First impressions: This book was an absolute delight! One of the best (as in, most fun, sexy, bantery and filled with sizzling sexual tension) fake-dating Romance book I have read in a while. I devoured it in two sittings and I'm pretty sure I just got new smile lines from grinning so big. Delicious!! 4.5⭐️
_____

I have to say that weeks later, this book is still very much on my mind. Actually, it kinda gave me a book hangover, it was such a full package for me! I missed this kind of dynamic, it has a similar vibe to Lauren Asher, Meghan Quinn or Lynn Painter, if you will. It's hilarious (their inner thoughts and banter! LOL) but also thoughtful and heartfelt. It has important themes and messages that make you think about your life and how you want to live it. The opposites attracts vibe put a spotlight on Rafe and Star's personalities and on the whole accept who you are, love life and cherish someone even (or especially when) they have a bohemian, colorful, bigger than life personality and a different view on life expectancy and ambitions. I loved all that.

Let me recap the tropes:
Fake dating
Opposites attract
Billionaire alpha hero (vet!)
Sunshine heroine who prefers random jobs and just being happy and no commitments
He falls first
One bed
Shenanigans, jealousy scenes and people meddling
Possessive hero

In short, if you put grumpy x sunshine, fake dating and Samantha's warmth, banter and sexy alpha heroes in a romcom setting, you know from the getgo that you will get yourself a gem. And that is exactly what this was, a charming, fun, sexy and delicious gem of a book. Somehow it feels like it's her best RomCom yet? It's my favorite anyway (even though I related more to the heroine in A Cosmic Kind of Love).

Quotes:
He glowered harder at my bubbliness. “Are you acting right now? No one is this happy.”
“Then you must surround yourself with a lot of miserable people.”

“I doubt anyone could truly boss you around.”
I beamed at the compliment. “Thank you.”

He closed the distance between us, cupping my face gently in his hands. “I don’t want to fake this anymore when for me . . . this is very real, Star.”

“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. Warmth pushed through my earlier hurt at the tenderness in his eyes.

“I tried to show you how I felt without saying it. But I should have just said it. I love you, Star. You. The you you want to be. Never doubt it. Because, baby, my love for you is fucking immeasurable. If I’m honest, I’m not sure I will ever be fully comfortable with how much I love you.”

*ARC provided by the author, thank you so much

I was incredibly delighted to receive an early review copy of The Love Plot. Many thanks to the author, Berkley, Let’s Talk Books, PRH Audio, and Valentine pr for the finished copies for review.
In this opposites attract romcom, there is not a more unlikely but highly lovable pair! Star Shine Meadows is a bright happy gig worker and lives life carefree. She loves everyone, likes to think the best of others, and is confident in herself.
While dressed as a Disney princess at a children’s birthday party, Star eyes an attractive man, Rafe Whitman scowling at her from across the room. Star is perplexed by his disagreeable nature, and in turn, Rafe is perplexed by Star’s carefree nature. The grumpy but attractive, billionaire veterinarian Rafe offers Star $10K a month for up to six months to fake date him and help him get his intrusive family to stop bothering him about his dating life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this opposites attract story! Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, and I inhaled this book! Star is easy to love in this romcom. She’s bubbly, confident, and optimistic. Nothing at all like her grumpy counterpart Rafe.
This is my second book by Samantha Young. My first was A Cosmic Kind of Love which I loved, so I knew I would enjoy this book!

Read this if you like:
🌦️ Grumpy-Sunshine
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 Fake Dating
🥊 Opposites Attract
🛏️ Only One Bed

The Love Plot by Samantha Young is a fake dating, grumpy-meets-sunshine, and opposites attract romantic comedy; one of desperation and determination, friendships and family, acceptance and love. Star, the child of hippie parents, is a free-spirited, fun, happy person who was unapologetically bohemian and unconventional. Rafe, an up-tight Veterinarian from an Upper East family, is the opposite; from the start he seems to be quite moody and pensive. In order to support herself, Star takes any strange job that comes her way. Rafe is troubled by Star’s methods of employment but desperate to deflect his family’s matchmaking attempts forces Rafe to offer Star another unconventional contract; a contract to play the loving girlfriend of a man who is struggling in his personal life. Spending time together as they fulfill the contract, Star and Rafe fall hard and fast for each other. Full of sizzling chemistry, found family goodness and spice. I highly recommend The Love Plot to other readers.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

4.5 stars overall

The Love Plot was my first book by Samantha Young and I LOVED it! This will be one of my favorite reads for 2023. I read the book under 24 hours and that's unlike me. I loved the banter and chemistry between Star and Rafe. I loved both their occupations and the family trauma they both had to endure, especially Star. I've been recommending this book to all my friends. After reading this one I definitely am looking forward to reading more by Samantha. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

How do you feel about fake dating as a trope?

I know it can be so formulaic and you always know how it is going to end but I always find it entertaining. The Love Plot is the story of Star Shine Meadows, a woman who dresses as characters for birthday parties and waits in line for people for a living, who gets hired to be a fake girlfriend for Rafe, a wealthy vet who needs a break from his family trying to set him up on dates. There is tension with Rafe’s family not understanding or appreciating Star’s hippie upbringing or lack of typical career goals. There is tension because Star’s parents are terrible. And there is tension because, well, it is fake dating. This book was really cute. Some of the characters went over the top, in an exaggerated way, but it all tied together, the bantering and texts were so entertaining and I loved all of Star’s supporting friends (a throuple!). It was a lesson in being yourself and not conforming and do not change who you are or what you stand for to be with someone. All the warm fuzzies.

REVIEW FOR THE LOVE PLOT

4 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Berkeley Publishing, Berkeley Romance, and Valentine PR for the gifted copy!

This was such a cute story! It was a unique take on grumpy sunshine and fake dating that I enjoyed immensely. Star Shine Meadows was so unique, and I felt like I could learn a thing or two about her positive outlook on life. Rafe, the cinnamon roll hero we didn't know we needed, was so sweet and charming and descriptively sexy it's unfair. I loved the relationship Star had with her polyamorous friends Roger, Kendall and Jude- it was a great representation but I feel like more could have been done with it. The spicy scenes were spicy but not overdone, which I enjoyed!

I think that, while this book had some lighthearted moments, I also think it was a good introspection on how the lives of our parents and their opinions and habits stay with us, and ultimately influence our behaviors and opinions subconsciously, even if it's not what we want. Star's relationship with her life-givers (I refuse to call them parents) was sad and really made me feel for her.

Towards the end there was a little miscommunication, but I think most of the time Star and Rafe were very open and welcoming to each other. I'd definitely recommend this book if you like traditional romance with out of the box characters, a cinnamon roll hero vet, and a lot of laughter.

Do I love this story? Absolutely!! First, Star is perfectly perfect. I love her care free life, living life to actually LIVE LIFE and not follow the norms set on us by others. She's certainly guarded, but loves her made family. Now Rafe is the grumpy to her sunshine. He has a big heart, loves animals, and usually his family. I love them both, the banter is great, I love the way she can push buttons, and how that adds to the flow of their story. This was a read that I fell into and didn't want to get out of. Now, I'll be digging through this author's other reads hoping I find one on her friends that I fell in love with! A must read on any shelf!

Just freaking loved this! I loved Rafe and Star! I loved how accepting she was. I gobbles up their chemistry! Read this!

I really enjoyed this book! Honestly, I have never gone wrong with a Samantha Young book, and The Love Plot is no exception. This is a fabulous opposites attract, grumpy sunshine love story.

Star is an incredibly likable character. With a very unconventional upbringing, she has a lot of trust issues and doesn't really believe in settling down. She wants nothing more than to be happy and one day, travel.

Rafe is a grumpy, sexy veterinarian with a meddlesome family who is constantly trying to hook him up with the hottest Manhattan singles. When Rafe meets Star as a character actor at his niece's birthday party, he decides to make her a deal... fake date and get his family off his back.

Star's positive outlook shines all over Rafe, and he really starts to change his hoity-toity attitude and loses the grumpy facade with Star... slowly he falls for her, but he will only be with her if she will commit to a monogamous relationship.

Overall, the book has a light, airy, happy feel. But honestly, it does dive deeper than that. We meet two characters who both have to decide what is most important to them despite what anyone else has to say about it, and they make it work.

The Love Plot by Samantha Young is one of my top romances of 2023. I admit I haven’t read many romances in 2023 but that being said, I have read this book several times. Star Meadows and Rafe Whitman are very much part of the “grumpy/sunshine” trope that I love. Star is whimsical and kind. Her passion is being happy which means spending time with her three close friends and then working, which for her is no normal 9 to 5 job. She holds several different jobs that can’t be defined as a career but they keep her housed and clothed and she enjoys them. In fact, it’s through her character acting job–as Disney’s Merida– that she meets Rafe Whitman.

Rafe Whitman is a successful veterinarian whose family is determined to see him settle down. It is driving him bonkers. He hires Star to be his pretend girlfriend. Rafe seems somewhat cold and closed off and yes, he is exasperated by his family’s matchmaking. Star is seriously attracted to Rafe, at least physically. She just knows she could never really be with him. Or, at least so it seems at first.

Ah, how I love the grump/sunshine, fake relationship tropes. This book was really perfect for me. I really, really liked Star. She is so happy and confident in her life until Rafe starts to shake things up for her, in both good and bad ways. I really feel like these two started to complement each other nicely. Rafe and his family have a love and bond that Star doesn’t have with her own parents so she really does fall for the whole family. But that makes it difficult too because she starts to feel she has to change pieces of who she is (even though, as I want to stress, Rafe does not ask her to do this at all at any point in the story).

The love scenes are very sexy! The growing attraction between them is drawn out nicely and then boom, combusts in the best way. The story is set in New York City which for me is a favorite city to read books in. But mostly, I just really liked the chemistry between Rafe and Star from start to finish. These two really did need each other in important ways. And well, you may never look at peanut butter in quite the same way in the future!

The Love Plot is available now! Worth it in print or ebook. Thank you to Berkley Publishing for an advanced copy of this book.

I'm giving this one 3 stars because I really liked Rafe, and I thought the writing itself was good. I really enjoyed this story until about the 50% mark. Then Star completely ruined it for me. I get that she was different, and I didn't mind it for the most part. Her parents were horrible people, and I understand that she has issues from them. But the things that she put herself through were her own doing! NO ONE made her, and Rafe had told her repeatedly that he liked her for her. Not what anyone else wanted her to be. Then she was mad because he was trying not to push her past her comfort zone, and instead of talking to him about what she wanted/needed, she just got pissed about it. I know it's not going to be a popular opinion, but I wasn't really a fan of her friends either. If you're close enough that you call each other family, then treating someone the way they (Kendall in particular) treated Star was just wrong. In the end, they do get their HEA, which was cute. This was a first for me from this author, but I would give her another read.
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book.

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. 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 chemistry between characters was HOT! If you’re looking for a fun, funny, and hot romance to round out your summer reading grab this one today!

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute romantic comedy! I really enjoyed the humor and meet cute, and the characters were all very distinctive and easy to remember. The only thing that made me give it four stars instead of five was the pretend girlfriend aspect which, to me, is a little played out and not super realistic. I really liked their journey though and it ended exactly as I felt like it should. I would definitely recommend to anyone into rom-cons with a little bit of spice!

Rafe Whitman has to be one of my favourite grumpy grumps ever, add in the fact he's a vet!! I love him 🥰 I loved just how rude and abrupt he was in the beginning but also how much effort he put in to his time with Star.

This was fun and lighthearted but also had a couple of pretty emotional moments. Star coming to terms with her upbringing and how that was affecting her current life and relationships was so interesting. It felt a little repetitive as the story wore on but still a really enjoyable contemporary romance.

This contemporary romance is a standalone that ends with a HEA. It is written in first person from Star’s POV. I would have loved to have Rafe’s POV also, but I think so much of this book is related to Star’s self-exploration and discovery that a single POV is appropriate.
I love a good grumpy/sunshine romance, and I love a fake relationship romance. I was drawn to the blurb of the book and happy to get an ARC through Net Galley. I have read a few other books by this author, and I have been impressed with her character development and stories that take unusual turns while holding me in. Star is an interesting heroine. Despite her life being quite different from “norm” and having some emotional baggage because of it, she is a kind and optimistic soul. I loved her simplicity. She is fearless in some ways as she accepts people regardless of their differences and sees their hearts beneath the surface masks. Rafe is broody to begin with and readers soon learn he is tired of having women thrown at him by his family who wants him to settle down. Once he and Star get to know each other, I really appreciated the lightness she brings out of Rafe. I love that he can be himself with her and she calls him out at times when he needs a different perspective. Though they are very different, their differences complement each other. It takes some time for them to become physical and for their pretend relationship to become real. All the while, I could feel their chemistry and looked forward to seeing that become more.
The story also explores how upbringing affects a person’s outlook on relationships. I appreciated the way Star’s childhood, and the neglect she endured, is handled. I could also see that Rafe, with a stable if slightly dysfunctional family, would have a very different perspective. I appreciated that Star struggles with how much she should allow herself to change for love. I think most people have been in that position at least once. I also loved that it was not Rafe asking her to change. How love changes a person, what makes a person happy, where we find our emotional support systems, and how we communicate with our partner is all a big part of Rafe and Star’s love story. I didn’t want to put it down and I finished the book with a smile in my heart.

Wow just Wow !! The banter, joy and love in this book is OUTSTANDING !! Your will sigh deeply and laugh out loud because the chemistry between these two main characters is off the charts !!

Rafferty Whitman is the uptown Veterinarian that needs help with his Mom and Sister-in-Law to get and keep them off his back about his LOVE life.. In walks Star Shine Meadows, her career at the moments is a character actress and a professional line site which is TOTALLY different and off the wall from the woman Rafe is use to dating. But there is soothing about Star that he can’t get off his mind after his first time meeting her.

And let me tell you about their second meeting !! You will be rolling on the floor in a fit of laughter !! Even though she is WAY out of his league Star can’t help herself feel something deep down because with her upbringing she doesn’t know what REAL love is !!

Such an amazing story it is one that you will read over and over and want to smack his brother and sister-in-law over and over !!

The Love Plot follows Star who is a line sitter and a professional costume actor and Rafe who is a veterinarian.

Rafe is being set up by his family any chance they get and he wants them to stop and finally have the space to focus on his clinic and figuring out if relationships are for him or not. He asks Star to fake date him just for a few months to get his family off his back.

Through their fake dating Rafe and Star are helping each other through the past scars especially for Star who believes no string relationship is better than a relationship at all.

Tropes:
- Grumpy v sunshine
- Opposites attract
- Fake dating
- Billionaire MMC
- Forced proximity

Thank you author Samatha Young and Valentine PR for the arc 💕

The Love Plot by Samantha Young is a lovely fake dating, grumpy/sunshine romance that will paw its’ way into your heart. A vividly optimistic costume character actor meets a broody veterinarian as two worlds collide & their lives line up to change forever. Get ready to dive in because once I started, I was completely hooked!

I am a devourer of the fake dating trope & I am happy to say this one encapsulated the beauty of the classic fake relationship while somehow giving it a fresh spin on it as well. I think that ‘hats off’ is given to our gorgeously eccentric heroine, but she is balanced with the swoon-worthy & confident veterinarian hero. They made me laugh out loud. They made my head spin & they made my heart ache & adore them.

The Love Plot is perfect for fans of
💕Fake Dating
💕Opposites Attract
💕Grumpy/Sunshine
💕Two Different Worlds/Upbringings

I loved that the heroine was unique in her career, view of life & her unorthodox upbringing. I won’t go into specifics because I think you should just read it! I also appreciated the fact that both of the main characters were on paths of personal journeys of growth & understanding. They each had very different but essential family relationships to work through.

My compliant is that I wish the veterinarian had more animals, but for full transparency, there were at least 3 scenes with dogs…I will just always ask for more dogs. 🤣

The Love Plot dresses up the fake dating trope with a duo that is sure to win over one’s heart. The Love Plot is out now!

Massive thanks to NetGalley, Valentine PR & Berkley Publishing for the gifted arc, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

I’ve submitted my review on Amazon but still waiting for it to go live.

The Love Plot was a delightful, steamy contemporary romance written by Samantha Young. I blew through it in a day, it was so much fun.

Star Shine Meadows and Rafe Whitman have absolutely nothing in common--she's a professional character actor and line sitter, the product of two hippies and their free love, and he's a veterinarian from a wealthy, traditional New York family. After meeting at his niece's birthday party--while she was dressed up as Merida--Rafe offers to pay Star $10k a month to pose as his girlfriend. He's tired of his mother and sister-in-law trying to set him up with every woman they know.

Like all good fake-dating arrangements, the more they get to know each other, the more their feelings grow and what started as a ruse becomes shockingly real. If you're looking for a quick, romantic read, this is definitely one to pick up. It does have some heavier moments, as Star wrestles with unpacking parental neglect, but Young handles it with tenderness and care. I loved watching Star experience true family for the first time, and how she challenged Rafe's family to confront their preconceptions about what it means to be successful and happy. 4.5 stars!!

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley Romance, and Netgalley for providing me an e-ARC.

This book hooked me right from the start! I loved it from start to finish and highly recommend!

Star is such a fun, happy, confident, glass half-full individual who doesn’t let society’s ideas and expectations of a woman affect her life. She is a costume character actor and a line sitter.

Rafferty “Rafe” is a grumpy, glass half-empty man who is sick and tired of his sister-in-law, Pippa, and mother, Jen, hounding him to find a girlfriend. The lengths these women go to to try and get Rafe set up with a woman is a bit on the crazy side.

Enter: the peanut butter and jelly incident. 🥜🫙
This scene was hilarious and everything I didn’t know I needed. IYKYK

Rafe has decided to propose a job for Star as his “girlfriend” so that Pippa and Jen will get off of his back. He offers her a lot of money, which she wants because she wants to travel, so she accepts.

This story is filled with lots of fun, cringey, cute, sexy, loving and accepting moments and I loved it.

Read for:
Grumpy x Sunshine
Fake dating
Only one bed
Amazing inner dialogue
The peanut butter & jelly incident
Amazing besties (who are also in a poly relationship)
And so much more!