For me the main interest here was the mystery surrounding Wills past with his parents and late uncle, and less the actual 'enemies to lovers' romance that was going on. I get the point of the romance was supposed to be this sort of 'love at first sight' even when they can't really SEE each other bit. and it was cute in theory but didn't work for me on paper.

What I really did love about the story though was the cast of characters who live in the building. The neighbors all felt real and fleshed out and fun to be around. I loved the poetry night and how their little apartment building was not just a found family but a whole community on the inside. They had every right to want to not want an Air BnB in their building, but I do think they really went about trying to stop it in the wrong way considering how polite Will was from the get go.

I flew through this joyful story in a few hours, a beautiful little tale of love in its many guises. The love story between Nora and Will is gorgeously written, and I was rooting for them from the start. The relationships and friendships of the supporting characters also really round this story out nicely, you want good things for all of them. A lovely story that brings some much needed joy!

I kindly received this ARC from Netgalley, but I wish I had a physical copy so I could hug it. This is what reading this book felt like -- a strong, warm embrace. While I am a sucker for a good romance, especially if sparks are flying in the first couple of chapters, I appreciated the slow burn between Nora and Will. Sometimes, like in real life, you have to get down to the very core of someone to see the potential of love and acceptance. And that is what happened with our main characters, but also with the people around them. The habitants of this apartment complex were unexpectedly odd, but in such a beautiful way. It made me more invested in the connection they all had as a ragtag, mismatched family.

*I received a digital ARC from NetGalley. The review is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.*

Spoken from a third-person viewpoint, Love at First is a cosy, romantic novel which is a romantic story. The basic girl-boy meeting scenario was made creative by the author. I liked that part.

The main characters were nicely portrayed. And the secondary characters definitely uplifted this story.

However, the book lacks the tendency to keep the reader hooked throughout the story. There is also a lack of spark between the chief characters, but individually I liked Will’s character and his back story more than Nora’s.

For Nora, I couldn’t connect with her at all. Her character’s flat and boring.

The romantic element of the story wasn’t up to the mark for me.

What I liked:

How the side characters’ relationships mesh and the concept of family that these neighbors have formed with each other.

I am unhappy that this book wasn’t for me. But if you like stories about family fated lovers, then this book is for you. Try it and see for yourself. You might enjoy this more a lot than I did.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Love at First follows Nora Clarke and Will Sterling in a very entertaining and heart warming enemies to lovers scenario.

The true heart of this book is the unique, cozy apartment complex that homes Nora's chosen family. Both Nora and Will deal with grief in different ways, these side characters help them grow and learn to be open to love.

The chemistry and growth between Nora and Will was fantastic! What a lovely, romantic read!

A sweet romance that will definitely appeal to fans of Clayborn's Love Lettering. I appreciated that Will's hesitation to commit was for a reason I don't think I'd ever seen in a romance before. The great cast of supporting characters added humor and depth. The relationship between Will and Nora was a well-developed and surprisingly charming enemies to lovers.

Nora loves her late grandmother's Chicago apartment, in a building full of eccentric characters who've lived there forever. When her downstairs neighbor dies, his nephew Will inherits his apartment and decides to turn it into a short-term rental. Nora and the other residents band together to convince Will that it's a bad idea. Mostly by acting even crazier than they really are.

Doctor Will doesn't have good memories of his uncle's place, and he's just as happy not to stay there. But he is intrigued by Nora. The two grow closer, despite being on opposite sides of this conflict. They may have more in common than they thought, including an unavoidable attraction.

Clayborn populates this world with unusual characters, who aren't exactly loveable, but whom you will love in spite of yourself. I wish I could spend more time with them, in an aging apartment building with velvet-striped wallpaper in the halls. I loved last year's Love Lettering, and I am happy to report that Love at First is another wonderful book.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review.

I expected an absorbing plot and engaging characters; I did not expect it to get me right in the feels. With winning characters, a multigenerational found family, and a fun Chicago setting, this romance from a prior Summer Reading Guide author is going to make a whole lot of readers happy. Heads up for several open door scenes.

This is a sweet story about romantic love, families (conventional and otherwise), and learning to trust others with our authentic selves. It’s an undemanding read with some real substance to it, nonetheless. The main characters, Nora and Will, are appealing and believable as they discover that in spite of their differences, they are not so dissimilar after all when it comes to what really matters.
I confess to not being much of a fan of the “romance” genre in general—not that I don’t love a love story, but I usually want more from a novel than most books in that category give. In the right mood, a light read can be great; sometimes we need a comforting, uplifting story, and 2020 has been one of those years, hasn’t it? It’s just that I find that I have to sift through a lot of dross to get any gold when it comes to the romance genre; so many of those novels are just plain badly written. This is one of the exceptions. The writing flows delightfully, and I thoroughly enjoyed the quirky characters living in the apartment building where Nora has inherited the home of her beloved Nonna. She has loved the neighbors in the small block of flats since she was a child spending summers there; they have always been the only real family she has known. Will, a doctor, has also inherited a flat from his Uncle Donny, of whom his memories are anything but fond. Will intends to use the flat as a means of income via short-term rentals, an idea that horrifies the rest of the building’s inhabitants.
The novel’s strength is the developing relationship between Will and Nora in this engaging “enemies to friends to lovers” tale. The connections between the main characters and the other inhabitants of the building also add to the story’s appeal. This one is well worth looking out for when it is released in February of 2021.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this romance. Nora and Will met when they were kids at a very traumatic point in Will's life. Nora's carefree personality brought happiness and joy to his life even if it was but a brief moment. He would later meet her again under the same balcony as he decides to rent out his uncle's apartment and his practical, dull life would never be the same again. They come to know each other through a series of comical sabatoging events. Will is afraid to give full rein to his feelings for her in fear that he would become obsessive like his parents. Nora battles her own demons of letting of the past. In the end, Will realizes that he needs her in his life and theirs become a sweet, passionate relationship built on love and trust. The author does an amazing job building sexual tension and creating realistic, flawed characters that learn to truly love and let go. Really enjoyed it.

I really liked @kateclayborn.author ‘s first book that I read and this second one was just as good! This cute romcom centers around an apartment building in Chicago and made me want to visit the city again. Nora and Will have such a beautiful story with flaws, growth and empathy.

I was so excited to get an early copy of this book! Oh man, it had me hooked from the first chapter, and I flew through it!

I enjoyed basically from start to finish. I really liked the contrast between Will and Nora's feelings towards the building, and I felt that Kate Clayborn did a very good job at handling that conflict. I feel like the pacing plateaued for a bit in the second half of the book, but I will still so invested in Will and Nora and had a very difficult time putting the book down!

Overall, I thought it was a great book, and would definitely recommend (I think I like Love Lettering better though).

4.5 Stars. This was so good! It had a sloooooow burn and by the end I was just smiling so big. I felt so many emotions reading this book and every single roller coaster was well worth it. Heart wrenching, tender, romantic and hopeful and so much more. You just couldn't help but root for Nora and Will straight from the beginning. I totally get the slow burn, they needed time to grow and figure out what they wanted and stop running from everything they had been their whole lives. It was well worth it. Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC.

Oh, was this lovely. Nora and Will’s feud turned romance was delightful, but it was this sentence that caught like a burr: “You don’t have to love people the way you learned to love at first.” The supporting cast was just as much fun as the leads and Gerald deserves all the BFF charms. Clayborn has such a gift for the small details and I am here for it.

Having really enjoyed “Love Lettering” by Kate Clayborn, I was very excited to read her latest book “Love at First” and it didn’t disappoint. If you’re looking for a well written romance story that explores some deeper topics, this is the book for you. Both of the main characters, Will and Nora, have difficult backgrounds. They both need to work through how their legacies will affect their lives in the present. Although the title of the book seems to allude to “falling in love at first sight”, which is pertinent in the story, but it’s actually symbolic of so much more.

Thanks to #LoveatFirst and #NetGalley for the ARC.

Love at First is the second book I've read by Kate Clayborn. Much like Love Lettering, the author has a way with making you feel like you're there. The location is as much a character in the story as the actual characters are. In this case, the backdrop is a well loved apartment building where the longtime inhabitants have created a unique family dynamic. When Will arrives after inheriting one of the flats, it seems the dynamic will be irreversibly changed.

The story was charming and the cast of characters were all likeable, each in their own way. This was an enjoyable easy read.

I really don't have much to say about this, surprisingly. I mean, I enjoyed the story overall. It's cute, it's light, it has some adorable moments. But it's also a little forgettable? That sounds a bit harsh, but this isn't really something I will be thinking about years to come, if that makes sense.

I found myself much more invested in Will and his backstory, and I would have loved to see more of that. Actually, I would have had Will and Nora meet when they were teenagers. I think that would have helped their chemistry, because I found it to be lacking at times. Although I do think both of their individual character developments are quite nice.

But other than that, this just feels like any other romance novel. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I read Love at First and to be honest, it fell flat for me. I was super excited to read this. The whole premise sounded good. But I was kind of bored. There was no chemistry for me. Nora and Will had no spark. It often times felt forced. From the start of the book I was intrigued with Will more because of his family and their whole backstory. His mom and his uncle who turned them away.

Kate Clayborn is a stunning writer. The prose is achingly emotional--it just radiates the ache of grief and desire and frustration and the gamut of emotions that she puts her characters through. And how the title of the book clicked into place within the story in multiple ways was frankly breathtaking. The book tips slightly towards being more Nora than Will, and I often found Nora verging on immature in her attempts to run Will out of the building and too stubbornly insistent on living in the past. As for Will, I sometimes didn't feel we got enough of his thought processes (why did he think he'd be just like his parents when he doesn't seem to be in any other respect?). Those qualms aside, it's a really gorgeously written book.

Wow... where do I begin? I fell hard for Love Lettering and could not wait to get my hands on Clayborne’s next masterpiece. Love At First exceeded my expectations... and more.

I’ve never read a book more tender or beautiful. My heart would race at the small moments between Will and Nora, break for their pasts and fill with joy for the community and family Clayborne created. I loved every minute of this story and the characters. I couldn’t put it down, staying up until 3 am to finish it and then read it again a second time today.

There is something so lyrical and emotional about the writing. Clayborne crafts so much beauty in the simplest of moments and scenes. Her words on the pages are proof that she is a true master in love stories that feature real hardships, real people and real relationships.

Love At First was easily my favorite read of the year.