The concept of this is really lovely- the execution however was just okay.

But I can see others liking this and it being a "right time, right book" for some readers. Like how sometimes I'm in the mood for a cheesy but adorable Hallmark movie. It's the type of book that you may crave and enjoy when you need something whimsical and are able to suspend your disbelief and/or a critical eye.

OH MY goodness did I fall in love with this book. Elsy is struggling. Her bookclub always meets up in NY, around the area of their favorite book series. Each year the number keeps dwindling though. This year, her best friend isn't able to go either, sending Elsy there all alone. She is grieving her last relationship, she is trying to find herself, and what she finds is the town she has been dreaming of.
As she is making her journey to the cabin, she gets lost and ends up in Eloration. The fictional town from her books. She almost runs over a man standing in the rain though, so the meet cute isn't ideal.
Anderson is grumpy and as he starts bringing her to places in the town, she realizes these are all her favorite characters come to life. Anderson seems to be the only one that knows this isn't real but urges her to not make waves because the town is just perfect as it is. As she meets more and more people she realizes that they aren't perfect either and they aren't exactly how she imaginged them. They are real people with real issues, the same as her. She just can't figure out how Anderson fits in because she hasn't read him in any of the books. The author has passed away and she knows the fifth book was never finished so she thinks this man might be the key to the final chapter. It could be his HEA but she isn't sure who he is meant for.
As she stays, she begins to fall in love with everything and everyone, knowing she has to leave but feeling happy she got to have this experience in her life. She also has a hard time leaving Anderson. The two get closer and closer and all she wants for him is his HEA and it is just heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I can't talk too much about him because I don't want to give anything away, but this story is so beautifully done. It is about finding yourself and working through grief and knowing that the life you planned isn't always the life you will have.
Thank you to Berkley, Ashley Poston and Netgalley for an early copy.

This book fell flat for me. I loved The Seven Year Slip, in which I felt the combination of romance and fantasy was seamless. This story was not so seamless. I did not really like the main character very much and so didn't care much about her story. I felt the actual vocabulary in the book was repetitive (minty to describe Anders' eyes, for instance) and I'm not sure of that was intentional, but it was annoying to me. I felt the ending was quite rushed and the emotional roller coaster dulled because of the rush of events at the end.

I would definitely recommend this author but no so much this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Not my favorite Ashley Poston book. I found the chemistry between our main characters to be lacking. This very much felt like it wasn't a romance book. It definitely felt like the romance came second, which is fine if it's your preference or were aware of the fact before starting. The actual plot was a bit slow, but bittersweet.

Thank you Berkley for my copy! All thoughts are my own.

I have been a fan of Ashley Poston since her debut, The Dead Romantics. I believe it was recommended to me by Carley Fortune, who I also love, and I’ve loved her work ever since. Since I love to read Contemporary Romance, I don’t often dip into fantasy or magical realism. I love that Poston writes contemporary romance with a magical realism/fantasy spin. It’s enough to get lost in a world that is totally unique from my own without being overwhelmed by world building. Plus, I find her concepts so unique and satisfying!

I used to love the show Once Upon a Time and I feel like this book vaguely captures that idea. It’s not a town full of trapped storybook characters, but it is the a reader going into the fictional small town they love. I was so charmed by the concept and a little jealous!

Synopsis:

“Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…Because it is.This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.” —NetGalley

What I Liked:

The Bookish Concept—How many times have we, as readers, wished we could visit a fictional place? Even when I know my favorites get a HEA, there are certain characters I’d love to check in on from time to time and just see what their daily life is like.

The Magical Element—It’s just enough to be exciting and make me suspend my disbelief.

The Characters—I loved all these characters! I especially loved the Book Club and wish we could have even seen a little bit more of them.

What Didn’t Work:

Pacing—Surprisingly, there were points I struggled to stay with the characters. Minor moments, but for a fav author I was surprised.

Missed a Piece of Connection—Just a little piece of magic was missing for me. But it’s probably because I loved The Seven Year Slip SO deeply.

Character Authenticity: 3.5/5 Spice Rating: 1/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

Content Warnings:

grief, death, loss of a spouse

This was fun and readable and quirky, and also the premise never quite made sense. I can suspend disbelief but I needed a little more from this one. That being said, fans of SCHMIGADOON should definitely pick this up!

Not my favorite from Ashley Poston. I do think this was intended to be a love letter to cozy small town romances, and I think the premise was intriguing. However, the execution fell flat in a major way. The main characters felt just as clichéd and flat as the trope-y caricatures that filled the rest of the town. The plot was very predictable and the combination of that with the lackluster characters made this a very dull reading experience. I definitely won’t be recommending this one to fellow romance readers.

I've seen my fair share of stories where fiction becomes reality. The big one that comes to mind is Pleasantville where the two siblings are zapped into the wholesome TV show where nothing ever goes wrong and everyone lives in a blissful ignorance of the world outside their little town. But the other is Austenland, where the Austen lover goes on a ridiculous trip to pretend to be in a Jane Austen novel. That's kind of what I expected from A Novel Love Story; a woman who finds herself unexpectedly in the town she loved reading by her favorite romance author.

In many ways, that's what we get. We find a place that's forever stuck in the world that the author created for them. It always rains at noon. The burgers are always burnt. The taffy is always sticky and regardless of what day it is, the same starlings show up every morning to sing their little song. I think any reader can relate to this and every reader has that one fictional world they would love to visit and for Eileen and Anders, that daydream is a reality.

I loved this concept of entering a world that you've only seen in movies or in books. It's why I love going on the Universal Studios tour in Hollywood because you actually see the sets where your favorite movies are filmed. The fiction becomes reality and Ashley Poston does that brilliantly here. It becomes the place where Eileen can process being dumped by her fiance and much better than retreating to a small cabin just to read the same books; she gets to live it.

The best part is the way she helps the people in this town finish their stories. The sad caveat of her dream town is that the author has passed and there wouldn't be a happy ending for some of the folks who live there. Eileen taking her shot to help them find their own happy endings really made the story so much more interesting and in the process of finding a happy ending for herself. Of course, this is coupled with Ashley Poston's writing, which is always top notch. I always find myself highlighting some wise words about life and love that I can ponder later.

Of course, I loved Anders and Eileen. Anders being this grumpy bookstore owner whom Eileen assumes to be the unfinished character her favorite author created but didn't finish made me so happy. I hoped there would be a happy ending for them, but it actually came in such a surprising way that I was a little surprised! Turns out there's more to Anders that meets the eye and that made me so happy.

Overall, I loved this one. I'm surprised by how much I loved this one because when I finished the book I wasn't sure. But sitting on it and thinking about it made me realize the hidden depth to it all, the subtle way Ashley Poston creates realistic characters who struggle through serious issues and come out the other end better people than they were before. And you have to admit, going to your favorite fictional world is like adult Disney World for me and I would take that opportunity in a heartbeat.

I loved the idea of this novel but it didn't play out so well for me unfortunately. Eileen is a romance lover who gets trapped in the town created by her favorite, and unfortunately deceased, romance writer Rachel Flowers. As she changes up the town, the grumpy bookshop owner thwarts her at each turn. Sadly, the chemistry just was not there for me and the third act twist annoyed me more than anything. A miss for me.

i'm really bummed to report that this one just did not work for me. the premise is SO fun and so unique, and my favorite parts of the story were far and away the moments where Elsy gets to know the townspeople of Eloraton and live in the pages of the book series she loves so much. unfortunately, i disliked almost every other part of this book. i felt zero chemistry between the love interests-- the romance happened so fast, and i majorly got the ick when they were full-blown in love with each other after, like, three conversations. the sex scene also very abruptly faded to black, which felt really jarring as a reader. the romantic plot twist/conflict toward the end (after the main twist had already been revealed) felt so rushed and sudden. i also felt like Elsy's friends and life outside of Eloraton were not fleshed out nearly enough and were mostly used on a pretty surface level as a plot device to conveniently move the plot along.

honestly, i think overall, my main problem with this book is simply that it felt too quirky/twee for me. i could just FEEL how hard this book was trying. this was one of my most-anticipated releases of the year, and while i will definitely still continue to read from ashley poston in the future, i was not a fan of this one.

A Novel Love Story
by Ashley Poston
Pub Date: June 25, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the aRC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction…literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.
Poston is a creative and inspiring writer and for those of you that love a slight fantasy concept, this is a wonderful Romance story for you.

A Novel Love Story is intriguing and beautifully developed with interesting characters. It’s unlike any other story you’ve read before.
4 star for me.
I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did the Dead Romantics.

While I ended up enjoying this book overall, the first third (or maybe the first half) was harder to get through than I expected. I'll be honest, if I hadn't read and loved Ashley Poston's previous books, I'm not 100% sure if I would have continued. Part of this might have been improperly high expectations on my part, because I don't think this book was bad by any means, but I didn't immediately connect to the story and the characters as much as I thought I would.

All that said, I really did end up enjoying the book and the time I spent reading it; I think I just wished that I had been hooked sooner. As always, I loved the premise - what romance reader wouldn't want to get stuck in the town of their favorite novel - and Ashley Poston just does magical realism so well. All the side characters were a lot of fun and I liked the idea of seeing how their lives unfolded after their happily ever after.

I ended up absolutely loving how the book ended and enjoyed how everything played out. Also, is there anything better than falling for a curmudgeonly bookstore owner?

what would you do if you find yourself inside your favorite book? and the ending is not written yet? and you fall in love with a fictional character?

sounds kinda like a dream for every book lover right? well for elsie it was happening for real and you’ll never guess how this story comes to an end, or does it?

this is what happens: elsy is excited to go on a vacation with her friends from a book club she and her best friend started, where they read this romance series from her favorite author (who tragically passed a while ago and didn’t finished the last book of the series), but this year none of her friends can go, and because she wants to scape from her real life she decides to go alone but in the middle of the road she gets stranded and finds this town, a very familiar town, the town where the story from those books happen, with all the characters from the story too, how weird right? but there’s one person she can quite place, the handsome and cranky owner of the bookstore she’s staying.

now listen to me, i’m never know where the story is going from the beginning of a book, i don’t over analyze every single detail, i’m here to enjoy a good story and that’s it, but here i was so intrigued about how the love story was going to end because let’s be real for a minute: how do you fall in love with a possible character from a fiction story in the real world? how is that supposed to work? and oh boy when you find out how it ends it just comes down on you like a waterfall.

last month i read the seven year slip and i fell in love with ashley’s writing, making a love story with magical elements in a contemporary world is not an easy task, you have to make it in a way that the reader will believe it will work out at the end because we know there has to be a happy ending right? that’s how romance novels work, but also in both of these books there was a point where i said: maybe there’s no need for a happy ending here? and it didn’t make me sad or disappointed in the story, i was happy and i understood why maybe this story was ending this way, i was still going to love it, no matter the ending, that’s how good this writing is, i loved the characters, each one of them, i love their stories, i love the growth you see in the story, i just loved every part of it. so i don’t know how much i can say to convince you to read this book and make it your new favorite. it’s definitely in my top 3 now and that is saying a lot.

thank you to the penguin random house team and netgalley for proving me with this arc. i’m forever grateful for it. and of course to ashley poston for writing such an amazing story.

rating: ☆☆☆☆☆/5

Thank you to the publisher for letting me read this book early. Ugh, ASHLEY, this is so good, damn you. Really really enjoyed this one. Were there less puns in this one??? Loved the mention of Benji and Florence. Just really and truly enjoyed reading this one and kind of didn't want it to end. Go Ashley!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an advanced copy!

I've read several Ashley Poston's adult and young adult novels, and I have had a great experience with her books so far. And this one was a great one to add to the list! I loved the idea of a reader getting lost in a town from her favorite novels (what reader wouldn't want that?) and getting to interact with all of her favorite characters. The contrast between Eileen's experiences with the characters while reading the books versus in real life was very interesting and relatable. The story beautifully shows the power of stories and words, and that is an idea that will strongly resonate with any reader. And, of course, the relationship between Eileen and the grumpy bookstore owner, Anders, was so fun! And I liked how it played on the "book boyfriend" trope. There was one scene that started getting spicier that I like to read, so I skipped over that. But overall, this was such a fun read and very relatable to everyone who has ever had their life changed by a story/book.

When Eileen Merriweather's friends bail on their annual book club trip one by one she decides to go by herself. On the way her car breaks down and she finds herself in the fictional town her favourite romance novels take place in. She thinks she's here to help the characters find their happily ever afters, but the grumpy bookstore owner she doesn't remember reading about doesn't want her interfering.

This book was such a delight! I'm a big fan of Ashely Poston's Big Feelings Books and this one did not disappoint. Despite the fantastical setting, the characters felt grounded and relatable. The way Poston takes on the challenges of adult friendships felt so real.

Whatever Ashley Poston puts in her books, I always need more of it. She is magical. Her worlds are so whimsical and amazing. I love the characters in this book. The whole concept, I could’ve read about this story for another hundred pages.

This story was perfect. I loved every freaking second of it & am so grateful I got to read it early 🧡

Long story short, there was just no chemistry (no matter how many times I tried to convince myself otherwise) and the romance just didn’t do it for me at all (especially when it all was wrapped up with a very jarring f2b moment). The romance took a while to start, then they had a really great kiss, then they kept getting interrupted. Then when they were FINALLY under the hot and steamy waterfall they had openish door foreplay…and then one “and after it was over” sentence to sum up the penetration and any subsequent details.

Like it wasn’t even a new chapter break, it was just a new paragraph on the same page as his dirty talking telling her what he was going to do it her!! Just on a craft level, it was really weirdly done. Real bummer guys, real bummer. I would’ve preferred full closed door because I was not expecting a spicy book! But then he made me think it was going to go kinda hard!!

What’s the point of explicitish foreplay but then giving absolutely NOTHING on the same page for the full scene? He was talking such a big game too like WHAT DO YOU MEAN ??? I felt led on. I was also hoping the sex would help fix the chemistry issues for me (I know it’s not a fix but I’m just a girl who wanted to love this book) so it doubly ruined any momentum I had.

Oh and I hated the twist in the third act and was really skeeved by the breakup bc WHAT DO YOU MEAN ???? Shit was morbid fam ???? And then a final thing happened right at the end and I was like “nope two stars that makes me sad and I didn’t like how that made me feel.” The ending was so rushed and random and this book definitely suffered from the absence of Anders’ POV because wtf happened during that break bc explain yourself sir???? I’m a notorious single POV lover but I really didn’t know that man, which neither did Elsy…and she mentioned it…and then it was magically fixed with a time jump. I’m sorry to that man but I really just did not care about him by the end.

The magic element was also just confusing in this one and somehow harder for my brain to make sense of than seeing dead people or a time traveling apartment. Either the magic was semi explained in the other books…or I’ve seen Just Like Heaven and The Lake House enough so I could grasp the concepts and just go for a ride. Further, I just never fully got invested in the fantasy element. Since she already knew all the side characters there was way more telling rather than showing and I felt pretty removed from most characters in the book.

Further, the book felt more about the writing than the plot/romance if that makes sense? Like it sounded beautiful but there wasn’t much substance plot wise. So I didn’t truly hate the book at any moment because I enjoyed the writing, and part of me was like “it’s three stars at least” but I am getting angrier the more I’m thinking about it, so two stars it stays. It was ~fine, but still a major disappointment.

Overall, in the grand scheme of things, the f2b did not truly impact my enjoyment of the book! That was really just a weird craft thing to me. But I really needed more chemistry throughout the entire book and I just was never feeling the romance. The thing that really made me angry was the third act reveal/breakup/twist/whatever. I simply didn’t like what it did for the story and the characters. Oh, and I was more confused than intrigued but the fictional book town. Le sigh.

⭐️⭐️.5/5 🌶️/5



Spoiler (I guess but also it doesn’t actually spoil what happens)

I really wish the end twist would’ve been that she was in a side character in a book the entire time and she found this town right when the author was starting her book LOL. Idk if I would’ve been fully into that ?? but I like it better than what we got.


I received an eARC from the publisher. All opinions are honest and my own.

What a fun concept! I really loved it. This is my third novel by this with and it falls in second place to The Dead Romantics (which I’m obsessed with the references of in this book). My biggest complaint would be the repetition of the word “mint”. Thank you for the chance to read this early.

What a sweet story! This was an ARC, so I think there will likely be some fixes before the final product, but it was wonderful to fall into a world of tropes that feels like fantasy and reality at the same time. Levels! I'm a sucker for a romance with a take on "I'm in the book." This was like Schmigadoon for romance fans.