A light-hearted read that kept me engaged from the very first page, this was a welcome companion to the COVID-19 blahs.

I give this book 1 star but I swear, I would give it less if I could.
This book is a completely different story from what you would expect from the cover. I expected a sweet romance with suspenseful undertones. I don’t just look at covers to make my decisions, but the blurb and labels sounded intriguing too. The labels on this story are Mystery & Thrillers with Romance secondary. That would make it a romantic suspense novel, which is right up my alley. The blurb indicates a mystery and maybe there was, but I didn't get far enough to find out. I did my best to make twenty percent, then skimmed a bit, looking for something to make me want to know more. I didn't find any character development, what story I read was very unrealistic. I won’t even go into all the drug use this story had. Not sure how many books Meister has written but this one was a hard miss for me. I ended up reading as much as I could stand of this book, and I'll admit that a good portion was skimmed through, so I may not be the best judge for this one. All I know is what I found isn't something I'd recommend.

Such a cute premise, but I absolutely could not connect with these characters. Dana, the main character, was not written with an ounce of likability, which I tend to look for in my YA characters. The love interest portion was also lacking due to Dana's personality. I am proud of myself for sticking it through for this one, because it honestly would have been a DNF if I had received a copy from the library.

Dana lands her dream job as a host of The Shopping Channel. Everything seems to be going perfectly until the main host is found dead. Dana takes it upon herself to try to find out who the killer is.

A fun and witty romance! Easy read to take your mind off of the rest of real life, in case you need that these days.

Dana Barry's life is a mess, until she hears The Shopping Channel is auditioning new hosts. She dives right in and is stunned when she lands the job. Her keen eye for detail, knack for knowing what makes people tick and sheer bravado make her perfect for the role.

This novel is sort of a combo chick lit/mystery - main character Dana is a struggling actor who gets a job as a host on a shopping channel - but finds the star of the channel dead in her dressing room. In between job, family, and romantic travails, she basically attempts to solve the murder on her own. This was a quick read, but a little thin on substance - definitely more tell than show, kinda two dimensional characters with a very annoying main character, and everything wrapped up a little too easily in the end. It was still reasonably entertaining though. 2.5 stars.

While I enjoyed the premise of this book, the overall arch of the main character fell a little flat for me. There was a lot of drama and excitement surrounding her rise to fame at the same time a murderer was running around, but I found myself not that interested in the who-dun-it part of the story.

💕|#partner|Thank you to @_mira_books_ @harlequinbooks @netgalley & @ellenmeister for the free book! This book is available now.
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🌟BOOK REVIEW🌟
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▪️MY THOUGHTS
✔️This book was fun...even though there was a murder! I really enjoyed Dana’s character. I thought she was funny & sharp. I loved the scenes when she was actually doing her job on the shopping channel! IRL as a buyer - I could really relate to the importance of sales and marketing your brand. I thought the storyline flowed nicely and I was invested in the characters. I recommend this book for someone who likes cute rom-coms with an little bit of murder and mystery!

A fun contemporary drama of an actress, making her way as a fantastic shopping network host, in the midst of a murder mystery. Fast moving and engaging, with great characters and side stories. Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely adore Ellen. Love Sold Separately is just an example of her awesomeness.
This book has it all- murder, mystery, romance and laugh out loud moments. Page 277- the text messages. I was in tears!
The best way to describe this book is going back to my favorite whodunit Shows of the 80s. It’s Jake and the fat man, without the fat man and Jake is Dana!
Dana is the Jennifer Hart (Hart to Hart) of the shopping network.
Kudos to Ellen! 5 stars!

What a story! As out of work Dana Berry happily finds a new job on a home shopping network, things go right down the tubes when she discovers the show's diva host, murdered.
But she's sure the wrong person has been arrested for the crime and she's out to prove it. She's not going to let the fact she has no police training get in the way. she's sure not going to let the amazingly hot detective assigned to the case distract her, right?
Fun, flirty, and fabulous, I had a great time reading this book.

I also featured it on my TV segment on San Antonio Living: https://news4sanantonio.com/sa-living/spooky-reads-to-get-in-the-halloween-spirit

*I received a copy of this book for an honest review.

This was my first title by Ellen Meister, and I am undecided whether I will try another. "Love Sold Separately" had an interesting premise. Publisher's Description: "Dana Barry has nothing against rules. She just knows they’re meant to be bent. So it’s no wonder the single, twentysomething actress loses her day job. Now her life is a mess…that is, until she hears the Shopping Channel is auditioning. Relying on her knack for knowing what makes people tick, she lands a gig on air. But before she can say office politics, Dana is caught in the biggest drama of her life. The star host—a diva who terrorized the entire staff—is found dead. Dana knows the prime suspect is innocent. The heat is on, and Dana thinks she’s ready for it…until she tangles with the tall, dark and smoldering detective in charge. It’s more fuel than she needs right now as she’s trying to launch her career. But Dana’s never been afraid to take chances…even when a single spark could ignite everything."

Dana is a struggling actress, working at Hot Topic and living off of her residuals from a previous gig doing commercials. When she loses her job for being rude to a customer, she goes home and gets drunk and stoned. At this point, I don't like her. She's rude, judgmental, and immature. When her best friend/business manager Megan comes over and tells her she has an audition with the Shopping Channel in less than an hour and she needs to get un-drunk and un-stoned, she goes into the bathroom to shower and change and decides to take some Dexedrine, which her ex took for ADHD and left in her medicine cabinet. At this point, I like her even less because now she's added irresponsible and lacking in any kind of common sense. When she actually gets the job...well, let's just say I don't like when people get generously rewarded for bad behavior.

The fact that Dana earns the job as an on-air hostess sets the stage for her to get caught up in a murder mystery, but I don't think this should be categorized as both a mystery and romance. I know that "love" is in the title, but Dana doesn't appear to be looking for love. After demonstrating attraction to one man (on her very first day of work while she gets high with him), she meets the detective investigating the murder and immediately looks for a ring to see whether he's married because she finds him attractive but doesn't get involved with divorced men. And there isn't enough romance to keep the story going. It's really about solving the murder.

The story is set up so that Dana discovers a number of clues about the murderer because of her acute attention to detail (think television's "Psych" or "The Mentalist"). Fans of "Murder She Wrote" will probably like the format, but I found Dana so unlikable that I didn't care about her enough to enjoy the story. I wasn't invested in her advancing in her job, solving the murder, or getting the guy.

Thanks to NetGalley and MIRA/Harlequin for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 Stars / 1.5 Steam Fans

A book friend saved the rating for Love Sold Separately! Had I not talked to a book friend to find out that this book was a cozy mystery more than romantic suspense, I would have been disappointed. Dana is trying to find her way in the entertainment business as an actress when she receives an opportunity on a Shopping Network show. While Dana is debating on taking the job, she hears a gunshot from the roof. As the story evolves, Dana is left trying to figure out what occurred. There is a bit of a love triangle that happens, but the romance is not the main point of the book, so do not be afraid to read this book. Just know that romance is not at the forefront.

Video review available in Week 38: Sep 13 – Sep 19 weekly book reviews.

For other video book reviews, check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Romance Book Talk.

This was a cute, fun read. I loved Dana's character and story, and the way the book incorporates both mystery end romance elements.
Many thanks to HARLEQUIN and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Love Sold Separately by Ellen Meister is a delightful mystery, and my first book by this author. I thought this book was a romance, but when a murder occurs, I was very happy to have both genres in this book. This book kept my interest, until I finished it. I'll be reading more books by this author, and I highly recommend this mystery with all the quirky characters.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Ellen Meister, author of The Other Life and four other books, was watching a shopping channel and "obsessing on the hosts." To her the female hosts seemed to be "perfect women . . . pristine in the way they dress, the way they hold themselves, the way they speak, their love of fashion." She thought it would be interesting to place a character in that job who is just the opposite. From there, she was inspired to have the star host -- a real diva -- murdered, and the new host be the one who has to solve the murder. Although not a mystery writer, Meister felt the magic in the story would be found in crafting characters who all harbor secrets.

Dana Barry is "self-sabotaging." She has had some success as an actress, but as the story opens, she has just been fired from her job in a retail store for being sarcastic with a teen-age customer who returned with his mother to complain about Dana's commentary. She has to find employment quickly or she will run out of funds to pay the rent on her New York City apartment. Ironically, her father is a respected and wealthy physician who would be happy to pay off her student loans for her, but only after she achieves success on her own. Dana's stylish sister, Chelsea, is comfortably married, raising a young son, and a compulsive shopper who is a bit judgmental about Dana's life choices. Their humorous banter rings true, in no small measure because Meister patterned it after her own two daughters who are "madly in love" but "very sarcastic" with each other.

Dana has just clinched her on-air tryout but not yet signed a contract to serve as the Shopping Channel's new on-air host when Lorenzo, the sound technician, gives her a tour of the studio. As they savor the New York skyline from the roof of the building, they hear a gunshot. They run back into the office and find Kitty slumped over her desk, dead. Ari Marks, an intensely attractive homicide detective arrives on scene and begins questioning everyone. Dana is immediately protective of Lorenzo, even though she has literally just met him.

Following Kitty's death, her obsessively dedicated Finnish assistant is reassigned to Dana. Like a newly adopted puppy, Ollie clings to Dana but reveals details about Kitty's life that compel Dana to further her amateur sleuthing in her quest to find Kitty's murderer.

As Dana's career as a host takes off, her confidence increases. Because of her attention to detail, she is really good at her job and she finds that she enjoys the work. The hours she spends on air selling handbags, dresses, and jewelry fly by, and even though it may not be as satisfying as appearing in a play, she does not want to lose her new position and the security it provides. That makes her continued willingness to take risks seemingly incongruous -- and she takes <em>a lot</em> of risks, both in her personal life and because of her dogged determination to solve the crime. But old habits are hard to break and Dana does have a propensity to live on the edge.

One of the highlights of the book is Dana's relationship with her long-time friend, Megan Silvestri, a fellow actor who just one month earlier decided to give up on her own dream. But she offered to become Dana's manager. Megan believes in Dana's talent and devotes herself to ensuring that Dana succeeds, sometimes in spite of herself as well as Megan's best efforts. It is Megan who insists that Dana audition for the Shopping Channel and rushes to her side when things are not going smoothly. And she stands by Dana, even when Dana proves herself to be unworthy of such a stalwart friend. In other words, their relationship is exactly like real friendships between women who fundamentally respect and truly care for each other. Readers will find themselves relating to the bond between Dana and Megan, and cheering for their friendship to survive.

Meister keeps the book's action moving at a steady pace as Dana's attempt to manage her attraction to one of the two desirable men in her life leads to hilariously disastrous results. Dana is tenacious and determined to remain true to her authentic self. Meister has created a protagonist who is endearing, relatable, and, at times, maddening. Despite her difficult relationships with her parents, especially her father, her past failures, and her often reckless behavior, Dana retains a strong self-concept that she will not surrender. Readers will find themselves cheering her on as she uncovers clues to the killer's identity, withstands threats to her own survival at the Shopping Channel, and, despite many obstacles, finds love.

Love Sold Separately offers readers a peek into the world of home shopping and the stressors Dana encounters. Competition for air time, pressure to meet sales goals, and workplace intrigue are all examined. The depiction of the workplace is credible and believable because Meister researched how home shopping networks operate, and was even granted an eye-opening tour of QVC's facilities.

With Meister's eclectic cast of entertaining and surprisingly complex characters, Love Sold Separately doesn't fit neatly into a particular niche. At its core, the story features the mystery surrounding Kitty's demise, but Meister injects the tale with snappy, believable, and frequently funny dialogue, as well as romance. And it all revolves around the somewhat edgy, multi-layered, and adorably lovable Dana. Love Sold Separately is a cleverly plotted, entertaining escape, complete with plot twists and a shocking ending that readers will never be able to guess. Best of all, Meister has more installments planned.

3.75 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love Sold Separately by Ellen Meister is an entertaining mystery that will have you guessing and changing your mind over and over again. The book tells the story Dana Barry, an actress who gets her break as an on-air personality for The Shopping Channel. Dana finds herself knee deep in a mystery when the main star of The Shopping Channel is found dead.

With this story we get a behind the scenes look at what working at a shopping channel might look like. Honestly this was probably my favorite part of the book. In addition you get the mystery of who killed the Channel's shining star. There is even a little bit of a love triangle thrown in.

The main character Dana is a complicated person who is not without her flaws. She definitely makes some choices that will make you shake your head but overall she was a heroine who kept things interesting.

So overall this is a story I enjoyed. I liked being behind the scenes of both the shopping channel and also at a local community theater. Dana annoyed me for a good part of the book but by the end I really started to enjoy her as she shed her insecurities and came into herself.

If there was a part of the book that didn't quite work for me it was the romance portion. It definitely felt like almost an after thought and I was never quite sure why anyone connected.

This was a really entertaining mystery! I loved the romance in it, plus I really enjoyed learning more about our main characters.

The Title/Cover Draw: It looks very much like a Sex in the City vibe.

What I liked: Really fun setting of a home shopping channel setting.

What I didn’t like: The ending was kind of out of left field. While they explained it ok, it didn’t totally connect.

What kept me reading: The cast of characters is so interesting and fun!

The Characters: Dana is exactly the type of character I love rooting for. She is an underdog, smart, and brave.

Consider if you like: Fun, contemporary romances with a little bit of a murder mystery twist.

You can see my video review here:
https://youtu.be/Dxls1_b7X6g