Eliza Roth and her sister Sophie co-own a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. One night, after learning of an ex’s engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on that finger to her Instagram account beloved by 100,000 followers. Sales skyrocket, press rolls in, and Eliza learns that her personal life is good for business. So she has a choice: continue the ruse or clear up the misunderstanding. With mounting financial pressure, Eliza sets off to find a fake fiancé. review: I had high hopes for this one, but ultimately it didn’t live up to it for me. This is definitely an easy read and the writing is good, but I just felt I couldn’t relate to the characters. The main character, Eliza, drove me crazy with her bad decision making, however, the other characters made her antics more bearable! To me, the plot itself was highly implausible and far-fetched, making the whole book a little hard to enjoy. Overall, if you’re looking for a light, easy end-of-summer read you may find that you enjoy this one. rating: 3 out of 5 ⭐️

Eliza owns a trendy jewelry shop with her sister in Brooklyn. After one too many drinks, she "accidentally" posts an Instagram picture of herself with a beautiful engagement that goes viral. In order to maintain her instafamous status and to support her store, Eliza sets out on planning her internet worthy wedding; she just needs to find the perfect groom.

In the beginning, I did not find Eliza relatable, but she grew on me as the story unfolded. Although I did agree with what she was doing and how she treated potential boyfriends/husbands, I could understand why she was doing what she did. However, there were too many unbelievable plot points. Overall, I think Love at First is a fun summer read if you can suspend reality for just a bit.

Thank you to Atria Books for the Netgalley ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lately, I have been completely fascinated by the jewelry world. I follow a bunch of jewelers on Instagram and dream about owning fancy, expensive jewelry -- or even just being in the jewelry world in some aspect, professionally.

Eliza and her store "Brooklyn Jewels" made me long for that world even more! You would think Hannah was a jeweler herself the way she described Eliza's life, career, and the jewelry she sold. It was so descriptive and specific, you felt really emerged into that world.

The real turning point in the novel comes when Eliza accidentally posts herself wearing an engagement ring on her Instagram, and business starts booming. The charade that Eliza has to keep up is anxiety-inducing, nerve-wracking, and insane. You start to wonder how this would ever play out in real life and how you yourself would react if something like this happened... or maybe it's just me who felt like that.

Throughout the book, I started to come up with predictions of how this would play out but quite frankly, what I expected to happen did not happen, and I was pretty ok with that. I liked not knowing how everything was going to turn out for Eliza and Blake -- it kept things interesting and kept me interested in the story.

I won't give too much away but you're kept guessing and hoping until the very end for Eliza to get what she wants and deserves... it's such a sweet, interesting story with the backdrop of career, love, and social media.

Hannah's writing completely jumps off the page and you could tell how much she has grown from her first novel. Each character is developed, the plot is near perfect, and truly interesting. It might be because I'm from New York, in tune with social media, and love romantic comedies but I couldn't get enough of the book and never wanted it to end. For some reason, I also got emotional during it and I'm not sure why.

If you need an easy read that is interesting, modern, and well put together you will totally love "Love At First Like." I feel as if it's a story all young people could relate to in some way or another.

I like the contemporary vibe Hannah Orenstein excels at- current technology and city living are always present in both this and her prior novel, Playing with Matches. What I personally did not enjoy in this book, however, was the way the heroine uses people as much as she uses technology. I couldn't quite get over her behavior, or complete cluelessness when it comes to personal boundaries or reality. I am pretty willing to suspend disbelief for a romance novel, but this one made me actively frustrated rather than simply bemused. I also couldn't believe the willingness of the men of the book to just go along with the ridiculousness!

It was not my favorite book, but I did find Orenstein's writing really engaging- even when I was angry at the plot, I found myself flying through the pages. Maybe it's overly naive of me Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Love at First Like has such a promising plot - girl accidentally posts an engamgent ring on social media and now needs a fake fiancé for her fake wedding. While I finished the book and it was a quick read, there were a few things I didn’t like - the main character was unlikeable, there wasn’t enough character development, and the book is extremely shallow. This book is good, not great.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this one wasn't working for me. I struggled through a few chapters and then decided to shelve it.

Eliza and her sister have a small boutique jewelry shop in an up-and-coming area of Brooklyn. Since childhood in Portland Maine, Eliza has been fascinated with jewelry – mostly due to the shop next door to her parent’s boat works: Eliza is NOT a good sailor -so many hours were spent dockside and in the shop learning about the jewelry – and she went to school for business to learn just HOW to be an entrepreneur. Now, her sister Sophie who handles the design, and she have a shop – and a fairly solid list of clients. But, we all know that breaking even and making a living are two different things: and Eliza is in charge of the social media accounts, and keeps the shop’s pages busy. She’s got a secret though, as she is always the model for the rings and jewelry – after a night of drinking she’s often finding herself making “fake posts” about engagements using her hand as the model and hash tagging it appropriately. Yet, this time, she sent the post and promptly fell asleep.

And thus begins Eliza’s search for the ‘appropriate fiancé’ and convincing him to marry her. No more appropriate than Blake – a man who owns a specialized men’s watch business, doesn’t use social media, and is possessed of model-looks, a great sense of humor, and the two get along well. If things are going slow. Rather than come clean with Blake and explain the ‘fake engagement’ as a marketing ploy, she went so far as to ask her salesperson to claim the post as her own, while justifying the story and her plan to her friends and sister. And then, an offer for a venue in the city, cakes, flowers, honeymoon, etc. – all based on her increased follower numbers.

Of course, there is the new male friend (working at the bar where she meets many of her failed tinder dates) that is perfect for her – where she just relaxes and enjoys their time while she doesn’t see his affection for her. And the constant dithering about coming clean… I liked Eliza and found most of her banter with herself, friends and family to be understandable. And yes, people can be driven to extraordinary and out of character acts when their dreams are threatened. But the whole lying for months, then hoping (and initially expecting) forgiveness from Blake about being led on and deceived about the wedding and by extension, her feelings – kept me from truly hoping for her to find a ‘real’ solution to the self-created problem. Fortunately for her, someone did step in – but it was the constant ‘self-interest’ that was promoted from Eliza with little to no real thought of others (despite her worries for her sister) that had me feeling ambivalent about the character, and the lack of actual ingrained and palpable growth after suck a mis-step had me thinking that the next ‘bright marketing idea’ she has will be enacted, no matter the cost.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-avK/”> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

This is a timely tale of social media gone wrong and one woman trying to find love despite that fact. As a huge fan of Orenstein's debut novel, Playing With Matches, I was quick to snatch this sophomore novel up - and found that it was much different than it's predecessor. Whether that was meant to be or not, is the question that confounds me. Based on the mixed reviews I've read, y'all are going to either love this one or hate it - I personally fell somewhere in between. There are some ethical and moral issues going on, as well as a possible love triangle, and I found it all to be somewhat befuddling to my sense of right or wrong. Should I be judging Eliza and her actions? Or should I just let go and enjoy the book? It was all rather a mess, thus the three star rating. Hopefully y'all will find this book to hit the sweet spot for you, and you'll enjoy it the way it was meant to be!

Much thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an early copy of this title for review.

This book had a cute storyline at first glance. However, the plot ended up being unbelievable and was not fun to read. I skimmed through the book and finally just gave up reading.

I have decided not to finish this title. I feel that Eliza just keeps making the same mistakes over and over and I just can’t anymore.
The writing was not poorly done...it just didn’t work for me 🙁.

This Happy Ever After rom-com delivered in all categories. My only issue is the copy I read had a blurb in the beginning that laid out the whole story line!

The more I read of Eliza Roth the less I liked the character though I could see where sh'e felt trapped in escalating deceptions. She had a lot to lose if she couldn't keep the engagement/wedding hype going.

Setting out to find a fake fiancee, Eliza and her BFF Carmen have a fun evening. The hope that this can become a real relationship, lands everyone in uncomfortable situations hoping to keep the hype up for business success.
Can Eliza afford for the truth to come out before anyone's feelings get hurt.? Between perfect Blake and interesting Raj, Eliza finds her life racing out of control. All things eventually work out, even for sister Sophie and her wife Liv.

Group reading guide included.

I have a hard time assigning a 4/5 because of the main character;s life choices which make her someone I wouldn't want to know.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking for a light, easy summer read and that’s exactly what I got! It’s also very timely as I just got engaged myself! I love Hannah’s first book and this was just as delightful. Looking forward to more from this author.

Very cute and well written story about deception, but not THAT kind. Cute and fun! I enjoyed her writing as well and look forward to more.

I received Love at First Like by Hannah Orenstein for free in exchange for an honest review. I have to say that I really really like this book. It seemed implausible at first re: a fake engagement, but the author made it believable and I really really liked this book. I will be looking for more books by Ms. Orenstein now for sure!

Eliza co-owns her own jewelry store with her sister Sophie and sometimes finds herself trying on her own merchandise. When she accidentally posts an engagement ring on her finger to her 100k Instagram following, her business starts booming and she has no other choice but to follow along with the charade, but is she crossing the line?

This is a super quick read and for half the book I was super entertained. But it came to a point for me where I was upset that Eliza was still playing this game, knowing that she is purposefully putting people’s feelings at risk and stringing them along. It irritates me that she lied and hurt people when she could have just been a big girl and admitted to her mistake instead of hiding and playing the victim right up until the very end. The fact that she never owns up just really left a bad taste in my mouth. The premise of this story was right up my alley and reminded me a lot of some of my favorite rom-com movies, but the big difference being that all the main characters in those movies are forced to come clean eventually and Eliza never really had to.

A very modern love story that can only take place in these social media-obsessed times! When Insta influence Eliza accidentally posts a pic of her hand wearing an engagement ring, she gets more likes than ever, but she's not really engaged! This is a fun, light read for anyone who a sweet love story.

Have you ever told a small lie and had it spiral into needing bigger and bigger lies to protect the first one? Or have you ever accidentally posted something you never meant to share publicly or hit reply all when you meant to only send to one person?

This is how it all starts for Eliza in Love at First Like. After seeing her ex is engaged, she tries on a diamond ring from her jewelry store and makes a fake Instagram post to save to her drafts folder. Only without realizing it - she sends it out to her 100,000 followers. Store business spikes before she can take it down - and suddenly she realizes she may need to keep this going. Only she’s going to need to find a man to be her new fiancé stat!

What I loved about this book:
- I really enjoyed the overall vibe that felt a lot like classic romcom movies starring Kate Hudson or Sandra Bullock.
- It was fun for me that she works in a fine jewelry store in Brooklyn. I work in fine jewelry - and loved relating to that as well as all the nyc spots I recognized.
- I loved Eliza’s friends - they were supportive and awesome and also told her when they felt she was making mistakes - but ultimately always had her back.
- The ending - no spoilers so I’ll leave it at that

What I didn’t love about this book:
- In a word, Eliza. I found Eliza’s choices so frustrating. I spent a lot of the book having that feeling you get in a horror movie where you’re yelling “don’t go upstairs, go out the door!!! Run away!!” I hate when a character chooses to keep unnecessary secrets.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed Hannah Orenstein's first book, Playing with Matches, and was looking forward to her latest book. Unfortunately Love at First Like was a miss for me. Based on the blurb I was expecting a romcom with "a fake relationship" trope and I was thoroughly disappointed. Eliza basically uses Blake, a perfectly nice guy, to promote her business and to keep the ruse of her engagement that she accidentally started on Instagram and which brought more sales to her jewelry shop. Blake has no idea about her scheme and believes they are in a real relationship. And if you think Eliza is falling for him while pretending to be his fiance, you would be wrong. She doesn't fall for him but continues to lead him on and lie to him while he falls in love with her.

The fake relationship trope I enjoy is the one where both parties know what they are getting into from the start and fall in love in the process. This was just Eliza using Blake for her own financial gain, with Blake not getting anything from the relationship in return. It really bothered me. The writing wasn't bad and the premise is actually interesting but the execution just didn’t work for me.

This is a wonderful light-hearted and contemporary story about Eliza Roth, a 27 year old jewelry shop owner in Brooklyn who is struggling with rising rent and her not so glittering love-life. When Eliza discovers that her ex is engaged, an Instagram photo of her wearing a diamond ring meant to be sent to draft gets posted. Her Instagram blows up with well wishes and as her popularity grew, so did the business sales and some of her troubles seem to dissipate until keeping up with the ruse has benefits far too good to give up on now.

I enjoyed this read very much as this was a fun, quick and entertaining read. Orenstein understands modern dating and contemporary issues including social media which makes this read modern, entertaining and a true delight.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and the author for an ARC electronic copy in exchange for honest opinion.

Dating? Check. Fake engagement? Check. Social media? Check. This is a light hearted title based on the pretend lovers trope, which is a win for me. It ticks all the boxes and keeps you flipping pages. Perfect beach or summer read.