Elsy is a romance reader who is in search of her own HEA. She is on her way to her annual smutty book club retreat, but takes a path that leads her straight to the world from her favorite books. Elsy believes she has been led to this world to help wrap up the unfinished pages. She sets out to help the characters find their dreams & happiness. However, there's one grumpy bookseller that she just can't place & he does not want Elsy meddling with the townspeople lives.

I've seen many reviews saying this book is a love letter to romance readers & I 100% agree with that statement. I'm sure many of us have that book that just feels like home. Youu feel like you're a part of that world & know the characters like they're your best friend. Elsy has the opportunity to experience her favorite books come to life.

The romance was a bit lackluster but I wasn't too bothered by it. I was more drawn to the characters of Eloraton & watching Elsy attempt to help them while also working on her faults along the way.

This has been my favorite Ashley Poston & I can't wait to read her next book.

I absolutely adore Ashley Poston and even though this isn’t my new fave of hers (the Seven Year Slip is), I still really enjoyed this. I loved the magical realism and book within a book concept, but the romance just didn’t work for me the way her other books have. I’m not sure where my disconnect was! The premise was so cool but the execution just didn’t quite work for me! Even though this book should have checked all the boxes for me I just didn’t really love the way it played out (and that third act breakup 🤦🏼‍♀️).


Thank you Berkley for the ARC!

I LOVED the concept of this!!! So original and fun! The setting and atmosphere gave me such Gilmore girl vibes and I loved the ending of this too!

I just didn’t think the chemistry of the MCs was there - kinda felt like it came out of no where and parts of the book just felt a little all over the place. Also listened to this mostly on audio and I just really didn’t vibe with narrator - especially compared to Ashley’s previous 2 books.

I had such high hopes for this one, and while I did enjoy the premise, it ended up falling a bit flat (especially considering how much I love and adore Ashley Poston's other romances).

My favorite part of this one was undoubtedly the premise. I think any reader would love the idea of somehow finding themselves in the world of their favorite book series and being able to interact with their favorite characters (for anyone wondering, I would love to happen upon the world of Well Met so I can go to the renaissance faire and meet Simon as his pirate self). In fact, I felt that Elsy's interactions with all of the characters outshone the love story itself.

However, there were elements of this one I found to be increasingly frustrating.

First and foremost, the mystery of Anders's presence in the town. Elsy spends most of the story theorizing over who he is, and finds herself (incorrectly) convinced that Anders was meant to be the love interest in the author's final unwritten book in the series. Maybe it's just me, but I felt that the truth behind Anders being in the town was fairly obvious, especially after Elsy sees him in the hidden graveyard.

I also found myself annoyed with the book's "third act break-up". While Anders's reasoning for taking so long to reunite with Elsy, I fundamentally did not understand Elsy's reasoning for [SPOILERS AHEAD] leaving alone, believing that Anders would want to stay in the town with the character that most closely mirrored the author of the series in real life.

Overall, as with many of Ashley Poston's books, this one was fun and whimsical, and I would recommend it for that element of whimsy alone, but it would not be my go-to recommendation of hers.

✨Book Review✨
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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I'm not sure exactly why, but this book sort of fell flat for me. It was a cute concept, but I wasn't super invested in the love story, the characters seemed a little two-dimensional, and I just didn't feel excited to keep reading. If you are super excited about the idea of falling into the town where your favorite book is set, you might like this one more than I did and I would say it's worth a try!

Thank you to Berkley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Novel Love Story has such a unique concept, but the delivery ultimately left me wanting more.

Elsy, our female protagonist finds herself emerged into the world of her favorite romance novels, as she begins to question how this is even possible she also begins to wonder why she can’t seem to place Anders, the bookstore owner, and his relationship with this town and its people. Elsy’s love for this town is so clear and it also makes her question if she wants to find a way back to her reality or if she should just stay in the comfort of Eloraton.

The parts of the book I loved most are the parts where Ashley Poston writes about books and the sheer magic they have on readers’ lives, the beauty and comfort that comes from finding a book/author that you feel completely connected to and seen by.

While I did love this premise from the start, it was also what ended up causing a few issues for me and my reading experience. Elsy knows Eloraton and all of the people that live there, but for us, the readers, we only know them through Elsy, which made it hard for me to truly know and love them in the same way that she does. And I really really wanted to.

If you ask me which authors helped usher in my newfound appreciation for magical realism and novels with fantastical elements, I’d raise you Ashley Poston.

I read THE DEAD ROMANTICS when it came out in 2022 and was surprised by how much I liked a ghostly love story. Cue last summer’s THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP, which played with time travel in a really unique way and I was hooked.

In A NOVEL LOVE STORY, Poston once again plays with magical elements, but this time, a lonely English professor gets trapped in the town from her favorite book series. After Elsy’s entire book club ditches their annual cabin retreat, she decides to go on her own. While en route, her car breaks down leaving her stranded in the town from her favorite romance series. While she can recognize almost all of the townspeople from her beloved books, she’s stumped by Anders, a grumpy bookstore owner. As she tries to usher the town into the happy ending it deserves—the author passed away before finishing the final book—she wonders if it might be time to write her own happily ever after.

This book was written for the book girlies! If you’ve ever dreamed of living in the world from your favorite book series, then you’ll devour this. The setting and atmospheric elements truly shine in here. There’s a quaint bookstore, a haunted B&B, and a Gilmore Girls-esque diner. It was sweet to experience Elsy’s excitement at being in this world, and there were some fun nods (the starlings’ song, the graveyard). ALSO—can we talk about the callbacks to her other books? Poston’s writing is warm as ever, and the way Elsy figures out what she wants was a highlight of the book.

Unfortunately, this one faltered for me in terms of actual romance. I didn’t quite buy the connection between Elsy and Anders, largely because it was lacking in tension and chemistry. I think a lot of airtime was given to setting up this world, and when it came to creating a full-bodied romance, this one was lacking.

All in all, a great read in terms of atmospheric elements, but I wouldn’t write home about the romance.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫Book Review

Everyone on Bookstagram should read this book it is so fitting for us all. Finding community and friendship through books. I loved the magical realism, it made for a fun and entertaining story. This cover is just gorgeous too! I got lost and bored in the middle…and the concept of a book within a book was a little confusing, but overall a fun read! There were a lot of good quotes in this book and I couldn’t pick just one!

Quotes:

“The bridge came, and I passed over it. And I turned the page…”

“Find me in the romance section.”

“There were still happy endings to be found…even if they weren’t my own.”

"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 towards a story that it might just snap in two."

TROPES
* Magic realism
* Small town
* Forced proximity
* Grumpy & Sunshine
* Book about books

Spice: 🌶️

Ashley Poston has been one of my favorite authors dating back to her YA days. Her adult romance novels have been stellar to this point. I was afraid to read this one and genuinely put it off for months.

I saw some reviews that it was boring and I had no idea how THIS premise could be boring but oh man, was it ever. If I read this without knowing who the author was I wouldn’t believe it was Poston. The idea is SO great here but the execution was very bad! The story follows Eileen as she stumbles into the small town from her favorite book series, tragically cut short due to the death of the author. She immediately starts meddling in the characters' lives and falls for the bookstore owner, a man who was not written into the series that she remembered.

Unfortunately everything was very slow. Almost nothing happens through the first 75% - I couldn't even tell you anything aside from the basic premise above. It was a struggle to get through, which I just didn't see coming. Poston usually does such a great job with the magical realism romances.

She kept describing the MMC as having “minty eyes” and smelling like black tea… over and over AND OVER again. The Kindle keyword search showed “mint” or “minty” a total of *31* times. Genuinely insane! I was trying to figure out if she did it on purpose to be super meta and overuse a romance trope but it didn't work if that was the intention. The romance in general was actually bad: poorly written, simultaneously too slow and too rushed, and the couple had zero chemistry. During the third act breakup I actually thought there was a chance this wasn't a romance novel and that they'd stay apart (partially because it came out of nowhere and was incredibly forced, and also because I didn't enjoy them as a couple enough to care if they got back together).

By the end, the whole thing felt entirely pointless. All of the meddling she did with the townspeople and side characters didn't really serve a purpose. I didn't hate the actual ending of the book because it made sense but it wasn't enough to really redeem anything for me. Let’s hope this was just Poston’s first and only miss!

living in a fictional world of your favorite comfort reads might be every reader's dream, but that's realistically impossible. not for Elsy, tho. one moment she went on a trip alone in her car, and the next her car broke down in a small town that happen to be the town of her favorite romance series. she got to see every place mentioned in the books, and felt like she personally knew each of the town's people even though she just met them right there. she knew the details of that town like the back of her hand, except for one person, a grumpy bookstore owner, which she was sure never appeared in the series. so what happened in that town and why did Elsy get stranded there?

i was surprised that this book has magical realism aspect, not just a regular contemporary romance. it was unique, but coincidentally the book i read exactly before this has several similar conditions that made me feel disoriented a bit while reading this book.the romance progression was good, the twist was unexpected, and i liked the ending.

I want to start by saying I love the prose and the premise.
As Always, Ashley's writing is a breath of fresh air and easy to follow. You can check out some of my favorite quotes at the end of this review. And the premise is fantastic. For the last 15 years, l've been dreaming about reading a book like this. I've always thought it would be such a fun story if the main character was dropped into her favorite story and what would happen if she fell in love with one of the characters. How would that play out?? And lo and behold, Ashley Poston goes and writes this exactly!
However, I think I like the premise of the story more than the actual execution because I never felt captivated in the way | was hoping. Honestly, it started off strong. For the first 50%, it was a 4 star read. But then, I started noticing things that bothered me and they were repetitive throughout the story so my interest sort of fizzled out to the point that by the last 20% I was skimming to get to the end.

This love letter to romance readers made my heart so freaking full. Ashley Poston writes the most comforting and swoonworthy love stories and I will never get over them, ever. I loved this book!

What would it be like to stumble into the world of your favorite book? Magical, and inviting, but also probably not what you really need to grow, in an ultimate sense. Ashley Poston cleverly riffles through the implications of ending up in such a story - how long should main character Elsy stay, and what should she take with her?

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance, Netgalley, and PRH Audio for providing free advanced copies of this! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

I've been putting off writing this review for ages because sadly it is one of my most disappointing reads of the year...

I absolutely LOVED this author's last 2 romances, and had no doubts going into this one that it would be another 5 star read. And I just... didn't have a great time.

This has a fun, bookish setup following a down on her luck heroine who accidentally drives into the small town of her favorite romance book. Only to meet a grumpy librarian she doesn't recognize and gets trapped when her car breaks down.

While the idea of this book was great it theory, in execution I felt very little for it. Through the majority of this book, I just felt really detached from everything. Ashley Poston's writing is amazing and kept me engaged, but the characters themselves fell so flat.

But the ending is really where this lost me. The 3rd act breakup made me legitimately angry. And there was no coming back from that in my eyes.

Overall this wasn't a book I actively disliked. But it definitely didn't live up to the love I have for this author's other works. I'll definitely still be picking up whatever she writes next though! And hopefully this was just a one off miss for me.

A Novel Love Story is a love story to love stories

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston was delightful. I have been on a kick of reading books set in contemporary settings that have a touch of magic—magic that is just generally accepted, embraced, and enjoyed. These stories make me so happy. A Novel Love Story beautifully delivered my magical realism fix.

A bookish romance for the bookish
Elsy, a college professor, avid romance reader, and seeker of happy endings, is struggling. She is recovering from a traumatic breakup and feels left behind. Her best friend is about to get engaged, and all the members of her book club have ditched their annual meetup at the cabin because they have competing plans. She needs a break. She needs her week of reading books in a remote cabin to decompress from all of it, so she decides to go alone.

But life has other plans, and her drive to the cabin is riddled with obstacles, including a terrible storm and no GPS. She pulls off at an exit trying to find her way and almost runs into a man standing in the middle of the road. After her car veers off the road and a subsequent altercation with this man, she decides to stay the night. When she wakes up the next day, she realizes the town is strangely familiar. But it’s not just the town; it’s the residents. She knows all of them intimately because they are all fictional characters in her favorite book series.

Elsy is stranded in a town that doesn’t exist, surrounded by people that should only exist in the pages of her book.

But who’s the moody bookstore owner she almost ran over?
Anders is not a character in the book series, so who is he, and why is he here? Could he be the main character in the unwritten book? Unfortunately, the author died before she could complete the series. This left Elsy with a huge unfinished-story hole in her heart. Can she help fix some of these characters’ journeys to help them find their happy endings? Can she live out the rest of the series? Will she allow herself to fall for a fictional character?

“I wanted him to kiss me again, sitting on this park bench, on such a lovely summer night. The fireflies danced around us, the wind winding through the trees, and when he set his eyes on me, I felt like the only story he wanted to read. And that was dangerous, because he was fictional and Rachel had written someone for him. Someone good.”
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Isn’t it every reader’s dream to live in their favorite fictional town?
I enjoyed so much my time with this book. The characters were charming, the magic was perfect and the twist was unexpected. There’s a sweet melancholy that permeates throughout the story, but it has strong waves of happy light shining through. It was an ode to all the small-town love stories I love so much and that I would be elated to live in even for just a few minutes. Thanks to A Novel Love Story, I feel like I did!

This was a fun book, and I really appreciated the opportunity to read it! I will recommend this book.

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve enjoyed previous books from this author and I was excited for a new release. I loved the premise of the book and the creative idea of a small town book being real!

I had a bit of trouble getting into the story and being invested. Overall, I liked it but sometimes I had little interest in picking the story up again. It often felt heavy in contemporary fiction or women’s fiction over romance. The love story seemed a secondary plot point next to the FMC’s character arc.

I generally loved the “life lessons” that this story gave. Although I had trouble staying connected, the author had so many beautiful and relatable real-life takeaways.

I read this one via audiobook and the performance was okay. Thank you @prhaudio for my review copy. In this case, I may have enjoyed the story more with a physical read. The narrator’s southern accent was at times distracting. If accents can be bothersome to you, maybe stick with a physical read!

Perfect for you if you like:
A story FOR READERS
Working through grief
The escapism that books bring
Small town
Grumpy/sunshine
She’s a reader, he’s a bookstore owner
Forced proximity

The Seven Year Slip was one of my favorite books in the past year so I was excited for the opportunity to read A Novel Love Story. If you have ever wanted to step in the world created by your favorite author, then this is the book for you. On her way to her annual romance novel binge-reading & wine week (that she will be attending solo because everyone else in the book group couldn't make it), Elsy drives across a bridge into the town created by her favorite author who died before finishing the series. There is a grumpy bookstore owner who pushes her away, a broken car that traps her in town, and a town of friendly residents that she already knows. Elsy quickly gets caught up in a whirlwind of familiarity and romance while slowly getting to know the grumpy bookstore owner with mysteries of his own. A Novel Love Story is a fun, romantic, escapist story, especially for anyone who loves the idea of visiting the worlds they find in their favorite books.

Thanks Netgalley and Penguin Random House for this ARC.

Elsy’s favorite book series never ended. The author tragically died, so the story was left open. However, the series is why Elsy loves reading; it even helped her find her book club of best friends who meet once a year for a week-long reading vacation. This year though, the book club members are all busy, but Elsy needs a romance reading vacation more than ever after suffering her own heartbreak. She decides to take the trip alone, but on the way, her car breaks down in a small town… the town from the book series. The town is supposed to be fictional, and it’s filled with all of the book characters, and a grumpy bookstore owner who seems to know the town is actually a book. Elsy finds herself living in her favorite story, and she learns a lot about happily ever afters and not so happy endings. This novel is more of a reflection on the romance between readers and the books they love than a romance novel. Read this book for the descriptions about how reading affects people, but also stay for the quirky characters and, yes, a love story.

I'm in the minority but this didn't work for me. I could not get into it and the magical realism stuff just didn't make sense. I put it down hoping to come back to it but never felt interested in picking it up again. I ended up DNF around 20%..