In this whirlwind romance, Lizzie agrees to be her best friend James's plus one at his sister's wedding. She and James have been besties since they met at his parents' gym, where they both now work. In his desperation for friendly support in the face of his sister yet again one-upping him (with a marriage to a Wall Street bro with political aspirations), he lures Lizzie in by suggesting the wedding would be the perfect opportunity to impress his parents and grease the wheels of her application to be a gym manager. While Lizzie understands what James never could-- that his parents don't have any respect for her or her trashy origins-- the lure of taking a step toward her dream of opening her own gym is too strong. So strong that she gets drunk at the open bar for courage but winds up embarrassing herself in an event involving too many shrimp hors d'oeuvres and trapping James's parents between her legs to prevent them from walking away from her. She flees to the bathroom in horror and comforts another upset woman who's second-guessing her relationship. Lizzie gives a 10/10 drunken pep talk involving the woman's well-moisturized elbows and not settling for a man she doesn't love. The problem? That woman is Cara, the bride.

What follows is an equally messy series of events kicked off by Cara canceling the wedding and crashing with James while she gets her life figured out. In a convoluted combination of manipulations and lies, Lizzie ends up hanging out with Cara to appease James that his sister is getting her life together post-breakup while letting James think things aren't as serious between them as they are. Beyond the secrets everyone's keeping, Lizzie's struggling under the weight of their class differences and the fact that Cara's awful family is responsible for Lizzie's (abysmal) paychecks. We also see Lizzie wrestling with low self-esteem ingrained by her narcissistic mother, the same one who still expects Lizzie to pay all her bills and guilt-trips her whenever her help isn't as fast or convenient as she wants. That's how we find Lizzie, who prefers to hook up and keep things light, panicking over how serious her feelings are for a woman who seems too good for her and is likely returning to New York City to get her life back on track in the near future.

I appreciate the plotlines about toxic families for both Lizzie and Cara/James. It plays a direct role in how everyone's parents interfere in their lives for the worse, but it also means Lizzie, Cara, and James need to take a hard look at how it's playing out in their own behavior. They all have to look around, take accountability for some things, and learn to let go of some others that aren't serving them. Lizzie and James have to work on their friendship as much as Lizzie and Cara need to figure out their romance. And the queer energy everywhere is a 10/10. Anyone worth knowing in this book is queer, as it should be.

The romance is the weak point to me, though I didn't hate it. There's a nice buildup before they start dating, but it's all very fast and furious from that point on. A part of that is an inability to communicate in any serious way. They go into their relationship with a bunch of secrets both between themselves and from others, which isn't a great start. Then there's the fact that feelings catch fast with no follow-through conversations about what either wants from the arrangement, which creates an awful limbo. Both are uneasy but don't know how to find out what the other wants, and Lizzie doesn't even dare to interrogate her own feelings. It's a mess that resolves in a big blowout catastrophe of a scene that you'll have to read to experience yourself.

This is a story about queer love and believing in yourself. It's about found family and leaning on your loved ones to pursue your dreams. While I might not have been swept away by the romance, I'm here for those messages 100%. Thanks to Avon for my copy to read and review!

Average but engaging sapphic romance with secrets, misunderstandings, and toxic parents. Fun characters, cute story.

I wanted to love this book but I really couldn't;.. it wasn't for me but it was good to pass the time

Like any good romance - meet cute, wrecked lives, complicated relationships and a little cheesy.
A quick, easy read of found family, melting moments and just a great queer book.
Lizzie is recovering from a difficult childhood - a mother unable to provide stability or care, low self esteem and a need to feel "seen". Still covering her mom's bills, Lizzie is struggling. Determined to open her own gym one day - with the intention of providing a safe space for all, Lizzie struggles to submit her resume for a promotion at her job.
Her bestie, James, and his sister Cara shake up her life.
Loved it!
1 like

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I hate the miscommunication trope. It’s the worst. So that, coupled with the fact that I didn’t like Lizzie and wasn’t super invested in Cara or James either, just didn’t leave me feeling very excited about the book. I had a hard time believing that Lizzie and Cara were even right for each other to begin with. Overall it was a cute romance but didn’t excite me.

An atypical sapphic romance that is sweet and salty with two loveable leads whose chemistry sparks immediately and yet also have a believable buildup from first moment to fake relationship to actual relationship.

Lizzie has big aspirations of owning her own gym. For the moment, she is broke trying to support her alcoholic mom and herself, so she has to settle for just working at a gym. Here, she meets her bestie James, who is also the owner’s son. James talks her into going to his sister’s wedding as a plus one. At the wedding, she finds a girl crying in the bathroom. She gives her some awesome advice that she doesn’t deserve her boyfriend since he isn’t making her happy. It turns out, that was really Cara, Jame’s sister, and she ends up cancelling the wedding from the advice Lizzie gives her. They end up connecting and falling for eachother.

I don’t read enough LGBTQ+ reads and I enjoyed this one enough. There was nothing spectacular about it and it probably won’t stick with me forever. I enjoyed our main character, but not James or our love interest. Both of them were rude, to be frank. The plot was okay— lots of lies and drama. The writing was good enough.

You can’t convince me that Lizzie had never seen Cara before. I get that James and Cara lost touch, but you’d think Lizzie would have at least seen a photo of Cara SOMEWHERE. Or even a simple mention of her name? Especially since Lizzie and James spend so much time together AND Lizzie works for their family. This was kinda outlandish.

I do feel like some things weren’t hashed out like they should have been. Specifically, Lizzie’s situation with her mom. Her mom’s character wasn’t redeemed at all. Lizzie also never stood up to her draining mother either. Another thing that wasn’t completely hashed out was how awful James, Cara, and their family treated Lizzie during the 3rd act breakup. I felt like Lizzie deserved a bigger apology for the hateful things they all said to her. Frankly, Lizzie deserves better than everyone who has been placed in her life.

Such an enjoyable read!! I really liked this book and was so happy I was given the opportunity to read it here at netgalley. Made me laugh out loud multiple times.

I absolutely ADORED this book! It was so much fun. I laughed so much. I cried. It gave me all the feels. And it's the best romcom I read last year!

Lizzie is desperate for a promotion to gym manager, which is the only reason she agrees to go with her BFF to his sister's wedding. His parents own the gym, and a full weekend of activities should provide some prime time for schmoozing. But when Lizzie meets the most bountiful woman she's ever seen in the hotel hallway, gets drunk in front of his parents, convinces the woman in the bathroom she should dump her boyfriend, and later finds out the woman is the bride... well, things don't go according to plan.

I didn't finish this book. It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't drawing me in. It was taking too long to get going, and none of the characters were particularly likable. Lizzie was a bit of a hot mess with a depressing life and wasn't very fun to read about. I like to think the book would have improved had I continued, which is why it gets three stars, but it either wasn't the book for me or wasn't the right time to read it. Life is too short to keep reading when you don't want to.

Thanks to Avon for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars -6/10

Overall, I don't regret reading this book. However, I will say that it felt repetitive at times. I also think that the romantic feelings between the MCs here was a little too instant for me, but that may work for other readers!

Some real Meryl Wilsner Mistakes Were Made vibes with this one (on account of mistakes being made leading to a romance that is socially perilous, not the whole falling for your bestie's mom thing). I liked it quite a bit.

What happens when your dream job complicates matters of the heart? Lizzie is about to find out. She goes with her best friend as a plus one to his sister’s wedding. After she gives some advice to a woman in the bathroom, too late she realizes it was his sister and the bride to be who ditches her fiancé. Chaos ensues, but I rooted for everyone to find their HEA.
Thank you #avon and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

This was Jennifer Dugans first adult novel I believe and I can say she is just as good at writing this genre as she is YA. 11/10

This book was lovely and fun to read. Jennifer Dugan has such a particular voice for sapphic main characters and Love at First Set is no different. I will say, all of the secrets made me so nervous and filled with so much anxiety that I had to put the book down a few times (even though I didn't want to!) just to collect myself to keep going. I admired how the characters played off of each other and how none of them let the others get away with their BS. Will definitely be adding this one to my personal collection!

The book had a compelling beginning, yet my engagement waned after reaching the midpoint. Initially, there were plenty of moments that made me laugh, but eventually, the storyline delved into dramatic territory.

The breakup in the latter part of the book felt somewhat exaggerated, with both women appearing to avoid communication and evading their issues.

However, I appreciated the exploration of various relationships beyond Lizzie and Cara's, particularly their challenging dynamics with their mothers.

Overall, it was an endearing read, likely to be adored by many other readers.

Unfortunately, this book was a total miss for me. I didn’t love any of the characters and felt they were missing depth. It felt very YA to me with the messiness of the characters and the deals they kept making with one another. The book is told in single POV from Lizzie’s perspective, and I think we really needed Cara’s side in this one. Siblings James and Cara are both privileged beyond measure but don’t realize it. Despite being Lizzie’s best friend, James doesn’t provide very much support for her and uses her to constantly cover for him and mislead Cara. It really bothered me that neither Cara nor James listened to Lizzie when she described how crappy their mom was to her. I also felt that there were some toxic fitness habits described in some of the conversations between James and Lizzie. Overall, this one was just not for me.

This book opened strong, and overall, I really liked Lizzie, one of the two MCs. Her overcoming a rough situation, love of helping others improve, and self-education, self-supporting, and self-motivating attitudes shone through and made me root for her. The novel is written from her first person POV, and her reactions (internal and external) were great.

Unfortunately, no one else in the book was fleshed out as well, including her romantic interest, Cara. Their meeting at the beginning of the book was fun and had some chemistry – but the rest of the book is miscommunication and deception “for the plot” when, honestly, just watching the two of them fall in love while Lizzie struggles to apply for her dream job (and the two navigate their different forms of toxic parenting) would have been much more enjoyable.

Absolutely love this messy meeting that's just a disaster waiting to happen and the very strong, very beautiful found family that forms along the way. Absolutely brilliant.

I was really excited about this one but sadly, it fell a bit flat! I felt like most of the characters, and especially their parents, were incredibly immature. The book felt a little too chaotic for me and I couldn't get passed all the secrets and manipulation.

I'll definitely read more by this author but this wasn't a personal favorite.