Cover Image: First Comes Love

First Comes Love

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Member Reviews

I really love the storys in this book. It's funny, speedy en with lots of love

Love Connection
This is a great “what if” love story and I love it.

Gemma lives in Londen and is travelling to America. Sitting at the airport with two plane tickets she has to make a choice between destinations. Choice one is to LA to be a bridesmaid on her best friend’s wedding, or skipping that one and travel to Chicago and crash the wedding of the love of her life, and tell him she loves him.
She makes a decision… But what if she made the other decision? Is real love strong enough to find its way?
This novel is great, because it’s tells the stories of Gemma after both choices. One chapter is the story of Gemma after choice one, the next chapter is the story of Gemma after choice two (and so on). It’s brilliant, and the similarities between the different parts are fun to discover.

I have never
A great lovely and funny story. I love the characters, I love the humor.

Blair is working hard to get the position of Junior fashion editor. But when the time is ready and the job is vacant, it’s forfilled by someone else, and Blair gets fired. The same day her boyfriend is breaking up instead of asking her to get married. Blair is furious and starts a scene, one of the things on her list of 29 things ‘never tot do’ she is breaking. It’s the start of a brand new lifestyle and skipping the list it’s the best Blair ever could do. With a new job and and hot boss there is trouble, but also lots of fun.
I have never is an original story and it works out great.

A Christmas Date
I Love this story, even it’s a little predictable and not very original, the characters are great. Nikki hates christmas. Spending time with her family is no fun. All they want to know is when she's setteling with a man. When sister Julia wil get married with Paul and takes him home for christmas, Nikkie decides to rent a guy as a boyfriend.

It's a great story to read. No weaning about doubts, no constantly repeating about those doubts, but a strong women who dare to make choices en act strongly. The story is modern and speedy. It’s nice to meet characters from a previous story again. So is Nikki the roommate of Blair and is she playing a part in this book again. With handsome man, a nice dog, al lot of cats and a great setting around christmas with family and some trouble between sisters is A Christmas date a lovely romantic story for all times.

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I think for die hard contemporary romance fans, these books will be much enjoyed. They are all about relationship dilemmas and how to reach the happily ever after. The stories are straightforward and the writing is easy to follow.

For me personally, I wasn't gripped by these books. I found the plots to be slow moving and lacked a strong character arc. I'm not a huge fan of the genre but tend to gravitate towards plots that have some grit and emphasize the emotional component. I need to feel the pain and heartache. I need to be swept up in the emotional struggle. Unfortunately, I felt nothing for the characters, who were too cliché for my liking.

Although these stories were not for me, I'm sure there are other readers who will thoroughly enjoy them. I received an ARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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A collection of novels for those who appreciate the romance genre.

Second Chance Romances, Office Romances, Fake Romance that turns into something more...

There is something for everyone in this little collection and it was a joy to read. Left me with a giant grin on my face.

The First Comes Love Collection is full of engaging characters and perfectly woven tales that interlink. A fab read!

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These three short stories were quite interesting, bringing characters from one story to the next one. Even though they were written by the same author, the feel of them was different; I enjoyed immensely the humour in the second part but not really the structure of the first one where the female protagonist lives two different possibilities according to a spontaneous choice. I thought the story too cliché.

But I enjoyed it enough to want to read the sequel.

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Thanks to Pink Bloom Press for the ARC! I apologize for not being able to give you feedback before.

At first, I was really excited about this collection. I thought it would become one of my new favorites. I enjoyed the first book, but the other 2 were a bit slower and for some reason I just couldn't focus on them. Maybe it was my fault, I should give it another try later. Maybe it wasn't the right moment for me. Hopefully in the future our paths will cross again and I'll enjoy Camilla Isley's writing better than this time.

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This was such a fun read. Its the combination of the first three books in the series of the same name by Camilla Isley. I really enjoyed the different stories and how the characters in them intersected. Having it all together as one meant that I was basically able to ‘binge’ it and then immediately order the next book in the series. Definitely cutesy but perfect for some escapism on the morning F train.

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Loved it! Some of my favorite genres put together. I’ll be looking for more by this author for sure!

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I loved it!
This was a put romcom bookfest The three books are all standalone but they link with a character or two and so when reading as a triple short story compilation it feels more like one book in three parts.
I did find the first story a bit harder to get into but it was more the style, I found it was a bit jumpy from one to another.
All the books reminded me of a film romcom or chick flick so the stories aren’t exactly new and original but there’s only so many ways to tell a lighthearted love story

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Esse livro é um compilado com três livros da autora e isso tinha me deixado um pouco confusa porque a história andava e andava, mas a porcentagem não saia do lugar. Até que resolvi pesquisar e tive essa revelação. Kkk

O primeiro livro é Love Connection. Narra a história de Gemma Dawson, uma mulher que está no aeroporto com duas passagens na mão e precisa tomar a decisão de ir para o casamento da melhor amiga em Chicago, onde é a dama de honra, ou para o casamento do seu ex em São Francisco por quem ainda é apaixonada.
"I can't stop asking myself the "what if?" question. I'm tired of living in a world of what ifs."

Já I Have Never nos apresenta Blair Walker, uma jovem de 29 anos que faz listas e planos para ter a vida perfeita, a carreira dos sonhos e o marido perfeito, mas tudo é jogado pela janela quando ela é despedida do emprego e rompe com no namorado, tudo no mesmo dia. E de repente ela começa pensar se não estava fazendo tudo errado planejando coisas e se não é melhor simplesmente deixar a vida acontecer.

A Christmas Date é aquele clichê que a gente amaaaaa! Nikki é uma mulher poderosa e de negócios que está secretamente apaixonada pelo namorado da sua irmã mais nova, que acabou de noivar, e esse status de solteira em épocas festivas é a própria definição de inferno para ela.
Já que tem a sorte de trabalhar como produtora para uma agencia de publicidade, Nikki tem ideia de encontrar o homem ideal para fingir ser o namorado dela nessa época festiva. Felizmente seu trabalho lhe dá acesso fácil para o catalogo da agência e ela consegue encontrar o homem perfeito, sem nem imaginar.

First Comes Love é uma série de romances românticos interconectados. No entanto, cada livro da série pode ser lido como um livro independente. São livros leves e muito divertidos. Uma comédia romântica para nos aquecer e nos render boas risadas.

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A second chance at first love...
An office romance...
A fake boyfriend for the holidays…
Each of these stories gave unique twist on a traditional romance novel. The stories themselves were decent enough. I recommend for someone that is looking for something sweet and different.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

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I really liked this set of novels - each story interwoven with the previous one. I think that each one was a smart, contemporary romance, that all had an element of how your choices can effect your future / where you end up. I recommend this for any romance fan who loves a good, clean, contemporary story.

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A very fun and cute set of romance stories. Predictable stories told in a fresh way that was so darn cute I couldn't put it down. Can't stop smiling; that was adorable.

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So in good reads this is classed as book #38 but I’m calling it as 38, 39 and 40!!! I was kindly approved to read this book from Netgalley, and loved every minute of it!!! It’s a box set of three stand alone books in one set (hence me counting it as 3!!!) it starts with an story that reminded me of the old choose your own adventure books. The second book followed a character from the first book and the third followed one from the second book. I loved how they all intertwined one to the next. I’m a sucker for a romantic story and all three ticked at the boxes!!! So if your a soppy romantic like myself I’d definitely recommend you read at least one if not all of these!!!!!

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A great collection of short stores.

I particularly liked the first one in the book, which had a sliding doors style to it - took a while to get in to but a good read.

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A very fun, indulging set of romance stories. Predictable stories told in a fresh way that was so darn cute I couldn't put it down. Can't stop smiling; that was adorable.

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Thanks Net Galley for the preview!

I LOVED ALL 3 OF THESE! I loved the subtle tie in of the characters from book to book. I loved how each love story had different nuances and things that popped out of no where unexpectedly. I loved how the first book told the story in parallels. All of it was awesome and the characters were rich and well written. I'll be looking for more in this universe! My favorite combo was Blair and Richard and Chevron of course!!

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This was a wonderful series to come across! I had never read anything by Camilla Isley before and I binge read these over a couple of days! I enjoy that these books are clean and that even though they are connected could be stand-alones.

In the first story, Love Connection, Gemma has to choose between attending her best friends wedding and revealing a newly discovered secret, where she is the maid of honor, or confronting her ex on his wedding day to tell him how she feels. Of all the stories this was my least favourite as it jumped between the two alternate timelines and I really didn't like that.

In I Have Never, Blair, having the worst luck ever, loses her job and boyfriend in the same day. She has to reevaluate the way she's been living her life and has some adventures along the way.

In The Christmas Date, Nikki, who has never been a Christmas fan, has to spend a week with with her family and newly engaged sister during Christmas. To avoid pestering questions she decides to bring along a fake boyfriend.



Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this series! Each book had its own style and voice, it didn't at all make me feel like I was reading the same book three times over in different settings. These books were a fun and at times a wholesome read that I devoured in only a few days! I liked that they all flowed into each other with common characters and themes and that loose ends, mainly happy endings were given to all characters.

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This compilation includes the first three books in the Firt Comes Love series: Love Connection, I Have Never and A Christmas Date. Even though I found the author's style very easy to read in all of them, the first one of the three was not my cup of tea. I thought the concept was original though, and some of the scenes were fun and entertaining, but I had trouble connecting to the story and the heroine. The other two books, however, I did enjoy. They ere really entertaining and easy to read. There were a few detalils about the ending of the third one that I found a bit frustrating (let's just say I thought someone owed someone else an apology too and leave it at that in order not to spoil anything), but all in all I had a good time reading it.

To sum it up, I would give Love Connection 2 or 2.5 stars, I Have Never 4 stars and A Christmas Date 3.5 stars.

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2 stars (Spoilers near end of review, don’t worry I’ll warn you)

Thanks to Netgalley for granting me an ARC of First Comes Love in exchange for an honest review.

I really had high hopes for this book. I was coming off a light & fun, but still smart, romance (The Bookish Life of Nina Hill) and thought I’ll give another romance a go. In fairness, I should tell you this is a DNF. I’ve finally given up on p. 213, which is more than I give most books, but seeing as this was an ARC I gave it a little more time. I started into the second story which seemed promising but then smart goal-driven girl is quickly reduced to “ooh hot guy might be my boss, how will I ever handle this?“

There were some great qualities to the plot concept in story one, told in alternating timelines of the same characters, as well as good parts here and there throughout the story surrounding Gemma and Jake. If you’re going to read it you’re going to need to employ a serious suspension of disbelief, which I’m okay with. However, there are a lot of “coincidences” that have to happen for things to “fall” into place that go so far beyond suspension of disbelief and fall trap to a story that hasn’t been well executed. Secondly if you’re thinking of picking this up you better want to read something cloyingly sweet, almost sickeningly so.

It’s the shallow character development that really lost it for me. First, you have Gemma a lawyer with big goals & dreams who walked away from her first love, Jake, who is a doctor with big goals & dreams of his own. In order to go after her career dreams that she’s had forever, Gemma moves across the Atlantic to be a hard goal-driven lawyer and breaks up with Jake so he can be free to pursue his own big dreams and goals. Then she refuses to answer his letters and calls/texts. How about having a conversation with each other and talking it through before going nuclear?

But then Gemma’s always pining over losing Jake, her one true love. The one scene that made the most sense to me was right before Gemma’s upcoming wedding to Richard and she’s whining to her best friend, pining over having left Jake who then subsequently married another woman (who btw, also ends up being Gemma’s opposing counsel in another country..righhhhht). Another customer in the coffee shop who overhears Gemma’s conversation is disgusted and tells Gemma straight up “seriously?!!! You’re marrying this great guy, who by your own account adores you, is kind and loving, along with being a powerhouse lawyer at his firm, does good things for people, is wealthy, stupid-handsome)...like, any girl would love to have and yet here you are pining over the love that once was?” Clearly Gemma has issues with being able to have an adult conversation about what’s not working in her relationships. No matter the romantic in us, it just gets taken too far and I’m screaming for this be over with, get a hammer and nail this coffin shut already!!

The story needed more depth (work in other details about life not just Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake....), better character development and slightly more reality...or clock it as full on fantasy romance and call it a day.

Isley has a knack for creating dialogue and vernacular that speaks to a millennial audience.

Cover Illustration: 3.5 stars as it is a bit swoonworthy.

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