When I started reading this book, all I could think of was the phrase killing me softly

This book is full of this quiet angst, the kind you feel everyday in relationships. The kind you relate to, wondering what you did, where you went wrong, if mistakes are really ever forgiven and what they mean. And holy hell, this will be my fourth review of Kate Clayborn where I'm at a loss for what to even say.

It will be a time I say once again why I love her-her inclusiveness as a matter-of-life. Her feminism, quietly shining through the page. Her evolved men who are clearly, incredibly leaders without (and sometimes with) the grunting physical presence. Is that enough? I will mention her settings again. This time, in New York, this time taking in every sign and letter. Relating numbers to letters. As if I didn't love this author enough. Her settings, the characters careers, the secondary characters all speak to make a complete, beautiful, fully alive story. And she twists the knife. Subtly, slowly. And you just get it. You feel it.

But that's not all. Because this is key: She writes extraordinary love stories for basically ordinary people falling in love in ordinary ways. She does so convincingly, quietly....killing us softly.

Reid and Meg burst with courage. They grow because of each other. They explore vulnerabilities, so much so we often take a deep breath with Meg when she begins her direct confrontations. And though I didn't find what Reid was doing much of a mystery, I appreciated the way it was integrated in the story and the conflict it created. It was well done without being sensationalized.

This book is all first person POV, and I didn't mind. I enjoyed getting to know Reid through Meg's open book. Through her loneliness and desperation, and I enjoyed getting to see her friends in the same way.

And despite this, I felt I knew Reid quite well because he was direct. That said, he is easily one of the most unique heroes I've ever read. Reid still felt whole, and I just loved him. I loved everyone in this book. I loved Meg's development and finding her own way. I loved the settings. Her unique job. His unique passion.

Love, Love, Love, it beats.
yep, that about sums it up.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. This has not affected my views on this book. I can't wait to get my hard copy, in fact.

I enjoyed the excerpt!

But, 3 stars for me overall. The concept behind Love Lettering was very unique, which I loved and appreciated. But, the first half of the book was rather slow-moving, I found it difficult to muscle through certain chapters. Still a read worth checking out though!

I enjoyed this love story about Meg and Reid and liked that it included secondary stories about her work and friendships. It was generally a sweet and whimsical romance but then all of a sudden there was a very long and detailed sex scene, which seemed out of place an. Rating: 3 stars (I liked it).

I received Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn as an ARC from Netgalley. I absolutely loved this book and the premise of the story. The "love lettering" in the title doesn't refer to actual love letters but refers to artistic lettering. Meg is a freelance artist living in New York with her best friend. She was designing wedding invitations, programs, thank you notes, place cards, etc but now her focus is on designing custom made journals. The story is a love story but it also focuses on how Meg expands her artistic talents in the process. She and Reid (the love interest) start a quest as friends to find unusual lettered signs all over New York City. I loved the characters, loved the story and found the entire novel very creative. I could not put the book down. I can't wait to read other books by Kate Clayborn.

Meg and Reid have an interesting story. Both have difficult backgrounds but seem to be better together. The journey is an interesting sight seeing tour of romance.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

As it turns out, my favorite book this year is an arc for 2020. I've enjoyed all of Kate Clayborn's books and she just keeps getting better and better with each one. <i>Love Lettering</i> is my favorite for many reasons, and not least because it is elegantly and intricately written, with each piece of the story falling perfectly into place to illuminate key themes of the life of an artist, of how we navigate our way in the world through visual images, and of how much we rely on visual cues to communicate effectively with loved ones. While the book is at heart as romantic as romance novels get, the romance unfolds slowly and visually and at times made me feel as if I was watching a film -- perhaps just on an aesthetic level, Woody Allen's <i>Manhattan</i> in its ode to falling in love in the great city itself.

In Clayborn's novels I've noticed that the main characters often revere a medium of art and find their way to each other through it, an extended metaphor of art is love and love is art. In <i>Beginner's Luck</i> the main couple discover each other as they restore an old home, taking mutual pleasure in the hunt for the perfect antique knob for a cabinet door. In <i>Best of Luck</i>, the couple fall in love while working together on a photography project. The process of taking the perfect photo leads them deeper into love with each other. Here though in <i>Love Lettering</i> I do think Clayborn interweaves the art and artistic world of calligraphy so thoroughly with the romance that it's impossible to separate the two.

Meg's unique creative work as a calligrapher and Reid's impending marriage and need for a wedding program initially bring them together. They see things in each other in their first meeting that haunt them and haunt much of the plot of the story. Everything, even numbers, become a sign that keeps them continually in each other's orbit as they slowly attempt to build on moments together. At times, especially early in the novel, their interactions range from painfully awkward, hesitant, and even hostile, but it is hard to shake the sense that fascination, attraction, simpatico, ultimately love, and maybe even fate undergird all of their interactions. I felt riveted by each encounter. Each scene builds on the previous on, creating a complex relationship to show us how perfectly Meg and Reid suit each other, even as the characters themselves struggle to understand their connection.

As a former resident of Manhattan, I felt pleasure in the many walks the couple took taking photos of signs and graphic images to try to articulate their feelings and their lives to each other, and yet I also sympathized with Reid's sensory overload living in the city entails. Falling in love with the city ends up becoming as complicated as falling in love with the person. And yet, can I just say how happy I am to read a contemporary urban romance. And in keeping with Clayborn's view of the world, this novel, like all of her books, is peopled with diversity. It's also wonderfully filled with stories of acceptance and forgiveness. She creates a world where women are kind to other women and flaws do not end relationships. She is very much an author who likes and respects women. And finally, many romance authors today are creating wonderfully respectful and loving men. Reid Sutherland is right up there as one of the best. We meet him and get to know him through Meg's eyes, and so we learn along with her how to read all of his signs that make him such a wonderful hero.

In keeping with the theme of this book, I hope my first reading experience of 2020 is a sign & harbinger for what's to come in the new year.💞

This NetGalley release was only for the first chapter. Please see review of full book here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2825206709

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an ARC. 3.75 stars. I loved Meg but the story moved so slow in the first half of the book and felt redundant. I would read for a few minutes and then start doing other things. I very rarely wanted to sit and just read this book. It was that slow moving for me. Plus way too much discussion about fonts. I will say the last quarter of the book was really good with a situation I never saw coming and finally kept me engrossed. I also liked that this book was about more than just a romance. It’s also about navigating your career, including slumps, and maturing friendships, as well as breaking behavior patterns that no longer serve you. An original story and great characters. Just too slow for

When I requested this, it was NOT labeled as an excerpt. I only now realized it was an excerpt, because I saw FULL BOOK listed for review. I wish NetGalley would stop doing this, because it is not the first time this has happened to me.

I am sure I will read this book at some point, once it is released, and I will most likely love it, because I adore Clayborn's books, but I don't excerpts and see no point to them.

This. Book. Is. Adorable. This is my first Kate Clayborn but it won’t be my last. I’ve been wanting to read this since I read the perfectly rom com blurb and I was lucky to receive an ARC. Love Lettering tells the story of Meg Mackenworth, a sweet hand-letterer who hides a word in a wedding program which spurs the entire story line; and Reid Sutherland, the stoic ex-groom who is a lot more than he seems (the SWOONSHING!!). Meg and Reid’s relationship, growing from awkward connections to friends to more is beautiful and sweet and a bit slow which I loved. It makes me happy to see growth of two characters so beautifully written in a short period of time, while still being believable, and Clayborn did it. There’s a bunch of fab side characters, a wild and unexpected twist, and lots of wandering NYC to find hand lettered signs which made me miss my previous home. I especially loved the way that Clayborn wrote about Meg’s imagination - how she sees letters and words and fonts in everything is gorgeously detailed. This book is a must read for sure.

Delightful! This excerpt made me so excited to finish the rest of the story. This is my first Kate Clayborn, and I now see why everyone raves about her books. Contemporary romance at its best.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. It’s original and sensitive, romantic, lyrical, and sensual. I wouldn’t have thought that I’d have been caught up in the story of a woman whose life revolves around letters, but I couldn’t put this down. Meg has built a business designing planners for people with her own whimsical calligraphy and designs. She sees emotions in letters in such an interesting and different way. It reminded me of descriptions of synesthesia when people perceive one sense through another sense. In her case, she experiences emotions through letters.

And then one day a man for whom she’d designed wedding invitations and a wedding program a year earlier comes into the store where she works. He asks her how she knew to put a secret message in the wedding program she’d created. What starts out as a mortifying moment for Meg is the start of a friendship and slowly growing romance between the two of them as they begin to explore New York City looking for interesting signs and letters.

The story develops with some surprising twists, but nothing that is unmotivated by the characters or the plot. And it continued to grab my interest so that I couldn’t stop reading.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Whimsical, fun, flirty, sweet, romantic. I can picture all the love letters Meg Mackworth would use to write my descriptors. Reid Sutherland seemed to be her complete opposite but they worked. I loved the slow build of their relationship and the easy pace of their story. Love Lettering is a charming story.

Argh, just one chapter! This is already brilliant and I can’t wait to read the whole thing! Font and stationery nerds will rejoice.

This was such a fun book!! I have been reading plenty of contemporary romances this year and this is definitely one of the top picks. A hand-lettering artist gets busted for hiding a message in a wedding program. At first I thought this would be a cutesy, trite story. Boy, was I wrong.
The story was well thought out and proceeded at sort of a slowish pace, but that was okay. This allowed for great character development and the opportunity to learn quite a bit more about the art of hand lettering.
Like most contemporary romances, this story has a happy ending, but the epilogue was such a wonderful surprise. It was like a decadent dessert after a wonderful meal! I got closure on not just the main characters, but some of the secondary ones as well.
I will be recommending this book to friends.
Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a wonderful read in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I love the plot of this book and you can tell that Clayborn either knows her stuff about lettering or did a lot of research. If you love a slow burn romance, then this is the book for you. This book is beautifully written and such an original story. I love the main characters and how relatable they are.

CfReally nice and gluttony triggering excerpt well written full of angst I get crazy for slow burn they are my drug of choice so I really liked this due to the fact that this book has all that is needed to shine
Waiting for 2020 full release

(Review based on my reading of the full ARC) Meg is a successful lettering artist working out of a friend’s shop in Brooklyn. Her career making custom hand-lettered planners for busy New Yorkers is taking off, so she should be happy, but she’s also drifting apart from her best friend, estranged from her parents, creatively blocked, and holding several big secrets. When Reid, the quietly handsome ex-fiancé of a former client, comes to see her because of a secret message she hid in his wedding program, she knows she shouldn’t be drawn to him (no pun intended), but she still is.

Reid has some big secrets of his own, but the two start a tentative friendship of long neighborhood walks, helping Meg look for inspiration, and they grow closer...until some of the secrets between them threaten their new connection.

This was an adorable book. The characters are facing some real stakes, but they find time for whimsy and companionship and joy. There are some lovely, complicated female friendships portrayed here, too. I can’t wait to see what the author does next!

Really enjoyed the first chapter and the end of that chapter left a cliffhanger that makes you want to keep reading. Looking forward to reading the rest of the book! Will provide a full review and rating upon completion of reading the full book.