Nice heartfelt rom com, enjoyed immensely . This was fresh and enjoyable, keep me hooked thru the whole book . Definitely i want more from this author

Failed costume designer and current operator of her family’s deli, Ellie Grecco is trying to make peace with her life. She loves the deli, but can’t help but miss the idea of her fizzled costuming career. So much so that her personal life has stalled out. She dates hot losers and lives in a neglected apartment she refuses to decorate. When her family’s deli is threatened by the possibility of a deli superstore taking over a local building, Ellie is galvanized into action. She immediately sets up a meeting with Theo Taylor, former schoolmate, businessman, and the son of the wealthiest man in town. The man who also happens to own the building in question. When the meeting goes awry and Theo is rushed to the Emergency Room, Ellie tells everyone she is his fiancée in order to go with him. Ellie is shocked when Theo wakes up with amnesia and believes she really is his fiancée. The amnesia is only temporary, but Theo proposes an idea that will benefit them both. For reasons of his own, Theo doesn’t want the building to be turned into a deli superstore. He suggests the two pretend to be engaged in order to derail his family’s business deal. Ellie will save her family’s business and Theo will get the building for his own endeavors. With such a fool proof plan, what could go wrong?

Jilly Gagnon has given us a delightful romantic comedy in Love You, Mean It. A series of hilarious hijinks, family shenanigans, and explosive chemistry between the main characters equals perfection. Ellie is feisty, hot tempered and a bit adrift. Theo is solid and focused. They are total opposites, but balance each other in the best ways. Both characters are firmly grounded in reality with strong backstories and motives for their actions. The side characters are well written and add so much to the story. Sam, Theo’s ex and Ellie’s friend crush, was especially great. Love You, Mean It was enjoyable, heartwarming, and fun to read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the ARC of this book for my honest review.

I loved this book. The characters had me hooked from the very beginning. This fun romcom was about a girl who returned home to run her family business after her dad passed away. She hears that another store is planning to move into town that would run her family deli out of business. The book had While You Were Sleeping vibes in the very beginning. I loved everything about this book and can't wait to read more by this author.

Love You, Mean It gives "While You Were Sleeping" vibes and I'm loving it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

A delightful romance! I always love a fake-dating scenario, and this does not disappoint. I read it in a day!

Love this story and the little battles back and forth. Just as you'd imagine, the story follows a path you know well, and love! The characters are so easy to relate to and you cheer them on from the start. Loved the journey and HEA!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the views and opinions in this review are purely my own and not affiliated with any brand.

I adored this book! It was such a fun fast read. I was slightly worried that the fake relationship story line has been played out but Jilly Gagnon wrote this book in a way that made the story feel fresh! I loved the character Ellie and how strong and feisty she is. I love how she is trying to save her family business and how she will stop at nothing. I also really liked Theo and how the two played off of each other.

If you like a fun, cute, flirty romance novel that is also a quick read, this book is for you!

This book was… not good. I’m DNFing at 10%. The writing was weird and I didn’t relate to the characters at all. Thanks anyway for the ARC.

First... the amount of times that the main characters "sucked their lips through their teeth" or "lips curled" was insane. It was really bothersome in the beginning to the point where I couldn't read it again without taking a minute. There was a break from the overused phrases and I was able to get into the book and then at the end during times of conflict it came back.

Ok, moving on... At first I did not like the main character Ellie. She was very negative, super low self esteem, a bit too snarky and just generally off putting. Theo, Ellie's enemies to lovers love interest, was a bit cold and arrogant but it kind of made sense once he was introduced more.

There's a bit of steamy moments in the book but I thought they were well written, realistic and not too over the top.

Much like a Hallmark movie (but not because of the cursing and steamy scenes) there is a misunderstanding but I liked that the author didn't use all the tropes that are often used in books like this. I enjoyed this book. I'm rating it 4/5 just because of the repetition on a weird phrase. I've just not heard sucked her lips between her teeth much at all so it bothers me personally - maybe it's more common elsewhere.

Trying to save her family’s restaurant what else is one to do when the strict property manager gets temporary amnesia? Well tell him you’re dating to help save the restaurant, of course!

Once you get past this plot, it’s a pretty straight forward romcom. I can handle ridiculous plots as long as the story is fun. This story was fun, for the most part. The chemistry was fun as well as the tension between the two leads.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Love You, Mean It is a fun, beach read. I would describe this book as chick lit. Reading it you know how it is going to end up but getting there is the fun! Ellie, who runs the family’s deli, is faced with a big box store coming in and putting her out of business. She teams up with Theo, whose father owns the building where the big box store will come, to try to prevent it. This story has very strong women as characters, Ellie, Sam, Ellie’s mother and grandmother which is nice to read. The only problem I had was I often could not tell who was speaking in the story. The quotes were there but didn’t sound like it came from the person who appeared to be speaking; a little confusing.

Within 10% of the book the FMC has already hated on an old woman who is her customer for taking too long to decide on deli meat, had a grandmother state that green salad “gives her the trots” and then had the FMC describe her love interest/MMC who she hasn’t talked to in at least 10 years as “Little Lord Doucheleroy”
This is not the book for me but thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and review it

I really wanted to like this one and the premise was an interesting one. However, I had a hard time rooting for either character, Neither of them seemed like a good person. Or flawed in a way that could be redeemed. I especially didn't care for Ellie after she made bad decision after bad decision. I nearly dnf'd several times but pushed through hoping it would get better. It didn't.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing this ARC for my voluntary and honest review!

This was a fast read with enemies-to-lovers and fake dating tropes. The characters were super likable and it was also really refreshing to have multiple strong, female characters that *gasp* had mutual respect for one another and weren’t intimated by or backstabbing each other.

LOVE YOU, MEAN IT
Jilly Gagnon

It might be trope-heavy, and it might be unbelievable. But I had fun with it, and I think you will too.

In LOVE YOU, MEAN IT by Jilly Gagnon, we’re following Ellie Greco. Ellie came back home to run the family deli when her father died. She knew it would be hard, she knew it would be tough, what she didn’t know is that she would unknowingly walk right into the middle of a 90’s rom-com.

The family deli that Ellie runs is days away from being overrun by a big box chain store called Mangia. (Think YOU’VE GOT MAIL) She would do anything to save the deli and virtually does.

I thought LOVE YOU, MEAN IT was cute and it reminded me of some of my favorite 90’s romantic comedy movies. It read very quickly, was light and bright, and made for easy reading. There was just enough chemistry to make it enjoyable and I thought the coupling was adorable.

This one comes out on April 30, 2024!

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Dell for the advanced copy!

LOVE YOU, MEAN IT…⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to the publisher Random House for the invitation to read this early. I was sold and so intrigued by this story from the moment I read the editor's note. Sometimes you just click with a story before you even start it, you know that feeling?

And I did enjoy it. It's a RomCom but more on the character driven, self discovery side. Which is why I didn't give it a higher rating, I expected more romcom shenanigans and less drama and introspection. What bothered me was Ellie's negative outlook on life (probably because she reminded me of myself lol - but hey, this is fiction, she is supposed to get out of her head better!). She had a tendancy to take the wrong way anything anyone did or said to her, which got a little emotionally draining eventually.

But other than that, I loved the story overall. The banter, the meet cute, the accidentally (or not) engaged part, the family connections and slow burn and bickering.

This book will make a great vacation read come next spring/summer and I'm sure a lot of readers will fall under Theo's spell. He is perfect, but in a very imperfect, realistic way, if you know what I mean. He has his faults (just like Ellie) but has a great heartstopping way of making up for it. The ending was movie worthy and will make you swoon.

I have never read anything by Jilly Gagnon but this was a cute romcom that keeps you rooting for Ellie and her trying to save her family's business. Ellie had to give up her dream job when her father passed away 5 years earlier. Now she is working in the family's store, trying to keep it running and make a profit. When Ellie's grandmother tells her that there is rumor of a new gourmet food store going in right around the corner from the family's store, Ellie knows she has to do what she can to stop the new store from going in.

Ellie phones Theo, the property manager for the new store, and sets up a meeting. Ellie thinks that she can maybe talk Theo into not selling the building to the new store. While Ellie and Theo are having their meting, there is construction work going on in the building to get it ready to rent out. When a worker falls off a ladder, Theo goes to see what is going on and is hit in the head with a beam. Ellie is worried about him and the only way she can go in the ambulance with him is if she is his wife or significant other. Ellie decides to say that she is because she wants to go with them to the hospital. When Theo wakes up at the hospital, they tell him that Ellie, his fiance, is there with him. Theo doesn't remember anything and takes their word for Ellie being his fiance which stats out a whole new endeavor for the two of them,

When Theo gets his memory back, Ellie and Theo decide that they should maybe just go along with their charade that they have had going in hopes that they would both get what they want out of the deal. All is going well until Theo's ex shows up and sees right through what they are trying to pull. Sam is not willing to be fooled one bit and is threatening to tell everyone that Ellie and Theo are not really engaged.

You will enjoy this cute read as I did. I always like a quick cute read and this was one of those.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced copy of this book.

What a fun and different read! I really enjoyed all aspects of this book, but most especially the development of the relationship between Ellie and Theo. it didn't feel forced or naturally expected. While not overly "different", it definitely was an ending I appreciated.

This book was a cute, quick read! As a Sicilian who was raised surrounded by family, I deeply resonated with Ellie and her family. I'm not sure if I would have had the same willpower to turn down a big Italian superstore, like Mangia lol. I loved the stubbornness of Mimi as it truly emanates the spirit of every Italian nona. Personally, I liked Ellie and her family's story more than the love story between Ellie and Theo. Would love to see a spin off about just them or maybe Ellie's mom finding love again, idk. I too couldn't see the connection between them and felt as though the romance came out of nowhere.

This was a lot of fun, so many schemes with schemes, all topped up with a fake dating where both MCs fall really hard (and one of them may or may not be in super denial about it)

I loved the banter between the MCs!

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!