THE LOVE SQUARE (Avon/HarperCollins) by Laura Jane Williams

We’ve all heard of a love triangle, but what about a love square? In Laura Jane William’s new novel, THE LOVE SQUARE (Avon/HarperCollins) Chef, Penny Bridge goes from finding herself unlovable to having two, too many men in her life.

Penny owns a small café in North London and she’s decided she’s not “doing men now,” until she meets Francesco Cipolla. She finds out he’s a pastry chef and they have so many things in common. She falls hard for him.

Her uncle Davey raised her and sister, Clementine after their father abandoned them and her mother passed away from breast cancer. Penny had cancer too, in her early 20’s and decided to have her eggs fertilized for the future.

Penny’s uncle Davey has a heart attack and she finds herself leaving London to run his pub, The Red Panda out in the country. Uncle Davey has always made it known he wants Penny to take over. But that’s not before she finds herself falling for Francesco. The day she leaves London, she drives away, doubles back to ask him to come with her and finds him in the arms of his former lover. She decides she was foolish to get involved and there will be no more men in her life. She’ll now have time to figure out what she really wants and won’t be thrown off course.

The Red Panda becomes a bigger success under Penny’s leadership as she expands the menu. Soon she’s in a relationship with Thomas and Priyesh, but she can’t help thinking about Francesco.

Before I reveal anymore of the story, I want to tell you what I took away from THE LOVE SQUARE. Penny allows herself to make mistakes and right a wrong path. She experiences love, grief and uncertainty as well as disappointment. Eventually love wins out as it always does in a rom-com, but it’s not before lots of drama and lessons. Many lessons that all of us can learn from.

This is sadly going to be a dnf after giving it about 50%. The writing was very hard to get into, it was choppy, and immature — almost childish. I also could not stand the main character Poppy. All in all, I couldn’t find enough to keep myself going.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. I have mixed feelings about The Love Square. The book started off with a cute story and I wanted to see how Penny and Francesco played out. Even though Penny wasn’t cheating at any time, I thought she should’ve been up front with her intentions and was frustrated with her along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book just didn't do it for me. It was hard to connect with the main character. To me, she just wasn't likable or relatable. The plot took way too long to pick up. We didn't get to see the "love square" until way into the book. By then, I couldn't care less. Many of the side characters also fell flat and didn't really stand out. I just didn't really find it all that funny or witty. The main character felt older than what she was; I was honestly surprised to read she was only 30.

I did like that it dealt with issues such as cancer and IVF, and it had some inclusion but it just overall fell flat.

This book was funny and a quick read. Some cute banter between characters. The protagonist's friendships and family relationships were the most admirable. The love relationships were less satisfying, mostly because she was a bit of a jerk to the men. The main love interest, Francesco, was really wonderful to her the ENTIRE time. She was so insecure and snippy with him. After a while, you wonder why he was even into her. The end just wraps up much too tidily considering how she strung the men along. Definitely had some laughs with this one, and the beginning was romantic, but the rest left me wanting something sweeter, and kinder.

It took me alamost the entire book Tom warm up to Penny. She had a good thing right in front of her but she kept throwing it away. I didn't like how she played with three guys emotions. I thought the dressing down Francesco gave her was not only appropriate but served as a wake up call to her. It all worked out in the end, but she still wasn't my favorite out of all the characters in the book.

This book tells us about a young woman who owns a. be in London and is looking for a relationship. She survived Cancer and was told she could never give birth to children. She froze her eggs and her married sister Clementine agreed to be a surrogate when the time was right. One day a young man delivered to her shop and she instantly fell for him. His name is Francisco. Penny fell hard but she has trust issues because of a long term relationship that ended badly. The book is good but not a page turner.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Penny is recovering from cancer and runs a successful cafe in London. She thinks romance has passed her by, but of course it hasn’t because she’s the heroine of a romance novel. She first meets Francesco who instantly falls for her. She falls for him and they seem to have the perfect relationship. He’s also a chef and they have a lot in common and are crazy about each other. Then Penny has to go run her beloved uncle’s successful pub after he has a stroke. So she gives up her romance with Francesco and moves to a small English town where she’s unhappy until she has affairs with not one, but two other guys.

So if you object to the heroine having sex with more than one guy in the book, this isn’t the romance for you. Clearly, Francesco is the guy for her, but she keeps stuffing it up with him. I found that irritating. Fortunately, she has a group of friends and relatives who buck her up when she’s down and help her to see what she really needs. The most obvious recommendation is when she’s advised to see a therapist for her feelings of inadequacy stemming from her cancer and the death of her mother. It took a while for anyone to tell her that. Sometimes, good friends giving you advice is just not enough.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Not An Actual Love Square, But A Solid Romance. I'm a math oriented dude. The imprecision of "love triangle" has always bothered me. For those, assuming both sexes are involved, you need two bi people and a straight person, at minimum. (There *are* possible variations, but a true love triangle would have Person A in love with Person B and Person C - *and* Person B and Person C in love with both Person A *and each other*.) "Love Triangles", in the common parlance, are actually Love *Angles*, such that two points are connected at a common third point. Similarly, for this Love Square to work, it would really need 2 couples such that each couple is in love with each other *as well as* exactly one person in the other couple. Here, we get two side by side Love Angles such that *three* points are connected at a common *fourth* point.

Math technicalities and English imprecision aside, however, this was actually a solid romance tale of finding oneself and what one really wants that put an interesting spin on the colloquial "Love Triangle" by introducing a *third* man that the common woman falls in love with. And in some fairly direct ways, it actually parallels a lot of what Padma Lakshmi said about her own "love triangle" in her memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate. You've got the guy that our female lead - Penny - has an instant connection with. Then you've got the guy that actively pursues her and they wind up together almost via fluke. Then you've got the guy Penny is introduced to and has a fun time with, but who isn't interested in long term or commitment generally. And along the way, Penny gets thrust into situations she doesn't always have complete control of, all while still trying to discover herself after having survived cancer at a fairly early age - mid 20s. The characters are all solid and interesting, and each of the guys makes very strong points about love and what matters. In the end, if you like romance novels at all, you're probably going to enjoy this one. And if you don't, give this one a chance - at least it has a few more-interesting-than-normal wrinkles. :) Very much recommended.

2.5 stars
Well, a love “square” is a new concept!
I liked how Penny got to date around and couldn’t decide who she really wanted to be with. Though who she ends up “picking” is fairly obvious from the get go.
It definitely felt a little long. I think some parts dragged and could’ve been edited down.
It also was a bit less humorous than I was expecting. It tackles some tough topics, which I did not see coming because of the synopsis. It is summarized as a more playful book. A lot of it can be, but a lot of intense topics are brought up.
Also, the main character wasn’t my favorite... she came across as selfish, so I didn’t find myself rooting for her.
It’s a bit of a predictable read, but had its moments.
I didn’t connect with this story, but “Our Stop” by the same author has been on my “want to read” list for quite awhile, and I would still love to check that one out.

I really liked this book! It’s a cute rom–com starring a woman named Penny who has been very unlucky in love. She meets three fabulous guys that she must choose between and she has no idea what to do. This is an unusual premise that made for a fun read. 4 stars.

Thanks to Harper 360/Avon for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

This was not bad but it just was slow. I didn’t get into it at all. When I got to the end, I was honestly shocked because you saw nothing of the happy couple Penny and Francesco. It ended okay but the plot went from drips and drabs to lightning quick to the epilogue. I mean it felt like it took me such a long time to get to the important plot points and even then I skimmed some pages here and there out of lack of interest. I liked the characters a lot, but did not love Francesco. The characters were great but the plot just dragged. The characters were good, well-written and interesting, so I’d be interested to see if it was just this plot and try another book by the author.

This book was a struggle for me. Lets start with the good. This book had very good representation. There was racial diversity. Fully formed and likable LGBTQ characters. And Penny is a cancer survivor who struggles with who knows she is infertile. Her desire to be a mother and journey through surrogacy will speak to readers going through similar issues and I genuinely don’t think I’ve read a book before that handled theses issues. The book would have been much stronger as women’s fiction keeping to these issues rather than pivoting into the romances which felt forced.

Now to my struggles. The book was long. It wasn’t really long page-wise, it just felt long. Like I no longer cared about the characters 30% of the way through and skimmed the rest of the book long. I struggled with the cheating and the slut shaming. Penny treated the guys badly and they treated her badly back. I didn’t want her to end up with any of the guys by the end of the book. Also there were waaayyyy too many contemporary pop culture references throughout the book. I usually don’t mind a few things here or there but this book is going to become very dated very quickly. AND there’s no way in hell that Lizzo gave her permission to be a character in the book. Like she wasn’t just mentioned, she was full on sleeping with one of the characters and had lines in the book. That felt very very weird and wrong to me.

I wanted to like this book more than I did because the cover was so cute and I love a good London romance, but this just did nothing for me. It has some very good reviews on Goodreads so it clearly works for some people, just not me.

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the eBook in exchange for an honest review.

Can you say rom-com! I loved this one. It pulled me in from the first chapter. Light and fun to dive into and enjoy. This will give you the pick me up that you need when you want to read rom-coms. The characters were really great and enjoyable. Some parts had me pulling away just for the unbelievable aspect. But overall a cute and fun book! I would recommend this to a friend!


Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest opinion.

Penny finds herself in a tangle with three different men, who are extremely different from one another. She isn't quite sure how she got to this point in her life when her love life was nonexistent for the longest. This was a witty and funny read that will tug at your heart.

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

Penny owns a small cafe in London, which she loves. She also happens to be unlucky in love. Until she meets Francesco. The two chefs immediately hit it off and everything is going swimmingly until Penny's uncle gets sick and asks her to come run his pub for him, in a small town outside of the city. Penny and Francesco haven't been together long, and she doesn't want to ask him to come with her, so the two end things and Penny moves. At her new job, she meets Thomas, who is hot and fun and not looking for anything serious. He and Penny start a friends with benefits type relationship which doesn't lead to anything serious, especially since Thomas is on the road for work most of the year. And then there's Priyesh, who Penny also meets through the pub. He's about twenty years older and much more serious overall, but Penny is mostly into him because the sex is good. Penny juggles relationships with all three men, sometimes simultaneously, all while also dealing with some of her own issues stemming from a bout with cancer. In the end, Penny does choose one of the men to be with, and somehow manages to stay friends with the other two.

Alright, so first, the highlights, which were all of the stuff outside the love stories. Penny and her sister have a great relationship, sending each other voice memos to document their days, which I thought was cute and unique. Penny also has some solid friendships, both at her home in London and at the pub. I also liked reading about Penny's journey with her cancer diagnosis and treatment (not that it was fun, but I thought it was well-written), and her subsequent fertility issues. I thought both topics were relatable and well done.

The biggest issue I had with the book was the love stories, and maybe it's because I went into this expecting more of a romance than it actually was. I have no problem with a heroine who dates multiple people, but I didn't ever feel like she was really open to love with any of them, even the one she eventually "chose". I didn't particularly like any of the heroes, and honestly, I would have felt better about the book if she would have ended up alone.

If you're a fan of messy relationships involving a woman at a crossroads in her life, then this is the book for you.

Penny, our leading protagonist, is dealing with the aftermath of surviving breast cancer and a failed relationship. Then one day, Francesco, a pastry chef from Italy, walks into her cafe. In their short time together, Penny and Francesco begin a friendship and eventually date. However, as Penny's Uncle falls ill, it is expected that she runs her Uncle's The Red Panda as he recovers, which results in Penny ending her relationship with Francesco and into the arms of two different men.

I liked this book because it is the conflict with Penny and the direction of her life. Penny is pretty content running her small but popular cafe. After her relationships failed and her Uncle's health improves, Penny has to reevaluate her life. There is a sense of realism with Penny, a survivor of breast cancer living her life day by day. Penny's cancer also affected her idea of men; after her longtime boyfriend left her after her being diagnosed with breast cancer, Penny keeps men at a distance to keep herself from heartbreak.

In regards to the book's pace is relatively fast pace, as Penny's life appears to get out of hand in a manner of a few chapters. Even with the fast pace, it was quite hard to get through the book since love triangles are tedious and unnecessary. This book falls into the same trap. It was evident that Penny and Francesco are in love. With Thomas, Penny learns new things about the small town from her childhood. Priyesh, a wine seller, Penny knows about exploring her sexuality and having a man consider her pleasure. In the end, it doesn't seem that her experience has changed her behavior.

There are moments of a dark turn as Penny deals with her Uncle's illness. There are pleasant moments of lightheartedness as Penny explores her new life. However, if moments of angst are not your forte, this is not the book for you.

DNF. Premise is promising, but the inability to connect with the main character from the first pages has me unable to finish. Thanks to Avon for the ARC to read and review.

I enjoyed this book but something was missing for me. I would recommend it as a beach read or to someone looking for a fun book. I loved Penny and really all of the characters. Penny finds herself in a love square when she believe Francesco isn't who he seems to be. Of course, what ensues is miscommunication between the two until she finds herself also hooking up with two other men. I guess I just didn't find all of the situations believable but overall, I did enjoy and would read more from this author.