I absolutely love Monaghan's writing and her ability to pack such emotional quotes hidden inside mundane activities. I was swept away throughout the middle of this book in the summer-beach-family environment and could not put this book down! Their love felt so sweet and special and it warmed my heart. I would highly recommend this as a summer read!! Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

In Monaghan’s story, she creates a meet cute that turns to an enemies to friends. Jane was a child tv star who was trying to pivot into the production aspect of film. She comes across a script of a lifetime, but because it’s a love story the studio doesn’t want to produce it. They are looking for action and adventure. She partners with a cinematographer whom she’s met before, but had torpedo previous attempts to make a movie. She promises that she could get an original song from a contact in her TV days. She hasn’t contacted this person or talk to him in 12 years but is hoping above all hope that he will help her. This takes her to Dan’s, the cinematographer’s hometown in Long Island. She meets his family and realizes what true love is all about by witnessing his parents 40 year marriage.
Monaghan creates an emotionally stilted character in Jane. She has trouble learning to love, her father died when she was young, and her mother has forever been looking for love. These factors lead her to be closed off and suspect of anyone who comes into her orbit. Monaghan makes you hurt for Jane and you’re rooting for Jane, if only she can get out of her own head and deal with her past trauma.

Loved, loved, loved It’s a Love Story! I have little doubt this will be among the buzziest best sellers of Summer 2025, and for good reason. Monaghan’s latest is equal parts witty, fun and heart warming.

Highly recommended!

Many thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the privilege of a complimentary ARC. Opinions are my own.

4.5 ⭐️ Another great read from one of my favorite authors!

I’m not sure I’ve ever been more excited to get early access to a book before. 😍 Monaghan does it again with the perfect summer read! I fell in love with Dan and Jane’s love story and its natural progression. The banter was so clever and funny. The secondary characters were endearing. I want to be invited to dinner with the Finnegans and kind of hope we see a reappearance of this family in a future Monaghan novel. Highly recommend!

Read if you like:
😡❤️ Enemies to lovers
❤️‍🔥 Forced proximity
👫 Found family
🏘️ Small-town east coast vibes

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam l G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Will post on IG and Goodreads closer to the publication date.

I loved this book! Annabel Monaghan is back at it making us fall in love with these characters’ relationships. This is her best book yet. Feels like a perfect summer read.

Could this be the perfect summer romance read? Yes! An enjoyable enemies to lovers romance that although a light read there was some much depth. Annabel Monaghan is becoming an automatic read for me as she brings real raw characters with real problems and spins a great story. This story follows Jane, a former childhood star, who is trying to make it in the film industry as a producer. But Jane, has so many inner doubts stemming from her childhood traumas. Jane meets Dan who is cinematographer and Dan pans the script she is pushing hence they become enemies. However, the two end up going on a trip to Dan's hometown in search of famous singer to convince him to write a song for Jane's perfect movie script love story. The story is sweet but has an emotional bite. I read this book in two days!

Thank you to Netgalley and G.P Putnam's Sons for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

I’m an Annabel Monaghan super fan, so this review is very biased but I will read anything she rights and definitely love it.

~Minor Spoilers~

Jane has spent her whole life playing a part. Now in her thirties, it’s the role of put-together, creative executive trying to finally get her first project made—True Story, a romantic comedy that touches her very dubious heart.

But when confronted with the worst man in the world, Dan Finnegan, who’s going to be the film’s Director of Photography (if it even gets made), she can’t help letting her mask slip.

Desperate to make the film, prove Dan wrong, and finally be taken seriously, she tells her boss she can get the biggest pop star in the world to write a song for the soundtrack. The problem is she hasn’t spoken to him in nearly 20 years—and he’s her greatest source of childhood shame.

To get True Story made, she’ll have to face her past, herself, and Dan Finnegan, who—it turns out—may not actually be the worst.

This started out slower than other Annabel Monaghan novels and I may not have stuck with it if I didn’t love her so much. But I’m really glad I did.

The book takes us back to Oak Shore, the same Long Island town where Same Time Next Summer is set, which threw me a little. I kept expecting Sam and Wyatt to show up. Even without them, it’s a dreamy place, especially in August and makes for the perfect summer setting.

In Dan, Annabel gives us a surly yet emotionally available man who’s not afraid of his own feelings. More than that, he knows how to say hard things when he knows they’re right. He’s loved and knows how to love in return. And the Finnegan family is like a hug —a complete delight.

It probably says more about me than the writing but I couldn’t tell whether Dan or Jack would end up as the love interest for an embarrassingly long time. And I really was hoping that Jack wasn’t actually an ass. But I can get over that disappointment because the book is worth it!

This book is perfection!!! I am obsessed over everything about this perfectly crafted story. It starts out so funny, endearing you to the characters & creating the perfect enemies to lovers scenario. Then we grow even more attached to the characters as their back stories and friends and family come into play. The additions of the heroines child stardom added a unique element to the story and in the end her conflict and trauma were so real and understandable. The best part is the the romance was so full of chemistry and was basically just everything and managed to be that without having to be over the top steamy. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book!

this was like a summery warm hug in a book, i really adored this one. the atmosphere was crafted so beautifully, i feel like i was right there with them on a beach in summer with my swimsuit and my sunnies. the romance was definitely more of a slow burn one but i feel like it had the perfect pacing and just the right balance of friendship and chemistry. the plot itself was super fun and i loved hearing all about jane's past in the showbiz industry. overall a very sweet and atmopheric read, definitely has the perfect summer vibes if that is what you're after!!

This book is the perfect summer read—I brought it to the beach and couldn’t put it down, finishing it in a single day. The story features well-drawn, likable characters with real emotional depth. Jane Jackson, a former child actress, finds herself mentally stuck, endlessly replaying a pivotal moment from her past and struggling to redefine her identity. Enter her nemesis, Dan Finnegan, a man who killed her last scrip. This time he believes in this script just as much as she does. He has a plan to help get her story greenlit. But can they pull it off together? Is Dan really the villain she portrayed him as, or is he exactly who she needs to rediscover herself—and finally see her life through a new lens?

Thank you to NetGalley and the Penguin Group Putnam for an e-ARC.

"This feels like wealth, I think. This is the thing you save up for. You live your whole life so that you can be surrounded by too many people in too small of a room and tell the story of how it all happened."

I'm going to start this review by saying that, gosh, I LOVE a summer romance. The books that are released this time of year are always my favorite and my TBR is currently stacked with everything releasing over the next couple of months. So, when I got notified that I received an ARC of It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan, I was thrilled - and this book did not disappoint. It gave me that butterflies, kicking-my-feet, smiling-as-I'm-reading feeling. Jane, our FMC, was relatable and real and Dan, the MMC was everything - quiet, confident, steady, sure, kind. I loved their relationship, and I also loved Dan's big family - they were the perfect side character in this book and while I didn't have four brothers, it reminded me of family dinners growing up with at least a dozen cousins running around. Spoiler alert - like so many romances, there was a third act breakup (which isn't my favorite) but I loved the rest of this so much it didn't even matter.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Loved this book! Loved the Finnegan’s and want to go to their house. Really enjoyed seeing Jane work through some of her childhood trauma. Her friendship with Clem was so relatable and special!

3.5 stars

I was so incredibly excited going into It's a Love Story. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the expectations I had for Annabel's writing after having read Same Time Next Summer.

While the story was cute the feelings never connected or took off for me. There was no emotional connection between me and either of the MCs. Normally when the MCs have an overwhelming emotional thing happen I start crying myself and it didn't happen.

Yes I wanted all the good things for the MCs but overall I felt like I was forcing myself through the book.

I will continue to read more from Annabel but this book just ended up not being for me.

Beautiful! I savored this one. Read it slow and enjoy every word. I fell in love with Jane and Dan’s love story. One of the best love stories I’ve read in a while.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC.

I can always count on this author for a fun, heartfelt summer romance! I'll be honest, initially this one felt like a slow start but it definitely picked up! (I think this might just be a personal preference thing-I'm not a huge fan of enemies to lovers so once we moved past that and on to forced proximity I was sold! The main character, Jane, was really unique, and I appreciated her vulnerability, her backstory as preteen tv star Janey Jakes, and how much her character developed throughout the story. And the love interest, Dan, is just a sweetheart! (And I love his family, of course) Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

Annabel Monaghan is an auto read author for me, and her books always make me smile. I adored this one as expected, and I honestly could not get enough of Dan and his sweet family.

I also loved watching the characters grow and change throughout the book. It was such a cute read, and perfect for spring and summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this digital advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is set to be published on May 27, 2025

4.5 stars! This is for the girls who always grew up feeling like they were not enough. I loved this story of Jane, who was a childhood star but always the sidekick. As someone who also grew up awkward and nerdy, I definitely resonated with the FMC. I also loved the romance, the banter, Dan, Dan’s family….I could go on and on. Most of all I loved Jane’s character development and growth, especially towards the end.

“Love happens over breakfast.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam books for the opportunity to review this book before the publication date.

You know what’s interesting about this author's writing? I once said she had this sort of dry humor (which I adore), but I think it’s not exactly that. I think when the characters start to fall in love, their voices change. In most of her books, they turn into this soft version of themselves that can be mistaken as dry, but they’re actually just full of warmth and love. At least, that’s how I felt reading "It's a Love Story."

Annabel Monaghan just hits every time for me. She writes the perfect cozy summer romances that I can't help but fall in love with every. Single. Time. In "It's a Love Story," we follow childhood star Jane Jackson on her journey to track down the hit singer Jack Quinlan to get him to film an original song for the film "True Story," a film she REALLYYYY wants to be made and can only be done if there's something commercial about it. Insert love interest Dan Finnegan, a man she thinks of as a bit stuck up. Thing is, he also REALLYYYYY wants "True Love" to be made. This might be the only thing they've ever agreed on. So naturally, they go to Long Island where both Dan's family live and Jack is playing a concert. How convenient! They'll just ask him to write a song and get it over with! Easy peasy! (It's never that easy, is it?)

Along the way, Jane finds herself connecting with Dan and his family in a way she never expected, and this is where the book completely hooks me in. It's not Dan that I found myself craving to read about, but his large, loud family. They're so fun, and I love how Jane loses herself in their conversations, how observant she is while around them. Her voice feels more lyrical when she's with them, and I couldn't get enough. This probably would've been five stars had I read it in a quicker amount of time, but alas, book slumps exist. Still really enjoyed it.

Loved this one. So sweet. It gave me How to lose a guy in Ten Days vibes with his family. Loved all the references to the Notebook.

Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC. I really enjoyed Monaghan’s last book, but unfortunately, just like Nora Goes Off Script.. this was not my cup of tea. I forced myself to finish it, hoping it’d get better; However, that was not the case. The storyline felt like there were too many things going on. Just talking about different characters without really showing us or embedding us as the readers into the storyline. Very insta lovey and immature; I was not amused.