What do you do when you fall in love with the perfect guy in the perfect setting? You go back to the real world and realize that you can’t exist in a bubble. This is what happens to Ava and Matt when they return to London and their real selves. Can they remember what it is they love about each other or will the annoyances and differences get in their way?

Sophie Kinsella always makes me laugh and Love Your Life was no exception with some good messaging around it.

This book was really hard for me to get through. It did not hold my attention and I had a really hard time remembering what had happened between sittings. I think that if you are looking for a very easy read that you want to read all at one time this might be a good choice for you. I do think the idea of the book is an interesting one and that some would enjoy this book. It just was not the book for me.

Oh boy, the beginning of this was super cringe-worthy, I wasn't sure whether I would be able to continue. I'm never been a fan of insta-love, but fortunately Kinsella didn't dwell on this for long. Love Your Life is about the hard parts of a relationship: how do two very different people amicably live together?

Ava has her issues (primarily, an inability to finish anything), but Matt's hangups seemed to overshadow her problems. Honestly, at the half-way point I was expecting them to break up, and expected the endgame romantic interest to arrive on the scene. But this is a Romance, and so I felt like Kinsella had them hash out their differences in a mostly-believable manner.

But I also agree with Topher and Nihal that Harold the beagle is an absolute bastard.

Love me, love my dog: upbeat heroine steals the show🤗

I come back to Sophie Kinsella novels time and again because there's such a broad thread of optimism woven into the tone of the story, usually inspired by the heroine. Love Your Life is definitely one such story and I loved the enthusiasm and positivity Ava puts into everything she does.

This is a story of opposites Ava and Matt attracting in an idyllic setting and then coming back to their real, everyday world. Their lives are not as compatible as they had hoped but they both give their romance a shot despite ominous signs that they are not made to last as a couple.

I actually liked Ava much better than Kinsella's Becky of the Shopaholic series. Whereas Becky was obsessed with possessions and the high she derived from shopping, Ava is a champ at rescuing discarded objects and not really materialistic. Rescued dog, rescued furniture, rescued plants, rescued books: Ava is committed to her friends, her dog Harold and her boyfriend. She's scattered and has difficulty honing in on one project to achieve but she's got a good heart and you want her to be happy.

It's been awhile since I've read a Kinsella romance and I was really delighted I picked this one up.

Thanks to publishers Random House/The Dial Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

Love Your Life is a quirky, tongue-in-cheek, wildly absurd rom-com in true Sophie Kinsella style. She has such a unique voice as an author, that all of her main characters, regardless of the plot, feel familiar. They are wacky, somewhat simple-minded, eternally optimistic females with a penchant for organic, earthy living choices.

In this particular story, the main character Ava, attends a writing retreat, one of her many pursuits that she rarely follows through on, and meets a man. She immediately falls head over heels in love and they publically declare their commitment to one another. They soon find themselves facing the harsher reality of life back in the real world, along with their many differences they were unaware of.

A majority of the book, which became increasingly tedious, was spent showcasing their blatant differences as we watch their love affair fall apart in grand fashion. It’s rather ridiculous because 99% of their behaviors, interactions and responses would never occur between people in real life. Frankly, I lost interest because it’s a very long book and much of it felt not only repetitive, but also far too silly. The conclusion did little to save this story for me. Suffice it to say that it all wrapped up quite neatly. Lessons were leaned, friendships restored and everyone got the HEA, in one way or another, despite all odds.

I know that many will enjoy this story, because Sophie Kinsella does write in a humorous, unusual, playful manner. You can’t help but laugh at the antics of the characters and the outrageous dialogue and behavior and the moral message she weaves into her craziness. True, you must suspend any kind of belief when reading her stories, but they are quaint, quirky and unusual from other books. It just seems that after having read all of her previous works, if you’ve read one, you’ve basically read them all. I find that personally, I require a little more substance and believability in my fiction.

This was an entertaining, well-written book. Ava's gone through a romantic break-up, but is focused on getting the most out of attending a writer's retreat in Italy and hopefully finishing her novel. Everyone is anonymous at the retreat, revealing no personal information, and Ava, going by "Aria," meets "Dutch," an attendee at a martial arts retreat that has been canceled. They hit it off, and when the retreat is over they head back to the real world hoping to make a success of their relationship. There was plenty of humor, charm and fun in this story. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more books by this author.

Ava and Matt meet at a writers retreat in Italy as Dutch and Aria and fall in love, but when they return to their normal lives, they realize they couldn’t be more different. They have to try to navigate being with each other as well as integrating their lives together and it isn’t as easy as they suspected.
When they get home, Matt returns to work at his family business and it’s clear to everyone but him that he is miserable. Ava is all over the place with her career and has no clear plan. Because they never discussed personal things while on the retreat, each new thing that pops up feels like a huge blow to the other. When Ava meets his parents, they are uninviting and basically just want him back with his ex. He doesn’t like staying at her place, and she doesn’t like staying at his, but she makes more sacrifices than he does. He’s broody and moody and I usually love that, but something was off here.
I really loved the premise of this book, but some things just kissed the mark for me. I’m not sure if it was the dog that was talked to like he was human, or Ava’s indecision, or Matt’s lack of confidence with his family, but maybe it was all three. There was also a lot of side characters it was hard to keep up with the names of everyone.p
If you are looking for a light hearted rom com, this book is for you.

Sign up for writing workshop in Italy. Check. Stay anonymous. Check. Use fake name (Aria) and wear uniform of shapeless pajamas. Check. Eat delicious vegetarian meals. Check! Fall madly in love with the also anonymous Dutch. Check???

Coming off a long term relationship, Ava is not ready for the computer, algorithm based dating program her friend Sarita uses. Instead, she chooses to stay home with her delightful rescue beagle Harold, her rescue furniture, her rescue books and her rescue plants. Get the picture? She registers for the writing conference hoping she will finally finish her novel. And then she meets Dutch, the dark haired, handsome man of her dreams. They abandon the workshop for bistros, beaches, wine and conversation and fall instantly in love.

But then reality intrudes. They go back to London, where Matt, formerly Dutch, is met by his chauffeur. It turns out he’s the wealthy heir to a dollhouse empire. He’s also, as it turns out, pretty tightly wrapped, preferring an OCD level of neatness, very strange modern art and …meat. Vegetarian Ava is flighty, disorganized, creative and unable to complete a single project. They have nothing in common except passion. Will that be enough to hold them together?

Sophie Kinsella owns the romantic novel and Love Your Life is one of her best. Ava and Matt’s love story is made so much better by the secondary characters. Ava depends on her friends Sarita, Nell and Maud while Matt has Topher and Nihal. And Ava’s dog, the irrepressible Harold, nearly steals the story. A star is born! Love Your Life will leave you smiling. A big thank you to Sophie Kinsella! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and Sophie Kinsella for this ARC.

Book Review: Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella
5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date: Oct 27th

Ava is a scatterbrained young woman who always has a bunch of projects in the air & one of those is to write a novel. So she goes on a writers retreat to Italy & while there she finds love w/one of the other guests.  Their love affair is perfect at the retreat. They are compatible in every way or so they thought.  Once they return home inconsidently to the same town their differences in real everyday life start to show. Can they figure out to love their differences together or are they destined to part ways?

I am a HUGE Sophie Kinsella fan & eagerly await every novel & always love them!!!!!!  I read this latest one in one day & loved it just as much as all her others. I wasn't sure about Ava at first but I grew to love her & was rooting for her happiness to work itself out. I highly recommend this book.  Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for my early review copy.

I have basically given up on this one. I didnt find that itt help my attention so well and I kept forgetting I was reading itt. I will probably take a physical copy out of the library to try again.

I really, REALLY wanted to like this book. Sophie Kinsella's books have been hit or miss for me. Mostly I've enjoyed them. I connected to the characters immediately and most importantly, her books never fail to make me laugh. They are the perfect escape reads.

I did enjoy this book at first. I loved Ava and her crew of friends and I could really relate to Ava's love for Harold, her rescue dog. Great start, so far. But when Ava left for Italy for the writer's retreat, it just turned into a mess of tons of characters. I struggled to stay engaged, but I ended up in the dreaded DNF category with this one.

I always say this: just because this was my experience reading Love Your Life, do not let that stop you from giving it a try, especially if you're a Sophie Kinsella super-fan.

This one was a let down for me. After enjoying some of her other stand alone books, I was excited to see she had a new one coming out (and available on Netgalley). A writing retreat, a story partially set in London and partially set in France, and a dog loving main character? This sounded like the ingredients for a great rom-com. At first, during the retreat, I was rooting for Ava and Matt all the way - they had great chemistry and seemed pretty compatible (though this was a case of the worst kind of instant-love). As they started dating in their real lives, it was like their chemistry was doused in cold water - and it never came back. They were just too different to have anything between them be believable. I struggled to understand why they kept trying to make things work. Worse, I really didn't like Ava as a character - her immaturity really just irked me. Honestly, after the retreat it was just hard to read the book - without a compelling romance and with difficult characters, this book just fell very flat for me.

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella // ⭐️⭐️

Initially this book sounded like it checked so many of my rom-com boxes. A writing retreat in Italy, a dog named Harold, what wasn’t to love? Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. I gave up about 30% of the way through. Neither of the main characters, Ava and Matt, had me rooting for them or even hoping they could make their relationship work, and without an engaging couple rom-coms simply fall flat for me. Ava was rather immature and quite frankly rather annoying, and she lacked any chemistry with Matt even after they met on what could have been a very romantic writers’ workshop abroad. For me, it only got worse after they returned to their lives in London and tried to get to know each other out of the confines of the retreat. If they finally made a good couple in the end, it was only after some dramatic changes to their personalities that I just couldn’t wait around for.

Thank you @thedialpress and @netgalley for this gifted ebook!

Sophie Kinsella holds such a dear spot in my heart I started reading her books late in High School and have continued with every story along the way!

This one was so different to me... yet so Kinsella haha if that makes any sense!

Ava is just as quirky as all of Kinsella’s leading ladies and I adored her! She has “feelings” for everything and I definitely related to that aspect in her character... while on a writes retreat she meets... “Dutch” his name a mystery they are not sharing any details of there lives with each other until they head home and when they do baggage unfolds... “Dutch” at times had me really irritated and then swooning...

Sophie Kinsella can literally do no wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This hit the literary escape spot during this Covid fall of mine. I love when Sophie Kinsella does these one offs from the Shopaholic series!

This was a sweet storyline, a love story, a bit of travel which I feel Kinsella is so great at writing about, and then real life - too real!

Gentle, kind, hilarious, and sweet. Perfect for these weird days.

So, this book has a great premise: two strangers meet at a weeklong retreat, where they are not allowed to share personal details about themselves, and they fall in love. When they get back to their real lives the realize they are complete opposites.
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First, these two fall in love (and profess their love) after spending ONE DAY together. They go cliff-diving, eat dinner, have sex, and BAM!!! They are in love. I just....no.

Second, I didn't like the female lead, Ava. She was flighty and very immature. The male is similarly unlikable. He's extremely judgmental and kind of a snob.
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Soon I found myself slogging through and finally gave up at 40%. This book just wasn't for me and I think I'm gunna finally realize the this author isn't my cup of tea either.

When I sat down with my coffee this morning, I didn't realize that I wouldn't do anything but read for the next three hours. LOVE YOUR LIFE by Sophie Kinsella completely sucked me in and while I knew where some of the adventure was heading, I loved every moment of the ride. Kinsella always delivers with humor, romance, and memorable sidekicks. This novel follows two characters known as Aria and Dutch that meet at a writing retreat and form a whirlwind romance in a bubble. But when they return to London, they discover that their lives are incredibly different. From friendships to family to Harold (and a fair dose of snark), this is a solid read that follows Kinsella's reliable formula.

Thank you NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I anxiously await every new book written by Sophie Kinsella, and I have read every one of her books, including some that I couldn't find in the US and I had to order them from the UK.

Her wit and humor kept me amused while I whipped through the pages, not wanting to put it down.

I loved the book more and more with each chapter. Especially, the last third of the book. Chuckle, Chuckle !!

Ava longs to write a historical romance so joins a writers retreat in Italy, and this point Matt "Dutch" enters the scene., almost as the saying goes "Opposites Attract". But the real challenge hits them square on when they discover they are both from London and the reality hits them that they really don't agree on anything!

This is the part I loved the most where you decide how much can love conquer?

I recommend purchasing a copy of this delightful book for shop early Christmas gifts!

A real treat for them and yourself!

I will also post a copy of this on Goodreads.

I adored this book! I have to start out by saying I'm a longtime fan of Kinsella's. At first I was afraid that I had outgrown her writing style, but in no time at all I was wrapped up in this story, and ended up enjoying it immensely. Five stars!

Sophie Kinsella’s books are always a good idea. Love Your Life was no exception; however, this book was different from the rest of her books that I’ve read.
The story was unique and original, and it was very funny and enjoyable to read. Nevertheless, I couldn’t fully love all of the characters. This is a first for me, but there were times where I couldn’t stand Ava, I thought she was so annoying sometimes, her quirks were something I just couldn’t relate to.The rest of the characters were ok, I liked them, they were nice and added to the story. I’m not sure how I feel about Harold, though; he was such a naughty dog! (being in the jackass chart was well-deserved), but I do love dogs so...I haven’t made up my mind yet. I ended up liking Ava a bit more in the final part, but still not my favorite MC.
I liked the story, it was easy-to-read, fast-paced and I appreciated the way it talks about relationships and the foreign countries concept. I love the way Sophie Kinsella creates fresh and light stories but that are still deep enough and make you think. Overall I think it was a nice read, I enjoyed reading it, but I am not sure it is my favorite book from Sophie Kinsella.