This is just like Notting Hill!

I love seeing classic romcoms being retold in a fun way in books, and this was definitely one of them! The story is told from the perspective of Aubrey Barned (no, not the Barnes from Barnes and Noble) and how he navigates a relationship with a C-list actor that is shooting a rom-com in London. This story was very sweet and Aubrey is a very cute and self-concious character, contrasting for the confident, i-know-what-i-want character of Blake.

Things I like:
-The Notting Hill vibes but make it mm
-Actor falls for a bookshop owner, love that
- All characters are very well developed
- I like the general story
- Love how it's set in London

What I didn't like as much:
- So very fast paced, and I love fast paced. They just fell into the relationship very quickly
- Aubrey apologizes very quickly, doesn't stand up for himself. I mean, I guess that's his character but I would've loved it if he fought for himself.

Overall, I do recommend this book if you're a rom-com lover that enjoys movies like Notting Hill with a twist.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the earc in return for an honest review.

Review of An Unexpected Kind of Love by Hayden Stone
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Calling all romance lovers! If you love earnest movie stars, delightfully awkward bookshop keepers, sassy coworkers, and ride-or-die best friends, then An Unexpected Kind of Love by Hayden Stone is the book for you. Aubrey Barnes is a gay bookshop keeper who lives in the tiny apartment above his bookshop in Soho and spends nearly all his time working. He can’t imagine living any other way. That is, until he meets American actor, Blake Sinclair, and the two begin meeting over and over again until they find themselves entangled in a whirlwind romance.

This book is delightful. It’s packed with sweet and hilarious moments with surprises around every corner. However, there are also more serious topics included in the story. Stone includes a content warning at the beginning of the novel that warns readers about sensitize material such as mentions of death and illness of a parent, homophobic parents, a forced outing of one of the characters, internalized homophobia, alcohol use, and a possessive ex. This content warning page at the beginning of the book is a useful text feature because it allows readers to either prepare themselves to read further or to choose not to read the book if it’s going to trigger them.

Overall, I think this book is hilarious and I adored Aubrey as the point of view character because it was fun to get a glimpse inside his head as he navigates the bizarre realities that come with falling for a celebrity.

I had a lot of fun reading this and devoured it within 24 hours. This book is the first of the When Snow Falls series, so I’m excited to see what Hayden Stone will write next.
5 out of 5 stars.

The adorable cover and fun premise hooked me but overall I was unimpressed with this one. The writing was awkward, the meet-cute wasn’t all that cute, the MCs and side characters were all kinda boring, and certain scenes and dialogue just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Lots of parts felt to me like it was trying too hard to be cute or clever, and the chemistry between the MCs felt forced because I’m honestly not sure what they initially see in each other beyond the lust. It’s not even the insta-love I take issue with; I can totally get behind a case of insta-love no problem. I just didn’t understand what made them pursue one another.

The book is emotionally effective at many points, but some of the drama feels a bit contrived. One specific problem I had with the story was this: at one point, Blake stands in the middle of a busy train station and plays a love song on a guitar to Aubrey and then kisses him. Publicly. People gather and watch and applaud at the end. Then later he’s upset at being outed by a tabloid using pics of him with Aubrey. THIS. MAKES. NO. SENSE. Someone who is afraid of being outed - and a celebrity at that - does not go around making grand romantic public gestures. Pick a lane, dude. And frankly, after how Blake responds to the tabloid outing, I couldn’t really root for them to be together anymore. What he did to Aubrey wasn’t really a sensical or reasonably forgivable transgression.

Would it be rude to say this feels more like a first draft? It could be really good with some tweaking. I feel like there’s potential here for an excellent book. One bright spot was that Aubrey reminded me a little of Luc O’Donnell from Boyfriend Material* (which he even references later in the book.) Aubrey’s self deprecating sense of humor was pretty charming (except for when it devolved into self pity). I think this will be a perfectly fine read for many people but it just didn’t work for me.

*This book seems to dance a little too happily in the shadow of Alexis Hall’s work, especially Boyfriend Material. Aubrey is self-defeating Luc, Blake is ethical vegan Oliver, Lily is work crisis-plagued Bridge, etc. And like Oliver does to Luc, Blake breaks up with Aubrey very unexpectedly.
It also feels like the author’s incorporated several major elements not only from Hall’s Boyfriend Material but from Hall’s Pansies and Waiting For the Flood as well, if I’m completely honest - with multiple similarities to each. I know romances can be rather paint-by-number and tropey but the parallels to Boyfriend Material and all the other of Hall’s books just feel even more suspect after that mention.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the ARC.

Something I wasn’t aware of before starting this one is that it’s loosely based on Notthing Hill, and seeing as Notting Hill is one of my all time favourite movies, I was in for a treat. I’m also a sucker for the ordinary person/famous person trope as well as the grumpy/sunshine trope, so there really weren’t many aspects of this book that didn’t work for me.

From the start the book showed strong characters with distinct personalities, Gemma and Aubrey. They had great chemistry in the first chapter, but towards the end it felt like Gemma was kind of showed aside for Blake to shine, which was a shame since her character was really intriguing and I would've loved to get to know her better.

When Blake was first introduced, I wasn’t 100% sure that he was the main love interest, nor was I sure that I wanted him to be, seeing as the characters had met beforehand, off page. I wish their first interaction/look at each other would’ve been showed in at least a flash back, not just in passing. I also found the way Blake introduced himself the second/third time around in the trailer to be weird - «I’m Blake Sinclair. I act and sing and dance», like go off with the triple threat, but it was unprompted and kind of just showed in my face, and I wasn’t sure if it was meant to come off as funny or shallow or charismatic, so I was just left feeling weird about it.

My favourite thing in this book was the Notting hill easter eggs, and every time I found one I got way too excited, I think the Horse and Hound reference especially was a nice touch. The best thing was that even though some elements from the movie was taken it was not overwhelming, and there wasn’t really any point at which I with certainty knew where the story was going.

I loved Aubrey’s clumsiness and lack of filter, it was a great contrast to Blake’s seemingly perfect self. I think their getting together was kind of rushed, and I was half expecting chapter 10 to start with a «1 year later» where they had unexpectedly had a falling out just to build dispense and drag it out a little, especially after their date which felt like a fever dream.

For far too long in this book Blake felt too perfect to me, he could sing, dance, act, cook, play guitar, he has a marketing degree, he was great with plumbing? He didn’t really feel like his own character as he more felt like someone perfect for Aubrey that could solve all of his problems (which he ultimately kind of did?). It wasn’t before like 75% percent into the book that he started to feel more human, but even then I wished we could get to know him better.

Overall this book was a quick, fun read, and it taught me more about beans that anyone ever has.

OMG! This book was such a masterpiece of queer romance 😍
I loved the characters so much, Aubrey and Blake stoled my heart! They were such true and realistic characters. The book had also the perfect ammount of angst, not too much and not too insignifficant.
Fully recommend it to the fans of the genre!

5+ sweet stars

~ I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own ~

Yes! I loved this book. In my opinion this was a different take on Notting Hill (film) with a few important changes such as this was a m/m love story.. And yes, I totally recommend the film too. Aubrey, bookshop owner, and Blake, a C listed actor, had a meet cute several times in one day. Over the next two weeks they fell for each other as the movie used Aubreys bookstore for some of their scenes. All we know as a reader was that film was a rom com and they needed a bookstore in London. The side characters were okay but I especially loved Ryan and Lily. I want a story about Ryan since he was such an interesting character. The relationship between Aubrey and Blake’s was center stage for the story and eventual conflict. I didn’t understand the conflict but it was a minor inconvenience that was resolved by the end. I liked Aubrey and Blake and thought they were cute together. The epilogue was adorable and wrapped up the story very nicely. Overall, I loved the story, if you love a cute rom com m/m love story you will enjoy this.

I received this ARC from the publisher and Netgalley for my honest review and opinion. Thank you!

I know author, Hayden Stone and I am delighted and proud to be able to provide an unbiased review of his debut queer romance novel. This is the kind of book that fans of the genre are going to love.

I loved bookstore owner Aubrey Barnes from the moment he first appeared in this book.

“There are two kinds of people in the world: people who put things away as they should, and arseholes who shelve books with no respect for the alphabet.”

As someone who spends my days working in a public library – I fell in love with Aubrey the moment I realized how grumpy and hilarious he was going to be. In addition to being beyond particular about where items in his bookstore are shelved, Aubrey is intelligent, funny and quirky. I immediately loved the banter between him and his assistant/ friend Gemma.

A chance encounter in the bookstore, a coffee accident down the road… Aubrey just keeps running into the same handsome man – even though he doesn’t want to. What Aubrey doesn’t know at first, because he’s not the least bit interested in something as trite as Hollywood, is that the handsome young man, he keeps running into is actor, Blake Sinclair.

Blake’s got a supporting role in a new flick that is filming down the street from Aubrey’s bookstore. When the crew discover what a great location the bookstore is, they want to film there! Naturally, adorably grumpy Aubrey isn’t interested… until he is. After all, running a bookstore these days is difficult and Aubrey has never really known much about marketing.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the way that the relationship between Aubrey and Blake progressed. Okay, they were clearly attracted to one another from the moment that they met but I genuinely felt as though I was getting to know them as they got to know one another.

This book isn’t all sunshine and puppies; Hayden Stone touches on some modern issues: being outed by the media, long distance relationships, financial woes, and homophobic family members. The story doesn’t get way from Stone and the plot never gets bogged down in the issues which I appreciate.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book!

This book was pretty fun to read. It had a lot of Red, White, and Royal Blue vibes and had really fun characters. Blake's character was really interesting and relatable, and while I couldn't really connect with Aubrey at first, the way he was brought out of his shell. The other side characters seemed insignificant at best and didn't play as large of a role in the story as I thought they should. The plot itself was a little dry, following the simple Rom-Com format without taking enough creative liberty to delve from that formula. The falling in love montage was interesting in this book and the events they went through while falling in love were fun to read.

In the end, the book just didn't have anything too special, especially since the writing style seemed really bland, but it was interesting to read. 3 stars.

Thank you netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for a review.

Gay book-seller?? Um yes please. And he's an old soul in a 23yo body, so I relate a lot.

This is a cute rom-com, fun and easy to read.
And a big yes to men sending each other flowers.

Love it, love it, love it! A skeptical British bookstore owner. A charismatic American actor. Cute moments. Witty banter. A heartwarming queer rom-com.

I just wanted to read one or two pages to see what this story looked like. I wasn’t planning on devouring the book immediately. But in the end I did because I loved Aubrey from the moment I read the first sentences. I immediately grinned about his annoyance because arseholes shelved books in the wrong section (The song for Achilles in Romance instead of General Fiction) and with no respect for the alphabet.

‘Most people have some passing familiarity with the alphabet before they start school. And A is the first letter they should learn if they pay any attention at all as a four-year-old.’

Aubrey is grumpy and cynical, self-conscious as hell and only living for work since his break-up with Eli. Until he meets Blake, who’s such a bright light and makes Aubrey live again. I loved their banter about beans, and I swooned over the Crossfire moment! I even put the song on while reading 😂.

Although the instant attraction was a little too fast for my liking, I adored the story. This is a book to read on a lazy Sunday afternoon or on holiday, laying on the beach or by the swimming pool, or just sitting on a quiet veranda. The writing is simple but effective. Blunt but charming. So fitting to Aubrey’s grumpy and sweet character. It made me soft and smile and long for more. I’ll definitely read the next book of this series! Hayden Stone, thanks for this cute debut! Just what I needed after a stressful week!

I received an ARC from Entangled Embrace and NetGalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you Entangled Publishing and Netgalley for sending me an ARC of the book!

An Unexpected Kind of Love by Hayden Stone is a really enjoyable romance. The story was easy to follow but still written beautifully. I absolutely adored Aubrey and Blake. Two men that seem so extremely different at first glance but are a lot more alike beneath the surface. You have Aubrey, an introverted bookseller and then there is Blake. An up-and-coming actor. There first encounter is absolutely gold and it gets even better from there!

The banter and dialogue between them was great and I loved reading their scenes. There were also other fantastic characters that I absolutely adored. I did feel like the main conflict was a little forced. I thought Aubrey was a great main character and protagonist. It was a joy reading his story, thoughts, struggles, etc. I loved reading this book and can't wait to read it again in the future!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.