I've only heard positive reviews for all of Annabel Monaghan's books. I myself have read one of her other books and loved it. Sadly, this book and I lacked connection. I pushed to about chapter 12 before I decided it was time to DNF. I struggled connecting with the FMC (Jane Jackson) and felt little toward the MMC (Dan Finnegan). To each their own. Many people have enjoyed this book. So if I find someone looking for a light hearted and simple read for the summer, I'd have no problem suggesting they try It's a Love Story. I do plan on reading more of her books.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

It’s A Love Story
4.25 ⭐️

This book was so much sweeter than I expected! If you haven’t given Annabel Monaghan a try before, her books feel a lot like a Katherine Center novel.

Jane has found the perfect script, but to convince others she’s got to bring in a background song from her past. As she chases down the now famous singer, she’s forced to work with her colleague, Dan.

I loved the family she found with Dan’s family. While I wanted to shake her a little bit at the end, that character growth was chef’s kiss.

Thanks to @netgalley for this arc!

Always love a good rom com, especially from this author! Annabel never disappoints. When I saw her new book come out, I knew it would be enjoyable. And it was! Characters easy to relate to, fun storyline, and an easy, delightful read. Thanks NetGalley, publishers, and author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a sweetly addictive “friends-to-lovers” romance that I became enamored with.
30-something Jane Jackson is former child celebrity “Jamey Jakes” and this book is told in her voice.
I’ve never read a book where the main character is a child actor. I find that most of the time, this kind of life is a fairy-tale turned nightmare for the child actor. They are cast aside by everyone when they have the audacity to grow up.

Jane had some serious childhood trauma, which causes her to build a wall around her heart. This makes it difficult, obviously, for her to ever find her true love.

Her emotional journey and growth are written so tenderly, as he damaged heart fights for her sense of self-worth.
She is such a sympathetic character. I honestly wanted to jump into the pages and give her a hug.

I loved how, in signature Monaghan style, there is strong sexual tension between Jane and her love interest, without the blush worthy explicitness. I don’t know how she achieves this , but it’s an admirable skill.

I don’t want to reveal the love interest because I was wrong about who it was going to be.

I loved the beach backdrop of Long Island. Dinners of soft shell crab and cold beer, That always a little sandy and a little sunburned feeling. Giving up on good hair days.

In the acknowledgements , Monaghan says she started creating the character of Janey Jakes while reading the memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy. I’m definitely reading that next!

Annabel Monaghan made magic again. She can’t write these books fast enough for me!!!

Historically, I’ve found Annabel Monaghan’s books to be quick, refreshing palate cleansers. Her books are short and sweet. Unfortunately, this book lacked the Monaghan’s normal magic. This is her most underwhelming book and her longest. I think the most frustrating part was the third act break up, which I could see coming from a mile away, but it still made me mad.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this story.

I absolutely ate this story up. Maybe I have been reading too many romance novels but this was so cute.

Jane is a childhood tv star who is now a creative director trying to get her first movie green lighted. Dan is a moody cinematographer who is going to be working with the script as well. Little to the readers knowledge is that they have HISTORY.

Everyone in this book was amazing. I loved Clem and Dans entire family. This book is full of love and fun.

I have no bad thoughts I loved it and I’m a sucker for a good romance.

This book was a meh for me. Not my favorite by this author which was kind of a bummer because I’ve read and loved her other books. Something about the two MCs just didn’t click for me. Maybe it’s because we got a limited pov from Dan’s’ side but he felt like he didn’t really care for anything and then BAM, magically he’s in love with our FMC. There were a few parts that had me blushing but more often I was questioning if Dan even liked anything in the world.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC of the book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I am such a fan @annabelmonaghan books. She writes contemporary romances that seem to just touch something raw and true for me. I am so grateful to have been given the chance to review an ARC of her newest book, It's A Love Story, via @netgalley.

Jane Jackson, former child star, has spent her entire adult life trying to build her career as a film studio executive. She has a script that she just knows is her big break, but in order to get it greenlit, she says she can get pop star, Jack Quinlin, who she hasn't spoken too since her embarrassing first kiss twenty years ago, to write a song for the film. When she confides in her nemesis and the film's cinematographer, Dan Finnegan, that she may have overstated her connection to Quinlin, he offers to help, and Jane learns Dan might not be as bad as she thought he was.

I read this book in a single sitting. I fell in love with Dan right alongside Jane. His quiet kindness and emotional honesty were so endearing. I loved the East coast beach town setting, which brought me back to my own childhood summers, and made me yearn for a walk on the boardwalk with an ice cream cone. I loved the Finnegan brothers and their family loyalty. Most of all, I loved Dan's parents whose version of love is one that feels most like the one I know best.

With this book, @annabelmonaghan remains one of the reigning queens of summer romance novels.

Thank you for the advanced copy! I love a summer romance book and involves small town feels. The characters were great. I didn’t love the inner monologue sometimes but got used to it. A great read for the summer

5 beautiful stars for an absolutely beautiful book. Thank you NetGalley and publisher Penguin Group Putnam for an e-arc of this book! Release date: May 27, 2025

There’s something gripping and beautiful in reading a person unravel learned behavior and the messiness of childhood (particularly as an actress living a not normal childhood), while discovering who they are. I loved both the romance of this story and the story of re-self discovery. I like that it’s not flashy and encompasses the quiet kind of love. The realistic love we see all around us in doing the mundane of every day. The kind of love of being with the person you want to snuggle with on the couch at the end of the day and tell them all about it.

This is my first book by the author, but certainly will not be my last.

Tropes:
-(sort of) second chance
-workplace romance
-almost one bed
-he falls first (let’s be real, he totally did)
-hate to love

Content warning: I do think it’s worth mentioning, if you have a difficult relationship with your parents and/or have trauma from a parent leaving or dying, please tread carefully. This part of the story hit me hard in the feels.

Annabel Monaghan writes quality romances that have female characters going through a bit of an emotional wakening and this book is no different!

Jane is defined by the TV character she played at 14, Janey Jakes: the comedic side character, but she is determined to make a name for herself by developing a script she adores into a movie. However, this movie will only be green lit if it has something that packs a little more of a punch. No problem, Jane says she can ask her old friend, rock star Jack Quinlan, to write a song for the soundtrack. The only catch? She hasn't spoken to him in years and she completely humiliated herself in front of him when she was 14. Her workplace enemy, Dan, the only other person who wants this script to succeed, travels with her to his hometown in Long Island to track down Jack at a music festival there and ask him to write a song for the soundtrack.

Wow what a premise! It's definitely a lot, but it all comes together so seamlessly. What I liked:
-Jane's apparent social anxiety and people-pleasing tendencies. It feels incredibly real and relatable as a first-born daughter, myself,
-The banter. It's so natural and flows well and is really clever.
-The way everything came together. The things I originally didn't like about this story (insta-love, the confusing past storyline, etc) all came together at the climax of the book and made perfect sense all together.

What I disliked:
-It took me a bit to get into. The former child star storyline is kid of confusing and while it does tie in with everything at the end, it felt kind of forced and like an odd side-plot instead of playing a larger part in the story as a whole.

I gave this book 4 stars! It is going to be the perfect beachy read this summer, and is so fun to read a romance that packs a bit of an emotional punch as well.

What a lovely writer. Only a few pages in and I was already highlighting beautiful prose. I think I highlighted something beautifully written in nearly every chapter.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and she is now an insta-read for me. Her love stories are mature, and real, not cheesy, but every bit romantic. This one is no different.

As non-cheesy as this story is, there’s close proximity with a visit to his hometown, and one bed! But done in a realistic way, not in a way that has me rolling my eyes sometimes.

I loved getting to see their romance unfold just as much as I loved seeing her get to know his family. This should be a movie, and I’ll watch it a hundred times.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group for this amazing ARC!

I love Annabel Monaghan's writing. It just connects with me, I don't know how to describe it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jane and Dan's romance unfold. It was kind of an enemies to lovers, but soft on the enemies. It seemed they were already aware of some attraction from the jump but didn't want to act on it! I loved reading about Dan's family, they were all really fun characters added to the story.

My only complaint is I didn't necessarily enjoy Jane's inner monologue... I understand she was a child star at one point, but sometimes she didn't read like what I would believe a woman in her 30s to really sound like. I didn't feel like it took too much from the story, however I felt the need to say something about it. She came off as the most immature of the main characters from AM's previous books.

Regardless, this read is one of my favorites of the year!

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy! :)

Annabel Monaghan has quickly become one of my favorite romance authors to pick up in the Spring and Summer. I have loved every book of hers so far and have been so fortunate to arc read her last two releases. They are always just so consistently sweet with a great balance of emotion and humor. These are the perfect books to pick up for a beach read or to bring on vacation!

This will be a book that I cannot wait to go back and annotate after release because there were just so many things that stood out or made me feel all the feelings. Love is found in the every day and in the small gestures. It's not always grand appearances or flashy. I LOVED that Annabel shows this heavily throughout the story because it is so true. There are all different kinds of love and everyone shows it differently...but this is my favorite. A quiet, romantic, unshakable love that prevails even through tough times.

It's a Love Story has all of my favorite things wrapped up in one and does them well. It carries the small town Summer charm, the romantic Summer snippets (cough-cough getting caught in the summer rain), a bit of forced proximity, supportive and loving side characters. I absolutely adore The Mob. So much. It genuinely reminded me of my own family in ways and just made me love them even more.

I'm not usually a huge fan of books that revolve around acting or performing industries - just an odd personal preference - but I loved this one. I thought it suited Dan and Jane very well and their support for each other was so sweet and genuine. I will probably come back and add more notes and quotes to this review when the book releases next month but until then, I'll wrap things up here.

Highly recommend picking this up for a Summer read and if you've loved her previous books, you hopefully will adore this one too!

Thank you so much PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the opportunity to read and review this arc. :)

4.5 Rounding up!

Another 5/5 star read from Annabel Monaghan! I absolutely devoured Summer Romance so I was so excited to read this one. I loved the plot, setting, the main characters and the side characters. They were all memorable in different ways and tied the story together. I tend to judge romance novels on if they squeeze my heart and wow did this one squeeze my heart. I laughed, I cried, I felt all the feels. Annabel Monaghan is now officially on my auto-buy/auto request on Netgalley as soon as I see a new title pop up.

I liked a lot about this. It reminded me of Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s book What I Did For Love in a good way although really the only common thread is child stars who played goofy lovable characters.
The premise is a little shaky for me. Just the trip to Dan’s family home in pursuit of finding Jack Quinlan seems so out of the blue and a little too convenient.
I really enjoyed the time the two spent in Long Island and it was a nice summer romance at that point and I was fully on board and entertained.
The third act breakup is a bit frustrating, but I think the author did a good job explaining what Jane was thinking and the reason behind it. There are some good, honest conversations that follow (although I wish it was mentioned that Jane also started therapy). The timeline of it all felt a little rushed, but I’ll allow it.
Two small nitpicks is that we are told that Jane is funny more often than we get to hear/see her be funny, and having her name be Jane and her tv character be Janey felt a little confusing for me personally.
Ultimately this was a fun read and I’d recommend it!
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and Annabel Monaghan for this ARC!

4.25

Wowwwww! Annabel Monaghan’s writing never ceases to amaze me, truly. I actually highlighted 168 times while reading this book. The writing was truly my favorite part. It’s so straightforward and easy to read but have so many lovely lines that just hit you right in the gut. It may seem like you’re reading an ordinary paragraph but then the author will have a thought that will be so BEAUTIFUL, or so RELATEABLE, that you have to stop and reread it. The quotes regarding romance, family, friendship, self-love, careers, and nature will have you annotating until there’s no tomorrow.

As far as characters go, Jane was really interesting! I know that a lot of people love a strong and confident FMC, but the soft ones deserve their stories, too. Jane has went through so much rejection and abandonment that it is understandable that she sometimes does not feel as though she deserves to be loved or that she is loveable at all. I really appreciated all the background that was given to help us understand her and why she thinks the way that she does. Dan was lovely in some parts and some parts had me scratching my head and wondering why the hell he would say what he did. He’s a little mean at points. I understand it is because he is so honest but it would hurt my feelings, honestly. Since he was such an honest guy, it made me believe 100% that what he would say to Jane and his family were genuinely how he felt and I really appreciated that.

Another huge highlight for me was the setting! That town in the summer just sounded like a dream! I really loved the activities they did together and how it played a part in furthering their relationship. This was so wonderful. Everyone say “Thank you, Annabel Monaghan!”

🌊🩷🎬

This was another fun summer romance from Annabel Monaghan, even if it's not my favorite of her books. Overall, I liked reading Jane's journey to overcome some of her issues from her past as child star, but there were some aspects of the romance that felt a little quick for me. I also loved how Monaghan crafted Dan's family.

Annabel Monaghan will continue to be an auto-read author for me!

** I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was super cute! I really enjoyed seeing the relationship develop, watch the FMC work through some internal issues, and the side characters were perfectly flushed out, without feeling overwhelming.

This one is perfect for all the daddy issue girlies, lovers of hollywood romances, or people who like a small town vibe with a big, loving family - it really does it all!

I loved It's a Love Story! Give me an enemies to lovers trope and I am all in. The plot was fast paced, the characters were likeable and I just wanted Jane to get her happy ending.