4.5 stars

You know those books that you read a couple of pages and immediately get sucked into? That's how the Love Plot was for me! This was a super quick read and I loved every second!

What I loved:

- All of my favorite tropes: Fake dating, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine
- I really loved Star and her personality. I really appreciated the fact that she was 100% her true self and stood up for herself as well.
- Samantha Young's writing style is extremely fun for me. I can visualize everything she writes and it feels like I"m there
- Rafe. You can't help but love Rafe AND he's a veterinarian? I also loved seeing his personality unfold as Star got to know him. The character development of both Star and Rafe was incredible.

If you're looking for a fun rom com, give this one a try!

Opposites attracts & grumpy vs sunshine -- Eternal optimist Star is so determined to live in the moment it turns out she's fleeing facing the impact of her past. When she meets super hot and uptight Rafe, she's forced to challenge how she experienced love growing up. A lot of disconnect between Star's belief in polyamory and her own feelings of possessiveness and jealousy, neither of which are healthy emotions in a relationship.

A sweet and funny romance with a lovely grumpy hero and a sunny heroine. Star and Rafe are a fun couple with a true meet-cute and a host of classic tropes.

3.5

at times feels cringey and/or rushed, but overall, isn’t bad. the moments that star kind of just threw things out there (about herself or her friends’ relationship, for example) to shock people were probably my least favorite. the story held my interest, & i liked most of the characters.

#netgalley

I have been such a fan of Young’s books for a while- her books are so easy to get hooked into and this was no exception for me. The Love Plot was spunky and full of fun romance tropes! Star was a VERY quirky character and although I didn’t fully vibe/resonate with her, I appreciated her uniqueness. I loved the first half of this more than the second half, which if you have read it, you understand the shift in nature. While I enjoyed the couple, the family made me so infuriated that it made me want to stop reading since it ruined my enjoyment of the book. In the end, I felt like there were some unresolved issues that didn’t feel concluded. Still, I will pick up all future books by Young, this one just wasn’t my favorite.

Read this if you want:
-Fake Dating
-Quirky characters
-Grumpy/Sunshine
-Self-discovery journey

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for giving me a copy in exchange for my honest review!

This is a quintessential contemporary romance with fake dating, witty banter, and likable characters. I would love to be friends with either the male or female MC, and I loved the little circle of people that they surrounded themselves with. Bumps and miscommunication ih this one are fairly mild until the climax, so the stress level before your HEA isn manageable. Recommended for any library that serves adults.

Star Shine Meadows is a free spirit thanks to the hippie parents who raised her. She juggles two jobs, a costume wearer, and a professional line sitter. Little does she know the uncle to the little girls party shes at will end up being her boyfriend. When Rafe Whitman proposes a fake dating relationship with Star, she reluctantly agrees. He just wants his family off his back to find a wife, and she needs the money he’s willing to pay. When things eventually heat up between them, they realize fake dating isn’t the way to go. Who says opposites don’t attract?

This was such a fun grump/sunshine fake dating romance! I absolutely loved Star and Rafe. Star was the epitome of her name and always shined so brightly. She was just so wonderful that I loved everything about her, even her ridiculous name. I absolutely loved why she was named Star Shine Meadows to. Rage was also wonderful, and such a grump! Star was exactly what he needed in his life. Also the whole “I’m rich but want to work” thing that Rafe had going on really worked. I mean, I wish my vet looked like him. Together Star and Rafe were perfect. I even enjoyed the little bit of miscommunication that occurred. It was actually really sweet and very relatable. I was also pleasantly surprised with the amount of spice, yes it wasn’t a ton, but it was the perfect amount for the plot.

If you are looking for a fun grump/sunshine romance book then I hope you grab a copy of this one August 29th! It is worth the read.

Additional links will be added closer to publication per the publisher.

ARC given in exchange for an honest review.

The Love Plot by Samantha Young

The Love Plot is a grumpy/sunshine fake dating story. This book sucked me in from the first page. Star is an easy going free spirit whose only goal in life is to be happy. So when given the opportunity to fake date a grumpy stranger in exchange for the money she needs to travel she takes it, despite having no experience with being in a committed relationship. Rafe is a serial monogamist who just wants to be single and focus on his growing veterinary practice without his family trying to push him into a relationship. He decides a fake girlfriend ending in a bad break up should buy him some time from it.

First off, let me just say Rafe is everything. The fact that Young wrote the grumpy hero without making him an overbearing alphahole was refreshing. I loved everything about his character. Star prides herself on being this kind easy going person but struggles a bit with who she really is and who she wants to be when put into new situations. I'm sure there will be some debate over how she acted vs how she claimed she would act if put in these situations. But if think that's what I loved about it so much. The fact that sometimes a string of small decisions can have as much of impact as making one big one.

Overall this was a solid story with great characters and a different take on these tropes. This is up there among my favorite of Samantha Young's books.

This was a fun, opposites attract, fake dating story that gets a bit TOO steamy later on and caused the last part of the book to drag a little bit.

Samantha Young can do no wrong whether it be writing a steamy and emotional romance or a romcom like this one. I devoured it! I love a fake dating trope and this one was top notch. I'm not surprised either because Samantha is a pro at writing romances that will make her readers swoon!

I have never read this author before, or a character with quite a free spirit like Star’s.

I adored this.

We have Star, who lives her life by her own rules- and maybe a little by those from her self-proclaimed “hippie” parents. Her greatest ambition is simply to be happy, and on that thought, I’m taking notes.

Sunshine-ey Star meets grumpy veterinarian Rafe at his niece’s birthday party (she’s dressed as Merida, one of her unconventional work gigs), and he immediately insults her.

What she does when they run into each other next still makes me laugh when I think about it. The result? Rafe asks her to be his fake girlfriend to get his mother and sister-in-law off his case. They’ve been thrusting eligible women at him like beads at Mardi Gras.

Add fake dating between two completely opposite people, and you get an absolutely perfect combination of spice, tension, and complementary characters who bring out the best in each other.

As far as outlooks on life, I loved seeing Rafe actually listen to Star, and I also enjoyed seeing Star’s healing and growth. The character development and slow-burn romance is simply perfect. I would listen to a course from this author.

I loved this, and will be looking to this author’s backlist! Rafe and Star are absolutely couple goals— I cannot get their lovely story out of my head. It’s stuck in the best way possible.

I am pre-ordering, and highly recommend that you do too!

This book started so strong. However, once the main couple was together, the male protagonist exhibited some troubling, controlling behavior. It seemed really out of character to the person he was at the beginning of the book. It was a sign of his love, but instead if came across as major red flags for his personality. Other than that major drawback, it was well written and patrons should like the story.

Rating: 4/5
Warnings: difficult family dynamics, parental abandonment
Steam: 3.5/5
Tropes: fake dating, grumpy sunshine, forced proximity, spicy cinnamon

Thank you to Berkley Romance for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. The Love Plot will be released on August 29th, 2023

Things I loved: Rafe was such a grumpy to Star's sunshine attitude. I really loved how Rafe did not take any of Star's bs, he knew her so well and communicated effectively. I loved how much Star was 100% herself and I loved her goal to just be happy. The book was such a trope filled book but it was done so well! The sweet pets. All the humor and banter kept me laughing. Well written steam.

Things I didn't care for: Star was so unkind to herself, we understand the backstory of why and we had some character growth...but I wish it wasn't all of a sudden near the end.

This might be my new favorite Samantha Young book and I can't wait to own it!

Love, love, loved this title! Some of my readers fell Young can be a hit or miss author, but this is definitely a hit! I can't wait to recommend it. My back-to-school teacher readers are going to love every minute of it!

I’m a huge Samantha Young fan, so this one did not disappoint. It has lovable characters, fantastic dialogue and nice spicy scenes. All the things one could possibly want from a Romance.

This book was a fun o e to read and who doesn't love a good fake dating book am I right, anyways this book was a fun read enjoyed it alot

Cute and enjoyable! This is everything that the contemporary romance genre is nowadays - a meet-cute, a big city setting, reliable tropes, and a plot that has a good message.

However, I can't get over how many of SY's main characters are just a “copy and paste” of one another. The female leads are basically how I think SY pictures herself - young, free-spirited, and whose quirks are their entire personality. I didn't mind it in the first time around, but reading the same character traits over and over is getting kind of old.

That being said, I still really enjoyed the heart of this story. It's fun, entertaining, and has some swoon-worthy moments.

Dressed up as a Disney character for a child's birthday party, Star feels an instant attraction to a hot but grumpy guy (Rafe, the birthday girl's uncle) in the back of the room. When she steps out onto the balcony for a break, she bumps into him, only to have her cheerful friendliness rebuffed as he belittles her, her career, and her positive attitude. Star stands up for herself in a direct but unheated way, deciding there's no point in trying to make him like her.

But when she spots him during her other part-time job of line sitting, she can't help but needle him. And when he returns fire, he finally asks if she'd do anything for money. What Rafe offers her instead is $10,000 a month, for at least 6 months, to be his fake girlfriend and get his mother and sister-in-law off his back.

This fast-paced fake-dating romance contained some of the best communication I've come across to date. Star isn't afraid to banter and be silly, but she also isn't afraid to stop a conversation and call out unkind remarks, wrong assumptions, or nasty generalizations. She does so with compassion and grace, though: she has a way of calmly stating her feelings and pointing out the injustice of someone's words, while NOT putting down the other person for doing so. After Rafe gets past his initial annoyance with Star (largely driven by his stress in other areas of his life), he learns to listen and acknowledge how he can learn and be more fair in how he talks to or about others. This isn't to say that their communication was always perfect, but when they both took the time to be open with each other, it really added to their character growth.

Other good things about the book: good side characters, additional plot points (especially Star's family dynamics) to add depth to the characters, lots of humor, and the fun and passion they both brought to their intimate scenes.

One flaw to the ARC I received: the texts within the story largely fell to one side of my screen, and I missed the content of almost every single one. I was able to pick up the context from the rest of the story, but I feel like I lost a few bits of good dialogue. This doesn't affect my appreciation of the story overall.

4 solid stars (and maybe a little more).

Thank you, Berkley Romance and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Loved this latest Samantha Young. Free spirited, boho Star meets buttoned up tight veterinarian Rafe and they strike a deal that’s hard to pass up. Star will be Rafe’s girlfriend for 10K a month to get his over involved family off his case.

Fake dating never leads to real dating…right? Loved their grumpy v sunshine vibe and the spice factor rated at least 3 on the jalapenis scale.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars

A truly adorable, banter-filled romance. The Love Plot is a grumpy x sunshine, fake dating story with lovable characters and a hilarious storyline. The story follows Star Shine Meadows, a free spirit who has one ambition - to be as happy as possible. She is caught off guard by her intense attraction to surly veterinarian, Rafe Whitman. When Rafe hires her to be his fake girlfriend to get his matchmaking family off his back, the two opposites find that they may not be faking falling in love.

This book was a whole journey. I really loved how Samantha Young shook up the typical romcom structure and showed just how a relationship would work between these two opposite personalities. Rafe and Star had so much chemistry and their banter made me laugh out loud multiple times. This book just made me happy. It was fun and breezy with the perfect amount of angst. I immediately missed this cast of characters when I got to the end. I need a novella.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.