This was an enjoyable read with all my favorite tropes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for this ARC. ~I was given this book and made no commitments to leave my opinions, favorable or otherwise~

Thank you netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a fake dating/marriage of convenience romance, so much. This had the potential to be such a great book. But it fell flat for me. The character development wasn't enough for me and I didn't feel the intense need for the two MCs to be together.

Love You, Mean it is a contemporary romance novel that follows the relationship of Ellie Greco (family deli owner and ex-costume designer) and Theo Taylor (working for his dad's company, who is trying to bring a direct competitor to Ellie's deli into their small town). You could see how they would have problems, which is why they decide to have a fake engagement (after Theo gets injured and in her panic Ellie says that she is his fiancé) in order to try to save the Taylor building (where the competitor is trying to move in) and save Ellie's family deli! I LOVED the vibes that felt like a combination of Two Weeks Notice and While You Were Sleeping, I guess overall Sandra Bullock vibes!?!?😂
There is a lot of friend and family drama that swirls around Ellie and Theo's relationship. As well, both MCs deal with grief throughout the story and learn about the others past and try to adapt and learn to change and handle/control it. I think that there is a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions because there are quite a few ups and downs but of course, it's still a mostly happy HEA romance!
Thank you so much to Dell and Random House for a copy of this book to review!💖

Love You, Mean It has all the makings of a great fake dating romcom with some super cute moments and parts that made me laugh outloud. I just wish it had been less rushed and that we’d gotten to know the main characters a bit better.

I wanted to love this book, but it somewhat felt rushed at parts and slow at other parts. I did like the book, but it kind of fell flat for me.

I think this is a cute romantic story. I enjoyed reading it and easily found myself invested in the characters as quickly as possible.

This is such a cute romance! I felt like I was in the book and I knew the characters on a personal level. Super cute, super fun!

3.5 This isn’t my typical book, but for a silly rom-com full of tropes, it was pretty good! It was a mix of you’ve got mail, while you were sleeping, and classic hallmark movies. It was a quick read and there was just one major plot point that seemed a little forced and took me out of the story (the Sam situation). But basically if you want to read a Hallmark movie with a main character with a rounded personality, read this one!

This is a cute rom-com, a Hallmark movie in book format. There’s not a huge plot twist you can’t see coming, but the characters are likeable and you genuinely want things to work out for them. It was enjoyable read that I happened to be reading when there was a lot going on in life, so it was a lovely little escape.

Love You, Mean It by Jilly Gagnon is a new romantic comedy about fake dating.

Ellie Greco returns home when her father passes away and takes over the family business, running the town deli. She went away to college to study designing beautiful, elaborate costumes for theater. But she fights back when her family business is threatened to be non-existent.

Theo Taylor of the property management firm is about to put her out of business, but their meeting goes from bad to worse when he's injured in an accident. His family wants the building rented out to Mania, but Theo intends to keep the building's infrastructure intact.

The story is predictable and will keep you entertained.

This fake dating romance was a lot of fun to read. Ellie and Theo had great chemistry and banter. It has a nice amount of spice too and I loved Ellies close relationship with her family. There were times Ellie really frustrated me and I struggled to stay interested at times which is why I gave it 3 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Cute, sweet romcom wrapped up nicely with some prosciutto and mozzarella. Seriously this book had my mouth watering while reading 🤣 I really liked the characters and their relationship, would’ve liked to see even more development between the two of them but felt like Sam being introduced/her storyline was pretty unnecessary to the story as a whole. Worth a read!

4 Stars

This is my first time with this author and I really enjoyed this book. It had a handful of my favorite movie tropes, like While You Were Sleeping and You've Got Mail. The characters have their personal flaws, but I did really enjoy Ellie and Theo.

Ellie is the small local shop girl trying to save it from a giant super store from causing her shop be obsolete. She tries reaching out to Theo, the son of the businessman threatening her livelihood. After a series of events, they suddenly fall into a fake engagement situation. Them trying to make it seem real so Theo can go against his dad Ted.

This was a really fast read and overall a really good time. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy fake dating tropes and those classic rom-com movies like While You Were Sleeping. I will be checking out more by Jilly Gagnon in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Ballantine for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

Usually not a fan of the fake dating trope, but this was fun and different. The book is a great vacation/beach read with memorable characters and setting.

Thank you so much @netgalley and @jillygagnon for this lovely ARC!

Guys, it’s literally a meat cute. Ellie Greco gives up her big dream to be a seamstress to the stars when her father’s death brings her home to Milborough and she agrees to helm Greco’s Deli in his stead. Five years pass, Ellie has turned Greco’s into not just a deli but a cute little charcuterie shop, but a local bigwig company is in discussions to rent a property to Mangia’s, an Italian style eatery (think Eataly, IYKYK). Ellie tries to persuade the landlord’s son Theo not to rent to Mangia’s, but Theo is kind of a jerk. Just when things get tense, a ceiling fixture drops on Theo and he’s knocked unconscious. Ellie feels horrible and lies in order to see what happens in the hospital, and voila, Theo is her fake fiancé.

This book has a little You’ve Got Mail style David and Goliath deli wars going on, and a little bit of While You Were Sleeping with the amnesia fiancé. For all the worriers, the one sided deception is very quick and instead it’s a fake engagement bonanza to keep Mangia from winning the deli wars.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Ellie and Theo fall in love. It’s a rivals to schemers to lovers and I couldn’t be happier to have had an advanced copy. Welcome to romance writing @jillygagnon !!!

This is the third romcom I’ve received to review that has been less than stellar. I feel like the premise was a good one (girl tries to save family’s deli) but the execution just didn’t hit the mark for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and The publisher for this ARC. I fell in love with this story. It was funny and romantic. A must read.

This was a delightful approach to the fake dating/fake fiancé trope. Theo’s amnesia lasted just as long as it should. It was fun to see Ellie and Theo’s relationship grow, I was rooting for them from the start. This will be a perfect, light read heading into the summer!

OK I love this book so much. It was such a cute story and the characters are so adorable and charismatic. You can’t help it. Love all of them! Highly recommend this book, especially for romance lovers like me. 4 1/2 stars!

I love this book, and I love the fact that the author, and I almost share the same name. it was a fantastic read.