A thoroughly wonderful read. Introvert Verity and gorgeous Johnny a lovely man but with a burden that has prevented him from getting on with his life for the last 10 years. Although quiet Verity can certainly hold her own when necessary and the develop of their 'fake' relationship is lovely.
I haven't read the first book in this series but wil rectify that ASAP as I found this book so enjoyable, okay, so at times I wanted to shake them both, but doesn't that show how involved you get with a good story......I loved it!!
My thanks to net galley and publisher for opportunity to review this book

rue Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop (Lonely Hearts Bookshop #2)
Annie Darling
Book Review: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ❣
Verity Love is a romance reader who believes all the best stories are in books. She's a huge fan of Jane Austin (which I hope you are too or you may not understand some of the references in this book). Verity is a manager of a London book store, and perfectly happy to keep her romance in the fiction category.
Verity makes up a pretend boyfriend to help her friends accept she's happy. Peter Hardy is an oceanography and always travelling. He is the perfect cover, but when Verity accidentally gets caught cheating on her boyfriend she ends up with a real "Fake" boyfriend.
Johnny, just like Verity is on the undateable list. He has his reasons, and so a plan is formed. Friends who help other friends with the plus one situation. You think you have read this story a thousand times, but you haven't. I really enjoyed this book, and the ending was Perfect!

4.5 stars out of 5.

*ARC received in exchange for a fair review* Recommend to the Pride and Prejudice fans, the happy singletons, and the lovers of British romance.

This book is part of a series, however, can be read as a standalone (I haven't read the previous book but may consider looking it up as I enjoyed this one).

Kindle Edition £3.99 or £7.99 Paperback, 295 pages
Published May 18th, 2017 by Harper

True Love at the lonely hearts bookshop by Annie Darling a fab four-star read. This was a fun and flirty read, it tells us the story of Verity Love and we also meet her four sisters who are entertaining in their own right, and they are some of the background characters I have read in this type of book for a long time. I loved the first book, and this doesn’t have the same sparkle, and ommpphh that book had but it is a good read and I would recommend you read it. Just be prepared to want to do some damage to Jonny he says one thing but feels another, will ever own up to what he wants from life?
If you want a quick an entertaining read, that’s light and fun and amazingly British this book is for you, also if you are a fan of Jane Austin you will love this book and probably recognise some of the quotes mentioned.

Verity Love, self proclaimed introvert, is a manager at the Happy Ever After bookshop, and is happily spending her summer with her non-existent boyfriend, Peter Hardy. Until an unexpected night lead her to Johnny True. IT is then Very finds her self with a real-fake boyfriend to accompany to a whole array of summer activities. Love may be in the air, if not for Johnny's complicated love situation. Will Very, a pride and prejudice extremist, be able to get her self out of this with the help of Elizabeth Bennet? Or will she have to take her own advice?

I absolutely adored this book, from start to finish. Its a perfect, quirky summer read. Very resembles me, through and through. I completely share her opinions on social gatherings. Of course meeting Johnny does change her mind on that, and by the end of the summer she realizes that there is more to her life than her beloved 'quiet time'.

Darling wrote this superbly, and though I'v never read pride and prejudice before * I know! I'm sorry, I am totally going to read it now!* I loved the elements of Very asking her favourite character for advice, something that I would do. I also loved all the secondary characters, I could only hope that I had sisters like Very, although they may seem completely in your face at all times. Though there were characters I hated cough *Marissa*cough.

I would highly recommend as a brilliant summer read!

Thanks to Net Galley for a copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is a delightful contemporary chick lit romance which ties into Jane Austen's great classic Pride & Prejudice and has a subtle current of light humour which runs throughout the novel.
Both Verity and Johnny are well crafted characters and the world they inhabited felt real and accurately drawn. There was a great bunch of secondary characters and surroundings and I think I'd absolutely adore to find a bookshop like Happily Ever After.
The villain of the piece was also a detailed woman, never one-dimensional, and the final resolving of the romance was handled with a deft touch.

Cute and quirky, with a dash of pride and prejudice, this is perfect for a lazy summer day. Verify works for Happily ever after, a book shop that only sells romantic fiction. She's an introvert whose one bad relationship has put her of guys forever. However the need of a fake boyfriend leads her to meet Johnny.
I loved that the mc is an introvert and all of the P&P references. It did take me a little while to get into the book, but I'm glad I kept going.

A sweet story that was the perfect read between two crime novels. A bit of bookish banter and a love story with a unique twist. All far fetched and silly but harmless and a bit of fun. I didn't realise there was a book one but I know a few people who would appreciate them for presents!

Verity Love is a vicar's daughter and one of 5 sisters, her favourite book is Pride and Prejudice and she lives her life by asking herself 'What would Elizabeth Bennet do?' She enjoys time to herself - no in fact she craves time alone and is not looking for a boyfriend but that's what she ends up with in Johnny, although he is only a decoy to get her family and friends off her case. Johnny is in love with another woman and warns Verity not to fall in love with him but does she manage to keep to her side of the bargain? You'll have to read the book to find out! A fun, lighthearted love story, I loved meeting the characters from the first book again and I wish the bookshop actually existed so that I could go and have tea in the cafe and browse the shelves at leisure.

This book was okay, it did feel a little silly at times and some of the characters were very cliched but it was a fun story. One thing that did help it was that the main character references a lot of bookish things and I do enjoy her obsession/love of Pride and Prejudice. This is a nice easy read but not one that will stay with me for long I fear.

True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop is the second in the series from Annie Darling focusing on a unique bookshop in a quiet corner of London. I absolutely adored the first book The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts and was gutted it had to end. As soon as I had finished it I just wanted to tell everyone I meet or talked to on the internet that you should read this book so I was more than eagerly awaiting this next instalment. I had very high expectations for this one given how enthralled I was with Posy's story in book one.

This new book is not a bad book by any means but I think I had placed my expectations far too high, it just didn't grab me in the same way as it had before. There was something missing in it that I can't quite put my finger on and talking to a friend she felt the exact same way. If I was picking this one up not having read the first in the series, I would be wondering what all the fuss was about. So I do think it is best to read book one and then read this one. Of course they are both standalone reads but book one is a more compulsive read. The book couldn't have been all that bad seen as I kept reading until the end and it wasn't, it's just when you have such high hopes for something and they are dashed it can prove to be quite frustrating.

This new story picks up a few weeks later on from we last met the characters and this time it focuses on Verity Love who deals with all the admin at the bookshop. For some reason I had thought the series would just continue focusing directly on Posy and the bookshop so it took me several chapters to re-familiarise myself with the characters and to understand Verity was the sole focus this time around. It makes me wonder if there is a third book will Nina be the central character? Verity is a complicated character, she has a lot sides to her and many little foibles that affect her day to day life. She can come across as quite abrupt and rude in some cases but underneath it all there is this person desperate to find love and have what most of her friends have – happiness and a solid long term relationship. Even though she will say that is the complete opposite to what she desires.

Like many other characters in this genre she has been hurt in the past and that clearly affects how she deals with people and relationships on a day to day basis. Verity doesn't want to meet anyone in her life, so she claims, she has a busy job, great friends,a nice small apartment above the shop and she needs nothing else to complete her life. So it's sad to see she feels the need to create a boyfriend in the form of Peter Hardy, oceanographer. Clearly she hadn't gotten in over her head with this white lie and before exposure occurs she has to put a halt to their 'relationship'. I felt sad for Verity that she was forced to do this. Why couldn't she just say to Posy, Nina, Sebastian, Mattie and Tom, who all work in the bookshop and tea rooms, that I have nobody and I don't want anybody in my life. Honesty is always the best policy.

Verity sticks to routine rigidly and a Friday night spent on her own at a local restaurant is just perfect for her as she awaits 'Peter Hardy'. Things take a turn when Posy and Nina follow her and she is forced to find a man quick. One thing leads to another and we are introduced to Johnny a high flying architect with a set of friends to match. He steps into the breach so to speak and one thing leads to another and a proposition is made. A mutual agreement which will benefit both parties. Johnny is desperately in love with a woman he can't have at all and like Verity his friends put him under constant pressure to find a woman. So the pair agree to be each other's dates for all the events upcoming over the summer. It will get everyone off their backs and maybe there won't be so many questions being flung at the pair of them.

If this was real life I would have thought this would never have happened, it seemed so off the wall and was bound to cause even more problems. Once one has started lying the lies seem to flow even more readily. I'd love to say I really liked Johnny as a character but I didn't. He just came across as self centred and really the woman in his heart was his ultimate goal. Verity seemed to be more emotionally invested in this whole scenario than he did and it was clear people were going to get very hurt. I hated Johnny's friends for the way they treated Verity where as the crew from the bookshop were much more warm and welcoming towards Johnny.

Verity has a life philosophy, what would Elizabeth Bennett do?, which she uses to help her out in situations or times of stress. I have to say all the references to Pride and Prejudice went over my head as I have never read it and don't think I ever will so I sped through these parts. One thing which I felt was missing in this book was the mention of books etc which was so prevalent in the first story I think that's what partly made me love Posy's story so much. But I was glad the chapters written as a romance story from the past weren't included here as they had dragged book one down.

It was enjoyable enough reading of the events and situations Verity and Johnny found themselves in but the question always remained at the back of my mind should the pair get together themselves or would it just cause too much trouble for Verity? I think she got herself into something that became increasingly hard to break away from both physically and emotionally. I enjoyed when Verity opened up to Johnny and explained the reasons for her being the way she was and not going into the detailed reasons as I found I was nodding along finding parts of myself within Verity and the way it was all explained was written very well and I could identify exactly with what she meant. OK I mightn't have agreed with it all but some parts felt very true to my own stance on certain things in life.

For me the best parts of True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop were Verity's family and the scenes where she is with them were just brilliant. They had me laughing out loud at their antics surrounding the planning of Con's wedding. Verity's father Ken was a vicar. He married Dora and they had five daughters - Verity, Merry, Con, Chatty and Immy. They lived such a haphazardous life in the vicarage but it was clear to see love and friendship was there in abundance. Merry was a brilliant character who gave such support and advice to Verity when she needed it most. She really got Verity and all her little quirks. Time and time again things Merry said thanks to her straight talking had me laughing out loud and wishing she was my friend. The scenes at the vicarage when push comes to shove and Con finally has to make decisions regarding the organisation of the wedding were blunt and funny. In fact I wanted even more of Verity's family to feature and I think it would be great to have a book featuring them as a whole or even a series with each sister once Annie Darling has concluded the book shop series.

Overall True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop was a good read but it didn't match the first in the series in terms of readability and I didn't fall in love with Verity as much as I had Posy. I will definitely read a third book if one is written as I like the overall concept but I am just that little bit disappointed my expectations weren’t reached with this read

I have spent a year really excited to think there would be another book at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop given how much I had enjoyed the first book. However as is unfortunately the case, I just didn't think this one lived up to my own expectations of the book.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book, as I did, this is a very enjoyable story, I suspect I had been expecting one thing and the story I was given just wasn't quite it. It was a book full of parties, from weddings, birthdays, housewarmings and all manner of other things, with the two main characters being in a fake relationship.

Verity is a lovely girl, but even though I'm on the quieter end of the scale the descriptions of her introverted nature were draining me completely. She really has lots of foibles that to the right guy are probably adorable but to me as a reader just started to annoy me, I think mainly due the repetitive nature.


There are though some great moments in the book, mainly involving Verity's four sisters who are as different from Verity as you can be. They are loud chatterboxes and Merry in particular is good entertainment.

Johnny himself is wanting a fake girlfriend for a reason I just wanted to slap him for. He came across for most of the book as really pathetitic in his reasoning but at the same time I loved the way he interacted with Verity. He seemed to be really patient with her specific problems with the world.

Ultimately if you haven't read the first book and go into this with a fresh mind then you will probably enjoy it a lot more than me. It can easily be read as a standalone. However if like me you read book 1, then to me this was just missing the magic of the first book. I would have loved to have seen more about our romance themed bookshop.

Verity is also a huge Pride and Prejudice fan but there is only so much Austen I can take, as I was never that enamoured with my GCSE text! She continually wants to live her life like the Elizabeth Bennet and also is able to quote the book regularly.

Don't get me wrong this isn't a bad book, its really enjoyable and I did like it, I just felt it was missing that certain something to make it a great book in my eyes.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I loved the first in this series so was eagerly anticipating falling in love again with the characters and settings in this one - and I wasn't disappointed! The perfect romance read, full of lots of lovely bookish references and hope for all of those who believe in love finding a way, no matter what obstacles you may put in the way!!

This is the story of Verity Love who knows runs the Happy Ever After bookshop, and it's still nice to catch up with the other old characters from the previous story who became like friends after reading the first in the series! Although this still can be read and enjoyed as a standalone!

Verity is the epitomy of an introvert, preferring the company of books and her rather fabulous but needy cat, Strumpet, and just a few close friends. She likes having routines and one of those is dining along in a nearby restaurant where even the owner knows her needs as a diner!

The problem she has is convincing her friends that she's happy this way, and has pretended to have the most fabulous boyfriend, who exists only in her dreams. So when she meets a fellow single diner in the restaurant one day, Johnny, who helps her out of a sticky situation, they soon find that they both could use each other as their 'fake other halves' to keep their friends and families from sticking their beaks in!

I loved how their friendship evolves, and how they open up to each other about issues they both have. Johnny is a dreamboat of a 'boyfriend' although I did find him a little bit of a wet weekend at times when he kept going on about the woman he loved and lost - but still wanted! But they were still always there for each other when needed for social occasions and they brought out some interesting events to enjoy!

Verity and her family and friends were all fabulous characters, her sisters particularly were so funny, and i loved all the Pride and Prejudice references - so much so that I'm going to have to read it once more to enjoy it again for myself!

It also gave great insight into how being an introvert affected her on a day to day basis, and how she needed calm and peace to reset herself every now and then - very difficult to do in this fast paced, noisy world we know we live in. It gave you great empathy as a reader with her as a character

A really fabulous read and I am hoping there will be more in the series as I love the characters and the bookshop setting!

I was so pleased to see this book to request as I really enjoyed the first in the series. Annie Darling is very clever with the settings I particularly liked the use of Kimpton and Lambton in the book. Very and Johnny meet in unusual circumstances and can they be pretend boyfriend and girlfriend over the summer to avoid awkward questions. With the awful Marissa stringing poor Johnny along can the scales fall from his eyes long enough for him to see Verity. Love the comparisons to Caroline Bingley and Mr Collins also love What would Elizabeth Bennet do? I may be using that to be a bit more brave.

Verity Love is an introvert who prefers to spend an evening with a book than out socialising and talking to people. She doesn’t like to interact with anyone she doesn’t know, she doesn’t like to be hugged or to hold hands, and, contrarily to what her friends think, she enjoys being single. But since her friends seem to want to couple her with every single man they know, Verity creates an imaginary boyfriend who actually turns real when she meets handsome Johnny who needs a fake girlfriend to get his own friends off his back. Verity and Johnny agree to pretend to be together to go to parties and weddings and show their friends that they are happy. Their fake relationship soon turns into a good friendship (and something more) as they share their darkest secrets and meet each other's family.
What I enjoyed most in this novel is Verity’s family. With four chatty, hilarious and very loud sisters, her family is a modern version of the Bennet family in Pride and Prejudice (a book that Verity has read many, many times and that she can quote by heart). Verity seems reserved and lacking social skills (she doesn’t like to speak to people on the phone) but I found her engaging and honest, not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for herself and I love that when she is in a difficult situation she thinks of her heroine and asks herself “What would Elizabeth Bennet do?”. Full of colourful characters and witty dialogues that made me laugh out loud, this is a refreshing and vibrant novel about love, friendship and family.