Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read! 4 / 5 stars.
This is such a love letter to romance novels and the publishing industry. I think in some ways this has been overdone (we know, we know, romance isn't just ding-dongs and fabios anymore) but I really enjoyed the perspective of Sophie, a daughter to major elites in the publishing industry who has written the best selling romance book of the year under a pen name. I loved seeing the family dynamic of pride and self worth play out over a very short period of time, and I particularly liked the yo-yo of her mom as she grappled with who the author was and then her feelings about the book. This felt SO real to me. Also her brother is just straight up adorable.
I've said before and I'll stick with it: I think British banter is by FAR the best,so there were points that were truly laugh out loud funny to me. Instalove is not one of my favorite tropes but I thought this was done pretty well. Its slightly open door and very chemistry heavy. I didn't love the third act break up...I knew with how quickly Joe and Sophie got together it was going to have to be a little messy, but it just didn't feel the most believable. I also really really missed an epilogue. I got to the end and thought wait...thats it?
But a wonderful read, particularly if you love romance books!

Unfortunately I'm not sure if I'm the correct audience for this particular style of contemporary romance. Lindsey Kelk's writing style is great, I love her voice, but unfortunately this story fell flat for me. The tropes used while also poking fun at the exact same tropes made the book feel self aware enough to know better, and the constant mention of tiktok, booktok, and real-life musicians worked against the argument made throughout the book that romance genre is valuable because it acts as escapism (because it just felt too realistic even though the story's actual events were not). The fact that I did make it through the story is a testament to Lindsey Kelk's quality of writing, because I would get distracted abruptly by a tiktok reference or a line about Taylor Swift, and then pulled back in by the events occurring. Overall though, the main conflict carried on a bit too long and overshadowed the romantic conflict, causing the resolution to feel rushed.

On the positive side I did enjoy the general concept - the idea that parents that work in literary fiction or traditional book reviewing industries may not approve of romance novels was a great way to discuss the ongoing discourse we see constantly online and in book spaces about their merit. I loved the inclusion of a romance-only bookstore being a "risky" but overwhelmingly successful venture, too, as we've seen them do well in real life. Charlotte was my favorite in the family, but I wish her main flaw wasn't something so agitating and almost unrealistic for someone mature enough to put together a proposal for her parents and open a business.

Overall I'm rating this a 2.75 / 5 but rounding up to 3 for Netgalley. Thank you to Harper 360 and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay my bookish Swifties - if you’re anything like me and Love Story was your jam back in 2009 let me introduce you to your next read!
Filled with some of our favorite artist’s Easter eggs, Love Story is all about Sophie Taylor - a grade school teacher in the UK who happens to write one of the best selling romance novels of the year….except no one knows because she wrote it under the name Este (!! Ahh I see what you did there Lindsey) Cox. That is until publishing dreamboat Joe Walsh finds out Sophie’s secret. I won’t spoil anything for you but omg I loved this book - and not just because of the Taylor Swift references. Romance novels sometimes get a bad rap - with people often implying they’re smut with no substance, not actually literature, the list goes on. Sophie is fighting all of this throughout Love Story and Lindsey does an amazing job at addressing the importance of these books, how many of these stories helped readers realize that they deserve more in their relationship, physically or otherwise and I adore how Lindsey addresses this through Sophie dealing with her secret. Not to mention Joe is definitely your golden retriever type guy hidden under a “players” skin. While Joe and Sophie’s enemies to lovers story is a part of it, the heart of this book is about owning what you love and if that includes romance novels - be HELLA proud of it. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC! I can’t wait to add this one to my trophy shelf when it comes out!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Meh... DNF. I only made it about halfway through and then tried to skim to the end but, honestly, didn't care enough about any of the characters to find out what happened at the end of the story. It wasn't clear why the two main characters were so attracted to each other and their banter just didn't do it for me. I think part of the problem is, although I'm not looking for realistic characters in a fun rom-com, they have to be believable. The entire cast of characters felt a bit too cartoon-like for me.

Like Heather X (see her great review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6447934097), the only character I liked was Sophie's brother, William. I did enjoy the banter between them. Oh yeah, and it was cool to have a cameo appearance of the Adonis-like butcher from "A Christmas Wish", a Lindsey Kelk story that I really enjoyed.

Anyway, I recommend reading "A Christmas Wish" and "On a Night Like This" as those are my two favorites by this author.

Strong 3.5/5 that I did not put down once I started. This was a fun spin on the mistaken identity trope with a little enemies to lovers and miscommunication thrown in. It is called Love Story after all!

Two quibbles: 1) Joe Walsh as love interest name was hard for this American who follows politics, and 2) the cover does not match the Joe that I read in this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advanced copy.

With the anticipation of the reveal of who Este Cox is, everyone thinking the author is Joe, and the drama with Sophie's parents I could not put Love Story down. I enjoyed all the modern references in the book, especially to real-life romance authors. I loved 95% of the book, but I thought the ending could be better, and less rushed. The drama with Joe's marriage of convivence was random and felt unnecessary. Overall, I enjoyed the book, I just wished we got more of Sophie and Joe being in a happy relationship.

This was a quick read and pretty engaging story. The story focuses on a teacher who is afraid to share with her well-known literary family that she’s secretly a bestselling romance author. The book explores how people view romance books as lesser than literary fiction. I thought the message was good, but I felt like the author was trying very hard to not include a lot of cliches. There were plot points that surprised me but the ending felt rushed and unoriginal. Overall it’s an entertaining romance read with some deeper themes.

Love Story is for the romance readers, it truly is a love story to the genre. Sophie has a big secret, she has written a romance book that has become a huge hit, but struggles with wanting to keep her identity as the author anonymous. The story starts in London, where she meets Joe who works at the publishing house for her book. They spend the afternoon together before she heads home to her family for a weekend long celebration of her father’s birthday. Joe ends up at the weekend party, and the story continues from there.

As a fan of Lindsey Kelk’s books I was very excited to get to read the advanced copy of Love Story. The book had some similarities to her book, In Case You Missed It, for me. While I didn’t love it quite as much as The Christmas Wish and Love Me Do, it was a fun read and I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

Love Story had a great central story and I really enjoyed the dialog between the main characters. Along with that we had a number of side characters and a story surrounding the weekend celebrations. I really loved some of the side characters, but others were truly awful. If you love a lot of drama in your romcom’s then this book is for you.

This book combines a lot of quick paced fun and hijinks with a really solid romance story. I recommend this for anyone who loves an exciting and heartwarming romcom!

Thank you to the publisher Harper 360 and NetGalley for the gifted digital ARC to review in exchange for my honest review.

Everyone thinks Sophie is just a schoolteacher, but she has a secret. She has also written the smash hit romance, Butterflies, under a pen name. When she meets a hot marketing executive named Joe, she can’t stand him and his self assured nature. She can’t believe her bad luck when she returns home for a birthday party to find that she’s sharing a cottage with… Joe.

I really enjoy Lindsey Kelk’s writing! She is funny and writes such relatable characters, and I was so excited to have a chance to read this book early. I loved how she incorporated so many nods to other romance authors, romance tropes, and the genre in general, while also pointing out how it is looked down upon by some people in the literary world. She also pointed out how teaching as a profession can be looked down upon by others, which I have personally experienced as a teacher, so obviously I found that very relatable! The tropes in this book were excellent: enemies to lovers, he falls first, instalove, forced proximity, and only one bed. It was fun how the characters actually discuss their own tropes too!

Thank you to Lindsey Kelk and Harper 360 for the arc and the opportunity to be an early reader and reviewer.

4.5 stars! This book was so fun! I loved the storyline and the writing. It was fast paced without getting sloppy, and also dialogue heavy without losing the plot! I also appreciated the references to Bridget Jones and Pride & Prejudice etc. Sophie, the main character, felt relatable but also unique and not a copy paste of every other female main character I’ve already read! I would recommend this book to those who love light hearted fun romances (especially set in England!) and look forward to reading more by this author in the future! Thank you to NetGalley, the Publisher, and Lindsey Kelk for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I enjoyed the writing, which was funny, bright, and set a good pace. I liked the banter and I really liked that there was banter between characters outside of the main couple; Sophie's volleys with her brother, William, for example, had me cracking a grin.

But I didn't love this one and I didn't love Sophie or Joe; she's too self-involved and he's a toolbag (i.e. maybe don't out yourself about committing fraud during a packed Q&A session for a burgeoning billionaire in the age of the Internet). I didn't always see how or why they were annoyed with one another, so their tension felt flimsy at best, non-existent at worst.. But it still somehow got them on the path to semi-open door, garage cottage sex.

I also didn't really appreciate the non-stop pop culture references. Although they were amusing at first, gradually they supplanted the narrative rather than supplemented it. Points, though, for the heart-to-heart conversation with Sophie's mom.

I really wanted to love this book. The premise was unique and intriguing, and I was genuinely excited to dive into it. However, I found myself disappointed as I read. The book’s potential was overshadowed by a few key issues. For one, the MMC came across as a condescending jerk, which made it difficult to empathize with him or root for his character. Additionally, the enemies-to-lovers trope, which I usually enjoy, didn’t resonate in this story. The dynamic between Joe and Sophie felt forced, and I struggled to see any genuine chemistry between them. This lack of connection made it hard for me to engage with their relationship and fully enjoy the narrative. Despite its promising premise, the execution just didn’t hit the mark for me.

Thank you to Harper 350 for the ARC of this one! I have never read a book by Lindsey Kelk before but I definitely will read more now. I devoured this one in an evening and I just loved it so much! The main characters seemed so real and I just love an unlikely love story!

Sophie is a primary school teacher who has written a bestselling romance novel under a secret pseudonym. She does f want to reveal her identity for fear of other people's judgement. Joe works at the publishing house where her book is published and their first meeting is anything but stellar. He comes across as judgemental of romance in general and Sophie feel judged and irritated by his presence. As she travels to the country for her dad's birthday celebration, she runs into Joe, who is there with his father who is a friend of her dad's. They spend them together and forge an unlikely connection. There's some miscommunication which isn't always my favorite but I truly loved this one. Perfect book for fans of people like Sophie Cousens, Falon Ballard, etc. Thanks for the opportunity to review it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I love Lindsey Kelk’s books as there doesn’t seem to a be a bad one, she is just a guaranteed great story with heart, characters who are light and funny, and excellent writing every time. Of course I was not disappointed with Love Story which continues her stellar record.

Love Story introduces us to Sophie, a teacher and low key romance writer of the most famous book out there right now. Sophie hides her identity as the author due to her parent’s very high brow book ties (her father is a publisher of very serious books, her mother a literary critic of very serious books), but when Sophie attends her father’s big top birthday weekend all bets are off. Post drunken karaoke and blow up with her publisher’s creative director, Joe, she is shocked to have him arrive for the wedding weekend and stuck with him in her family’s shed turned dream cottage for the duration. While he is absolutely gorgeous and sweet, he says some jerky things early on and doesn’t want a relationship. Very quickly we see the two’s chemistry and are laughing at their shenanigans and banter…. Until the weekend goes in the wrong direction thanks to horrid exes and secrets revealed.

I loved the humor in this story and the way the plot’s main conflicts could have been very real (if you wrote a spicy book would you want your parents and boss to know as first instinct?). I couldn’t put this down and can’t wait for more, but especially encourage you to read this if you want a strong romantic comedy and are intrigued by a writer slipping in her own perspective and experience with a genre that can have conflicting opinions associated with it.

I loved the premise of this story. We all love our romance novels so one about a romance author is a fun spin.

The book flowed so well and I genuinely couldn't put it down. That being said, I wanted more, more depth into the characters and more into the resolution

Lindsey Kelk brings her trademark humour, a touch of satire and Taylor Swift references to 'Love Story', a love story about love stories and how its a derided genre.

Daughter of two literati and publishing titans, school teacher Sophie the secret author of a blockbuster romance novel. The only two people who know are her agent brother William and her godfather publisher Malcolm. That is, until Joe, Creative Director at her publisher crashes her celebratory lunch with Malcolm and promptly guesses who Sophie is. Throw in Sophie's lost laptop containing her long-awaited second book and a weekend birthday party in the country with the who's who of publishing and Sophie finds herself caught in the madness while trying to hide her simmering attraction to Joe and big secret.

I really enjoyed this book and I liked the budding romance with Joe, who finds himself baffled that he's found himself falling in love on first sight. I hated the way Sophie and her parents let spoilt 18-year-old younger sister Charlotte get away with everything from stealing Sophie's handbag and generally just going through her stuff. I found her absolutely insufferable and thought she needed to be taken down a peg or two. That said she was so well written. For me, though, the highlight was Sophie's relationship with her brother William.

I think its Lindsey Kelk's wittiest and spiciest. Kelk makes some very sharp observations about the publishing world (cackled at the name of Sophie's publisher who bared a very close resemblance to Kelk's) and literary snobs.

However, at times, I think this book is too heavy-handed in making its point about the romance genre and how its derided because women love it. I think this is partly because I've lately read a lot of romance books about romance books/authors that the meta-ness of it all is becoming old. At one part of the book, Kelk spends half a paragraph listing real-life romance authors and tropes are called out as they happen. And while sister Charlotte's dialogue, while spot on characterisation of a Gen Zer, also belabours the point about woman and romance. For a book that will be read by this same audience, surely this is a captured audience?

Thanks to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the ARC.

2.5 ⭐️

If a book cover has an endorsement by Emily Henry on it, then I know (or hope) it’s going to be good. I had high hopes for this book but it ultimately just was not it for me. I almost gave up reading it due to how much I did not connect and truly disliked the main characters in this story but ended up finishing it. I actually liked the pop culture references and love an enemies to lovers moment but had a hard time feeling the love between Sophie and Joe.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC!

Lindsey Kelk is one of the queens of romance who never ceases to amaze me with her heartfelt and entertaining romcoms. Especially when she adds obnoxious, very eccentric family members into the equation, so much is guaranteed. I have to admit I never resist the charm of my favorite tropes: forced proximity (separated by curtains is a great tribute to "It Happened One Night") and enemies to lovers! (Later it added love at first sight and he fell first tropes that I don't much enjoy, like main character Sophie Taylor does, but they still blended perfectly into the entire formula I truly enjoyed.) There's even Montague vs. Capulet-like fight between enemy families that made me guffaw a lot!

The steamy chemistry that set most of the chapters on fire between Sophie and Joe was brilliant! Hate at first sight slowly turns into lust when they first meet under the wrong circumstances: when Sophie makes a secret meeting about her book, perfectly hiding her identity using the pseudonym Este Cox, she's ambushed by the creative director of their publishing company, the smug, privileged, but also hot-as-hell Joe Walsh, who's questioning the identity of the author and mocking her book. Sophie doesn't leave without a fight, even though she has a train to catch to her family's countryside house to celebrate the festivities of her powerful editor father, who has already secretly shared his activity spreadsheets and invited tons of people created to irritate her.

Sophie stays for lunch to share a few shots of Baileys with the disgusting-at-first-sight Joe Walsh while their pissing contest banters take an extra turn. They continue day drinking, finding themselves singing duets on the stage of a karaoke bar. But drinking fuels the lust, and hatred forces Sophie to dramatically leave the bar to hop on her train.

When she's ushered by her brother William, who's also her agent and one of the few people who knows her secret bestseller identity, at the train station, she realizes she forgot her tote bag carrying a special edition of her book, her drafts for her second book, and her laptop! This is truly a disaster! Anyone who finds it will also discover the secret identity she's kept from her very literary snob parents: her criticizing editor father and harshest book critic mother who easily end authors' careers. And let's not forget her 19-year-old sister Charlotte, who is spoiled and extremely self-absorbed, recently opened a bookstore, conducts marketing campaigns as a BookToker on TikTok, slams books, and is interestingly a big fan of Sophie's "Butterflies" (Sophie is not sure her sister would highly defend her book if she found out her big sister wrote it!)

When William and Sophie arrive at the family house, Sophie thinks she can manage only a few days without killing anyone, plastering a smile on her face as her parents talk trash about her book in her vicinity (what if they find out she wrote it?!) Yes, she knows her father is a typical drama king wearing clown costumes to emphasize his sarcasm towards the literary world, her mother keeps spoiling her younger sister, creating disasters in the kitchen, and gossiping with her pretentious bunch of friends, while her sister Charlotte makes it her biggest mission to reveal the real identity of Este Cox on her TikTok account, nosing around Sophie's belongings. They've also invited her least favorite misogynistic, xenophobic uncle and aunt! Her father even invited her ex C.J.: the same man she knew as Colin and dated, lived with for five years, and even financed so he could concentrate on his book, who then stole her book idea and, as soon as he had a publishing agreement, dumped Sophie. The reason? Well, he became too famous to date a small-town school teacher.

But this is not the only disaster she has to get through. Her father also invited his arch-nemesis Geoffrey with a secret agenda, and Geoffrey's son decides to join his father: his son is none other than Joe Walsh! And that's not all: her father forces them to share a cottage because there's not enough space at the house for their guests! Oh boy, you think this is the last straw! Nope, this is just the beginning because it seems like Joe Walsh has found out her secret and, interestingly, he calls a truce and helps her keep it safe! But why? Does he have a secret agenda other than getting into her pants? Well, she can let him do that even though she highly doubts she can trust him, but sparks keep flying, attraction is palpable, and she doesn't know where to stop. Oh boy, does she even want to resist his charms?

Overall: It seems like the end part of the book is a little rushed and a big conflict is solved a bit faster than expected, which made me feel there could be a sequel because I had some unanswered questions in my mind, and it felt like there should be more adventures awaiting them. I wish there would be another book! I'm so open to spending more time with Sophie & Josh and Sophie's eccentric family! (In the beginning, I found them too irritating, but they kept growing on me! William is an exception, whom I loved from the first chapter he was introduced.)

I highly recommend this very entertaining romcom! It's captivating, funny, and so much fun is guaranteed! I'm looking forward to reading more Lindsey Kelk books in the near future! She never disappoints me!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for sharing this entertaining romcom's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc! It was a cute romance with lots of fun pop culture references sprinkled in. The romance was palpable! I can’t wait to read more by this author!

I can not begin to express how much I enjoyed this book! Even though I felt personally attacked throughout the book, I was laughing almost the whole time because something was either relatable or just genuinely funny. Sophie is an author to an erotic novel, but she can't let her parents know. Both her mother and father are both well known in the publishing/critic industry and would be ashamed if they knew their daughter wrote such a novel.

Her journey leads her to cross paths with a guy named Joe. He works for the publishing company that her novel is under. I loved their relationship throughout the book. They were so quick with their snarky come backs which constantly left me laughing.

Sophie's father has a 60th birthday party with quite the questionable guest list. Her father's frenemy, his son Joe, her ex CJ, and several other family members attend. What could possibly go wrong? Will her family find out her true identity as the author Este Cox?

I personally loved all of the mentions of authors, book titles, and other tid bits that I could relate to or understand. Did I start reading a bunch of popular booktok books when I first started reading? Yes. Was Iron Flame one of my favorite books? Also yes. I don't even want to mention the minotaurs. This novel was just downright humorous the entire time. I would LOVE to see a special editon of this book with sprayed edges so that I can add it to my growing collection.

Thank you so much Netgalley, Lindsey Kelk, and Harper360 for an ARC! This was one of my favorite books this year. 5/5🍓