I just LOVE this cover! It's a magical draw to step into the book and go on a romantic and sometimes apprehensive adventure. This is a lovely story with characters that captured my heart and took me into a fairy tale with ups and downs that I wanted so much for them to work through and find the magic at the end. The vulnerabilities of Brigid and the sensitivity of Andrew created a spark that Ms. Littlestone tended throughout the book. I loved the settings both in the historical old library Brigid kept that she inherited from her great grandmother to the picturesque country of Ireland and the castle that held a magic of its own. I felt the chemistry between the characters and connected to their stories.

I really enjoyed this book. It has everything I could want in a feel good romance that didn't let me down. I wanted to turn the pages to find out what it would take for their HEA!

Thank you, Ms. Littlestone, for a great read that I enjoyed so very much! I'm so looking forward to the next novel in this series! All opinions and thoughts in this review are my heartfelt own.

TW// mentions of death (including children, mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, brothers, animals), brief sexism comment, brief mention of suicide, brief mention of murder

The synopsis for For the Love of Brigid caught my attention, but it got my expectations for the story too high and I ended up being incredibly disappointed with everything about this book.

The worst part of the story for me was the characters. All of the characters were two dimensional. They lacked depth and none of them had strong personalities. I can’t get connected to a book unless the characters have some sort of substance to them.

The writing style also prevented me from getting connected to the story. It felt way too formal, awkward, and overall bland. I wanted more out of the writing. If this was the author’s first work, maybe I’d be a little more forgiving about the writing, but according to Goodreads, this author has fourteen works out. To have such a bland writing style while having written fourteen books is a little shocking.

The romance in this story was not great. The lovers lacked chemistry. Every one of their interactions was extremely forced and awkward. I was hoping to find a fun, believeable romance in this book, but I did not get that out of the story at all.

The book as a whole was incredibly unrealistic. I can’t cover all the unrealistic scenes here or else this review would be way too long, but here’s just a few:
-Brigid let Andrew, a complete stranger, into her home right away.
-Brigid agreed to help Andrew with his project even though Andrew was vague about how he found out about the legend he was investigating and how he found out about Brigid.
-Brigid invited Andrew, a man she barely knew, to a family reunion on a different continent and Andrew chose to go with her.
-Characters got engaged after only one or two days of officially dating.

The fantasy/magical realism elements in this book were weak. I love fantasy, so I was incredibly bummed that this story chose to include some fantasy elements yet not develop them fully. At the bare minimum, this story needed a clear explanation of how the magical artifact works.

From the synopsis of the book, I knew cheating would be a part of this book. I hate cheating, but I thought I could handle it with this book since the rest of the plot sounded so interesting. Suprisingly it wasn’t cheating that caused a big issue for me; rather it was how all the side characters seemed to encourage cheating. It made me super uncomfortable and I was surprised that no side characters said “hmmm you know he has a fiancée so maybe don’t pursue him.” The whole cheating scenario/fiasco was necessary for the story, but the side characters’ comments about it were completely unnecessary.

I don’t recommend this book unless you have enjoyed this author’s previous works. Nothing about the story worked for me and unfortunately I felt like my time could’ve been better spent by reading literally anything else.

Brigid helping Andrew to research for his book about old irish legend who involved in Brigid family. Both of them go to ireland to do research also attend gala. The O’Cleirigh legend research not easy and Andrew need to learn some Irish language.

Andrew grew feelimg for Brigid. She feel the same but she doubt it because Andrew have fiancee. Andrew explain about Alice but at the end it is hurt Brigid.

When Andrew try to win Brigid again, he is planning some mastermind grand gesture who can melt Brigid.

"To the legend that brought us together, and the ring that sealed our hearts. You have mine forever.."

Thank you to NetGalley for provide this book, it is pleasure to review this book.

#FortheLoveofBrigid #NanetteLittlestone #XpressoBookTours #NetGalley #ARC

There are moments when I see a cover illustration and feel drawn to it, and with this book, it was one of those moments. Looking at the cover illustration, I had expectations in my mind about what the story might be like.

When I read this, it met my expectations, and I thought it was a charming book. At the beginning, I felt like I was reading a fairy tale. Having said that, the story was sweet without being too sugar-coated.

I identified with the main character and her enthusiasm for books, and I found the story heart-warming.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the ARC copy for this review.

Brigid is a 30 year old librarian with aspirations to become a novelist. Famous author, Andrew Connally, arrives at her doorstep one afternoon, presenting her with an Irish legend which he believes connected with her family history. He enlists her help with researching the legend for his new book which leads them on a magical adventure to Ireland.

What I liked: The characters really are charming in this book. Brigid and Andrew's chemistry makes for an easy and believable read. The charm and magic of Ireland is present throughout the book. It was a quick read for me, I finished it in about 1.5 hours. It's a very sweet love story with enough mystery and drama added in that it isn't too sugary. It's a great recommendation for the Hallmark movie enthusiast.

What I didn't like: The take-off of the main storyline was so rushed. Brigid literally just lets this stranger into her home to research an Irish legend supposedly associated with her family without any questions or clarification whatsoever. She honestly doesn't even ask him about where he heard this story until their third time meeting to discuss and research it. Also, in the beginning Andrew has a weird conversation with his publisher where he feels very guilty about what he is doing to Brigid by bringing her into this. It made me feel like he was potentially planning something completely unrelated to this Irish legend, but nothing ever came of it. It was just a weird start.

Also, there is a scene where Andrew comes to Brigid's rescue in the woods about halfway through the book. This scene was just so out there. Brigid's aunt comes to him during a party and tells him Brigid needs him, drives him to her house and then tells him to just get out of the car and "follow his heart" to find her. He finds her by an old oak tree where she is reliving some terrible events from her past. Soon after this, we learn that she experienced all of this because of her late mother's magical ring that she found while going through her belongings. I mean... where did that come from? I'm all for a good fantasy story, but this was completely out of the blue, more than halfway through the book. So the believability of the story kind of lost some cred for me with that add-on.

The build-up to Brigid and Andrew's reunion was a little too drawn out, and also kind of unbelievable but I understand the Hallmark target audience loves this kind of storyline so I get it. Not really my thing, but she made it work.

I didn't love how Brigid's plans of becoming a novelist kind of just got tossed to the side either. It was such a big part of her character and something she really wanted to try to do. But it was just casually shrugged off like, "Eh, not for me." in the end, when the obvious solution for her would have obviously been to become a children's book author. But, ok.

Overall, it was a lovely story, albeit with a few unbelievable parts. Makes for a nice, cozy quick evening read.

3.5/5 *

Tongue-tied around men, the only place shy librarian Brigid Cleary finds love is in the books she reads. Certainly not in the novel she’s writing—as appealing as a dusty desert. Then a famous mystery writer enters her life to research an Irish legend related to her family. As their easy conversation grows, Brigid develops feelings. There’s just one large problem—he’s engaged.

With two failed books behind him, Andrew Connally is desperate for success. The Irish legend has to pull him through. When Brigid invites him to Ireland for a family celebration, in exchange for his help with writing, he jumps at the chance. But surprises emerge in this enchanted land. The flames of attraction climb, and the legend pulls them both on a powerful journey.

As the secrets of the legend come to light, Brigid and Andrew discover an unexpected path to love and the dreams they both desire.

This was such a sweet read! Two main characters, both searching for something more than what they have, aching for a connection, to belong.

I love the descriptions of Ireland woven throughout, it really brings it to life on the page.

With realistic characters, a solid plot, a little magic, and some romance, this book was just such an all round feel-good read.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Unfortunately, for me, this book was full of small storyline threads that seemed to exist for the purpose of adding depth to characters and more tension to the plot but never actually went anywhere or were resolved.

I was immediately put off balance by the "library" that Brigid owned and operated. As a librarian, it seemed to me that it was the *idea* of a library that someone has but wouldn't actually work - rooms with differently themed names, no staff other than yourself, and seemingly. no set hours (determined by how often Brigid seemingly would have had to close the library to meet her friend Annemarie for lunch or other outings). Apparently, the library existed purely to provide storyhour for the children of the community and house the family's historical collection of books (which Brigid says no one ever uses).

The Irish legend that Andrew is researching is cause for confusion, too. In one conversation with his manager, it is implied that Andrew might have completely made up the legend but is looking for an Irish family history that he could potentially connect to it in an attempt to create something out of nothing. As such his character seems reluctant to "hurt Brigid" with his actions. Later in the story, he meets a shop owner who lists out all the local legend - none of which line up with the one he's trying to work with. He asks the man about it in more detail, but he hasn't heard of it. However, at the end of their conversation, the owner says wishes him luck in his research and says, "I always thought there was something to it." Something to what? The legend that he had never heard of prior to their conversation?

It was because of inconsistencies like this that kept me from enjoying the book. There were plenty of other things that were mentioned in passing that never went anywhere - Brigid's relationship with her father, what actually happened with her mother, and her father's plans to partner with a development firm with regards to the family castle in Ireland. (In particular, people seemed really upset about that one, but then it was never mentioned again.)

I kept pushing through the book wishing that I could actually care about what was happening with the characters, but I wasn't able to feel connected with anyone until the last 40 pages or so. I was particularly surprised when Andrew gave an impassioned speech about a writer's intent with their books: "Because that's why people read. They want to be entertained. They want to hope and dream along with the characters and feel something they're not feeling."

Ironically, this statement was the perfect expression of what I was searching for in this book but was unable to find. I feel badly writing such a negative review, this was my honest experience while reading the book. Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book.