I'm a big Kate Meader fan, and she's written yet another book to love with the beginning of this new series. Max is a divorce attorney and Charlie is a wedding planner. Max assumes Charlie is a money grabber looking to make a dime on the "best day" of a couple's life. Charlie assumes Max is a marriage hater relishing the disillusionment of love. They meet only for him to discover that Charlie is planning his brother James's wedding. The wedding he isn't prepared for. The wedding that will upset the delicate balance that is his routine life. Using the excuse that he is going all in and helping with the wedding, Max tags along on Charlie's planning appointments to make sure she isn't capitalizing on his family. As the two spend time together, they discover a mutual attraction that they could just build a relationship on.

One of my favorite things about Meader's books is how much you love secondary characters. I love Charlie's adoptive parents, and Max's parents have the relationship most strive for. It's also easy to see that Max's officemates will be featured in future stories. I'll go on record now saying I'm looking forward to diving in with those characters.

3.5 stars

This is your typical cliche story of wedding planner meets divorce lawyer. They cant stand eachother but their sexual chemistry is through the roof! I really enjoyed this book but I have to say that I prefer her hockey series a bit more. This book is a rom com which im a fan of but at times I felt like the humor was forced. I had really high expectations for this book 😫 but like I said, I really enjoyed it. It was a cute, fun, quick read. Perfect for the summertime lounging by the pool or lying at the beach.

I enjoyed this read about opposites attracting (literally-- he is a divorce lawyer and she is a wedding planner). I liked the dual perspectives and the couple's interaction. I thought this was a cute read and was one I'd recommend.

I have read several books by Mrs. Meader and I love this one. This book is about Max a divorce attorney and a Charlie a wedding planner. Max is pretty much anit-marriage hence his profession. Charlie is all about love. These two met when Max is at dinner with his brother. He notices a very attractive woman, His brother notices his attention on the lady and warns him off. Max asks why and James just says simply that she isn't your normal kind, I know her and she wants to be married not a one night stand. James also drops the bomb he is getting married. After Max freaks out, even though he likes his brothers fiancé he excuses himself to go to the bathroom. While Max is headed into the bathroom the mysterious woman he had been checking out (Charlie) runs into him. They talk, he flirts and Charlie shoots him down. James comes to check on Max and sees them talking. He makes introductions which is Max (the brother who would be against the wedding) and Charlie (the wedding planner of said wedding).

Charlie knows men like Max, She has also been warned by James and his fiancé about how he would Max. What Charlie didn't expect was instant attraction. After Charlie's foster Dad had health problems Charlie has made a plant to be married or at least very with serious in a year. Of course Max is not that guy. Max and Charlie are thrown together more and more during the wedding planning stage. They try to fight their attraction to one another, which is funny.

This is a sweet romance, with dual POV and sexy parts. This is another great book by Mrs. Meader with great main characters and supporting ones as well. Perfect summer read.

I received an honest review for a free copy.

Max and Charlie's story is a very cute and fun read from Meader. Another opposites attract premise, but there is great banter and insight between a wedding planner working on HEAs and a divorce attorney working on their breakups. I really enjoyed this book.

"Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review."

Loved this book very much. It had just enough sweet romance and the storyline was great! I highly recommend!

Wonderful book could not put it down. Cannot wait until the next one comes out. I have found another great new author .

Max Henderson, a divorce lawyer, and Charlie Love, a wedding planner have two different outlooks on love and marriage. When they are made to work together because of Max's brother's wedding, the gloves come off!

This is such a fun, amusing, teasing, hot book! I loved the characters and the plot. I would really recommend this book!

She had me at “Ramen. Freakin’. Noodles.”

I LOVED this book! At first glance, it seemed like it would be just another “Alpha male player finds the one woman who changes his ways” book. While that is an underlying theme, to reduce it to something that simple would be a great disservice. Max has so many more layers, as does Charlie. The journey that they take as they war with each other is both heartwarming and hugely entertaining (the quotes at the beginning of each chapter help guide the reader; I’d suggest maybe citing them if possible). Kate Meader has a way of writing that doesn’t seem as stilted as many other authors in this genre. Her characters are likeable and they “spoke” in a way that was very natural; Charlie, especially, reminded me of how my friends and I talk. Meader also writes descriptively. I never highlight passages in books, but I highlighted more than a few in this one. My favorite was “…familiar doubts have a habit of dropping acid into the crevices in my self-assurance.” By using her words beautifully, (Max would be proud), she gives more life to her characters’ feelings. I will be putting Meader in my “favorite authors” list, and look forward to reading more books by her!

I read this on a plane from Oklahoma to Florida to see my family. I read it in about 3 hours and it was the perfect light read for a flight.

A fabulous read about opposites attract. Wedding planner meet divorce attorney. I loved this story from the beginning to the end. It was a fun and sexy read. The two main character's banters was very entertaining. I would recommend this book.

This is a cute, light summer read. While I don't usually go for the typical wedding planner romance, I do go for the whole opposites attract trope! Marriage planner meet divorce attorney is a great pairing and the author's writing really sold it. Recommend as a pool or beach read!

I had a blast reading this story. I almost skipped the opportunity because I think the wedding planner romances are overdone, but the whole “extreme opposites” thing with the divorce attorney vs. wedding planner sounded different, and I decided to give it a chance. I’m so glad I did! Turns out, I absolutely love this author’s writing style. She clearly has a great sense of humor and a quick wit, and those things seep right through into the thoughts and dialog of both Max and Charlie. Both characters come across on the outside as having it all together, but they each have pasts that have made them train wrecks on the inside. They are flawed, and I appreciated that immensely; I can’t stand a story with perfect la-de-freakin-da characters. This is romantic comedy at its finest, and I can’t wait to get my hands on more by this new-to-me author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Loveswept for providing an ARC for review.

Absolutely loved this book. Max the self professed forever bachelor, happy with this life of one nighters when he chooses and his career as a divorce lawyer gets a huge surprise when his weekly meet with his younger brother announces that he's getting married... to his girlfriend of only 3 months. In James favor is that Max likes her, it's when Max hears they hired a wedding planner that sends Max a little over the edge and it turns out the great looking woman Max has been staring at and then cornered in the bathroom hallway using his best come on lines is none other than Charlie, the wedding planner. Max just sees money flying out the window. Because that's what planners do in his opinion. Nevermind what on the backend of the relationship deal when things end in divorce, Max ensures that his clients are well cared for. Max is a great attorney and he was well written in that regard, taking care of his clients in a personal way, to ensure their well being. He was a great transitional person. Max and James both come from money, their parents are absolutely charming and lovely as are the rest of the characters... wait... I take that back. The Brit. One of Max's partners. He was obnoxious as heck to a point where I wanted to throttle him. You have to read the book to fully appreciate what he does and it made me want to toss my kindle. The three together balanced each other out. Nicely done. Charlie had her own story and I loved her. She didn't come from money and thankfully she was taken it by a couple who brought her out of the loss of her mother at 13 and the wicked temper issues she had. A temper that still makes an appearance now and then. Max was attracted to that part of Charlie. Oh lets face it Max was attracted to all of Charlie. Despite their differences on love which ne'er the twain shall meet, they were a great match in so many ways.
I don't want to give too much of the story away, this simply has to be read.
I loved that Kate shifted gears a little bit with this series. This story is funny, warm and sexy. I love her books, she writes a fantastic story and throws in plenty of steam, but her characters are always relatable and I think that's what I like the most. She brings them to life off the pages and you get to know them as people. Not one dimensional characters we often see. Kate Meader never disappoints.
I'd give this more than 5 stars if I could.

**arc from NetGalley and Loveswept for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Max is a typical bachelor who thinks marriage isn't for him. Charlie is ready for love and ready for the future, but not with Max. They couldn't be more opposites, but you know what they say...opposites attract. And boy do they attract. And attract. I wasn't so certain I could love Max Henderson — he was kind of a slimeball checking Charlie out, flirty but kind of sleezy in his pursuit, but as the book evolves, so does he. You see his motives as being truly kind-hearted and for the benefit of Charlie, and less about his personal motives to get in her pants. Plus once they've done the darn thing, he obviously can't get enough. Charlie is everything I wish I was — smart, competitive, feisty, loving, hopeful. Being married to a Chicagoan myself, I can't get enough of the Chicago references (and especially the Cubbies), but what truly made this book different for me was how real it felt. Despite the money, despite the outrageous scoreboard antics, I felt the real emotion behind these characters. The plot felt like I was watching two friends fight their attraction. It's what makes Kate Meader an amazing storyteller. Best book I've read in a very long, long time.

Wedding-planner, come meet the divorce lawyer: 2 occupations at odds with each other, down to the fundamental beliefs that the people working in these lines should hold. Right? ‘Down with Love’ is where Kate Meader bravely tackles these opposites and tries to prove the contrary with Max Henderson (the first victim, so to speak) and Charlie Love—whose last name is ironically appropriate for her occupation.

Excited as I was by Meader’s blurb of this new series, I was also a little wary, because beneath it lies the stereotypical trope of a commitment phobic player paired with a woman who tries to be sassy and stumbles when the charm comes out. And with Meader’s style of writing, I can say—objectively—that it’s perfectly tailored for the rom-com style that many readers would expect. Meader’s writing is pitched exactly like the voices you hear in romantic comedy, that is, pitch-perfect, if that’s your sort of thing, in other words. That much, it delivers.

Max Henderson kicks of the start of Kate Meader’s new series of cynical men who think they’ve seen the worst of humanity in the battlefield of court when divorce inevitably hits couples. But I think the male POV is tricky to write, period. Getting the fine balance right between voice, hints of vulnerability and the cocky front that many authors try to portray of their alpha males who apparently know so much about women is one that either has me grimacing or smirking. The usual smug, self-satisfied, arrogant tone of Max crosses the line into bar-smarmy faux smoothness and sleazy bad taste and it isn’t frankly something I want to read of a male romantic protagonist who’s head seems to be constantly filled with women’s body parts and what he’d like to do to them. (Here, I’m reminded of another author who’s done the same previously and it isn’t that good a memory, sad to say.)

But because many rom-coms are retellings and rehashes of tropes with varying contexts, character histories and storytelling styles, ‘Down With love’ still feels at its core, one that doesn’t deviate too much from the well-worn but well-loved formula: a woman who finally gives the cynical Max what he’s always fed other women (nothing beyond a night or two) and then it’s the typical reversal of him finally getting a taste of his own medicine just as he realises she’s unlike the others. Cue the game to wear her resistance down, thanks to the perpetual player, no-one-gets-hurt reputation Max strives to cultivate in the first place.

There are a few bits of talking ‘out’ to the reader as well—better known as breaking the fourth wall here, when a character steps out of the fictional word briefly and breaks through the invisible wall separating reader and the cast—and I’m not too sure how I feel about that here. Perhaps Meader seeks to bridge that connection between Max and me when the use of the second person pronoun ‘you’ seems to…mediate this distance that I subconsciously hold, first to convince me that he’s anti-marriage and then later, to convince me that he’s a reformed man. Or perhaps I’m just over-reading this.

In short, I think I wasn’t really feeling this at all sadly—not the pairing, not the context and not the plot. ‘Down With Love’ didn’t exactly move me much even as Meader tries to work out the opposing beliefs of Max and Charlie, and given the many times I managed to walk away and came back to the book (rinse and repeat) it’s clear this isn’t the story for me, as much as I really like Meader’s writing.

Max and Charlie (Charlotte) seem to be exact opposites when they meet. Charlie, a wedding planner, is looking for a long-term committed relationship, while Max, a divorce lawyer with a committed phobia, is committed to his life as a player. However, their worlds keep colliding since Charlie is Max’s brother’s wedding planner. They have strong chemistry, but Charlie keeps fighting it despite Max’s interest in a short-term fling. Of course, they both eventually grow up a bit and have a HEA. The author does a terrific job of introducing their friends and families and of providing a strong backstory that explains their personalities. The dialogue is witty and intelligent. I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

This book was absolutely wonderful. I loved every second of the story and cannot wait for more in this series. For me Kate Meader is a hit or miss but when it is a HIT it is a major wonderful and this book was majorly fun and terrific. Largely that is due to the great banter and wonderful characters in this story.

Charlie is a wedding planner. She loves love and Max is a rich kid, now successful divorce lawyer. When they meet it is lust at first sight but they both come at love from different places. But Max cannot stay away from Charles and he insinuated himself in her life.

Meanwhile Charlie is friends with Max's soon to be sister in law and is also planning the wedding, so she is in Max's life alot as well. The two start out a friends with benny relationship but they both end up wanting more. However family relationships cause some strife in their romance.

This was an absolutely wonderful story and I loved it so much.

When Max, a jaded divorce lawyer spots a beautiful woman across the bar and can’t take eyes off her, he doesn’t know that that woman is going to change his life forever.
Charlie is the wedding planner hired to palm his brothers wedding and hopes to find her own happily ever after soon, and also knows Max is not the One.
I loved reading down with Love. There is not a single dull moment with the banter, the humor, steamy romance and sweet moments keeping you entertained. This is the first in the Love Wars series and I can’t wait to read more.

I really enjoyed these characters and their development throughout the story. I loved how Max and Charlie went from having great antagonistic banter to allowing themselves to become vulnerable with each other. I always enjoy reading a novel where the female protagonist is capable of being witty and in control of her strong attraction to her love interest, and I'm happy that I've seen this in the other 2 novels I've read from Kate Meader. I also liked the other characters in the story as well. Max's friends were interesting enough that I look forward to reading about them in the future, and I found myself rooting for sweet Gina and James.