I had this ARC forever and am so mad at myself for not reading it sooner! I loved this story so much. Meg and Reid were perfect characters in the fact that they were imperfect people absolutely perfect for each other. I definitely recommend this one!

I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK

I have had an ARC on my kindle forever now but was waiting for the right time/ mood to indulge and BAM! Snowstorm Saturday and five pots of tea and this was my ever-loving jam!!!

This is intellectual romance at its finest underscored by themes of vulnerability, insecurity, love, loss


It also has one heck of a twist that plummets straight out of nowhere but if you look back and read the signs you can see how Clayborn was building toward it all along. I could not anticipate the ending or resolution. Okay, so I assumed they would get a happily ever after ---but the winding road that takes them there and the missed signals and signs are where the intersection of love and anticipation rest. What we want to see and what is right in front of us are two very different things.

Signs that sometimes betray you but sometimes allow you to find the one person in the world who will be able to read the little subtle messages you send off into the world.


Speaking of signs: in codes and numbers, letters and body language, two people who read the world a different way from other people and each other find kinship in the very fact that while their signs are different, their interpretation of what they see around them is the same.


I FREAKING! LOVE! THIS ! BOOK ! It was just what I needed: advocating for creative spiritedness and games whether one works with mathematical figures or graphic design. It is the artist's soul wrapped up in a brilliant romantic package. It is a treatise on the messages overt and subliminal that sew up our every day. Spending time in New York with Reid and Meg was to be introduced to an entire universe bottled up in two special peoples' minds.

And can we talk about the canvas of New York? It is as much a character as the leads and yet in a way that makes you fall in love with it for its otherness. Not the New York of your typical romcom Empire State Building and cupcake shops (okay! so there is a Brooklyn cupcake shop )


Also, Reid is an adorable hero...
I love Reid. Masterpiece Theatre Reid. Reid who has a huge heart but has never been able to fit into the world around him. Reid who is smarter than anyone can ever know who just needs someone to peek behind the exterior to see that, no, he isn't walking around like the city is a sweater with the sleeves too long. And while Meg and Reid are on their lovely course to interpreting each other, every word, every movement, is a message:

"Reid nods once, that firm tip of his head, a piece of punctuation. An end to the sentence we've kept going between us for awhile now."

Ever look and headshake and brush of a hand is transcribing an ongoing love story, unfurling against secrets and codes. Two people so attuned they are intertwining their lives merely by the unique way they approach everything: " I don't know how to explain what happens in those few seconds after he finishes speaking, except to say it's as if a piece of my heart breaks off and leaves my body. It's as if a tiny, vulnerable piece beats its way right across the bench and attaches itself to Reid." Sorry Rochester and your invisible wire, this Reid dude is FAR more adorable and FAR less manipulative. And what lovely imagery.


Yes imagery: Meg from her clients to her friends has a serendipitous way of interpreting how others will see signs. It is a gift that needs to be fine-tuned of course, her unintentional abuse of it is what sets her story with Reid in motion but a swerve or a swoop, a black outline or pastels are what makes her interaction and relationship with the world through her telescope of art and design so fun to explore. And as Meg hones this skill she also learns that Reid's sure, blatant and bluntly honest signs are what need impression on her heart so that she can finally live out loud with clear authenticity even while Reid so assured gets a few lessons in the same.

Messages--- so many messages and all about how we understand them --- our relationship with ourselves, our friends, our family, our cities. Both Meg and Reid need a "how-to" for the Manhattan world they professionally thrive in but feel somewhat disengaged from anyway. Meg looks to the skyscrapers and Pizza shop awnings, Reid to (adorably) reading a history of Dutch Manhattan during the seventeenth century in hopes of finding clues.

Clues we should be picking up on. Clues we readers need if we are to understand the penultimate exposition of signs and messages near the end.

This is a book so well plotted with a romance so delectably unfurled and two characters so tangibly naive and wonderful and layered and humane that you want to steal back into it immediately. Heck, I was 35 percent through when I clicked order on the paperback because I knew that a silly little ARC egalley would not do. I need this on my shelf and in my life so I can slip between its spine and extol its secrets, so I can continue to read through the messages I missed and the symbols in front of me all while being empowered to continue to look through my life through the prism of things I love. Because this book, friends, is one that justifies seeing the world through a lens uniquely your own and for better or worse and no matter how unique it makes you, it will always, always set you on the winding course that ends with 'L'

(oh yes, the letter L in all fonts and frames is a huge motif in this book, and why wouldn't it be)

A love story for our world and broken people and people whose minds are a little different and whose hearts need a fix- up.

This is brilliant nerd-y wonderfulness and I want it to be a movie and a netflix series and have it branded on all of your hearts FOREVER !


What a fan-freaking-tastic intelligent and winsome and witty and heart-breaking and fluttering rainbow skittled wonder of a brilliant book that is expertly paced and plotted and is a gold standard in the genre. ALL THE THUMBS UP!


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I got really caught up in this story. At times, the protagonist's decisions made me anxious. It was all worth it, though. Such a sweet and warm romance.

I received a free arc from NetGalley.
Meg and Reid are imperfect heroes and that makes them the perfect heroes to root for. They compliment each other so well, her with her whimsy and him with his sternness.

I loved seeing the city through Meg’s eyes. As a visual person, reading this book gave it another dimension I really enjoyed.

I picked up 'Love Lettering' thinking that it would be a typical romance novel. Though I was right in some aspects, the depth in the book was something that I wasn't expecting. You know how in romance novels, typically the girl is in a tough phase in her life, then the hero comes in and magically everything rights itself after the hero helps the girl out? Love Lettering mirrors the real life more in the sense of how only the things you do can rescue yourself even if someone helps you out.

One other aspect that I really appreciated was how female friendships are showcased in the book. Generally books and movies show the female friends supporting the lead no matter what and the friends' lives revolving around helping the lead out. The way female friendships blossom and how sometimes your friends don't feel fulfilled in their lives or how they have a lot going on in their own lives, affects even years worth of friendships. Everything doesn't need to be hunky-dory all the time.

This book felt real and genuine (and made me watch beautiful hand-lettering videos on Instagram) so pick this up if you need a book which mirrors real life.

Thanks @kensingtonbooks!

This was my first read of 2020 and I am glad it was.. I fell in love with Meg and Reid.. **swoonsh** if you read it, you get it. Thank you to #netgalley for a copy of this love story. This was a different kind of love story. The letters and signs made for such a clever plot. Having the city of NY as a background was a nice twist too. Although a little slow at the beginning, this story had me hoping for a happy ending. Kate Clayborn is a new author to me and this won’t be my last book by her. This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This book is a wonderful love story! I absolutely loved the way that the story was told. Meg is a lettering artist known for her whimsical designs on wedding stationery and planners. Reid works on Wall Street with numbers.

Reid notices a hidden word in his wedding program, a wedding that was subsequently cancelled, and comes to Meg to find out what she knew about his doomed engagement. Meg was initially drawn to Reid, even as he was planning his wedding to another woman.

This book is full of romantic walks around New York and special games that Meg and Reid play together. I just really love them together and love how their story unfolds. The only wish I had, if I were to make one, is that there were samples of Meg's art in the book. Kate Clayborn describes her art in such fantastic detail, I can definitely imagine it in my mind's eye, but I think it would just add that much more to the story.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a romantic story with characters who feel like real people you'd love to meet.

<em>Love Lettering</em> has been on my TBR list for a while now and I've been hearing such great things about it so I was really looking forward to reading it. I read the entire thing in one day and while I enjoyed the book as a whole, I thought the beginning really dragged and it took me until chapter 9 before I started warming up to Meg, to Reid, and to everything that was happening in the book.

Our heroine, Meg Mackworth is the Planner of Park Slope. She's made a name for herself with her custom planner business. She's a hand-lettering specialist who handwrites party invitations, personal planners and she used to handwrite wedding invitations but her during her last wedding invitations job, she did something she shouldn't have and so she made sure it wouldn't happen again by quitting the wedding invitation side of her business. From now on, she's only doing custom hand-lettering for clients who want custom planners, she's working on a portfolio of ideas for a stationary line that she's hoping to get a big sponsorship contract for. She tries not to think about the hidden pattern she wrote into that last wedding invitation and it's been a year so she thinks she's moved on from it until the groom shows up, wanting to know why she wrote that hidden code into his invitation.

Meg and Reid spark up a friendship that begins with Meg needing to find inspiration for her stationery line. She invites Reid along with her on walks around New York City so that she can find inspiration for her line and so Reid can discover the beauty of New York for himself. Reid is not happy in New York and Meg wants to show him that if he gave New York a fair shot, he would come to love it just as much as she did. They got to know each other on these walks around New York. They played games while they searched for signs around the city and ultimately, they fell in love on these walks.

Like I said before, it took me quite a while to get into this story. I just wasn't all that interested in the beginning and that's weird for me because I LOVE planners. I love all things planning and hand-lettering but I really struggled with this book at the start. I'm really glad that I stuck with this book though because I really came to love Meg, to love Reid, and to love New York. I'm a West Coast girl through and through but while I was reading this book, I could totally see myself moving to New York and falling in love with the city and the signs. This was a slow burn romance and I guess I was too anxious for the romance to pick up but Kate Clayborn has a writing style that flows nicely. This story unrolls slowly and picks up steam with each passing chapter. When I finished the book, I had a big ol' grin on my face and I loved the heck out of Reid and Meg. I loved seeing Meg come into her own and I really enjoyed seeing Reid and Meg come into their feelings for each other. This was a good romance and I definitely recommend.

Grade: 3.75 out of 5

Dear Kate Clayborn,

I have a feeling I might be a bit of an outlier in this but it took me a little while to get into Love Lettering. Meg Mackworth, known as “the Planner of Park Slope” hand letters planners and journals for clients. I didn’t even know that was a thing. But then, I’m not much into planners or journals (*cue gasps of horror from at least half of the DA readership*). She used to do wedding stationery but stopped after it became unsatisfying for her.

A previous client, Reid Sutherland, comes to see her one day to ask her about the hidden message she left in the wedding program she designed for he and his then-bride-to-be, Avery. Avery attended most of the consultations with Meg alone but on one occasion Reid went along as well. That was where the wedding program was designed. Reid and Avery did not end up getting married and it is clear to Reid, from the message Meg left, that she knew the relationship was doomed. He wants to know why.

That makes sense but then Reid explains that the breakup was amicable and that the relationship ended with more of a whimper than a bang. Neither party had deep feelings for the other. Reid did not get his heart broken.

So I didn’t really understand why he felt it was so important to know what Meg saw. It’s not like she saw something that he did not and as a result was blindsided by a betrayal for example. The latter is what I thought the set up was going to be but it wasn’t. I just didn’t quite buy what brought Meg and Reid together. And, perhaps my moral compass is askew because I didn’t really understand why Meg felt so guilty for the message she left in the program. It was so well hidden it was only going to be someone like Reid, who is a quantitative analyst (aka a “quant”) for a big firm on Wall Street (owned, as it happens by Avery’s dad). Reid is very into codes and puzzles and, I suspect, he was looking. It’s not like he broke up with Avery because he saw the message Meg had left.

Meg is preparing for a big proposal to a stationery company who are interested in producing a line of designer planners. She is one of three invited to apply. But she’s blocked and not feeling creative. Meg is also, for some reason, distressed that Reid hates living in New York. That combined with her lingering guilt over the wedding program, lead her to invite Reid to “play a game” with her. They will wander around New York and spot signs designed to inspire Meg’s creativity and in the process, hopefully, inspire a love of New York in Reid.

Read the rest: https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/review-love-lettering-by-kate-clayborn/

I highly recommend this book for lovers of slow burns. I have a love-hate relationship with slow burns. I tend to like the ones that put an emphasis on the burn and not the slow and I blame my short attention span but the endless paragraphs and descriptive prose in this one put me in a coma.

Objectively, I know that this book is well written, the author has a way with lyrical prose and pretty turns of phrases. I prefer more straight forward writing. I don't want to wade through flowery sentences to figure out what's going on. The result is that her writing makes me feel distanced from the romance. Speaking of, the romance was very low key as to be almost none existent and the beginning was a slow drag. The conflict didn't come until the very end and it felt strangely tacked on. Ultimately, this is a case of it's not the book, it's me.

What can I say about this book that hasn’t been said? It’s a romance, but it’s also a book about friendship and New York City and discovery. And the beauty of letters. It’s sweeter than you expect and understatedly sophisticated, but that’s Kate Clayborn for you.

This was cute and charming. There's just something about Reid's character that pulled me in from the start but I'm having trouble pinning it. I love how Meg's job is lettering. That is basically goals as someone who appreciates fonts and hand lettered things. It's fun to see the possibilities that job could bring and it pretty much inspired me to do more research on what I could do with it. Anyway, I liked the way the story was told and the writing style since the flow was great. The MCs and supporting characters are amazing and my favorite side character has to be Lark especially once you get to know her. As for the conflict, I honestly don't know how to feel about it. I kinda wish the conflict was different but it was fine too.

Swoonsh...this book was a charming, romantic read. It was so well written and the characters were well rounded and they actually grew and developed as the story unfolded. I think that's what I liked the most about it - the growth of the characters, especially the protagonist Meg. As Meg falls in love with Reid, she also matures and faces parts of herself and her past that are uncomfortable and unhealed.

I loved how Clayborn wove Meg's job as a Hand Letterer into the story - the games Meg and Reid played, the signs throughout New York that came to life on the page, thanks to Clayborn's beautiful descriptions and magic prose. This was a light read, with a sweet romance, however it also had substance and didn't feel like chewing gum for my brain. I loved it.

The Bottom Line
In the end, I really enjoyed much more of Love Lettering than I didn’t, and I want to visit Brooklyn and see it through Meg and Reid’s eyes. Theirs is an unusual and quirky romance that I’m happy to have read, and I’m very eager to see what’s next for Ms. Clayborn.

I really enjoyed this quirky romance. The heroine, Meg, and hero, Reid complemented each other perfectly. I loved how they developed slowly. This was a unique story that I couldn't and wouldn’t put down. Loved it!

Very cute! There were parts of the story that didn't seem to click with me, like the immediate connection Meg and Reid had. Sometimes it just takes me longer to get there with two characters, so this is not a reflection on the authors writing. But all in all, this was a very enjoyable book. It was cute and the main characters were likeable. I really enjoyed seeing where their story would go, and I liked that it wasn't easy for them. The happy ending took actual work. Loved the added lettering art addition. As an amateur (and terrible) hand letterer, it was fun to learn more about Meg as the lettering artist.

Thank you for the ARC!

I thought the detail about the code in the calligraphy was a bit weird. I thought the book was just okay. I didnt' really identify with the hero or heroine.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I loved the idea of this book. I was super excited when I received the ARC of this book but the fact that it look be what felt like ages to finish reading says a lot.
Overall, Love Lettering was a cute book.

What an amazing book, that has an unique storyline, that will appeal to all readers and fans of contemporary romance.
Set in New York City, Love Lettering is the story of Meg and Reid, both residents of NYC and both running from, or looking for something.
Meg is a calligrapher, who has a somewhat celebrity following for her work. After doing wedding invitations for a couple, and they break up, it is revealed that Meg has put in a code in her lettering.
Mistake or not, Reid seeks Meg out and they end up meeting up. What follows is a beautifully written story, that slowly uncovers the layers and issues that these two have had in the past and present and how they overcome the obstacles life has thrown their way, both individually and together. I loved seeing New York City through Meg and Reid’s eyes, and in fact the signs and symbols they stumble across.
Love Lettering is my first book I’ve read by Ms Kate Clayborn, and it most definitely will not be my last. Love Lettering is a 5 star read from me and I know romance readers will just fall in love with the unique story presented by Kate Clayborn.

Kate Clayborn has become one of my favorite "go-to" writers of contemporary romance, and Love Lettering may just be my favorite romance read of 2019, and perhaps even of 2020, too. I've already read Love Lettering twice, when I rarely re-read any romance. But this book contains such richness of character, such nuanced exploration of theme, and such obvious grounding in feminist ideas that it proves as compelling and satisfying a read the second time-around as it did the first time.

Midwestern (presumably white) nice girl Meg Mackworth hates confrontation, but is "exceedingly, expertly good at avoiding it." Her unusual job—hand-lettering planners and journals and datebooks for privileged, wealthy NYC clients who like the hand-made look, but who don't have the time or talent for their own DIY projects—usually requires more feather-smoothing than confrontation. At least, until a sad-faced, overly formal and polite man comes into the shop, wanting to know why she put a secret (and not very optimistic) message in the wedding invitations she created for him and his fiancée.

This catchy hook may draw readers in, but it's Clayborn's deft handling of character and of language that will keep them reading her love letter not only to heterosexual love, but also to female friendship, to finding a way to learn how to fight productively with your loved ones, and above all to the signs of New York, especially in the Brooklyn in which Meg works and lives. Female readers who are naturally conflict-adverse (or who have learned to be so as a coping mechanism to deal with painful relationships) will find this an especially rewarding read, as they watch Meg gradually recognize all that being conflict-averse has cost her, and begins to experiment with facing, rather than running away from, difficult conversations with those she loves.

And I haven't even mentioned the appeal of the slow-build romance itself. Swoonsh indeed...