WOW. This book took me on a journey. I felt ALL the feelings. This is not just a romantic comedy, it's a heartfelt, feelgood book about life. It's about friendships and love, the struggles, the heartbreak, the horrible fights, the gut-wrenching tragedies, and how we come together (or sometimes fall apart).

Early in the book I said this reminded me of When Harry Met Sally: two characters frustrate each other but also understand each other in surprising ways, keep coming together at different points in their lives for the big moments of their mutual best friends' lives. But now I think it cheapens it to say this is some kind of knock off of that movie. These characters are fresh and original, and they are written so well, growing and changing over the years.

I laughed and cried, enjoyed the banter and the fiery love-hate vibe Rob and Natalie have. Low on the spice level. Highly recommend! If this is the author's first foray into romantic comedy, I hope she plans to write more!

A struggling writer is forced to walk down the aisle at her best friend’s wedding with the man who gave her book a very public one-star rating. If you like Opposites Attract and Best Friend's Best Friends relationships you'll definitely enjoy this one! Laura Hankin does a great job at pulling at those feelings of not being up to speed with the rest of your friends. As someone who is currently in that phase in life, I totally relate to the feeling of everyone changing around you while you're standing still. While this is a romance story, it hits hard on the other loves in your life whether it is familial or the friendships that feel like family. I really enjoyed this book, it's a total slow burn. I wish we had gotten to the relationship between Natalie and Rob sooner. This was more a story of missed connections or almosts.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 6/18.

While this was cute and fun this was not the rom com I was evicting. It was much more literary fiction imo. Which is fine but not really my cup of tea. With that being said I did still enjoy the story it just wasn’t what I prefer to read.

ONE STAR ROMANCE is a wonderfully witty, 'bent' view of a bumbling couple navigating adult relationships in Ms. Hankin's new fabulously, funny story. It stars Natalie, a pretty writer, who finds out at her best friend's wedding, the man she walked down the aisle with, trashed her new novel. Angry over Rob's harsh review, Natalie hopes to never see him again. However, life is funny and throws them together time and time again.

Rob and Natalie don't mesh. The only thing they have in common are their best friend's. Every time there is a party, celebration, etc. they meet again and they become a little bit more receptive towards each other. There's an undercurrent of attraction between them. Little by little they open up to each other. Will they find their own, unique way to a happy ever after?

ONE STAR ROMANCE is a bright, fresh tale written with a deft touch to human aspirations, relationships and compromises. Natalie and Rob, what a conundrum. He is attractive and opinionated, while Natalie is pretty, sassy and artsy. They get under each other's skin, literally and physically. The story takes it time bringing two opposites together, who navigate life-changing events, while struggling with their own undeniable chemistry. Will Rob and Natalie shatter their defenses, to write their own life, love story? Absolutely hilarious, incredulous romance!

This book begins with Natalie and she has a best friend named Gabby. The two have been best friends for years and they’re living in an apartment in New York, living out those Sex and the City dreams we all have. Unfortunately, things quickly go up in smoke as Gabby gets engaged to her boyfriend, Angus.

Of course, that results in Natalie being Gabby’s maid of honor and her having to be in contact with Rob who is Angus’ best man. From the first moment, it’s clear the two of them have some weird tension but aren’t ready to act on it. However, things start to ramp up as the book is broken up into different sections.

Once it moves ahead to the wedding, we find out that Natalie has published a book and based a few things too closely with her own life. She ends up basing the main character’s best friend’s husband as the doofus of the group, resulting in Rob giving her book a poor rating. From there, it results in a feud between the two that they can’t seem to get over.

Eventually as Gabby and Angus hit some big milestones, the two end up having to meet up time and time again. While they don’t exactly become best friends, that underlying tension is still there. Of course, we also see the rotating door of relationships the two end up in and even how their friendships with Gabby and Angus shift along with their respective careers.

While One Star Romance is a romance, it also feels like a coming-of-age story and a tale of friendship, love, and loss. Honestly, I would have loved to see more of Natalie and Rob’s romance but this book was so much fun. I especially loved how things played out with Natalie and Gabby as that felt incredibly realistic.

Overall, One-Star Romance is a book that’s perfect for the beach as it’s a fun and quick read that you won’t want to put down even if you’re applying sunscreen. However, you should because that’s the most important beach rule. Either way, if you’re intrigued by the title, I think you should give One-Star Romance a try.

I really liked the premise of the book, and the interactions between Rob and Natalie were fantastic.

Unfortunately, Natalie is really unlikable for at least the first full half of the novel, and I found it hard to root for her until nearly the end. I understand that her character is meant to be making bad choices, but she really is so selfish and careless of others, seeing everyone else's lives as extensions of her own way past the age when she can be excused via youthful ignorance. Angus is flat for most of the book, up until the last couple of episodes. Rob takes too long to become fully developed, and the various aspects of his character don't always match up.

And yet.... I liked the book. It's okay.

Thank you for the approval to read the earc! I love the concept of this book and that it takes place over years. It was a well written book and easy to read.

TW though- cancer. My father was just diagnosed and so I didn’t love that I wasn’t aware it would be a plot point. I might have not read this had I known. I am trying so hard to avoid mention of it and was pretty surprised when near the end of this rom com it was brought up as a significant plot point.

Besides that I did enjoy reading . Angus was the best character. The two leads were mostly likable and their growth was engaging. I will say that I struggled more towards the end with feeling their chemistry but I think that was solely the cancer stuff.

RATING: 4/5 STARS

Not a one-star romance at all! The premise of this book was very interesting, and it was executed well! I think this book is more realistic and messy than the typical rom-com, and I enjoyed that. I would recommend this for fans of YOU, AGAIN by Kate Goldbeck.

Natalie and Rob are best friends to the newly engaged couple Gabby and Angus. When they first meet, sparks fly, and their banter is hilarious. As the wedding approaches, Maid of Honor, Natalie, becomes a published novelist. She’s optimistic her book will be successful until she receives a one-star review for it on Goodreads. Already fearing her relationship with Gabby will inevitably change, Natalie starts to spiral.

This was the slowest of slow burn romances, but I kept turning pages, eager to see when these two awkward people finally commit to their attraction for each other. In the end, this is the story of the evolution and growth of each relationship in Nat's and Rob's lives. After nearly 10 years of bumping into and hate-lusting each other, the planets align. 4 stars from me for this One-Star Romance.

Thank you to NetGalley, Shelf Awareness and Berkley Publishing Group, Berkley for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

One-Star Romance was a surprisingly emotional slow burn romance about friendship and love.

Natalie is a young aspiring writer; she and her best friend Gabby are in their early twenties and ready to chase their dreams. However, everything comes to a crashing halt when Gabby unexpectedly becomes engaged.

Natalie likes Angus, Gabby’s new fiancé, well enough, but she believes that Gabby is too young and full of promise to settle down at such an early age. Deep down she also fears what Gabby’s marriage will mean for their friendship.

Rob is Angus’ best friend and despite their initial attraction, he is a serious academic whose personality is the opposite of Natalie. While forced to work together as the maid of honor and the best man, Natalie discovers that Rob has given her debut novel a one-star review. This is the catalyst for the hate-love relationship they embark on over the next ten years.

Rob and Natalie come back together year after year to celebrate Angus and Gabby’s life accomplishments and each time their attraction is as strong as ever, but so is their dislike. However, as they transition from their twenties into their thirties and live through various highs and lows, they also mature and begin to realize what is most important in life.

This one was great!! It was a romcom but it was so much more than that. It was sweet and heartbreaking and I really enjoyed it. Thank you Berkley Publishing for the free book! #BerkleyPartner

I also loved that we got to see Rob and Nat go through so much in their lives before they came together as a couple and we got to see how much love and admiration they had for each other and their friends. I also loved the dynamic with them as a friend group with Gabby and Angus. At points, I felt like it was dragging within some of the points in time it chronicled. I also liked that too, we got to see Rob and Nat’s interactions through the big moments in their friends’ lives because their best friends were married. And thus the readers learn about those certain points in everyone’s lives. It was very well written and all of the characters were great and developed well.

One-star Romance by Laura Hankin is a perfect slow burn romance. This book is five-stars because of how the characters go from I-can't-stand-to-be-with-you to I-miss-being-around-you to I'm-in-love-with-you phases. When it comes to real life we do not always instantly connect or have the aha, you're it for me.

The woman is struggling to make her dream career and find the joyous pride that should come with it. Then, there's the hero is a freaking all academic genius who lets little things irritate him. Like the fact that the heroine wrote a book whose character appears similar to the hero's best friend but it's not. However, he cannot let it go and let's it drive a wedge between.

He takes it further by giving her a one-star rating for her book just because of that. Then, they go back and forth like that...until one of them realizes feelings for the other has developed but it's too late. The other seems drawn to the nemesis but doesn't realize what the feelings are until it consumes him. It was hard not to like these characters. The other characters helped show the depth of these two protagonists as they grew older. It's entertaining, hilarious, and downright charming!

Only giving feedback for 25% of the book.
I’ve decided to not finish it. The first 25% dragged for me, there wasn’t enough conversation. It was mostly just a lot of content, a lot of telling but not enough dialogue. I got bored. The book did not hold my attention.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I tried to get into this book but I couldn't. I was expecting more romance between the two main characters but we never really got it. The pacing was also super slow and weird and it failed at keeping my attention.

I really loved this book. It had me all in my feelings. The premise of this book alone was an immediate yes for me - having to walk down the aisle with a man who you thought was hot, then finding out he gave your book a 1 star?!? Sign me tf up. When I did get into reading it, at first, I did not think that I was going to enjoy it because I was hesitant on our FMC Natalie's voice, but the more I read it, the more I fell in love with both our MCs and it was history from there.

Our story follows Natalie and Rob, who meet through their best friends and subsequently keep being thrown together through the years through life events through their best friends.

I really liked how this book was laid out into seven parts - I liked seeing the progression of Natalie maturing through the years, and seeing the different phases of life - parts of Natalie's story felt immensely relatable to where I am in life personally right now and I liked that aspect. I thought Hankin nailed capturing through Natalie's POV the feeling like everyone's life is going somewhere when you are stuck in the same place and I related very heavily. I really liked the tension there was between Rob and Natalie and I appreciated that the burn was sloooow. I have seen others say it was too slow but I think that it was perfect. I loved the romance in this book, but I really think this story was so enriched by the almost coming of age feel for Natalie and Rob and their self actualization.

This was the first book to make me cry in a long time. I think this book really is more lifelike and realistic in the sense of relationships to friends and family and i think that even though there are a bit of tropes thrown in, it did not feel gimicky or romcommy and I appreciated that- it kept you feeling like maybe there even wouldn't be a HEA and that would be okay with me because this is real life, and for these characters, I think finding the HEA in themselves was the first most important thing and for this book, I think that really worked (though, of course, we did get our HEA and I was really really happy about that 😜.) I think that the characters felt very authentic and I just cannot say how much I enjoyed this book. The banter, the romance, the heart- it was all there. Loved.

Thank you Berkley for the E=ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin

Natalie, an aspiring novelist, is messy in more ways than one. Rob, an academic crushed by the expectations of his successful father, needs his life to be orderly and controlled. Two people could not be more different and they see the world and the people in the world differently. For instance, Rob will do anything for his best friend, Angus. Natalie wishes Angus was out of her life, and more importantly, out of the life of her best friend, Gabby. Instead, Nat and Rob are the bridesmaid and best man at the wedding of Gabby and Angus, right after Nat's first (and possibly only?) novel has been published. And guess who gives Nat's novel a one star rating! Thus starts almost a decade of hate with a dose of lust and pining between Nat and Rob. They had been friends, Nat thought...what had she done wrong for Rob to turn on her?

Most of the time I was pretty much team everybody but Nat. Nat's a hard worker but she is also teeming with jealousy. Others seem to find their soulmate so easily, Nat thinks. Others seem to know what they want to do and get to do it. And if Nat is honest, she'd be thrilled to get to live with Gabby forever, thrilled to be the center of Gabby's world the way Gabby is the center of her world. Now Angus is taking Gabby away from Nat and their friendship will never be the same. Loneliness and envy rule Nat's life, along with all the part time jobs she has to work to support her writing career that is going nowhere.

Over almost a decade, Nat and Rob are just blips on each other's horizons and then they come together again and again for special occasions, each thinking of the other but not wanting to admit it out loud. How can Nat think of Rob so much when he betrayed her? How can Rob think of Nat so much when she's betrayed someone he cares about? I love the romance, the real romance between Gabby and Angus, who show how it's done without even trying. Luckily Nat grows over the years and that is what had me hoping she could find her soulmate someday, even if I wasn't sure I wanted her to latch onto someone who might not be right for her.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley & Berkley Romance for this digital ARC! I enjoyed the banter & tension between the two characters, but it gave off some friends of friends wedding vibes like the Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, and also “coming back around” kind of like November 9th by Colleen Hoover. Also add in that the FMC is a romance author & a shared bedroom trope & you have the one-star romance! Liked, but didn’t love. Would probably suggest this to some romance readers who enjoy the friends-of-friends trope & enemies to lovers.

A fun read with great moments and a great premise!

Struggling writer, Natalie, is forced to walk down the aisle at her best friend’s wedding with the man who gave her book a very public one-star rating. As the years go by and they're forced to come together over and over again because of their best friends, sparks fly.

This one was a pleasant surprise! I really enjoyed the premise and execution.
From the blurb, I didn't expect such an expansive read that encompasses a decade of time, but watching the character grow and evolve was great. We get these characters as bumbling twenty three year olds with a lot to prove and immature takes, but leave with well adjusted 30 somethings that feel at peace and ready to take on the world.

While I enjoyed this from a woman's fiction perspective, my main issue with this read is I struggled with the idea of this one as a romance. Although there is quite a bit of tension and a few stolen moments in the years that go by, the couple doesn't get to get together officially until the last 5% of the book. While I'm glad they were able to grow and be in better headspaces when their time came, I still didn't buy into their endgame. It felt very lust base versus you are "the one". As individuals, love. Together, I could take it or leave it.

And also, this book kind of centers around their best friends a lot to the point where the romance feels like an after thought especially during some particularly hard times.

I also struggled with the side characters at time. Taking a ridiculous character named Angus seriously was difficult, but Gabby, although she apologizes for it later, never felt like a great best friend. The miscommunication there was hard to stomach, especially because I truly liked Natalie.

Overall, this one was better than expected and we leave these characters better than we find!

Read For
- Found Family
- Time Jumps
- Will They or Won't They?
- Strangers to Enemies to Lovers

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my free advanced electronic reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars. (Please don’t come for me, Natalie!) This is a romance but it’s more a story of friendships—the ways they change, the problems and pitfalls, but also the joy. Hankin does a great job of making mid 20s Natalie insufferable, to the point that I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep reading. But I’m glad I did, because watching all four of these characters grow up was a delight.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

I was going into this book expecting a cute rom-com and I while there were moments it was absolutely that, I felt like this was more a story that explored all types of love (familial, romantic, friendship) instead of an actual romance book. So much of the story was dedicated because our main romantic plotline, which is not a problem, but I wasn't exactly expecting that going in.

Early in the story, I was having a really difficult time liking our main character, Natalie. There were so many moments of very selfish behavior that were hard to get through and her inner-monologue was a tough hang.

I will say, the last 25-30% completely hooked me. It's where we see the most character growth from everyone and I absolutely cried a few times. Overall, while I liked this it's mostly because of the last quarter of the book that saved the whole story for me.