This book was definitely out of my comfort zone and I didn't particularly like or dislike it, but I do think it will find readership at my library. We will be purchasing a copy for the collection.

Agreed with other reviewers that this was longer than it needed to be, with several points along the way that felt irrelevant both to itself at the time and later to the story as well. The other part that made it a slog was the constant POV-switching between a half dozen characters, give or take.

All that to say, I had a lovely time reading this book, even if it progressed a bit more slowly than I felt it could have. The plot was haunting and capricious in the way good magic can often be. I'm new to both Kelly Link and the gothic flavor of fantasy, and thoroughly enjoyed her cadence and the ambience. I'm definitely looking forward to diving into some of her shorter works next.

I’ve had a very difficult time determining how to rate this book.

On the one hand, the first 40-45% of the story was a slog. It was like trekking through the overgrown jungle with dull machete. The scenery was interesting and diverse, but the going was long and difficult. It was beautifully written to be sure, but so descriptive that it meandered at times. There were entire chapters I felt were completely unnecessary, bringing nothing to the plot or character development (or at least not enough to make an impact) so that the story would lose nothing if they were cut.

On the other hand, the remainder of the book was wonderful; inventive, exciting, and at times quite intense. Still wonderfully eloquent, but with more energy to keep you fully engaged. The world-building was unique and the characters were singular, each bringing their own charms, quirks, and at times, reprehensible behaviors. Even the unlikable characters were interesting in their own way.

So, although the first half of the book was difficult to get through, it never made me feel like quitting. I suppose that says something about the storytelling. The second half was a delight. It didn’t make up for my early frustration, but it did lead to a most enjoyable conclusion.

My advice . . . If you pick this book up, see it through to the end. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Marked as 3 stars; actual rating 3-1/2 stars.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review. I thought the plot seemed interesting. Teenagers die and a year later they are brought back to life by their music teacher. They are told they will need to perform magic to stay alive and they all will not make it. I did not finish this on page 104. I was bored out of my mind with the slow pace. At 25% into the book, something should have happened to keep me interested. The part I read could have been cut down to a few pages. I have no idea if it gets better because sadly, I could not hang on to finish the book.

The Book of Love is the absolute best book of the WINTER! I loved it so much and enjoyed everything about it.

I had read a little of Kelly Link but now will immerse myself in the worlds she creates. An amazing and enthralling story of 4 friends, sisters Laura and Susannah as well as Daniel and Mo. A year ago, a mysterious moment that changed their lives when three of the four disappeared potentially forever. A deal with a devil allows the three to return but they have upset the delicate balance of the universe their friends and family still reside in and it's not long before everyone is in danger.

Link create an utterly believable story where the supernatural seems natural. Best yet, she allows us in to each firiend's mind and it's truly intimate and beautiful, chaotic and revealing. So pick this intriguing work and visit
Lovesend, Massachusetts, where friends have been holding grudges but are possibly acting out the ancient grudges of supernatural beings instead!
#Randomhouse #thebookoflove #KellyLink

this book was absolutely stunning! I loved the magical element and it was just beautiful overall! i loved it so much

From the very moment where I saw this description, I knew that I had to read this book. The premise reminds me of Reverie by Ryan La Sala, a YA portal fantasy, but the resemblance ends there, and in a good way. This book had me sucked in from the very beginning and is the kind of book I would love to have a physical copy of so I can just read it again and again.

"The Book of Love" by Kelly Link is an extraordinary and magical book that fans of "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" by V.E. Schwab and "Gods of Jade and Shadow" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia will happily devour. It is a long novel, taking me over ten hours to read and I am a fairly fast reader. However, it is so beautifully written that a reader will want to savor each exquisite sentence. I think it would make an excellent book club selection as there are many interesting characters to discuss and exciting occurrences to unpack.

When Laura, Daniel, and Mo die one night after a concert at a local venue, their deaths set off a chain reaction that changes the small town of Lovesend, and indeed perhaps the world, forever. However, when they miraculously come back to life and find that no one else remembers that they had died, just that they had been away, the three young adults endeavor to discover what happened to them, how and why they came back, and how they can stay alive. This book is packed full of magic, magical beings, and really is fantasy at its finest. I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, there was another twist that I didn't see coming.

Author Kelly Link is an incredibly talented writer and I will definitely read more from her. This book deserves five, bright shiny stars! Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this fabulous book. It is scheduled to be published 2/14/2023.

The plot seemed so intriguing: some kids who died a year ago are brought back to life by their music teacher, and told that they’ll have to perform magic in order to stay alive. Some of them, at the end of the challenge, will be allowed to stay alive, and the others will not. I expected surrealism- I got surrealism. I did not expect to be bored senseless. There’s way too much going on, I can’t keep up with all the different threads, and the pace is slow and plodding. Maybe I could push on through if the book was half the length? I don’t mind a tome- some of my favorite books have been in the 600-800 page realm- so, that’s not the problem. Furthermore, I don’t think the prose is absolutely terrible. I’m just not that into it. I’d probably like this book more if it stayed to just 3 or 4 perspectives, instead of hopping into the heads of every single character, major and minor. The story could be told much quicker and more interestingly if about half of it was cut out entirely. Maybe it al comes together in the end? I don’t have the patience it takes to find out.

A total marvel, a wonder, a delight! Kelly Link (one of the best short-story writers in the biz, one of the most inventive and magic minds to ever put pen to paper) has delivered her debut novel and it is exactly what you'd hope for: stuffed with magic, with humor, with weird turns and ebullient inventions. It's full-to-overflowing with life and love and love-of-life. Three teenagers find themselves suddenly back from the dead in the small town of Lovesend, MA -- and over the course of a week or so, right before Christmas, their new lives and the lives of all of those in town are caught up in a supernatural struggle of epic proportions, one matched only by the teenaged frustrations each character carries with them. It's got classic-Disney-Halloween-movie energy, both playful and scary, serious and frivolous all at once. It is one of the best things I have read in a long, long time. It's one-of-a-kind -- because, after all, so is Kelly Link.

I loved this so much. Kelly link has never let me down and she didn’t here. This novel was magical and romantic and scary and wonderful. I was completely enchanted from the first pages all the way to the ending. I cannot wait for the physical release to experience this magical book again.

The prose is beautiful, and the scope of the story is epic, but you have to have patience and go with the flow. It's an interesting book that I think will appeal to a certain type of reader.

I appreciate having access to this arc but I’m not sure that this should’ve been my first introduction to Link’s work. The writing style and the story telling didn’t mesh with me at all. I’m sure this book is for someone but that someone isn’t me.

The Book of Love by Kelly Link is an incredibly captivating and poignant masterpiece, filled with supernatural occurrences that will leave you spellbound. The storyline is exceptionally intriguing, drawing you in with its mysterious allure. This book effortlessly evokes a myriad of emotions, which is precisely what I seek in a truly remarkable literary work.

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

Summary:
In the long-awaited debut novel from bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.

“A dizzying dream ride you will never forget.”—Leigh Bardugo
“An astonishing, gorgeous novel.”—Holly Black
“An incredible achievement.”—Cassandra Clare

The Book of Love showcases Kelly Link at the height of her powers, channeling potent magic and attuned to all varieties of love—from friendship to romance to abiding family ties—with her trademark compassion, wit, and literary derring-do. Readers will find joy (and a little terror) and an affirmation that love goes on, even when we cannot.

Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.

But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura’s sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster.

Welcome to Kelly Link’s incomparable Lovesend, where you’ll encounter love and loss, laughter and dread, magic and karaoke, and some really good pizza.

Review: 4-star
To be honest, if I could give it a 3.5-star that is what it would have received. The storyline is very intriguing, but at times it was dry and I struggled to finish the book. I feel this was more me than the story itself. And here’s the reason why I feel it’s between that 3.5 and 4-star. The Charters all come alive and you feel them as real people not just a person in a fictional story. The flow of the story is flawless, the editing is top notched as I didn’t find any errors. You can feel all the emotions and these are what I look for in a good book. Will I read another book from Miss Link Yes.
I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

I’m a big fan of Kelly Link. I’ve read most of her work. Her recent short story collection, White Cat, Black Dog, is a particular standout and showcases the talents of an author truly at the top of her game. I couldn’t have been more excited to see what Link could accomplish in a full-length novel. (600+ pages at that!) A dream come true!

The dream pretty quickly turned into a nightmare when I’m 10% into The Book of Love thinking to myself, “It’ll get better, right? This isn’t it? It just needs time to come together?” And then 50% in I’ve lost all hope, and by the end I was truly forcing myself to keep my eyes on the words on the screen because literally any other possible distraction in the room around me was more entertaining than this novel.

Strangely, this felt like a story I’ve read somewhere before. Nothing about it felt particularly original or fresh, though I can’t exactly name a similar title. The dialogue was forced in that way that makes you stop to think “no one would talk like that” about three times a page. The amount of detailed teenage sex kinda gave me the ick, to tell you the truth, and every character was annoying. And, well, it was too long. By about 550 pages.

I’ll still pick up future short stories from Link, but this novel just wasn’t for me. I hope other Link fans enjoy this and I’m just an outlier.

Despite being gorgeously written, Kelly Link’s THE BOOK OF LOVE is a smorgasbord of bizarre plot devices and character contradictions that results in a sluggish, unsatisfying read.

As if the product of a fever dream, THE BOOK OF LOVE launches readers from page one into a labyrinth of a plot that only gets more confusing with every subsequent twist. The novel chronicles the overlapping experiences of a group of teens who suddenly come back from the dead with no memories of what happened to them. Add in a dizzying array of realms, magical coins, a villainous goddess and wizard or two, and you’ve got THE BOOK OF LOVE.

It’s been days since I finished reading Link’s latest and I still have no idea what to make of it. The prose is undeniably beautiful, but everything else is largely incoherent. Although it is unlike anything I’ve ever read before, the muddled, nonsensical structure makes it an ordeal to get through.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions my own.

DNF at 40%. This book is just too slow for me. It does not need to be this long. The writing is good, but there’s just too much here that does not seem relevant to the story.

I was hopeful that the mystery of not knowing what happened to the characters would keep me interested, but really I just keep getting lost on what was actually supposed to be happening.

Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

This wasn't like what I expected but it was better. Really interesting with great characters.

I'm so glad I read this book. It had everything I love: mystery, love, and it was beautifully written. Will continue reading this author's future books.