Lucy is in danger of losing her job when the man who was hired before her was chosen for her position until her witty, man-expert sister pitches an idea to develop an advice column for dating advice for men. “Ask Adam” was a hit with management and with the help she was getting from her sister, Lucy truly believed she would be able to do this job even if it was out of her comfort zone.

Of course Lucy would be unlucky enough to be extremely attracted to the man who sits across from her, Ross - doing the job she truly wants to be doing. She thought the attraction would be manageable until she sees Ross out on her sister’s hen night hooking up with one of the bridesmaids.

And after Lucy’s sister pulls out of helping with the column, she’s at a loss and does her best to find other tools to help her write her replies to the men in her email inbox. She’s thrown through another loop when one of those emails strongly resembles the likes of her sister’s new husband.

This was such a cute read and I truly loved all of the side characters and how much they played a part in the book even if it didn’t seem like that much. As someone who has been THAT GIRL when being cheated on (iykyk, im not proud), it’s easy to get mad and upset when someone is delivering horrible news to you. Even if they care deeply for you, sometimes it’s hard to keep that anger and frustration directed at the correct target.

Lucy and her sister’s relationship made my heart so warm and full and I just absolutely adore them. Such a precious and special bond 🥺

An incredibly solid 3/5 stars. This book is predictable, in the absolute best way. The Love Hack follows a British journalist, Lucy, who is still reeling over the broken relationship of her former workplace romance. Lucy has completely sworn off all men until she is provided an opportunity to host an "Ask Adam" column for her journal/magazine company. Initially supported by her romancing, knowledgeable sister, Lucy has to independently support the column after her sister follows her new husband to New York. Lucy turns to AI to help navigate the woes of British men all over the nation and, unsurprisingly, falls in love with her new co-worker, Ross.

Things I loved:
- Ross, HE'S SO WONDERFUL AND I'M GUTTED THAT WE DON'T GET MORE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP. C'mon, like 30 pages is not sufficient to call this a "romance" novel
- The budding relationship between Ross & Lucy - give. me. more.
- The narrator - I listened to the audiobook version of this book and the narrating team was fantastic
- The Escape Room scene
- Lucy's New York hotel cocktail bar endeavor

Things I didn't love:
- Dear old sister
- The majority of scenes with Lucy. She's just kind of annoying
- The ChatGPT/AI system - I get that this is becoming more of our zeitgeist but reading about it in fiction novels still feels strange and forced to me

It was just predictable. I mean Hallmark movies are great because you know exactly what you're going to get. This book was no different.

Thank you Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. All above opinions are my own.

A sweet, slow burn workplace with excellent narration, marred a bit by an underdeveloped AI subplot. General readers probably won't care/notice, but given the current ethical issues around AI, particularly in the publishing arena, fellow authors are likely to be a bit taken aback by the breezy pro-chatbot stance the book takes.

Based on the cover and title, I thought I would be reading a romance book, but this book isn’t so much about romance rather than problems surrounding relationships.
Lucy, the lead character, haunted by a past failed relationship and unrequited love, becomes “Adam”, an advice columnist. Her eyes are opened through a series of events about the selfish and human nature of the men that are seeking her advice.
As a side note:I found it interesting that emerging AI technology is woven into the storyline.
While the book doesn’t end with a “happily ever after typical of a romance, Lucy does find satisfaction in understanding men better and feeling more confident in herself.

I’d like to thank NetGallery for the opportunity to preview this free title and offer my honest review.

2.5 ⭐️
5/5 🎧
.5/5 🌶️

I have quite a few issues with this book but let me start with what I enjoyed
I liked the plot and thought the premise was quite fun the idea of a woman writing men’s relationship advice is always so funny and I liked that she was learning how to empathize with the men a bit more despite many not deserving it. The writing style was easy to read and enjoyable despite a few moments, and I really loved the resolution with her sister at the end. The plot with her and her sister was honestly more interesting to me than the romance!

As for what didn’t work for me there were quite a few things that lead to the low rating:

Firstly Ai was HEAVILY featured in this book, it was an integral plot point as hinted in the blurb but I feel like the ethical dilemmas of Ai were not present at all. There was an exposition essentially espousing the wonder of AI at the very end and it made the book feel like an ad for Ai and kind of made me question if this book was at least partially written by Ai.
I would have probably given this book a 3-3.5 rating if the subject matter surrounding Ai was handled differently but it just personally gave me the ick.


In my opinion there was also not enough time spent with the love interests together and the romance felt like a side plot making this feel more like women’s fiction. When the main characters did eventually get together it felt very 0-100 and I wasn’t really rooting for them to get together.

The author kept telling us that the FMC was smart but she continuously made very dumb choices. In general I was not a fan of the FMC ( which I hate to say bc I think FMCs get a lot of hate no matter what but this girl had me ANNOYED)

There was also a 9/11 plot thrown in very randomly that felt super out of place. And I don’t think the cover or title did a good job of conveying what this book was about.

Sadly this wasn’t the book for me, there parts I enjoyed but overall it’s not something I would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for sending this audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The book lost me once she went to New York. It became a completely different book. The romance went from -100 to 100 in a few sentences which was so weird to me, and the FMC read like she had a personality disorder (which would be fine except I don’t think that was the authors intention).

A little dry, and I did not love the narrators voice. Found it hard to get through and honestly had to DNF around 75% of the way through. Just not enough wit and chemistry between Lucy and Ross.

Not a bad book overall, just a little cringy in some aspects. Okay storyline.

She’s a rookie advice columnist. He’s her office crush. It’s about to get complicated.
Landing a new job as online agony uncle “Ask Adam” Lucy dishes out relationship tips to men. But when it comes to her own love life, she’d rather spend Friday nights curled up on her sofa with Netflix and her cat, Astro. That is, until she meets Ross, her new co-worker who makes her snort with laughter at his silly jokes and sets off butterflies in her stomach when his hazel eyes meet hers over his laptop. After her last work boyfriend broke her heart, Lucy swore she’d never fall for someone in the office again. And she’s just about to have two more good reasons not to.

An email has just landed in the “Ask Adam” inbox and Lucy is convinced it’s from Ross. He’s most definitely not single. As her advice column goes viral and her inbox overflows with problems, Lucy turns to her AI assistant for help decoding romantic troubles, including her own. Can her state-of-the-art cupid really help her navigate her feelings for Ross? Or will the truth behind “Ask Adam” turn her non-existent love life into a hot mess?

The Love Hack is a women’s fiction (blended with romance) about a woman who is exploring the unknown when she prefers the comfort of the familiar, while also trying to process the relationship of her past so she can move on and have a better future.

I really liked the woven in past relationship because it is integral to the MCs beliefs, and it is quite relatable. When things unfolded in the story and I learned the extent of her past relationship, my jaw dropped and my gut sank, because I know exactly what this type of relationship does to a woman, and the struggle of trying to let it go.

I also liked the career aspect of this story, and how the MC decided to take on something new to make herself valuable.

I listened to the audiobook which was well done by a single narrator. I listened at 1.75x speed (my normal audiobook listening speed is 1.75-2x speed).

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for this advanced audiobook copy.

this was sadly not my favorite audiobook- I had to DNF it because I kept falling asleep while listening to it haha. the beginning was interesting but I just was not into the rest…

I love the voice of the narrator and her growth throughout the book. However, I didn't think the other subplots were complete with multiple time, I was let wondering what the point of it was. I can usually get into an audiobook quick but took me a couple weeks to actually finish it as I couldnt get into it.

Rating: 3.5

I want to say I loved this book, but I just can’t. It wasn’t a bad book, just the moral of the story it was a little off for me.
Lucy needs to get a life. This is what was wrong with the story. And it wasn’t a romantic book, it was more about Lucy getting a backbone and learning about how to speak up.
I can’t say I hate the book either, but I guess it could’ve focused more on her relationship with Ross than her focus on her sister’s life. But I did liked how she stood up for her sister. Family does matter. But that shouldn’t have been the focus of the story.
As for the narrator it was okay, can’t say anything wrong about Harrie Dobby! As an audiobook it was easy to listen to it!

Thank you, Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ALC!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC!
This was horrendous; I barely even had the words for it or the brainpower. First of all, why is this categorized as a romance? If anything, it is literary fiction gone wrong with horrible, just HORRIBLE dialogue and subject matter. Many of the things discussed in this book, whether in a quirky way or a big question, weren't phrased correctly or didn't work for the material given. Especially the FMC did not see men as capable of having emotions, legitimately stating that she saw Ross as a human being after more than HALFWAY throughout. And don't even get me started on the glorification of artificial intelligence; the FMC uses it throughout the whole book for her job and does not get in ANY trouble for it, even getting praised for the writing done with AI and told that "it still was her writing since she kept giving the AI more instructions on what to write and made a few changes sometimes." (this is not a quote from the book).
In total, this novel is something I want out of my mind, and I am giving it two stars for the sister and cat.

I believe the narrator did such a good job and I love her English accent. Sadly, this book disappointed me. It is marketed as a romance but there is not much of it. The main focus is more on Lucy and her sister. I also didn’t really like the plot of Ross being with another girl even though he liked Lucy. I spent most of the time in this book waiting for the romance to begin. The second hand embarrassment from the scene at the restaurant was so bad I had to skip it because I could not handle it. This book had so much potential but didn’t stay true to its advertised intention.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this e-ARC.

This was painful. Lucy was clearly still wounded from her previous relationship but couldn't help but be upset when Ross had his eye on someone else. She also decided not to date workmates but at the same time got into her head about how Ross was way out of her league and she didn't deserve him.

There was also so much going on and at the same time nothing going on. Lucy and her sister's relationship, her sister's new marriage to the questionable Zach, the barely there romance between her and Ross, and her previous relationship in flashbacks.

The only thing that kept me going was that it was on audio so it became a sort of white noise. I received a complimentary copy, all opinions are my own.

Where was the romance in a book titled “The Love Hack”? Sadly, this book was not for me. The FMC was almost instantly unlikeable, and my opinion of her worsened with each new chapter. I admittedly didn’t get far (only 10%), but the limited amount I read was enough to know this was NOT for me. Hopefully others enjoy, but based on the Goodreads’ reviews, it looks like my opinion is the common consensus

I loved this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for allowing me to listen to the ALC of The Love Hack.

As often happens in my life, I get bored. And when it happens I like to go on NetGalley and request random books. The Lova Hack was listed in the audiobook session, with a nice and cute cover to go with it and I didn't even read about the plot, I just went for it.

Well, this book was super cute. The plot was catchy and the character was well written.
Lucy was a super relatable MFC and I truly enjoyed her voice. She was genuine and smart but also clumsy and unsure like many other women in their thirties.
Ross was also a super nice character and I appreciated his politeness.

All the ´Ask Adam´ columns were brilliant and the way the author uses them to further layer up the plot was super clever.

I gave it 4 stars just because I didn´t love the storyline between Ross and Lucy´s sister's friend, but I liked how it was handled.

I would recommend it to all Emily Henry or Beth O’Leary lovers. You should go for this one!!

The voice actress did an amazing job, I listened to it at 1.75 and it was still perfect.

I had so much fun with this rom-com!
Lucy is our main character who has real depth and I found her to be very relatable. She is writing an advice columnist for men, even though she has limited knowledge in this department. Through the column she definitely grows more confident in this department, but more importantly she grows more confident in herself and her self-esteem definitely improves. I found the banter between the female lead and male lead to be so good and there were a lot of moments I found myself blushing.

Her sister on the other-hand, Amelie was not my vibe at all. Her husband cheats and she blames the other woman.. not the vibes I am here for. Your husband is the one who you should really take issue with. He's the one who owes you his loyalty. Place the blame where it belongs, and do not slut-shame others in the process.

There were so many different plot points and I thought they were all well executed.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was a quick, easy read and mildly entertaining office rom-com. I personally have a really hard time with MCs who feel immature or unable to move on from the past… especially if the book isn’t a second chance trope. The plot was pretty disjointed as well. I couldn’t tell which part of the story I was most interested in. It felt like the author wanted me to be most interested in her cat honestly. Her “crush” on Ross seemed to crop up out of no where yet the plot had the feel of slow burn the entire time. Minus the burn. So I guess that just leaves slow. If I begin a book that is labeled as a romance novel, I really hope there are more than a few fleeting minutes where the MCs interact. I enjoyed their moments together but it was definitely not enough to keep me interested.

I really do think that some people would be totally into this book. I just could not get into it.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select/Storm Publishing for the ARC!

Honestly, I think I hate this book. I only finished this title because I received an ARC copy of the audiobook and the narrator was very soothing to listen to, thankfully, because some of this book made my blood boil.

There's going to be spoilers in a very disjointed and chaotic way here:

The whole ChatGPT subplot made me absolutely angry. Any woman fighting for her job (in a "man's space") relying on AI to write her articles gave me a huge ick. And the justification at the end saying she taught the algorithm and that makes the writing hers. Gross. Did we also use AI to write this book because that's what it feels like.

The cheating plot (not the MMC). No. You're telling me the FMC sees her BIL kissing another woman and doesn't snap a pic? No. And then the other sister not believing her so she starts feeling down about telling her? No. Both women were insufferable and this made it so much worse. I really expected the sister to take him back at the end. It would have been the icing on this crazy cake.

9/11. No. Just, don't. This should not have been used in a book billed as a Romcom.

The amount of times the FMC talks about not understanding men and then talks about owing men for... writing in to her column? Wut. Idk the whole soliloquy was bizarre. I don't even feel like an Uber feminist but this rubbed me the wrong way.

In summary, there was no rom and no com and it felt very much like a man writing a women in the '00s.

I received this title as an ARC but it was not for me.