Love You, Mean It is a fun romantic comedy. I was skeptical of the fake engagement story line in the beginning, but, my doubts quickly faded. Jilly Gagnon provides well developed characters, great dialogue, and an all around great story. Plenty of steam as well! Thank you to NetGalley, Jilly Gagnon, and Random House Publishing for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoy booked based on restaurants or with food as a main character. Love You, Mean It hits those plot point. I also really enjoy the fake romance trope and this book nails it on the head. When Ellie must head back to her hometown to run the family deli she does what she can to improve things. But when she finds out about plans to bring Mangia, a mega gourmet food shop to her little town she does what she can to put a stop to it. She ends up in a fake relationship with Theo, the son of the owner of the property management firm looking to bring in Mangia in order to put a stop to the mega shop and save her deli.

Overall I thought this was a cute story with all the makings of a happily ever after. I liked all the characters (especially Sam!) and felt like the character development was there. Of course there are many twists throughout and by the end of the story, you can breathe a sigh of relief. This was a very cute quick read.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the arc. The comments and review are my opinion.
Ellie has returned home from NY to work in her family’s deli after the death of her father and after failing in her dream of becoming a costume designer.

I am not much of a reader of romcom’s, but since I have read other books by this author, I looked forward to this change of pace. Although it was okay, I have liked other books by the author more.

To me Ellie was portrayed as being rather pathetic. A “Woe is Me” type of person. No boyfriend, no girlfriends nearby and no social life because all she does is work in the deli, keeping her father’s dream alive while her dream failed.
What finally wakes her up is news that quite possibly the building where the deli is located is going to be demolished with a super store being built in its place. What follows is a fake dating and fake engagement to a principal partner of the developer to try and stop the new store from coming to town.
The book does have a sweet ending, so if you are into cozy romcoms, you very well may enjoy this book.

This was such a cute read! I fell in love with Ellie and Theo and especially the fake dating troupe. I really enjoyed this book because I releated to Ellie in which her father died and she had to take over his deli while essentially putting her dreams on hold. My father has passed and although my father didn't have a business I put my life on hold. This book helped me realize that I'm not the only and that I can he more than a griever. Back to the story it was such a quick read for me. I really enjoyed that the author didn't bombard us with too many characters to make the plot. I loved the handful of characters and how each were important to the story. I really reccomend if you love a meet cute, fake dating troupe.

Ellie the main character is very hard to like. The self deprivation and negative attitude just puts me off. I can’t root for her let alone even like her.

Although I love a good fake dating trope this one didn't check many boxes for me. I liked ellie and I liked Theo but. Meh. One of the biggest things that bugged me is I literally still have no idea where the title comes from. As a reader I very much enjoy being able to say. Aha! That's where that is from.

That being said this was a quick read for me. Just not a favorite

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this was a cute and fun romance store, although it did read more like women's fiction than a standard romcom to me. I really enjoyed the relationship between Ellie and her family, particularly with Bella, more than anything, but the romance between her and Theo was cute as well.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for letting me read an early copy. Opinions are my own.

Given how much page space the deli dilemma and her desire for friends took up it felt more women’s fiction than romance to me. And half of the book was extremely difficult to follow with random other peoples movements in the middle of dialogue with no tags. If you’re gonna put a name in the middle of dialogue, make it at least be the person who’s talking. I was so confused I almost put the book down so many times. OMG just use “said” already.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this funny, sweet, laugh out loud romantic comedy! The characters were likable and the ending was great. Highly recommend!

This book seemed very promising from the premise (and honestly the cover is what drew me in the most). That being said, I am at a loss for how to rate this book. I think the plot needs a lot of work for it to be more engaging for the reader. Throughout chapter 1 I felt like I was learning more about deli meats than anything and I had to go back to understand what I was supposed to know as a reader. I was lost by chapter 2 and forcing myself to finish the book thereafter. I think the characters are somewhat developed, but I found myself unable to relate, which again made the reader 10x harder.

Overall, a good premise, but definitely needs work! Almost a DNF for me.

**I appreciate the ARC privileges from NetGalley.

I think that with booktok being so relevant, it’s hard to find a book that is unique. I did enjoy this book and you grow to like the characters a lot but it doesn’t stand out to me. It has a lot of similar tropes and plot points from other books I’ve read which makes it feel like something I’ve read before.

This book did a lot of things really well. The pacing was good, the storyline was easy to follow, and the main characters were very likable. The author truly had a vision for each character - it was so apparent in their actions and dialogue. The romance was nice, although I did wish for more of it. I loved the relationship that was built between the main characters just as much as the other relationships in the story. Particularly, I loved Sam & Ellie’s budding friendship. Truly a great read!

This was such a funny book. It had a lot of heart and was just a good feel read. I was so immersed in the storyline. Ellie and Theo was such a cute couple. I loved their snakiness. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Love You, Mean It starts as an enemies to lovers story about two seemingly opposed small business owners. Then it sort of morphs into fake dating, which was fine though I thought the premise was a little weak. Ellie is a fun character and her traditional Italian family is full of fun characters. Theo’s family is very 2 dimensional, and I ended the book with a lot of questions about their motivations. The father was somewhat of a two dimensional villain, and there was little to no information about the mother which given the circumstances was weird. Then there’s a third act conflict that confused me to no end- it seemed unnecessary and I don’t really know what it added to the book. That being said, I liked the characters and the story- just I could have used less action and more exploration of the earlier conflicts and the family relationships instead of act 3. All in all, I’d try something else by this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

So, I wanted to love this book and I would say I enjoyed it quite a bit. But I’m gonna be honest - I did not love it and I have a couple of BIG complaints. First, let me just point out that I have absolutely NO idea where the title comes from. None. It is never a part of the story nor does anyone say it at any point. And that bugs me. Words matter, folks. Including the very first ones.

But the thing that really bugged me, so much so that it affected my enjoyment of the book, was the author’s tendency to jump from one incomplete thought or story moment to the next. I wanted to scream periodically as another scene was left dangling while the story moved on either a few minutes or weeks. Frustrating.

Cute story idea. Poor delivery.

This book was a charming palate-cleanser of a romance novel. I felt like the FMC and MMC both being a little sassy and having tempers of their own felt more realistic than many romance novels on the market. This would have been a four star if not for the third act breakup. But overall, a sweet quick read that I enjoyed

This novel started off so similar to the plot of a 90s movie involving a man in a coma and a woman pretending to be his fiancée, that I almost stopped reading it. I did continue on and thankfully, the plot quickly changed. Ellie Greco moved home after her father died to run the family deli and now it looks like a giant chain food emporium is going to be coming to town. She will do anything she can to stop it. She reaches out to Theo to have a meeting with him and that's when the accident happened. Now she and Theo have decided to continue pretending to be engaged in order to stop this store from coming to their town. This book had all the romance novel tropes and no surprises. It was a nice fluffy read.

Love You, Mean It by Jilly Gagnon was such a fun read. I absolutely raced through the pages, and found myself snort-laughing through much of it. Ellie and Theo had me rooting for them from the very beginning and I loved following their antics. Highly recommend!

A Mismatched Couple
Ellie and Theo are about as far apart as you can get. Ellie manages her family deli, and Theo is part of a Real Estate Development firm that intends to sell the building her deli is in. When Theo gets a head injury during a meeting with Ellie, she pretends to be his fiance so she can visit him in the hospital. When Theo regains his memory and knows she's not his fiancee and who she really is, you'd think he'd want to squash her like a bug, but instead he suggest they continue the pretense in an attempt to keep his father from selling the building. And so it begins. A good romantic story with fun characters, and a few twists to make it more interesting.

Wow!!! I flew through this beautifully written romcom. I LOVED the characters. The authors take on the likable ex was really fun and interesting. The FMC was strong and snarky but also had room to grow throughout the book. 4.5 stars!!! I just wish the end was a little longer and we got to see more dialogue between the two main characters after the resolution. But wow, I will definitely be reading more books by this author!