This book was, unfortunately, not for me.
I enjoyed the adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, but other than that, there were too many negatives that prevented me to enjoy the book.

The “quirky” dialogues between the two sets of MCs seemed forced to me and the pace absolutely off. Even the adorable Yorkshire slang could not save that.

Most of all, however, I’m not a fan of neither toxic masculinity -like Cal being mocked for wanting to try a spa- and of criticising other people to make oneself feel better -like every time Juju gets criticised for being into make-up! First, I don’t know what Bridie and her clique have against MUA. Second: Guys! It’s 2021! I would hope we could support each other among women, even if we don’t share the same interests? Right? Apparently, not in this book.

Finally, Ben. Ben is a douche. I don’t know why you would expect me to fall in love with such a character. Honest, I don’t know.

In conclusion, this book really wasn’t great for me. Thank you, NetGalley, for the eARC for my honest opinion.

It’s very British, isn’t it?

This wasn’t what I was expecting and it went in so many ways I wasn’t sure of at first, but I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it and these characters. Super cute and charming! There were some iffy moments/dialogue in there that threw me off but I don’t have much else to add except that it was fun.

Thank u @ Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me by surprise, I loved Bridie and Ben and the unexpected pieces of Cal and Hettie were a really nice additional element. Hearing different stories within a group of friends, and each of it from a different angle added so much extra to the story.

The relationships actually felt real, the conversations and miscommunications have happened to nearly all of us and I found that very refreshing. Yes, some of the story was a little predictable but then what romcom isn’t nowadays?

The writing style was realistic, I loved the fast paced quick wit sarcasm of Bridie and Ben. From meddling friends to detective style sleuthing I would really recommend giving this a read!

Bridie has given up on love and in order to finally swear off men and dating for good, she’s decided to embark on a 20 dates in 20 days challenge, just to say she’s given dating her best shot.

But Bridie’s cynicism has to take a back seat when her best friend gets engaged and asks her to be maid-of-honour. Even worse, Bridie has to share wedding duties with the best man, and her nemesis Ben. Also the one-And-only-person to break her heart.

This RomCom is a quick, light read that’s perfect for summer! I loved Cal (a secondary character that was funny and stole each scene he’s written into) and Hattie - and appreciated that the secondary characters were so well developed.

Love at First Fight comes out this week - Aug. 5 🥳

Thank you to @netgalley and @ariabooks for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Enemies to Lovers is my absolute favourite trope, so I was very excited to read this story.

There are several genuinely laugh out loud moments and also some sweet moments in Love At First Fight. Sadly, there's also quite a lot of toxic masculinity from some of the men, particularly the lead male character. Don't get me wrong. I recognise Ben and Pete. They're the types of men I grew up around. Ben thinks feelings are too 'girly' to talk about, and spas are only for 'people with vaginas'. The problem is, every single time Ben said something like that, I became less and less invested in his story. It's just not an endearing quality and feels antiquated.

Meanwhile his younger brother, Cal, is either the most naive, or stupid person to ever set foot on earth. The situation he finds himself in with his ex feels conveniently placed purely for the drama, but it just doesn't feel authentic.

As for Ben and Bridie's declarations? While it's clear they'd long repressed feelings for one another, to go from hate straight to saying 'I love you' just felt a little simplistic and rushed. Overall it was an okay read, but there were too many annoying characters for me to really become invested.

*Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to give an honest review*

This is the perfect book for when you're wanting to read a classic romance book, with a bad boy and a good girl. The thing with this specific trope is that it's been overused so much that at this point it seems like there is nothing new at the table. But with this book, we got served. The book starts of with two people who're kinda obsessed with each other but hide that fact by some deadly precious banter and fake insults. And slowly this develops into a very adorable love story.

One thing that I've noticed with hate to love contemporaries is that as the couples starts to gave feelings, the banter just dies and is replaced by gushy-mushy ilys and imys. But the banter in this book is consistent and i have all here for it. And we also get some gushy mushy, so don't you worry. The smut scenes were also just perfect, as someone who doesn't enjoy very vivid smutty scenes, this was just the perfect amount of smut for me.

The side couples was honestly the star of the book though. The third act conflict, which i hate normally, in this book was actually done really well. I really enjoyed the final few chapters and the whole resolution.

And if you're a trope kinda person, I'm gonna list all the tropes in this book, in hopes to convince y'all to give it a read.
-bad boy/good girl
-second chance romance
-one bed trope
-forced proximity
-hate to love
-childhood best friends to lovers

A quick and light read that would be great to get you out of a reading slump. Love at First Fight is a modern retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, so it's no surprise I loved it! I read it in one sitting and felt immersed in Bridie and Ben's world.

Throughout her life, Bridie has constantly struggled with finding love and being disappointed by men. At the beginning of the book, you learn that she is on a mission of 20 dates in 20 days as a final last attempt to salvage her love life. Meanwhile, her roommate, Hattie, is smitten with Bridie's childhood friend, Cal. Bridie learns from him that his brother, Ben, will be returning from his gap year of traveling...and she's not so happy that he will be back in their hometown, thus back in her life.

There's history between Bridie and Ben, which leads them to be frenemies (from Bridie's perspective). The reader finds out a singular event from over 10 years ago has never been addressed, and now Bridie and Ben must work through their complicated friendship, not without some meddling from their friends and family of course.

I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Jayne Baker's writing style, and the humor throughout the novel. You could feel the tension and confusion both characters experienced and were cheering on their family and friends because you also wanted to also see them be together.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the ARC to read and share my honest opinions!

3.5 Stars. I’m a bit torn on this book, so I’ve created a pro/con list:

Pro: Enemies to Lovers – I love enemies to lovers so this will always be a winner for me

Con: An evil ex subplot – It’s 2021, can we make this subplot go away.

Pro: The setting – The book takes place in Yorkshire and even includes a hiking trek on the North York Moors, which I have hiked and it is absolutely gorgeous.

Con: The cover – I really do not like this cover because it says nothing about the story other than hint at the enemies to lovers aspect.

Pro: Bridie and Ben are an absolutely wonderful main couple. They had absolutely wonderful chemistry and I adore when a couple can’t see that they’re in love with one another and are just big dummies about it. I loved their back story and all their of there interactions were an absolute delight.

Con: Because of the evil ex plot involved the secondary characters Cal and Hattie, it required that we also follow their story. While I liked both Cal and Hattie, I did not need entire sections of text from their perspective. It made the book seem long and took away from my Bridie and Ben time. I’m not saying that they needed to be cut entirely but they needed to not be such a big focus.

Pro: The book is genuinely funny. There were many times that I actually laughed out loud. I could see some of the humor going over the heads of American readers, but I know enough British slang and speech patterns to find most of it very funny.

Con: Some of the banter crossed the line into racist, sexist, and homophobic territory. While it probably would have been accurate dialog for working class people in Yorkshire, it just isn’t needed and felt very out of place in 2021

Pro: It’s based off Much Ado About Nothing

Con: It’s based off Much Ado About Nothing

Overall the pros slightly out weighed the cons for me so I bumped the stars to 3.5. I honestly will probably read this one again because I did find it entertaining, but it had too many issues for me to rate it any higher.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria publishing for the ARC.

Bookstagram post coming August 3

What kind of name is Bridie? I couldn’t get pass the name, and the story wasn’t the greatest. It’s a fast read, but not worth it in my opinion.

3.5 stars
This was an enjoyable read, it was fast and very addictive and very funny at times, especially the shampoo stunt, it made me laugh a lot. I also liked the banter between our two main characters and the epilogue was perfect, it was very Bridie and Ben and it couldn’t have happened differently. Although I might add the time was kind off for me, but who am I to judge right ??
About the things it bothered me on this book, first it was Bride being very judgmental about other’s people life choices, especially Ben. Just because he sleeps around, he isn’t less of a person or a bad person at all. He is human after all, he has feelings and she was very harsh with him.
Secondly, the book had some pretty bad sexists comments that bothered me a lot and that was the reason I rounded to 3 stars instead of 4. Both men and women were making them, and it wasn’t that rare and also women degrading women irritates me a lot!! Other than that, Hattie telling her friends personal things about Bridie behind her back was another thing that downgraded this book for me.
Thirdly, the miscommunication trope isn’t my favorite, but that’s my personal opinion.
Ps: I didn’t know going into this book that it was a double romance story, I thought it was only Bride and Ben’s, but it’s also Hattie and Cal’s. The final 1/4 of the book was totally focused on them and our main “couple” was side lined.
Thank you NetGalley and Mary Jayne Baker for the opportunity to read this book!

Bridie was a sarcastic, cynic who acts like a furious cat around Ben, and Ben is a notorious bachelor, and they hate each other. Or so they say. Their history from back in high school hovers over them like a dark cloud that neither of them wants to deal with. His brother Cal and her bestie Hattie are getting married, but they also make this deliciously cunning plan to bring the both of them together, because Ben and Bridie are obviously delusional, and don't hate each other, and secretly adore each other.

There's nothing to hate about a rom com when there's a hate to love factor involved, a wedding, and a cool friend group who are trying to get two people who hate each other, but secretly love each other, together. The first half gave me such a good laugh - I thought the references were hilarious and the constant bickering between our two main characters was excellent. Bring on the bickering.

When I first started reading this, I was so happy. I thought to myself, finally, I've found that perfect, funny rom com for this summer, with great references and cute banter. This is it, this is my new fave. Unfortunately, it ended up not being the case.

What's peculiar about this is that we start off by getting invested into the hate to love aspect, but that quickly gets resolved, and then in the second half of the book we focus on their friends who are getting married, but something wicked happens that stop the wedding from happening, And then we mostly focus on that. Which was to me personally, sort of a let down. I loved Cal and Hattie, and I loved that they were basically Team Cupid in charge of getting Bridie and Ben together, but I felt like I had two separate books in one, and I was kind of more invested into the Bridie/Ben conflict. That part was fun and hilarious.

Overall, I think the second half is more focused on the plot, and some fights between the couples felt a little bit forced, especially the way they blow everything up, and then they would be like...oh, you're sorry, okay, no problem mate, love you. It didn't feel natural, it felt rushed and it kind of killed the mood for me.

Overall, I loved the first half, it was everything I wanted from a hate to love rom com, but I would be okay if the second half didn't exist at all.

What I wished for was more angst, more anticipation, more passion, more showing us hot the characters feel and process emotions...More romance in general. Just a tiny bit more of that.

In general, it's a fun summer read, and my rating lands somewhere between 3 and 4, but I am rounding it off at 4.

I really enjoyed this romcom. First off, the story line was perfect. I love a good exes to lovers story. I loved the chemistry between all of the characters and that there was more than one love story in the book. I also really enjoyed the cover of this book, it was perfect for the story! Overall, this was the perfect frenemies to lovers romcom and I really enjoyed it.

A cute rom com, which has two parallel tracks running..the lead pair Bridie and Ben have a past...with a good banter..
The story line is predictable but nonetheless enjoyable..
There is a lot of English slang used which I found it difficult to get into esp to begin with!!
I give this one 3.5⭐stars!

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first Mary Jayne Baker book I’ve read. I didn’t know what to expect when I start this book but it was enjoyable. The main characters were likeable but they felt very two dimensional. The book almost never mentions anything about the characters childhood save for their interactions when they were younger. The use of the word “bruv” annoyed me even though I know this book is set in England and it is just English slang but it doesn’t look right to read. Towards the end of the book the plot veered off in another direction and was focused on two of the side characters rather than the two main characters which I found a bit boring. This book is fast paced and enjoyable to read.

I’m not sure why this book is rated so poorly… I honestly really enjoyed this book and thought it was cute. It checked all the boxes for a frenemies-to-lovers type romance for me, and had me in tears laughing several times. Oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

I thought this was an overall cute rom-com! It focuses on childhood friends that reunite years later. I thought the plot was cute but overall the story fell a little flat for me. I’m giving it 3/5 stars.

The banter and humour in this story was very well done and the writing was good. So why did it take me so long to read this one?

The two parallel plots were engaging, as were the characters, but I took many breaks from this book. I truly enjoyed reading this book: it made me laugh, and the characters seemed real to me, but I suspect that apart from the quaint Yorkshire slang, and Ben and Bridie's hilarious slanging matches, I've been here before. The author did put a refreshing spin on some of the usual tropes to be found here, but the ending and resolution of Hat and Cal's dilemma felt a bit contrived and rushed. (A written confession - in these days of video recordings?)

I'm going to rate this one a 3.75 out of 5, rounded up to a 4 because this was well written, had lively dialogue and I did want to find out how all the conflicts would be resolved. My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy Mary Jayne Baker's books and this is no exception. It isn't the most unusual story line, and probably fairly predictable as it's loosely based on much ado about nothing, however it is beautifully told and the characters are very believable. The dialogue is witty and fast paced, and each chapter leads you to want to read 'just one more' before you go to sleep so you could be up late into the night.

Bridie and Ben have history. Ben stood her up for her prom without explanation. Since then Bridie's love live is abysmal and she is trying for 20 dates in 20 nights to cure her of wanting to date again! Now Bridie's best friend Hattie is marrying Ben's brother Cal. Bridie is the Maid of Honour and Ben is Best Man, and together they are organising the Sten (Stag and Hen) do. Can they put the past behind them and move on?

This is a perfect summer story. Non taxing and a fairly quick read.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4139740093

Bridie is cynic about love. Ben is a player. They have a past neither of them can secretly get over but they also cannot stand each other! Ben's brother Cal and Bridie's best friend Hattie are getting married. Being their right had man in the wedding party Ben and Bridie are stuck with each other and secretly everyone in the wedding party is #teamcupid in getting through their thick skulls that they're both in love with each other and only too stubborn to admit it. But will someones ex come into the picture ruining everyone's relationships and the wedding surrounding the whole book or will an unlikely pair form to save the day?

This was a classic enemies to lovers troupe. I enjoyed this book but I could have lived without one or two plot lines. I felt like at some point it just got a little too soap opera-y There was plenty of drama and scheming which is always fun. I couldn't get past Bridie's name. Is Bridie a real name? I kept reading at as Birdie instead. OVerall this was an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Love at First Fight is a rom-com about two childhood friends, Bridie and Ben, who are enemies to lovers (well, not really per se but it can be seen on the lines of that) They're all grown up and about to meet again after around ten years.

I absolutely adored the characters and the writing. But a lot of the plot fell into the realm of cliche - you could guess most of the stuff from miles away but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book.