“Love You, Mean It” by Jilly Gagnon
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: 4/30

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I really enjoyed this one. It reminded me of a Hallmark movie plot!
Five years ago Ellie’s father passed away unexpectedly and she moved home to Milborough to run her families deli! She already felt like a failure after not having a breakthrough in New York costume design. This is a new low.
When a well known rich family is looking to bring in a big market to fill an empty space Ellie has to do something otherwise her family business will be at risk. Ellie does the only thing she can do she confronts Theo. Theo’s father Ted wants the deal to go through. Theo has other plans.
Can these two work together? Theo comes up with a plan to fake date Ellie so his dad will feel inclined to keep the business of his son’s girlfriend afloat mostly for appearances.

While I liked the basic premise behind Love You, Mean It and it featured a fair number of classic romcom tropes I tend to enjoy, a few things did bother me. Namely Ellie. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but there was just something about her that I couldn’t connect with. I freely admit this could just be me. And while it didn’t really work for me, there’s still plenty to like in terms of the story itself, and I’d suggest romcom fans give it a go and decide for themselves. I’d like to thank Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Love you, Mean It.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1MFN6OOANFYD5/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

A fan of the movie Overboard, mention amnesia and a fake marriage, and I'm there for it. This book took a turn from what I was expecting though.

Ellie Greco runs her family's deli that has been in their family for generations. Now, with talk of the superstore Mangia moving in just down the road, Ellie's at risk of losing everything her family's worked for. The person in charge of the project is none other than Theo Taylor, whom her cousin Bella dated in high school. Taking a risk, Ellie get's Theo's information, and nails down a meeting.

The last thing she was expecting out of their meeting was for him to get knocked out at the building site. Ellie doesn't want to leave him alone, but the only way to stay with him in the ambulance is to pretend that she's his fiancée. A lie that the hospital staff helpfully relays to Theo - who's lost the last 6 years of his life, and his very real, very fabulous, very concerned ex Sam when she shows up after getting the emergency call.

Ellie comes clean to Theo as soon as she can, but to her surprise, he wants to continue with the fake engagement. He has his own reasons for wanting to keep Mangia from moving into town, and they join forces to convince his father and the board of directors why it's a bad move.

When flickers of feelings start coming into play, Ellie does what she can to protect herself. Plus, Sam has let her know that she knows the engagement is fake, and that she'll be happy to help in their efforts if Ellie puts in a good word with Theo to give their relationship a second chance. Sam and Theo are perfect together, everything you'd expect when you look at the two of them. But is Ellie sabotaging her chance at something real?

A fun contemporary romance, with very likable characters you want to root for and be friends with. And very unlikable characters standing in the way of everyone's happiness. Once I got started on it, this was a quick read, and I loved the way Ellie was able to grow and take the tough advice that came her way. Even if the timing wasn't always what she'd have hoped for.

Thank you to the publishers through NetGalley for the ARC.

Normally I am noooot here for the fake dating but this one was actually okay. I guess because I could find reason with it and it made sense to me 😂.

I thought the amnesia head injury thing was going to play a bigger part here but that was gone and over with fairly quickly.

This is your pretty standard rom-com, while it was medium paced, I did feel like there was a LOT of long internal narration from Ellie that I started to skim because it was too much. I don’t know that we needed all that. Like pages of long paragraphs it felt like.

I also wish we had the dual POV with Theo, it’s so rare to have a rom-com with just one POV now, I missed knowing that the other guy was thinking.

I also wish we had gotten a public takedown of the villain at the town-hall meeting 😂, and does everyone think they’re still engaged after the third act breakup?

Overall this was a fun time with some minor flaws, but it’s fairly lighthearted, and a lil spicy. If you enjoy a fake dating rom-com you’ll like this one.

If you're a fan of You've Got Mail, While You Were Sleeping, and The Proposal, then you'll love Jilly Gagnon's latest Love You, Mean It. This novel utilizes plot points from all of the aforementioned movies.

Rival businesses? Check. Pretending to be a fiance? Check. Faking a relationship? Check.

This was not a novel that kept me guessing. (Although, I did expect there to be a betrayal plot twist with the Samantha character...)

Essentially, Ellie Greco needs to save her family's deli from the invasion of the big-box food store Mangia. To do that, she's got to cozy up to Theo Taylor, son of the real estate mogul in charge of brokering the deal with Mangia.

Soon Ellie and Theo find themselves working together to disrupt Theo's father's plan. And then working together becomes sleeping together... You get the picture.

Was this novel totally predictable? Yep. Was it a fast read? Yes. Did it get a little steamy in places? Sure.

If that's your thing, then you won't have to convince yourself that you love this book.

Love You, Mean It is published by Dell and will be available to purchase tomorrow. I received a free e-ARC.

This was an adorable, romcom that had the small town charm that I always love in books. Throughout the story, Ellie’s indecisiveness was clear but I loved her sass, wit and honesty. Theo was guarded, sexy and smart. I appreciated the layers and sensitivity that was shown after breaking down his wall. Coming from two very different upbringings, I enjoyed watching them intertwine their worlds and learn new things about themselves. Their chemistry was burning throughout the pages and their vulnerability felt real. I really appreciated the growth in both characters and loved the ending!

I thought that this was a quick, cute, fun tropey read! I think that the best part of this book is the family dynamics. I enjoyed how direct Ellie is, and Theo is very likeable in the end. Overall, if you are looking for something light and breezy, read this one!

Thank you for the E-arc in exchange for an honest review!

A classist enemies to lovers romance with some serious payoff in the end. A story about dreams delayed until they become dreams denied then dreams reaffirmed and embraced. The characters leap off the page, their personalities become the readers’ friends and loved ones. You’ll laugh and fret about missed connections yet feel joy when the rocky trail to love becomes a paved road there. An HEA that is well earned and reminding us all that real relationships need to be earned.

This was a cute, quick read that hit all the right points for me. The start of the book had some While You Were Sleeping vibes, which I absolutely loved. The rest of the book was filled with fake dating, which is my favorite romance trope. ❤️

Our FMC Ellie was a little unlikeable through some of the book, but this made her oh-so-relatable. She was in so much denial about her feelings even though everyone around her could see what she didn't want to admit. I loved the MMC, Theo. He was snarky and sweet and adorable.

I, personally, didn't love the side character of Sam. Her introduction to the story felt forced to me, and I absolutely hated the deal she and Ellie made. She clearly saw something between Theo and Ellie, but instead of believing her eyes, she believed Ellie, who was clearly lying to herself. Then, she got upset when everything came out. 🙄🙄🙄

Overall, I'd say pick this one up if you're looking for a cute, light romance.

Read if you enjoy:
✔️ Fake Dating
✔️ While You Were Sleeping
✔️ Opposites Attract
✔️ Enemies to Lovers

This was such a good one. For many reasons but I really needed to have a huge Italian meal after reading it. Ellie Greco is an aspiring costume designer who ends up going back to her hometown after her father dies to take over their family deli. Theo Taylor is working for his family’s business in his home town. He and Ellie are from the same town and went to the same school but are from very different circles. Theo’s father is trying to make a business deal that will be the demise of Ellie’s family business if it goes through and is not what Theo wants. The only way for them get what they want is to enter a fake engagement. Ellie is from a large Italian family and I really enjoyed the family dinners and her family aspect that’s the complete opposite from Theo’s family. Both Ellie and Theo have a hard Their story is so sweet and I loved that they both had a healing journey to embark on to be capable of being with each other. It was such a fun read and I really enjoyed it!

This was my first book by Jilly Gagnon and I really enjoyed it.

Ellie is a sassy, funny woman who leaves her life in New York to take over her family's deli after her father passes away. She doesn't like it, but she does what she has to do to keep the deli thriving for her family. I loved her attitude and her internal monologues. When dealing with one of her loyal but obnoxious customers, her thoughts made me giggle.

I also loved her cousin Bella. She's the total opposite of Ellie, but they balance each other out. Her whole family gave me the warm fuzzies.

I'm a big fan of fake dating and enemies to lovers romances, and this author did a pretty good job at making their story work. I loved the banter between Ellie and the lead male character, Theo. It was giving me "Anyone But You" vibes as I read. As well as "While You Were Sleeping", which is a favorite of mine. Gagnon did a wonderful job at showing many sides of each of the characters. The sexual chemistry between Theo and Ellie was fire.

I do wish we'd gotten Theo's POV to understand more about him and the changes in his life throughout the book. But overall, I really enjoyed the whole story. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but it doesn't ruin the overall storyline. Each person will have a different opinion.

Gagnon is a wonderful writer and I look forward to seeing what she does next.

This review will be very short because I don’t have anything positive to say about this book.

I requested this title due to the fact I enjoyed Jilly Gagnon’s mystery novels and thought I’d see if she was as good at romance. Maybe she might be, one day, but this title maybe should’ve stayed on her computer.

Love You, Mean It is part “You’ve Got Mail”, part “While You Were Sleeping”, and part how-many-cliches-can-we-shove-in-this-book. Many romance novels written in this manner these days at least have a level of self-awareness about them to where the FMC (especially in first-person POV) at least somewhat acknowledges she’s cribbing from pop culture, but Gagnon’s FMC seems to have the self-awareness of someone who hasn’t watched television, a movie, or a streaming service in the last 30 years.

Sadly, I found myself hating our FMC early on in the book because she made choices that I found to be absolutely unethical and not something I personally could forgive. The book never recovered in any way.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review is rated three stars or under so it will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you.

Unfortunately I just didn’t love this one. Going in I thought I would as I loved the deli setting and all of the Italian references.

But the characters just had no chemistry. I usually love a good fake dating trope but I wasn’t rooting for these characters at all. I found myself bored by their banter and I struggled to stay interested.

I would still read other books by this author, though.

Thank you anyway to Netgalley, Random House Publishing, and the author for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is the cutest little book! Basically it’s the You’ve Got Mail of Italian delis. Theo’s family is planning to sell a building to Mangia, a huge corporate Italian food chain with the potential to put Ellie’s family deli out of business. So enter a fake dating/engagement scheme to try to save her deli…and we all know how fake dating goes!

This is a cute romance with very likable characters. If you like trope-filled books this one has plenty of them, including, fake fiancee, enemies to lovers, amnesia, and more. Plus, it's well-written, moves along quickly, and it's just an all-around highly satisfying read.

I had high hopes for this book as the synopsis sounded so good but it really fell flat for me. Fake dating is a big trope so it’s definitely hard to write a story for it that’s new and refreshing but this one really used a lot of the cliche themes. I just wish it had more originalness.

It definitely is a fast easy read, so I think that will appeal to quite a few reader but for me it was a miss.

This is such a cute romance using the enemies to lovers and fake dating tropes. The first few chapters were very reminiscent of the movie "While You Were Sleeping". And just when I thought I was going to be bored by reading a book with the same plot as an old movie I was pleasantly surprised when it turned into a fun and heartwarming fake dating romance.

Ellie and Theo were fun characters to get to know. They both lost loved ones suddenly greatly changing how they lived their lives. They transition from enemies to friends and finally lovers believably. Of course, there were many bumps in the road getting them to the outcome of lovers but it was entertaining to read their journey.

If you are looking for a lighthearted, entertaining book that has a bit of predictability then I highly recommend this book. It left me with a warm heart and a smile on my face. It would make a wonderful book to take on vacation!

I am extremely grateful to Random House Publishing - Ballentine and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this sweet romance in exchange for my honest review. All of the opinions in this review are my own.

This book was just okay. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I was drawn to this book because I love the fake dating and enemies-to-lovers tropes, and the "While You Were Sleeping" similarities were intriguing, but it just didn't work for me. I didn't feel the chemistry between the main characters, Ellie and Theo, and Ellie was sometimes a hard protagonist to root for, especially after the hurtful things she said to Theo. Some parts of the story dragged a bit, while others were almost too fast-paced.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I usually really love enemies to lovers/fake dating but I could not connect with this story or the characters. I am not the type to outright criticize someone's hard work- but this story was just not it for me. I was counting down the pages until I finished it. I just think the whole save the deli plot that Ellie was involved in was just not something I cared for. What makes or breaks a story to me is the connection with the FMC and I absolutely hated Ellie and just was annoyed reading to be honest.

Ellie is back in her hometown running her family's deli after the death of her father dreaming of what other adventures she could be pursuing. When one of the town's most influential families is planning to bring in a fancy food store, she knows the deli can't compete with that. Desperate to save her family's legacy, she sets up a meeting with Theo Taylor to see if she can stop the deal from going through. Throw in some amnesia, fake dating, and a little rivalry and will Ellie and Theo come out the other side as enemies or lovers?

This was such a fun and cute story! I always love the fake dating trope and this one was done with a few unique spins to keep it interesting. I didn't love some of Ellie's decisions but overall this was an enjoyable read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for the ARC!