An enjoyable, lively and fun romance, full of twists and turns, female friendship, brotherly loyalty, plenty of mistakes and misunderstandings, as two couples work their way through the ups and downs of love on their way to happy ever after. Joanna really is the bitch from hell but any good story needs a baddie, and this is a good story. I don't really know the Shakespeare play this novel is based on, but there is really no need to as any echoes of it are totally unobtrusive.

‘Love at First Fight’ was supposed to be the enemies-to-lovers kind of book I normally pick up, except that I cringed my way through nearly three-quarters of it.

Apart from having Ben’s manwhore reputation thrown in my face quite a few times, I didn’t like how Ben and Bridie seemed to try convince themselves that they were and always had been in love with each other simply because of their friends’ and families’ meddling through the creative power of words and some well-timed but deliberate eavesdropping moments. That they were rehashing an event a decade ago—Ben having gone on to sleep around with as many women as he can while refusing Bridie as a teenager—seemed relevant but repetitive and having them from frenemies(ish) to lovers in the blink of an eye made me cringe particularly after the multiple references to Ben’s way with half the town’s women.

But if the spotlight was initially on Bridie/Ben, the sudden switch of focus (and insertion of multiple POVs) to her best friend and Ben’s brother’s upcoming wedding along with the drama they suddenly faced threw me off. Bridie and Ben (new status: couple) turned the tables on their squabbling friends and play matchmakers before I could even convince myself that they were a pairing I think I could root for.

I’ll admit that I skimmed this one…a lot. Admittedly it’s due to my own personal peeves about utilising the manwhore-turned-one-true-monogamist type of trope after getting hit with some kind of inexplicably, cosmic realisation that he’d loved only 1 woman all along but that I just couldn’t find myself enjoying the story overall.

*special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

Who doesn’t love a good hate to love romance??
This was a fun story!
It’s tropey, but in all the good ways.
It also really follows two couples, which I actually enjoyed. I think it would’ve been too slow if it only followed the one.

I think it started off strong and went a bit downhill, but it did keep my interest. I do wish that it played out of the hate to love.
Some of the dialogue is a bit cardboardy and some of the plot points are too laggy or wrapped up too nicely, but I found myself having a good time with this one! I need to find myself a Ben!

Very much enjoyable fun story. Great characters, likable.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Love at First Fight by Mary Jayne Baker is about two friends/ enemies with a rocky past that meet up again after some time apart . I love an enemy to lovers read and the characters, Ben and Bridie are very cute together. I liked how much their friends were rooting for them and the devious plans to get them together. I do think their relationship felt a little rushed and wished I got more from them. About 1/2 through, this book wasn’t about Bridie and Ben anymore, it centered around their best friends. The change in plot jolted me a little out of the story and I couldn’t quite get back into it.

I loved this story!!!! If you love rom coms, and modern day retelling of Shakespeare takes, you'll love this book too. This is a modern day retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, and is very well done. The characters are realistic and you can believe that what happens with them could actually happen, it's such excellent writing. I'm hoping the author will rewrite other Shakespeare stories as I'd love to read more like this

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately I could not get into this romance. The heroine has a tough time finding the right guy and has a lot of bad dates. Then her childhood nemises rolls back in to town and this get interesting. While I found their back and forth insults humorous I didn't really get that sexual chemistry from them. They joked like friends but lacked that sexual tension I crave in enemies to lover romance. Just not my cup of tea.

This was a super fun romcom! I loved Bridie! She is relatable. Ben is the typical guy, but is also endearing. I absolutely adored the best friends Hattie and Cal. I thought the conflicts that came up and required Ben and Bridie to stick it out together was perfect! I enjoyed every minute!

I'm not sure where this book went wrong, as I was really looking forward to reading it. As soon as I saw the title, I wanted to get my hands on it. It promised enemies-to-lovers, banter, and tension. It delivered, but not super well.

I think my main problem is that Bridie and Ben weren't really <i>enemies</i>. Several times Ben admits he viewed her as a friend he teased constantly. I wanted more tension that this, and instead it just felt immature. Part of this may have been that these characters are written using European slang, which felt weird to me as a US reader.

I also didn't love the drama with Cal and Hattie. By the end, it just felt like it was dragging on. While I did appreciate the way it eventually wrapped up, the first 3/4 of it felt unnecessary. Their chapters distracted from the tension involving Bridie and Ben, which didn't help either couple.

And finally, this may seem like a weird complaint, but i couldn't stand Bridie's name. I knew what it was, but my brain read it as Birdie every time. By the end, I wasn't even correcting myself, because I honestly preferred Birdie.

Although this book wasn't my cup of tea, I can see other people loving it! I was in the mood for a romcom when I picked it up, which was one of the biggest reasons for my disappointment, as this isn't a romcom.

Love at First Fight is definitely an entertaining, banter-filled (kind of) lovers to enemies to lovers journey!

While this was a bit slow paced to begin with, the latter half was entirely dramatic and over-the-top (in a cheesy but enjoyable way)!

I do have to say that I didn't relate very much to either of the main characters, and this did include my least favourite trope - bad communication, I still very much enjoyed reading this for the witticisms!

Thanks to #Netgalley and Aria for making this book available to me.

Okay, this book was so cute to read. It read like I was watching a movie, the characters were so multi-dimensional, there was a reason for everything, the small town was so well structured that something in me thinks it is a real place a need to visit with real people from this book I want to get to know.

For the most part, this book follows closely two couples with Bridie Morgan and Ben Kemp as the main couple. At the start of this book, we follow Bridie as she goes on this journey to go on twenty dates in twenty dates so that she can finally set her mind at rest that she is incompatible with any man and that she really does not need any man. She has gone on a long list of horrid dates but she hopes that the last one she meets will be good enough to take on her best friends birthday party. Now comes the reason why Bridie cannot seem to meet any guy who is good enough, Ben Kemp. Ben Kemp was her friend when they were teenagers and in high school. He was the guy that seemed to have slept with having the student population at that time. During their friendship, she fell in love with him and because of anxieties and almost pigheadedness, their friendship breaks and they have been at each other's neck. They are well known in town to be each other's nemesis.
Ben who has just returned home is faced with Bridie and her dates and he cannot seem to stand the contempt she still holds for him. He decides to find out why and she hopes he can finally answer her questions.

On the other hand is Bridie's best friend, Hattie who is dating Ben's brother Cal. They are so very much in love that it almost seems that nothing would come between them until Cal slippery ex who is a famous make-up artist on Youtube comes to lay problematic eggs because of her existential crisis. I actually enjoyed reading about Hattie and Cal's relationship and how they play into breaking Bridie and Ben together.

Now to speak of the originality of the themes expressed in this book. Not to sound salty, it was a bit unoriginal and like I said it felt like I had watched this so many times or even read it a few times. However, I did enjoy it and it was quite relaxing to read.

A sweet romance about a second chance at love.Also tgevother couple had an interesting story. A quick read funny dialogue.

This was such a cute read! I usually do t like books such as this.... But it held my attention and I stuck with it!
The writing was fine! I enjoyed the characters development throughout the read! The bickering back and fourth was funny! Overall this was a enjoyable book!

Love at First Fight felt like I was reading Angus, Thongs and the Full Frontal Snogging for adults. Believe me that is the highest of compliments. With a cast of characters that could only be found in a small town Love at First FIght will have you laughing from page one.

Mary Jayne Baker takes a plot that could be described as chaotic and handles it with clarity and humor. This makes Love at First Fight the perfect book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon.

Ben Kemp, certified womanizer makes his return to Messington after spending a few years abroad in Peru. Bridie having struggled romantically since a disastrous date with Ben 10 years ago is less than pleased to see his face. When they are both in the wedding party of Ben's brother and Bridie's friend will the two finally clear the air?

So what can I say, if you fancy having a laugh and feel like being entertained by a couple hundred pages of pure chaos add this one to your tbr.

Thanks NetGalley and Aria books for the ARC.

*I received a free copy of this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I liked this! It was cute and angsty and dramatic. Bridie and Ben's character development was good. I also like that there was drama outside of just them. Even the "supporting" characters had their own plot line. It was nice. My only complaint (if you can call it that) is the name Bridie. My brain kept autocorrecting it to Birdie. Which then was weird when her nickname was Bride. All in all, a quick, easy read!

Genuinely did not think this would be all that great, especially because brit rom coms don’t really do it for me (sorry british people!!!) but omg the banter in this was SO good. I loved the back and forth and the obvious fact that bridie (why is that even a name?? i kept calling her birdie) and ben wanted to bone each other was so fun to watch unfold. The side characters were fun too! All in all, very cute and fluffy.

The book had a very promising start, the first scene itself was hilarious and I couldn't help the chuckles that escaped at Bridie’s embarassment. I was immediately hooked by the fun interactions between Bridie, Cal and Hattie. From the description, I admit I expected this book to be a string of clichés grouped together, but I was absolutely wrong and I’m so glad about that! It’s witty, fun and original. By putting hilarious twists and developing quirky relatable characters, the author has taken a tale as old as time and made it her own. The book is heart-warming, charming and so cute that it’ll melt the hardest of hearts. We see two kinds of love that blossom in this book, one being of Hattie and Cal who are the soulmates of my dreams, the second is Bridie’s romantic struggles as she tries to find a boyfriend by going on twenty dates (spoiler alert: she succeeds!!). Reading this book after a long day, with a cup of coffee in my hand was one of the best cathartic experiences I’ve had.