I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. I enjoy Kate Clayborn’s novels and this latest one did not disappoint. Nora and Will meet in an apartment complex where they are both dealing with loss and insecurity. They are immediately attracted to each other, but are afraid to act on their feelings. What starts as a mutual agreement swiftly turns into something more powerful. There is great chemistry between the main characters. A fun read.

My first book by Kate Clayborn, but not my last!

I adored Will and Nora’s story so much.

These two characters were so well-developed, layered, and relatable. Their insecurities and quirks were written flawlessly, and they just came across as real, rather than just fictional characters in a book.

Obviously, I loved the romance between Will and Nora, but I also appreciated how this book focused on all kinds of relationships: family, friendship, neighbors, boss/employee, etc. I love reading about love, but it takes a special book to cover many different kinds of love in one story, but Clayborn did this effortlessly with her writing.

I truly cared about these characters, and by the time I finished the book, they felt like friends. I am so excited to read more from this author- she’s a gem.

I loved Kate’s Love Lettering, so I had high hopes for this book, and was not disappointed. Like Love Lettering, this book has a strong sense of place- rooted in Chicago but centered on the building where Nora lives- surrounded by the found family of her Nonna and her childhood summers. Nora wants to do right by her neighbors and Nonna’s memory.

Will first saw Nora on a summer day 16 years before. The things he learns that day were an emotional bomb in his life and he was never the same. But he’d heard the laughter of a girl on the balcony and had fallen in love. I loved Will- he was an emotional mess but also incredibly sweet and sincere. His relationship with his best friend was a delight to read.

The joy for me was both Will and Nora’s relationship progressing AND the cast of characters who support both of them. I wanted to be adopted into their building!

But what had me in tears was the ending scene. I cannot think of another proposal in a book that had me crying from
the beauty of it. Time reading Love at First is time well spent. ♥️

This is the kind of book that makes you want to fall in love.

I think what I enjoyed most about this book (surprising myself with this) is that it felt so plausible and real. Between Nora working from home and having this sweet relationship with her neighbors, to how she meets Will and everything that follows, it feels like Kate Clayborn has sprinkled the real world with a bit of magic, and it's wonderful! Nothing felt heavy-handed, their love developed with such a light touch that it genuinely felt like as readers we were falling in love with them.

I cannot get enough of the sickbed scene in the middle of the book, because Will fussing over Nora was my favorite thing ever. I know no one wants to read about a character being sick for a long time in a romance novel, but I could have read about Will taking care of Nora forever. Even the way he looked out for her even after he was gone was so sweet! Also, the budding friendships between Will and all of the neighbors, and especially with Gerald at the hospital, were such a great way of showing his character development.

This book is exactly what I needed this month in 2021. It's sweet, full of love, and reads like wrapping yourself in a comfortable blanket. There are so many personal touches that might not resound as much for others as they did for me, but I loved it all. Absolutely recommend!

Kate Clayborn is definitely on my auto-read author list now. After loving last year's Love Lettering, I eagerly anticipated Love at First and it did not disappoint. Whereas in Love Letting the author really made the city a character, in this one, the unassuming apartment building and its inhabitants are integral to the story, and I really loved them. Maybe it's the element of knowing places like this and their Midwest-niceness, where people really do know and care for each other and the smallness of a community like that within a bigger city. I very much so enjoyed Will and Nora's love story, and the ways they were able to see and work with each other's wounds and find each other. The encouragement of those around them, even those like Will's gruff, older doctor mentor, made it so sweet as they found family with them. With a word perfect ending to the story, this was a definite winner.

3.5 stars

Will first "sees" Nora when he was fifteen years old. He doesn't really see her face, but hears her sweet voice and feels something. Will's life changes dramatically that day they visited his uncle Donny that he never knew existed. It was then that he learned that his father was sick.

Sixteen years later, Will is now a doctor and back to his now deceased uncle's apartment that his uncle left to him. It's there that he sees Nora again. He's not sure that it's the girl from many years ago, but soon realizes it is. Will wants nothing to do with the apartment and soon fixes it up for short term renters. Nora, at first, has plans to sabotage him the help of her quirky neighbors--she learns of his family history and why he doesn't want to live there.

Nora doesn't like change. She has lived in her deceased Nonna's apartment and hasn't changed anything in it. Will is someone who wants to be loved, but is afraid of ending up like his parents: young and in love, but then lost with the idea of not being with each other.

I enjoyed this sweet romance about learning to love and be loved. I really liked Will and his internal thoughts. There were sweet moments between Nora and him that had my toes tingling--one in particular towards the end of the book involving tomatoes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

It was time for a sweet book to warm my heart. After enjoying Kate Clayborn’s last book Love Lettering, I had high hopes that Love at First would fit the bill. It did.

This is a delightful story because the characters are so engaging. Beyond main characters Will and Nora, the wonderful secondary characters add lots of heart showing that love and family can come from many places. Love at First was a welcome break from the heavier books I’ve been reading.

It’s nice to read a book that makes you swoon.

4.5/5

I'm a Kate Clayborn superfan and she has yet to write a book that I haven't loved with every fiber of my being. She has this incredible ability to gut me with her love stories and I've found that I'm a big fan of her brand of angst. Love at First was another beautiful and achy book from Kate Clayborn. I shouldn't have been surprised by how much I fell for this story.

The prologue of Love at First opens with a teenaged, blurry-visioned Will meeting his maternal uncle for the first time one afternoon when his mother drags him to his Chicago apartment. This is a pivotal moment in Will's life - it's bittersweet because he hears Nora's voice here for the first time but this is also when his dreams decidedly end up crushed. Fast forward years later, Will is now an ER physician and his uncle, who he never met after that one afternoon, has left his apartment to Will. He plans on fixing up the unit and renting it out as an Airbnb. Enter Nora, who is also now living in her grandmother's apartment, still grieving from her loss. The apartment building and its tenants hold a special place in her heart, so Nora definitely does not want a rotation of strangers in her building. This creates tension between Will and Nora - I wouldn't call them outright enemies, but they are in opposition to each other. Obviously, this is a romance novel, so there's also an absurd amount of sexual tension between the two that we get to watch play out throughout the book.

All of the characters in Love at First are so well-written. Of course, we get to see more of Will and Nora in the book, but even the secondary cast felt like and living and breathing individuals with their varying personalities. There's almost an element of found-family among these neighbors. They are fiercely protective of each other, care about each other's happiness and sorrows, and it's genuinely the sweetest thing ever. Some of them also serve to lighten the book with their humorous meddlesome ways. Will's boss, who eventually becomes a good friend to him, is another great addition to this book - we even get to see his second chance romance in the background!

Back to talking about Will and Nora. Both of these characters have baggage which led to them being guarded with their emotions. They are both dealing with different traumas in Love at First. Will has his struggles from growing up unloved as a child - ugh, chest aches - and Nora is dealing with the grief of having lost her beloved grandmother. In a way, their argumentative interactions with each other is a form of solace from their baggage and it was clear to me as a reader, that they were meant for each other. The two have a lot of emotional growing up to do in the book before finally coming together as a couple but the journey was lovely and satisfying. Kate Clayborn fed my romance reading soul with this book. I mean there are numerous scenes of Will leaning against doorways, deliciously swoony kisses, all the consent, and emotional monologues and realization moments that had me clutching my chest!

I don't know how Kate Clayborn does it, but I'm here for everything that she writes. There's a reason why she is one of my all-time favorite authors and once again, with Love at First she proves why she 100% deserves to be on my list.

This book has everything! Long lost love (kind of), enemies to lovers, not one but two grand guestures, and it introduces a new favorite book boyfriend. Will is one the best book boyfriends to come around in a while and made this already enjoyable book even better. Add in a whole cast of lovable characters and this is a win. ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

I received this book "Love at First" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. The beginning of the book got my attention but... it started to drag. I found myself trying to decide if I wanted to continue. I did make it to the end but I have to admit that I skipped through a bit. Unfortunately this book was not for me.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I've come to really enjoy this author's books lately. They are always so full of the emotional and over the top romance that really is one of the reasons I'm drawn to romance novels in the first place. Readers will be swept up by the emotions in this story too - as both Will and Nora have their own emotional baggage to deal with outside of the struggle that is falling in love. Some parts of the overall premise in this book didn't work for me on a personal level just because of where I am in life. Nora is having trouble letting go of the way things were and making any changes at all to her apartment complex or getting rid of anything from her grandmother's apartment that was left to her. And I'm at a point where I'm trying so hard to shed things and downsize what we need to hold onto that the idea of Nora's struggle didn't make logical sense to me. This was a personal thing though and honestly shouldn't take away from anyone else's enjoyment of the book. It was very well written and was so very romantic. Lots of tension leading up to Will and Nora finally admitting they have feelings for each other. And lots of quirky / funny side characters that really made the book so charming and enjoyable! I did really like this book and I'd definitely recommend it!

Thank you to the publisher for this book. I love how this book started with Will as a 16 year old boy seeing a moment that was casted forever in his memory. The story of Will and Nora from enemies to lovers was so sweet. I love how how vested Nora was to keeping the memories of her grandma and preserving the uniqueness of the apartment. It was great to see the journey of how they learned about each other while having different goals for the apartment. The addition of the cast of characters were so charming and delightful.

An absolutely delightful story of finding family, finding yourself, and finding love. It's sweet and kind. It's a little bit second chance, a little bit enemies to lovers, and a lot Kate Clayborn. There are cherry tomatoes, kittens, towel bars, and Gerald, a very endearing secondary character.

I really only have good things to say about this story. I enjoyed the early scheming that Nora engaged in and how that's echoed at the end of the book. I really enjoyed Will and Gerald's evolving friendship. Both MCs grew and learned throughout the book.

It's fairly heavy, though there is certainly levity to help balance, The emotional journey is strong in this one.

Lovely.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to the author, Kensington Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sweet love story involving two people who both have experienced hurt and rejection in their lives, and are understandably hesitant to allow themselves to feel the feelings. Surrounded by a community in the house the story centers on, Nora feels fiercely defensive of the apartment she inherited from her grandmother, and the friendships with the other residents. Will, having unexpectedly inherited an apartment from an uncle who wanted nothing to do with him otherwise, is cast as the interloper. Very slowly, both thaw, and a happy end is eventually reached. Lovely, if not especially memorable.

ARC received from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this. Just like the last book I read from this author, it was well-written and a unique love story. Plenty of cute, funny, sexy and swoon-worthy moments.

However, I was pretty bored until maybe 40-50% of the way through? There was too much focus on the apartment building and the people that lived there. While I get the whole chosen family theme, I never really connected or felt invested with those characters.

But, Will. Sweet, tortured, emotionally-damaged Will. The author could’ve pushed his story a little further, but it was still okay. I wanted to wrap him in a hug the whole book and literally squealed when Nora finally did. I enjoyed the organic development of their relationship, and how they challenged each other to change and to open up to new possibilities. There were times of light angst, individually and as a couple, but it fit with their personalities so it didn’t bug me too much.

I adored LOVE LETTERING, so I was really looking forward to this book. Somehow, this one just didn't have the same appeal for me. I didn't connect to the premise. The neighbors are just so rude, getting in Will's way when he's trying to clear out his uncle's apartment. They're manipulative and unlikable. The tone is dreary, with a permeating sense of loneliness. The tone doesn't feel poignant, just sad. I suppose the book might appeal to readers who like quirky, interfering neighbors as a backdrop to a romance. It's just not for me. DNF.

DNF at 30%. Love Lettering was something special right from the start. There was a unique approach in that story that I really appreciated. Unfortunately Love at First lacks that special something. The apartment full of zany characters has been done so many times and it's old.. I find the characterization lacking and was turned off by the gratuitous cursing from the male MC. It didn't seem to fit his personality, although his personality admittedly was hard to nail down. Basically, I just don't see much special here which is a bummer because Love Lettering knocked it out of the park.

I’m half-convinced Kate Clayborn is magic because this book is fantastic. She is one of my favourite contemporary authors for writing such fantastic characters and books that celebrate love, found family, and friendship.
Will first sees (but not really) Nora on a sunny day when they’re teenagers, on her grandmother’s balcony. They meet years later when he inherits his uncle’s apartment and she’s settled into her late grandmother’s. The contrast between Nora’s grief and inability to change the apartment and Will’s lack of grief (he met his uncle once) and how he cleans out the apartment immediately to update are a marked contrast.
While they start out with being on opposing sides of building rules, this isn’t antagonistic or enemies to lovers. The attraction is always there. And it is ELECTRIC. The longing, the feelings just when their palms touch…
Love at First is a deeply comforting and satisfying romance. The character development, the intense feelings and uncertainty, supportive relationships, are carefully evolved to move the story forward. I loved Will and Nora's vulnerabilities and how they grew to share them with each other and support each other. A wonderful title to recommend to your patrons looking for contemporary romance.

This book is a hard one to rate for me. The farther along I got into the book the more I liked it. I felt like the author spent a lot of time describing things that didn’t matter (especially in the beginning) and less time describing things that did. It took me awhile to like the characters and to try and connect to them. I think more could have been said about Will and Nora in the past. It would have given the story more depth. Having said all that I enjoyed the book and I was invested in waiting for the happy ending. By the end I would give it 4 ⭐️.

Thank you to Kensington Books for the ARC

Kate Clayborn is a highly skilled writer of contemporary romance. The authorial voice and writing style of the Chance of a Lifetime series are very different from the deeply introspective Love Lettering (review here) and are different once again for the angst and humor of Love at First. Clayborn has the remarkable ability to adapt her writing to fit the story, rather than requiring the story to work around her craft. Clayborn remains one of my favorite authors, and I can’t wait to see what she will write next.

Full Review: https://frolic.media/book-of-the-week-love-at-first-by-kate-clayborn/