I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Love Hack by Sophie Ranald is a first person-POV office romance set in London and New York. When Lucy’s job becomes obsolete, she offers to take on the position of an advice column for the male readership of the company’s other magazine, Max. As she gets more in touch with how to give advice, she also finds herself falling for her coworker, Ross, and growing concerned about her sister, Amelie.

While I personally am against AI in many ways due to having many artist friends who have detailed the issues with it, I understood Renald’s point of AI as a tool for Lucy to use until she no longer needed it and how that would be something Lucy would even seriously consider as someone interested in technology. There are ethical questions in Lucy using AI at all to help her write her advice and copy-pasting bits and pieces, but she ultimately used it more as a rubber duck to help her come to conclusions about what advice to give as her confidence grew. Lucy also used the AI to start thinking about the askers’ problems in a more fair, non judgemental way, particularly when she was frustrated with those asks.

One thing I really liked was the slowburn between Ross and Lucy and how Ross kept trying to subtly suggest to Lucy that he liked her. Early on, Ross does start to date Amelie’s friend, Bryony, who he met at Amelie’s bachelorette party, but his heart is not totally in it. Ross is never depicted as being cruel to Bryony or even as using her but more unsure of how to navigate a relationship where he’s the less interested party. While Ross doesn’t look great for doing it, it is a realistic situation that people do end up finding themselves in.

Content warning for mentions of 9/11 and depictions of cheating

I would recommend this to readers looking for an office romance where the FMC is into nerd culture, fans of romances that explore current topics, and those looking for a story that does some discussion on misogyny.

When Lucy needed to come up with a proposal for a magazine column, who would have thought it would be a Dear Adam, men's advice to change the trajectory of her world.
Lucy is a 29 year old journalist with poor relationship experiences. Her younger sister, Amelie, is marrying finance pretty-boy and moving to NY for 6 months after the wedding. Lucy's job is dissolved from print to e-mag only, so she and her sister come up with the ide for Licy to give relationship advise to men, as a man.
A workplace crush, letters to "Adam", and discovery of her self-confidence cause Lucy to take a risk in helping get to bottom of an anonymous letter she believes she knows the author of.
With the help of Ross, her workplace crush, she goes to NYC to sleuth her way to answers about the anonymous letter. Will her heart be mended as Amelie's becomes broken?
#TheLoveHack #NetGalley

“The Love Hack” by Sophie Ronald is a contemporary romance novel that explores the intersection of technology and relationships. Ronald’s writing is engaging and witty, capturing the nuances of digital-era dating with humor and insight. The characters are well-developed and relatable, and the plot unfolds at a steady pace, keeping readers invested. Overall, “The Love Hack” is a great read for anyone intrigued by the impact of technology on personal relationships which I feel it is so common now.

I was initially drawn in by the enticing cover and the promise that it would appeal to fans of Beth O'Leary and Emily Henry, but unfortunately, it fell far short of expectations. The main character, Lucy, remains tangled in her past relationship and harbors a pervasive distrust of men throughout the majority of the book. Instead of the expected romance and humor of a romcom, the story is largely preoccupied with her ex and the strained relationship between her sister and her partner. I found myself increasingly frustrated with Lucy's character, and the limited romantic subplot felt rushed and disconnected from the rest of the narrative. Ultimately, the ending felt hastily thrown together and lacked coherence.

I want to thank Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Sophie Ranald for the arc and leave this review voluntarily!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to a copy of this story*

Sophie Ranald's The Love Hack deals with Lucy, a recently jobless woman who takes the job of writing an advice column for men under the alias of "Adam". But the catch is, Lucy knows nothing about men! She finds herself thrown into the issues of several men, all while trying to understand the man who has caught her attention at work.

Honestly, the premise of this story was very promising. The things I found myself most relating to would be the fact that when you are one of the only women in a male-dominated field, you can definitely tend to feel awkward and unsure of how to act. This book does not shy away from the fact that women are still always under much more scrutiny than men. And Lucy's initial actions felt very real to the fact that as women, we are constantly trying to prove ourselves.

And it was an interesting topic of discussion in the story of why some men wouldn't listen to the advice simply because it was coming from a woman. I wished the topic had been discussed further because why is that the case? Why is it so often that some people only care to listen when its coming from their gender and not the other way around? And why is it for some men, feel less emasculating to ask a fellow man for advice about women instead of asking women?

The last thing I can compliment about the story is the author's balanced portrayal of issues men face. Not all were asking about love and some weren't always asking with the best intentions. It is important that the story never painted men as all bad or all good. There is good and bad apples in every bunch and it is good that the reader is consistently showed that one man being bad does not mean all are. And again, many of the emails written to "Adam" were topics that I feel should be more broached about when it comes to men, like dealing with emotions, feelings of insecurity, and also the confusion they can feel when it comes to relationships.

Moving to the things I did not love as much: I didn't feel much chemistry between Lucy and Ross. As much as their interactions were cute, there was so noise going on with Lucy's constant memories of her ex, her issues with her sister, and Ross' relationship with another character that any strong signs of chemistry or intimacy felt so short or felt forgotten. It was hard to feel they were truly into one another when they didn't spend that much time together.

And lastly, this story's cavalier take on AI. As somewhat of a writer myself, I felt a bit saddened by this story's inclusion of the main character using AI in her job and suffering zero repercussions for it. While the book justifies her usage of it and tries to defend its stance of the topic, it doesn't erase the fact that having a computer generate your work does not make it your work. And editing it does not make it yours either. The beauty of writing and fields of creative work is that someone is working hard to create something on their own. Writing advice can be hard, but that is why you research and why you do the work to make it good. Well-written responses don't come by magic, they come by hard work and dedication. And it was just very disappointing to see the main character not really learn her lesson in the end when it came to that.

Overall, there are parts of the story I could I enjoyed. I enjoyed the topics it opened up and all the things that it made me think about as I was reading. But I also do think lots of parts of the story suffered because there was simply too much going on all at once.

I loved 'The Love Hack'. Humorous, sexy, romantic and a real feel good book that puts you in a good mood. Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

I was drawn to this book by the cover. The cover is great, that by itself is 5 stars. The book is more like a 2. It has potential, for sure, but it is a slow burn and lacks the bones + romance to make it .. a romance.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Storm Publishing for the DRC in exchange for my honest review.

"The Love Hack" by Sophie Ranald was a fun, light read but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. The book had a good mix of cute moments and some more serious topics, which kept things interesting. The love story between Lucy and Ross was cute, but it wasn't the main focus most of the time, which was a bit of a letdown.

Lucy is a relatable character, and I liked seeing her grow more confident. Her relationships with her sister Amelie and her friends were highlights for me. There were some cringy moments that made me laugh, and I powered through those to enjoy the rest of the story.

The plot moved quickly, and I wished there had been more dialogue during key moments to flesh things out. Ross, the love interest, felt more like a background character, which made it hard to get invested in their romance.

Overall, it’s a decent office romance for some quick, easy reading. Perfect for a bit of escapism by the pool. If you’re into light-hearted rom-coms, give it a try. Thanks to NetGalley and Sophie Ranald for the early access!

I couldn’t make it past the first 50 pages of this. The quotations were just apostrophes which was weird, there wasn’t good breakup among the dialogue and I was bored. Wouldn’t recommend.

The Love Hack by Sophie Ranald 🤖
Overall Rating: 3/5 ⭐

I thought this book had a good mix of cute stuff and serious topics. I liked a lot of the characters and the love story was fun and cute, although was not really the main focus in the book a lot of the time.

I liked the first half the most and found the second half a bit less successful for me. One thing I found a bit meh was how Lucy kept using the AI bot. I can understand its use in the story, but personally found it a bit yikes.

I would totally read more books by this author and would recommend this book for anyone looking for their next quick office romance.

Thank you @NetGallery and Sophie Ranald for allowing me early access to this book to read and review it!

This was a cute and fun book. It was a bit slow at first, but the story started to be more interesting the more I read. It was some cringy moment that I giggled and couldn’t continue at first, but I powered through it and laughed.
Lucy is the fmc and I wanted to hug her. She was insecure and had self doubt about herself, but you can read that she starting slowly to be more confident.
Loved her relationship with her sister and how her friends became Lucys friends too. It was a fun book to read and would recommend it.

I enjoyed this light hearted romance. I did feel that the plot moved a bit quickly at times - some more dialogue between the characters would have been good in some of the really pivotal moments. Some aspects felt a little out of control.
It was a fun easy read, great for reading by the pool or for some escapism.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was torn on this book, I just think it’s one not for me. I enjoyed the writing style and it was easy for me to get into it but I just feel I wasn’t a fan of Lucy.

The Love Hack was going to be a fun rom-com to read but while reading it I kept waiting for it to fall in to a story that popped and was never a romance that was happening. I needed more chemistry and a bit of a wow factor to give it some feeling. There never was that moment when I knew everything was going to be fine and love would be there. When I got to the end all I felt was a bit of a dull what happened.
Thank you NetGalley, Sophie Ranald and Storm Publishing for the copy of The Love Hack. This is my personal review.

I really enjoyed this book!
I haven’t read anything from this author before, but I am excited to in the future!
I liked the writing style and the journey we went on with the characters

As the nerdy girl who almost gave up on men, I relate to Lucy so so much. This had the swoon moments with Ross to completed sister relationships and traumatic pasts. Lucy has managed to save her job with a proposal for a column called Ask Adam to answer men’s questions. At this job, she is surrounded by men since the publication is a men’s magazine. In learning how to understand men for this column, she also learns about herself and how she views men. She also finds friendship in some of her co-workers. All while navigating a new job and new friendships, she is worried about her sister and her new brorther-in-law. This book doesn’t necessarily focus on the romance at the beginning, but it does have little tid bits here and there about Lucy’s crush on Ross. Overwall, this was a cute workplace romance with hint of self discovery.

Review to be posted to Instagram TBD. Review posted to Goodreads as of 31May2024.

A cute, fun rom com that fell a little short for me. I was drawn in by the cover and the description. I love a good workplace romance. The MMC, Ross seemed like just a small part of the story and it was hard to feel connected to him and the love story. It was definitely more focused on the FMC, Lucy’s relationship with her sister, Amelie. It was an enjoyable read, but I didn’t love it as much as I hoped.

In the rom-com The Love Hack, Lucy is down on her luck and trying to save her job. Using AI to help give love/life advice to men, Lucy finds herself crushing on her co-worker. Ross is dating someone Lucy knows, Lucy is trying to not get into a relationship. AI might help solve all of Lucy’s problems or it might cause more!

When Lucy finds out her job is at risk of redundancy, she (and her sister) form a plan to keep Lucy from being out of a job. This is how 'Ask Adam' is born, an advice column for men on Max! magazine. Why 'Ask Adam' and not 'Ask Lucy'? - you may ask - well, because men think they know it all and they would never take dating advice from a woman (but they totally should!).
Lucy, who is completely clueless about anything man-related, finds herself in a predominantly male office, writing dating advice about subjects that she doesn't know much about : Is my wife cheating? Am I the asshole? Does size matter?
On top of that, there's Ross, her new work colleague, that suddenly reawakened the possibility of fancying someone, after her last disastrous relationship.

On top of all that, Lucy's sister and best friend is getting married to Zack, a man that Lucy doesn't exactly love and doesn't quite understand. Despite her feelings, Lucy wants to support her sister and see her happy, even if that means she will not be as present in her life.

Will clueless Lucy be able to give men the advice they need? Will Ross help Lucy overcome her past relationship, or will he remind her of why she stays away from men?
What will happen with her relationship with her sister
I had to find out!

This book was fun!
If you are looking for a nice, easy and fun read, this is the book for you.
The Ask Adam column bits were my absolute favourite and I found myself thinking of what I would respond to those men if I was in Adam's shoes (well.. Lucy's shoes).
Lucy's relationship with Ross and her sister were very entertaining to read and I couldn't help but also love Astro, Lucy's cat.
A great summer read! ☺️

Thank you @Netgalley and @StormPublishing for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to storm publishing and netgalley for a copy of love hack in exchange for a review.
Love Hack is a fun rom com which talks about Lucy who finds a job surrounded by men where she has to advise them about their relationships of whom she absolutely know nothing about kind courtesy of her failed relationships. Along the way as she spends more time with her co -woker Ross she starts to see a different side of men that is pleasing to her considering the fact that she lost hope in any Lovy dovey relationships and anything that comes with it.

The Romance between Lucy and Ross was adorable and lovely. I happily enjoyed reading and it was quite and easy read and very engaging to me. I also loved the part where the author embraced sisterhood and sibling love.