I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

This really wasn't for me.... I'm not someone who likes 'not like other girls' main character so that really ruined my enjoyment :(

Who doesn't love a frenemies premise?!
I loved the writing style & it made me laugh out loud more than once.

I wasn't 100% sold on the last quarter but I will be off to check out Baker's previous books.

I loved this book. I read it in one day. I will be looking for more from this author. I would definitely recommend this book.

'Love At First Fight' was a super cute romance book which is a modern retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. This book follows Bridie and Ben who claim to hate each other after something that happen when they were in high school, but now they have to reunite as they are both having to attend a wedding where they are both in the wedding party as maid of honour and best man.
This was super cute and funny. I had such a fun time reading this book and seeing Bridie and Ben fall in love with each other. There were definitely some funny moments and you could tell that Bridie and Ben had a lot of chemistry with each other.
The writing in this book was so easy to read and I loved being able to dive into and get lost in a fun book like this for a few hours.

Unfortunately couldn't enjoy this one. Found it way too over-the-top (the characters, the dialogue, that fact that heroine's life is over if she hasn't found a man by the time she's 28... Seriously?) Much of this book just read as rude and/or uninteresting, TMI, and frankly just too much. It missed the mark as it all felt way too forced

characters weren't super likable, the pacing of the story was a bit all over the place, some of the secondary stories/characters took a bit too much focus away from the main characters

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the review copy.

"Love at first fight" is a true enemies to lovers kind of story. It is sweet. It is cute. And it is way too much. But that is what to expect from a story like this. And it is most certainly super cute.

The story is cute and the characters are adorable, but beyond that there is not much more. Not that I would have expected it to be any more complex (in fact it is a delight, that it is such an easy read), but one might argue that it needs more action and more drama in the book. However, I loved the cute storyline.

Mary Jayne Baker has a beautiful writing style, which gives the story an even better flow and makes the story interesting and exciting to read.

Also, the cover is super cute as well. You can not help but get caught by that. And the story draws you in even further.

If you love a story of enemies to lovers, this is the perfect novel for you. You will absolutely love this one.

I loved the friends to enemies to lovers, that’s what initially pulled me towards the book. I also loved their banter and friends group but the main issue between Ben and Birdie get’s resolve pretty early on in the story so we are left with fill in storyline. Ben and Birdie go from main characters to secondary ones and Hattie and Carl get the spotlight for the rest of the book. I wouldn’t have minded that if it was two different books but I wasn’t as emotionally invested in Carl and Hattie so having the spotlight be on them made me feel detached from the story.

am a fan of Mary Jayne Baker books and love it from the start. Good book and premise. What is not to love about this.

Loved the writing style and banter but this fell short for me. I enjoyed it but it wasn't anything special to me.

I rather enjoyed this book. It was a feel good book that was super easy to get into.

It was predictable but with plenty of twists and turns I was still kept interested in the overall plot. I did find certain things rather far fetched and unrealistic but that's just me.

While I was reading this book I kept thinking that maybe it was a re-issue. Some of the terms and plot points felt very dated. Anyway, overall the plot was ok. I felt that it dragged and the ending seemed to crazy to believe.

I found this relatively enjoyable until self-care was referred to as "gay" -- and then it totally lost me. The story is cute, but I couldn't get past it.

I'm a big fan of The Hating Game and 10 Things I Hate About You. However I've never read Much Ado About Nothing, but I didn't have anything to worry about there. I didn't feel I was missing anything.

However, overall the book was a miss for me. I particularly didn't enjoy some attitudes towards self care - calling it "gay" is an outdated ideal I really wish wasn't in this book.

Not for me, overall.

Love cynic Bridie Morgan is staging a last hurrah to the ‘dating’ stage of her life: she’s going on twenty dates in twenty days. If this ‘love’ thing really is a numbers game, then surely she’ll find The One. And if not? Well, at least the memory of her date with the Spice Girls’ biggest fan will be enough to put her off for life. She’ll never again wonder what she was missing.

But being love’s biggest sceptic is a challenge in the face of best friend Hattie’s upcoming nuptials. And as maid of honour, she really has to give it a chance.

Then Bridie’s lifelong nemesis Ben Kemp returns home to join the wedding party. Ben, who left her waiting outside their leavers’ prom in a brand-new dress, alone. Ben, who triggered the sorry state of affairs that has been Bridie’s love life ever since. Ben, the best man to her maid of honour.

As old enemies reunite, sparks fly – in ways Bridie could never have seen coming…


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Not likable but it's just a 3 stars. Sadly this book somehow felt flat to me. It should be a fun read but...no for me. Enemies-to-lovers romance can be a hit or miss and this book is leaning towards a miss.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Aria&Aries for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest review.


Simply awful. Some things I've read on this book I don't think it would be possible for me to still read in a book from 2021. Seems to me that the author is still a bit stuck on her own preconceived notions, like suggesting that it's "gay" to practice self-care. Absurd.

Anyway, there's tons of great books out there, so I'll use my time reading and reviewing them--it's better this way.

I struggled on where to rate this, since the first half was quite good, but it feel very far short during the second half. Bridie was a fairly interesting and heartwarming character, the interactions between all the characters was funny and entertaining. Once Ben arrives to town his charm and easy banter with Bridie is great, and their chemistry at this stage is fun.

However, at roughly halfway through, it felt like the author had either given up on writing the characters. When Bridie and Ben had moved past their enemies stage, their interactions were lukewarm, and just didn't feel like they had much chemistry anymore. It feel short.

While I was wondering if I was going to continue reading for the first 25% of the book, Love at First Fight ended up being a totally compulsive book that I couldn’t put down. In the beginning, none of the characters are very likable, especially our male main character, Ben. I also found Bridie pretty obnoxious. However, I’m really glad that I decided to keep reading because Ben and Bridie both had a lot of good character development, although their relationship escalated way more quickly than I thought I would for their personalities. I love the way that Hattie and Cal were included in this book as side character friends, but that they also had a major conflict that had me flipping through the pages like crazy at the end. In general, the friend group was really fun in this book and the romantic relationships were sweet. I think parts were a tad long and it could’ve been polished up a bit, but overall the key points of the book were well done and I’d be interested in reading Mary Jayne Baker’s future books.

Thanks to Aria for the copy of this ARC!

Love at First Fight is a light, funny read. Bridie and Ben can't stand each other, but that was not always the case.

I truly enjoyed their banter and constant back and forth and I loved that we were able to see what exactly happened in the past that had coloured their “friendship.”

The icing on the cake for me was seeing them joining forces to preserve their friends’ relationship and to ensure that the marriage went through.

I gave this a 3.75 out of 5