i truly enjoyed the first 20%! i thought the transition to ireland was neat, the work she was going to do, and loved all the book references. salley rooney and shadow and bone and more! like yes!! but then i got bored :/ there wasn’t much tension between the two and i almost dnf but i pushed through. i felt like some parts were immature and just too cheesey even for a romcom. idk maybe i wasn’t in the right mood or it wasn’t for me, but if i had to recommend to someone it would be to those who want a light no think type of read

I love Jenn McKinlay's mystery books. So when I saw this book I was very excited. Unfortunately after trying several times I just could not get into it. It's well written as always but it's very slow and boring to me. The characters seem to fall flat. I will go back to reading her mystery books because they are some of my favorites. But I think I'll stay away from her romances.

Love at First Book by Jenn Mckinlay is a sweet contemporary -Sunshine/Grumpy romance.

Emily is a librarian who has always dreamed of a life filled with travel and adventure. Therefore, when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in Ireland, Emily is excited and accepts the opportunity. However, she never expected to fall in love with the author's bookstore owner's grumpy son, and What follows is a delightful, cozy story filled with the love of all things Ireland, books, friendship, and romance. Loved books' covers and stories about books.

The story is heartwarming, with great banter, humor, silliness, and lots of emotions.

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher for the eARC.

3⭐️

Love at First Book was such a wholesome story. After Emily moves to Ireland to help her favorite author who has suffered from writers block for nearly a decade to finish one of Emily’s favorite childhood series, she is faced with experiences beyond what she could have expected. From friendships, to romance, and even maternal love, Emily is able to grow exponentially as a character within this story.

I adored all of the characters within this book, but I absolutely loved Em and Kier. Their romance was so sweet. I only wish we could have seen more from them.

Although this book had a slow start, the second half was so bittersweet, and I didn’t want it to end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an arc of Love at First Book!

Oh my goodness, where do I begin? This was a wonderful book. I loved every minute of it, even when I knew what was coming. A bookstore, a librarian, and authors with a fabulous cast all set in a cute Irish village - perfection! Emily and Kieran were so fun together and the slow burn romance was also sheer perfection. I can't wait to purchase this one.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a fast read, set in Ireland with a bookstore owner, his author mother, and a superfan turned employee as the characters. I feel like we entered halfway through Emily's life with not a lot of backstory. Her relationships with her parents are talked about more in the second part of the book but kinda meh. Also, I think the turnaround from anger to can't live without went entirely too quick at the end. Couldn't get my head around Sam's character except to help the relationship with the mom seem more annoying? Either way, it was fine but nothing real special.

"Love at First Book" is a charming romance novel set in a small town in Ireland. Emily, a devoted fan of a beloved author, gets the chance to help finish a series she loves. The story's charm lies in its endearing characters, picturesque setting, and heartfelt romance. It's a delightful read for anyone who enjoys stories filled with warmth, humor, and the magic of unexpected love.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This romance is set in a small fictional Irish town and I have never desired to visit Ireland until now! The author did a fantastic job is building this village and the characters. This is a small town romance, but also a book about grief and found family and had me in tears at the end.

The banter between Em and Kier is witty and fun. The author leans into them being book lovers but they also have other things we learn about them.

Normally when a MMC repeatedly calls the MFC by a nickname I can’t stand it, but when Kier calls Em “Red” it just works for me!

There is one fairly descriptive (but quick) intimate scene. And the pronunciation of names is at the end of the book but it really should have been at the beginning.

But overall, this was a lovely cozy read!

3.5 stars

The "new" romances, with their mixture of love, humor and usually a serious issue or two, are quite readable. Love at First Book features Emma, who has escaped from being a caregiver for her toxic mother, to take a job in Ireland helping out at a bookstore and assisting a writer with their work.

The bookshop owner and writer's son Kieran doesn't want her around. Everyone else soon falls for her mixture of competence and compassion. And the novelist turns out to be the author of Em's favorite life-changing series who inexplicably quit writing before finishing the story. Em is there to help close it out. Em and the author bond immediately, helping to make up for pretty much a lifetime of no-nurturing for Emma.

Medical issues and misunderstandings combine to try and derail the strong attraction between Em and Kieran. There are a few quibbles -- Em's mother is a strong plot thread to begin with and then just sort of evaporates -- but this is an enjoyable read with sympathetic characters and a wonderful Irish setting. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I've been a fan of Jenn McKinlay's since I began reading her cozy mysteries nearly a decade ago. I preferred one or two of her series over the others, but then I noticed she was writing romance books too. I had way too many novels on my TBR, so I held out... caught up on her series and then added this one just in case I wanted to sample it. NetGalley granted my wish, and well... it hit my queue this week. All I can say is... droolworthy, in a good way. Kier is my new fantasy, and I am moving to Ireland. Okay, that can't happen but seriously, why don't things like this happen in real life? Loved the setup. Loved the characters. Cried at a death. Imagine a writer loosely based on someone with the success of the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, and toss in some imaginary family and connections, and this pulled at every emotion I have. I will definitely go back to read her earlier romance novels now too.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

Love at First Book follows Emily, an American desperate for change who travels to Ireland to be an assistant to the author of her favorite books, as well as work in the bookstore that she owns. However, when she arrives, she is not greeted by the author, but her grumpy, handsome son. And thus begins a grumpy/sunshine, annoyances-to-lovers situation. TWs- parental abuse (verbal and physical), death of a parent.

This was, in all honesty, a little of an underwhelming read for me. While I was enticed by the premise- I mean, a book set in an Irish bookstore? Yes, please!- but there were some things about the plot, characters, and writing that made this a book that was enjoyable, but not totally rememberable. To start, I really enjoyed the relationship between Emily and Siobhan. The idea of being able to meet your favorite author, let alone work for them, is every book lover's dream, and their dynamic and connection was really beautiful. I love that Emily had the opportunity to experience the maternal love that she desired and I think the author did a good job fostering that.
However, I wish that we got more of Emily's relationship with her actual mother. While I know that the book is centered around the idea that she is distancing herself from her mother's abuse, there was no closure. They had one on page fight and then that was it. There was no conclusion as to how Emily was going to navigate that, and I think that would have been a really meaningful addition, especially as she and Siobhan got closer.

I also appreciated the cast of side characters and the home that Emily began to make for herself, but I do wish we got a little more time with her and the other women of the bookshop. Their interactions were fun and gave a lot of insight not only into the side characters, but into Emily herself, and I had hoped for a little more of that.

Personally, I felt like too much of the book revolved on the will they/won't they between Kier and Emily, and while it worked for a little bit, it began to feel redundant and ineffective, especially when they finally did connect with each other. It just didn't feel truly organic, rather like the author knew she wanted them together and had to find a rapid way to do it.

The small moments of spice were done well, and I think that Emily and Kier did have chemistry (I just think it could have been explored differently/less repetition), and the ending of the book was truly sad. However, that grand gesture at the end felt too rushed. I won't spoil it, but after everything Emily and Kier just went through, his big moment just felt rushed.

Overall, this was a read that I vaguely enjoyed, but will not be remembering.
I also saw this author behaving poorly on Threads, specifically in regards to reviewers, and that left an impression poor enough that I do not think I will be picking up another book by them.

So many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay. I fell in love with this story and the characters and the setting immediately. For me, this is a perfect book. Did I cry? Yes, yes, i cried. ❤

Oh my goodness I just devoured this book in one sitting! I was completely charmed by it. I could identify with Emily's devotion to her favorite author and I'm so happy that it ended up being a positive experience for her. Loved the quaint Irish small town, and I loved the romance between Em and Kieran. The only thing I wish there had been was more of a resolution to her narcissistic mother storyline. I mean, in a perfect world someone like Emily would have been able to cut her mother off, but I suppose the way it was handled in the book was more realistic.

This was a heartwarming story about starting over and finding yourself. Emily moves across the pond to Ireland to assist her favorite author with her new book. She is surprised with an attractively gruff man, who just so happens to be the son of said author. While her mornings are spent with Siobhan, trying to spark inspiration for the next book, her afternoons are slow as Kiernan Murphy tries to make things a little too difficult for her to help his mother.

I wanted be transported into the town of Finn's Hollow. The community was so welcoming to Emily and you slowly see her open up and find a place for her working at the bookstore and with Siobhan. Emily's transformation is what we were all hoping for, for her. I went into this book ready for a romance driven story, and it for sure had a huge part focusing on Emily and Keirnan's flirtation. Their banter was so cute and their chemistry, off the charts!! Though, as I kept reading the relationships that Siobhan has with both her son and Emily was what captured my attention. It was so emotional to go through the ups and downs with them, and I did not expect a few tears shed at the ending.

Please read this book! It is perfect for all bookish girls and who daydream about men with accents in the best place in the world (a bookstore).

✔︎ cute author/mom character who is everything you want in a person
✔︎ silly little jobs in a silly little town that are just cute and don't need to make sense
✔︎ librarian in favor of a more modern cataloguing system
🆇 annoyingly flat main character and her annoyingly flat romance pærtner
🆇 the whole thing where they trade book quotes at random to try to quiz/stump each other? insufferable.
🆇 the supporting friend characters have no reason to be there
🆇 biggest miss of all imo: the lack of tension made the romance pairing feel unearned :(

many thanks to berkley publishing group and netgalley for the advance reader copy.

I enjoyed this book and I can see my patrons really loving it themselves. I am a sucker for a good book about bookish related things and this one was a hit.

A young librarian with issues (bad childhood, hypochondria, introversion) arrives in Ireland to spend a year assisting a famous author and working at a bookstore. The author's adult son, the book store manager, is the grumpy to the librarian's sunshine, I think. I honestly didn't get very far into this book to know for sure. The dialogue was unrealistic and overly dramatic, and it felt like a very new author's early work, although I understand this isn't a debut novel. I'm sorry but I DNF.

I received this early copy today and immediately started reading it and could not stop.

I fell in love with this setting, the characters, and the love of reading that is at this books’ core.

Books that centre around an American moving to Ireland or Scotland are some of my favourites, but they do tend to get repetitive. “Love at First Book” felt like a new approach to this romantic niche. The book focused on Em’s relationship with her favourite author who she was hired to assist in writing the last instalment of her immensely popular fiction series (very much Harry Potter x Percy Jackson: her name is literally Siobhan Riordan). I loved her relationship with Siobhan. It never felt forced or unrealistic; it truly felt like a relationship that a young woman would have with an older woman who is not her mother. Their relationship made me cry later into this book and I truly was not expecting that.

I really enjoyed the romance between Em and Kieran! I thought they had a very realistic romantic arc that never felt forced or insta-lovey. The third act breakup was quite predictable but it was relevant to the overall story, so I didn’t mind it.

I’m rating this book 4.5* and not 5 stars because I do wish there was some kind of closure to Em’s relationship with her mother. It was such a major part of her story that was not resolved or mentioned at the end.

I really loved this book and I’m so thankful that I was able to get an early copy! Thank you so much to Berkeley Publishing Group for this early copy.

I adored this book! The characters are so relatable!
The both struggle with mental health and their familial relationships.
The slow burn of them coming together had me on the edge of my seat. It was so satisfying when they finally connected. I couldn't put the book down, and I cried at the end.
So So good! Highly recommend.

Let me start off by saying that I now want to move to a small Irish town in the Fall and spend a year working in a bookshop, living in a cozy cottage, and befriending everyone I meet! This book is incredibly charming in its scenic descriptions and inclusive cast of incredibly kind and fun characters. McKinlay developed a strong main character in "Red"/Emily and a perfect love interest in Kieran. These two have chemistry immediately, even if they start off at one another's throats. Kier is suspicious that Em is in this position (of being an assistant to her favorite author) to fangirl out, and Em is equally annoyed and frustrated that Kier is doing everything possible to make her quit and move back to Martha's Vineyard. But when the two start to find similarities in their lives, their connection is hard to ignore.

I especially liked that Em is in Ireland to discover herself and to get away from an abusive family member, not because of a broken heart or break-up. To me, it makes this romance original. I loved the use of characters in the small town to help build her up, and accentuate her personality. The use of atmospheric imagery made this novel super cozy and just plain lovely! It's the kind of book that is perfect for a rainy day in with a scone and cuppa. :)