I love workplace romance, so I was excited about Love Interest. Unfortunately, I found Casey to be irritating. I imagine others will enjoy this book. I will not be reviewing this book on my page.

This was sooooo sweet. I loved the tropes! Rivals-to-lovers, forced proximity! What more could one want? I'll definitely be recommending this to my friends.

Fun office romance. Cute story! Love Interest was a great debut. I'm looking forward to what Gilmore publishes in the future. Good for fans of the Hating Game.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this. Loved the characters, the work place romance was perfect. The story was easy to read and I felt invested in the characters. Cute romcom!

Workplace rom com and a great debut. Well-rounded and very likable characters, I enjoyed Gilmore's writing style a lot.

An adorable workplace romcom! This adversaries-to-lovers romance is perfect for fans of the Hating Game. I can’t wait to read other books by Clare Gilmore.

I loved everything about this witty, fall-in-love immediately, romcom. Gilmore's debut is well worth the wait (and the preorder).

Casey is all about the numbers and when she interviews for a new job at her company she learns the board of directors son has gotten it and she is upset and on principle hates him. Enter Alex he has no idea hes gotten the job she was wanting. He can't figure out why she doesn't like him. The more time they spend together he starts to learn why and she starts to stop hatting him and realizes he is perfect for the job. its funny to se him try to figure out but we already know the issue.

This was a great enemies to lovers, he falls first, romance office romance. And I LOVE she is such a strong smart woman.

This is a light fun read and it will pull at your heart strings!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I adore this book so much! I loved the characters, they were very likable and I was rooting for them the whole book. The plot reminded me of The Hating Game (love that book) and I think I enjoyed Love Interest equally or even more. I couldn't believe this was Clare Gilmore's debut novel! she seems like she has been writing a lifetime, I was really impressed and I will definitely be reading anything else she releases. Thank you Clare Gilmore, Net Galley, and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to receive an arc of this book.

Love Interest was an interesting book with two likeable enough characters, a workplace romance, and some corporate espionage/issues. I liked the male lead better because I feel like there was more to his backstory but I dont think we still got enough of him being able to heal. She was an interesting woman but i want way way more of her history, her backstory, her past relationships everything. It was all alluded to but not much delved into and it would have given her so much depth. Things like mentioning a grandma but then we dont meet her or know anything really about her at all. The love story was good, it made sense and wasnt too abrupt. I just think i wanted to know them more.

Love Interest is a debut novel that reads like a seasoned published author’s 10th book if that makes any sense! The writing is just sooo good; the pacing is perfect and the story just flows naturally. All of the characters are well thought out and portrayed with their own personalities and characteristics where you really feel like you know them all — and there are a lot of characters to love. I wish I could climb into this book and hang out with Casey and Miriam, Brijesh, Alex, and Casey’s dads. I love that Casey wears her heart and all her emotions on her sleeve and Alex is basically the complete opposite. Their dialogue is so well done, each character having a unique voice, and the banter is perfect. It’s a romance so it’s obviously about loving another person but it’s also about loving yourself, learning who you are and want to be by your own merit and without needing approval/acceptance from anyone else. The business drama was also a really fun/interesting storyline that I did not expect I needed in a romance novel but that really kept my attention. This book 100% had me up late at night and would have been finished in one day if I hadn’t started it at 10pm on a work night. I don’t even know what else I want to say without giving away spoilers but I just really loved this book and think that everyone should check it out🥰

🪴Workplace Romance
🪴Enemies to Lovers
🪴Found Family
🪴Only One Bed
🪴LGBTQIA+ Representation

I received an advanced digital copy from NetGalley like a week before this was published (in October) so I’m a bit behind but I voluntarily read and reviewed this and am so glad it was my first read of the new year💜🩵🩷

I truly look forward to whatever is next from Clare Gilmore and am thrilled to have found another author I love to read!

Love Interest was well-written and had good pacing. I enjoyed the relationships between the MCs and their friends and found that those relationships made both Casey and Alex more relatable. I loved the scene where Casey first meets Alex's friend Freddy at Sleight of Hand (great bar name!), then the ongoing adventure to the Karaoke Bar. The characters totally felt like real people I could be friends with and have fun!

I found that I liked each of the MCs individually, but that something was missing in their chemistry together. I could believe them as best friends who care about one another, but it was a leap once the romance kicked up between them.

Overall this was a good read, perfect for fans of The Hating Game, but with less focus on destroying the enemy.

Favourite Quotes:
"I'm dying to be wrong about you, Casey. You're not making it easy."
"You'll look as pretty tomorrow as you did the day we met."

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Clare Gilmore for an advance copy. These are my honest thoughts.

This is Clare’s debut which is A) scary, because what magnificence will she gift us with next?! B) rude, because we don’t have sixteen Clare Gilmore books to dive into right this second.

This book physically rearranged me while I was reading it. My heart? In throat. My stomach? Butterfly shaped. My eyes? HEARTS. I fell instantly for Casey, and when Alex entered the picture (LEANING, NO LESS) (you know exactly what I mean, While You Were Sleeping fans) it was game over. The banter and chemistry between these two were immaculate, and Clare builds a fully realized cast of characters around them that never feel distracting, but rather serve to make Casey and Alex’s lives (and life together) feel utterly real. Clare’s prose is warm and familiar and fresh; while I was reading, I felt like I was in a world I already knew, with people who were friends of mine. And while there are plenty of laugh out loud lines, they’re beautifully balanced with moments that made my heart ache. This story is about love, but it’s also about finding yourself, about *choosing* yourself, and so much of what Casey felt and went through resonated deeply with me. My ebook is riddled with highlights (41 to be exact).

It’s also worth noting that Clare made math romantic and beautiful!? Casey is a financial analyst and some of her musings about math—what it’s done for her in her life, how it’s made her feel—quite frankly choked me up. And for a girl who barely passed Algebra, that’s a significant win.

Bottom line: this is a book to be savored. You’ll get to the last page and feel like you’re getting in your car after a night with all the people you love. You had the best time and now that it’s over, you want to linger to keep that feeling just a little longer before you have to say goodbye to it. My heart is still aching thinking about it, and those are the kind of books that become my forever faves. Which, coincidentally, LOVE INTEREST is.

Thanks to netgalley and St. Martins Press for the early access to LOVE INTEREST.

I adored this book! A stand out debut from Gilmore, this was like a big hug. It had banter to rival Emily Henry, work place romance for two people who are working towards a common goal, and an exceptional supporting crew. I loved how relevant and timely it was without shoving it in your face. It had references for the current age but they were placed elegantly, so it wasn't cringy. Alex was so pure, and I truly adored all of the supporting characters.
Over all, this romance is not to be missed. SO much good - truly no negatives, I really loved this!

Thanks NetGalley for the free ebook! The review is my own.

This was super cute. I found the characters extremely relatable. My partner is ADHD and a lot of the same personality quirks he has, Alex has. I also share a lot of the same quirks as Casey when it comes to social situations. Furthermore I work in finance and crunch numbers all day. I hate it though haha. Numbers are hard and therefor capture my mind but not my interest. They keep me out of trouble. Casey though loves numbers and her job but feels forced into a creative direction to make other people more impressed with her. Alex and Casey both stumble through their personal traumas and dramas and try to make their lives make sense. The pacing was just a but slow for me and since it was so close to my daily life I kept comparing what could really happen and it brought me out of the story a lot.

This was a work rivals to lovers romance. The story follows Casey who works in the finance department, and after working at her company for a while, she thought she would apply for a project manager position that has just opened up. She feels really confident about getting the job, until the job is offered to the board chairman's son, Alex.

Everyone loves him, except for her. She hates that he got the job, because of his father. But things aren't always what they seem. And when they are forced to work on a project together, it all because clearer to her. There is more to Alex than being the boss' son.

While this story follows a very cliche plot, it also somehow talks about really important topics. It had a good amount of depth to it, and it really made you feel like you knew these characters well.

The book Love Interest was an enjoyable read. I would recommend any book written by Clare Gilmore. Happy Reading!

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely.

There was a lot of bookstagram hype and my experience was more indifferent than thrilled. 3,5 star rounded up.

An adorable New York romance. Casey is a numbers girl through and through, but she's excited to make a change when she applies for a project management position at her company. Unfortunately she doesn't get the job, and the man who does is irritatingly perfect. Alex, the estranged son of a board member, is looking to finally impress his father with a successful project launch. Despite some sore feelings, Casey agrees to help make the project a success. Along the way, she gets to know the true Alex. Of course feelings start to develop. It's just a temporary, casual thing though, right? Things are further complicated by stress about the company's future, and by what Casey sees in her own. But just maybe, they can make things work, if they really want it.

I read this one in one sitting. It pulled me in instantly. I loved Casey as a protagonist. She's very easy to relate to. She's intelligent, introverted, and curious. Alex is charming and attractive, but a much deeper character than what you see at first glance; perfect for a love interest. I shipped them from their first meeting. Their chemistry was fantastic. I liked the workplace setting, and the relationship developed at a great pace. It's a fun read, energetic, and full of heart. Would recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

dnf 16%. I really really wanted to like this book but I cannot for the life of me get into it. There were so much details about the Casey's job and literally everything else that I just kept getting taken out of the plot and dragged the story down. I really wish we would have had Alex's POV ask it may have made me more interested in their growing relationship. I also feel like I was lied to in the marketing of this book, because its was advertised as an adversaries-to-lovers book, but the rivalry had seemingly been resolved within the first 10% of the book and the pair were then fine with each other. This one just wasn't for me and I wasn't enjoying it so I stopped reading. There's a chance I'll return to it in the future, but for now I'm done.