Listen, it's not like I had huge hopes for this one but I did expect something along the lines of a fun, lighthearted romantic good time, complete with some potentially silly well-meaning hijinks and or angsty emotional beats.. or maybe even both.

But I'm coming to you from not even the halfway mark to say that since chapter eight (I'm now on fourteen, which is 23% and 34% respectively) I have not been able to move on from Sophie's younger sister stealing her purse.. and being encouraged to keep it by the entire family of witnesses. But I had hope that this would be redeemed somewhere along the line. Except now, in the aforementioned chapter fourteen, Sophie witnesses Charlotte rifling through her things (again!) in order to hunt down the dustbag (this is, by the way, an expensive Chanel designer bag) and she just.. gives it to her.

Okay, I'm going to go back and finish the book. I hope it gets better.



Is Charlotte some kind of klepto!? Get out of your sister's stuff oh my god I'm going to have an aneurysm. And oh good here comes the blackmail portion of the entertainment I guess.

I might be going out on a limb here but the villain of this story won't be Sophie's insecurity or lack of self confidence or even her startling ability to cosplay as a doormat. It's not the repulsive ex boyfriend or the judgmental parents. It won't even be the delusion that the love interests have realistic chemistry or that readers will buy this connection that has, so far, spanned forty-eight hours; the majority of which they have not spent together. It's an eighteen year old spoiled child.

<img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S3wsCRJVUyg/maxresdefault.jpg"/>

And while I wasn't totally right, I wasn't totally wrong, either.

<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/02/a0/e802a0d5ac1839d9f84c5fc82e9fd00c.jpg"/>

But honestly, the ridiculous cast of characters aside (both in terms of awfulness or stupidity and sometimes both) I just.. had a really hard time with both Sophie and Joe. Their interactions started off with the typical sharp edged dislike to their banter, then evolved into something a little softer with a lusty kind of vibe, and then everything after that has fluctuated all over the place without consistency or sense or reason. Like, for example, near the 70% mark, Sophie rescues Joe from an uncomfortable situation (a truly bonkers one that had me face first falling into a pillow both from despair and cringe) and instead of letting that breathe and maybe also acknowledging that there was something deeply wrong about it, immediately we pivot into him saying he's lust-drunk over her and can't stop thinking about an earlier interaction. I mean.. was that the right moment? No. It was not. And if I hadn't given up on the spirit of this story before then (like, maybe, in chapter eight), I certainly did at that moment.

Having said that, though, there were some things I didn't expect. And some of these rocky dynamics do smooth over in ways that I didn't hate. But in retrospect I just don't know how it was so easy to do and makes me wonder why we had to experience it any other way. Especially with all the non-family drama; we could've done without and still had plenty. And finally, there was an ending that featured one of my least favourite tropes and considering everything I've mostly revealed up until this point, I'll leave that one as an unknown.

As with many books that deal with authors or writers or focus on the writing and publishing industry, sometimes it just gets a little too much. Maybe because I'm a reviewer or because I'm in the community but I don't really always jive when the focus on the marketing or social media or trends and tropes or BookTok elements just take center stage. So if you prefer this particular element to be a subplot, you probably won't enjoy this. But equally a lot of people love the meta-ness of it all so, as always, your mileage will vary.

I think somewhere in this there could've been an enjoyable romance for me. It was just overwhelmed by so many other factors. And while I had committed to logging this into the lowest star rating category on multiple occasions throughout the reading experience, I did end up rounding up near the end and let that stick. That said, would I read Kelk again? Undecided.

Anyone who loves the romance genre NEEDS to read this amazing new book by Lindsey Kelk. Hands down my new favorite from her. This story features a schoolteacher and secret bestselling romance author whose parents work in publishing and she fears would be horribly embarrassed to learn their daughter was a best-selling steamy romance author. In a twist of fate, the main she hates shows up at her father's birthday party and the find themselves falling in love but he's got a BIG secret. Can she forgive him to find her own HEA?? Great on audio and perfect for fans of Katherine Center's The rom-commers. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

-enemies to lovers, only one bed trope, slow burn
-Sophie is a schoolteacher who is also anonymously a best selling author
-she meets hot shot marketing director, Joe, who knows how to push all her buttons
-the read dragged on a bit longer than necessary and the third act break up felt abrupt

3.4⭐️

3 ⭐️ 2 🌶️

Read As An Arc

💓 Insta Love
💓 Enemies To Lovers
💓 FMC Teacher & Writer
💓 MMC Marketing Director
💓 Forced Proximity
💓 Miscommunication
💓 3rd Act Break-up



The cover is soooo pretty! My first initial thoughts of this got me super excited, sounded really good also, so I couldn’t wait to read it!

The read did fall a bit short for me, I think my expectations were really high for this one. I really wanted to be able to love this book and give it at least as a minimum 4, but again, fell short.

Her humour in this book is pretty great, one of the things that kept me reading! The overall story and plot is a good one, but I think it needs some tweaking in some aspects. Their first encounter I feel like laid it out for me and my feelings towards the book: I found the love interest, Joe, unlikable and condescending, despite his some redeeming qualities later in the book, first encounter dug his grave. And Sophie… I found Sophie frustrating. I would have loved, even if it was just once, if she stuck up for herself and say something, a little bit of that feminine power at least.

The detailed descriptions in this book were great! At time it did seem a bit wordy which could make the descriptions, especially about nature, (beautifully written I may add) a bit confusing.

Overall, it is a good story. I wish I was able to like this more to the way I anticipated, but there are things that made it fall short for me. Although, this book may have not been for, it will be for others, and I am sure they will enjoy it! It’s worth a shot to try out!




* Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!

I thought this was fun! It was bookish (perfect for authors and aspiring ones too), fast paced, charming and a great light summer read!

REVIEW✨
Love Story
By Lindsey Kelk

So this was a very fast read for me. Once I started, I couldn’t stop… the writing was so funny and captivated me so easily, the chapters were short and sweet and always ended with you wanting to read more. Sophie is a small town teacher who has a secret, she’s written the best seller adult romance of the year in secretly. Sophie is Este Cox, and no body knows it, expect when a sexy stranger shows up and threatens to undo everything at her Father’s birthday weekend.

I did hope that because this is being marketed as a spicy romance novel that it would in fact have spice. It had lots of pining and tension, but when the spice would start it would quickly fade to black and move on to the next scene. I was really hoping that it would have that spice that the main character writes about in her book and have that reflect in her own life. So when I first finished this one, I wanted to rate it a 3 star because of the lack of spice and the completely unrealistic character of Charlotte. But I realize that spice isn’t for everyone, so I do think that this would be a great book if your looking for a book that doesn’t have a lot of spice but has a great romance story as the heart of the plot.

I couldn’t stand Charlotte, I felt that her character was completely unrealistic and not necessary for the plot of the book (just super unrealistic that her family would let her get away with the things that she does, and nothing likeable her at all)

This book has…
💕 Secret Identity
💕 Very Taylor Swift Coded
💕 Written as someone who loves Booktok
💕 Fast Pacing
💕 Single POV
💕 Steamy scenes that end in closed door

Romance: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️
Plot points: 💥💥💥💥💥
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

So, this was ultimately and unfortunately a huge letdown.

Love Story starts off strong — a setup for fun commentary on the publishing industry, a multifaceted main character, and just an overall really enjoyable romcom. Quickly, Love Story unravels as much of the stated plot in the summary is resolved within the first fraction of the book and we settle for a cookie-cutter romcom setting. In other words, there was just a huge misalignment in what I expected from the book and what I actually got.

The former involving a charming and wild chase to track down Sophie’s lost manuscript and the latter involving a lacklustre and quite frankly, really annoying cast of side characters sandwiched between a classic instalove romance I couldn’t care less about and a bunch of weirdly inserted contemporary references.

I know some people say this is more of a satirical commentary on the publishing industry rather than the actual romance but both really just fell flat to me. In addition, the dragging pace was only further complemented by a completely lacklustre and ridiculous third-act breakup that did nothing to charm the main romance nor the broader themes of the book.

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada and Lindsey Klek for the advanced digital copy of this book. My thoughts are my own.

"Love Story" whisks you away on a rollercoaster of emotions over a single, wild weekend, giving new meaning to the term "insta-love." The story follows Sophie, the secret author of a bestselling smutty romance novel. She’s kept this juicy tidbit under wraps, especially from her highbrow, literature-snob parents who work in publishing. Sophie is absolutely delightful and so relatable—I totally got where she was coming from! Joe, however, was a bit of a mystery. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him, which was definitely part of the intrigue and all gets sorted out by the end.

The witty banter between Sophie and Joe, as well as her interactions with her family, is pure gold. Seriously, I laughed so hard I nearly cried. Their epic roast of Sophie’s ex is something I’ll cherish forever—absolutely hilarious!

Sophie’s adventure also opens up a wonderful dialogue about the (internalized) misogyny that romance writers and readers often face. It’s maddening how women get belittled for enjoying romance novels when they offer the same kind of escape as other genres like fantasy. I’ve had my moments of being a literary snob, but I’ve since embraced my love for romance, and Kelk’s story celebrates that shift. I also adored the shout-outs to other romance authors sprinkled throughout. It’s a fabulous, feel-good read!

Book Review
Love Story by Lindsey Kelk

Tropes and Thoughts
✅ small town, London/Harford
✅ fairy tale Garden cottage- think Holiday movie
✅ Publishing family, Brother is her agent, dad is an editor
✅ FMC writes under a Pseudonym
✅ Family has assumption that a Romance author is not a “real author “- except for younger sister who is on bookstagram and booktok
✅ FMC is a teacher by day
✅ Loved the pop/author culture references- every time I saw a reference to a book or author I love I highlighted the page
✅ FMC has Trust/imposter issues, she’s been burned before, she’s afraid to be happy, or to own her own story ( I hear this is common in new authors)
✅ a little bit of steam and spice and a whole lotta attraction between these enemy to lovers

Overall
A fun light hearted read sure to delight book lovers

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollinsca for my digital copy in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are My own.

Sophie was an interesting, well developed FMC with a good life, but a secret that could change it all. This could maybe be classified as insta-love, but also enemies to lovers and the combination made it interesting. The FMC and MC were either getting along great or not at all. Despite their mixed messaging, Joe had Sophie’s back from the start and kept her secrets, even to his own detriment. The surrounding cast of characters were fun, supportive, a little wild and occasionally downright annoying. It all worked to create a story that takes place mainly over the course of one mayhem-filled weekend. Well written and fun. The British insult game is high in this book and it was truly hilarious at times.

I LOVE a bookish story! And this one is not only set in the publishing world but is something of a lighthearted treatise on the value and importance of romance as a genre, aptly titled Love Story.

Sophie is afraid to tell her literary snob parents that she's the author of a bestselling romance novel; Joe, her unexpected ally in the secret keeping is someone she doesn't want to be drawn to…and of course, is.

I enjoyed the British setting, the banter, the light spice. Side characters made me fume or laugh as intended. All in all, it's a great romcom that I'm excited to share with my audience.

This was fun but I found it quite predictable and the musings on publishing felt kind of weird when Sophie was a huge nepo baby. I did really love Joe, though, and all the Taylor Swift references.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A book featuring book references and bookish characters with bookish jobs?! This was such a cute read perfect for book lovers.

Sophie is a school teacher by day, but at night she's a smut writer under a fake name. No one can find out who she is, but her book "Butterflies" has become a sensation and everyone is wondering who "Este Cox" could be! Joe works with Sophie's publisher. They have instant chemistry but her uncle warns her to stay away. When he shows up at her father's birthday weekend the sparks continue to fly....

Could not put this one down. There were SO many laugh out loud moments that made it the perfect rom com for me. Highly recommended.

This book was a really cute and sweet read, super simple and easy to get into. I had a ton of fun reading it and found myself smiling through it all. Super entertaining and I loved the dynamic between the characters so much! Definitely one of those fun beach reads!

I really do adore Lindsey's books, and I am so happy to say that her latest book, Love Story, is just as fabulous and fun as her previous books. Love Story is this beautiful blend of fun, humour, drama, and romance. There is just so much to love about this book, starting with how it shouts to the world how important the romance genre is to the literary world. I remember growing up and having to hide my romances because I knew that if anyone saw me reading them, then I would be judged for reading something that was considered to be trash by many. And even though romances are now getting more positive attention, there is still that stigma that romances and their readers aren't important to the industry. Lindsey does a wonderful job of weaving this issue into her story. Sophie has written a best-selling romance novel, but she has done so under a pen name. The reason for this is that she doesn't want her parents, who are well-known in the literary world, to know she wrote a romance because they think romance books are worthless. Sophie also has to deal with negative pushback from some who think romances are just books filled with smut and no actual plot. Joe is one of these critics. Lindsey was really thoughtful and a great cheerleader for all things related to the romance genre. I loved watching Sophie show Joe how wonderful the romance world is. It was also delightful watching Sophie interact with fans of her books; she continued to be amazed at how passionate readers are about the characters and stories she created.

The overall story is a lot of fun. Things move pretty quickly with the bulk of the story taking place over a short period of time. I was actually a bit surprised by the plot. I thought for sure that this would be a road trip book, with Joe and Sophie travelling all over England to try to locate her missing bag. That was not the case. Sophie's missing bag problem is solved quite quickly and with little excitement. I was curious about what direction Lindsey would take us in for the rest of the book, and I wasn't disappointed. Lots of crazy and funny things happen in the few days leading up to Sophie's dad's big birthday weekend. I enjoyed the ride this book took me on. It really was a hoot.

Lindsey has once again created a story with a wide range of delightful and slightly quirky characters. There wasn't a character in this book that I didn't like. They all had a purpose, whether it was comic relief, creating drama, or pushing the two MCs together. I loved the family dynamic that existed within Sophie's family. It's interesting watching a family interact, especially when they all have such different and, for some characters, strong personalities. Sophie has always felt she has let her parents down by choosing to teach instead of pursuing a career in the publishing industry. She also hides the fact that she is this famous author because she knows her parents hate the romance genre. There is a lot of growth in this book amongst a lot of the characters, not just the two MCs. It was great watching people connect in those quieter moments.

The romance is really enjoyable. I liked Sophie and Joe right from the moment they met. They both keep each other on their toes with very sharp and witty dialogue. The attraction between these two is right from the beginning, but things hit a rocky patch when Joe starts trash-talking about Sophie's book. To be fair, he doesn't know that Sophie is the book's author at that point in time. Between all those crazy, quirky moments, there are some wonderful, quiet moments where both characters start to get to know each other. I know not everyone is a fan of the third-act break-up, but in this case, I loved it. It was such an expected twist, and I loved how Joe had to grovel at the end of the book. I truly do love it when the hero has to suffer a bit.

Love Story is a book that puts a smile on my face and proves that Lindsey really knows what makes a great rom-com novel.

Loved it! A book about romance books and the stigma against them. References to so many good romance writers! A validation of why they are good books. Ironically they talk about the spicy nature of the book in the story, but the spice level in this one is quite implied and fade-to-black.

Lindsey Kelk always manages to make me smile. Her latest release LOVE STORY is about an author and a book editor, with a fun little twist. Buttoned up schoolteacher Sophie has written an incredibly successful Fifty Shades of Grey like book under a pen name. The catch? No one can know. Her parents are literary gurus and snobs who think romance novels are misogynistic and one-note. Joe Walsh is an editor for the imprint Sophie publishes under and after an impromptu meeting, a night of drunken karaoke and a spat like misunderstanding, the handsome cad has figured out her secret. Fate and its tricky little plot devices brings them together and they share a cottage for the weekend for Sophie's dad's 60th birthday where Sophie does everything she can to keep her dirty little secret from her family.

I'm a huge sucker for forced proximity and the slow burn on this one was exquisite. I couldn't give it a 5 ⭐️ rating though, as at just under 400 pages, I found the book a little long and there was a chunk in the middle that got a bit repetitive. I did really like the cast of quirky characters and the driving idea behind this book was executed so well. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for my earc. This one might need a sequel!

Rating - 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Date Read - May 31, 2024
Publication Date - July 4, 2024

*I received an E-ARC of this book for free in exchange for an honest review* - Thank you @lindseykelk, @harpercollinsca and @netgalley!

Love Story is a book about an author, which continues to intrigue me as a reader who is not also an author. I enjoyed reading about the publishing industry and how pseudonyms can get so complicated! I love the passionate debates and witty comebacks shared between the main characters throughout the entire story. It felt like foreplay and I ate it up! Sophie and Joe had me giggling and laughing out loud at some points. The karaoke scene reminded me of 27 Dresses... leave a comment below if you know what scene I’m talking about!

If you like rom coms and books about authors, along with a solid dose of drama, you should try Love Story!

Get excited to read Love Story, available July 4! 🎉

*Please check trigger warnings*

Sophie Taylor has problems (depending on your definition of problems.) For one thing, she's hiding from her family the fact that she's a best-selling romance author. And she's stuck spending a weekend in a one-bed guest house with a super obnoxious man.. with whom she has undeniable chemistry.

I really loved this book. The story was so cute and I loved the chemistry between Sophie and Joe. There was a slight bit more spice than this author's past works, but the laugh-out-loud moments were unchanged. There were a couple of characters I enjoyed hating and a plot twist that added to the fun. This would make a great beach read. Highly recommended!

Read if you like:
- Enemies to Lovers
- Writer FMC
- Insta-love
- Forced Proximity

I always enjoy Lindsey Kelk’s sense of humour and this book was no exception! There were so many hilarious moments and I loved all of the fun references used throughout. I really enjoyed being in the mind of a romance writer and felt that Joe & Soph had some great chemistry. Overall, this was a really light and fun read, and it’s probably my favourite that I’ve read from her so far!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.