At first, I was kind of hesitant to read this book because I previously didn’t love the first book in the series. But the more I read this, the more I fell in love with their story. It’s such a heartwarming yet heartbreaking story. It’s really going to break your heart, but then repair it again. 
Love at First Book follows Emily Allen going out of her comfort zone and traveling to the Emerald Isle, where her favorite offers her a job. She immediately said yes. She absolutely adores all of her books, and it gives her a chance to leave her hometown and her mother. She knew she was out of her element when she instantly became attracted to the bookstore owner, who apparently didn’t like her at all. Apparently, he is her favorite author's son, who doesn’t want his mother to write again.
It’s going to be trickier for Emily. She ultimately traveled to the Emerald Isles so she could help her favorite author. And yet, she is facing obstacles from her favorite son, Kieran. It’s a bit difficult, yet refreshing. She finds herself looking forward to his rebuttals. It’s pretty entertaining to see who has the last word in their debate. You can already tell that they are slowly falling for each other. The tension and the longing are there. 
They may not like each other, but they slowly get to know each other. The more time they spend together, the closer they become. It’s just inevitable for them to be together.

100% transparent: I didn't finish this book.

The constant explanations of Irish culture were annoying.

✨Read this if you want to go to Ireland and cry 🫵✨

I’ve tried to come back to this review several times and I simply can’t think of anything more to say than if you want to go to Ireland and cry, this book is for you. You can want to cry in Ireland, specifically, or just want to cry in general. Although I do recommend crying in Ireland because there seems to be a lot of dramatic rainstorms that will maximize your cry potential.

At the surface, it’s a very classic, Hallmarky plot—a favorite of mine, no less. Of course, the heroine flees her life and moves too a small Irish village, of which she quickly becomes a beloved member. Of course, her new boss—and owner of the local bookstore—immediately dislikes her and has an obvious chip on his shoulder only for her. Of course, he’s just shy of scruffy-looking nerfherder—big, brunette, bearded—with a sexy accent and a brilliant sweater collection and a fear of change. Of course, he immediately gives her a nickname (and when he uses her real name, of course, it’s devastating). Of course, he can take her to the best local restaurants or just as easily whip her up dinner because he worked at restaurants in Dublin. Of course, he’s always sneaking glances at her when she’s not looking and OF COURSE the entire village reminds her of this daily. Of course I’m going to love this book!!

BUT—and it’s a caps lock but!!—the subplot of Emily working as an assistant for the local author is where the EMOTIONS are really at. It’s woven in with the romance because she’s normally also with the hero while working as the assistant (hello drama he’s her SON), so while romance remained the main focus, it was a plot I was heavily invested in. The author was suffering from a decade-long writer’s block and had a deadline to meet for the last book in her super successful children’s fantasy series. By the end they all have to work together to finish this book and good lord it was so intense and emotional for so many reasons.

(Make sure to check the CWs below because while they are spoilers, I think most people will want it spoiled as it’s a common trigger.)

I also loved how her toxic mother was handled!! Not gonna lie, I was so scared because I knew rhag was going to be a part of the book. What was so wonderful is that she’d already been (and still went to) therapy and was in a space where she could set boundaries with her mother. Her mother didn’t follow them per se, but the heroine really put up with no shit and basically cut her off by the end. It was very refreshing to have her heavy therapy lifting been done before the book began. She could flex her skills, but it didn’t cause many issues.

Love at First Book is one of those books that you just can’t stop reading. I really enjoyed Summer Reading, and this was an anticipated release, but I definitely underestimated it. It’s a FANTASTIC book. It elevates everything I love about Hallmark movies and destination romances. I would easily recommend this to anyone in a book club. I cried a lot at the end, so be warned, but it was a good, cathartic Irish rainstorm type of cry.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 🌶️.75*/5

*There’s at least one open-door scene and a few extra bits and bobs. A little more explicit than Summer Reading I think.




CWs: Toxic relationship with parent, hypochondria (researching illnesses, spiraling, etc), death (off-page but it’s happening throughout the book), breast cancer relapse (ends in his mother dying at the end of the book)




I received an eARC from Berkley Romance. All opinions are honest and my own.

Read this if you like a super sweet romance, love Ireland, enjoy books set in book shops, or don't mind a little bit of cheese with your romance. If you are a literary afficionado, this may be YOUR book! The amount of book quotes that go back and forth between our main characters is hard not to love.

I liked the basic premise of this book and really loved Em, Kier, and Siobhan. I wanted to see more showing instead of telling and I think some of the cheesier moments would have felt more natural if that had happened.

Overall, a sweet romance with a small amount of spice, not chaste, but not overly spicy. Love at First Book did make me cry towards the end, which surprised me!

I would read another book from Jenn McKinlay in the future!


Thank you to netgalley for an ARC to review.

Books set in bookstores are my FAVOURITE. Books set in Ireland are MY FAVOURITE. and this book DID NOT disappoint on either front. I truly loved it-- it was the perfect respite read I needed. I'd say it's Jenn McKinlay's best yet.

4.5 🌟
A heartwarming, wholesome and sweet story. This was my first book by Jenn McKinley and I must have lived under a rock because I loved this book and need to read more books by her. Her ability to write witty yet emotionally charged characters was incredible.

The setting being in Ireland gave this book a cozy and feel good athmosphere. I also adored the vibes of them working in a bookstore. Imagining them being surrounded by books at all times was so calming. McKinley`s writing really transported me to this village and I stayed there.

Going into this book I expected a cute love story about an American girl, sorry woman, escaping to quaint little Ireland and finding love. While it was all of that, it was also about a journey of self-discovery, healing, dealing with anxiety, childhood trauma, family issues and acceptance. Our FMC, Emily, or famously also called Red, is a introverted American who needed a fresh start, away from her guilt tripping and crazy mother. She finds a position as the assistant to the author of her favourite childhood series and she takes that leap. Trying to adjust to this different life working in a bookstore, she meets her other boss, Kieran who will throw her life upside down because he does not want her there. He is a hot Irishman that deals with his own trauma and is rather closed off.

Their banter and chemistry from the start was so fun and their back and forth felt so natural and smooth. This was a good enemies to lovers example in a contemporary romance! I was rooting for them from the start. The pacing of their relationship felt realistic and it made the tension extra intense. Seeing them slowly accept each other and come to terms with their feelings and open up to one another was so beautiful. Kier is such a gentleman and his Irish charm came through.

I loved how Em’s mental health issue was addressed and handled in a mature and serious. It is a condition I don't see often at all so this representation was appreciated.

Shioban, was also an amazing character, she was sweet and gentle and so full of love and passion for her job. I also have authors I grew up reading their stories so I can only imagine how Em felt meeting Shioban. Their relationship was one of my favourites in this. It was heartwrenching and so so sweet.

This was all around a lovely book. I wish Emily's journey of self healing was more prominent in the second half of the book as I felt it got a bit lost. However, I had trouble putting it down because the writing kept me engaged and interested until the end. I cried and laughed and giggled. I cannot recommend this book enough and I will be reading more by this author!

Honourable mention to all the cute literary quotes! their little games of identifying the quotes was so sweet and it made me want to read more classics!

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC!

Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay is one of my all-time favorites. Love at First Book was another slam dunk. There is something so earnest about her writing that makes anyone fall in love.

I LOVED this book!
First, Ireland. The descriptions of the town Finn's Hollow and everything about it just suck you in. The landscape, the people, the sense of community. This is always something I enjoy in a book, but it is not always as well done. I really thought McKinlay was excellent in this area. The BOOKSTORE! Being a bookseller, I'm a sucker for a bookstore setting. I can imagine being in this particular store with its lively characters and cozy cafe.

I wasn't sure I was going to find the storyline believable but ultimately it all worked so well. I loved that Emma found a mother figure in Sioban. I was really rooting for here in that area because any time she spoke to her own mother, it was maddening. Originally, I was hoping for a confrontation between the two at the end, but once we got there, I was glad there wasn't one. It would have ruined the peace Emma had finally found.

The main characters Kier and Emma were well suited. I thought they had good chemistry and enjoyed back and forth between them while they were irritated with each other. Admittedly, I did not like the nickname Red. A small thing but it niggled at me throughout the book.

Ultimately, Love at First Book is a lovely romance that includes self-discovery, sadness, loss and passion all set in a gorgeous Irish town. It had me in tears with how life comes full circle for the characters, and you cannot help but root for all and imagine how their story would continue afterward.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC! I absolutely loved it!

Love at First Book was a very endearing and wholesome contemporary romance set primarily in a Bookstore in a quaint village in Ireland. The setting alone was a book lover’s dream and instantly drew me to this story! Emily joins her favorite author to complete her unfinished, favorite book series and meets Kieran, our swoony, grumpy Irish love interest. We follow the two throughout Emily’s experience living in Ireland in her new job position. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Kieran and Emily, their banter was engaging and witty. I always love a cute, unique nickname for love interests and that was extremely well done here! It was definitely giving enemies to lovers at points!

I didn’t feel like the pacing in this story was the strongest. I really enjoyed the first third, and last 10%, but the middle dragged a little bit to me. I also wish we explored why Emily wanted to move and be independent a bit more to really get to know her character. The emotional end tying in deeper threads of familial relationships was a really nice touch to get me attached to the story and these characters.

Overall, I would recommend this book. Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC!

Emily is librarian who always dreamed of traveling and meeting her favorite author. When she is offered a job by that author in Ireland, she jumps at the chance. This is everything she ever could have dreamed of. Sadly the author has writers block and a difficult son. You can imagine what happens next in this romance.

Emily is on an adventure in Ireland. She is here to help her favorite author finish a series as her assistant and to hopefully find a little more of herself in the process. Unfortunately, her part-time boss Kieran is proving very distrustful of her motives for being here. As Emily and Kieran work out their complicated feelings, and Siobhan works to write the book she longs to finish, all of them must learn to trust each other if they are to get through the process in one piece. A truly beautiful story filled with what it means to love someone enough to find ways to alter your own life for their wellbeing, and plenty of McKinlay's trademark humor as well.

What a beautiful,cozy and heartwarming read.Loved everything about this book .From writing ,plot characters and their development and to captivating storyline. Also, loved how realistic and relatable it was .Honestly I enjoyed this immensely. This was a first book to me by this author but definitely won't be my last. Definitely recommend!

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Fantastic! Imagine if Harry Potter ended after book 6. That’s the cliffhanger/unfinished story that Emily is in Ireland to help with. In assisting the author, she starts forming relationships, both with the author and the bookstore owner, despite her toxic familial relationship. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy cover. There is definitely depth in this book. Both Emily and Kieran have past traumas that inform their relationships and growth. I loved how this book went to the heart and past of both Emily and Kieran and how their relationship felt naturally formed. There was one slightly open door scene but not very “spicy”. Also, have your tissues ready because a couple of later chapters will get you.

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group for providing this boaok for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I need someone to turn this into a Hallmark movie ASAP. I loved this story, and I adored Emily and Siobahn's relationship, I wish we had gotten to see more of it. The chemistry between Emily and Kieran was fantastic.

A book about books? Yes, sign me up! Not only is this set in an Irish book store, but it’s also about a series of YA novels that are just begging for their grand finale. Plus my favorite tropes… grumpy-sunshine and found family 🤌🏻

Another great book by Jenn McKinlay! Can be read as a stand-alone but it is a follow up to the book Summer Reading.

Thanks to Jenn McKinlay, NetGalley, and Berkley Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Watch for Love at First Book to come out May 14, 2024.

Emily is a librarian who moves to a small village to assist an extremely successful writer (and also Emily’s idol) to help her with a severe case of writer’s block. Part of the deal is that Emily also works in the bookstore in the village, which puts her in proximity with the aforementioned writer’s son, who is evidently the grumpiest man alive. First off, the things I liked about this book: love a book set in Ireland - sign me up! Also, the relationship that develops between Emily and the writer Siobhan is quite charming and my favorite relationship in the book, and how Siobhan begins to climb out of her writing deficit is fun and I enjoy that part of the plot. Other than that, I honestly don’t know what to do with this book. Keiran, grumpy bookseller/Siobhan’s son is so grumpy and mad at Emily for coming to be his mother’s assistant that is it is off-putting. It isn’t even enemies-to-lovers - it’s just weird. About page 60, I kept wondering, “did anyone edit this book?” Sentence structure is not dynamic, background information about Emily is just forced in to round out the book and it is stilted. It feels wildly unedited. About page 100, the dialogue gets really formal - none of it actually feels like how people talk in real life. Every romance trope is hit with a sledgehammer - the way the man smells, the weirdly forced nickname ( Emily wants to be called, “Em” but he demands she is called “Red” and does it in EVERY SENTENCE,) and there are so many more tropes that I wondered if someone asked AI to spit out a romance set in Ireland in a bookshop and this one appeared. I wanted to like this book more than I did. All of that being said, I did finish it, I just wanted to get my red pen out and do some heavy-edits. Great bones, it just needs an overhaul.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

I've loved Jenn McKinlay's previous books. While I did enjoy this one, it took me about 50% of the way through to really love it. The beginning felt a bit more uneven, with a focus on the main character's needy mother taking up a lot of space (and then kind of disappearing at the end). I also didn't realize until halfway through that this calls back to McKinlay's Summer Reading novel. Once the love story blossomed and the characters worked on their writing, I enjoyed the book a lot more.

I didn't care for this and frankly, Emily didn't rind true as a librarian and reader. I feel like she is written by someone who likes the idea of being a librarian but doesn't actually know one in real life. This is a real pet peeve of mine.

In Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay, Emily Allen is offered a job to work for her favorite childhood author in Ireland. Leaving behind a very toxic relationship with her mother, Emily plans to help Siobhan Riordan write the conclusion to the Tig McMorrow books, which were a lifeline during Emily's troubling childhood. Emily spends half her day assisting Siobhan and the other half working for Siobhan's son, Kieran, in his bookstore.

I enjoyed Emily's growth as she finds her voice and her strength. The loving relationship she develops with Siobhan is a wonder - so tender and supportive -something Emily never experienced with her own parents. The banter with Kieran shows they have much in common...in addition to their simmering tension, attraction and passion. Their appreciation of the power of the written word ultimately helps not only Siobhan but also strengthens her relationship with her son.

I will be recommending this book.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing, Jenn McKinlay and NetGalley for this ARC.

All I could think about when I read this book was the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and the ending of Love At First Book had me actually sobbing. The Harry Potter books were my comfort books for years, and one of the main characters in this book reminds me a lot of a J.K. Rowling-style writer. To this day, as a bright and shiny 30-year-old - I still watch them on a regular basis. WITH THE EXTENDED VERSIONS, I might add! I digress...

Back to Love at First Book, I loved the nostalgic feelings this book gave and how much our heroine, Em/Red has created healthy boundaries in her life and is taking chances. All of those things are major winners for me!!

- The only reason I'm removing a star is because I truly loathed the main love interest: Kieran Murphy. If there ever were a reason to assign a character to a word in the dictionary... his picture would sit beside the word 'implacable.'

**Implacable (adj): not capable of being appeased, significantly changed, or mitigated

Basically, everyone around him should be forced to suffer because he's a grumpy gobshite who won't go to therapy for his mummy issues. And yes... I fully realize that he changed in the end and that he had his issues, etc... but I'm a FIRM believer that how you treat others is a reflection of how you'd be in a relationship. Big gestures, in the end, when you think you might lose someone rather than change... give me the ick a little bit? So now that I've fully committed to this soapbox... I still think you should read Love at First Book -because Em's story is worth reading. And not all dark-haired tall men can be winners.

**Thank you to Berkley & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I received this book for free, but all thoughts are my own. – SLR 🖤