Like a lot of other reviews have mentioned, I don't think I would categorize this as a romance book. It's more a story of a woman really finding herself and going for the "what if's" instead of staying in the safe zone. The "real love" was her learning to love herself (cheesy, I know) and putting her wants and needs before others.

I didn't know what to expect since this is Rachel Lindsay's debut novel - but I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope she continues on the story!!

Real Love is an opposites attract romance that is just as much about Maya finding herself and what happiness really is to her as much as it is a fun romance. I love how she included a Bachelor inspired reality tv show, and thought her tight group of girl friends and sister really brought Maya into her own and were pivotal in her finding herself. I also love how she learned to lean on her sister and found a new relationship with her as an adult. I did feel like the story was a bit redundant and told more than showed if that makes sense. Overall it was a good read, but didn’t WOW me.

This is a cute romance written by Rachel Lindsay, the first black Bachelorette on the popular reality show The Bachelor.
In this book, Maya turns down the offer to be the Bachelorette and suggests one of her friends, who finds love on the show. Maya has other goals, she wants to be a managing director at her financial firm.
As Maya looks at her friends, and her sister Ella who travels on a whim, she wonders if she’s on the right path after all.
I liked the growth Maya experienced, but the romance felt awkward. I’d love to read a fictional story about actually going through the reality show and finding love.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

DNF
Big fan of the author and thought that I'd love the premise but couldn't get into it. I'm going to keep it on my shelf for now and come back to it another time to try again!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

This book was a really fun read. The voice was witty and sharp. I love the relationship between Maya and her friends and Maya and her sister. My only issue with this one is that it was marketed as a romance, and it is not a romance. Maya is with her ex for the first quarter of the book. We don't meet the hero until we're a third of the way into the book. I think marketing this book as women's fiction would have set expectations better and wouldn't have left me feeling a little let down.

This was good, but not great. I wouldn't consider it a romance; it's definitely more women's fiction. Some of the characters and their decisions really irked me and it was hard to look past that at times. The book started slow and picked up a bit towards the middle. Overall, an ok read if you want a book about a woman who finds herself and realizes more of what she wants with her life.

This was an entertaining read of a successful young business woman, at a crossroads in her life, deciding if climbing the corporate later is what she truly wants or is it what is expected of her. Family dynamics, close friends, and a new love interest, all play a role in her introspection. When at last she has four different directions that she can go, she must be true to herself, and follow her heart!

The cover makes it seem like contemporary romance, but it isn't. It's more like women's fiction, focusing on a woman discovering what she wants and who she wants to be - partly as a result of her best friend's experience as the lead in a reality TV show (very similar to The Bachelorette). While there is love involved, it is missing a lot of the normal tropes that would make it a romance (like a clear happy ending). Ambiguous endings are something I don't like, and the fact that this book has that definitely lost it a star in my rating. The ending also felt rushed to me. In general though, I liked it. Largely because of the side characters - Delilah, Ella, and Bailey. It turns out to be ghostwritten by Alexa Martin so I'll definitely be reading her books (published under her name) since I liked her writing. Thank you to Ballantine Publishing for the advanced e-copy.

Maya is a serious finance professional living in Miami who is invited to be the lead on “Real Love” (aka The Bachelorette); she turns it down and her best friend Delilah does it instead. But watching Delilah from the sidelines makes Maya question her own life choices, particularly putting her career ahead of finding love. The novel follows Maya’s evolution to figure out what she really wants in life, and while I liked it, I didn’t love it. There was just enough of “Real Love” to be a tease, but not enough to satisfy; this book is written by Rachel Lindsay, real life star of The Bachelorette, and I expected some juicier details about how the show works. Meanwhile, I found Maya’s personal evolution a little bit cliched and unrealistic, and some of the characters were caricatures (e.g., Maya’s flighty and idiotic little sister), which made it hard to take seriously. Overall, this missed the mark for me, but I think it was in large part because how of how it’s billed (a romance about a reality show) instead of what it was (a self-discovery book where there was a very peripheral side plot about The Bachelorette).

I really wanted to absolutely love this one, and unfortunately it fell short of the mark for me.

With Lindsay’s experience, I expected more. I was hoping for more of the romance aspect, since she and Bryan are living their own epic happily ever after. Instead, I got a story that was more women’s fiction, more self-discovery. Which is fine, but it just wasn’t what I wanted or needed from this story.

Overall, it was cute. Low steam. Thought the ending was kinda rushed. I did enjoy the BTS of reality tv. Basically I just wanted more.

I really enjoyed the dating show aspect of this story, It was weaved beautifully thought the entire book. It was less a romance book and more a woman’s journey to self discovery. The level of spice was almost fade to black scenes for the most part. The ending felt meh and unfinished to me. It felt as if it was almost left open on purpose kind of like the choose your own adventure. This was an ARC and I’m voluntarily leaving this review.

This was such a treat!!! I immediately requested this novel when I first saw it because I loved Rachel Lindsay when she was on the Bachelorette and thought the description sounded incredibly fun. I have not read her other book, Miss Me With That, so I didn't know what to expect in terms of her writing but this novel was an absolute delight to read. Lindsay's storytelling was impressive and I thought the pacing of the novel was perfect. I will highly recommend this novel to others and will be keeping close tabs on any future works by Lindsay from now on.

Finished ✔️ Real Love by Rachel Lindsay

4 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: March 7th, 2023
Kindle Unlimited: No
Reality TV love may look tempting, but real love could change everything.
Rachel Lindsay did a great job writing this novel
Really enjoyed the characters
It proves real love can happen
Beautifully written
Yes, I’d recommend

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Rachel Lindsay said she has always been curious about what would have happened if she had turned down being on The Bachelor. REAL LOVE explores that. The main character, Maya, is offered the lead role on a reality dating show, but she turns it down.

As a big Bachelor fan, I loved the reality dating show aspect. I also really liked Maya and appreciated the growth she made throughout the story. Maya has to navigate the challenges of female friendship and the pressures from family.

I wanted to feel more invested in the story, but it still held my attention.

REAL LOVE is about following your heart and forging your own path. An impressive debut novel from Rachel Lindsay!

There were things I loved and things I didn’t love about this book. The ending was my favorite part and I adore that Rachel wrote this book from a “what if” perspective. What would her life look like if she didn’t decide to be the lead on ‘The Bachelorette’? I think it’s smart to know a bit about Rachel before reading this, to have an understanding about her values and some of her journey. I’m really glad I read her memoir before delving into this so that the parallels made sense. This shouldn’t be marketed as a romance because that’s such a small part of the story. In fact, I was a little annoyed that so much of the book seemed to be about her falling out of love vs. enjoying what she has right in front of her. So much is happening in this book that it refreshingly reminded me of real life! We’re constantly being faced with choices about our family/friends, love life, career, housing, etc. However, sometimes this made the book feels a bit disjointed. Overall, I enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it!!

I have been a fan of Rachel Lindsay since we first met her on The Bachelor, so when I saw she had a debut novel coming out I had to know more.

Real Love did NOT disappoint!

Maya Johnson had her perfect life planned out: get the promotion she’s been working toward and marry her college boyfriend. Then things took a turn.

All of a sudden Maya is questioning what really makes her happy and realizing her perfect life may not be what’s right in front of her.

Maya was such a likable character and I was rooting for her the whole way through.

I sincerely hope Lindsay doesn’t stop here because this book was THAT good.

Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhousepublishing for the E-ARC.

I love Rachel lindsay so much. As one of my favorite bachelorette leads and bachelor contestants, I had high hopes that this book would somewhat resemble her experiences on the show due to the blurb. It didn’t and overall fell somewhat flat.

This book was 2 to 2.5 stars for me. I liked the premise but the execution didn’t hold here. Maya waffled on her choices too much.

When I first heard that Rachel Lindsay was writing a novel I was BEYOND excited. I was a huge fan of her season of the Bachelorette and absolutely LOVED her memoir. She is a no-nonsense tell it how it is kind of chick and that resonates heavily with me. That said, I was pretty disappointed with this book.

The writing fell a little flat at times, the dialogue wasn’t that enticing and honestly for a book called “real love” there is an insta love component that skipped over all the best parts of falling in love- the tension, the sizzle, the little moments that bring two people together. It was boring and just not what I expected it to be.

I did appreciate the diversity present in this novel and the fact that it showcases that life doesn’t end at thirty. You can still start a new romance, pick a new career or finally take that leap into the unknown.

This one just wasn’t for me but I’ll still keep a lookout for her next one.

Rating: 2.5

This was a fun romance that focused more on finding yourself and what you want in life through examining your own expectations and those of the people around you. There were great friendships and family relationships that provided depth to the protagonist and her priorities and internal decisions. I did feel the ending was rushed and not as developed as the earlier parts of the book, but would gladly read more fiction from Rachel.