This started but rough with me. Maybe my mind set wasn’t right or I just was too tired. I don’t know why but the first two chapters I was not very into to story. After that the story picked up nicely until it didn’t. Pacing was so off for me. Or writing. This is one of those books I feel like shouldn’t be reviewing. Something was off for me. It was predictable which isn’t a bad thing we do want the happy ending with romance books but it was almost too sweet for me.

This was not a bad book by any means. Perfect really for summer romance reading in a vacation when you want to read fluff with romance. I think my timing to read this and review was just way off… or not? Idk if anyone else reads this as ARC or after publishing let me know your thoughts.

It is so much more than a love story. It is a woman who is always seeking to prove she is more than the sum total of her teenage TV show and on her way to becoming a producer. Along the way, her perspective tips and she finds a deep love who sees her, truly her. Years of fear and insecurities have driven her and buried over the hurt.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

thank you to NetGalley, the publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons, and most of all, the author, Annabel Monaghan, for giving me the opportunity to read this arc.

i unfortunately couldn’t connect with the mmc, which is unfortunate, because two books from this author are my all time favourites.

i found myself dragging my feet whilst reading this arc, i guess over a sense of blind support, but i wasn’t connecting with it.

this book is very dear to me and i will definitely be coming back to reread. i always love how REAL annabel monaghan's characters feel to me, how they struggle with awkwardness and feelings of being wanted and being loved. i found jane super endearing and saw a lot of myself in her. dan and his family were also soooo fun and entertaining and wish i could travel to their little beachside town for a little getaway. very silly how you don't know for a long time if dan or jack is the MMC hahaha. thank you to annabel monaghan and putnam for the arc!!

This is my 4th Annabel Monaghan book and just like the books before this one I found that I love a great "beach read" with a little extra emotion to it.
Here's my biggest takeaway from this book, I LOVE DAN'S FAMILY. If you love a book with a great representation of a close knit family, I you're going to love this. His family made up for the times Jane wasn't my favorite character and the Jack storyline annoyed me. It's a definite recommend from me if you've loved Annabel Monaghan's books before but it's not the one I would recommend to start with.

****Publishing May 27, 2025*****

Jane Jackson, a former childhood actor, is now trying to make it big with her movie script! She has been trying for 2 years! With some skepticism about her script, Jane is so desperate, she lies and says she could get a famous singer to be part of the soundtrack if her script is chosen. But will she? Can she finally get the success she is looking for?

I love how Annabel Monaghan’s writing just draws you into an entertaining and enjoyable story with laugh-out-loud and heartfelt moments. Annabel captures the emotions and stresses of everyday life that evolve around work, relationships, family and friendships. This book will have you turning the pages to see if Jane can find the success she is looking for! A heartfelt, fun and entertaining read that leaves you feeling satisfied in the end! A great book to take on vacation or to read by the pool!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I liked It's a Love Story. I thought the plot was fun and the writing was eloquent. I enjoyed the Long Island and Finnegan farm setting. I liked how Jane and Dan's relationship progressed while hanging out on the island. Annabel did a fantastic job with Dan and Jane's relationship. I thought they were a good match for each other. Their chemistry was on point and their first few kiss scenes were top tier. I liked that Dan and Jane were comfortable with each other. It was nice seeing Jane put her guard down around Dan. On the flip side, I appreciated the way Dan felt like he didn't have to act differently around Jane. Readers will eat up Dan's character. He was steadfast, sweet, and patient. As for Jane's character, I think she will be a hit or miss with readers. I wasn't her biggest fan at first, but she grew on me. Jane was dealing with some heavy things. I'm glad that she came into herself and communicated with her mother and addressed the problems that were holding her back. I wasn't the biggest fan of how she handled herself at the end of her Long Island stay. Dan's family played a major role in this story. I adored the Finnegan family! I liked how quickly Jane was absorbed into their bunch. The biggest complaint I have about It's a Love Story is the overuse of certain descriptors. I found myself getting annoyed by the number of times "rectangular eyes" and "long hair" were mentioned by Jane. Overall, I had fun reading this book. The ending was cute, and the romance was on point. Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC.

Annabel Monaghan has slowly become one of my favorite authors in the romance/women's fiction genre. Something about her characters and her writing style just pull at my heart and her newest book, It's a Love Story, is perhaps my favorite so far.

When Jane and Dan spend a week on Long Island in the hopes of tracking down pop star Jack Quinn to write a song for their movie project, they get a little more than they bargained for. What starts out as a comedy turns out to be something like a love story.

I love the setting, the summer, the big-family-in-town-for-a-reunion vibes. Jane is a classic introvert and to be honest I could relate (we've all taken important phone calls in our closet before...right? RIGHT?)

I've said in other reviews that I don't particularly enjoy books about characters that are meant to be celebrities but something about Jane having been a child actor worked for me. It felt genuine and not totally cheesy--the author clearly did her research and wrote it in a way that was really heartfelt. I especially love Monaghan's writing. Nothing cheesy or awkward there.

Dan & Jane have their miscommunication towards the end (an aside: listen, I get that all romance novels follow the "third-act breakup" model, but I rarely think that conflict is necessary and/or realistic. This one felt...ok. Still felt forced but I'm glad it didn't last long), but things resolve nicely.

A really beautiful read for me! 5 stars and would 100% recommend to anyone who reads this genre.
(Bonus points that it's sexy without being completely open door. Like, we get a little peek but that's all we really need).

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books/Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC! This title is out THIS WEEK on May 27, 2025.

4.5 stars!

“It’s a Love Story” is fun, slow burn romance with a twist of forced proximity, and I cheered when these work enemies finally became lovers. I love Annabel Monaghan books and this was no exception. A perfect book for your beach bag and one you will want to recommend to your friends all summer.

Jane, a child actor turned studio exec, is trying to make it in Hollywood and will do anything to get her “True Story” script made. In a desperate attempt, she exaggerates her connection to mega star, Jack Quinlan, and claims she can get him to write a song for the movie. One slight problem, she hasn’t seen or spoken to Jack since she was 14.

Enter Dan, cinematographer and Jane’s work enemy, who vows to help her track down Jack Quinlan, as he is headlining a music festival in his hometown on Long Island.

Jane and Dan take us on a fun, week long adventure in a beach town with all your favorite parts of a summer romance. I had butterflies multiple times throughout the book and loved how the author used Dan’s big family to reveal the amazing layers of him and his self-assuredness. I also appreciated Jane’s own personal journey and how she evolved throughout the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam and Sons for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book! My only issue is I had a hard time getting into it, the book for me didn’t start until almost 25% but then I was hooked!

I loved the coastal vibes and Jane going to stay with Dan (who she doesn’t even like) and his family in New York. It really helps her character development and seeing that not everything has to be perfect all the time. She can be very insecure throughout the story, and it almost sometimes feels a bit too childish, especially when it comes to Jack and how she just can’t seem to stand up for herself around him.

I love how Dans family accepted her and never made her feel like she had to be anyone but herself. I love how she finally came to realize that not everything is always her fault. This book was funny, and witty, and I looked forward to Jane and Dan spending time together because they had a real heartfelt deep connection that you could feel through the story 🔥 I loved their beach hang outs, their bike riding, and their watercolor painting, and how they could simply exist in quiet moments. It was truly so sweet, and truly a love story.

I adored this book. It felt like sunshine in book form. This was such an enjoyable read I couldn’t put it down. It had me staying up way too late, smiling to myself, and feeling sad when it was over. My only hang up was wondering why the author named one of Dan’s brothers “Finn Finnegan”.


Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Annabel Monaghan has become an auto read author for me. It’s a Love Story is no exception. This book had me giggling, tearing up, and just feeling all of the emotions. I really liked reading about a character who has a tumultuous relationship with a father who is no longer around. Especially as someone who was no contact with theirs for a long period of time. I felt like I related to Jane in that regard. I really enjoyed watching her come out of her shell, and see her transform throughout the book. I also really loved Dan, and how patient he was (I did keep picturing Dan Humphries for some reason but I’m not mad about it. Maybe Penn Badgely is our real life Dan) his artistic edge, his introverted nature and just overall character was very calming to see. I loved seeing him come from a quirky family and just how different he was from them. The family itself was so fun to follow, and seeing Jane open up to them was so amazing. You could truly see how wonderful these people are.

5 stars ⭐️

Wow… this book, I don’t know how I’m going to put into words how good it was. The characters were so likable and easy to connect with it was hard not to fall in love! This book is a must read!

I really liked the vibe of this one but I personally had a hard time with the romance. It’s forced proximity which I really liked but idk they went from cold to super hot so quickly. I did like the other story of her being a child star a lot though.

Jane Jackson is a movie studio exec trying to get her script, a romcom with no "commercial appeal", made. Dan Finnegan the cinematographer who killed her last project agrees to help her. So they go to Long Island and stay with Dan's family during a music festival to hunt down the headlining talent to get him to write an original song for the movie. The twist? Jane is Janey Jakes a former child actor, the musician they're trying to track down was her first kiss, and Dan isn't as bad as Jane originally thought.

As a staunch Annabel Monaghan reader It's a Love Story hits her favorite tropes: enemies-to-loves, summertime shenanigans, and Hollywood. In between idyllic scene of a Long Island summer, Jane and Dan come back to questions about their personhood. Monaghan builds in these ideas of what it takes to carve out a space to find out who you are and what it means to protect that self when you're falling in love. The best thing about reading romance is know that the characters will figure it out, Jane and Dan will end up together but the journey to get there pokes at real life implications that very much resonated with this reader.

Jane Jackson is a movie studio exec trying to get her script, a romcom with no "commercial appeal", made. Dan Finnegan the cinematographer who killed her last project agrees to help her. So they go to Long Island and stay with Dan's family during a music festival to hunt down the headlining talent to get him to write an original song for the movie. The twist? Jane is Janey Jakes a former child actor, the musician they're trying to track down was her first kiss, and Dan isn't as bad as Jane originally thought.

As a staunch Annabel Monaghan reader It's a Love Story hits her favorite tropes: enemies-to-loves, summertime shenanigans, and Hollywood. In between idyllic scene of a Long Island summer, Jane and Dan come back to questions about their personhood. Monaghan builds in these ideas of what it takes to carve out a space to find out who you are and what it means to protect that self when you're falling in love. The best thing about reading romance is know that the characters will figure it out, Jane and Dan will end up together but the journey to get there pokes at real life implications that very much resonated with this reader.

Did I stay up late weeping to finish this book last night? 1000% @annabelmonaghan has a way of drawing readers in with what seems is a lighthearted story only to then completely shatter your heart (in somehow the best way).

Jane was such a relatable character, and you cannot help but cheer for her. A child actor now trying to find herself as an adult, Jane is loveable and a little lost. a touch of enemies to lovers, only one bed(room), found family, this book had so many of my favorite things. Definitely my new favorite of Annabel’s books!!!

a huge thank you to @netgalley and @putnambooks for the arc- highly recommend you put this one on the top of your must read books this summer!!!

I absolutely loved this book. I though this would be a light, fluffy, summertime beachy read. It was all those things while also packing an emotional punch that had me thinking. It made me think about how I define love, what a love story actually looks like, and the stories I tell myself/others. Best line of the book, "Love happens over breakfast".

Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

Let me tell you I ate this UP!!! I love Annabel's writing and the concepts of her books - and this was such a fun one. Solid 4.25-4.5 stars from me!!

I really enjoyed the qualities of both Jane and Dan, and the surrounding cast of characters. This book contained some of my FAVORITE tropes!!! Found family, second chance romance, forced proximity... it was just fun flirty and fantastic. The way that Jane surprised herself throughout this book, whether it was in liking Dan, in being her true self, in easily connecting to his family, really made me so happy for her and made me smile so much while reading. It was like her heart was going in one direction, and her brain was trying to stop it, but to no avail. Her thoughts on the page were so tender and funny to read, and overall I felt that the arc of her character was just incredibly well written. Her baggage was present and described, but it didn't hinder her or feel like it was overpowering everything else in her narrative. Again, just SO fleshed out!! While I don't necessarily have a preference between solo POV and changing POV, I would have really enjoyed some things from Dan's POV, specifically their almost date and first disastrous work run-in. It would have been so fun to get both sides!! Dan is SUCH A cinnamon roll!! I adore him!!

The banter in this book was so great because we knew it was Jane being the most true version of herself. It went against the pretenses she had set up for herself and for potential romances, but I loved seeing her come out of her shell. ALSO, Clem is SUCH A GIRL'S GIRL!!! What a bestie!! Thank you Annabel for writing in this amazing friend - who was real and honest and fiercely protective. That is a girl I would want in my corner.

There were 2 things that I didn't absolutely love in this book. The first was the way Jane's mom was written. I felt taken out of the story a bit with her dialogue and the way she reacted when Jane confronted her - and I wasn't sure if we were supposed to feel for her or be upset with her for why she did what she did. I also felt the third act breakup was too easily resolved/too quickly fleshed out. The time that passed until they were able to speak again was good, but I wanted Dan to almost make Jane wait after coming over and apologizing before they would patch things up. I thought she would leave and it would be a little more time passing before the resolution, so it was a little choppy for me. Overall, I loved this read!

So many quotes stuck out to me in this book - but here's one of my favorites: "There's something about the way he's looking at me that makes me think an impossible thing: I am interesting and true and beautiful." EEEEP

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books/Penguin Group Putnam for the chance to read this eARC!

I was not expecting this book to make me feel so many emotions, but I definitely felt about every single one of them. This is a beautiful story with beautiful writing. Annabel Monaghan is definitely on my radar now!