Short synopsis: El is a rising social media influencer, when she posts a Live Story of a possible UFO. Carter works for PIS (Private Intelligence Sector) and follows her to shut down the alien talk.

My thoughts: I adored Love and Other Conspiracies last year, so I couldn’t wait to see what Mallory came up with next.

This started out so strong! I mean, who didn’t love Men In Black with their little memory eraser thingys. This is a romance, mystery, quirky, love story wrapped all in one!

I loved the chemistry between El and Carter, and their banter was top notch. There is also a lot of emotional depth and mystery to the story as they investigate (a little bit illegally at times) the mysterious death of Carter’s dad.

Read if you love:
* Golden retriever Hero
* Romance and mystery
* UFO and Extraterrestrial
* Men in Black

After being OBSESSED with Love and Other Conspiracies last year, I knew Love at First Sighting would be high on my summer TBR—and it did not disappoint! This was such a fun, quick, swoony read with the perfect mix of romance and mystery.

El and Carter’s chemistry was so easy to root for, and I loved how their relationship developed against the backdrop of UFO sightings and secret-agent shenanigans. The premise felt fresh and entertaining, and it kept me hooked the whole way through.

If you’re looking for something light but engaging, with just enough suspense to keep you turning the pages, this is a great pick. Definitely an easy 4 stars from me!

𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑰𝑭 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬:
♡ romcoms
♡ aliens and UFOs
♡ MCs teaming up to fight for what’s right
♡ science fiction
♡ cinnamon roll MMC

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯𝑻𝑺:
This was such a cute read!! I feel like a lot of books are categorized as romcoms but lean too heavily on the romance with sprinkles of comedy. This book had such a great balance of both! I was LOLing one second and then swooning the next.

El and Carter were a match made in heaven. She was so strong for him and showed him that not everyone you love, leaves. He genuinely loved her for her and not what she could get him. By the end, they were head over heels for each other and it was the sweetest love story.

But that love story was also formed by action packed, car chasing, UFO sighting adventure that was so fun to experience. Magic shows, hacker roommates, and crazy influencer friends had me giggling through the entire book. If you’re looking for a feel-good book that’ll give you belly aches from laughing so hard, pick this one up!

This was SUCH a great palette cleanser romcom.

We follow El, who’s an influencer who is always trying to work and build off of her personal brand. On her hike back down from taking the perfect photos showing off a new yoga set, she sees some kind of drone in the night that legit looks like a UFO.

Enter Agent Carter, who works for P.I.S., which is similar to Men in Black (which they make the reference and it’s great). He got the job with the agency because his dad was an agent, and after he died when Carter was younger, his partner took him in and hired Carter when he could.

Carter sees El’s social media posting and it looks extremely similar to what he saw as a kid and takes this case on himself because he knows there’s something more. We get a lot of laughter, we watch the duo work through some heavy stuff, and it was just great watching them work together and solve this mystery.

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁:

This book took me on a fun ride! It was chalked full of adventure, mystery, chemistry and banter. There was so much packed into the pages I couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters and their connection, and all the undertones of learning to trust others with your heart. Definitely check out this sizzling romance, it’s an out of this world read. 👽

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬:

El is a social media influencer in LA, from the outside she looks like she has it all but her world is crafted. All El really wants is something that feels REAL and makes her heart race.

She never expected what would happen next. Being chased by a flying object while live streaming cause she fears for her life. Unfortunately she just went viral in the wrong way for “faking” an alien encounter and damaged her curated brand. But to El she knew what she saw and she wants answers.

Agent Carter finally gets a break when he gets assigned Eli’s case. He works for a secret agency that helps smooth over all things “alien”. But Carter soon realizes there is alot more to El than meets the eye and they partner up. As Carter also wants answers. His dad lost his life after he saw the same UFO that El had captured in her livestream. If he can get to the bottom of it he can finally know what happened to his dad.

Come unravel the mystery with El and Carter there will be sizzling chemistry, heart pounding action & adventure and hopefully some answers. Maybe an alien definitely an UFO.

𝙁𝙖𝙫 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚:

“And thank you to the aliens for making our paths cross.”

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒍𝒍 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅:

* Strangers to Lovers
* Social Media Influencer FMC
* Private Intelligence Sector (PIS) Agent MMC
* She’s 28 & He’s 24
* Mystery, Action & Adventure
* UFO Sighting
* Steamy Chemistry & Banter
* Southern California
* Dual POV w/ Spice

💚🛸💜👽💜🛸💚🛸💜👽💜🛸💚

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, I think this was a miss for me.

The UFO meet cute premise was interesting and I liked El and Carter individually, but the pacing was off (didn't pick up stakes until ~80%) and the romance felt overwhelming; there was very little plot pit against a LOT of feelings and trauma. It almost felt like a Scooby Doo mystery for most of it, very low stakes with little hijinks here and there. And then BAM, all the action hits at once starting w/ a very intense car chase that felt kinda ridiculous, followed by a lot of unexpected blood. The conclusion and epilogue were very underwhelming for me, especially the insta-perfect ending. After all that preaching about being themselves and being real, the ending felt too cliché.

a very placid 3 stars

I think the book community is sleeping on Mallory Marlowe! Why am I not seeing her books being shouted from the roof tops?! Her writing is top tier- witty, humorous and heartfelt. Love and Other Conspiracies was funny but this book, Love at First Sighting, was hilarious!

Ariel, or El, is a popular influencer who is going through a little bit of a crisis with her career. After going Live while being attacked by what could only be a UFO, she is followed by Special Agent Carter Brody, whose job it is to tell El that she did not see an alien airship. Except, what she saw is the exact same craft that Carter saw two nights before his father died.

Full of action, romance and dangerous water bottles, Love at First Sighting is perfect for those who need a book to pull them from the "real world."

3.75/5 stars, rounded up

Thank you Berkley Books for the advanced reading copy!

This was a super cute romance + mystery with a unique storyline! I really liked both El and Carter, and I think having both of their POV's throughout this one added a lot to the story! While this is marketed as a romance, there was still a fun and entertaining underlying plot and mystery, I actually wanted there to be more paranormal/alien/mysterious parts to this one, because they were pretty intriguing! As can happen with romance, there was a bit in the middle where it seemed like we lost the plot a bit, and everything was only occurring "for romance reasons." I can accept that, but could be distracting at times!

I do think that the presentation of Carter's character differed a lot whether he was being described through his eyes vs. El's. It was kind of hard to understand his character in an accurate way and to know what to think about him for a lot of the book! Overall, though, I liked the ways his character seemed to balance El's, and the sides they brought out in each other. I enjoyed this one a lot and appreciated a unique plot!

Love at First Sighting by Mallory Marlowe is a quirky, mystery romance featuring an influencer and man in black. El Martin has a pseudo-perfect persona online, promoting brands that fit into her online presence. After a late night photo shoot for some new yoga pants, El encounters something unbelievable. In desperation, she goes live on Instagram. Life as she knows it will never be the same.

I enjoyed this one. El is a fun character. She’s disillusioned with her life as an influencer, feeling numb to the world around her. When she encounters what she believes to be a UFO, something awakens inside of her. She no longer cares about her perfect online life. She cares about what is real and what she saw. When Agent Carter Brody shows up asking questions, she knows what she saw is real.

As much as I like El, I loved Carter. He is the epitome of the cinnamon-roll archetype. Carter is, for all intents and purposes, a man in black who works for a super secret government agency that keeps sightings of aliens and paranormal off social media and out of the news. When El’s live video reaches him, he is shook. Not because what she saw is real, but because it matches what he and his father saw just before his father’s death. Desperate for answers, Carter begs for her case. What he doesn’t plan on is falling for the girl.

This book is Marlowe’s sophomore novel and is set in the same world as Love and Other Conspiracies. While none of the characters cross over, some of the elements (like the social media and show from the first book) are mentioned here. I loved that. Like the first one, as an X-Files girlie, I loved the mystery and adventure that we see here. Carter and El are looking into something bigger than they realize, and it produces some explosive action scenes with some sweet romance thrown in.

Overall, I really enjoyed Love at First Sighting. It’s a fun, quirky contemporary romance read with some mystery, adventure, and paranormal thrown in. Perfect for the upcoming spooky season!

In this rom com with a paranormal twist, a government agent and influencer team up to track down the secret behind their joint UFO sightings!

This was so fun and Carter is literally one of my new favorite book boyfriends! El took a while to grow on me, but I did grow to enjoy her character! However, I did not enjoy her influencer side plot, as it came across really cringey and stereotypical.

My other main fault with this book is the unanswered questions at the end! I wish this was just a bit longer so we could have had the cute scenes between El and Carter, as well as the answers!

I’m loving Mallory Marlowe’s style. Love At First Sighting was a fun romcom with an extraterrestrial twist. Carter is lively cinnamon roll of an MMC you can’t help but fall in love with. El’s character did fall a little short for me but all in all it was a cute read. I’m rating it a little lower because it took me a while to get hooked in but it was still a fun time. Definitely worth checking out if this is your vibe. 👽

Thank you Mallory Marlowe and Berkley publishing for an e-ARC of Love At First Sighting! 😘

El is a fitness influencer who seems to be living her perfect life. But when El goes hiking to get the perfect picture for a new fitness brand, she doesn't expect to capture footage of a UFO live on her social media platform. Now she is facing the backlash of her fans while being followed by a Man in Black, Carter. Carter has been an agent of the Private Intelligence Sector (P.I.S.) for 10 years, remaining employed due to his IT skills. However, when he sees the video of El, he notices similarities to his own alien encounter that resulted in the death of his father. As El and Carter go deeper into this investigation, the harder it is for them to ignore their growing feelings for each other.

This book was far more than I expected. Not only do you have the cute rom com with its comedic moments, but there is also the character growth for both Carter and El. I loved the two main characters. El’s character is witty and strong, and I enjoyed watching her slowly strip off the influencer persona and become something more genuine as the story progressed. El also helped Carter work through his grief while investigating his father’s death. Both characters had significant growth, and you couldn’t help but root for them as a couple. Love at First Sight is a fun mix of romance and mystery with some alien sightings in between.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to review Love at First Sighting. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Mallory’s quickly becoming a favorite contemporary author for me! The vibe of LaFS was even more Scully x Mulder than book one and I was HERE for it. The way Mallory takes kooky, kind of zany characters and transforms them into absolute delightful humans I would love to be friends with is truly unmatched! LaFS is fun, it’s dorky (complementary), and it’s swoony in all the weirdest and strangest of ways!

This book was very heavily targeted towards relating to gen z and it did not land. The lines felt cringey and i genuinely only laughed once the entire time. I was not a fan of the way influencers were portrayed… I get it’s supposed to be funny but it just felt tacky.

Carter is a very soft and docile character. He lacks confidence and is very passive. I am not used to a character like that and have come to the realization that it’s not for me. El wears the pants that’s for sure.

The actual contents were pretty lackluster and boring throughout the book besides the ending. Even when something would happen, it still felt unfulfilling.

Pretty bummed about the conclusion of the alien/ufo storyline.

🛸Love at First Sighting🛸
Mallory Marlowe
Thank you @prhaudio for the alc and @berkleyromance for the finished copy!

Available: Now
4⭐️/3🔥

If there is one thing you can count on from Mallory Marlowe it’s a damn good time! This was such a great listen… just fun and quirky and it had me smiling and laughing all the way through.

✦I loved the opposites attract between El and Carter, they had such great back and forth banter and I thought they really balanced each other out.
✦Both El and Carter are totally underestimated by the people around them and together they managed to conquer just about any crazy task that came their way.
✦It was fun to follow the clues and take the wild adventure right alongside these two.
Along with the fun both El and Carter have some family drama and drama they are going through
✦So many little funny moments in this one - just a blast!

Narrators were both great! I really thought they matched their characters so so well!

TROPES
🔎Solving Mysteries
🛸UFO Sightings
🧲Opposites Attract
🔑Forced Proximity
🗣️Fun Banter
👓Cinnamon Roll MMC
📱Influencer FMC

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY
Los Angeles influencer El Martin, desperate for something real, finds herself swept up in both a UFO sighting and the attention of Agent Carter Brody, whose mission to conceal extraterrestrial activity collides with her discovery and sparks an undeniable chemistry neither of them can ignore.

Even as someone who reads rather than writes, I acknowledge that sophomore novels are probably the most difficult to write. Sometimes an author triumphs and produces something better than their debut, and sometimes the second novel flounders. Sadly, this is a case of the latter.

Love at First Sighting is a romance novel about El, a social media influencer, who stumbles across a shiny potential UFO and uncharacteristically live streams it to her followers. The next day, the video has disappeared, and a man in a black suit and trilby is following her. Agent Carter is tasked with discovering what El knows and then either discrediting her or convincing her that she did not see what she thought she saw.

What did not work for me was the characterization. El is an unlikeable influencer with a perfectly curated life. While Carter is a fun character, the over-the-top Men in Black routine and uniform are unbelievable and become a bit annoying. El has no backstory and is underdeveloped. Plus, she is completely unrelatable. Can we please stop using influencers as protagonists? And there is a ton of zoomer references. Between the influencer culture and the pointed references, this book became a bit alienating for someone in their 30s who avoids basic lifestyle influencers and overconsumption.

Despite a fun, quirky plot, Love at First Sighting suffers from a lack of chemistry between the protagonists. In addition, the action-packed, suspenseful plot did not allow room to develop the characters' feelings for one another. Instead, there is insta-lust and not much progression past that.

Overall, Love at First Sighting is a unique romance novel that is heavy on the action and adventure. I think there is an audience for this book, but unfortunately, it does not include me.

Okay, I need y’all to pick up this book. The humor feels so distinctly ‘Mallory Marlowe’ and I absolutely loved it! It’s clever and sexy as well as suspenseful!

One of my favorite parts of this story was El’s job as an influencer. We definitely get to see the bad sides of it, but I liked that she found her niche in the influencer community. I LOVED that Carter respected her career from the very beginning and took it seriously even when the job was very superficial. That alone made me love him, but WOW I really loved Carter. He is a certified loverboy from the very start. El is everything he has ever wanted and he makes it very clear that he only has eyes for her.

I also loved how comfortable El felt around Carter. She never had to put on any “LA girl” facade with him. She could just be herself and he adored her for it. Their connection felt so easy and real, and it made their chemistry all the more satisfying alongside the banter and mystery in the plot.

Between the UFO intrigue, the charming “Man in Black” angle, and a romance that made me smile the whole way through, Love at First Sighting was so super sweet and also deliciously spicy.

Mallory Marlowe writes romcoms that leave me in such a good mood every single time.

This is from in Instagram review post!

Love at First Sighting 🛸 by Mallory Marlowe! Pub day was this week so it is out and available! Thank you @PRHAudio for the ALC & @BerkleyRomance for the free paperback copy. I adored Love and Other Conspiracies last year so I was very excited to read this. I really enjoyed this as well.

The audiobook is narrated by Elizabeth Lamont & Iggy Toma. They were great! I really enjoyed the audiobook. I liked the book regardless so I wouldn’t recommend it in any format. If you like audiobooks though I definitely would suggest it, it was a good one!

The book follows El Martin, a lifestyle and beauty social media influencer and Carter, a government agent who works for Private Intelligence Sector (PIS, definitely not piss) that keeps extraterrestrial sightings secret and covered up. El accidentally comes across an unidentified flying object while out taking photos and goes live to document what’s happening and because she’s kind of terrified. The footage comes across Carter’s desk and it catches his eye because it looks very similar to what he saw right before a family tragedy as a child. He follows her to find out about it and they end up working together to solve the mystery.

This is absolutely a romcom, it’s got the rom and the com a plenty. But it’s definitely worth noting that there is more than that to this as well. There’s the mystery element and high-stakes action scenes. There’s a car chase, gun violence, and like actual fighting too.

I thought the book was great. I really enjoyed it. You do not need to have read Love and Other Conspiracies to read this. The characters and their show are mentioned in this but it’s like a fun reference, not like an actual plot connection. No need to read them in release order, they aren’t a series.

🛸🛸🛸

A fun, new contemporary romance with a X-Files vibe has been spotted on shelves near you.

I had so much fun getting to know El and Agent Carter. The opposites attract energy, fun banter, and mysterious UFO with potentially life changing repercussions had me hooked.

Mallory Marlowe should be your go-to if you're looking for realistic contemporary romance with a touch of the spooky, weird, or paranormal.

This book was really fun! I had no idea what to expect going in (would there be aliens?!) but ended up actually loving the direction the author went in.

Our FMC, El, is a social media influencer who has been performing her life for other people for way too long. She’s self-aware enough to realize that it’s not making her happy, but feels stuck hawking athleisure and vitamin subscriptions because she hasn’t been surrounded by normal people in years.

I do wish we’d gotten a little more about her relationship with her mother (like her overcoming that). That plot line felt really unresolved and ripe for exploration, but I wonder if it got been cut for word count, or the author just didn’t feel like she had enough room to include it in the story. Still, I like to imagine that based on her character growth, El goes no-contact with the woman.

Meanwhile, our MMC, Carter, is an absolute sweetheart of a Man in Black, complete with a suit and trilby hat. The way he supported El and never looked down on her for her profession was really refreshing! It could’ve easily been a Pride & Prejudice situation, but instead, Carter always genuinely wanted nothing but happiness for El. I also loved that he let himself confront his childhood traumas and actually leaned on El. We love some EQ in our male leads!

😍 One thing I loved? The substitution of a third act breakup with an ‘us against the world’ trope was *chef’s kiss.* Thank you for feeding us!

😕 One thing that fell short? The spice. I’m not someone who needs graphic spice in every single book, but it did feel like the tone was all over the place, sometimes euphemistic, sometimes not, and pretty abbreviated.

Overall, we get a book that deftly weaves romance and humor with an incisive critiques about modern influencer techbro culture with car chases, heists, and real danger. The small paranormal hints we got made the world feel much larger, and I wish we were getting a sequel to explore them!

This was a really solid 4 star read for me, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a fun summer romcom! Thank you so much, Berkley, for the eARC!