Title: Love at First Set

Author: Jennifer Dugan

Series: N/A

Publication Date: May 30, 2023

Format: E-Book

Genre: Romance

Sub Genre(s): LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Summary: The gym is Lizzie’s life—it’s her passion, her job, and the only place that’s ever felt like home. Unfortunately, her bosses consider her a glorified check-in girl at best, and the gym punching bag at worst.

When their son, Lizzie’s best friend James, begs her to be his plus one at his perfect sister Cara’s wedding, things go wrong immediately, culminating in Lizzie giving a drunken pep talk to a hot stranger in the women’s bathroom—except that stranger is actually the bride-to-be, and Lizzie has accidentally convinced her to ditch her groom.

Now, newly directionless Cara is on a quest to find herself, and Lizzie—desperate to make sure her bosses never find out her role in this disaster—gets strong-armed by James into “entertaining” her. Cara doesn’t have to know it’s a setup; it’ll just be a quick fling before she sobers up and goes back to her real life. After all, how could someone like Cara fall for someone like Lizzie, with no career and no future?

But the more Lizzie gets to know Cara, the more she likes her, and the more is on the line if any of her rapidly multiplying secrets get out. Because now it’s not just Lizzie’s job and entire future on the line, but also the girl of her dreams.- From The StoryGraph

What I Liked: First and foremost, the chemistry between Lizzie and Cara was wonderful and the highlight of this book. Lizzie being tongue tied around Cara and the “will they-won’t they” back and forth was enjoyable to read. I also liked that they both had some emotional issues they needed to work on before being ready for a relationship with each other. On their own, I liked the main characters but had issues with the relationship dynamics, especially between Lizzie and James (which I’ll touch on below). I appreciated the unique gym setting and that Lizzie had a “normal” job.

What I Didn’t Like: As I said, I didn’t love the relationship dynamics between Lizzie, Cara, and James, and would even go as far to say that there were many aspects of Lizzie and James’ friendship that were toxic. I found myself wanting more for Lizzie and even though everyone apologies at the end, the “friends” in this book don’t treat each other very kindly. I wanted to see Lizzie stand up for herself more and better articulate what she needed from James. I also found the setup storyline to be convoluted and forced and felt there were better ways to get Lizzie and Cara together. Did James want Lizzie and Cara to like each other or not? It was confusing.

Who Should Read It: Fans of low stakes, sapphic romances.

Review Wrap Up: This was a messy story, full of drama that I found myself enjoying one moment and disliking the next. There was nothing BAD about the story but I didn’t care for the relationships and how certain characters were treated, even if I enjoyed the main couple. Feel free to put this one to the bottom of your TBR pile.

Favorite Quote: “And maybe it’s the booze, or the way her skin is pebbling up from the coolness of the marble she’s sitting on, or the way the light keeps catching in her eyes. But I realize there is nothing I want more in this world right now than to keep the smile on her face and the laughter on her lips….”

Love at First Set was the perfect blend of humor and sweetness I love finding in a romcom. Lizzie works as a front desk manager of her best friend's gym. After accidentally inspiring his sister to call off her wedding, Lizzie finds the runaway bride in her day to day life and realizes she may be falling for her.

Lizzie was a great main character and easy to root for as she navigated her newfound feelings for Cara and struggled through her feelings of inadequacy. I only wish we had seen a bigger resolution for her relationship with her (toxic!) mother since she popped up quite a bit throughout the story. While she did have her questionable moments, you could definitely see that she would do anything for the people she loves, even when they don't deserve it.

This book was messy at times with complicated relationships all around and even managed to tackle some heavier topics - toxic relationships, poor self-esteem, and a whole lot of deception. Overall I thought it was really sweet and I was rooting for our main characters to find happiness. I will say that I really did not love the third act conflict/friendship with James in general. I thought he was a really bad friend throughout most of the story and while I get that he was going through his own things, he was so quick to turn on her in the end. I just really didn't like that and didn't buy that he was her best friend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for a review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Jennifer Dugan, and Avon for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was cute! If it's a sapphic romance, I'm going to read it, even if it doesn't fit what I would normally read. I'm keeping this review short because I think I was just not quite the audience for this book. It was a fun read with some sweet moments, but it was a bit too cheesy/sappy for my tastes as a whole. I couldn't get behind the whole gym plot, but I did like the relationship between Cara and Liz, as well as Liz and James' friendship. I wish the primary conflict would have happened sooner because I did feel that things wrapped up way too quickly towards the end. Overall, not a bad book, but not necessarily memorable either.

This book was so cute! It was a little long for my liking, but overall the hope for a good story kept me going. Some of the dialogue and situations weren't my favorite, but again, in the end this story really delivered. I'm always a fan of drama when it isn't my own!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well-known YA author Jennifer Dugan conquers the world of adult romance with Love at First Set. Following the story of what happens when a woman gives a drunk bathroom pep talk to the wrong person at the right time, only to find out that she just convinced the bride-to-be (who’s also her her best friend’s sister) to leave her fiancé the night before the wedding, this queer romcom is going to steal your heart. When newly-single Cara is on a quest to find herself and enlists Lizzie, the woman who made her see that her life wasn’t the one she wanted, sparks end up flying.

Now first things first, I adored Lizzie. She’s a lesbian gym rat who wants to have her own gym one day and has been pursuing this dream for ages. She’s determined, self-deprecating, a hot mess and overall just way too relatable. The romance between her and Cara also had its golden moments. From their first meeting in a bathroom to encounters along the way to their happy end, they always had a really fun dynamic between them. There’s of course also some drama because Cara’s parents expect a lot of her daughter, especially after leaving her fiancé right before the wedding.

Some parts of the story didn’t quite work for me, though. While I wanted to be mesmerised by the romance between Lizzie and Cara, I kept feeling way too bad for our protagonist and almost felt like the secondary plotlines overshadowed Lizzie’s own journey. Throughout the story, Lizzie isn’t treated well by almost all of the people in her life—her mother who only seems to care about the money Lizzie provides, her employees who bring on the drama and are just…ruthless at times and even her best friend James, who should be her ride or die, often leaves Lizzie stranded. It was just hard to read about Lizzie giving everyone so much and not really being treated fair in exchange, like, ever. Those parts definitely made this feel like less of a comedy and more of a tragedy.

While there is some character growth for the secondary characters toward the end, it felt rushed and could have been tied up a bit better instead of everyone doing a 180 so Lizzie could have her happily ever after.
In the end though, I still had a great time reading this and would recommend Love at First Set to lovers of Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun or One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston!

This one started out fun and interesting and unique but I quickly lost interest because of the writing style as well as some of the characters and their lying/ keeping things away from one another for no good reason. Their actions felt immature because of those deceits and made them go to lengths so they could hold on to those deceits.

I was also very disappointed with James' character because he felt very 2D and like the typical gay best friend stereotype. Also felt so contradicting that he was telling the FMC not to hook up with his sister but also forcing her to hang out with her and become her friend despite her feelings.

Anyway, I just didn't like James or Cara and the last 25% of the book was just not it. Literally every character annoyed me to hell, except Lizzie, who only annoyed me a small amount.

If you've ever been afraid to take the first real step towards your dream, Love at First Set is for you. For Lizzie she's been dreaming of owning her own gym, but making the first move is terrifying. But when things come to a head, through a series of bad decisions and timings, Lizzie has to figure out what she is willing to do. Not only for her career dreams, but for her family, her friends, and her own budding feelings.

Eager for a promotion, Lizzie has to prove to her boss that she's management material. Then she meets Cara, the boss's daughter, and is instantly smitten. But Cara has just broken up with her fiancé. Can Lizzie hope to be more than Cara's rebound girl?

The overall tone of the book is a bit darker than I expected from the cute rom com cover (this is not a rom com). At the core of this novel is Lizzie's low self-esteem. Given the mother she has, it's no wonder. Lizzie sets goals but hesitates to try for them. She's manipulative rather than asking for what she wants (a trait Cara shares). They do show some growth by the end of the book, learning to put their needs first instead of trying to please the toxic people in their lives.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I went in hoping to love this book, but the tone really put me off. There is a lot of dishonesty and immaturity with all of the characters--not really what I look for in romance.

I didn’t quite love this like I love Jennifer Dugan’s YA books but I did still like it over all. I didn’t care for either of the main characters and parts of the story had me frustrated. Lizzie and James friendship was my favorite part.

Another female female romance book that definitely makes me want a cute girlfriend.
This is my first Jennifer Dugan book and I am definitely excited to check out more books from her and see if I like them as much as this one. Though I do believe this might be her first adult book and I would to see more adult books from her.
Though Lizzie was our main character of the book I actually think I liked Cara more. I think I just connected with her a bit more. I saw a bit of myself in her.
I also really enjoyed the friendships in this book they were rough but felt real. Like they could be your own best friend or friend groups.
The only thing I wish I knew exactly where this book takes place. I know they are somewhat close to New York City but also they go to the finger lakes for a part. I live in upstate NY and I can sort of place where it might be I am not totally sure🤣.

God I really wanted to like this book, I mean it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year after all. Unfortunately, I just did not have a fun time reading this.

Before I get into what I didn’t like I will say that I did love Lizzie’s character, even if I do think that she really needs to reevaluate who she surrounds herself with. Despite the fact that fitness really seems to be her entire personality (her favorite food is a protein bar) I think she’s a sweet person at her core

Now, on to my complaints.

The writing style just didn’t work for me at all. There are points when the dialogue feels really immature and others when there are these awkward two paragraph long breaks in dialogue where the mc is just thinking back on memories that barely have anything to do with the dialogue. We also get way more physical descriptions than any form of personality development. I couldn’t for the life of me tell you anything about James’s personality but I know he has icy blue eyes. Oh and that he likes to send eggplant pics to guys on Grindr (I could write an essay on how James just felt like a gay stereotype).

So moving on to the other characters. I didn’t like them. Almost all of the side characters (including Lizzie’s own mother) just seem to use Lizzie and take advantage of her kindness. James is constantly asking for favors, for literally everything. Her mom is a narcissistic, alcoholic who just expects Lizzie to pay her bills and doesn’t seem remotely interested in her as a person. Hell even her BOSSES use her (her boss is Cara’s mother and made her make wedding favors for the wedding that ended up being canceled).

Surprisingly I have more complaints, namely the massive conflict/third act break up where some things were said that were just unforgivable in my opinion. It also just ruined any chance James and Cara had for me at redemption.

Tl;dr. I did not have fun reading this but you can read it if you want. I got this as an arc on NetGalley

Oooof, did the book ever give me some major feels. I want to start by saying that overall it was good, I was invested in the main character and the story. But there were some things that majorly irritated me. Lizzie’s self-criticism was relentless, and constantly bordering on pity party…and it got old by halfway through. But also…I absolutely, personally get the trauma of having a narcissistic parent and how much that can efffff you up to the extreme…but I’m of the cut them off and don’t look back variety, so Lizzie’s constant pandering to her mom and the way she let her mom treat her and walk all over her was…triggering. Both the moms were absolute trash and made me so mad. I wish both of them had gotten more of what was coming to them but I’m petty af when it comes to awful parents. James was terrible too though! Whiny, selfish, clueless. The things he said to and the way he treated Lizzie were, to me, irredeemable. For someone who was supposed to be a best friend? Just so much no!

I do want to say though, because my feelings about this book are all very much personal reaction to the content, not of the book/writing itself, to take it all with a grain of salt. Other readers will probably have very different reactions/feelings depending on their personal experiences/traumas.

And despite so many things giving me all the eye twitches, I really was invested in Lizzie’s story from pretty early on and could hardly put it down, especially by the like 60-70% mark. I honestly wasn’t crazy about Cara, there was a lot of lack of communication/miscommunication which is always a pet peeve for me…but I liked them together enough to enjoy the story and I did feel mostly satisfied with how everything shakes out in the end…but sheeeeesh, did this story bring up a lot emotions that I wasn’t expecting and will probably spend the next few days unpacking and processing through!

This premise delivers! Our protagonist, Lizzie accidentally talks a hot woman out of marrying her fiance, at her own wedding? Not to mention she is the main characters' best friends' sister! This drama only intensifies when the parents of all involved add their own motivations and complications. Reading this, Lizzie felt real and flawed as she navigated her workplace (of which her best friend and crush's parents own) along with her own feelings she holds tight to her chest. With the class differences and complexity of workplace friendships and by extension relationships, this pursuit of romance delivers harsh realities wrapped up in finding, sharing, and communicating love.

I first became interested in this book because I've been reading a lot of romance lately, and I wanted to add a sapphic story to my list. Plus, I have a thing for muscular women, so I thought this would be right up my alley. It's certainly a well-told story with a plot that I was interested in from the beginning, but there is a lot of miscommunication and lying throughout the book, and that's something that I have a lot of trouble with (both in real life and in fiction). If you enjoy those kinds of stories, you'll likely love this one. I was also looking forward to more explicit scenes and when that came up short, I was a little disappointed. This is absolutely a good book, it was just not for me.

Super cute sapphic romcom! Some of the drama was a biiit annoying though. Like idk I guess it was for the plot but it was a bit hard to get through some of the drama. I also feel like it was missing something. not sure what.

Lizzie has a passion for working in the gym. She dreams of having a gym of her own one day but is working as a front desk manager at her best friends, James, family owned gym. James takes Lizzie to his sisters wedding who she has never met before and accidently "convinces" the bride to leave the groom.
This book is full of lots of drama. Lack of communication along with the main character dealing with a dead beat mom and financial difficulties.

If Jennifer Dugan wasn't already an autobuy author before this book definitely would have made her one. I loved this book! I knew Dugan would write an amazing adult romance and I was so right! I loved this. The romance was great and had a little bit of spice. The characters were great! Everything was great.
I will say I have seen this on a few list of ya books and I feel like I should make it very clear this is not a ya romance.

Delightfully romantic and comedic, a wonderful adult debut!

I loved the relationship between Cara and Lizzie from friends to something more. It's not often I find romances set in gyms about a lady couple, but this one was and it was perfect.

I wasn't sure what to expect with Jennifer Dugan's first adult romance book. I can see a lot of people really enjoying this book. The romcom cringe factor was a little too much for me, and the characters weren't as likeable I thought they would be.