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.

Though Natalie and Rob really, really do not want to see each other again (like, ever), events related to their married best friends keep them in the same orbit. Some meet-ups are hilarious, some involve heartbreak, and others force them to face both the truth of their feud, as well as the depth of their feelings. For me, One Star Romance was a perfect mix of found family, friendship and romance!

3⭐
Genre ~ friendship fiction
Setting ~ New York & New Jersey
Publication date ~ June 18, 2024
Est Page Count ~ 400 (39 chapters +e)
Audio length ~ 11 hours
Narrator ~ the author
POV ~ multiple 3rd
Featuring ~ 7 part story, slow burn, enemies to lovers, no steamage
Medical trigger warnings are hidden on my goodreads review.

I've gotta give 1 star to the romance part of the story because it took ages and ages and ages for it to happen. Like I'm talking years. I'm boggled by the title actually. This is much more about friendships and one's life journey to figuring themselves out.

We have Natalie & Gabby who are bff's and Rob & Angus who are bff's. On Gabby and Angus's engagement night Natalie and Rob meet. And then they keep meeting again and again for milestones in Gabby and Angus's lives.

What a journey this is ~ we begin in May 2013 and end in May 2021. Each part has at least a year time jump, so it made it seem slow moving for me. I'd much rather read right along with the events as they play out and not be told what happened in the gap of time after the fact. Maybe that's just me.

I wasn't super impressed with any of the characters really, but the story itself has some relatability with all the life happenings. I can appreciate how sensitive topics were handled with care.

So, in conclusion, I liked the story well enough once I got my mindset out of this being a romance. But I feel that information should be given up front because if I'm being told this is a romance then I expect it for a lot more than just 6% of the book. Based on the cover, which I do like, and the title, I'd expect much more loving.

I seem to be in the minority with this one as the 4 and 5 stars are rolling in in abundance.

Huge thank you to Berkley and PRH Audio for the free e-book and audiobook!

This book was truly a delight from beginning to end! I don't think you'll be seeing any 1-star reviews for 1-STAR ROMANCE!

This was my first book by Laura Hankin and not only did she write a uniquely fun book, but she also narrated the audiobook flawlessly.

Imagine being the maid-of-honor at your BFF's wedding and realizing that the best man you're walking down the aisle with is the same man who recently gave your novel a one star Goodreads review. The audacity! Natalie could just let it go and move on, but she doesn't and now she's forced into situation after situation where she reluctantly (but also maybe not so reluctantly ;)) has to spend scads of time with Robert, AKA the 1-star reviewer.

While this still has the easy breezy feel of a rom-com there were heavier things happening which really add a lot of depth to the story and made me care more about the characters.

I did think the friendship between the two female main characters Gabby and Natalie was slightly toxic and overly co-dependent especially on Natalie's side, but also that could just be me wanting to run away from obsessively clingy friends! I could also argue that it was written this way to help with some character self-discovery along the way.

Overall, this was definitely one I'll be recommending! It's out on June 18th!

Spanning about eight years, this book begins with one of the funniest meet cute conversations I’ve ever read. Rob and Natalie’s best friends are getting engaged and they (R&N) are finally meeting for the first time. Their chemistry is crazy compelling, but I almost dreaded knowing that I’d have to wait almost the whole book for the HEA! Fortunately, it’s a very brisk read. I eagerly read from one chapter to the next. (I think my most surprising favorite thing was a chapter from Zuri’s POV. Gabby or Angus might have made more sense, but I soooo appreciate how much the chapter humanized Zuri).

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinion expressed here are my own.
Natalie is a budding writer. Rob is an academic. Thrown together for their best friends' wedding, they are forced to interact despite seemingly hating each other. When Natalie finds out Rob gave her book a one-star review, she is determined to never like him. But over their years from their 20s to their 30s they get thrown together over and over again and find what they thought was making them enemies was actually an attraction they might not be able to avoid.
I loved the idea of this book. Two people who couldn't be more different continuously thrown together only to find they can't stay away. A perfect enemies to friends to lovers trope. And also a those who are meant to be will be. Because despite their years apart, and the relationships those years bring, they always end up back in each other's orbit.
The pacing in this book was a medium pace. I was neither drawn to pick it up and continue reading nor was I disliking it. There's a lot of humor used in the book as well as sarcasm, which may or may not be easily understood by the reader. This is my first book by this author and I thought her writing was good. I liked the dual POV but then the author snuck in third person omniscient POV from a side characters and that was just really weird. Also the third person POV sometimes made it hard to realize whose POV I was actually reading and took me out of the story trying to figure it out. Given the jumps in time, I felt like this needed to be more clear and it was very frustrating at times that it was not.
Natalie was a fairly relatable character. I did find her a bit whiny and really wanted her to take hold of her life which seemed all over the place. It was like she was constantly having trouble becoming an adult. I also found her obsession with Gabby, her best friend, a little odd. Her life kind of revolved around Gabby and how she could always keep them being friends despite them forming their own lives as they get older. And she doesn't take any kind of responsibility for her actions but likes to think all the bad things that happen to her and due to outside forces she cannot control. In fact, she creates these situations on her own and it's not until the end of the book that we see her shift into understanding the need to take hold of your own life. It seems the point of Natalie's character was to show how you can only rely on yourself, but it took a super long time for Natalie to come to that conclusions and felt a bit dragged out.
I liked Rob's character. He was extremely pragmatic. And the fact that he was willing to accept a relationship which he thought of as love but was certainly not was a testament to the damage caused by his relationship with his father. You can see he has never received praise from the man and that has caused him to too easily accept a life he truly doesn't want and is not happy with.
Their romance was a very slow burn. But I will say, I never truly felt the pull between them. I just felt like they were always angry at each other and much of the time for no reason. Natalie carried her grudge of Rob's one star review but didn't take responsibility for what she actually wrote in the book and how it might affect others. The romance definitely didn't feel like the central plot to this book, which I kind of wanted it to be given the enemies to lovers trope.
The plot line rumbled along throughout most of the book and I felt like I just kept waiting and waiting for something to happen between Rob and Natalie which I know was the point but it felt a bit drawn out. I knew there would be something huge that would bring them together at some point. I wasn't thrilled with what it was. I cannot imagine the plot turn that happened would be the reason these two would finally realize they wanted each other. Maybe it was the "you only have one life" and "you never know what might happen" vibe that did it but it wasn't completely clear.
Overall, this was a cute read. It's a commentary on how to navigate the shifts in life as you get older. It touches on friendships, love, loss, Dementia, cancer, and the pandemic as it's told over a 10 year time span. This one will be good for an easy and fast beach or pool read for the summer.

Millennial romance. Boring for this Gen X reader. Can’t connect to,the experiences of these contemporaries any,ore.
pDNF.

I pulled an all-nighter last night, and woke up without an alcohol hangover, but a BOOK HANGOVER.

I set myself up for a little date (with myself). I needed to set the mood and channel my inner romantic. I haven’t read a romance in a bit and I was reflecting back on the times I would steal my grandmothers cowboy riding paperbacks. Anyway, I poured myself a glass of wine, lit some candles, and jumped in the tub.

Laura Hankin, my girl, you have done it to me again. You rock my world.

This is not your typical romance. This is also highly comedic. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more. I was completely consumed and addicted to this book. My tub water got cold, my skin pruned, but I just couldn’t get out. I needed to finish.

I absolutely adored Hankin’s debut, The Daydreamers but One Star Romance is the book that just keeps on giving .

This one’s a no brainer folks, pre order this sure to be bestseller.

Check out this teaser :

Natalie and Rob couldn’t have less in common. Nat’s a messy artist, and Rob’s a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends—who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob’s best man.

Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling: Nat from imposter syndrome, and Rob over the reason he needed to write it.

When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they’ll never meet again. But, as they slip from their twenties into their thirties, they’re forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices—and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match.

After all, even the truest love stories sometimes need a bit of rewriting.

writing: fantastic | plot: flushed out | ending: rob deserves better. fight me

my opinion

Wow. Laura Hankin can WRITE. This one is hard to rate because if not for two things, this is an uncontested banger. But I hated those two things so much that if the rest of the book had a similar vibe, this would've been a one star (ah, the irony). But since I stayed up until 2:30am reading this, and it was largely a banger, I'm going with a 4.

The cover and title may lead you to think this is gonna be a cute 'n fluffy romcom but nah, this takes you places emotionally. This is NOT a romance. It's about love—in all definitions of the word—but it's not overwhelmingly romantic. Rob and Natalie don't go on any dates, there's no wooing to be had. It's just emotional turmoil—mostly told with irreverence, but hitting the serious notes when needed—intermixed with flashes of personal success and growth. And I LOVED it. Very introspective, very raw, very flushed out. Absolutely zero notes when it comes to the writing style, plotting, and storytelling structure.

To my surprise, the male characters in this book were top-notch. Rob was distinct, his background detailed, his behaviours believable, and most importantly, he was likeable. I loved how he stood up for Angus... Oh, Angus, you sweet summer child. He was what the booktok girlies call a golden retriever. His heart was the size of Canada. While we weren't given the same insight into his background, his voice and mannerisms shone clearly. #TeamAngus.

HOWEVERRRRRRR let me make this clear: the things I disliked about this book filled me with the same level of disdain as a Freida McFadden book recommendation does. While I enjoyed Rob and Angus, I wanted to put Natalie in the sturdiest of headlocks. Holy. F#^k. She was absolutely insufferable for 2 reasons:

1. Her obsession with her and Gabby's friendship was bizarre, bordering on creepy. Maybe it's because I've never had a lifelong friend (I'm deeply unlikeable if you couldn't tell), but Natalie's love for Gabby felt more than just platonic. Of course you're going to prioritize the person you legally contracted yourself to, share finances with, and perhaps went splitskis on a baby with, over your platonic female best friend. Grow UP. Unfortunately, she never addresses how whack ass her expectations of this friendship were despite them being so central to the book's main conflict.

2. She refused to take accountability for her shitty actions. I won't go into spoilers but I don't think she had a right to hold such an aggressive grudge against Rob for one-starring her book given his reason. Perfectly acceptable. Unlike you, he's a good friend who protects their bestie's feelings instead of trying to monopolize them.

And this brings me to the second "thing" I could not stand in this book. It felt like the author was using Natalie as a mouthpiece to air her grievances about those that give one star reviews. She accused them of "delighting in their cruelty" and being "basement dwellers living with their mom." Sure, Natalie, but stay with me for a moment. What if....... they just didn't like it and decided to share that opinion on a website intentionally designed for readers to post book reviews????? A hot take, indeed. In fact, Natalie wasn't just pressed about those dared to give her book a less than glowing rating, she was even annoyed with three-star reviews. It irks me to no end when authors try to publicly clap-back at "bad" reviews. Save that shit for your private group chats.

Wow, this turned into an essay. If you made it this far, I apologize. But also, thanks.

pros & cons

pros: exceptionally well-written, perfect balance of sarcastic, witty, and serious, robust story, main and secondary characters (except Natalie) were clearly drawn, loved the storytelling format, made me fuck up my sleep schedule because I couldn't stop reading

cons: Natalie needed to extract her head out of her ass, Rob should've ended up with Angus tbh, seemed like the author was using Natalie as a mouthpiece to tell us how she really feels about people who leave one star (and even three star) reviews

I’ve been a fan of the author over the past few years and when I saw she was switching things up and writing a rom com I was super excited to see what she would do. Also the fact that it’s based on a TikTok she made that went viral? 🤌🏻💋Natalie and Rob are MOH and BM at their friend’s wedding and she finds out he gave her novel a one star rating on Goodreads. SUCH a good premise and it just gets better from there. I absolutely loved the structure, its split into several parts and follows both of them over a ten year period at pivotal points in their lives. As much as it’s a romance it also heavily focuses on friendships and the structure really allowed the author to show the development of all the characters over the years. It’s also really charming and funny manages to have a ton of depth that never felt too heavy. If you like slow burns, lots of humor and memorable characters this was fantastic

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read this ARC. This charming story is a perfect beach read. The romance is a slow-burn and you are able to see how their relationship plays out by transitioning from past to present during the key points of their lives. You can tell that these two should be together, but you never know if they're actually going to be together because their timing is awful and they both are able to find partners that will work for them, that they could have a happily ever after with. It was a bonus to get to know the secondary characters as well as we did since many of them stay in their lives throughout the story. Overall this book is a lighthearted read, but it does touch on cancer and the pandemic.