Not my favorite enemies to lovers that I’ve read. It was incredibly sweet in some moments, but I didn’t find myself on the edge of my seat and not able to put the book down.

This work rivals to lovers romcom is easily one of my favorite reads the past month. Casey is a numbers person, working at a magazine company in New York, and that position that she just applied for got snapped up by Alex Harrison, who is handsome, Harvard educated, and charms everyone in sight - except Casey.

Of course the universe isn't going to allow Casey to continue to seethe about Alex from a distance, the two get thrown together on the same project team, then by the video content creators, and despite herself Casey keeps finding out more about Alex, and maybe, maybe he is a little more interesting than she first gave him credit for.

I really enjoyed the tropes employed in this romance, and it includes a near perfect use of miscommunication. It was funny, I laughed several times while reading it, and I enjoyed Casey's voice, and getting to know Alex through her. A witty, fun, romcom - highly recommended.

Thanks, St. Martins Griffin and Netgalley, for the arc!

For a debut novel, LOVE INTEREST was an easy and fun read that made me smile and laugh out loud a few times. I definitely will read whatever Clare Gilmore writes next.

Casey and Alex made a great couple, and I wanted them to succeed in life and in love. I was excited since it’s marketed as enemies-to-lovers, but I don’t know if I would necessarily classify it as that. It’s more one-sided enemies-to-lovers, but it works since we are in Casey’s head, and she has deemed Alex the enemy.

It’s a quick read, even though it took me a while since I was on vacation, and I only read briefly at night. Definitely recommend it for something fun to read!

Content Warnings: misogyny, sexual harassment, infidelity, familial death

The title and cover appealed to me. It did not disappoint! I thought the characters were likeable and made me feel like I was watching/reading a rom-com. I look forward to seeing with Clare Gilmore writes next!

I struggled getting into this book at the beginning, but once I did really enjoyed it. How could you not enjoy a book that references a character's favorite Excel formula? :) Both main characters were sweet, and I was so happy for their happy ending.

Thank you St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for a copy of Love Interest! I absolutely adored this work place romance.

The banter and world building really drew me into the story. Super fun!

This book was such a fun read! I enjoyed how deep Alex and Casey were and that their romance kind of went full steam ahead. I loved not having to wait too long for the inevitable and that their conflicts were always about trying to be better people for each other.

There were some funny, laugh out loud moments as well as some really sweet emotional moments and I enjoyed them all! I also appreciate anytime math is thrown into a book—the math teacher in me is a little bias and easily pleased that way :)

I look forward to seeing more from Clare.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

i thought this was super cute! i assumed it would be based on the cover and i was definitely correct! this was also my first book from clare gilmore so i’ll definitely be reading more in the future!

Love Interest was fairly cute, but it fell a little flat to me. Casey was a great character, but I found her chemistry was decent at best. I also wasn't a huge fan of the title...because it seems like it needs more than that.

I can see myself reading more from Clare Gilmore in the future, but I would like her plots to improve and the diction to be a bit less stream-of-consciousness.

I was in the mood for an office romance with a dash of enemies to lovers, so this slipped right into my hands and was subsequently devoured.

Most of the "enemies" aspect was implied more than shown - we see Casey mentioning things she'd done/said but not much or for very long. I did like how even though she disliked Alex, she never once took it out on him - she'd always be polite and did what he asked, but it was little things here and there that kept up her anger. It's nice to see an enemies-to-lovers book where they don't have to literally be killing each other to be considered "enemies". That said, I could always use more of the sexual tension disguised as hatred. Even if Casey was the only one technically doing the hating haha.

Casey's character was very enjoyable. She was put in a hard spot and made some choices, and stuck with her morals. Plus, she's a genius in her field; I don't know much about finance (it's a struggle to do my taxes sometimes and those are online now) but it's clear Casey has the knowledge and the passion for her career, and I think that's very admirable. Considering she has several people around the company asking her to "make the numbers look pretty" or whatever, I agree with Alex when he told her she was inspiring to others, and just didn't know it.

The pacing did feel a little off at times, especially once things were revealed to Casey about the state of the company. And some side characters felt unnecessary and tossed in a handful of times with no relevance, but overall this was a fun, cute read that was easy to binge.

thank you Netgalley for the free ARC

I am a sucker for anything enemies to lovers or workplace romance so this hit all the gears in my brain. Gilmore did an amazing job at writing mature adults, which I can always appreciate.

It is a really cute story with likable secondary characters. It was nice to see Casey and Alex grow into their romance and blossom as individuals, once they both figured out they were enough. The elevator “meet cute,” humor and banter made the book an easy and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Griffin, and Clare Gilmore for the eARC.

A very sweet post grad / early 20s enemies to lovers workplace romance. It felt a lot like
Hating Game which will make it an instant hit but those tropes are not as much my personal cup of tea.

Charming, quirky and well written! This was a fast read on vacation and just what I needed to get lost in! Loved Casey and Alex’s chemistry… I was hooked from the moment they met in the elevator!

I thought Love Interest was a cute rom-com. Casey and Alex are two mid-twenties staffers for a magazine company (think Condé Nast) in New York. She works in the finance department, and he’s heading up a new vertical. They get off on the wrong foot when he gets the job she interviewed for, but they quickly become friends once they start working together. This is a low-angst, mostly low-stakes romance about them getting to know each other against the backdrop of some corporate intrigue.

The stuff about the company occasionally detracted from the romance. I think it could’ve been a smaller part of the story without the narrative losing anything.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

3.5 rated down. This is a pretty nice debut from Clare! I absolutely LOVED Alex as a MMC, and also really enjoyed Casey as a FMC too! It was really fun to follow folks who works in finance as that's not something I really read in romance that often! The workplace romance vibes were really well done here, particularly with the politics, and also even some exploration of the different floors and brands under the parent brand. I definitely got the Condé Nast vibes!!

The hate to love trope is also pretty decent overall, but some of the way it plays out is also impled too. It works with the pacing of the book though, especially as things start to switch. Because it's clear from the moment that Alex and Casey meet that even though this is a single POV, Alex is entirely intrigued by Casey, but Casey obviously hates him for stealing her job -- something he doesn't know about. I really love that we get some great vulnerable moments from both Alex and Casey, and how past events influenced their outlook in life, and what that means going forward together and also separately.

Unfortunately, while I really enjoyed the first half, I felt like the pacing was kind of jarring in the second half of the book. Part of the buildup between the two didn't quite work for me, so it felt that as such, some events were a little rushed. On top of that, there was quite a bit of jumps to accomodate for what was happening at the company as that thread kind of got put on hold earlier. I feel if things were tightened up a little, it would've felt more cohesive. I did like the side characters, but some of them didn't quite add much, that I wish they got less screen time so some things felt more natural. 🙈 While I believed in Casey and Alex's chemistry, I didn't quite believe in their love because some things hung over them for too long, and that kind of made me waver.

But I did find the ending to be cute, and I'd still try out another book from Clare! Again, I really loved the way she wrote Alex. 🥹

I haven’t said this in a while but: I freaking devoured this book!

Fans of Emily Henry, Josie Silver, CLo and Sally Thorn (particularly The Hating Game) will enjoy this one. I give it all the stars!

I got this as an ARC from Netgalley - thank you! Also, sorry this is so long!

Overall, this was a lovely book with a lovely romance, and I really enjoyed it. It's not quite more than 4 starts, though, because it didn't really make me swoon, but that's on me, not the book - we all have our specific things that speak to us! Clare Gilmore is a great writer, and I'm really impressed this is her first book.

Both MCs are supremely likable people who (generally) communicate and are as open with their feelings as most real people would be. Alex was a liiiitle too perfect - so handsome! and smart and successful! and expresses his feelings! and thoughtful! and pays attention and remembers every little thing she says! and is amazing at the sex! - but also very easy to like and empathize with.

Casey, as well, was a little too bit too amazing at everything - she's a finance whiz! she's a YouTube star by accident! she has great ideas for online magazine articles! she plays the guitar and sings! she's gorgeous (I think?) - but, she is relatable and very likable and witty, as well.

And, except for the end, which I'll get to, there really aren't any dumb, forced miscommunications. They generally are just two people who really like each other, communicate with each other, and end up falling in love with very little drama.

As for my quibbles - they look like a lot, but they didn't really hurt the book overall. I really just enjoy complaining and nitpicking (I’m super fun). Here we go!:

*In the first three chapters, the characters meet, Casey gets passed over for a job in favor of Alex, and Casey’s animosity is born. Then chapter four is suddenly four weeks later, they have been working together closely, and they are “enemies,” though it’s clearly one sided and he’s clearly quite gone for her by now.

Ideally, I would have liked to have seen that initial getting-to-know-you phase during those four weeks. Casey implies they often have prickly banter back and forth, but you never see that. That’s the stuff that generally makes me swoon. I tend to like romances less when they already know each other, and by the time the story truly starts, they basically do. The first chapters actually feel more like a prologue. I think they would have worked better that way if Gilmore didn't want to fill in the first four weeks. But again, this is my personal preference.

*There are sooooo many pop culture references. Even every shoe and purse has a name brand checked. That always bugs me in books, and I always wonder how the book will age, and whether authors care that people several years from now won't know what the hell they're referencing.
Similarly, it takes me out of the plot when books are set in the social media/media/entertainment world, which every reader has some familiarity and interaction with in the real world, and characters supposedly have these ground breaking ideas or popular blogs/YouTube channels/whatever. But when those crazy awesome popular things are described, they actually sound lame.

Here, the media group has all these YouTube channels, and Casey ends up in a few, and the episodes are just huge hits. But when they’re described, I just don’t see why they would be so popular. But then again, I don’t watch those kinds of things, so maybe they would be insanely popular and I’m too old and lame to know. It’s highly probable.

*My pettiest quibble is her “subway nemesis,” who she hates because 1) he commutes with homemade granola she is severely allergic to, but he has zero way of knowing that (and she also acknowledges this fact), and as far as I know, he never tried to smear it on her face or body; and 2) “he’s the type to read lengthy New York Times articles about air traffic control, and that just seems too boring to forgive.”

Let’s remember she is a financial analyst who has a favorite Excel formula. She also just generally doesn’t seem like someone who would legit hate someone because they read entire newspaper articles. I feel like she’d actually respect it. He also doesn’t appear to know she exists, and I’m not sure you can have a nemesis if that person isn’t even aware of your existence.

*I don’t really know what Casey looks like, so I can’t really picture her. Casey describes Alex in detail quite often. I can picture him. As far as I remember, we only get her hair described (wavy, golden brown with strawberry blond highlights - and distinctive for some reason? 🤷🏻‍♀️), though she’s clearly white. And Alex calls her some variation of gorgeous quite often. But that’s all I got.

*Wait, actually my pettiest quibble is that the title is totally generic and has nothing to do with the plot of the book.

*This one is my biggest, most legitimate quibble - the miscommunications at the end. <spoiler>I know they needed a dramatic, romantic reunion, but no actual human would tell a stranger - let alone the person they are in love with - the that the date of their flight to move to another country is “the last Monday in January.” While thinking in their head they are referring to the “the last Monday in January according to [their employer’s] fiscal calendar.” Literally any human person from Earth would say “my flight is on January 31." Unless they are choosing to fuck with the other person.

And then Alex - who has been completely open and vocal and communicative - ghosts Casey for WEEKS, and then shows up for his grand declaration saying he fully intended to be there when she left and wanted to be her first phone call when she landed. And says he “needed space, but not a whole ocean of it.” He 1000% would have told her at some point THOSE MANY WEEKS - likely at the start! - that he needed some time and space but didn’t want to break up and would see her on [overly complicated date of departure].

<spoiler>I just really hate when book people act totally out of character - both as they are described in the book and just generally as sentient, carbon-based life forms who have language - for the sake of drama and grand romantic gestures needed to fix it..

All in all, despite my recreational bitching, I really enjoyed this. the writing is clever and witty, and can’t wait to read her next one.

I received an advanced copy of this book, thanks to St. Martin Press and NetGalley.

For the most part, I enjoyed it. I thought Alex and Casey had great chemistry and were both likable characters. I also enjoyed the side characters. Especially Bijresh and Miriam.

I only gave it three stars because the corporate espionage stuff was a little boring and took up too much of the book. I also didn't find their breakup very compelling. It felt a little forced.

Overall I do think it's worth reading, and if Clare Gilmore publishes again, I would definitely check it out!

Casey applies for a new job inside the company she works for, only to find out that the CEO's kid got the job over her. Fricken nepotism. So obviously Alex becomes public enemy #1. Until they are forced to work on a project together. Slowly they start opening up to each other and realize that their first impressions of one another were wrong. Sparks fly in this funny, relatable romance from Clare Gilmore!
I absolutely loved this book! Clare does a phenomenal job writing diverse, witty characters with wide personalities. I have never understood finance, but she makes it relatable and funny, while exploring harder topics of parent issues and self doubt. Highly recommend giving this a read!

I will be posting this book on my Instagram @dr.cs.bookworm on July 11th, as well as in October closer to the release date!