Love You, Mean It by Jilly Gagnon is a new romantic comedy about fake dating.

Ellie Greco returns home when her father passes away and takes over the family business, running the town deli. She went away to college to study designing beautiful, elaborate costumes for theater. But she fights back when her family business is threatened to be non-existent.

Theo Taylor of the property management firm is about to put her out of business, but their meeting goes from bad to worse when he's injured in an accident. His family wants the building rented out to Mania, but Theo intends to keep the building's infrastructure intact.

The story is predictable and will keep you entertained.

This fake dating romance was a lot of fun to read. Ellie and Theo had great chemistry and banter. It has a nice amount of spice too and I loved Ellies close relationship with her family. There were times Ellie really frustrated me and I struggled to stay interested at times which is why I gave it 3 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Cute, sweet romcom wrapped up nicely with some prosciutto and mozzarella. Seriously this book had my mouth watering while reading 🤣 I really liked the characters and their relationship, would’ve liked to see even more development between the two of them but felt like Sam being introduced/her storyline was pretty unnecessary to the story as a whole. Worth a read!

4 Stars

This is my first time with this author and I really enjoyed this book. It had a handful of my favorite movie tropes, like While You Were Sleeping and You've Got Mail. The characters have their personal flaws, but I did really enjoy Ellie and Theo.

Ellie is the small local shop girl trying to save it from a giant super store from causing her shop be obsolete. She tries reaching out to Theo, the son of the businessman threatening her livelihood. After a series of events, they suddenly fall into a fake engagement situation. Them trying to make it seem real so Theo can go against his dad Ted.

This was a really fast read and overall a really good time. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy fake dating tropes and those classic rom-com movies like While You Were Sleeping. I will be checking out more by Jilly Gagnon in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Ballantine for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

Usually not a fan of the fake dating trope, but this was fun and different. The book is a great vacation/beach read with memorable characters and setting.

Thank you so much @netgalley and @jillygagnon for this lovely ARC!

Guys, it’s literally a meat cute. Ellie Greco gives up her big dream to be a seamstress to the stars when her father’s death brings her home to Milborough and she agrees to helm Greco’s Deli in his stead. Five years pass, Ellie has turned Greco’s into not just a deli but a cute little charcuterie shop, but a local bigwig company is in discussions to rent a property to Mangia’s, an Italian style eatery (think Eataly, IYKYK). Ellie tries to persuade the landlord’s son Theo not to rent to Mangia’s, but Theo is kind of a jerk. Just when things get tense, a ceiling fixture drops on Theo and he’s knocked unconscious. Ellie feels horrible and lies in order to see what happens in the hospital, and voila, Theo is her fake fiancé.

This book has a little You’ve Got Mail style David and Goliath deli wars going on, and a little bit of While You Were Sleeping with the amnesia fiancé. For all the worriers, the one sided deception is very quick and instead it’s a fake engagement bonanza to keep Mangia from winning the deli wars.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Ellie and Theo fall in love. It’s a rivals to schemers to lovers and I couldn’t be happier to have had an advanced copy. Welcome to romance writing @jillygagnon !!!

This is the third romcom I’ve received to review that has been less than stellar. I feel like the premise was a good one (girl tries to save family’s deli) but the execution just didn’t hit the mark for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and The publisher for this ARC. I fell in love with this story. It was funny and romantic. A must read.

This was a delightful approach to the fake dating/fake fiancé trope. Theo’s amnesia lasted just as long as it should. It was fun to see Ellie and Theo’s relationship grow, I was rooting for them from the start. This will be a perfect, light read heading into the summer!

OK I love this book so much. It was such a cute story and the characters are so adorable and charismatic. You can’t help it. Love all of them! Highly recommend this book, especially for romance lovers like me. 4 1/2 stars!

I love this book, and I love the fact that the author, and I almost share the same name. it was a fantastic read.

This was a fun, lighthearted romance set in a small town in New England. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's version of the enemies to lovers trope, although the plot didn't blow me away.

Ellie has moved back home from NYC after her father's death. She felt forced to go and run the family's deli. A new competitor could drive her out of business so she begins fake dating her cousin's ex to try to get him to squash the deal. That's it in a nutshell. There's a brief "While You Were Sleeping" plotline but it quickly changes into a fake dating scenario instead. The characters are hard to like. Theo might be the most likable and he's really supposed to be the worst. Sam is too competitive, too successful, too gets-everything-she-wants. And Ellie is her own worst enemy. She is given a lifeline time and time again but uses it to choke herself instead.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Love You, Mean It" by Jilly Gagnon is a delightful romantic comedy that seamlessly weaves together humor, fake dating, and unexpected twists, creating a thoroughly entertaining story. Ellie Greco, caught between her dream career and the responsibility of running her family's deli in Milborough, faces a crisis when the future of Greco's Deli is jeopardized by the arrival of Mangia, a glamorous gourmet food department store. The plot takes a humorous turn when, in a moment of panic and a touch of amnesia, Ellie claims to be engaged to Theo Taylor, the man seemingly threatening her family's business. What unfolds is a charming and funny tale of fake engagements, surprising alliances, and the unpredictable nature of romance.

Gagnon skillfully navigates the dynamics between Ellie and Theo, creating characters with depth and charm. The initial desperation behind the fake engagement evolves into a surprisingly effective strategy to thwart the threat from Mangia. The introduction of Sam, Theo's ex-fiance, adds an intriguing twist, forcing Ellie to navigate a complex web of relationships and make choices that challenge her priorities. "Love You, Mean It" is a feel-good rom-com that not only delivers on humor and wit but also explores themes of friendship, family legacy, and unexpected love. Gagnon's storytelling is engaging, and the chemistry between the characters keeps readers invested in the delightful chaos that unfolds.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Love You, Mean It by Jilly Gagnon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

What a fun read! I've been reading a lot of thrillers and such lately, so this was a lovely refresher. For some reason, I love a fake dating trope and this one isn't too insta love or cringey. Instead, it feels balanced and is just a good, light read!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

I really wanted to love this book. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes. It was so hard for me to get into. The catch just wasn’t there for me and I couldn’t connect with the characters.

If you are a fan of You’ve Got Mail and While You’re Sleeping then this book is for you! This book had so much more but I really enjoyed it. All of the relationships with the FMC Ellie were lovely. From her family elders and her cousin, to new friends and allies. And let’s not forget the enemies to lovers fake dating trope with Theo, this book was perfect.

If you are looking for a light hearted, fun, romantic story with some spice in the right places then you picked the right book!

5 ⭐️s from me!

Give me a fake dating/engagement trope and I'm gonna love it.

Ellie and Theo were so cute from the beginning and even tho i feel like the relationship turned romantic very fast (i need more suffering and angst most of the time) it was very genuine and mature, i dont see much of miscommunication between them which makes this story a lot more easy to read for me.

The main plot makes sense from the beginning but i think it could've been more complicated at the end, the whole problem gets fixed basically at the last 10% of the book which makes me want more of the relationship between Ellie and Theo at the end.

Overall it was so cute and romantic and funny and i feel it's a very fast and easy read.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advance copy in exchange of an honest review.

3.5/5 stars, rounded up. This book ticked all the expected boxes of an enemies to lovers story. It was not the most original or the most realistic, but it didn't need to be. It was an enjoyable read with a great cast of characters (really, there could have been a lot more of the Greco clan!!). Theo and Ellie were a fun couple.