Over the past year, I’ve discovered the romance genre is absolutely delightful. It’s the perfect way to escape into a good book that deals with heavier topics. Love at First by Kate Clayborn does exactly that with a story you are drawn into from the very first page. This HEA story (happily ever after, if you aren’t speaking romance genre shorthand yet) deals with the intense emotional weight we carry with us from our families - it is pure escape while you are rooting for Will and Nora while also fully relating with knowing that we all have family scars.

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Great story that had everything ,drama,angst,humor,fun,romance. and good variety of characters.
Really just a totally good book.
enjoyed reading.
Voluntarily Reviewed.

The blurb was so catching and the start of it was good but Nora and Will either as characters or love interest fell flat, that's not to say it was a bad book the side characters and camaraderie of the building tenants was fun.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book received from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Just like the previous book in this series, Love at First is a delight. It also has a strong sense of place - an apartment building in Chicago that is basically a character in and of itself. Speaking of characters, not only are Nora and Will completely wonderful, but there are a whole host of side characters who are interesting and well-developed allowing for the story to be multi-dimensional. I highly recommend this book.

Will Sterling fell in love with a girl when he was 15. He only heard her voice, but he never forgot it. Having to come back to a place that changed him forever because of an inheritance. All he wants is to get rid of the apartment, and get on with his life. But then he hears her again. On the same balcony from his childhood. But she doesn’t approve of his plans for the apartment, and does everything to prevent him from going forward. Nora treasures the building and the people in it, and doesn’t want Wills plans to disrupt them. But as they each go about doing what they need, they can’t fight their attraction.

I really enjoyed this story. It was beautifully written, and held my interest. I felt that I could relate, in some ways to Nora, and how she’s dealt with the loss of her grandmother. With changing things. I loved seeing Will and Nora relationship slowly change, and grow, and how they could overcome their pasts, and be together. I definitely recommend this book. It’s a sweet, heartwarming love story.

Love at First is Kate Clayborn's second novel and it might be even better than the first, Love Lettering.

Sixteen years ago, a Will Sterling heard the girl of his dreams. Standing beneath an apartment building balcony, while his mother talked to an uncle he didn't know about. He leaves and he doesn't know if he'll ever see her again. Now an unexpected inheritance has brought Will back. While he plans to sell his new unit and get back to his regular life as an overworked doctor. Instead, he encounters a woman, two balconies above, who’s sounds familiar.

Nora Clake is still trying to recover from her Nonna's passing. Soon she meets the new tenant, but he wants to upset the balance of their building's family, so she has no choice but to put herself in his way and maybe open the door for a second chance.

Nora and Will are adorable and even while they are going through the beginnings of their relationship we see them communicate better than most other romance couples. Nora and Will are both grieving and Clayborn does a great job of not making that struggle their entire personalities. I liked that they laughed and stressed and cried. It made them feel real and well rounded.

Highly recommend this one to all the romance fans around.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.
Oh this was so sweet! I love the characters and their stories. The plot moved along at a good clip. I will definitely be following this author for more. So so good. I love the setting: I’ve never been to Chicago but always wanted to go. This book doesn’t hit you over the head with any one element which I’m grateful for. This was so well done.

Fabulous Book. This is the first I have read by this author. I chose the book based off of recommendations from others and I enjoyed the story. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Will inherits an apartment from an uncle he only met once. He is a young doctor seeing this as an opportunity to pay off some student loans. Nora lives on the third floor of the apartment complex in an apartment that to her means home, neighbors and community. Nora needs Will to see more than a unit that can make money so he doesn't disrupt the buildings flow.

This is such a kind and sweet, slow burn book of two people healing and moving forward from their pasts. Both have known loss and come through it differently. It is a romance boarding on women's fiction because it delves deeper into community, loss, commitment and finding ones self. Beautifully written and easy to read.

This is one of the most truly remarkable books I've read in a long time. I was completely blown away by this story. I always find that I have to read Kate Clayborn books slowly and really savor it, and this was no different. I absolutely loved it.

What does the title mean?
The most popular guess would be "Love at First Sight". This would be wrong; it is more like love at first sound, when Will was a teenager and hears Nora as his life is about to be upheaved. Then it might be "Love at first light", when Nora and Will first meet again after more than a decade after he inherits the apartment in the same building at hers and talks to her at 4am from their respective balconies. "Love at first fight"? They are enemies at first because he wants nothing to do with the apartment and plans to rent it whereas Nora loves everything about the building, her neighbors, and wants to keep everything the way it was.

The story is not obvious either. Ms. Clayborn builds many layers into these ordinary characters. I didn't love the book at first, but it grew on me gently, changing my perspective along with Will and Nora's. And the characters, like the title, mean a lot more at the end of the book.

This was a really sweet story about all the love and support you can get by making your own family and opening yourself up to new experiences.

I felt like we got a little more character info/development from Will, but I still enjoyed Nora's role in the novel. While Nora was trying to keep things from changing in her beloved apartment complex, Will was a workaholic island trying to escape becoming like his late parents.

It was really interesting getting to see how Will's parents' relationship (which consisted of being hyper focused on each other and leaving Will to fend for himself) molded him into changing from the carefree young boy we see in the prologue, to the one we see later on. I enjoyed the dynamic he had with Nora, who has also felt left behind by her parents, but had a loving grandmother and community in their apartment complex. I liked seeing them influence each other in different ways that resulted in each stepping out of the boundaries they forced themselves into. I do wish we had more insight to the personal relationship Nora had with her grandmother (especially since it turned out that she was the original stubborn woman that reveled in the complex routine).

I also have to mention how much I absolutely loved Gerald and Sally's second chance romance playing out in the background. Will saw himself in rigid and responsible Gerald, and it was wonderful seeing their friendship slowly take shape. I liked that Will had to start rethinking his habits once Gerald showed by example that it's never too late to make life changes for someone you love.

Let me tell you, I was something of a reluctant reader here. I’m busier than ever at work. The kid Is back in public school. Half my office has the virus - literally. Let’s sum it up for you succinctly - mood: Watching the Sopranos and just obsessed with Tony and his crew and his neuroses (and not his awful awful mother. I cannot tell you how I loathe that woman!)
So smart, subtle, feminist Kate Clayborn was a bad choice. I should have gone with Hotel New Hampshire. I was reluctant. Begrudging. I wanted to nitpick at the characters - little things they did. But here’s the deal - Clayborn is top-shelf. And this book is a perfect example of her at her finest. She didn’t need my bullshit. She knows her characters’ flaws - they’re delicately engineered, crafted, woven into the tapestry of the story and made part of a beautiful resolution.
When I didn’t want to read a contemporary romance (let’s be honest here, I’m not sure I want to read at all right now) I ended this book with a gusty sigh - grinning ear to ear.
I hope you’ve read Kate Clayborn. I hope you love her. She’s a good good thing - a bright spot even when all I want is to surround myself with self-destructive mobsters and their mother problems.

I really enjoyed Kate Clayborn’s Love Lettering book so I was excited to read Love at First. I loved the idea of bickering neighbors who cannot get along.

Will and Nora were entertaining together as she tries to sabotage his attempt to rent out his apartment and keep her building the same tight-knit community it has been for decades. She doesn’t know that while Will inherited the apartment from his Uncle he wants nothing to do with the building or the bad memories he associates with it. They quickly discover that they may have more in common than they anticipated since they both need to learn to move on from the past that’s holding them back.

There were parts of this story that I really loved. I loved the cast of characters who lived in the apartment building from shy Emily to no-nonsense Marian. They were such a fun part of this novel. I liked Nora and Will together. They had a great understanding of one another (once they got out of their own way) but I honestly didn’t love the missed opportunity connection from when they were younger. Will remembering Nora from his teenage years just didn’t add to the story for me. I didn’t love that part of the story but I’m sure many readers will enjoy that their romance felt destined to be. Overall, it was still an enjoyable romance.

Love at First tells the story of Nora, who lives in her deceased grandmother’s apartment and takes care of her beloved building in Chicago, and Will, who inherits one if the apartments in said building but wants to rent it out for short-term rentals. They are instantly attacted to each other, but also enemies. The romance is very engaging and all the characters, including the side characters, are well rounded and interesting (without being unrealistically twee or quirky, as many romance novels fall victim to). I don’t generally like romance novels, but I picked this one up because it is set in Chicago, where I just moved but haven’t been able to explore because of covid. It seemed to go on a bit long for me—I thought it was done when I still had 2 hrs to go and I couldn’t fathom what the other pages were for. A lot happened, and I am not sure all of it was necessary, but I am sure there are those who will welcome the opportunity to spend more time in Nora and Will’s world.
(This is more like 3.5 stars than 3 stars for me, but I rounded down because that isn’t an option.)

Love at First is a sweet and heartwarming read that pulls at the heartstrings and features my favorite trope of the found family. I loved the way in which the author wove the element of fate through the narrative. I’m sad to say that I had a difficult time connecting with the main characters and didn’t feel any real or consistent chemistry between them.

I genuinely wanted to love this book more than I did. I do think that the elements I struggled with are purely subjective – and you may notice that Goodreads is filled with glowing five star reviews. I suggest giving it a try if you enjoy contemporary romance; it could very well be just the story you’re looking for.

My thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for a complimentary advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such a quintessential Clayborn novel in many ways, and now that she’s written a handful, it’s pretty easy to note her unique stylistic features and themes. I sunk effortlessly into the world she creates here from the first pages and felt comforted by her vision of a world as it could or should be, complete with a community of people who love and support each other as much as the main couple. At times I will admit that I felt that I was waiting for more romantic emotional discord or “angst” and when it didn’t arrive, I could feel a little disappointment hovering in the back of my mind. This is perhaps Clayborn’s quietest novel, or maybe it’s best to say that it’s her most adult one. Taken on its own terms though, quiet has its rewards, especially at the end of a chaotic year, and so I forced myself to let go of a desire for more fraught plotting and relish a subtler love story between people who consciously agree to work through differences and in kindly ways.

As a teen Will had secretly pined for a young woman he had overheard but never actually saw. Years later and as adults in the midst of a love affair, Nora confesses that if Will had seen her in all her awkward teenage-ness, there would have been no unrequited love story. But Will knows that his love for Nora is intrinsic to all of Nora, inside and out, and not to any superficial glimpse of her when she was young. The novel conveys well the idea that their love is based on valuing so many meaningful qualities they find in each other. They love early and resolutely from beginning to end, and there is little doubt of the feelings they have for each other. And yet the conflict in the book takes form primarily in Will’s insecurities of losing himself in love. I have to admit that I am not a fan of books featuring adults who are unable to overcome bad parenting, and this is definitely a book that attributes much of Will’s commitment issues and solitary life choices to neglectful parents. It’s tragic to see adults struggle to overcome childhood problems, and it also makes me fear for significant others who devote themselves to a relationship with that person. Nora’s response to Will’s insecurities truly is the stuff of adult relationship coping at its finest. Perhaps I’m too much of a romance trope reader in that I expected Nora to behave differently any number of times, and my surprise with her is that she is the quietest and kindest of Clayborn’s heroines. She’ll probably end up one of my favorite heroines of 2021. Will earned my sympathy in the end, although I do think I would have enjoyed the resolution of conflict a little more if it didn’t require a bevy of supportive characters sitting the protagonists down for forced epiphanies.

On the topic of supporting characters, they are one of my favorite features of Kate Clayborn novels. As usual, Clayborn represents and in wonderfully subtle ways. Older characters are central, as are an older lesbian couple and a middle-aged couple struggling to rekindle the romance in their lives. Socially awkward introverts such as Will’s boss, Gerald, are priceless. Elderly people are valued. Diversity is just there, as it always is in a Clayborn novel, and it doesn’t need to scream for attention. Didactic authors can learn much from reading the artistry behind Clayborn’s writing. And in what has come to feel to me as a subtle yet powerful nod to urban life, once again she depicts life in a big city as a place where loving families and communities exist. Urban life in America has becomes so politically toxic that simply representing it in a positive light feels charged and important. While this novel wasn’t a perfect read for me, it was nonetheless another lovely book in the Clayborn canon.

Another swoony winner from Kate Clayborn. The book was full of heart and lovely supporting characters. Nora and Will were easy to root for and their feud built up the tension nicely.

"𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐚𝐰 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥."
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This frenemies to lovers story is about second chances, community, and learning to deal with grief.
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For the most part I enjoyed this book, the story itself was fun and inventive and I really liked all of the side characters and their backgrounds. My main issue lies with the main characters themselves, I just did not like them. They were both too stubborn and repetitive for my liking which made it harder for me to connect with them. My favorite character would have to be Will's boss Gerald, he is so straightforward and opposite to Will which is what makes it so much fun to see their friendship grow.
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This story did a great job of showing the characters working through their grief over losing a loved one and learning how to honor them in a way that still allows the characters to move forward with their lives.

This was my first Kate Clayborn book and I am so fortunate enough to have received an arc!! “Love at First” is the story of Will and Nora who met when they were teenagers but didn't really see each other's face only to meet 16 years later at the same building . Upon reconnecting, the 2 did not start off on the right foot. But they work through their issues and develop a sweet and steamy relationship. I enjoyed this slow burn and can’t wait for my next Kate book.