Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The first novella in Dani McLean's Movie Magic Novella Series, "Midnight, Repeated," was kinda disappointing. Therefore my expectations for the second novella, "Not My Love Story," were low. However, I did look forward to reading it after I'd read the synopsis.

Like the first novella, this was also told in the third person. However, even when a book, in this case, a romance book, is told in the third person, you can still tell which half of our couple is the "main character." In "Midnight Repeated" it was Lauree, and here in "Not My Love Story," it's Harrison. I noticed the same pattern in McLean's writing how she never has an equal balance of character depth for both of her main characters. It's always only focused on the other half of the couple despite it being told in the third person. I've read a lot of romance novels (and novellas) that were told in the third person and they didn't have this problem. As a result, the other half of the couple was just...there. It was the case for Max in "Midnight, Repeated," and it's the same case with Hayley here in "Not My Love Story." It's such a pity too because Hayley seems like an amazing woman. I would love to get to know her more. I'm aware that this is a novella and there's only a limited amount of room to do that but, as I've said before, I've read other romance novellas that didn't have this issue.

Harrison reminded me of Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally..." but make him a little more narcissistic. I don't have a problem with his cynicism (can't really blame him), but he did a full 180 by the time he's realizing his feelings for Hayley. He's almost like an entirely new person. It didn't feel natural. The execution was...bad(?).

Other than that, I really love the plot of this novella. It had so much potential and I think this would make a great novel instead of a novella. I mean, a second-chance romance forced proximity about two screenwriters who are forced to write a romcom??? Sign me up. I love the fluff that happened in the book and I would love to see more of it. Hayley and Harrison were both amazing characters. I also loved the "epilogue" and I wish we could've seen what happened to their screenplay.

Thank you to Netgalley & Dani McLean for an advanced copy of this book!

This is a fun quick rom-com that I did wish was just a bit longer! I loved the building chemistry between Harry & Hayley and how he started opening up more, even to us as an audience.

It cracked me up all the romance tropes that just kept happening to them 😂 all the girls in the coffee shop was one of my favourite moments. And it’s very meta for them to be writing a story that is basically what’s happening to them. It did get a little cheesy at the end but it did kind of fit in the story.

The spice was very well done too, again I just wish it was longer so that there could be more! Not sure if I would read it again but a good, quick read for romance lovers!

A modern fairy tale novella about a screenwriter stuck writing a romcom while living inside one with the girl of his dreams.
7/10 ⭐️
Tropes | Fairy Tale, Second Chance, Workplace
Heat Level | 🌶, open door, on-page
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Like Midnight, Repeated (Book #1, Movie Magic Novella series) Not My Love Story is a short and sweet take on the tropes of fairy tales set in a modern day fictional world.

This novella is told from the hero’s point of view and we see Hayley only through Harrison’s gaze. Luckily, Harrison is a character who may be a little grumpy and a lot judgy about romance, but his heart is in the right place. He’s also a bit of fresh air, in that we get an openly bisexual hero whose gender preferences are not manipulated as a plot point.

Instead, we see him wrestle through his attraction to a talented, wry woman who slipped through his grasp once before. At the same time, Harrison must accept that he’s part of the legion of people who dismiss romance as a genre and consider romance writers professionally inferior.

Part of the deal with this series is accepting that this world is magical and weird things will happen. In this case, Harrison seems to be trapped by an escalating series of the RomCom movie tropes he’s trying so hard to subvert in his own screenplay collaboration with Hayley.

The hard part about a novella with a solo POV is the other character doesn’t have a lot of space to feel as real as the one whose head we're in. Hayley seems pretty cool, from what we know of her, but beyond the surface we’re required to trust Harrison’s big heart eyes.

Both Midnight, Repeated and Not My Love Story are a nice pick for a quick sugar rush.
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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication Jan 3, 2023.

“Sometimes hope is as good as happiness, especially when we are striving for something we’re not sure we’ll ever have”
I absolutely loved this romcom novella !!!! A short story with the best tropes ever !!! If you know me, you know that I have a thing for grumpy/sunshine and one bed trope and finding them both in this romcom made me so happy and thrilled!!!
I couldn’t stop reading it!!! I felt like literally experiencing THE romcom when she has to make him change his mind about being in love and committing to someone … but at the end he already is !!!
Harrison and Hayley are beautiful and so fit together and reading about them gets you with goosebumps and the hope they’re gonna find that happy ending they both deserve … maybe together !!!
And the spicy times … so so worth it even if short !!!!
I’m so glad I had the chance to read this romcom novella and I truly hope the author has more in store for us !!
“Love is one of the most amazing experiences you’ll ever have … You can’t plan it or plot it or teach yourself. It just happens. Like breathing”

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Not My Love Story
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Part of Movie Magic Novellas
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Dani McLean
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Romance
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 3rd January 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 3/5

“Why don’t we strive to make reality more like a romance? Embrace the possibility of love at every moment? Why not let hope drive us and motivate us to find something truly meaningful?”

Have you ever watched a romance film and wondered to yourself how it would translate on page? Well, now you can find out. With Dani McLean’s Movie Magic Novella’s series, she takes our favourite romance tropes and writes them with the same magic found onscreen.

With Not My Love Story, you can expect the following tropes:
* Grumpy v sunshine
* One bed
* Work colleagues to lovers

It was a little gushy for my tastes. I am a natural cynic and whilst I do enjoy romance, my favourite part is usually the banter between characters. Thankfully this story did have some banter which counteracted what would have otherwise been an overly sweet story. 🥲

🧚🏻‍♀️

I enjoyed this but the writing style was weird. I've read the first novella in this series and was written very differently. It was also interesting having it be only from the mmc pov.

I received an arc through netgalley.

I read the first book in this series and it was pretty middle of the road for me, and I would say the same about this one. Harry and Hayley both felt underdeveloped - especially Hayley. I didn’t feel like I knew what was going on with them, and Harry was honestly confusing to me. I know that this is a novella so there isn’t a ton of room for development, but this one just didn’t do it for me. I found myself skimming parts as I was reading and was not invested in the story or the characters.

Not My Love Story is a sweet and spicy read that has so much to like is such a short and sweet read! It really hooked me and left me wanting more!

Sometimes LOVE will write itself… whether you like it or not.

Cynical screenwriter Harrison Kyle hates romance.

If hell exists, Harrison is sure it’s full of heart shaped chocolates and badly acted Hallmark movies on repeat. With a soundtrack full of whatever pop star is flavour of the month.

But if he ever wants to write his magnum opus, the studio has one final request: Write them a rom-com. Oh, and do it with Hayley Bennett, the sexy, smart Brit who wears her heart on her sleeve and takes joy out of arguing with him.

Whatever. It’ll be fine. Mix a few cliché tropes with some bland twenty-something leads, and they’ll be finished in a week.

But as hard as he tries, Harrison can’t escape the love in the air. Literally. A Valentine’s festival haunts his every move, gifts appear out of nowhere, women profess their affections in meet cutes he can’t avoid, and don’t even get him started on the flash mob.

It turns out there is something worse than writing a romance - living in one.

Is Harrison ready to become the hero of his own love story?

Such a fun, cute read. You do not need to have read book one to read book two.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

I don't remember the last time I gave 5 stars to a novella, told in 3rd person (no less), but this one was SO GOOD! The plot was really gripping, especially because it was movies related. The writing was so amazing that I completely forgot it was in 3rd person narrative.

I loved both Hayley and Harrison and their tension and banter. Harrison's personality and aversion toward love and romance were so well done! We all love a romance disliker being hit by it, or is it just me? Really really loved this one!

Such a quick read. Sweet and yet still spicy.

Love the banter but wished it was a bit longer. Unique plot.

“She was everything he’d ever hoped for and never believed he’d have.”

I loved this novella! I love the way Dani has this whole magical city where literally anything is possible. I cannot wait for the rest of this series!

This was about a screenwriter who doesn’t believe in love, who is being forced to write a rom-com with the woman, who writes love stories for a living, he let go six months ago after one magical night. I loved how this was written like a movie script with the descriptions of the scenes at the beginning of the chapters. It was set up like a movie. All the meet cites, and the Valentine’s Day festival, and now seemingly everything that could go wrong for Harrison did. And a book about screenwriters writing a love story who eventually fall in love. It was magic.

I loved that this was in Harrison’s POV. It’s different than the usual romance book, it’s generally a dual POV or the woman’s POV. But since Harrison doesn’t believe in love and is struggling, having it in his POV was absolutely the right choice. Hayley was already there, she already believed in the magic and in love. She was just patiently waiting for Harrison to get there.

Also I loved Hayley so much. She was the perfect match for Harrison. His opposite in so many way, but they were able to balance each other perfectly. She believed in him when he didn’t believe in himself. And she was so full of love and joy and Harrison needed her in his life for so many reasons.

“It was as if someone had turned her happiness up to eleven. She was radiant. What would it be like to harbor so much joy?”

I mean come on, he loved her so much!!

Thank you so much to Dani Mclean and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I cannot wait to for everyone to read it! It’s going to make a perfect novella for Valentine’s Day!

Honestly, I thought it would be a fluffy read. However, this was not how I envisioned this book when I read the synopsis. I think what I envisioned would've been much better than what we got. Anyway, after a while, things turned out okay I guess. After Harry got his personality changed🙄

I REALLY enjoyed this. So much that I just wanted more. Like Midnight Repeated, I just found myself wishing it was a full length novel 😭 The two MCs had a history and I wanted to know all about it, as well as reading about their present. That being said, Dani McLean is a pretty skilled writer to have readers so invested without detailed back stories!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this eARC of 'Not My Love Story' by Dani McLean.

This little novella was a beauty. I dont know if the author does little settings of the scene in all of their works but I absolutely enjoyed it in this novella and felt that it matched perfectly for the plot but also for context as a reader. The plot was light and enjoyable, a perfect read for any season on the year. I truly loved this romance and I would definitely read more by this author.

A hallmark writer and an A24 writer walk into a conference room to collaborate on a script. I wasn’t exactly sure in what direction this book was going to go in considering the two have hooked up in the past and now being forced to write a love story. Harrison and Hayley are very keen to their own writing styles and do not want compromise, however when Harrison begins to realize his feelings for Hayley run deeper than just attraction things begin to unfold.

I really did enjoy this book especially because of the cliches that they are forced to experience because of the Valentines festival. However, after a bit of the dance montages, forced proximity, and grand gestures it seemed to get a bit repetitive and I was kinda over it. Also, the movie that they ended up writing was almost essentially their story which was actually really cute. It was a quick cute read, definitely a fun Valentine’s Day novella!

I was going to wait a bit but when this book came to my mail I skipped all the others, I couldn't wait to read another of The Movie Magic Novella series by Dani McLean
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I really like how Dani McLean writes, her characters make me get into the plot by reading only the first paragraph
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Harrison is a movie scriptwriter who hates romantic movies but to finish the contract that ties him to the movie studio and to be able to write what he wants, he first has to do one last job, write a romance script with the woman who he has been avoiding for six months after a one night stand
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Harrison and Hayley are the perfect grump and sunshine, the bickering between the two is so much fun especially with Hayley laughing and questioning his apprehension for love and romance right in the middle of a city celebrating Valentine's festival
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I really enjoyed reading this book, it's a fun and sexy read that left me wanting to keep reading. But i hope there will be more stories like this one in Chance City
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Thanks to Dani McLean and Victory Editing group for give me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion

“So let me try. Give me ten thousand hours to prove my love to you.”

This was such a sweet book. I enjoyed the tension between Harry and Hayley. For someone who doesn't want nothing to do with romance, he sure falls hard. It was a great book.

This was such a great novella! It was a super quick read yet I did still feel a connection to the characters! I love when the male character is a cynic but falls for someone, such a fun trope!

I almost wish this novella was longer, but that’s partly my fault for enjoying slow burn romance so much. A sweet quick second chance romance that has well written scenes and characters.