As a HUGE ashley poston fan, this was a bit disappointing to me. Her stories are so unique and I usually love the subtle magical elements, but this one just didn’t feel completely fleshed out to me and ultimately fell a bit flat for me. I feel like it took FOREVER for our two main characters to finally meet, and when they finally did, they fell in love in like five days?? Where’s the tension?? where’s the pining??? It just didn’t have the same longing and wanting i’ve come to expect from ashley postons books.

Eileen – Elsy – Merriweather has been having a few rough years. Working as an English professor pays the bills but getting lost in the happy endings of romance novels is her solace from a broken engagement and her evolving friendships. When none of her virtual book club pals can make their annual romance read-a-thon vacation, Elsy heads off to the cabin alone and winds up in her favorite fictional town. She knows she needs to leave but doesn’t want to head back to the real world. But will mending the plot in this fictional town fix her life and her heart? What should she do about the handsome but grumpy bookstore owner who isn’t a fictional character either?

A Novel Love Story is a sweet, satisfying tale with Poston’s trademark touch of magical realism. Elsy is lovable and lost, and readers can easily identify with her. Anders is suitably grumpy and the mystery of Eloraton draws the reader in. As a romance reader, I enjoyed the homage to every single small town romance trope – it was charming.

The novel has is a bit slow paced and the existence of a fictional town that real people visit will require a significant suspension of reality. However, the journey is enjoyable and will leave readers satisfied. A fun read even if it doesn’t sparkle quite as much as some of Poston’s other novels.

Recommended for fans of contemporary romance with a side of magical realism. 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an advance copy of this novel.

Do you ever want to get lost in your favorite book? I know the answer to this from all my book loving friends is a definite yes!
Honestly, Ashley Poston can do no wrong and is easily a new favorite author of mine!! I absolutely adore her writing and her emotional heart punches every dang time.
This one was just so relatable as a reader with favorite characters, book community and our love of books.
As usual with Ashley Postons books, I definitely recommend!!

I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this one!!
Thank you Berkley, Netgalley and author Ashley Poston for providing me an advance readers copy in exchange for my honest review.
Release date: June 25th

i was SOOOO DEEPLY EXCITED for this book. The Seven Year Slip (the authors previous romance novel) is one of my all time favorites so i was again, deeeeeply excited to get my hands on this book. and listen, was it bad? No! not by any means! but was i a bit let down? sadly, yes.

i feel like i have to explain myself because A Novel Love Story was a fun and moving romance that felt like a love letter to romance readers, but something just... kind of fell flat. and i truly think that it's jsut because my expectations were set So High after reading the seven year slip, and honestly if i had gone in with lower expectations i maybe would have loved it better? this is going to be one of those book that i have to reread and then i'll either end up loving it or feeling "meh" about it.

Ashley Poston is on a roll. If you liked Seven Year Slip, you must read A Novel Love Story. Ashley is able to use tropes in a self aware way that goes even more complex than you expect. Eileen is a solid character that represents a group of (white) millennials with hope for a happily ever after. I felt like my friend was telling me this story and I could have believed it was true.

📚ARC Review for A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston📚

Release date: June 25, 2024

⭐️⭐️
I had really high hopes for this one but unfortunately, I didn’t love it like I wanted to. 😢

Listen, I love Ashley Poston. I love magical realism. l loved The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip. I’ll still read future books by Ashley Poston. But something about this one just didn’t click for me and here’s why:

🍃I got so tired of the male main character, Anders, being described with “minty eyes”. And I’m talking about total of 31 times throughout the entire book in one variation or another. Also, his scent was repeatedly described as black tea and cedar. It just got annoying at some point.

🍃The magical realism aspect felt so odd in this one. Elsy finds herself in the town of her favorite book with all of the characters of the story playing out real time. I can handle time traveling in the Seven Year Slip and talking to the dead in the Dead Romantics but I couldn’t wrap my brain around the “magic” in this one. Maybe that’s a me problem.

🍃The ending was rushed and convoluted. I can’t say much here without giving away spoilers but it made me mad..lol

I could add a few other small things but I’ll leave it at this. It pains me to rate A Novel Love Story so low!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC for an ~honest~ review.

*2.5

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Now I wouldn't call myself a super fan, but I have found myself loving Ashley Postons work in the past. I think the way she has incorporates magic realism into the romance genre is respectable and well done, but unfortunately this book does not showcase that.

I came into this book really excited given that as a reader, I have always wished to be a part of the fictional small towns that some of my favorite authors have written so you would think that I was THRILLED for Elsy but I actually was not.

I think a large reason behind this is Elsy herself, despite trying myself to find her likable, I simply could not. I think one of the earlier scenes in the book is really showing to her personality as a character and it was an INSTANT turn off (You'll see when you read it).

As for the romance itself, it truly lacked so much, they went from hating each other one day to suddenly having nicknames and kissing. Which to me was baffling because there was simply no chemistry between the characters.

If you are a tension, chemistry, and angst girlie like myself, I do not recommend this book because it is simply not there.

I think normally Ashley's work really tugs the heart strings and makes you fall in love with everything in the book itself but this is not a piece that represents that for me.

This book follows a literature professor who takes a wrong turn during a road trip and somehow finds her way into the fictional down from her favorite book series. As she meets all of her favorite characters in real life, she realizes that one person might not belong, and that she might be falling for him. While I liked this book, it was my least favorite from Poston. THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP is one of my all-time favorite books though, so I don’t think it’s fair to hold a comparison. Like her other books, it was sometimes cozy, sometimes beyond sweet, and sometimes very emotional, and all of those elements come together to make a well-rounded story. I think what made this less of a hit for me is that it felt like we spent too much time with the side characters at the expense of developing the relationship of the MCs. If you loved Poston’s other books, I do think this is still worth picking up!

The concept of this is really lovely- the execution however was just okay.

But I can see others liking this and it being a "right time, right book" for some readers. Like how sometimes I'm in the mood for a cheesy but adorable Hallmark movie. It's the type of book that you may crave and enjoy when you need something whimsical and are able to suspend your disbelief and/or a critical eye.

OH MY goodness did I fall in love with this book. Elsy is struggling. Her bookclub always meets up in NY, around the area of their favorite book series. Each year the number keeps dwindling though. This year, her best friend isn't able to go either, sending Elsy there all alone. She is grieving her last relationship, she is trying to find herself, and what she finds is the town she has been dreaming of.
As she is making her journey to the cabin, she gets lost and ends up in Eloration. The fictional town from her books. She almost runs over a man standing in the rain though, so the meet cute isn't ideal.
Anderson is grumpy and as he starts bringing her to places in the town, she realizes these are all her favorite characters come to life. Anderson seems to be the only one that knows this isn't real but urges her to not make waves because the town is just perfect as it is. As she meets more and more people she realizes that they aren't perfect either and they aren't exactly how she imaginged them. They are real people with real issues, the same as her. She just can't figure out how Anderson fits in because she hasn't read him in any of the books. The author has passed away and she knows the fifth book was never finished so she thinks this man might be the key to the final chapter. It could be his HEA but she isn't sure who he is meant for.
As she stays, she begins to fall in love with everything and everyone, knowing she has to leave but feeling happy she got to have this experience in her life. She also has a hard time leaving Anderson. The two get closer and closer and all she wants for him is his HEA and it is just heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I can't talk too much about him because I don't want to give anything away, but this story is so beautifully done. It is about finding yourself and working through grief and knowing that the life you planned isn't always the life you will have.
Thank you to Berkley, Ashley Poston and Netgalley for an early copy.

This book fell flat for me. I loved The Seven Year Slip, in which I felt the combination of romance and fantasy was seamless. This story was not so seamless. I did not really like the main character very much and so didn't care much about her story. I felt the actual vocabulary in the book was repetitive (minty to describe Anders' eyes, for instance) and I'm not sure of that was intentional, but it was annoying to me. I felt the ending was quite rushed and the emotional roller coaster dulled because of the rush of events at the end.

I would definitely recommend this author but no so much this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Not my favorite Ashley Poston book. I found the chemistry between our main characters to be lacking. This very much felt like it wasn't a romance book. It definitely felt like the romance came second, which is fine if it's your preference or were aware of the fact before starting. The actual plot was a bit slow, but bittersweet.

Thank you Berkley for my copy! All thoughts are my own.

I have been a fan of Ashley Poston since her debut, The Dead Romantics. I believe it was recommended to me by Carley Fortune, who I also love, and I’ve loved her work ever since. Since I love to read Contemporary Romance, I don’t often dip into fantasy or magical realism. I love that Poston writes contemporary romance with a magical realism/fantasy spin. It’s enough to get lost in a world that is totally unique from my own without being overwhelmed by world building. Plus, I find her concepts so unique and satisfying!

I used to love the show Once Upon a Time and I feel like this book vaguely captures that idea. It’s not a town full of trapped storybook characters, but it is the a reader going into the fictional small town they love. I was so charmed by the concept and a little jealous!

Synopsis:

“Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…Because it is.This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.” —NetGalley

What I Liked:

The Bookish Concept—How many times have we, as readers, wished we could visit a fictional place? Even when I know my favorites get a HEA, there are certain characters I’d love to check in on from time to time and just see what their daily life is like.

The Magical Element—It’s just enough to be exciting and make me suspend my disbelief.

The Characters—I loved all these characters! I especially loved the Book Club and wish we could have even seen a little bit more of them.

What Didn’t Work:

Pacing—Surprisingly, there were points I struggled to stay with the characters. Minor moments, but for a fav author I was surprised.

Missed a Piece of Connection—Just a little piece of magic was missing for me. But it’s probably because I loved The Seven Year Slip SO deeply.

Character Authenticity: 3.5/5 Spice Rating: 1/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

Content Warnings:

grief, death, loss of a spouse

This was fun and readable and quirky, and also the premise never quite made sense. I can suspend disbelief but I needed a little more from this one. That being said, fans of SCHMIGADOON should definitely pick this up!

Not my favorite from Ashley Poston. I do think this was intended to be a love letter to cozy small town romances, and I think the premise was intriguing. However, the execution fell flat in a major way. The main characters felt just as clichéd and flat as the trope-y caricatures that filled the rest of the town. The plot was very predictable and the combination of that with the lackluster characters made this a very dull reading experience. I definitely won’t be recommending this one to fellow romance readers.

I've seen my fair share of stories where fiction becomes reality. The big one that comes to mind is Pleasantville where the two siblings are zapped into the wholesome TV show where nothing ever goes wrong and everyone lives in a blissful ignorance of the world outside their little town. But the other is Austenland, where the Austen lover goes on a ridiculous trip to pretend to be in a Jane Austen novel. That's kind of what I expected from A Novel Love Story; a woman who finds herself unexpectedly in the town she loved reading by her favorite romance author.

In many ways, that's what we get. We find a place that's forever stuck in the world that the author created for them. It always rains at noon. The burgers are always burnt. The taffy is always sticky and regardless of what day it is, the same starlings show up every morning to sing their little song. I think any reader can relate to this and every reader has that one fictional world they would love to visit and for Eileen and Anders, that daydream is a reality.

I loved this concept of entering a world that you've only seen in movies or in books. It's why I love going on the Universal Studios tour in Hollywood because you actually see the sets where your favorite movies are filmed. The fiction becomes reality and Ashley Poston does that brilliantly here. It becomes the place where Eileen can process being dumped by her fiance and much better than retreating to a small cabin just to read the same books; she gets to live it.

The best part is the way she helps the people in this town finish their stories. The sad caveat of her dream town is that the author has passed and there wouldn't be a happy ending for some of the folks who live there. Eileen taking her shot to help them find their own happy endings really made the story so much more interesting and in the process of finding a happy ending for herself. Of course, this is coupled with Ashley Poston's writing, which is always top notch. I always find myself highlighting some wise words about life and love that I can ponder later.

Of course, I loved Anders and Eileen. Anders being this grumpy bookstore owner whom Eileen assumes to be the unfinished character her favorite author created but didn't finish made me so happy. I hoped there would be a happy ending for them, but it actually came in such a surprising way that I was a little surprised! Turns out there's more to Anders that meets the eye and that made me so happy.

Overall, I loved this one. I'm surprised by how much I loved this one because when I finished the book I wasn't sure. But sitting on it and thinking about it made me realize the hidden depth to it all, the subtle way Ashley Poston creates realistic characters who struggle through serious issues and come out the other end better people than they were before. And you have to admit, going to your favorite fictional world is like adult Disney World for me and I would take that opportunity in a heartbeat.

I loved the idea of this novel but it didn't play out so well for me unfortunately. Eileen is a romance lover who gets trapped in the town created by her favorite, and unfortunately deceased, romance writer Rachel Flowers. As she changes up the town, the grumpy bookshop owner thwarts her at each turn. Sadly, the chemistry just was not there for me and the third act twist annoyed me more than anything. A miss for me.

i'm really bummed to report that this one just did not work for me. the premise is SO fun and so unique, and my favorite parts of the story were far and away the moments where Elsy gets to know the townspeople of Eloraton and live in the pages of the book series she loves so much. unfortunately, i disliked almost every other part of this book. i felt zero chemistry between the love interests-- the romance happened so fast, and i majorly got the ick when they were full-blown in love with each other after, like, three conversations. the sex scene also very abruptly faded to black, which felt really jarring as a reader. the romantic plot twist/conflict toward the end (after the main twist had already been revealed) felt so rushed and sudden. i also felt like Elsy's friends and life outside of Eloraton were not fleshed out nearly enough and were mostly used on a pretty surface level as a plot device to conveniently move the plot along.

honestly, i think overall, my main problem with this book is simply that it felt too quirky/twee for me. i could just FEEL how hard this book was trying. this was one of my most-anticipated releases of the year, and while i will definitely still continue to read from ashley poston in the future, i was not a fan of this one.

A Novel Love Story
by Ashley Poston
Pub Date: June 25, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the aRC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction…literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.
Poston is a creative and inspiring writer and for those of you that love a slight fantasy concept, this is a wonderful Romance story for you.

A Novel Love Story is intriguing and beautifully developed with interesting characters. It’s unlike any other story you’ve read before.
4 star for me.
I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did the Dead Romantics.

While I ended up enjoying this book overall, the first third (or maybe the first half) was harder to get through than I expected. I'll be honest, if I hadn't read and loved Ashley Poston's previous books, I'm not 100% sure if I would have continued. Part of this might have been improperly high expectations on my part, because I don't think this book was bad by any means, but I didn't immediately connect to the story and the characters as much as I thought I would.

All that said, I really did end up enjoying the book and the time I spent reading it; I think I just wished that I had been hooked sooner. As always, I loved the premise - what romance reader wouldn't want to get stuck in the town of their favorite novel - and Ashley Poston just does magical realism so well. All the side characters were a lot of fun and I liked the idea of seeing how their lives unfolded after their happily ever after.

I ended up absolutely loving how the book ended and enjoyed how everything played out. Also, is there anything better than falling for a curmudgeonly bookstore owner?