Ava is a free spirited, joyful woman who wants to be a writer - so she goes on a writing retreat in Italy! There she meets Matt and they fall madly in love, but they can’t talk about any personal details or baggage.... At the outset I wasn’t grabbed by the book. The holiday romance seemed much too good to be true, and I could not see how the differences in the couple could be overcome in a realistic way. But as the story progressed it was truly a joy to see Matt and Ava become a real couple and how they made each other better. Ava’s sunny demeanour made me want to be more optimistic myself. Enjoyed it!

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Ava is a free spirited young woman, obsessed with her rescue pup and her close group of girlfriends. Ava decides to take some time for her self to work on a novel. She travels to a monestary in Italy for a writing retreat. While there she meets a man named "Dutch" where they embark in a whirlwind romance. Eventually learning that they live in the same city they decide to carry the vacation romance into their real life once they get back.

However, once they are back in their normal life routines, they end up learning more things about each other that are not "perfect". A fun read following Ava and Dutch navigate each other's "lands" while accomplishing their professional dreams.

This was a fun, cute read that doesn't try to be anything deeper. Kinsella does a good job of finding new ways to showcase love stories. I enjoyed the humour and relationship struggles that felt real, and more importantly, reasonable. Ava and Matt have the usual struggles two people starting a relationship would have without any wild tangents that some books have. The addition of a pet, the mixing of friends, the challenges of meeting the parents all added humour. The parallel struggles of using dating apps and the public online past lives of new partners also felt realistic.

I felt the story could have ended sweetly at an earlier point and struggle with authors using 'X months later' to open a chapter.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of Sophie Kinsella, I have read every single book she has written and I have to say I was bummed about this one. I love how it started with Ava going on a writer's retreat in Italy and meeting "Dutch." As soon as she got back to London, I felt like everything went downhill and honestly I did not like them together and at times wanted to yell through the book for her to leave! It just felt like it Sophie was pushing the relationship too hard and I feel like it could have went in a different direction. I did love Ava's friendships and how they were like her family. I will keep reading all your books Sophie, but please change it up next time!

I've been so grumpy with most of the books I've been reading lately, that I jumped at the chance to get a digital ARC of a Sophie Kinsella book (on my new Netgalley app no less!). I thought a breezy Kinsella romance would lift my spirits.

My spirits must be very low indeed because this book was fine, but it wasn't great. Ava goes on a writer's retreat where she falls in love (or in lust anyway) with a handsome stranger. They have a blissful vacation romance, and vow to continue their starry-eyed idealism when they return to their lives in London. And of course, hijinks ensue. The rest of the book is pretty predictable, as most of Kinsella's books usually are, but there wasn't much of her characteristic humor, at least to my dampened soul. I found Ava to be infuriating -- screechy, stupid, and exactly the kind of annoying brat who would ruin my day by insisting her aggressive, angry dog was a service animal, and snapping indignant obscenities at me when I insist she leave the building. I wasn't interested in her romance with Matt (who is so forgettable I can't remember if he actually did anything of note in the book). I liked her friends, and Matt's roommates, and I wish the story had focused more on them, since they seemed to be better, more interesting people than either Matt or Ava.

It is a quick read, and one that might be soothing reading to other people in this hard year. I've been extremely negative about almost any book I've read over the past six months, so definitely take my review with a grain of salt.

UGH this book. This book had so much promise. When we first meet Ava, she's preparing to go on a week long writing retreat in Italy. Is there any place better than this to fall in love? When she first meets Matt (Dutch), it's instant chemistry. They seem to fit so perfectly, so I was really curious to see where the book would go from there.

Of course, as soon as they get back to London, everything goes south. It seemed like Kinsella was trying to go for an "against all odds" sort of vibe, but I just really don't agree that these characters should have ended up together. The odds against them were too great. In my opinion, this wasn't a healthy relationship and in order for them to work as a couple, they both had to make major changes in their life.

Additionally, I really didn't like either of the main characters. Ava was very needy, which is okay to an extent. But her maturity was definitely lacking—she had no sense of socially acceptable timing for conversations. It's not cool to start a big fight right before your partner's big speech at a conference, even if you are shocked by something he said. And Matt was not a good partner. He was very hot and cold. It was really hard for me to root for them at the end.

The redeeming factor of this book: The secondary characters were lovely. I liked the dynamic of their friend groups and it was fun to watch how their groups melded together. I would have rather heard Nell's story instead of Ava's, though! She seemed to have a lot more depth to her, and I haven't read a romance before where the main character struggles with an autoimmune like lupus.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I adore Sophie's work and even though this book was enjoyable, I felt like it was rushed at times. I really liked Matt but Ava just wasn't likeable IMO. The story itself was cute but I got bored pretty quickly in the middle.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meh...DNF. Sophie Kinsella is usually pretty reliable but this release felt like she was trying to cram every modern trope into this book. Online dating wackiness, check. Friend with disability, check. Not sure where the bizarre writers retreat fit in but couldn't bear to read anymore to find out.

One of my common complaints with romances and women’s fiction with romantic elements (this novel is the latter), is that I don’t fall in love with the hero. In this book, I liked the hero just fine, but found the heroine insufferable. She’s relentlessly upbeat, and it got exhausting. She keeps trying to ignore all the ways she and Matt aren’t actually compatible, and her mantra is essentially, “Stay positive! Look at it this way and not the way it actually is!”

Ava and Matt meet at a writing retreat in Italy where they’re not supposed to tell each other any personal details about themselves, including their real names. So while they are falling in love with the people they are away from their jobs, family, and friends, everything is magical. When they return to their real lives, many things about the other person’s life drives them batty.

The ending is good.

This is a fun novel, but not my favorite book of Kinsella’s.

Looking to finish a novel she's been working on, Ava travels to Italy for a writing retreat. While there, she meets "Dutch" (aka Matt) and they fall quick and hard for each other. When they have to go back to their regular lives, though, they begin to realize exactly how compatible they are (or aren't) and how well they fit together (or don't).

I typically love Sophie Kinsella's stories and find them enjoyable, quick reads. While I did find Love Your Life quick and largely enjoyable to read, I found Ava's eccentricities and quirks to be a little much. I realize that much of her anxiety is part of her character, but her constant obsession over Matt and his prior relationships while not realizing their major differences and incompatibility was grating. It felt like it took much too long for them to reach the end of their story that I could see coming from midway through the book.

So sweet! Such a satisfying romance, too. As a writer myself, I really felt for Call and her plight to find authenticity and love.

I'm thinking that, at this point, I may have read too much Sophie Kinsella. I really liked I've Got Your Number, Wedding Night, and Can You Keep a Secret? Some of the others were just ok, but I think I've read almost all of them and enjoyed them.

Love Your Life has the usual formula - plucky, optimistic heroine, series of complications getting in the way of the main romance, and a cast of supporting characters who cheer the heroine on at every step.

Granted, all of Kinsella's novels are essentially romance novels, but they all have plots that work well with the romance. Love Your Life, on the other hand, is a bit more claustrophobic because it is single-mindedly focused on the romance. Yes, the heroine has to find herself career-wise, and her friends have stories of their own, but it mostly just focuses on the complications of the romance.

What I mean here (without giving too much away) is that the heroine meets the love of her life in the first few chapters, falls madly in love, and then spends the rest of the novel agonizing over the relationship to the exclusion of much else. It definitely doesn't pass the Bechtel test.

I wish there were more of a storyline here and the heroine were a little less aggravating. It's not a great sign when the reader can empathize with other characters' annoyance with the protagonist.

This was a book about friendship, romance and life choices and changes. The quirky cast of friends added quite a bit of interest to the book. I feel everyone has at least 2 of theses characters in their lives.

I was thrilled to get to read Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella. I'm a huge fan of Kinsella's books, especially when I want a nice lighthearted read. Her holiday book last year was a 5 star for me, so I was so excited to read this book.

It was bad. The beginning had so much promise, and I loved the set up. Once the couple returns home though, geez, it was the longest, most dull, least amount of chemistry, slog of a read ever. I just wanted Ava to leave Matt once and for all, and then the book would have finally needed. I only finished reading this because of the author, I held out hope until the end that the book would redeem itself, but it didn't.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC for an honest opinion.

A cute light romantic comedy to lift your spirits in these difficult times. When Ava meets the man of her dreams at a writing retreat they quickly fall in love. But when they return to real life will it last?

Meet cute, very cute. This couple find each other in a "bubble" attending a seminar in Italy.
Fall madly in love, still knowing nothing about each other until they get home. Turns into a comedy of errors. They find their way but not easily. Entertaining.
Quirky. Improbable. I liked it.

Kinsella does an amazing job as always! Loved this chick-lit style romance. A very fun read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Sophie Kinsella has done it again. I don't know how she continues to churn out hit after hit. A light, fun, heartfelt romance and absolute joy to read.

Fun, light, easy read. I enjoyed the ARC copy of Love Your Life. the characters and their relationships kept you turning the pages !

Ava is a hopeless romantic. When one of her best friends goes on a dating site and specifies exactly what she's looking for in a partner down to how far he lives from the tube, Ava is skeptical. She wonders if the best matches really come from logarithms or if fate is the best way to decide who you will end up with. When Ava meets "Dutch" (real name Matt) on a writing retreat they engage in a whirlwind affair with no knowledge of each other's real lives back home. Ava and Matt are convinced that their romantic affair will not only continue, but stand the test of time when they return to their homes and real lives in London.

Back home they continue on enthusiastically but it isn't long before the cracks begin to appear. Matt isn't as enamored with Ava's flat as she thought that he might be and his taste in art is atrocious. Apparently Ava's dog isn't as well-trained as Matt would like him to be, and Matt's parents still wish that he would get back together with his ex-girlfriend. As they continue their relationship Ava wonders if maybe there's something to logarithms after all?

LOVE YOUR LIFE is another light-hearted hit by Sophie Kinsella. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the wacky characters and the plot line and and also found the subject matter to be quite timely considering the digital, app-based dating world that we live in right now. This is a must-read for fans of Kinsella and of women's fiction alike and left me staying up far past my bedtime to "just finish this chapter'.