this was a beautiful book as expected when it's come to Ashely Poston (I would like to preface that I woudn't classify this one as romance book, there's barely any and it reads more like women fiction).

The premise is what readers dreams are made of. Our FMC, stumbles into this very familiar small town only to find out that it's the town from her favorite book series with all of her favorite characters in it (LITERALLY) 😳 and she has the opportunity to met all of them and live the experience which is insane to me. This was super fun and it had me crying a few times. It deals with grief (Ashley is always handling this theme in her books, which I appreciate), how books can change our life, how hard is to move on in life when you feel stuck and like everyone is choosing everyone else but you. It was very emotional and special.

I do wished that the main couple has more chemistry between them because I felt that it lacked this aspect but it was enjoyable nonetheless. There were other aspects that felt very corky for my taste but I truly did loved this one. 🥹🫶🏻

I adore Ashley Poston’s original take on romance. I read Dead Romantics and thought, “quirky, funny, science-fictiony/fantasy romance exists that doesn’t include werewolves and shapeshifters mating with humans?” I read the Seven-Year Slip and fell in love with the time-travel romance and characters. Now onto Novel Love Story, a variation on her funky-romance/women’s lit theme and although I adore the idea of the story - it is my least favorite of the three. Somewhere within the plot it falls short - the romance isn’t as chemistry-laden as her other two, the idea of how she fell into a town that exists only in her favorite books seems cool, but it doesn’t really work, and the weird vibe going between her and her real life friends/also a job as lit professor that she doesn’t like - all of it seems just sort-of done. And let’s not get started with the huge amount of tropes. I like Poston’s writing, and I like the bones of this book, but honestly, I feel like it wasn’t as original/fleshed-out/tightened up as it could have been.

Oh how I so wanted to love this one! The beginning was good, middle was boring, and then the ending picked back up again but it was just..meh for me. It's unfortunate because I liked The Dead Romantics, absolutely ADORED the Seven Year Slip, so I was looking forward to this one but it just wasn't it for me.

The vibes in this book were so immaculate, it felt like I was playing a story-driven game in the best way possible. I really enjoyed all the characters as well as the setting. There were some things that needed to be edited- in one moment she is looking at the stars and the next it's daylight. However, these edits can easily be made. Ashley Poston is consistently great!

I LOVED Poston’s Among the Beasts & Briars, but for some reason I just cannot get into her romances. I’ve tried all three and they just don’t connect with me like they do with seemingly everyone else. I was intrigued by the premise of this but the writing style was a bit funky at times and the beginning is slow. I might just need to try it again another time.

Ashely Poston has me in a chokehold after the magic that was The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics. I saw the cover of A Novel Love Story, read the premise, and knew I was in for a treat.

This one is a love letter to fictional worlds and the impact stories have on our lives. The small-town vibes were immaculate, and every single supporting character was amazing. I wanted to read every single book in the Quixton Falls series and it is truly devastating they don't actually exist. But that just speaks to what an incredible job Poston did creating a fictional world within a fictional world. It was a very meta read. I will say, this was definitely my least favorite of her books. While I absolutely ate up the premise, I just didn't really care for Anders or Elsy. Anders felt like a very bland character compared to Poston's other romantic heroes and he pulled a stunt towards the end that really made me anti-Anders. Elsy was okay but also didn't really hold up to Poston's other heroines. I can't ignore that I wanted to read the Quixton Falls books more than the one I was actually reading.

Overall, a very fun read with a niche bookish plot. One thing I really love about Ashley Poston's books is how she tackles themes of grief and the different ways it manifests. Beautifully done. I've seen some glowing reviews and know this is going to be a hit with the book community. Highly recommend if you like bookish plots, quirky characters and settings, and magical realism.

What an absolutely fantastic and very interesting take on the whole ‘I wish I could really be there’ feeling when you read a book. Heart wrenching, yet heart warming all in all. I REALLY enjoyed Anders, like honestly. But the end being like ‘I’m falling in love with him’ made me step back and be like ‘wow this was like.. just a week’ but, all in all it FELT like a much longer journey and that time escaped them since she already knew the other characters, etc. I don’t mind that it felt longer, I think it’s because it was so fleshed out? Overall, though, it’s probably now tied for 1st place Ashley Poston books…. ( I mean… Tied with The Dead Romantics- which SCREAMING AND SOBBING THAT BENJI GOT FUCKING CAMEOED AND IG SHE DID TOO BUT I CARED MORE ABOUT BENJI LMFAO )

All in all, what a fantastic book. It lived up to its summary & pHEW Anders makes me want a book boyfriend.

A romance book reader finds herself in the setting of her favorite book series and meeting a man straight out of a novel. But seeing the characters past the happily ever afters of their stories has Elsie questioning love and where she got stuck in her own story.

I'll admit, it took me a little bit to get hooked into this story, but once I was there, I couldn't put this book down. I thought it was slow-going at first, but it all came together in the end and I totally adored this book.

ashley poston is hands down one of the best romance authors out there. this book was whimsical, funny, and dreamy. i loved every moment of it!!

thank you so much to berkley and netgalley for the arc 🥰

I loved this! I mean, who DOESN'T want to spend time IN their favorite book series? Sign me up! It was a great twist on things and I adored every word. It was nice to see Elsy come into her own and the support of friends made it better. I love "literary" titles and this one did not disappoint!

This author has become an automatic read/buy/sell for me. If you are a lover of all things bookish you will appreciate the way the author weaves books, literature and the publishing world into her stories. The characters are relatable and lovable. I find myself rooting for all of them. I love the element of magical realism in her writing. This book was so good and lovely. I will be recommending it to all my rom com friends.

thanks Netgalley and Berkeley for the ARC!

this book took me on a ride!!! many tears, many plot twists! it’s definitely more women’s fiction with a great mix of romance in it. i really do enjoy ashley postons books and will read anything she writes! her books are romance with a mix of fantasy and it’s just the right amount for me personally.

my only gripes: i was a little bored at times and i was worried this wasn’t a romance at points towards the end. i don’t wanna spoil anything so i’ll leave it at that. maybe the romance was a bit flat at points too like i didn’t feel the connection but it wrapped up perfectly and i feel satisfied!!

This book is for the readers. For the people who wanna lose themselves in someone else’s story when their own gets to be too much. I cannot tell you how comforting this book was for a fangirl reader like me.
Imagine you’re driving to a cabin for a reading retreat with all your books besties for a week, but your car breaks down on the way, you’re trapped in a rainstorm in the middle of nowhere for the night. You almost hit a strange man who was just standing in the rain, but he’s nice enough to let you stay in his spare loft above his bookstore (!!!)… only for you to wake up the next morning and see that in the light of day, you stumbled into your favorite book’s fictional town, and the book characters who you know like the back of your hand… are real! Nothing ever changes in the small fictional town of Eloraton until Elsy comes along. She has to find a way to make sure her favorite characters stay together and get their happily ever afters while also trying to find one of her own with the grumpy (sexy) bookstore owner!!

I was teary eyed and so EMOTIONAL when Elsy is having a heart to heart with her comfort character, Junie. If I could hang out with Aelin Galathynius for a day?? My life would be MADE.

This book was a love letter to the hopeless romantics who fall in love with words and daydream about book boyfriends.

Ashley Poston has done it again with her creative writing style and unique plot lines. Her stories are so memorable because of that fact. I read so many romance books that most of the stories just run together, yet I can still remember the storylines of “The Dead Romantics” and “The Seven Year Slip” easily. Thank you for this story. I will carry it in my heart forever. 🩵📚🥹🫶🏻

This book releases on June 25, 2024 and I cannot wait for everyone to fall in love with Elsy & Anders. 🤭💌 thank you so much @netgalley for the arc!!

A Novel Love Story brilliantly invites the reader into the safe, cozy, never-changing town of Eloraton. It is in this setting, so familiar to readers of romance, and yet lovingly new, that Poston encourages readers to listen to their own hearts and seek out their own happily ever afters. I adored it.

4.5 ⭐️

“Sometimes, a book can change your life. It's hard to explain that to someone who doesn't read, or who has never felt their heart bend so strongly toward a story that it might just snap in two. Some books were a comfort, some a reprieve, others a vacation, a lesson, a heartbreak. I'd met countless stories by the time I read a book that changed my life.”

This book is a book lover’s dream!!!! Nothing beats the feeling of reading an Ashley Poston romance. I had the best time reading this — it was whimsical and the writing is so beautiful.

“She made me remember why I loved to read. I'd heard of books doing that, but I always figured it was metaphorical, a nice sentiment. I never thought it actually happened.”

A Novel Love Story discussed so many things that I connected to as a reader — finding a community of likeminded people who just get you & the dream of actually meeting your favorite characters (I would cry). Ashley Poston is also the best at writing about heartbreak.

This also highlights how special romance books can be, despite the hate the genre receives.

It was funny & dreamy and incredibly creative, with lots of twists I was not expecting and it felt like a women’s fiction book intertwined with a romance (which is my favorite vibe)!! One of my favorite plots I have read!

Thank you to Berkley & NetGalley for the advanced copy.

i knew i was going to love this from the first time i read the synopsis, and i am beyond happy that this book did not disappoint me in the slightest.

‘a novel love story’ fits in seamlessly with ashley poston’s other adult romances; it has the magical realism that leaves you wishing it was simply real, the well fleshed out characters that feel like friends you’ve had for ages, and the sweetest romance that makes you believe in the happily ever afters.

i ate this one up! i will admit it did take me a moment to get fully invested in the story, but i’m blaming my 85 university assignments that pulled me away from this book for that. because once i was invested, man. i was invested.

this plot is unlike anything i’ve ever read before. and reading about elsy felt like looking in a mirror for me, with her love of romances and library sciences degree and the struggle of putting herself and her wants first. her journey to finding what she wants her life to be like was quite inspiring for me. i loved the connection she had with anderson, even when she didn’t want there to be a connection at all. seeing them fall for each other was just too fulfilling!

while i absolutely adored this, i will say i do still have some criticisms. i was kind of surprised by the amount of grammatical errors in this arc, along with numerous repetitions of character descriptions and a few story discrepancies i noticed, too. i hope these get fixed before the final publication!

this book truly deserves all the love, and i cannot wait to add it to my bookshelves for future rereads!

“I cared for words with a reverence I rarely shared with anyone — how could you share them, anyway, when words were imagined things.”

There is something about Ashley Poston’s writing that tugs at my heart strings more than others. Not only does she write about love and relationships beautifully, but she also writes a character who is finding her way in life even better. This book is about relationships, friendships, and unconditional love for words on a page and the places on those pages, and she described it all perfectly. The way she describes a deep love for a fictional world and fictional characters, and the way stories can be such an escape was hitting home. I immediately felt so connected to Eileen in so many ways. This was a story about a girl finding space for herself among the others that she loved, and learning she deserved that space, the love, and happy endings that everyone else did. I also fell in love with Anders’ character (of course) and was sobbing probably 8 too many times!

Ashley Poston’s books all have such a unique storyline and she pulls it off SO BEAUTIFULLY every single time. Her mind is magical, and this one being so connected to books and reading made it all the more special. I am so in love with this.

“Sometimes people came into your life for brief moments, and changed you forever. I think he was my person.”

I have loved Ashley Poston's last two books; The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip. I enjoy her writing style and her ability to cohesively use magical realism in a believable way. With that being said, this book just missed the mark. The premise was interesting, very similar to the movie, Stranger than Fiction. The idea of dropping into your favorite book is every readers dream. I wish there would have been more explanation of how the town appeared, and the rules around the magic. I really dislike when a large portion of the plot relies on the main characters inability to ask questions or demand answers. There were so many instances where any regular person would be asking questions; the main character was too chill and I think it hurt the overall story. Furthermore, the characters within the town were very one dimensional which is intentional as they are made up characters for a book, but there should have been a more distinct difference between the portrayal of the towns people and the main characters who were actual real life humans. At certain points it felt like the author was trying to hit a word count with all of the repeated descriptions i.e. Minty eyes. The writing felt forced and honestly didn't read as an Ashley Poston book to me. I still look forward to reading her future work.

What a dream to visit the world of your favorite romance book! What a cute but also very insightful book about life, love, and romance books. Another must read from Ashley Poston!