This is a super cute story with plenty of banter and snark between the lead characters. They both have their different family dynamics and quirks. Thankfully neither character seems over-reacting in certain scenarios and both come across as real with just the right amount of complexity. If you want a good, easy read then this is one for you!

Cute but I don’t know if I was 100% sold on Ellie and Theo together. I enjoy a good fake dating, opposites attract story like any rom com lover but I can’t quite put my finger on what they were missing to be completely solid couple who could go the distance in my mind.

Also with Sam, Theo’s ex-fiancé, throw in the mix it was almost kind of like a love triangle angle and I’m not a fan of that trope so it kind of deterred me from really enjoying the story.


Thank you publishers and netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback

Such a fun, steamy, opposites attract, enemies to lovers, fake dating, romcom with a touch of While you were sleeping vibes that I absolutely loved!! Great on audio, this was a pure delight to read! The chemistry between the two leads was FANTASTIC, the sexy scenes were HOT and I so enjoyed when things went from fake to real. Other than an annoying third act miscommunication break-up, this was a top notch read for me that I HIGHLY recommend! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: open door

This book was cute! It wasn't my favorite rom-com I've read, but it was pretty adorable overall. I will say, I found the main guy to not be my favorite? Also his ex was... super awesome? Like so awesome that I kind of pitied her and the FMC where it was like "he .... is what y'all are hung up on?"

But a quick and fun read.

Thanks to Dell and NetGalley for a chance to read and review!

I loved the premise of this story and fake dating is one of my absolute favorite tropes. Sadly, I didn’t love this book like I thought I would. I didn’t dislike it either. Was just very middle of the road for me. It didn’t have that extra zing that makes me want to keep reading. It took me a bit to get through and the reason why was that I just didn’t connect with either of the main characters. They weren’t likable for me. I felt like there was also a lot of miscommunication that could have been easily fixed between Ellie and Theo.

This was a cute enemies-to-lovers/fake dating double trope. It was a light, easy read, but I had the problem of not really being very invested in either of the main characters- or liking them very much (and couldn't exactly pinpoint why they ended up liking each other-- this is not a spoiler, this is a rom com, what do you expect?).

3.75 stars

If you're in the mood for a rom-com that's set in a small town and includes fake dating hijinks and spice, add this one to your TBR! 
After her dad died, Ellie put her costume design dreams in NYC on hold and moved home to Milborough, a suburb of Boston, to take over the family deli. Nothing is more important to Ellie than family, so when she hears that the Taylor family of real estate tycoons are considering bringing a huge competitor for the deli into town, she has to do something. 

But then in her meeting with the handsome but infuriating Theo Taylor, there's an accident that results in him having being knocked out. Because this is a rom-com, Ellie lies and tells the doctors that she's his fiancee. She doesn't count on Theo waking up with amnesia and believing her, though. His memories return quickly, but he manages to convince Ellie that pretending to be engaged could actually get them both what they want: out of this real estate deal.

This was cute and fun and I read it in a day, but it was rife with "are you kidding me" and "that would never work" moments that made me facepalm (usually at Ellie) but like I said, it's a rom-com. It was fast-paced and I could picture their town very clearly, and enjoyed all the details of the architecture and fashion. I also appreciated that when Theo's ex shows up, she's not "evil", and isn't a traditional rival for Ellie. It's 2024, if we meet a cool girl we can be friends with her instead of competition. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Kathleen Quinlan at Random House for the recommendation and the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF'd at 30%. I was very excited about the premise as a lifelong While You Were Sleeping fan but that was dropped so quickly that it felt almost unnecessary. I kept putting the book down hoping to pick it back up.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Ahh I wish I liked this one more. I found nearly every character completely unlikable. I also didn't feel the chemistry between the main characters (I've already forgotten their names) and felt she went from hating him to having seggs very quickly. I almost DNFd and kept going, but it didn't get much better. I'm sorry. 😢

Appreciate the ARC, but this one wasn't for me.

Ellie Greco had a great job that she loved in New York until her father died. She had to leave her job to take over the family’s business, Greco Deli, that had been run by five generations of Greco family members. Ellie has done her best to improve the business by adding new items that people have come to want. She learns that the wealthy Taylor family that owns many businesses in town is planning to convert a large building to a Mangia which is a food department store offering all kinds of Italian food items. She is shocked and knows that if this happens, her family’s deli will end up closing.

Ellie’s cousin, Bella, once dated Theo Taylor in high school and she suggests that Ellie get in touch with Theo and explain how this huge store could put numerous stores in town out of business. As Theo is running this operation for his family, he agrees to meet with Ellie to discuss the situation at the building being remodeled. Their conversation isn’t going too well when Theo is hit on the head with a piece of falling metal. To explain her being there, Ellie says they are engaged. When he wakes up, Theo pretends he has amnesia and begins to play along with her lie. Soon, he admits he knows she was lying but suggests they have a pretend relationship that will hopefully end up with his father deciding against the Mangia idea. Thus begins their fake relationship.

There are lots of meeting up events with Theo’s awful father, Ted, which subjects Ellie to a lot of snideness from the rude man. Can they keep this up and hope that Ellie’s deli business won’t end up being lost in the shuffle?

Well, I can say first off that I did not like Ellie at all. She came across as hard and cynical. Why Theo continued to help her by keeping up this farce is beyond me. So, not quite a favorite of mine.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I love fake dating as a trope and was excited to dive into this one, but I struggled to connect with the main character. The story fell a little flat, so I think this book was just not for me. I hope others enjoy!

This was an okay read - kept me entertained with the enemies to lover, grumpy/sunshine tropes. Ellie is working back in her hometown at the family deli after her father passed. Ellie has to meet Theo Taylor of the Taylor family who may try to buy out the property and suddenly enters a fake relationship. Overall I had a little bit of a hard time fully supporting this relationship and seeing it's full potential.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Love You, Mean It follows deli owner Ellie Greco as she teams up with Theo, the heir to an affluent real estate company, to fake an engagement that will hopefully save her family deli and preserve the historical value of their New England town.

This book was a fun and quick read that had a lot of potential. I loved the fake engagement, and while cheesy, the temporary amnesia lead-in to it had my While You Were Sleeping fangirl heart screaming with excitement. Theo was a compelling male lead, and I did find a lot to love in Ellie's own internal conflicts regarding her family's deli and her long-lost dreams of fashion design. I did struggle a bit with the conflict between Ellie and Sam, mostly because neither was really a villain but both were kind of sus the whole time, as well as some of the pacing of the story overall. I think what it comes down to is that the relationship with Theo and Ellie, and their own internal and familial conflicts, felt like enough without the addition of the Sam curveball. I ended up liking her as a character, but I often felt that she was filling up screen time I would've preferred to see dedicated to our main couple.

In all, I think this was a pretty fun and light read, a solid choice for a beach day or a sunny weekend.

This was cute. I wasn’t a fan of Ellie but I loved Theo; I found him more authentic whereas she was self-sabotaging and petty. The chemistry was there but what I liked more in the book were the sections where she was discussing the areas where she would brainstorm with Sam (and others) on how to grow her business. Otherwise, it’s a good story with a happy ending.

Love You Mean It was a sweet fake engagement, relationship of convenience book. It had some cracked door spice (just a little detail not too much but more than fade to black). I would recommend this to anyone who loves a small town romance with some fun banter and big families. I could totally see this being made into a cute Rom Com
movie.

I feel like it took me forever to get into this story. Might have been my frame of mind or it might have been because I didn't connect with Ellie at all through much of the story. I enjoy a good fake dating story and I also enjoy (might not be the right word here lol) and good amnesia story. I might have enjoyed the story more if the amnesia had lasted longer which would have changed the dynamics between the main characters and perhaps lay a foundation where their relationship seems real. In the end though I felt like the story pulled together nicely and gave me the HEA I'd hoped for. 3.5 stars

This was a cute, spicy romcom with an overly large amount of miscommunication frustration. It kept things interesting, but I found myself annoyed at a couple of points that Ellie wouldn’t just tell the truth. The Italian deli setting was super cute and I wish the author had included a recipe for red pepper ricotta, but I am going to try some myself anyway with some Trader Joe’s focaccia.

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I recommend Love you, Mean It by Jilly Gagnon. You will fall in love with all the characters. 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. Happy reading!

Ellie Greco has spent the last five years working at the family deli. She had been in New York City, trying to get hired as a theater costume designer, all up and down Broadway. And off-Broadway. But she just could not figure out how to get her feet in the door. So when her father died and she had to move back to the small town of Milborough where she grew up, she accepted her place running the deli so her grandparents didn’t have to come out of retirement to take it over.

And Ellie enjoys her work. Mostly. She’s updated the products they carry in the store and offer customers ready-made packages, for when they’re in a hurry. And the days are better when the customers know what they want and don’t keep asking for samples while they try to decide, Ellie is happy to be back among her big Italian family and to have access to Mimi’s lasagna.

And then she finds out that the Taylors, a rich real estate family, were planning on bringing Mangia to their town. And Ellie can’t have that.

Mangia is a big gourmet grocery store that would put Ellie and the family deli out of business. It would put several other local, family-owned businesses too. No one would be able to compete with all they have to offer. Ellie knows she has to stop this. And she thinks that the way to get through to the Taylors is through Theo, the son.

Ellie gets his number from her cousin, who dated him in high school, and sends a text. He agrees to meet with her the next morning, in his office in the building they’re currently remodeling for Mangia. Ellie finds that Theo is open to what she has to say, about stopping Mangia. He says that it’s his father’s idea. But before they can get much further in the discussion, an electrician working nearby has a bit of an accident and is hanging from the ceiling by his fingertips. Theo runs to help, and he gets the man down safely, but then he gets hit in the head with a metal box and is knocked out.

Ellie is worried about him and about saving the deli, so she decides she has to go with Theo to the hospital. But when they refuse to let her in, family only, she says that she’s his fiancee. When Theo awakens later at the hospital, he can’t remember what happened. Actually, he can’t remember the last 6 years. But the nurse reminds him that Ellie is his fiancee, and also tells Sam, Theo’s ex-girlfriend who was listed as his emergency contact. Ellie wants to tell the truth, but she can’t without opening herself up to rejection, or possible litigation.

When Theo does get his memory back the next day, he realized that Ellie’s fib is just what he’s been looking for. He’s been wanting to get out of the deal with Mangia that his father had set up, and Ellie is the key. If they’re engaged, the Taylors can’t be bringing in a business that will cause Ellie’s shop to close. This little ruse gives them the excuse to save the town from the big business that would ruin its charm, so they both win. But as they go around town pretending to be in love, who are they really fooling? Is it everyone else, or is it just themselves?

Love You, Mean It is a fun rom com with a hefty nod to While You Were Sleeping with its amnesia/fake fiancee story. But these characters are also smart and funny and far from perfect, and the journey they take on their romance is filled with sweetness, snark, secrets, and fantastic food. It’s easy to see how these characters bring out the best in each other, even as they seem like an unlikely pairing, which makes them that much more fun to watch.

I really enjoyed Love You, Mean It. I’m a sucker for a fake relationship story, and this one was lots of fun. There is secret scheming, inner growth, spicy chemistry, and amnesia. What more could you want? If you’re like me and missing those great rom com movies of the 1990s, then you need to consider picking up this book. It will feel like a Sandra Bullock hug to your soul.

Egalleys for Love You, Mean It were provided by Dell through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I was provided a free advanced copy of this from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Ellie had a few years to follow her dreams in New York before she moved back home to take over her family's deli. But now that is being threatened by a possible deal with a big box store being brought in by the Taylor family real estate business! She hopes she'll be able to convince Theo Taylor (the boss's son) that the deal wouldn't be in the best interest. However, at their meeting, Theo gets knocked out and in a spur of the moment decision she tells the EMS team that she is his fiance. But when he wakes up in the hospital, he has amnesia and assumes she must be his fiance! Will his memory come back? Will she be able to convince him to not go through with the deal? Will anyone believe that they are really engaged?
This was a quick cute romance story. I dropped it a few stars because I didn't connect well with Ellie. In a lot of ways I felt she was trying too hard without reason. She was blessed to be surrounded by forgiving people! If you like romance and fake dating trope you should check it out! I'm a little behind on the review, so it's already published!
#NetGalley #LoveYouMeanIt