4.5⭐️
out now!

🐶 Synopsis: Rafe Whitman needs a girlfriend for the next six months to get his family to stop setting him up with every eligible bachelorette in New York. The reserved, grumpy veterinarian just wants a break from dating. Enter Star Shine Meadows — the complete opposite of Rafe. Star has been working odd jobs here and there and so when Rafe offers her the fake dating job, she sees it as a way to achieve her dream of traveling. Except simply fake dating is easier said than done.

🐶 Thoughts: I absolutely loved this romcom! It was such a cute and fun read, and the single POV worked so well here. I was so curious about what Rafe was thinking and seeing him fall for Star though her eyes was so special, especially since she is afraid of commitment. I wasn't a huge fan of Star in the first couple of chapters because she seemed a little bit too sunshine-y of a character for me, but once we learn more about her, I absolutely loved her! I loved her positive outlook on life especially after learning that she didn't have the best childhood or relationship with her parents.

🐶 The moments and tension between Star and Rafe were so well done. I mean the one bed scene?! I loved how Rafe loved Star for who she is and didn't want to change anything about her. Rafe's family was fairly supportive as well, and I loved seeing Star interacting with them too, especially since she didn't have that family relationship growing up. It was also refreshing that the heroine was the one afraid of commitment!

🐶 Highly recommend this if you're looking for a fun fake dating romcom. Thank you to the author and Valentine PR for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Samantha Young is fast becoming one of my favorite romcom authors. I've loved everything I've read from her so far and her latest, The Love Plot, is my new favorite! It's just the perfect combination of sexy, swoony, heartwarming fun and I loved every page of it.

The protagonist, Star Shine Meadows, as her name might suggest, is quite the free spirit. All Star wants to do is be happy and to do what she can to spread that happiness to others. When we meet her, she is working two jobs, one as a professional costume character actor who mainly attends kids' birthday parties, and the other as a professional line sitter, where she waits in line for items her clients do not have the time to wait for. She meets Rafe, the sexy but grumpy male love interest, at his niece's birthday party, & sparks fly.

Rafe is Star's opposite in pretty much every way. He's a broody, reserved veterinarian, and he doesn't understand Star at all. She's too cheerful, obnoxious & he doesn't get why she works the jobs she works. Yet, there's just something about her that gets under Rafe's skin. Rafe is also desperate to get his family to stop playing matchmaker, so he offers Star money to be his fake girlfriend. She agrees & shenanigans ensue!

I had so much fun reading this one. Both Star and Rafe are just so adorable & they have sizzling chemistry. I loved their hilarious and snarky banter, as well as the more heartwarming moments when they realize they've caught feelings for one another. I also loved that there were some more serious moments, particularly when they talk about their families and the future.

I alternated between the physical book and the audio (thank you, @PRHAudio), and I loved both. Savannah Peachwood read the audio and she did a phenomenal job bringing these wonderful characters to life.

This is the perfect read for any fan of the fake dating, opposites attract or grumpy-sunshine tropes. The Love Plot is out 8/29 so be sure to pick up a copy!

Thank you Berkley Romance for the egalley!

The Love Plot was a fun romance that conveyed the importance of being your true self and not changing for other people. It was a grumpy (Rafe, veterinarian from a wealthy family) x sunshine (Star Shine Meadows, yes that’s her name, a gig worker) and opposites attract who start a fake dating relationship in order for Rafe to get his family off his back about setting him up on dates. Lots of fun tension, banter and sexy times.

I very much enjoyed the chemistry between Star and Rafe. I enjoyed Star as a character as she navigated this new relationship while also dealing with issues with her childhood and parenting. She tells Rafe that all she wants to be in life is happy and you can tell Rafe would move heaven and earth to make her happy. I really enjoyed this and A Cosmic Kind of Love. Samantha does a great job of writing her characters, their backstories and personalities so sign me up for more from Samantha Young!

✨Review ✨
***
The Love Plot was amazing. It was full of lol moments, swoon worthy moments and aww moments. The writing was well done and super easy to read. The FMC was so easy to love. She was bright and bubbly. Rafe was a bit rude and mean but soon redeemed himself. This was definitely an easy to love rom com. I loved the support and acceptance of each character as well as their growth. The ending was amazing and I absolutely loved both characters and their relationship by the end. I was hooked with this story from the get go.
***
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Romance: 🩷🩷🩷🩷
Spice:.5
***
Thank you to Samantha Young and Valentinepr for the ARC to review.
***

It's official...Samantha Young can do no wrong. Now I confess, I mostly read her romantic suspense novels but The Love Plot sounded too fun to pass on and was I ever right!

I loved Star. She was truly her own person and lived life on her terms. And goodness me it was so refreshing to read someone who just wanted happiness and peace in their life. She wasn't going to let anyone stand in the way of that no matter how handsome they were. I won't lie, it took me a hot minute to warm up to Rafe. He was broody and standoffish. And beyond ready to put an end to the parade of women his mom and sister were trying to set him up with.

A plan, a proposal and an eye opening he never saw coming. It didn't take long for their fake dating to turn into real feelings. But with them coming from totally different worlds, it was only a matter of time before things got twisted.

Gah! I can't gush enough about these two. This was just an all round feel good romance. Star and Rafe's opposites attract love story was so honest and pure that I couldn't stop reading. They loved one another for all that they were and all that they weren't. They balanced and reality checked each other in a way that gave me all the happy belly flutters.

I was hooked from the start of this one! I adored Star right away! Rafe had the perfect grumpy start to her all sunshine all the time! And of course at first it was easy to think she was the one with the right attitude toward life. Once her family background got more clear, it was easy to see that maybe she was also projecting and using that attitude in unhealthy ways after all.

There was so much about Star that I adored and totally connected with. When she says at the beginning that yes, she has the app she can read with on her phone, but prefers her e-reader, I was agreeing 100%!!! And all about being comfortable and doing what she likes. But then when she decided she was going to give the relationship with Rafe more of a real try and starts almost conforming to what his family seems to expect, that sucked. I did get it though, it’s so easy to start taking what seems to be the path of least resistance. However, Rafe’s reactions and the way he felt about it, just made me love him more. Although maybe he could have spoken up, when he said that he knew it wasn’t any of his business what she wore or did with her body, again, just swoon at how perfect he was.

Then there was his family. I wanted to love them, but there were some things that damn! I guess Pippa wasn’t family by blood, just by marriage, but when someone suggested that Star needed to change her name? WTF!!!!!!!!! I was a little upset Star didn’t put them in their place at that point. However any of the drama in this wasn’t what normally appears to me as being drama for drama’s sake, well except for maybe with her friends at the end, that did irritate me a bit. Otherwise what happened between Rafe and Star made sense, and progressed in a way that I felt was natural/realistic.

I adored this book so much. It was grumpy-sunshine trope at its very best, which makes sense as it was written by one of my all-time favorite authors, one who I feel is the top in the romance world!

This is a super cute fake dating grumpy/sunshine rom-com. The banter is fantastic. The characters are dynamic. The plot is a little ridiculous but not too far fetched.

If there was ever a character that made lemons into lemonade it’s Star. After a less than ideal childhood, she’s intentionally happy and kind. She’s not without her issues but overall just a sunny character. Rafe is much less sunny after a fairly ideal childhood but has family that won’t stop meddling and underneath his rough exterior is a kind man.

I recommend this for anyone that enjoys rom-coms. I loved the characters back and forth and the way they both mature.

The Love Plot is one of those grumpy sunshine romances that will leave you feeling happy with the world and dreaming of meeting your very own Rafe. Did I mention Rafe, the brooding hero here loves animals although since he’s a vet that should be obvious. He has a meet cute with the heroine Star when she’s the star turn at his niece’s birthday party in her job as a Disney Princess performer, in this case Merida complete with a Scottish accent even if he isn’t all that complimentary about it at the time. It’s only later that he hits upon the idea of fake dating Star, even though something about her rubs him up the wrong way, in a last ditch attempt to get his interfering mother and sister in law off his back and stop them sending random women his way

I loved the development of their relationship as they went from people who barely tolerated each other to friends to ultimately lovers. On the surface Star was quirky and free spirited, a product of her hippy upbringing but it was only when you looked beneath the surface and saw the damage that neglectful upbringing had done. All she wanted was to belong somewhere but at the same time she was scared of being abandoned if she ever committed herself to one man. I loved that Rafe fell for the woman whose only ambition was to be happy. He didn’t want her to change to fit in with his world. He wanted the woman who took the time to send him a gift basket because he’d had a bad day, who was loyal to her friends. The woman who he would willingly fight his family for because as far as he was concerned, Star was his family. All he had to was convince Star that she was it for him exactly as she was.

It really has an amazing message: to always be ourselves because we’re perfectly imperfect just the way we are, said by the wonderful Samantha Young herself. Being ourselves is sometimes the hardest thing to do, so we pretend to be something we’re not even if it makes us unhappy and our FMC, Star, was a wonderful example of that.

Star is a professional costume character actor and Rafe is a veterinarian. They meet at an eight-year-olds birthday party where she played Merida. After running into each other for a second time, Rafe “hires” her to be in a fake relationship with her.

There was amazing character development, the banter between our main characters was perfect and the sexual tension between them was on point! I enjoyed this book so much!

This was an adorable, quick, and romantic book that made me smile from start to finish. It had many of my favorite tropes like Grump vs. Sunshine, Fake Dating, Matchmaking Relatives, Opposite Attracts, Snarky Banter all inside a book that is as playful as the cover. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I got not just one but two meet-cutes in this book -- the first when Star Shine is working as a Disney Princess at a birthday party and the second while in the pair are ‘unknowingly’ standing in the same line -- a little more contrived but so funny and it totally worked for me. Star Shine Meadows is a gig worker and is the child of two Hippie to the extreme parents and Rafe Whitman is a Veterinarian comes from your classic New York City / Connecticut Country Club set. She is always in need of a job and he is in need of someone to get his matchmaking family off his back. So if one Meet Cute can’t cut their odd attraction the second one will have to make them realize that there is more to their fake relationship than meets the eye.

This book had so many humorous moments as both Rafe and Star Shine move from strangers to lovers that I found myself giggling at some of their antics and the way that they each took turns showcasing to the other how much their pasts were limiting them. I loved how, in the end, this book not only made me laugh, but also invited me to think about how much are we willing to change for love and what are we not willing to compromise on? I really enjoyed that I got to see why Rafe was the Grump and I appreciated the way that Star Shine, despite her name, was not always the Pollyanna that I thought she would be. For me this part of the fun of reading a good romance, I get all the thrills and fun of a new relationship without any of the worries about what if this doesn't work out.


Shout Out to NetGalley, BerkleyPublishing, ValentinePR and Samantha Young for allowing me to Advance Read this book and share my thoughts on it with you here

4.5 'The jelly to my peanut butter' Stars!
ARC provided by the the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I am happy to say, I haven’t read a single book from Samantha Young that I haven’t loved. She is definitely one of my top favorite authors and again she did not disappoint with her new release with Berkley Romance. Another unique story, full of banter, fresh and lovable characters, tons of chemistry and a whole list of emotions. Get ready to fall in love with this couple!

So, The Love Plot is a standalone romantic comedy that mixes several romance troupes: fake relationship, grumpy/sunshine and opposites attract. Star Shine Meadows is a happy-go-lucky costume character actor when she meets grumpy vet Rafe Whitman. And then he realizes Star is the solution to his mother’s and sister-in-law’s matchmaking purposes. Rafe hires her to be his fake girlfriend for six months. But what happens when their magnetic attraction is impossible to stop? Are these two too different to love each other or will they fight for it until the end?

“Don’t psychoanalyze me, Rafe Whitman!”
His lips twitched. “I think you need a little psychoanalyzing, Star Shine Meadows.”
“You’re infuriating!”
“You’re perfect,” he answered seriously.

Again, as it always happens when I get immersed in a story, I can’t stop reading. This is exactly what happened with The Love Plot. I am not surprised though because I seriously love this woman’s writing. And the heroes… OMG. Rafe falls HARD. And I love that he wants Star to be whatever she wants to be, he loves her so much and he doesn’t want her to change (even though she tries). The chemistry between two burns the pages, and when their relationship turns real, it’s all or nothing. I also loved the secondary characters, especially Star’s friends and Rafe’s sister. I am so loving authors introducing new topics and doing it so well.

I’d never felt so connected to anyone in my entire life.
I’d never pictured anyone, not even my friends, in every conceivable version of my future, right until my last day. Until Rafe.

Therefore, I am rating The Love Plot with 4.5 STARS because I devoured this story from start to finish in one afternoon. I was hooked to this journey, this couple and their beautiful connection. Even though Rafe and Star are so very different from one another, they just click in a very special way and I seriously loved reading how they fell in love. I loved this romcom (and every single one Samantha has written with Berkley) and I cannot wait to see what is coming next!

The Love Plot was my first Samantha Young book. I hate to say I didn’t love this one… buuut…

This one lost me pretty early on with polyamorous relationships. If that’s your thing, this one might work for you.

Because of the above, it was hard for me to connect with the MC, Star Shine Meadows. Waiting for an HEA between her and Rafe, when there’s no commitment to just “the one”, was too unbelievable for me. (Insert confused face)

There’s plenty of tropes in this one. Opposites attract; she’s sunshine, he’s grumpy. She’s hippie and carefree- not wanting a career, he’s career oriented. Fake dating. And plenty of 🌶️ for the spice lovers.

THIS WAS SO CUTE!

* fake dating
* grumpy / sunshine
* cinnamon roll hero
* Only One Bed
* No 3rd Act Break-Up

Oh my, this was so enjoyable! It's hard to not enjoy Rafe and Star - they had such great banter and chemistry. I loved watching these two fall for each other while pretending to date. Both characters had their flaws, which was imbedded into the story line, which I appreciated. It felt very real and raw, at times. Star carries some baggage from her family and Rafe is right there to show her how being loved feels. He was also super protective of her and it was so cute how he always had her back.

I always enjoy Samantha Young's books and this is no exception!

Thank you to the author for an ARC of this book - all opinions are my own!

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭
𝐁𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐚 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟖.𝟐𝟗.𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐻𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎 𝒫𝓊𝒷 𝒟𝒶𝓎!

Thank you @berkleyromance @penguinrandomhouse for a gifted ebook and thank you @PRHaudio for the complimentary audiobook.


Fake dating is at its best here!

Star Shine Meadows and Dr. Rafe Whitman (a veterinarian, I know!) are as opposite as they come. But Rafe needs to get his family off his back about finding a suitable woman, so he hires Star to date him. Star is the furthest thing from what they would expect a Whitman to date.

Star was raised by hippies. She doesn’t really do relationships or conventional jobs, but she’s kind and caring and sunny. She has a trio of best friends who are like family, and now she’s hired to date a very hot, wealthy, grumpy veterinarian.

I was so nervous for Star, especially around Rafe’s family and friends, but Rafe turned out to be a real Prince Charming. They soon can’t deny the sexual tension between them and things get hot. But is it enough for either of them?

As fun and sexy as this one is, it does explore some important issues: the idea of losing yourself if you change to fit others' expectations, how past family issues can shape your ideas, and how relationships can look different for everyone.

Rafe caring for his furry patients and then standing up for Star quickly made him a contender for a new book boyfriend!

Oh. My. WORD. I’m writing this review immediately after finishing this book so everything is fresh in my mind! I absolutely could not stop reading this book, I finished it in less than a day. Being the first book I’ve read from this author, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But after reading The Love Plot, I can confidently say, I will be thinking about this book for MONTHS 😩
Star Shine Meadows tries her hardest to look on the bright side, forgive, and radiate positivity. With an unusual upbringing, accomplishing these things is no easy task but she doesn’t let that stop her from living life to the fullest. Rafferty “Rafe” Whitman couldn’t be more different than Star if he tried, being a sweet veterinarian while also keeping a glass half-empty attitude. When he meets Star, he believes her sunshiny disposition is a fake one. Taking his bad attitude out on those around him because of his mother and sister-in-law’s matchmaking attempts, Rafe doesn’t make the best first impression. Becoming desperate, he turns to Star for her assistance in getting his family off his back by… you guessed it, fake dating 🤩
This book is the sweetest kind of slow burn and the chemistry between these two characters turns it up like 10x! I tend to get quite attached to stories and characters, and this book was no different. I could not stop blushing while reading the banter between Rafe and Star, my heart raced more than once, the scenes when certain characters tried to change Star filled me with rage, and hearing Star’s backstory I couldn’t help but shed a few tears. I had to remind myself this was fiction during some of the scenes with Rafe’s family because they made me feel so mad 😡 In my opinion, this book is so well-written and the flow of the plot makes the story that much deeper. Being able to create a visceral reaction is mainly what I look for in books and The Love Plot definitely delivered. Plus, the tropes in this book are some of my favorite and were included so tastefully 🥰
I definitely think I could talk about this book for pages but just know that this fake dating, boss/employee romance story between two opposites couldn’t be filled with more love or appreciation. Rafe and Star are definitely meant for each other 🥺
Thank you so much to ValentinePR and the author for gifting me this ARC! 🩷

Star is all about freedom and living her life with no-string attached, both in her career and in her relationships. When she meets Rafe, an uptight vet who is her complete opposite, she can’t help but poke at him to get a reaction. Rafe’s family has been nagging him to find the one and it’s getting to be unbearable, so he offers Star, who is a cheerful ball of sunshine, $10K to be his fake girlfriend for 6 months to get his family off his back.

This is the epitome of the grumpy vs. sunshine and opposites attract tropes. Rafe and Star could not be more different and could not have come from more opposite families. Despite their differences, they work, and their chemistry is incredible. Star seemed like a hot mess at first, but as the story went on, I came to really love her, I do wish we had gotten Rafe’s POV as well because I would have really loved to know what was going on in his head. Overall, I thought this book was very sweet.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing for the advance copy.

POV: Single FMC
Spice: 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️

I’m a Samantha Young fan but this is my first romcom by her and I really enjoyed it! It’s funny and steamy, but best of all we get to see the free spirited Star really find herself, with the help of her found family and of course, the grumpy vet Rafe.

I love dual POV, so I definitely missed that, especially with Rafe, a character that I liked so much, but it didn’t take away from everything I did love about the book. I really felt like the real villain of the story is Pippa, Rafe’s SIL, and I’m not sure she ever felt bad for the things she did, so I will continue to stay mad at her 😂

With fake dating, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine tropes, I was really excited for this one and I was not disappointed!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a fake dating, opposites attract that I had so much fun with.

Star was a character that felt new and unique. I don't often read about characters with her background and outlook on life so it was refreshing to read this book through her pov. Rafe was a grumpy vet who owned up to his misconceptions and mistakes and wasn't afraid to speak his mind. I loved that these two had this in common when there were so many differences between them.

The chemistry and tension between the two of them was impeccable. The longing stares sent me over the edge every time. I also loved that this book was single pov so we really got to guess on what Rafe was thinking and feeling sometimes which also upped the tension.

I absolutely adored the first half of this book. I was gung-ho for 5 stars and then about 3/4 of the way through that went down to 4.5 stars, and by the end, I was at 4. I don't think the writing got worse or the story necessarily did. I think it just lost some of it's tension and sparkle for me. We were getting into real life problems and watching Star go through a bad transformation which felt so at odds to the sparkling first half of the book.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this one. This was my first book by Young, but now I'm committed to reading her backlist.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one! Star was raised by hippies. She’s a free spirit, bubbly and lives her life on her own terms and doesn’t care what other people think about her lifestyle. Rafe is from a rich family, he’s a veterinarian, grumpy and uptight. He meets Star at his niece’s birthday party where Star is working as a Disney princess. Rafe’s family has been pestering him about relationships and marriage so he makes an arrangement with Star to fake date to get his family off of his back. Their relationship starts out awkward but soon blossoms into a sweet and sexy romance.

I absolutely adored Star’s character…her personally and how she tries to be her authentic self even among Rafe’s elite and slight, snobbish family. Star and Rafe’s chemistry was steamy and there were some laugh out loud moments in the book. If you love fake dating, sunshine/grump, and opposites attract tropes then you need to check this one out!

“‘I think dogs are my soul mates.’ ‘How so?’..’Well, they’re just so open and full of love. Aggressive dogs are generally made, not born, right?’ ‘Correct.’ ‘And if you treat them well, feed them, take care of them, provide them with affection, dogs love with an unfaltering loyalty that puts us humans to shame.’” 💕 #Facts

The grumpy-meets-sunshine and fake relationship tropes where the guy is a (hot) veterinarian and is fostering a Great Dane?! Umm yes. Duh. #GreatDane

This was a quick and easy read/listen that I finished in a day. I loved watching Star heal with the help of a good, albeit a bit ornery, man, and dogs. Always dogs. She’s a commitment phobe stemming from hippie parents that gave her no sense of home. And now she’s afraid of anything that ties her down and that she could possibly lose or fail at. Enter Rafe, cranky animal lover extraordinaire.

The audiobook was fabulous and had me laughing out loud numerous times at the banter between these two. Their chemistry was hot Hot HOT! If you are looking for a fun, funny, and hot romance to round out your summer reading grab this one today!

Thanks for the free audiobook @PRHAudio #PRHAudioPartner and to Netgalley, the author, and Berkley Publishing for the ARC.