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!

Every once in. a while a book comes along featuring a main character so relatable that I can't help but fully invest in them from the very first chapter. Love Interest is one of those books. So much more than just a corporate rivals-to-lovers rom-com, this story perfectly captures the experience of working as a creative in corporate America, struggling to separate your dreams from expectations, and so much more. Casey Maitland is a heroine you can't help but root for. And though the writing and structure of this story have room for improvement, this is a remarkable debut and a sign that Clare Gilmore has a long, exciting career ahead of her.

This is a cute contemporary look at mid-twenties life, love and work in New York City. Casey works at a magazine conglomerate in the finance department who puts herself out there by applying for a new position in the company. She does not get the job when the son of an important board member, Alex, also applies. Slowly, she figures out that Alex isn’t quite who she thought he was and she has to figure out how he fits into her life of independence. This was a sweet book and I liked Casey a lot. I thought it was well written but the romance felt a bit distant. There were weeks when the two main characters didn’t interact and Alex just seemed like the male version of the “manic pixie dream girl” that used to be so popular. In my opinion, the book could have really benefitted from Alex’s point of view to give him more dimension. I did like the book, overall, but I don’t think the romance was my favorite part.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

I've been on a roll with debut novels lately and wow this was so heartfelt and endearing. I will admit that the business aspect of the story kind of lost me, but the characters definitely made up for it. I love how fleshed out casey and alex were, their upbringings and loves and fears and I loved that they conquered those together. Alex was the standout of the novel to me because I saw so much of myself in him, his feeling of abandonment and thinking that he's not good enough for anyone to stay. I loved how Casey loved herself enough to fight for her own dreams and that Alex could help her with that. I will definitely look forward to Claire Gilmore's future releases!
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much! I'll be honest - the title, in all its plainness, kind-of threw me off at first, but I've since come to find that it's always books with these kinds of titles that are some of the best hidden gems (for me, personally, anyway). Regardless of that though, I'm a big fan of the workplace rivals/enemies-to-lovers trope(s), so this read was definitely going to be right up my alley. The story isn't anything new or groundbreaking and yet it still feels very fresh, exciting, and fun. And the writing here is aces – this book truly is very readable and easily engaging/accessible in my opinion; the dialogue and narration flows smoothly and reads as being timely without feeling or sounding too dated with its slang or pop culture references (as in, there's *just enough* to give you an idea of how old our characters are/what year it is, but not so much that it feels oversaturated or corny). The ✨New York City✨ vibes featured here were also immaculate, and I thought all of the side characters were unique & engaging in their own individual ways. I laughed out loud multiple times and highlighted so much. Plot-wise, I would say this is a very character-driven story & I loved that. I thought Casey and Alex were both very well-developed characters and found their love story to be very believable; despite only being a singular POV story, I still felt like I really connected with Alex as the MMC (just as much as Casey). I could definitely see this being optioned as a movie or TV show, similar to the book "The Hating Game" or the film "Set It Up" (just without the obvious "setting up" part for the latter, haha). I

Amazing book, interesting and relatable , really enjoyed the banter and characters . This rom com is perfect if you like laughing, crying and smiling all at once. Enemies to love chef kiss.

After meeting a hot, charming stranger in the elevator on her way to find out if she was chosen for an exciting new job, finance girly, Casey Maitland, learns that she didn't. But guess who did? Obviously it was hot stranger, Alex Harrison.

Casey decides she hates Alex… until she doesn't.

With a fun cast of secondary characters and an interesting plot to carry it through, this is an absolutely adorable rom-com that does NOT read like a debut novel. It's got a little rivals to lovers (at least in Casey's eyes), a found family aspect, a teensy bit of fake dating, and even a little one bed situation.

There is spice, but it's more of a tell don't show. The characters explicitly talk about it (and engage in it), but the author isn't really painting the picture for you.

Honestly, I devoured this in a day and would highly recommend it for a light summer beach read!

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️

This one was okay, I guess. I’m not really sure how to feel about it honestly. The beginning was slow, the middle was okay, I saw the conflict coming from a mile away, and overall it felt like it wrapped up super fast, but at the same time left me feeling unsatisfied.

There were moments interspersed that gave me a hint of butterfly flutters, but nowhere near the amount an amazing romance story often gives me. I just was never that invested in the story or the characters.

Honestly, I think the amount of detail given for innocuous things is what weighed this read down for me. Like I said there were little moments here or there that I think were good and if Gilmore can capitalize on those moments with her next novel I think I’ll like it better.

Also please note, despite it being marketed as an enemies to lovers book it is in fact not an enemies to lovers book. It is more of a misunderstanding (that gets resolved within 15%) to friends with benefits to lovers book.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the early copy in exchange for an honest review 🫶🏻

Read if you like:
💼 workplace romance
💜 friends with benefits
🪴 plants
📊 finance
☝🏻 single pov