oh my god i absolutely loved this book!!! it was sooo fantastic and i need more from this author immediately

Loved it as expected!!! This was both super similar to and super different from Mallory Marlowe’s first book, Love and Other Conspiracies. If you loved the conspiracy/cryptid theme of that book, I think you’ll also enjoy the conspiracy/ufo theme of this book!

El and Carter have very different lives but I really liked them together! They balanced each other out really well and gave the other the emotional stability they needed. They both grew a lot throughout the book and I enjoyed following their journey to solve their mystery. Overall it was a super sweet mystery & romance all in one!

Another winner from Mallory Marlowe! Carter and El are just the best. Mallory writes the most unique and fun romances and LAFS is top tier!

I freaking love this series! Mallory described this one as “what if a girl who saw a UFO fell in love with her hot Man in Black”, and honestly if that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will. El and Carter were the hottest couple and I loved how different they were - El is a Los Angeles influencer who is getting tired of curating every inch of her life, and Carter works for the Private Intelligence Sector which unfortunately for him is not as impressive as it sounds.

This book is romantic, funny, and mysterious with just a hint of the paranormal. El and Carter were the perfect partners in crime and I had so much fun following them around on their quest for answers. I thought the mystery was really interesting and things actually got pretty intense at the end! It also had all of the emotional and heartwarming moments that you want in a romance. Can’t wait for the next one!

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I DNFed Love at First Sighting at 22% and will not be writing a formal review as a result. There’s a huge emphasis on life as an influencer in this book. Instagram follower counts, content creation, dodging paparazzi, being cancelled over having a rough day, lying to your followers in order to not get cancelled, sponsorships, etc. There’s lots of gen z references. I’m rolling my eyes all over the place at this poor little rich girl who has such a hard life and this super green special agent who acts like he has no clue what he’s doing. It’s just too silly and unbelievable. I love UFOs and aliens, so this is disappointing.

I love this new niche that Mallory Marlowe is writing into with weird girl alien books. This one is a great follow up to her first one and I really enjoyed the action in this one!

I would call myself an alien aficionado so I ate up this book in one day! I loved the setup with El being followed by, what appears to be, a UFO, then followed by a Man in Black to discredit her experience. I really enjoyed the author’s debut novel and this fell right in the same category. I adored all the little callbacks to Love and Other Conspiracies, secretly hoping for an overlap in another book.

The characters are fun and relatable, I appreciate the emotions and history built into their lives. El was multi layered, shedding her influencer persona in real time. A girl who just wanted to be loved. Falling for the sweetest (and handsome) secret agent Carter. They had great chemistry and banter, I loved that they were able to find love and comfort in each other.

The plot had an interesting mystery, with El and Carter chasing leads around LA, it was charming, funny, and mysterious. I wish there were more aliens and UFOs but I had a great time with the book and will be reading more from the author in the future!

Thank you to Berkley for the review copy.

A hot influencer who’s grown wary of her shallow existence survives a UFO sighting and gets semi-cancelled after she posts about it. The only person who believes her is a gen z government agent for the antiquated Private Intelligence Sector (pronounced P-I-S not Piss) who dresses like an extra on the set of Boardwalk Empire. El and Carter band together to uncover the extraterrestrial mystery, but not without some lusty gravitational pull between them. There’s a mini age gap! He’s emotionally available! Sex on a desk! Not as many aliens as you might hope for, but plenty of government conspiracy and flirty banter to keep things interesting. He falls first and hard, which feels a bit instalove, but not unexpected the title of this book. Social media culture is cringe AF, but it worked here and afforded some much needed character growth for the FMC as well as some funny promo bits like the vodka in bottles shaped like dicks and the guy whose wellness routine is 6 ears of corn a day.

Rating : 3.5

This was a really fun one to read. The concept and cover were so interesting to me, and the plot did not disappoint.The romance between our characters was really sweet and so fun to read. The build-up was also very believable, which added to the enjoyment.

While I liked the main characters, there were a lot of unlikeable characters, which in a small way affected my enjoyment a small amount.

The author's writing was very easy to read, which is great for times where you just want to sit and enjoy a short, fun read.
My only big con on this book is the level of modern dialogue. There were a lot of social media preferences on here, which was honestly the only reason this book was brought down to a 3.5.

Thank you netgalley for providing the arc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Love at First Sighting is no ordinary romance. You might say...ahem...it's out of this world.

Just kidding. It takes place on Earth. But it is tightly wrapped up in a mystery that has more at stake than broken hearts. It's fun, it's a little bit silly, it's tender-hearted, and absolutely worth a read.

Mallory Marlowe is also the author of Love and Other Conspiracy Theories, so I think she's nicheing down into a pretty distinctive brand here, and I love that for her.

A close encounter of the romantic kind?

Come on. Pure gold.

El is an influencer who encounters something she cannot explain. An Unidentified Flying Object. Naturally, she livestreams it following her. Carter is the agent assigned to her case, but this time it's different...because it's the very same thing Carter saw the night his father died. Together they uncover the truth of what it really was up there.

So it's a little cheesy, but this book will leave you with a full heart by the time you're done turning pages. Carter's story is tragic, and completely entwined in the plotline. It's El's background and profession that is honestly kind of hilarious. There is certainly some mild commentary about the career of an influencer, but when it comes up in the climax crisis, it just had me rolling.

The best part of this novel, as all romances should be, is the budding romance between El and Carter. Their connection is genuine and so sweet, and is what will bring me to pick up this book again in the future for a reread. It's exciting, it's action-packed, and it has a big, mushy, heart at it's center. Can't go wrong!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is such a fun and quirky romance. I love the concept and the storyline. From beginning to end it kept me hooked and made me laugh throughout. I really enjoyed this one.

Well, that was fun. Carter (24) is working at PIS, as a real life man in black tasked with covering up UFO/alien sightings. Aliens are real, and the government doesn’t want anyone to know about it. El (28) went for a hike to take content photos, lightly trespassed, and was chased by an unidentified flying object. She saves herself with a great arm and a giant metal water bottle, but was live-streaming the entire encounter and catches the attention of the MIB.

Love at First Sighting follows Carter and El as they work to uncover what really happened. He had seem the same UFO as a child right before he lost his father, and she was being discredited and harassed in the media. Their partnership starts off with a few hijinks, but they slowly build trust and find they can count on each other when things get dicey. El and Carter realized they’d found someone that was safe, that would allow them to be fully themselves, and that would be there when things are less than fun.

Expect- a little suspense, some tender moments, grief, trauma, government conspiracies, a magic show, a car chase, and a fun time.

Love at First Sighting by Mallory Marlowe is a charming romance infused with adventure, humor, and a slow-burning connection between its leads. El Martin, a social media influencer, finds her world turned upside down after a chilling UFO encounter, which is not good for her brand. Enter Carter Brody, a real-life Man in Black assigned to investigate her case. As the two delve into the mystery, their partnership evolves, working to uncover not only the truth behind what El witnessed but its startling link to something Carter saw years ago.

While I would have loved even more UFO and alien intrigue, the blend of mystery, action, and romance made for an engaging read, El and Carter’s banter was a highlight, adding charm to an already entertaining story.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest rev

i really couldn't do this one. ended up dnfing a third of the way and skimming through. listen, it's cute, it's silly, just not something for me. the modern/slang dialogue felt very forced and i could not for the life of me truly connect with the characters, cute if you just want a silly story. not something of substance for people like myself. that said, thanks anyways

Mallory Marlowe described this as what would happen if an influencer who saw a UFO fell in love with the Man in Black sent to investigate her and that's exactly what we get. However, we also get a super nuanced look at influencer culture with El's life, plus grief and loss with Carter's backstory.

Were there some kitschy and cheesy moments? Yes, but in the vein of your favorite early-2000s TV paranormal TV show that you love dearly.

I love Mallory Marlowe's books because she straddles the line so well between real life and the supernatural. Maybe we never get to really see anything on-page, but the supernatural is never actually ruled out.

I am so sad to say that this one didn't work for me. I absolutely LOVED Love and Other Conspiracies and how refreshing of a concept it was. This one is too, but I just didn't feel connected to many things that were going on. I liked El, but our introduction to her I think was tricky for me. I think this is largely due to the influencer aspect of her story. It is realistic in many ways, especially since she's quite popular, but that particular narrative also didn't help me feel connected to her. I felt similarly to the UFO part of the plot too. I wasn't hooked but that could just be a me thing!

The romance and the character development was definitely the highlight. Carter is extremely adorable and I think fans of romance books and The X Files may really vibe with this!

Thank you so much to Berkley for my ARC and I look forward to reading what Mallory Marlowe writes next!

3/5

I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't too sure about it at first. I am not into influencers so I wasn't sure where the book was going. It took a minute to really get into the book but once I did I didn't want to put it down. I loved how the two main characters evolved emotionally within themselves and with each other. A great light read.

2.75 rounded up. Unfortunately everything I loved in Love and Other Conspiracies was missing in Love at First Sighting. I couldn’t connect with our FMC El (Ariel). I felt like she didn’t have a good backbone and truly was just unrealistic as an influencer. Maybe I’m just not a fan of reading about influencers. Her mom hits her up for money but that’s all you hear about her, it’s kind of a plot hole. And Carter, he was fine but so young and green. Neither of them excited me as MCs or felt super deep.

I also couldn’t stand the amount of gen Z references in the book, I almost DNF’d very early on but since I loved Mallory Marlowe’s first book I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately it was just a big miss for me.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was a DELIGHT. I loved Love and Other Conspiracies, but I actually enjoyed this one even more. It was so quirky and strange and perfect. This book had me giggling so hard and it was just so fun.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a perfectly good romance novel. I didn't connect much with El, but I'm sure that was likely a personal thing as influencer culture doesn't appeal to me at all. She was likable enough. Carter’s backstory and growth had more depth and was endearing. The mystery surrounding the UFO and Carter's father's death was a little implausible and the resolution wasn't very surprising, but since I don't come to a romance novel to get absorbed in a mystery or action plot, it served its purpose fine. A government cover-up/UFO sighting still adds a unique element to your typical rom com. El and Carter’s romance and chemistry was believable, and I very much appreciated that there was no third act breakup in this! I liked that El and Carter didn’t take too much time to figure out they liked each other. This book gave plenty of time for them to be happy without focusing too much on insecurities or angst surrounding their relationship.