Was a little slow and took some time to get into. I didn’t really ever get sucked into their story. I did enjoy Alex and Casey’s individual stories and the family dynamics they each had. They had great chemistry but there was a little too much work/corporate storyline that I found myself not totally interested in even though I know it played into their relationship.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely devoured this book. I LOVED it. A very cute workplace romance. I really enjoyed the plot of the book, it had me flying through the pages trying to figure out what was going to happen next. I adore Casey and Alex. The banter between them was AMAZING. I loved seeing their characters grow, watching them learn and accept themselves for who they are and realize what they deserve. I'm glad they found a home in each other, I'm glad they have each other♡

This book has a nice balance of fun and emotional. It had me laughing but also grabbing tissues to wipe my tears.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a workplace romance read filled with fun banter and an amazing plot that will have you hooked till the very end!

This book was an easy read and also fairly predictable. It did a good job of building the characters!

This book hooked me from the start. I love the author's writing style, and the characters were perfectly developed.
This is the story of Casey, who is trying to figure out who she is and what makes her happy. She wants to leave a legacy after her late mom told her that is what matters in life. She works in finance, but having artistic parents makes her feel like she needs to be more creative. So, she applies for a new job that is more on the creative side. She meets a handsome man in the elevator who makes her smile when she finds out she did not get the job. And who did? The handsome man in the elevator, who also happens to be the CEO's son. Therefore, she hates him. His name is Alex, and as they get to know each other, she definitely isn't feeling hate towards him anymore.
Alex says he doesn't do long-term commitment, and this shapes their budding relationship. What ensues is a wonderful journey of love, finding oneself, and acceptance.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read more by this author!

I love enemies to lovers but for the life of me, I could not get into this book at all. I’m not sure if I just felt disconnected from this corporate setting or what, but it wasn’t for me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Love Interest by Clare Gilmore is a work place, "enemies to lovers" romance. I put quotes around enemies to lovers because the enemies part didn't quite feel like enemies, and definitely not for long. I wanted to love this book and I was hoping for some The Hating Game vibes, but we never really got to that level. I feel like too much of the book is more focused on the work/workplace than it is about the romance between Casey and Alex. I did enjoy Case and Alex as the main characters, but kept wanting more. More fun banter. More romance. More "tension". This book also took me longer to read than normal, but I think that's because I'm used to a little more romance in the stories I read. Still a good story and one I overall enjoyed and give it a solid 3 stars.

This corporate romance is fabulous. There are so many topics touched upon and overall the author does a fairly nice job of incorporating them.
There are several themes including:
following your talents
taking risks
perceived nepotism
sexism
living in your parents' legacy
deceased mothers
estranged fathers
lovely gay fathers
old grudges
corporate politics
long distance romance
coming of age in your 20s/30s
ADHD
workplace romance
supportive friend groups

Did I give it all away? Not at all, because Gilmore has created two lovely main characters that make for an easy but compelling read. Highly recommend!
Thanks so much for the ARC!

An arc in exchange for an honest review!
We have a work place romance between Casey our main female character and Alex our male main character. I love them both as characters but the plot was kind of slow moving (especially in the beginning), and I wish there had more sexual tension and angst between our two main characters.
I think the book had a lot of potential to be great. It was an enjoyable read but it just wasn’t my favorite so far.
There could have been so much more tension being that it’s a workplace romance, and I wish there had been more of a build up and less of a insta-love connection.
In romances I love having a book boyfriend that entices me, and I’m really sad to say Alex just wasn’t it for me.

I always love enemies to lovers and this was done well in my opinion. That aside, the storyline wasn't unique and I felt like I've read this kind of book a hundred times before. It's definitely fun though.

oh so this was written for ME. UGH I LOVED THIS! the writing is not only so beautiful but so vulnerable?? their banter is witty and funny and they mesh so so well together and idk at first i was like oooh alex is gonna be like a playboy and mean but he is actually the softest man ever who is so attentive and thoughtful and sweet and casey is genuinely truthfully iconic like yes of course she would go viral on youtube i LOVE LOVE LOVED this and i can't wait to read more by this author!!!

This enemies to lovers Rom-Com is to die for!! I quickly read this because it was so good!!! I absolutely loved this!
I just reviewed Love Interest by Clare Gilmore. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Casey works at Little Cooper Publications in their finance department…but she wants something more. Maybe with a creative outlet? The day she finds out if she gets a new job in the company, she meets a beautiful stranger in the elevator. All he tries to do is make her smile… but who is he? Why is he at LC?

I enjoyed this mostly lighthearted romance. I love that Casey is a math person, being a math nerd myself. The early “twists” were incredibly predictable but that didn’t take away any of the fun.

Alex was an interesting love interest. I didn’t fully connect with him, but he seemed good for Casey.

This books shines with its secondary characters. Brijesh was a phenomenal and Miriam was a wonderful friend. Casey’s dad and Jerry were just an added bonus of adorable. Freddy, too!

There were some unbelievably fun scenes in this, too. For instance, the scene at Sleight of Hand when we meet Freddy was golden. I mean, that was just a pure spectacle. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Solid four+ star book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for an arc of this book.

4 stars. Love Interest was a solid debut by Gilmore. This is a workplace romance where the workplace is almost as center stage as the romance itself. The plot def. revolves around finance and workplace politics, but for me, this was something that I enjoyed. Speaking of workplace dynamics— Alex is Casey’s superior in the office, but he isn’t her boss. So I didn’t feel any issues about their relationship and potential power imbalances, if that’s something you are sensitive to. I liked Gilmore’s writing, which felt witty and fluid and real. I appreciated Casey’s character and the difficult positions she found herself in. I also appreciated how smart, hardworking, and dedicated she was. And, I love seeing a female lead in a math or science field. Yay STEM! Alex was kind of meh for me. I didn’t love him, but I also didn’t hate him. Perhaps I didn’t feel as much for him because this was single POV, so we only ever got Casey’s perspective. That didn’t bother me, and in fact, I often prefer that. But maybe it explains my ambivalence towards him. I would consider this romance open door; however, while there were several steamy scenes… most weren’t full descriptions and eventually faded to black. But at least one was. So there is some steam, but nowhere close to say 50 Shades of Grey. All in all, if you like workplace romances, I think Love Interest is def worth the read.

Thank you so much to SMP and netgalley for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up. I loved this book. I thought it was charming, intelligent, and full of heart. I found Alex so endearing in his honesty and self-awareness of the complicated parts of his personality. I think he was genuinely content with his untethered lifestyle, but it never meant that he didn’t have the capacity to care deeply. His family history made it more of a coping/self-preservation mechanism to find a path without attachments. I really felt connected to Casey. I enjoyed watching her find her strengths and take risks and challenge herself, while also figuring out that she didn’t need to do anything flashy to leave her own mark on people.

I loved Casey and Alex together. From the way it was clear Alex was enamored from the get-go to Casey’s fading animosity and growing affection for him as she learned more about who he was. Their relationship felt like it developed in a realistic and natural way. The challenges they faced, particularly in the corporate world they inhabited, felt authentic but never insurmountable. The only thing that kept me from a full 5-star rating is that I wanted more of their initial time working together. They meet, Casey finds out he gets the job over her, there’s a little tension, and then time jumps a month ahead. I wanted more of their time clashing over things and more tension building from that before they started working more together.

Overall, this was a fantastic debut, and I look forward to reading more from Clare Gilmore in the future.

Alex had me kicking my feet this entire book. He's equal parts charming and complex. With a relatable and realistic past that simple did not keep him from being a loveable and charismatic flirt.

I love that both him and our female lead character, Casey, couldn't keep secrets well and wore their emotions on their sleeve (or face).

As an enthusiast for both hardworking handsome men, and numbers, it certainly wasn't hard to find Casey relatable.

Don't be fooled by this cover - I cried during multiple parts of this novel and smiled through the majority.

My favorite quote: "But I will always come back to you. You are my north star, my safe harbor, and I love you so much I could die."

I struggled a bit both to rate and to finish this novel. Although the writing is good, and parts were entertaining, there were certain things I disliked as well. In my opinion, there is too much focus on the office and its problems. It wasn’t interesting to me and filled a large portion of this book. I had hoped for “The Hating Game” vibes from this, but there’s not much banter or real enemies to lovers trope here at all. I think ultimately I just felt like there was too much outside of the romance plot that didn’t hold my attention, and not enough build up to the romance itself. However, if you enjoy an office romance with a lot of focus on the ins and outs of the workplace, allergy representation, and Lion King references, you would love this one!

Thank you to the author, St. Martin’s Griffin, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Claire Gilmore for providing a free ebook in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 3/5 Stars

I loved the characters and their relationship so much! I just was not really invested in the overall premise of the book.

Casey is passed over for a promotion in favor of the chairman's son, Alex. Alex doesn't understand why Casey hates him... Forced to work together... they are drawn to each other.

A fun enemies to lovers story. I love how their chemistry together. Casey is an interesting character and I love how hard she works... Alex is charismatic and very cute with Casey. They make the story pop and come alive.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Love Interest is Clare Gilmore’s debut novel and is an enemies to lovers office romance novel.

This book wasn’t really for me, even though I do like that specific trope. The writing was really good, however I felt like too much information was thrown at the reader and it was hard to keep track. That being said, the author really knows how to write, I look forward to reading her future books.

This book will definitely be a favourite for many.

A special thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for providing with an ARC of this book.

Love Interest is a remarkable debut novel from Clare Gilmore. When I say I devoured it, I truly mean it! I picked this up from NetGalley and finished it in less than two days.

Casey Maitland is good at financials. She likes numbers and is comfortable in her role as a financial analyst. But comfortable isn’t enough anymore. When Casey is passed up for a new project manager role, she is upset; even more so when she realizes that the chairman’s son, Alex Harrison, was given the role. With her eyes set on a London transfer and an unearthed company scandal, the last thing Casey expects is to become friends with Alex, let alone fall for him.

Between the (not so) slow burn of Casey and Alex and the sheer wittiness of the dialogue between characters, I was hooked early on. I love when characters speak the way you would expect a real conversation to go because often it can come off as stilted or unrealistic. But I knew I was in for a treat from the first threat of attempted murder for a friend scorned.

I can’t wait to see this book in stores and am eagerly anticipating what comes next for Gilmore.