This book wasn’t awful but it simply wasn’t for me. I thought the author wrote flawed characters really well but the growth left something to be desired. The characters either didn’t change at all or when straight from point A to point Z with no stops along the way.

Also the characters in the book hate insta love and the miscommunication trope which is ironic because this book has some of the worst instances of both.

If Lindsey Kelk writes it, I will read it. I loved this book and devoured it. The banter between Sophie and Joe was amazing. I didn’t want this book to end and was sad when i read the last sentence. I would love to see a sequel and see what happens to Sarah.

i loved this so much!! the perfect short and sweet romcom that will leave you swooning. i loved the characters and their chemistry. the pacing and writing were also fantastic. i would read more from this author

I was very excited about this book, and while it didn't exceed my expectations, it was an enjoyable read.

Sophie Taylor is a primary school teacher with a big secret—she’s also Este Cox, the anonymous romance author that everyone’s desperate to uncover. The premise had potential, and while there were some entertaining moments, the book didn’t fully land for me.

The chemistry between Sophie and Joe is undeniable, and if you're here for spicy scenes, you're in luck—there’s plenty of it. But for me, the overuse of certain tropes, like the miscommunication one, felt tired and a bit frustrating. It felt like it dragged the plot down, especially when it led to the predictable third-act breakup.

Kelk does touch on some interesting points about how romance novels are perceived, which I appreciated, but the pop-culture references were a bit too heavy-handed for my taste....there were A LOT of them. The constant nods to real-life authors and Taylor Swift took me out of the story more than they added to it.

Overall, it was an okay read with some fun moments, but I didn't connect with the story or characters as much as I hoped. Fans of Kelk will probably enjoy it more, especially with the added spice, but for me, it just didn’t quite hit the mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Love Story is a cute, romantic comedy that will leave you in stiches.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper360 for the ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

Sophie Taylor is keeping a big secret. She’s the author of an international, bestselling romance novel. No one knows, especially not her snobby literary family, because she wrote it under a pseudonym. After Joe Walsh, the marketing director at her publishing company, finds out that she’s the author of the world’s hottest book, Sophie must decide if she’s going to come clean and take credit for her novel, and how exactly Joe is going to fit into all of it.
This book was so much fun. It’s enemies to lovers romcom with lots of great banter. It is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a while. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend that you check this one out.
Thank you to NetGalley, Lindsey Kelk, and Harper360 for providing me with a free digital reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review.

📚ARC Review 📚

Love Story⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sophie Taylor is a primary school teacher with a really big secret. She is also Este Cox, the best-selling author of the book Butterflies. There’s only two people who knows her secret but when she runs into Joe Walsh, who is the editorial director for the publisher, and accidentally leaves her tote bag with the draft of her next book, things are about to change.


Overall, this was just ok for me. I felt like there were too many real life/pop culture references for my liking. The characters were ok but not really my favorite. I did like Joe and Sophie’s banter. The enemies to love her trope was there, but I felt like it could’ve been better. I felt like Sophie’s character was too hung up on caring what other people thought about her, especially when she’s a grown adult. Her brother was funny but her younger sister was super bratty. I think because I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters and their chemistry (insta love trope), I had a hard time connecting with the book and being able to really enjoy it.

This book will publish on September 17, 2024. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for my advanced readers copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

Repeat this with me, please: Being a teacher is not a bad thing, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. So please can we, in 2024, stop using that argument even if it’s just in books? And while we are at it, stop ridiculing romance, because there’s nothing wrong or uncultured in reading the genre!

For how educated and successful the parents of the FMC where portrayed to be, they were nothing more that pieces of shit, because the amount of creo they let their youngest child get away with is unbelievable–stealing, blackmailing…

Apart from the constant pop culture references, there is a paragraph that’s just the author dropping romance author names, it feels like just for the sake of name dropping.

Also, trigger warning—it really isn’t, but really should be—in chapter 25, when they are about to do the deed, he asks her what her favourite tropes are, and she tells him, whilst undressing him. I don’t know about you but that would not turn me on at all.

And when you though the book could not get any worse, you find out the MMC has a wife, and he’s been cheating on her, and then they have the first conversation since the discovery in a M&G, where they mention another trope.

Thanks again to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the arc of this book.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was super cute! The pace was quick and really engaging which is what I mostly look for when I’m reading. I loved the chemistry Sophie and Joe had and even all the side characters were fun and enjoyable to read. It was like watching a 2000s romcom but in book form!

One of my favorite things about the story was the banter. I found myself laughing along with every joke and rolling my eyes at the others. I’ll say it again but it really did feel straight out of a romantic comedy. Like the attention to detail?? Incredible.

Plus the Taylor Swift references?? 10/10

Love Story was a cute rom com following an author trying to keep her identity secret as her book rises to a best seller.

This book was super cute. The two main characters had great chemistry and the plot points kept moving at a great pace. We really got to understand Sophie and her reasoning for keeping her novel a secret. The book kept me interesting and the little Taylor Swift references were cute!

The one thing that I was iffy about in this book was the timeline. 90% of this book supposedly happens over a 3 day period before a time jump at the end to 3 months later. The love story felt like an insta-love story. The ending also didn’t seem finished. I was expecting an epilogue at the end that never came.

But overall this book was cute!

Love Story gave me all the butterflies!
If you were into British popular culture from 2012-2017, this book is for you!

Remember, Zoella/ Tanya Burr/ or Sprinkle of Glitter? This book transported me right back to my early college self of watching British Youtubers in all their glory. And, I mean that in the best way possible. (Joe himself may have given me some Marcus Butler vibes and that's why I was so smitten.)
The storyline isn't set around youtubers but it's filled with British terminology, trends, and language that are my guilty pleasure. So, if you're like me and love all things BritPop, this is the one for you!

The book itself is set in present day, but the feeling has me rushing back to what it felt like to be OBSESSED with something or someone. The way this entire city is, with the infamous Butterflies. The way this book had me WISHING I could open up my kindle and start Butterflies right along with everyone else.

Love Story was cute, romantic, a bit steamy, and in some parts I actually LOL'd (legitimately, I laughed out loud!) I loved the TSwift name drops, and I have to think her Fearless album would make a great backdrop to this book.

My only critique, I wish there was more steam as Sophie and Joe have major BED CHEM!

This is my first read by Lindsey Kelk and it definitely made me want to add all of her books to my TBR, immediately! For fans of Abby Jimenez, Tessa Bailey, and Ali Hazelwood!


Thank you Harper 360 for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Homage to old movies!

Sophie Taylor is a primary school teacher with a really big secret as the best-selling author Este Cox. But her secret hits a glitch when she runs into Joe Walsh who is the editorial director for the publisher and she accidently leaves her tote bag with him with the draft of her next book thinking that it was gone forever.

Sophie never expected to see Joe at her parent’s house for her dad’s birthday party because he’s the son of her dad’s editorial enemy especially when they had to stay in the stay in the cottage that has only one bed and a couch.

Love Story is a homage to old movies where you can pick out the specific movies and scenes that are over the top and make you laugh because she doesn't want anybody to know that she wrote Butterflies

P.S. I loved Sophie’s sister Charlotte!

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

This novel was Lindsey Kelk's ode to romance novels and the best romance novelists. After a painful breakup, Sophie authored a salacious romance, under a pen name, that became a best seller and was optioned for a movie. Only her manager brother and publisher godfather know she is author Este Cox. Super handsome creative director Joe finds out, she loses the manuscript for her second novel, along with evidence of her identity, and everyone convenes at her family estate for her father's birthday. Along the way many nods to romance tropes. It was fun and funny.

My take: 4.25 out of 5. A sweet romance I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this and that is as strong endorsement as you can get from me. I loved the banter, the enemies to lovers, the family shenanigans, and as absurd as her hiding her persona is I kind of felt for her too. Also Joe Walsh was a great book romance. In general I loved how much of a love letter to romances and female authors it was and an empowerment of all reading habits. Two of my favorite quotes:

"instalove is my least favorite trope" i strongly agree!

"that's why I think modern romance novels are so brilliant they celebrate women exactly as they are"

A romance novel within a romance novel? Sounds a bit meta!

'Love Story' follows Sophie's rise to fame as a romance author. Except the problem is that no one knows that the author is actually her. Sophie's job as a teacher and her well-known literary critic parents holds her back from revealing that she is in fact the best seller of a very popular romance book. While at a meeting with her publisher, she runs into joe who is the hot shot art/marketing director at her publishing company. From there it's simultaneously insta-love and insta-hate.

The premise of the book is what caught my attention. In some ways, I enjoyed Sophie as a character and appreciated a lot of her internal struggles with confidence and seeking validation from others. For the most part, I liked Sophie and Joe together too. Insta-love isn't my favorite. while they were instantly attracted to each other, I did enjoy the buildup of their relationship throughout the book.

While I did like Sophie, I didn't care for many of the side characters, especially her mom and little sister Charlotte. Her mom has either rude opinions on teachers or is flippant about hating romance novels if a man wrote it. Charlotte was straight up annoying. Her obsession with finding out and publicly revealing an anonymous author is not the move. The only side characters I did like were William and Sarah because they didn't annoy me.

Admittedly, I don't like excessive pop-culture mentions in books. I read for escapism and not to be reminded of TikTok. This book had its fair share of pop culture to the point where I feel like most of it won't age well. Speaking of things not aging well, there were a few "dark humor" comments about Slyvia Plath (I'm not going to repeat them but I'm sure you can guess what they would be). For a book that is supposed to be a lighthearted romcom, these comments felt so out of place.

2.75 stars.

Thank you net galley for the arc.

Sophie is a brilliantly funny FMC that wants to keep her success quiet, mainly because she doesn’t think her work is good enough for her parents. You see, they are giants in the literary world and Sophie knows that if they ever found out that she wrote an internationally best-selling “smut" book, they’ll be terribly disappointed.

What Sophie doesn’t count on is a pain-in-the-arse marketing director who’s hot–literally–on her trail! Joe knows that something is up with Sophie and he’s up for the challenge in discovering what it is. When the pair are thrust together for a family weekend event, it’ll take all Sophie’s willpower to keep her secret under wraps, and… to keep her thoughts to herself while sharing close quarters with Smokeshow Joe. Cue the hijinks, and the blazing chemistry!

Love Story is a fun read that had me laughing, swooning, and tearing up right alongside the characters. The storyline is brilliantly written, the characters are quirky and relatable, and the journey Sophie takes is an endearing and heartfelt one.

Love Story is also a great defender of the romance genre as a whole. Why we constantly have to defend why we love romance is ridiculous. It’s a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to get lost in a book where a character (that’s easily relatable) finds their confidence and the courage to become their authentic self and accept that they are worthy of the gifts they’ve been given, that they are worthy of love, and of being treated with respect. That their thoughts and opinions matter. The romance genre gives strength, encouragement, and inspiration. It gives us permission to dream our impossible dreams and to love freely and without apology.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Love Story and highly recommend it. This is my first read by Lindsey Kelk and she’s definitely made a new fan.

Well.... I love the cover, the synopsis, and the various bits of humor in this book. It had all the makings of a cute rom com but I felt like the writing style was just not for me. It fell flat for me unfortunately.

It’s obvious that Kelk is a student of romcoms. This book is her black belt test and she nailed it! It references classics like Bridget Jones to modern authors like Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, Elena Armas and more. This had funny scenes a la Bridget Jones that had me cracking up. The secondary characters were fun and even though this was closed door, the tension and chemistry were there. This British romcom is worth the read.

Thank you Harper 360 for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Oh dear.

What even.

This book felt more like satire than a rom-com. It was absolutely painful to get through. The pop-culture references, the critiques about romance that male lead makes are arguments that have been made many times before and everything was too *ripped from IRL* that very quickly, barely 10% into the book, got deep into cringe town and it was absolutely painful to work through.

Everything was too much and couldn't really enjoy anything about it. Also, instead of it feeling like an insightful look at the industry, it all came on too strong and with the fem lead being a Nepo Baby doesn't help.

Also, male lead's big secret? NO. Nope.

<spoiler>He's MARRIED?!</spoiler>

Browsing Netgalley I saw the cover for Love Story and I thought that’s cute; I'll shoot my shot for an ARC Copy and I’m so glad I did! So Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins and Lindsey Kelk for the ARC!

Lindsey wrote the cutest romance ever! I loved how all the characters, even the side ones really made the story what it was and that it was set in the literary world. This is my first read by Lindsey but I am definitely going to be reading some of her other books.

The characters are both so relatable and their development as a couple is grand! I loved the enemies to lovers, along with all the laughs. I found myself still thinking about this book when I would have to put it down. I also loved all the pop culture references– even if I’m a Swiftie (Please don’t kill me.) It felt very real and relatable with references to BookTok, and real authors we read and interact with on Bookstgram. I truly just loved the RomCom feel good vibes this book brought!