I didn’t expect to love this book. I didn’t expect to give it five stars. I didn’t expect to leave for dinner plans with only 20% of the book left and not be able to stop thinking about how it was going to end.

This book is about a dozen Taylor Swift songs in one but if I had to pick three, I’d pick: Sweet Nothings, Death by A Thousand Cuts & New Years Day.

While I didn’t totally connect with the story or characters at first, I became really enamored and invested in it about 30% and then I could NOT PUT IT DOWN. Alex was just so soft baby boy who wants love and Casey was so I put walls up because nothing lasts. And I just loved them and everything they were when together.

NYC was the perfect backdrop to the story and it was a very visual book. I loved all the months we passed through for the book, it was such a fall/winter book.

Truly impressed by Gilmore’s debut novel and cannot wait to read more by her! I smiled and laughed out loud while reading this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is like a strawberry rhubarb pie - sweet with a little bit of tart but all in a great way. I loved every character's development. Looking forward to what comes next

The classic enemies to lovers trope is my favorite type of romance! This book was witty, and gave me all the feels. I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of this story. It was one I won't forget anytime soon.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Clare Gilmore is now an auto buy author for me. I'm quite simply obsessed.

First of all, I love the plot. The book follows Casey, who's about to receive news on whether or not she got a promotion. While in the elevator, she meets this super cute guy who helps calm her nerves (in the cutest way possible). Later that day, Casey learns the cute elevator guy got the promotion over her. So now we have a beautiful hate to friends to love workplace romance. It is everything I could have ever hoped for and more.

Gilmore has a remarkable writing style that makes it easy to binge read and impossible to put down. She's now one of my favorite authors, next to Ali Hazelwood and Tessa Bailey. Not only is her writing style fun, but the writing itself is amazing.

The characters are all perfect and can do no wrong. Casey and Alex are the loves of my life and I want to protect them from all harm. I loved their character arcs, their relationship development, their backstories, everything. (PS Alex gives me Gus Everrett from Beach Read vibes so if you love Gus you will love Alex). The side characters are also well written. They each have a distinct style about them and it feels like I'm watching a story play out in real life.

In short, Clare Gilmore is amazing and everyone should buy her book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts are my own.

This was such a fun and fast pace enemies to lovers romance. I loved the plot. The characters were fun and cute. I think this was a well rounded romance novel. It didn’t have much “spice” which was nice for a change and I didn’t think it really needed it. It filled out my checklist of things I like when I read romances. Overall a great book.

If you want a cute romance that you can’t put down then I would check this one out.

4 stars.

3.5 rounded to 4 ⭐️

i’m so glad I stuck with this book. the first 40%ish was very slow for me & I wasn’t really enjoying it, BUT then when the second half hit I definitely started to enjoy it way more. overall the second half got me to a 3.5. I wish the first half hit the mark for me a little more, but overall I did enjoy the book & would def recommend to friends!

I love a good STEM book, in some parts gave me a good ali hazelwood vibe to it! I love the co workers vibe & the nemesis to lovers bit to it. I loved alex from the beginning, casey for me was hard to appreciate until half ways through the book. but the animosity from casey to alex, until she finally gets to know him & understand him, that’s when it hit better for me! I loved seeing them come together & honestly the development of claire’s character I think is what saved the book for me!

still definitely recommend to friends, if you love co worker romance, STEM vibes, nemesis, he falls first vibes. highly suggest!

Great debut novel featuring enemies to lovers and co-worker tropes. I enjoyed the banter between Casey and Alex. I appreciated the fact that there was never a true hatred or dislike between the two main characters. I found the interactions and the characters to be mature and not a bunch of immature behavior like some romance novels. Looking forward to future books from this author!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for a digital ARC.

The Love Interest is told from the perspective of Casey Maitland, a 24-year-old woman who is a few years into her financial analyst job in New York City at powerhouse publishing company Little Cooper. She lives with her best friend (since elementary school!) friend Miriam, has formed friendships with co-workers, and has a pretty cool life going for herself. She’s just not sure that finance is *it* for her. When we meet Casey, she’s interviewed for a more creative position at LC, for which she ultimately gets denied. Enter Alexander Harrison - the son of the CEO, and the guy who got the job Casey wanted. As Casey begrudgingly works alongside Alex, she starts to realize that he’s fantastic at his job, and not such a terrible person. They’re paired up on a few projects and the chemistry is undeniable. Soon they’re both head over heels, whether they want to admit it or not. But will a secret Casey is forced to keep wreck everything? Or will Alex’s refusal to be “tethered” be a total non-starter? I hope you’ll read this sweet story in October and find out!

I absolutely loved this debut novel from Clare Gilmore - it was so hard to believe this is her first! The writing is really excellent and she represented Casey and Alex as such mature people, which I think was really important given the workplace setting. There were bits of several tropes - enemies to lovers, one bed, grumpy sunshine, and even some miscommunication; but none of it felt forced. I also loved the fall/winter NYC setting - it almost felt like a love letter to the city and I was shocked (in a good way) to see that Gilmore didn’t live there herself, I can’t wait to see what she writes next! Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the e-arc!

Soooo rare that I give 5 stars, but I was truly addicted to Love Interest. I loved the chemistry and am enamored with Alex Harrison.

On another note, I'm blown away with how many hot Asian or part Asian male leads I've been reading about (anyone else swoon over Kelly Wong in Someone Else's Bucket List?) and am here for it!

I love this book. It was fun, interesting, exciting, and a great read. I devoured each page and can't wait for the next fantastic read from this author.

DNF @ 13%

Eh something about this book just didn't click with me. I found the FMC to be a bit annoying and the writing style was very meh. I like the concept of this book, but I feel like the execution is lacking. This office rivalry couldn't be more one sided and the author makes it incredibly clear at the get-go that the FMC is needlessly starting this beef with the MMC who clearly has nothing against her, fully respects her, and although not established yet, at least the present character development indicates that he would fully support her. So this makes the FMC seem even more annoying/unreasonable. Really puts both the Pride and the Prejudice in the P&P. While I do get some of the anger considering how he got the job she wanted, it seems like very unnecessary self-righteous anger which is always the worst. Bleh.

Thanks NetGalley and the Publisher for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review

This is an incredible debut novel and I loved it so much! It sort of swept me away slowly without my noticing and suddenly I was hooked, falling in love with the characters, laughing and crying at various points, and just AGHUSJDH!!! That, my friends, is that sound you make when something is unbelievably cute and wonderful and you just can't handle it, or at least my best guess at how that sound is spelled. Casey is one of my fave FMCs lately and the way she and her Love Interest (see what I did there?) banter and fall for each other was everything. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC--out Oct 10/23. 5⭐

Cute and sexy but also thoughtful! I thoroughly enjoyed this and think it will be great for fans of Chloe Liese and Elena Armas.

Words cannot describe how much I adored this book. Great premise, fantastic writing style and full of my favourite tropes. Also the book cover on this book is just *chefs kiss*

Love Interest by Clare Gilmore

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

4/5 stars

I adored this book. So good. I was invested in Casey and Alex’s story from the very beginning.

If you like enemies to lovers and one bed tropes, this has both. The story is well written, engaging, and relatable

Casey comes from a family of artists, but makes her career in finance. Her dream is to get a transfer to London and she will do anything to make that come true. I enjoyed the rivals to lovers storyline and also her colorful friends. The relationship with her parents was heart warming.
I will look for future novels from Clare Gilmore because this surely made for a fun read.

This book was as witty as it was charming, not to mention it was such a feel-good romance! I really enjoyed it.

Honestly this was work place romance done RIGHT. The absolute perfect Rom-com! Caseys love for her job and family were everything, I really loved her! Finding out she was passed over for a job for the bosses son, alex, well i think we can all figure out where this is heading.
So enjoyable!
Had me giggling, swooning, blushing, kicking my feet

I have been awake for days because I couldn’t put this book down. So excuse me while I give a sleep-deprived review of this book…that I loved!

What didn’t work for me

One POV: Listen, you know I always try to come up with something that doesn’t work, and honestly, the only thing I could think of was that I wished we got into Alex’s psyche a little more with his point of view. That being said, I’m perfectly content just staying with Casey.

What I liked

Everything else: I was going to try to break this down into a couple of things I especially liked, but I think I can cover more if I explain what I loved in general. As a person who works in the magazine industry, I always enjoy it when there’s a realistic depiction of it—and while I know nothing about finance, everything seemed to work here. And Casey and Alex’s coworkers and friends were great to get to know. The plot didn’t drag when the scenes weren’t focused on the main couple. The chemistry between Casey and Alex was off-the-charts, and I don’t want to be too spoilery here, but I was thrilled they got together quite quickly. Much of the book was about navigating what was happening with them together, which was refreshing. I could go on and on, but honestly, if you like enemies to lovers, if you like workplace romances, if you like stories that take place in New York, if you like complicated parental relationships (and also delightful parental relationships)…heck, if you even like country music, there’s something in here for you.

4.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an advanced book copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an eARC of Love Interest!

I absolutely adored the range of characters and the relationships in this book. Our leading characters are workplace rivals and are forced to work together on a new project that the company is attempting to launch. However, these opposites start to attract once they begin to learn more about each other and romance starts to blossom.

Highly recommend giving this book a read!