Lindsey Kelk does it again! In “Love Story”, Sophie is a teacher by day. But Sophie has a secret - she is also the hottest romance writer Este Cox. Sophie writes under a pen name for two reasons - her student’s parents may not approve of a steamy romance author teaching their kids and her parents are known for championing literary works, not romance.

At lunch with her editor, she meets Joe. He is annoying and also in the publishing world. Somehow Sophie and Joe end up spending the afternoon getting drunk and singing karaoke. Then Sophie heads home for her father’s big birthday party only to find she no longer has the next Este Cox manuscript with her. Her missing bag with both the manuscript and items with her real identity could blow her cover.

This novel takes a deep look at the ways we feel like we do not live up to expectations of others and of ourselves. I loved the insight the author provides of the main characters. My favorite part may have been the hilarious events of the birthday weekend. The silliness was a nice counterpart to the more serious emotions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper360 for an advance copy.

I have truly enjoyed every Lindsey Kelk book that I have read, likely because I enjoy her characters so much. They always have such sharp quick wit and I love the banter. This book was no different. I have been enjoying books that have a sort of meta feel in relation to being romance books that are written about romance writers as well. This book was so much fun, with all the pop culture references and easy breezy dialogue, and I loved the actual romance of the book. I think the best part of the book for me, however, was the family relationship of the Taylor family. Seeing how Sophie interacted with her brother and younger sister and how they worked as a family unit was heart warming and truly hysterical at times. The only con of this book was that I felt like the ending was a bit rushed and wished that we got more resolve in the romance before we did. Other than that, I really did enjoy and know that I will be reading all the Lindsey Kelk that I can get my hands on!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

Wonderful story, great character development, great writing! Highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it

I made a joke when I first started this book that Lindsey Kelk was the only chick lit author I’d willingly read. And then she put me in my place with this entire book, and it made me change the way I think and feel about the romance genre. I’m not a hater of people who love the genre by any means; I just keep trying to read it despite not connecting with it for seemingly no reason.

Sophie makes mention of the first time she encountered Bridget Jones, and reading Lindsay Kelk reminds me of a shared experience. I, too, was won over with the first “fuckwit.” I distinctly remember my aunt handing me her well loved copy of Bridget Jones Diary and The Edge of Reason, and they were the beginning of my awakening with reading. Believe it or not, I had a HUGE chick lit phase before horrors and thrillers. And Kelk shares the same with humor that made me fall in love with the genre in the first place. It’s hard to not connect with.

We all know that I struggle with romance, and yet I keep trying. And I always wonder why I do this to myself. But Love Story talks about how romance is an act of feminist rebellion because it is women loudly and proudly stating how they deserve to be treated. When you look at it that way, it’s hard to see it any other way.

Love Story has a cute and bubbly cover, yes, but it packs a punch, like most of Kelk’s do. I’ve loved her since I Heart New York when I was a teenager loving at home, and I’ll love her for as long as she keeps writing.

Small town schoolteacher has a big secret. She is Este Cox, the author of the hottest romance series in the world. Her parents are literary snobs so nobody except her brother, knows the truth. When she goes back home and has to share a room with her sexy hotshot nemesis, will her secret be revealed? This was sexy, funny and at times serious and I loved it. A quick read you will not want to put down.

Lindsey Kelk’s latest novel offers a delightful mix of quirky characters and sharp British wit that kept me chuckling throughout. Her talent for crafting love stories filled with clever pop culture references and playful dialogue is on full display, making the book feel refreshingly current and effortlessly entertaining.

While the banter and lighthearted tone were undoubtedly fun, the central romance between Sophie and Joe didn’t quite resonate with me. Both characters, who work in the book industry, had promising setups, but their budding attraction didn’t hold my attention as much as I’d hoped. As a result, the latter portion of the book, where their relationship took center stage, felt a bit slow.

Despite this, the novel’s charm and bookish appeal make it an enjoyable read overall. It’s an entertaining escape for fans of witty, contemporary romances.

I am leaving this book a neutral 3 star review, even though I did DNF at 35%. The writing isn’t my style and I found that I was not connecting to the characters. I couldn’t see how they would ever become a couple with any sort of chemistry. I personally prefer deeper more emotional books, but I know there will be many people that adore this book.

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for providing me wi5 an ARC of Love Story.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this advanced reader's edition. Unfortunately, I will not be able to give it the time required to write a thorough review and will be unable to read it for this purpose.

I am so mad at myself for not reading this book earlier! I really enjoyed it, start to finish. Although there were several characters that I wanted to shake some sense into, I found myself so hooked I couldn’t put it down. The publishing insight was so interesting to me and added a level of authenticity that I think could have come off very easily as disingenuous but didn’t. This was a well written book beginning to end, and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

I got about 15% into this and realized the writing is just not to my taste. I can imagine this will work for many readers - sadly just not this one. Thank you for the opportunity to review.

This is a fun, funny, and overall sweet book.

I love that for all the misunderstandings, cover ups, and family drama, this book does not give into the dreaded (& loathed entirely) miscommunication trope. While we may scream at the novel to ‘just say it already!’, it’s understandable why so much is left unsaid.

One of my favorite things about Lindsey Kelk novels is the humor that keeps up, no matter what is going on with the characters, which is one of the things that make them a lot of fun to hang out with…and sad when the book is over. I really enjoyed hanging out with Sophie & her friends - not so much her family - and hope to see her back again, maybe for Este’s sequel…?

The FMC of Love Story is Sophie, who is a teacher and secret romance writer who writes with a pen name as she is worried about what the school and the people in her life will think about her.

I loved Love Me Do, which was the first book by Kelk that I read - but for me, this one didn't quite live up to my expectations. Because most of the book takes place within a short time frame (like 3 days!!!) I didn't really buy into their chemistry and felt the characters were a little too one dimensional for me. In addition, some of the descriptions that were given were a little too wordy and detailed and while I appreciate the authors intentions to be trendy with references to TikTok and social media phrases it was a little too "on the nose" in my opinion.

Rounded up to three stars
**thank you to Netgalley and HaperCollins for the ARC and a chance to read and review. All opinions are my own**

I read my first book by this author a few years ago and LOVED it, so I was very excited to see another new release from her! This book takes on a totally different story than before, but her descriptions and character development are just as special and really immerse you into the story and make you fall in love with them. Thank you so much for the chance to read this great book early!

Ok, this was so much fun. A school teacher who is secretly the bestselling author of spicy romances, count me in! This is an entertaining rom-com with a medium amount of spice. Author Lindsey Kelk does a great job with enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity. I did want a little bit more with the ending, but now I have to wonder if there will be a sequel.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the digital reviewer copy.

Oh my gosh!!! Thank you to NetGalley and Publishing for the opportunity to read this adorable book. It captivated me from the start and I could not out it down. The characters are well rounded and you cant help but care for them!
4/5 stars

This was hovering around a 2.5, but there's a sexual harassment situation that's played for laughs, and a lot of weird erasure of nb (and male, for that matter) romance writers that's done in the name of calling romance-writing a feminist act (which it still can be! But not if you have to pretend Casey McQuiston, for example, doesn't exist in order to make your vague point??)... and the rest of this book simply isn't good enough to make up for those aspects. The characters and situations felt cartoonish, with the main pair especially flip-flopping wildly in their motivations; both the romantic and familial resolutions were weak, with nothing actually *solved*, and, trivial but still obnoxious, every page is absolutely drowning in authorial namedrops.

Also why does everyone keep saying Charlotte is a ruthless genius when all she actually is, is a nepo-baby (who stole her sister's expensive purse)? She had the brilliant idea of... "have an author signing"? wow, a true genius. On a similar note, how on earth is the book within the book, Butterflies, the filthiest thing the world/BookTok have ever heard of? If you're going to make that claim, maybe don't have characters actually read the supposedly spiciest scenes aloud on page as if to prove it's blandly tame. This book namedrops authors of *way* steamier sex scenes constantly, and has the audacity to pretend this is getting called the filthiest book in the UK or whatever?

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I spent most of this book annoyed and rolling my eyes, and that simply isn't the way I want to read a romance. I've enjoyed books by this author before, and hope to again in the future, but this one was simply a dud for me, and I'm just not in love with Love Story.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 67%
I felt like I couldn’t really get into the characters, maybe I just didn’t like them as people? I made it 2/3rds of the way and felt like the story didn’t progress. It honestly had a lot of potential and I can see this being an enjoyable story, I just think it may not be for me, which is fine! I loved the setting it was very descriptive.

A fun and engaging enemies to lovers battle. Love Story explores pride and empowerment and relationships in a very authentic and refreshing way. Would recommend for any rom com lovers library!

Did I liked the book, I would said more than 90% , it was funny. Down right hilarious on some parts and definitely enjoyable. The plot was cute and nice. Like the main character and her development and her sister and brother 🤌🏻. The MMC was a bit more harder to like right away but you do eventually until you want to strangle him 😅. Not fan of the third act break up but happy with how it ends.

I had loved Lindsey Kelk's "I Love" series so I was really excited to get an ARC of her latest book. Unfortunately this was rather disappointment despite the exciting premise...

Sophie wrote the newest best-selling romance book that everyone is obsessed with under a pseudonym - a secret she wants to keep, especially given how her high-brow high-literature critic parents think about romance as a genre. She meets Joe, the so-called bad-boy of the publishing world, when she is out with her publisher/old-family friend, one of the 3 people who knows her moonlighting as a best-seller romance writer secret. Of course Joe and Sophie immediately clash and of course she forgets her totebag containing the sequel to her novel, which Joe promptly finds because he also turns out to be another old family friend's son and they used to know each other as kids and he is also invited to Sophie's dad's birthday party.

I do love a 'only one bed trope' but the fact that Sophie's parents would force her to share a bedroom with Joe, someone she barely knows was terrible. To be honest, throw Sophie's entire family to the garbage (except her brother) for how they think of Sophie and how they let her younger sister walk over her.

Sophie and Joe also somehow fall deeply in love within 3 days even though their every interaction is with Sophie being judgmental towards him for no rational reason and Joe ending every sentence with mentioning how much he wants to sleep with her. Oh, there is also lots of miscommunication, blackmail, false identities, name-check of every single prominent romance author out there, BookTok, and to be honest, too many characters that are rather impossible to keep track of.

Thank you for the ARC!