I read this book in one sitting, sacrificing sleep, but it was entirely worth it. I had high expectations because I thoroughly enjoyed nora goes off script, same time next summer, and summer romance, and my expectations were met. I have to say though, that now, Its a love story is my new favorite Annabel Monaghan book. From the beginning, I was enthralled. Maybe its because I related to the FMC so much, and the MMC was everything I needed him to be! He was soooooo lovable! I felt everything the FMC did, it was heartbreaking to read about someone who thought like I did. I now have a new understanding of myself, and what love can be like. Thank you for a great read!!

I have loved all of Annabel Monaghan’s books and this one may be my favorite! And not just because I also love dateline and totally relate to them tricking us by putting the criminal in normal clothes 🤣.

I stayed up past my bedtime so I could finish reading. If you know my love of sleeping, this is huge.

I also learned the word ‘din’.

5/5!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, in return for an unbiased review. 2.5 stars, rounded up.

Annabel Monaghan, say it ain’t so.

Monaghan’s excellent novel “Nora Goes Off-Script” was clever and original, featuring a grown-up woman acting like a grown-up. It mocked all the eye-rolling rom-com tropes. “Same Time Next Summer” and “Summer Romance,” while entertaining, displayed an alarming slide into the genre she’d previously skewered. And now…”It’s a Love Story” is 100% bought in to those very tropes: A twenty-something white girl (but who reads like a teenager), works in media, and is “a mess”; the "love" is a predictable I-hate-you-but-really-love-you relationship; the character even go back to his picturesque small town in summertime- it’s all very, very clichéd, and very Hallmark Channel Christmas. There is nothing new here.

I am sure that this book will be a hit with the BookTok and Colleen Hoover crowd- but Ms. Monaghan, YOU ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS NONSENSE.

Whenever I read an Annabel Monaghan book I just want to climb into the book, each one is so comforting and cozy. I like how the characters are flawed but never cruel. This book is no different.

Jane and Dan are both stubborn people but their story was sweet and emotional. It was a fun journey to watch them begin to like each other and help one another grow into more confident people. The side characters (Dan's big and loud Irish family and Jane's always-there-in-a-pinch best friend, Clem) were also very fun to read about. Overall, I loved this book and can't wait for others to read it when it's published in May!

I really loved this book. Loved the characters, the setting, the tension- it was all fantastic. Dan and Jane were well written, multi-dimensional characters that had me rooting for them both individually and together. The only things that I didn't like are the Taylor Swift title which doesn't feel like it truly fits the book and the cover. Both things I can look past because the book was so, so good.

It’s a Love Story was a read that is far unlike the authors previous works. It’s well written, and I found myself unable to put it down. That being said, there were a couple of moments that I found so embarrassing that I NEEDED to put it down.
It was hard to get a true grasp of who Jane was a character that was hard to fully understand. She had a lot of conflicting personality traits, which translates easier in real life than with a fictional character. I also felt like her relationship was SUPER insta lovey. I’ve noticed this frequently with Annabel Monaghan books, but with this one it didn’t translate as well, maybe because they were supposed to be enemies. The love interest, Dan, also was unnecessarily mean and rude to Jane at the beginning of the book. By the fourth of fifth chapter, however, they are no longer enemies.
The romance was on the front page in this book, where in the previous books I felt were more classified as women’s fiction. The secondary problems were that: secondary. Jane’s relationship with her mom, which felt like it would be a bigger part of the story, was limited to a total of 5 pages. Her friend Clem only existed to be her personal therapist.
I did end up enjoying the book, and like how in the end the story tied together. I’m glad she got what she wanted most of all and repaired her relationships. Special thanks to the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

There are very few romance authors to whom I claim fealty. If the plot syn]opsis doesn’t interest me, it doesn’t really matter how much I loved your last novel.

Annabel Monaghan is one of those authors. She is a master craftsperson of metaphors. Her novels are master classes in “show, don’t tell.” She can (and will) evoke any emotion with a simple simile. She could write about two people falling in love while watching paint dry and her sentences will keep me turning the pages to find out what shade it ends up.

We’d be here all day (and I’d be breaking some copyright laws) if I were to provide every sentence I highlighted while reading It’s a Love Story. But favorites include :

“It’s like when you finally light a match on the beach and you have to cup it without hands so it won’t blow out. I was getting a sense of myself and wanted to keep it.” [On MMC moving away from home and his family.]

“But it’s more the everyday stuff, like the way they’re always aware of where the other one is in the room, like they’re each other’s house keys.” [On MMC’s parents’ 40-year marriage.]

There is a plot (if you’re into that sort of thing, I guess). It’s good. Especially if you love when one character has a big, loving family and the other grew up with a single mom and abandonment issues. The two main characters are nuanced, the side characters are…aplenty.

I did have some questions about the film industry aspects of the story (are cinematographers really that involved at the pre-pro stage? Are movies really greenlit over the potential soundtrack? Why does Jane seem to have job security?)

Also, text messages were formatted so that they blended in with the main narrative, but sometimes omitting terminal periods for realism. Which I neither loved nor hated, but thought was a unique and interesting choice.

All in all, Monaghan was and continues to be one of my favorite authors in the genre (the other is Cara Bastone, btw).

Thank you to the author for sharing her brilliance and the Powers That Be for the ARC.

I usually love Annabel Monaghan but this was definitely my least favorite of hers. It took me forever to get through and I didn't like the way any of the men treated her at the beginning. Then her self-sabotage was beyond ridiculous. It's like insta-love with the need for manufactured drama. I did like the family though. They were the best part.

Uhhh. This was a miss for me. I didn’t feel feels
between the characters at all. They lacked chemistry and this book had no spice. I found myself bored. I was hoping for a light romance and was left very underwhelmed.

Thanks to Netgalley for this eArc for my honest review.

Love love loved this book! Possibly a favorite of all of Annabel Monaghan's books, and I have enjoyed them all so much. Amazing characters and engaging writing. Definitely recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Annabel Monaghan!

Annabel Monaghan did her big one with this one, it is hands down my new favorite by her. Every time, she creates such meaningful and emotional connections and stories in such a short amount of time but this one especially felt so special. I genuinely was not expecting to love this book this much but it truly was so perfect to me. The chemistry was so good and the love story was SO sweet and believable and butterfly inducing!! I loved Jane and Dan individually but they are also so so perfect for eachother. I have a special place in my heart for Dan (he smells like cedar and earl grey tea). His family and some of those relationships were so sweet and made me fall in love with this book even more. I already cannot wait to reread this. Annabel just has a special way with words where she explains mundane things in such a significant way and this book is just really special to me ok!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the arc!!

It’s a Love Story is such a touching and genuine book!! Annabel Monaghan writes unique and beautiful characters that people can relate to. Thank you so much NetGalley for letting me ready it early!

I wasn’t sure about this book at first, but by the end, I was holding back tears and clinging to Dan and Jane’s love story. I will be honest, the beginning felt slow to me and a little boring. I really wasn’t a fan of Jane and felt she was very negative, envious, and overly judgmental towards Dan. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue reading it, but as the story went on, it got better and better. I don’t think I knew Jane enough at first to feel empathetic towards her, but by the end, I wanted to wrap her in a hug. This really was a beautiful love story, and I’m glad I kept reading. This was my first Annabel Monaghan book and will definitely not be my last.

Thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks for this advanced reader copy.

I loved reading this book. The main Character, Jane was a child star and played a quirky girl that ended up being the butt of most jokes on the show. She has taken years to regain confidence, and ow she is creating movies. She found a script that she loves, but her colleague, Dan, is shooting her down and the only way to get it made is to go with him to his hometown and get her “old friend” a song for the movie. It was so cute, and I loved reading about his family, they were truly the cutest! The hardest part of this book was that her best friend was named “Clem”, but if you can get past that you will love this book!
Read this book if you like:
✨Coworkers to lovers
✨Meeting the Family
✨forced proximity

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Language: no foul language
Violence: no violence

Jane has a lot of rules for how she should act and how things should be. She has rules for how to act and dress on dates and what should happen on each one. She knows how to play the part as she was a child actor as the goofy, slapstick comedy friend (think a girl version of Screech from Saved by the Bell). Now grown up and moved on from acting, she has been trying to get one of her scripts greenlit. The last time she was close, the cinematographer, Dan made one comment and it managed to kill the project. This time, she's sure she has a winner. The good news is that Dan agrees, but the bad news is that her boss thinks it needs something more commercial to sell tickets. For so many reasons, Jane needs this movie made. So she lies about her relationship with the current hot pop star of the moment and says she can get him to write a song for the movie. Only...he was her first kiss and their relationship had a mortifying ending so they haven't spoken since she was 14. Desperate, she accepts her only plan to make this happen - she's going to go with Dan to his hometown where the pop star is participating in a music festival. With everything booked, she's going to stay with Dan's large family.

This book is like putting on clothes fresh out of the dryer - you feel enveloped in warm comfort. One of my favorite lines was "love happens over breakfast" and the explanation for that was portrayed so well. It is told in both past and present tense so there's a build up to learning what happened between Jane and Jack (the pop star). I felt like Jane's tone of voice (especially her self talk) was done amazingly. I even loved her little quirks, like hiding under her desk or in her closet eating candy when she was stressed. Dan's family was just so jubilant and loud and really amplified his quiet sureness. I enjoyed seeing Jane's walls come down in such a slow and comforting manner. I almost never reread books, but I think this one would be good for taking me back to a happy place. In the book, whenever they talk about reading the script, Jane and Dan both put their hands to their heart - if you want that feeling in a book, this is it.

If I have to be honest it took me a minute to get into this story but let’s just talk about how raw and real this story line is. I think that every girl and every guy can relate to this love story that’s not so much a love story but it is some way somehow. Everyone’s happy ending is different and everyone’s love is also different.

My favorite thing about this delightful rom-com is that the characters don't have a single syrupy bone in their bodies. I rooted for Jane Jackson in her quest to produce a movie and finally find love. As always with Monaghan's novels, I laughed frequently and didn't cringe once - a rarity for me in rom-coms!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam/ GP Putnam’s Sons for the advance copy.

YES! This is a love story for the girls who grew up with a single mom or absent parent. Such a unique plot, and done so well with characters I adored. The chemistry between the leads was so believable, though my only critique is that I wish it took longer than a week for them to fall head over heels in love. But honestly, that’s such a common trope in contemporary romance that I’m almost not mad at it. Definitely an Annabel Monaghan release you do NOT want to miss out on!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!
Releases 5/27/2025!

Dan and Jane both work in Hollywood helping to make movies, and they butt heads over a previous project. This was funny and relateable with really multifaceted and complicated characters. Seeing Jane try so hard to be "perfect" and what other people want her to be so she can be liked is so relateable. I loved seeing her open up with Dan as he remains his funny, uninhibited self.
It was a really good slow burn romance and overall plot slow burn too!
Gives me Wait! By Kelsea Ballerini vibes

Tropes:
Enemies to lovers
Forced proximity
Slow burn
Anxiety rep

4.5 stars, rounded up. Annabel Monaghan has been an auto-buy author for me since the moment I read her debut novel Nora Goes Off Script. Monaghan has the ability to make her characters and romances both highly relatable and addicting to read. The romance? Swoon-worthy. The banter? Hilarious. The story? Somehow both a tale as old as time (child star trying to make it in the adult world) and completely new. My only fault with this book, and I truly feel this one is on me, is that I just could not relate to Jane as well as I could to the FMC in her other books. Jane was well written, but Jane was not like me. Again, this is personal and I do not feel the fault of the author but did make me miss that extra little piece I felt with Monaghans other books. Ultimately, while this was not my favorite of Monaghans, it was still an absolutely stellar read I would recommend.