Laura Hankin has really crept up on me and become a must-read author. Since devouring HAPPY & YOU KNOW IT in 2020, I have read and enjoyed each of her subsequent novels, all so different from one another yet all so fully realized. ONE STAR ROMANCE is the author's first foray in rom-com but she's a natural fit for the genre. When a book like this takes place over the course of many years (in this case, I believe it came up to 10 years in total) it can be difficult to sustain interest but Hankin really had me in the first half! There is not much plot here; instead we follow these characters from their 20s to their 30s, and see all the changes and challenges that come with it, really diving into their inner feelings of fear, failure, and the fight to find themselves amidst society's expectations of what it means to be an adult. If that sounds like your kind of thing (it's definitely mine!) than you'll love this one.

Rating: 4.5/5

Thank you to Berkley, Lavender Public Relations and NetGalley for these advanced copies...all opinions are my own.

I was thrilled to dive into Laura Hankin's first romance novel. While it leans more towards women's fiction, it is delightfully funny and had me rooting for the couple—particularly for Natalie. Hankin articulated feelings I've experienced and continue to dissect in my own life, especially about belonging in the world of my evolving friendships as our lives and responsibilities change.

One-Star Romance beautifully explores friendship, complex familial relationships, professional setbacks, and the ever-changing shifts in life phases, all while developing Natalie and Rob's unlikely friendship. I loved that we got to see these two over time, witnessing their growth and evolution.

Rob and Natalie didn't win me over immediately, but I think that's the point. Throughout the novel, they both undergo significant personal development, and the well-executed time jumps effectively showcase this evolution. The story unfolds through poignant moments in their lives and witty dialogue, rich with humor and heart, making it an engaging read from start to finish.

I also delighted in Laura narrating her own novel. Listening to the book in the author's own voice adds an extra layer of authenticity and connection to the story.

Hankin's debut romance is a delightful and insightful read, perfect for anyone who enjoys a mix of humor, heart, and relatable life experiences.

Many thanks to @berkleyromance and @prhaudio for the gifted digital and audio copies of this very fun enemies to lovers book. Below is my honest review.

Natalie, a free-spirited aspiring author, and Rob, a straight-laced academic, meet when their best friends (Gabby and Angus) get engaged. They had a great conversation and were intrigued by each other, developing a fun best man/maid-of-honor banter via text over the two years leading up to the wedding. But at the wedding, Rob's demeanor is different. Then she discovers that he is the person who just posted a scathing one-star review of her new book. Now she has to make it through the ceremony, speeches, and reception with that a##hole - with hopes of never seeing him again. But life doesn't work that way. From vacations to christenings to holiday parties, Natalie and Rob spend the better part of the next decade in each other's orbits, hating each other, being incredibly attracted to each other, and living complex, messy lives of their own. 

I love romances where the slow burn is years in the making, and Hankin takes Natalie and Rob through so many years where they independently grow as people and begin to discover what drives them. They each go through some tough things, and I enjoyed that we got to check in on them throughout so many important moments over the years. At the core of this story, however, is friendship, Natalie's love for Gabby and Rob's for Angus, and how these four people show up for each other. I think you'll love this one if you like slow-burn, opposites attract, and enemies to lovers!

The audiobook, narrated by the author, is so fun! Hankin does a fantastic job, and I loved knowing that every sarcastic aside, cutting remark, and breathless confession was spoken precisely how she intended it.

This looked like a funny rom com so I was excited to get this ARC. I would not call this a romance necessarily. The book spans 10 years. Rob and Natalie are the best friends of Angus and Gabby. As Angus and Gabby celebrate events in their life it brings Rob and Natalie together. So we only see their relationship in snippets. This book is about life and the ups and downs of it. It is about friendships, Rob and Angus and Natalie and Gabby. It is definitely a slow burn but I enjoyed the journey. We are different people in our twenties, still trying to find ourselves than we are in our thirties, hopefully having more things figured out. I liked seeing the characters grow and feeling the things they were going through in life. I enjoyed this group of friends and celebrating life with them. It was a quick read.

Okay so now I have to go and read Hankin’s backlist because I was a fan of this and already loooved THE DAYDREAMS👏

✨more chick lit than rom-com in my opinion
✨friendships between people moving at different speeds through life
✨SLOW BURN romance
✨told in multiple parts + POVs spanning 10 years
✨great on audio - narrated by the author!
✨closed door

It was slow to start and honestly sometimes Natalie was tough to root for but I really enjoyed it! The writing was great and it was super relatable for me (as someone in their early 30s with decades long friendships) - I recommend!

Just finished reading this wonderful, funny, and emotional romance, and it's a 5-star read for sure! 🌟

The story follows Natalie and Rob, the maid of honor and best man at a wedding. Their chemistry is off the charts from the start, but things get complicated when Natalie discovers Rob wrote a one-star review of her debut book! 😲📖

Told from both of their perspectives over several years, this book is full of heart. While it’s a romance, it also beautifully explores Natalie’s deep friendship with Gabby. Watching Natalie navigate her friend’s marriage and family life adds a layer of complexity that can be frustrating, but it kept me hooked until the very end. The chemistry between Natalie and Rob is undeniable, and their journey to happily ever after is so satisfying. 💖

I went into this one thinking it was going to be a fun and silly little romcom but it was definitely not always that. Spanning years in the characters lives we see them weave together and apart.

Well this is awkward…

I tried really hard to like this book but it just wasn’t there for me. I tried picking it up at two different times thinking it was me being in a weird mood but alas, it wasn’t me. I feel like the book starts off very slow and is mostly the FMC complaining. I wasn’t really invested in the characters. I quickly grew bored and disconnected.

The constant lamenting over a 1-star review was taxing. Be an adult ask him “why” if you figured out it was him, rather than stewing on it a long period of time. Couldn’t overcome to enjoy this story.

Thank you, Berkley.

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley Pub, for my free E-book for review.

This novel is a unique journey through different stages of the characters' lives. Laura Hankin breaks it into parts, making the story easy to follow.

The initial meeting of the main characters, Natalie and Rob, doesn't follow the typical "sparks fly" scenario. I found it quite bland, but it revealed Natalie's bubbly personality and Rob's no-nonsense demeanor. As these two are compelled to meet on various occasions, especially being best friends with an engaged couple, the author subtly introduces tension between them. They can't help but outdo each other, and I often find myself torn between them. Nat is sometimes hard to like, falling into life's pitfalls and peer pressure, while Rob's snobbishness is a turn-off. It's pretty bold of him to rate the book of his best friend's fiancée's bestfriend with the lowest star. Their relationship is a slow build, and I appreciate seeing them grow throughout the novel.

The most touching and engaging part for me is the relationship between best friends Natalie and Gabby. This isn't just a love story between Nat and Rob; it also delves into Nat and Gabby's bond. Anyone with a close-knit relationship with their best friends can relate to them. Natalie's emotions about their relationship, the missed opportunities as single women about town, and the feeling of being left out are poignant and hit hard.

"One-Star Romance" isn't your typical love story; it shines a spotlight on friendship and its evolution through life's changes. It's a delightful surprise of a novel, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

This was a interesting book to read. It takes place in sections with years going by before we check back in with the characters so it's a lifetime story not episodic. I think this book leans a bit more to straight contemporary fiction with a romantic subplot than a romance, but regardless is a well written book filled with both light and heavy themes.

It's very much a millennial book (and as a single, childless millennial I related to a lot in this book for better or worse). Natalie is a hard person to like in the beginning, but watching her over the fairly long timeline of the book we really see her mature and grow in leaps and bounds (besides who doesn't look back at their younger self and cringe). On the flipside I loved Rob the entire book, to the extent that for about half the book I really didn't want Natalie and Rob to get together and wanted to just read more about him. I was also thrown a bit by Zuri's chapter, I understand why it happened, but it felt a bit too deus ex machina rather than natural to me. Rob and Natalie do have chemistry and banter for the times we see them together that the growth of their relationship does feel organic, but it doesn't stand out as the star/focus of the book.

To me the main characters of this book are more Natalie and Gabby and the changes that happen in modern female friendship and in general comin-of-age as a millennial than the romance plotline that I felt the blurb and summary is pushing. If you go into it with that in the forefront I think readers will have a better idea of what to expect than be potentially disappointed with the romance plot of Natalie and Rob.

One Star Romance by Laura Hankin
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Natalie is the maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding. Rob the best man, is very handsome and they HAD really hit it off….until she discovers that he gave her book a one star rating.
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What I liked:
-The whole first half of the book was so funny and very entertaining. I flew through chapters. Natalie and Rob seem like such opposites but they feel this pull towards each other.
-The second half of the book was just as good but man, did it really dial the emotions up to a new level. I cried several times in the second half.
-I loved the layout of the timeline. Each section is a different point in time where Natalie and Rob see each other, and always because of their mutual friends. I loved how each time they see each other they are at different places in their lives. They are so competitive with each other and yet can’t help quietly trying to help each other too.
-I loved the end so much.
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5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a rom com that was so much more than a rom com! It was also a story about the love in a friendship, and learning to love yourself. I read this in two days, it just wouldn’t let me go.

Despite what seems like a rom-com'y cover and title, this is more in line with women's fiction as it's a story told over quite a few years, in a style that's almost One Day-ish/You, Again, with the characters popping in and out each other orbit but not being together for.. well, most of the book.

The pitch of One Star Romance is snappy and the moment itself didn't totally disappoint but there's definitely a lot more nuance involved in the act of leaving that one star and it's a situation that carries through almost right to the end. Additionally, this story tackles the ups and downs of life, the pitfalls of being a writer and working in academia, the evolution of relationships and friendships, grief, and more.

I'll admit, though, what kept me from bumping this up any higher (and I continually waffled on the half star) was the main female character, Natalie. While I do felt she had character development and had grown over the course of the story, including reaping some consequences for her actions, I just wish there had maybe been more grovelling, more apologies even. Maybe even a little more discussion about her investment in her best friend's life. We definitely touched on all these things but this wasn't a short book and I think we could've let these bits breathe a little more.

But everything else was pretty great. I really liked Rob, our romantic lead. I loved his bestie, Angus, who was definitely the dark horse of the whole experience. And finally there was Natalie's bestie Gabby who had an unexpected and incredibly emotional plotline that moved me to tears.

If you're looking for a story that doesn't take shortcuts, where the romance and happily ever after is hard earned, with plenty of bookish content and publishing references, you might want to give this one a try.

3..5 stars

I laughed, I cried, I swooned! Laura Hankin's first foray into capital-R Romance is a delight. I loved that both characters grow and mature throughout the story. I especially loved the explanation for the one-star review, which I wasn't expecting but felt so perfect. The events that bring them back together in the last part of the book were a lot for me and I definitely was in tears, but I was so relieved that it worked out for everyone. Also, the sexual tension is *chef's kiss* perfection. A great read!!

Thanks for the free book @berkleyromance @berkleypub @netgalley !!

This book by @laurahankin is deeply affirming of the process you go through in growing up and becoming a better, kinder, more understanding version of yourself.

When the book begins, Natalie (a bisexual Jewish girl YES) is 24 and she feels like she’s losing the best part of her life, her best friend and roommate, Gabby, to an unworthy boy. And the thing is — Natalie IS losing Gabby to Gabby’s boyfriend Angus, an over enthusiastic finance bro. Let’s also give it up for the realization that the most important loves in your life aren’t always sexual - sometimes they’re platonic. Natalie is an aspiring writer, and as of yet hasn’t written anything. She meets Angus’s best friend Rob at Gabby’s birthday party that turns into an engagement party (much to Natalie’s deep dislike). While there is intense chemistry with Rob, nothing definitive happens.

Flash forward to the wedding, Natalie is still upset that Gabby is marrying Angus, but she’s published a little book that has less fanfare than she’d like. Rob is a linguistics phD from Yale, so she’s excited to talk to him again about her book, but he gives her the coolest of cold shoulders.

He’s given her book a one star review. (It’s probably because her book is a barely hidden story about a girl losing her best friend to a dolt, and he dislikes the way Natalie has shit on Angus, his best friend). Natalie now hates Rob.

Their lives are entirely intertwined now, as Natalie grasps onto her friendship with Gabby that has changed, and as she struggles to find her place as a writer, as a ghostwriter, and eventually as a screenwriter for a TV show. She and Rob orbit each other with both loathing and longing, as Rob handles his own issues with his father and his opinions about love, and teaching linguistics.

Catastrophe and Covid bring Rob and Natalie back together after a lot of almosts and heartbreaks and bad timings. I have to admit, I cried when they finally got it together, eight years later. I really enjoyed this book, probably because I like being booted in the heartstrings. ❤️

✨ Review ✨ One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin

Thanks to Berkley and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

I already had my eye on this one, but was taken with Laura's commentary at the Berkley summer books zoom event. I loved that this was based on a real-life story of Laura having to be in a wedding with someone who had given her a one-star review.

Natalie and Rob are the maid-of-honor and best man in their best friends' wedding and have a similar dilemma where Rob gave Natalie's book a one-star review. The book takes place across 10+ years as Rob and Natalie keep being pulled together by major events in their friends' lives -- engagement, wedding, promotion, new house, baby, etc. I loved how this was structured across those events, and it really emulates how you feel when your friends are developing across a different timeline than yourself.

The feelings between Natalie and Rob are really well developed here and we can see the pair of them changing and growing across time. I really loved how this all came together. There are equal parts love and friendship, nostalgia, humor, grief, and more across these pages. It doesn't hesitate to be silly in places and serious in others!

I do think Natalie's hyper-focus on her bff is a little uncomfortable in places and I'm not sure how I felt about the emphasis of numbers on reviews (e.g. there's a place for open expression of reviews and I think this got at the nuance of why this happens sometimes, but we all have different opinions and I guess this wasn't the place anyways for a deep consideration of the relationship between ratings and publishing success...all to say I'm left a little bit undecided about this lol)

Overall, this is a great summer read, bringing the light and heavy side-by-side for a book a little bit deeper than your typical light and fluffy beach read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/m romance
Setting: NYC and around
Pub Date: Jun 18 2024

Read this if you like:
•enemies to lovers
•forced proximity
•friendships

The cover might look like a romcom but there were deeper themes that brought depth to this book. The premise was so funny; Natalie gets to walk down the aisle at her best friends wedding with the guy who gave her novel a one star review. This book is about finding yourself, navigating friendship as life changes and second chances.

Thank you Berkley for the eARC!

Thank you Berkley Romance and PRH Audio for my gifted copies. All opinions are my own.

I’ve had my eye on One Star Romance ever since I read the blurb and I was so excited to pick it up.

Natalie and Rob meet as their best friends get engaged and they serve as the best man and maid of honor at the wedding. They seem to be getting along but have a negative interaction and then Natalie finds out that Rob posted a one star review for her debut novel. They exchange tense words and hope to never see each other again, but of course that doesn’t happen. They are thrown together countless times over the years. I appreciated the look at female friendships as we grow, get married/find partners and have kids.

I recently read Just Some Stupid Love Story and would recommend this if you enjoyed that because they had similar vibes. Natalie and Rob both wanted more than friendship at different points, but they were rarely on the same page.

I listened to this in less than a day because I couldn’t put it down and really enjoyed the author’s narration. I saw this is a Book of the Month club selection so I will definitely grab a copy for my shelves!

Laura Hankin has done it again with One-Star Romance. This might be my favorite by her yet. The story is full of Hankin's typical wit and the characters, especially Natalie and Rob, come to life off of the page. Even though romance is in the title, this isn't your light, fluffy meet-cute. Sure, romance is involved, but the story dives deep into friendship and the people we choose to be in our lives. One-Star Romance is filled with so much heart and filled me with so much joy.

Hankin has easily become one of my favorite authors and I truly feel that each book she publishes gets better.

Highly recommend reading One-Star Romance. This book is anything by One-Star, it's most definitely getting five-stars from me!

Thank you Berkeley Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 - This one is a cute rom-com-esque quick read that is more about finding your path than then comedy part of a rom com. It was heavier than I expected, which I didn't mind and enjoyed the journeys of Natalie and Rob. I did feel that young Natalie was pretty. self absorbed, but aren't most people when they are just starting out their adult journey? Enjoyable & entertaining read.