In this funny, spicy, and tropey new romance novel, readers follow clinical scientist Laila whose five year plan is all she has until her carefully structured life begins to crumble. When her best friends stage an intervention to help her spice up her dating life, Laila reconnects with Austin, Edoardo, and Mateo -- three men from different points in her life in the States ten years ago, now in California, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. As she reunites with them and steps away from her five year plan and work, Laila must reignite past passions and see if her love life was the only part of her life she needed to reassess. With a funny and charming love square and past experiences and secrets coming to life, readers looking for a romantic love square -- with a dash of self-reflection and personal growth -- will love this new release. Laila is a complicated and fun romance protagonist whose struggles with her daily life will resonate all too well with readers, while the challenges she faces are perfectly tropey and deeply enjoyable. Summery, escapist, and fun, this is a hilarious new rom-com with a great emotional storyline that fans of the genre will devour.

I really struggled to get into this from the get go, the main character is basically a workaholic and her friend just wants her to get laid. Not my favorite way to kick off a read to be frank.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great book. It got off to a bit of a slow start, but then I started to really love it!

This was such an absolutely cute read - it met all of my expectations and then some as it was much more than I really anticipated. Layla is carrying so much and the beautiful way in which her 2 best friends step up to take care of her? I was giggling a fair bit, and really loved the "science is the answer" for a love intervention - the rekindling of 3 old flames and all was so much fun.

The family secrets are pretty intense and well formed and the growth that comes from discovering them is really well done! The romance was never overkill and I just really appreciated that - they made me laugh, they made me squeal, and they all also pissed me off. The way this one ended after the full role of emotions? It was perfect. It was just so intensely well done.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Love Intervention by Caroline Khoury is a heartwarming novel about Laila, a clinical scientist whose life revolves around her career. When her friends stage a “love intervention,” they help her reconnect with three men from her past—Austin, Edoardo, and Mateo—across various countries. As Laila rekindles old passions, she realizes her five-year plan may need a major rewrite, not just in her career, but in her love life too. With vibrant settings and compelling characters, this story is a delightful exploration of love, self-discovery, and the unexpected turns life can take.

This book has a very interesting premise and I love that it started out very innocently but moves on to consider how the premise impacts the three guys and the FMC's girlfriends. Truthfully, this kept me guessing till the very end I had no idea who the FMC would end up with. The addition of the flashbacks were well-timed and provided the background needed to understand the feelings and emotions of the characters. The inclusion of the family issues and associated tension could have been too much, but the two plot lines were well interwoven and lent weight to the emotions of both plot lines. overall this is a great book. I do hope that this is the start of a series because I'd love to know more about the FMC's girlfriends.

Big thanks to NetGalley and @carolinekauthor for a copy of this book. This is my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ability to review. I was interested to see how this RH would turn out but I couldn’t connect with FMC. This book definitely drags and wasn’t something I’d gravitate towards again.

I chose this one because of the perceived diversity going by the author's name and the locations in the book. In fact, the heroine has Lebanese heritage through her mum, one of her best friends has family in Dubai and the heroes are American, Spanish and Italian; two parts of the book are set in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. It's a well-done story: Laila is a clinical scientist married to her career when her best friends call an intervention and, with a handy job suspension coming in, send her off round the world to see three of her exes who are still single and might give an opportunity for at least a bit of romance. Have they changed? Will one still be egocentric, one jealous and one sweet and supportive? There's also the matter of Laila's dad, who left the family at a difficult time and who she tried to track down when she was studying in New York ... I loved the science background to this, although it seems the author was more inclined towards the hugging side of things: Laila uses geology terms to describe someone's eyes and the reason for the pause in her job isn't the usual but to do with biopsies. Readable and fun with a serious message about forgiveness and family, chosen and otherwise.

Blog review will be published 5 March 2025 https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2025/03/05/netgalley-round-up-holiday-edition/

The Love Intervention is a light, easy read, with 3 girlfriends taking care of each other. The plot centers around Laila, who is stuck in a work/life rut and is reluctantly convinced by her 2 best friends that she needs to get a shot of dopamine and other feel good hormones by having some international booty calls.

I enjoyed the love shown between the 3 women - their history, their secrets, and their friendship. But the booty call situation just felt icky. It's the female version of a sailor with a girl in every port, and regardless of double standards and whatnot, it still felt manipulative and disdainful of the feelings of others.

Let's boil it down. Laila is selfish. She does her Eat Pray Love sabbatical at the expense of others. And then when she gets the swoony big gestures, decides they're not good enough? As if we all have 3 hot guys who want to be with us and we get to choose?

There's plenty of grief, secrets, misunderstandings, emotional growth, and other big feelings to excuse everyone's behavior, but it all felt "off".

Spice was good, definitely some grief triggers, and for what it's worth, an HEA-ish, but not quite for me.

A lovely romance read and one I really enjoyed, I have enjoyed all of this authors books and this one was great.

This book was cute at first but really started to drag about halfway through, the characters weren’t very likable and the ending just wasn’t very good, it felt rushed the last couple chapters.

Thank you to Netgalley and Canelo for the eARC

Thank you to Netgalley, thr publishers and the author for my e-ARC.

I enjoyed Caroline's previous novel but I think this one missed the mark for me. There was too much going on a lot of the time and it felt too messy at times.

I didn't fully understand all the sacrifices Laila thought she needed to make and not pursue love to be honest. And it seemed a bit unreal how a 31 year old can be so confused about her own romantic feelings. And once you have decided on your feelings, the reluctance to do something about it rather than leaving it to fate was a bit anti climactic.
The bonding with her dad's husband felt forced to me.

Nope nope nope. This was book was so messy. This was just not it. The first 20% of the book was so boring. It was hard to feel interested in the FMC because her career is something I don’t understand. Her attitude towards her friends bothered me too. I think the idea of this story is a cute one but the execution totally missed the mark. Austin was not it. Homeboy is just too much. Edoardo was the perfect character to be the one that she doesn’t re-connect with. Mateo was EVERYTHING. I knew from their time together that he would be endgame. BUT the sudden “I gotta go back to the states to meet my gay dad’s husband and resolve my guilt and grief” ruined the entire book. First of all, the gay dad thing and “how does he identify” just felt so wrong. Do people genuinely ask that about their parents? Idk I just felt the whole grief/gay dad thing was so left field and ruined the “romance book” that this was supposed to be. And then she just goes months without talking to Mateo? Also, how did her friends not take any accountability for contributing to the drama that was the men finding out about this intervention? I’d be so mad that my friends didn’t take that into consideration. My 2 star rating is for Mateo. He was the only thing I liked about this book. Idk I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the ending, I didn’t like the story changes….. just wasn’t it for me. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Love Intervention is a great story about discovering yourself and allowing yourself to grab life by the horns and live it, while also learning more about yourself and what makes you happy.

Laila's two best friends "dare" her to take a three week holiday, and meet up with 3 guys from her past. What they don't know is the TRUE history between Laila and Austin, Edoardo and Matteo. And Laila doesn't know the whole truth about her friends and these three as well...

There are spicy moments, frustrating moments, tender moments, and tear-inducing moments as you go along with Laila on her journey.

I'd suggest that potential readers check content warnings as there are aspects of the book that may be difficult for some readers.

But this truly is a great read!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and Canelo and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Huge thank you to NetGalley for being chosen to read an ARC of this book.

I was not able to get through the whole book, it just wasn’t for me. I just felt there was so much going on and so many guys that it just took away from the premise of the book. The plot idea was so good; it is what drew me in initially, and the main character was everything I wanted, however for me it just became too complex and hard to keep up with what was going on.

This is a book full of love, friendship, and found family. At first, the pacing of the story was a bit slow, and I thought that there may be too many storylines trying to happen at once, but the author did a great job at rolling everything into once cohesive story. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and plan to read more from this author.

Thank you to Caroline Khoury, Canelo, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was fine? Interesting idea but executed in a way I couldn’t get into. It had weird pacing, and frankly her character annoyed the crap out of me.

Also, for some reason, hated the way Edoardo was spelled. Irrational ick for me there lol.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨ (3.5)
Spice: 🌶️

Review:
This book follows the story of Laila Clarke who is a clinical scientist as she goes on a vacation to meet 3 guys from her past in order to get DOSEd up (Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin & Endorphins) for a change with a new adventure.

This story was very intriguing as it goes back and forth between two different timelines with 4 different characters. The present timeline where she works at the hospital and takes a vacation due to unforeseen circumstances, and the vacation was planned by her 2 best friends who were worried about her. The vacation plan was to meet with all the 3 guys, one after the other and experience life.

The past timeline is 10 years ago when she was studying in NYU. Austin was her crush in Uni, Edoardo was her boyfriend and Mateo was her bestfriend. They all lost touch after graduation.

I liked the plot a whole lot more than the execution. I wanted to see it through the end and know whom is Laila gonna fall in love with. I wanted to see her grow and make her own decisions, but that was missing. It shows her journey about healing from past trauma and finally get the courage to move on.

My most favourite character was Gregory (I won't spoil who he is for y'all, because he's not who you think he is).

The premise is definitely interesting and it is a love square, so if that is intriguing, you can give it a shot.

Thank you Net Galley for providing me with this ARC and this is my honest review.

*spoilers ahead*

At first it took me a few tries to get started. Given how ridged Leila was, I almost thought she might be high function ASD. But it took getting to 33% of the book to get to the good stuff.

Essentially, Leila's 2 best friends thought she wrung herself out and need some fun, or love. It was dumb how she was forced to take her holiday, by work which she dedicate her time and energy into that betrayed her. At any rate, she went to revisit the 3 guys she had 'a thing with' 10 years ago.

Austin
Man, I was rooting for you. You were doing everything right by my book until the last portion of the book. That really pissed me off, he was so promising. Seems like he only have eyes for Leila, knows how to take care of her, how he realized he was on a hamster wheel and know how to get out of that mindless wheel and pivot. Even thinking future with her, not to mention outdoor shower sex is hot! But her beef with that is: the future is hers not someone else's to make decision on her behalf. Fair point, but it's unfair to drudge up some Josh guy who got a promotion, proposed and expects her to move with him... that tidbit of a background to explain why she hated that idea, was flimsy at best. By gosh, the man travel across USA and the Atlantic to come see her and beg her to reconsider. The latter reason of Austin's character was a stronger argument for Leila to close that chapter.

Eduardo
The author made clear that he was never a choice because he never chose her. All in all, it's unfair because he got the least time to be with Leila, both 10 years ago, and this revisit. He's a gentleman and all, but he never prioritize her then and doesn't even when she came to visit as a guest. Also, no sexy time for you my friend. I'll give a star for you traveling to see her and not just be a jealous fool and stomps off.

Mateo
He's just a heart of gold, and the author guided you there time and again. He wants to take care of her, liked her even when they were kids at the same conference before Uni. He's thoughtful guy, and been thru hurt like she had, He's willing to be vulnerable for her, willing to wait for her to come to her own decision and not make the decision FOR her, but damn is that man patience, bless his heart.

I think I love out of all of that is her decision to see that pivotal one person in NYC. Their relationship blossomed and helped healed her so much, totally what she needed. I would venture to say, it healed them both. Mom was selfish and there's some hurt there, but glad she came to her senses and her journey wasn't an easy one either, but thank goodness to her best friends and mom talk and got to have the entire thing come to full circle.

Personally, if I have to go back 10 years to my old love to see if they were the real loves, I feel like I haven't grown as a person. I get it, a, this is.a book- that is the premise, but in reality, I would feel very different about that. b, no one so lucky to get 3 memorable loves that you wouldn't mind going back to revisit. We all have that one that got away, but 3? Not realistic. I think for this book, 2 would be ok. c, Also unrealistic to show that the 3 men have grown in their work life but not emotionally grow. Hopefully they're not all the same people they were 10 years ago, besides sex why is that part of growth not important?

Anyway, it's tough on the pacing to get going in the beginning, but hang on, once you past 33% it's worth digging into, I literally cannot stop until I'm done. There are spicy scenes, you've been warned.

Thank you NetGalley & Canelo for the ARC.

I didn't love this one. The female lead was too focused on her five year plan and the men were unrealistic. She really annoyed me and distracted me from any romance. I couldn't recommend this one.