anticipation watching everything build between them, and I was so excited waiting for something to happen.<\/p>\n

The way I feel about her has crossed the friendship line by so many hundreds of yards I can\u2019t see it anymore. I don\u2019t want to see it. I want to eviscerate it.
\nI want her. Fully. Completely. Without reservations.
\nThe only thing that\u2019s still unclear is whether she wants me.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And when it comes\u2026 holy hot damn! It\u2019s sexy, intense and gorgeously romantic, and I love watching them both hurl themselves over the friendship line, and just dive on into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so lucky to have you as a friend, Cherry. I really do,\u201d he says, a pirate smile playing on his lips. \u201cNow let\u2019s burn this friendship to the ground.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But as easy as everything has been between them, they\u2019re both a bit lost and trying to find their way. They\u2019ve got a lot to figure out, and there is some drama and emotion while they do that, but again, it\u2019s beautifully written, and their individual stories are really well develop as they play out alongside the romance, which completely captured my heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the beginning and end of every fantasy I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have really enjoyed this series. We get to see the rest of Cherry\u2019s family, which I loved, and it\u2019s definitely ending on a high note with this book.<\/p>\n

Cherry and Charlie\u2019s story is so special, and will stay with me for a long time to come.<\/p>\n

5 stars!<\/p>\n

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Berkeley Hills<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Second Chance At Us (#1)<\/strong> (Blake & Becca)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Falling For You (#2)<\/strong> (Owen & Isla)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

The Spark Between Us (#3)<\/strong> (Braden & Sarah)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Playing For You (#4)<\/strong> (Donovan & Tatum)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

No Match For Her (#5)<\/strong>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Excerpt<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I\u2019M WEARING RED. It\u2019s a fire engine color that matches my lips and my toenail polish. It\u2019s tasteful, sleeveless, and fitted. I\u2019m hoping it says confident artist, which I don\u2019t feel at all. I\u2019m hoping it doesn\u2019t tell everyone in the room that, on what should be a night of personal victory, my heart still lies in pieces on the gallery floor. I really hope red doesn\u2019t say that.<\/p>\n

I still haven\u2019t talked to Charlie. Pulling together the show on relatively short notice has all but consumed me, and I feel like I need to prove to myself that I can take the first step as an artist alone before I investigate what he and I can be together.<\/p>\n

Right now, I feel certain the thumping organ in my chest would laugh off the suggestion of anyone getting close to it. Ever again.<\/p>\n

With his expression of love, Charlie opened a floodgate that I\u2019d stubbornly wedged closed. I\u2019m the one who chose to drown.<\/p>\n

Sadly, more than half the paintings on the walls of the gallery are barely dry, some painted in a frenzy of self-loathing anguish that left me emotionally spent but artistically inspired, along with more than a dozen pieces that are oddly uplifting. Everywhere I look, I see evidence of Charlie.<\/p>\n

People are starting to filter through the doors of the gallery space. Or maybe they\u2019ve been here for an hour. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m looking at them through some sort of fugue state.<\/p>\n

If I could, I\u2019d pick up a brush right now and paint through a new emotion twisting in my chest\u2014longing. More than anything, I wish Charlie were here to celebrate this moment with me because he inspired it. Or at least he pushed me out of my comfort zone enough to embrace what my heart has been urging me to do for years.<\/p>\n

The gallery space sits in the bottom floor of an art deco building on a corner in downtown Palo Alto, several blocks from the Stanford campus. The surrounding streets boast a collection of restaurants, cafe\u0301s, wine bars, and retail spaces, so even people who haven\u2019t received invitations to my exhibit are likely to stop in on their walk to someplace else. That has to be the explanation for why the three adjoining rooms suddenly feel noisy with voices. I only invited a handful of people\u2014the design group from work, my family, and a couple of people who play mahjongg with Tatum and me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing!\u201d Becca and Blake are the first of my family members to arrive, which surprises me because they don\u2019t live nearby, and Becca is reliably late. They\u2019re joined a minute later by Isla and Tatum who drove together. \u201cOwen sends his love, and his regrets. He\u2019s stuck in Napa. Some issue at one of the wine cellars.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonovan too. Away game tomorrow, and they\u2019re en route.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, no regrets. I\u2019m so happy you\u2019re all here. And a little freaked out, honestly, to have this many people looking at my artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut your paintings are beautiful. They\u2019re lucky to see them, I\u2019m so proud of you,\u201d Sarah says, hugging me. \u201cBraden\u2019s at the station, so I\u2019m going to spend all our money and buy a big canvas for our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, now you\u2019re gonna make me cry, and you know how long I spent on my mascara.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHa!\u201d This from Tatum who squeezes in and hugs me. \u201cIf I learned anything from you, it\u2019s that you always wear waterproof mascara in case of unexpected emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, help a person with her makeup, and she throws it back in your face. Fine. It\u2019s waterproof. I was being melodramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMelodramatic, you?\u201d Tatum pretends to look baffled. Sarah leans in and drags her away. \u201cCome help me decide which painting to buy. I heard someone say there are crab puffs and I\u2019m hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are crab puffs. Look for waiters. They\u2019re supposed to be mingling,\u201d I call after them, realizing I haven\u2019t eaten anything since breakfast. Nerves.<\/p>\n

The others follow them, and the temporary balloon that lifted my spirits starts to sag again. I know it\u2019s ridiculous to miss Charlie at a moment when I should be celebrating, but I can\u2019t help it. I wish he was here.<\/p>\n

But we still haven\u2019t spoken since our blowup the night he brought me here, and he\u2019s respected my request for space. A little too well. He\u2019s stopped texting and calling after a couple check-ins to ask if I was okay. I hoped that not responding would make me clearheaded enough to avoid hurling myself into the next disastrous decision, as I\u2019m prone to do.<\/p>\n

Now I just miss him.<\/p>\n

The thinking has settled my mind in that I know I want two things: to paint as much as possible and to be with Charlie as much as possible. I love him and I need him. It\u2019s as much a certainty as the sun rising every morning.<\/p>\n

I also need to apologize to him for making him the scapegoat of my insecurities, and I haven\u2019t figured out what to say about that yet. But I will.<\/p>\n

I glance around and see that the number of people has already doubled in the one room where I stand with an untouched glass of champagne dribbling condensation down my arm. On every white wall within my line of sight, work I\u2019ve painted hangs beneath perfect lighting. Tiny signs indicate the titles and prices of the pieces, but I don\u2019t expect any of them to sell. It\u2019s my first show, and I feel lucky the gallery owner liked the images I emailed her.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m even luckier that one of her clients had to postpone his show, leaving a three-day opening in the schedule. It felt like a sign when she called to ask if I had enough work and felt ready to mount a show.<\/p>\n

The past two weeks have been a blur of paint and canvases during every hour I wasn\u2019t at work. I painted feverishly, blocking out every useless emotion I could and letting the fruitful ones past my walls to guide me.<\/p>\n

The result is fourteen canvasses, many of them large enough to command a wall on their own, all replete with deep jewel tones, abstract lines, and intense themes of renewal and hope. I have no idea where those feelings came from because I felt a lot of despair. But painting kept me from spending all my waking hours worrying that I\u2019d destroyed the best friendship I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

Now, when I look at each painting, I can\u2019t help but feel the memory of the headspace I was in when I painted it. They all reflect some aspect of Charlie\u2014kinship, love, and heartbreak\u2014 and those are three things I\u2019d rather not focus on tonight, so I need to stop looking.<\/p>\n

That leaves me staring into my champagne with little enthu\u2010 siasm for it. Sylvia, the gallery owner, sweeps over to me, her navy layered caftan grazing the tops of brown rugged boots. Her gray hair is impeccably styled in its pageboy and her lips are redder than mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, so good, love. It\u2019s a success. You\u2019re a success.\u201d She kisses me on the cheek and moves on to speak to a tall man in a navy suit who beckons her over with a question.<\/p>\n

The words echo in her wake as I try to figure out whether she\u2019s just being nice. What constitutes a success at one of these gallery nights? A big crowd of mostly-strangers?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just proud of myself for taking a step toward feeling like a legitimate artist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

About Stacy Travis<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"It\u2019s a rough world out there, and we all sometimes need a good, romantic beach read, even if we can\u2019t make it to the beach. I\u2019ve spent many lazy days walking the streets of Paris and other gorgeous European cities, and if I\u2019m doing it right, I\u2019m bringing you a\u00a0dash of romance and a vacay fantasy.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t sit still, so when I\u2019m not hiking, biking or running, I\u2019m playing a very average game of tennis. Background music for writing undoubtedly features some U2, Lizzo, Billy Joel, Pink, Taylor Swift, and Led Zeppelin. Not necessarily in that order. And if I could only eat one food group, it would be cheese. Or wine. Or bread. Are those food\u00a0groups? Whatever.<\/p>\n

Connect with Stacy:<\/p>\n

Facebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Instagram\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Goodreads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay up to date with Stacy by joining her mailing list<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Website: https:\/\/stacytravis.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Match for Her, an all-new swoon-worthy slow burn romance from\u00a0bestselling author Stacy Travis is available now!   Amazon\u00a0 |\u00a0 Apple\u00a0 |\u00a0 Nook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Kobo\u00a0 |\u00a0 Google Play\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback   Blurb I need a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9,29],"tags":[59,1248,48,1247],"class_list":["post-63488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friends-to-lovers","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-berkeley-hills","tag-review","tag-stacy-travis"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/No-Match-For-Her.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-gw0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}