ARC given in exchange for an honest review.

The Love Plot by Samantha Young

The Love Plot is a grumpy/sunshine fake dating story. This book sucked me in from the first page. Star is an easy going free spirit whose only goal in life is to be happy. So when given the opportunity to fake date a grumpy stranger in exchange for the money she needs to travel she takes it, despite having no experience with being in a committed relationship. Rafe is a serial monogamist who just wants to be single and focus on his growing veterinary practice without his family trying to push him into a relationship. He decides a fake girlfriend ending in a bad break up should buy him some time from it.

First off, let me just say Rafe is everything. The fact that Young wrote the grumpy hero without making him an overbearing alphahole was refreshing. I loved everything about his character. Star prides herself on being this kind easy going person but struggles a bit with who she really is and who she wants to be when put into new situations. I'm sure there will be some debate over how she acted vs how she claimed she would act if put in these situations. But if think that's what I loved about it so much. The fact that sometimes a string of small decisions can have as much of impact as making one big one.

Overall this was a solid story with great characters and a different take on these tropes. This is up there among my favorite of Samantha Young's books.

This was a fun, opposites attract, fake dating story that gets a bit TOO steamy later on and caused the last part of the book to drag a little bit.

Samantha Young can do no wrong whether it be writing a steamy and emotional romance or a romcom like this one. I devoured it! I love a fake dating trope and this one was top notch. I'm not surprised either because Samantha is a pro at writing romances that will make her readers swoon!

I have never read this author before, or a character with quite a free spirit like Star’s.

I adored this.

We have Star, who lives her life by her own rules- and maybe a little by those from her self-proclaimed “hippie” parents. Her greatest ambition is simply to be happy, and on that thought, I’m taking notes.

Sunshine-ey Star meets grumpy veterinarian Rafe at his niece’s birthday party (she’s dressed as Merida, one of her unconventional work gigs), and he immediately insults her.

What she does when they run into each other next still makes me laugh when I think about it. The result? Rafe asks her to be his fake girlfriend to get his mother and sister-in-law off his case. They’ve been thrusting eligible women at him like beads at Mardi Gras.

Add fake dating between two completely opposite people, and you get an absolutely perfect combination of spice, tension, and complementary characters who bring out the best in each other.

As far as outlooks on life, I loved seeing Rafe actually listen to Star, and I also enjoyed seeing Star’s healing and growth. The character development and slow-burn romance is simply perfect. I would listen to a course from this author.

I loved this, and will be looking to this author’s backlist! Rafe and Star are absolutely couple goals— I cannot get their lovely story out of my head. It’s stuck in the best way possible.

I am pre-ordering, and highly recommend that you do too!

This book started so strong. However, once the main couple was together, the male protagonist exhibited some troubling, controlling behavior. It seemed really out of character to the person he was at the beginning of the book. It was a sign of his love, but instead if came across as major red flags for his personality. Other than that major drawback, it was well written and patrons should like the story.

Rating: 4/5
Warnings: difficult family dynamics, parental abandonment
Steam: 3.5/5
Tropes: fake dating, grumpy sunshine, forced proximity, spicy cinnamon

Thank you to Berkley Romance for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. The Love Plot will be released on August 29th, 2023

Things I loved: Rafe was such a grumpy to Star's sunshine attitude. I really loved how Rafe did not take any of Star's bs, he knew her so well and communicated effectively. I loved how much Star was 100% herself and I loved her goal to just be happy. The book was such a trope filled book but it was done so well! The sweet pets. All the humor and banter kept me laughing. Well written steam.

Things I didn't care for: Star was so unkind to herself, we understand the backstory of why and we had some character growth...but I wish it wasn't all of a sudden near the end.

This might be my new favorite Samantha Young book and I can't wait to own it!

Love, love, loved this title! Some of my readers fell Young can be a hit or miss author, but this is definitely a hit! I can't wait to recommend it. My back-to-school teacher readers are going to love every minute of it!

I’m a huge Samantha Young fan, so this one did not disappoint. It has lovable characters, fantastic dialogue and nice spicy scenes. All the things one could possibly want from a Romance.

This book was a fun o e to read and who doesn't love a good fake dating book am I right, anyways this book was a fun read enjoyed it alot

Cute and enjoyable! This is everything that the contemporary romance genre is nowadays - a meet-cute, a big city setting, reliable tropes, and a plot that has a good message.

However, I can't get over how many of SY's main characters are just a “copy and paste” of one another. The female leads are basically how I think SY pictures herself - young, free-spirited, and whose quirks are their entire personality. I didn't mind it in the first time around, but reading the same character traits over and over is getting kind of old.

That being said, I still really enjoyed the heart of this story. It's fun, entertaining, and has some swoon-worthy moments.

Dressed up as a Disney character for a child's birthday party, Star feels an instant attraction to a hot but grumpy guy (Rafe, the birthday girl's uncle) in the back of the room. When she steps out onto the balcony for a break, she bumps into him, only to have her cheerful friendliness rebuffed as he belittles her, her career, and her positive attitude. Star stands up for herself in a direct but unheated way, deciding there's no point in trying to make him like her.

But when she spots him during her other part-time job of line sitting, she can't help but needle him. And when he returns fire, he finally asks if she'd do anything for money. What Rafe offers her instead is $10,000 a month, for at least 6 months, to be his fake girlfriend and get his mother and sister-in-law off his back.

This fast-paced fake-dating romance contained some of the best communication I've come across to date. Star isn't afraid to banter and be silly, but she also isn't afraid to stop a conversation and call out unkind remarks, wrong assumptions, or nasty generalizations. She does so with compassion and grace, though: she has a way of calmly stating her feelings and pointing out the injustice of someone's words, while NOT putting down the other person for doing so. After Rafe gets past his initial annoyance with Star (largely driven by his stress in other areas of his life), he learns to listen and acknowledge how he can learn and be more fair in how he talks to or about others. This isn't to say that their communication was always perfect, but when they both took the time to be open with each other, it really added to their character growth.

Other good things about the book: good side characters, additional plot points (especially Star's family dynamics) to add depth to the characters, lots of humor, and the fun and passion they both brought to their intimate scenes.

One flaw to the ARC I received: the texts within the story largely fell to one side of my screen, and I missed the content of almost every single one. I was able to pick up the context from the rest of the story, but I feel like I lost a few bits of good dialogue. This doesn't affect my appreciation of the story overall.

4 solid stars (and maybe a little more).

Thank you, Berkley Romance and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Loved this latest Samantha Young. Free spirited, boho Star meets buttoned up tight veterinarian Rafe and they strike a deal that’s hard to pass up. Star will be Rafe’s girlfriend for 10K a month to get his over involved family off his case.

Fake dating never leads to real dating…right? Loved their grumpy v sunshine vibe and the spice factor rated at least 3 on the jalapenis scale.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars

A truly adorable, banter-filled romance. The Love Plot is a grumpy x sunshine, fake dating story with lovable characters and a hilarious storyline. The story follows Star Shine Meadows, a free spirit who has one ambition - to be as happy as possible. She is caught off guard by her intense attraction to surly veterinarian, Rafe Whitman. When Rafe hires her to be his fake girlfriend to get his matchmaking family off his back, the two opposites find that they may not be faking falling in love.

This book was a whole journey. I really loved how Samantha Young shook up the typical romcom structure and showed just how a relationship would work between these two opposite personalities. Rafe and Star had so much chemistry and their banter made me laugh out loud multiple times. This book just made me happy. It was fun and breezy with the perfect amount of angst. I immediately missed this cast of characters when I got to the end. I need a novella.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Berkley for the eArc.

This book unfortunately just didn’t work for me. I found most of the writing and dialogue stiff and contrived, making it hard to feel any real connection between the main characters.

However, I did like that this book casually included characters in a polyamorous relationship (Star’s best friends) as that’s not something represented in a lot of traditionally published books.

Fun and wonderful - among her best. Utterly readable and delightful with characters that are so well defined and articulated.

“The Love Plot” by Samantha Young is a grumpy-meets-sunshine fun story! I was a little hesitant because of the fake girlfriend trope but of course the author didn’t let me down.

The main character, Star, was so much fun! She’s a free-spirited, fun, happy person that I would love to know in real life. Rafe is just the opposite; he starts out so moody, but ends up being so supportive of Star that I just loved their story!

I’ve been reading Samantha Young for years and she’s never let me down. She’s such a great writer and her characters are so relatable!

Rating: 4/5
Warnings: difficult family dynamics, parental abandonment
Steam: 3.5/5
Tropes: fake dating, grumpy sunshine, forced proximity, spicy cinnamon

Thank you to Berkley Romance for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. The Love Plot will be released on August 29th, 2023

Things I loved: Rafe was such a grumpy to Star's sunshine attitude. I really loved how Rafe did not take any of Star's bs, he knew her so well and communicated effectively. I loved how much Star was 100% herself and I loved her goal to just be happy. The book was such a trope filled book but it was done so well! The sweet pets. All the humor and banter kept me laughing. Well written steam.

Things I didn't care for: Star was so unkind to herself, we understand the backstory of why and we had some character growth...but I wish it wasn't all of a sudden near the end.

This might be my new favorite Samantha Young book and I can't wait to own it!

3.75 stars

So i actually enjoyed this book a lot and was really into it! There were a couple things that kind of bothered me though. For someone who was all about being kind to everyone, I felt like she brought that point up a lot. Like, she was constantly reminding herself how kind and non-judgmental she was, which seemed weird. She also, even at the very end, made it clear that she would do whatever she wanted and go wherever she wanted regardless of what her SO thought of it. To me, this is super selfish thinking. While obviously a relationship shouldn't change the important aspects of your person, it is important to be with someone who supports you and also to be considerate of their feelings, just like you want them to be considerate to you.

I meant to read a few pages over lunch, and ended up zooming through this delightful novel through the afternoon. The fake dating premise is a trope that often promises fun; the author's spin was to pit sunshine against grumpy.

Sunshine: Star Shine Meadows, daughter of hippies, who is happy with her life, sketchy as it seems from the outside. She earns her rent by standing in lines for people, and playing characters for parties and events. She doesn't believe in marriage, or careers.

She meets Rafe, who is grumpy and rude because his mother and sister-in-law will not stop trying to matchmake him. Of course he's the whole package (hot and rich) or this wouldn't be a romance novel, but he's a veterinarian!

He hires Star to ward off his family for six months. Some of their early encounters are hilarious. I think Star is probably my favorite romance heroine so far this year--she's funny, sweet, but she's got a spine. What's more, she catches herself spiraling, and tries to communicate. As I loathe with a passion the easy to write but annoying to read "grand misunderstanding" that keeps conflict going, I welcomed with relief the way that every time Star and Rafe hit snags, they talked. Even the inevitable-these-days Big Climactic Moment near the end wasn't dragged out because these two got right up into each other's faces and talked it out.

I loved the side characters, and also the way we slowly learned why Star is the way she is--and what she does about it. Such a fun book. If the rest of Samantha Young's books are this smart, and funny, and kind to the characters who are trying to redeem themselves, she will go to my insta-buy list.

I enjoyed the central romance and learning about Star's unconventional jobs. I believed that the characters were falling in love, and the supporting characters charmed and infuriated me at times.

I am not a fan of the illustrated cover. I prefer the covers of the author's earlier books.