Penny might have had more than her fair share of bad dates but all of that is set to change after meeting Francesco. After a bad start and a cowardly ignoring of his phone number, Penny and Francesco really hit it off, finding an easy friendship as well as a steamy romance.

Penny works as a chef in the café she owns in Stoke Newington, where she loves the bustle, the people and working for herself. I really liked Penny, she was pretty laid back, very funny and she loved food. She was also reasonably honest with herself with what she wanted and after battling cancer and essentially going into early menopause, she knew she wanted kids. Only thing is, that’s a pretty tough subject to bring up with a guy you’ve been seeing for a few weeks.

Penny’s uncle has a heart attack and she is tasked with running his restaurant for at least a year while he recuperates. Only thing is, it is way out of town, forcing her to leave her café and Francesco. While in Derbyshire, Penny meets two very different guys and falls into easy flirting with them, Thomas the music agent who travels at least 6 months of the year, and Priyesh the wine supplier for her uncle’s restaurant. Both men are very different and bring out different sides of Penny. But her heart is still a little bit in London, with Francesco, and she doesn’t want to lead anyone on.

This wasn’t what I thought it would be but I still really enjoyed it. Like I said, the three men brought out a different side of Penny and I enjoyed seeing her explore herself like that, especially after everything’s she been through. However, she didn’t handle it well, particularly when all three men had the misfortune of being in the same place!

What I especially enjoyed was the relationships and how they form a person. Not just romantically but platonic and familial. Penny has a great relationship with her sister and her uncles. She also desperately wants to be a mother, although after cancer that path is a little more complicated. So even though the story is generally about finding love in a romantic sense, it was also about finding your place and a partner to share things with. Penny was lucky enough to find that in a man she loved, but eventually she realised that she was good enough alone and didn’t need a man to complete her. Added bonus of course, but point still stands!

Unlucky In Love?.....
Amusing romcom with some very real issues at its’ heart. Written with warmth and empathy. A likeable protagonist in funny, independent Penny who has found herself with rather too many men to choose from. Which one, if any, is ‘The One’? An escapist read.

Love Square by Laura Jane Williams

What if I tell you that throughout the first half of the book I thought that this book is going to be my next favorite of the month and the second half just ruined the possibility? I mean a book that speaks about breast cancer and how that trauma never leaves the patient even after the actual disease leaving it, a book that describes how the IVF process has its reparcation on on the society, a book that has fun side characters and an interesting plotline –What could possibly go wrong?  The answer is pretty simple- too much of everything.

Penny Bridge has always been unlucky in love. So she can believe it when she meets a remarkable new man. Followed by another, and thenanother…And all of them want to date her.

When I received the book as an ARC, I was hoping it to be a fun read. However, I could not have been more wrong. The book deals with some pretty serious issues. I love it when a book tries to deliver some social messages through the context. The side characters were fun and adorable. I love thelgbtq+ representations of the book. The book has a smooth way of going in the first half.

But where is the LOVE?

Even after trying to like Penny throughout the book, I miserably failed to do so. Just when I felt that I am starting to like Penny, the monotonous portrayal of the character made me lose interest in her pretty soon. And the love interests, oh my god!! I thought there would be some fun time choosing one among them. But, I did not get it. It was pretty clear from the first with whom Penny is going to end up with. I felt that things were rushed just to reach a conclusion. Also, the frequent changes of the POVs were making me irritated. Williams had obviously tried to write something different but I realized that to add a little bit of everything she has made a messy situation way messier.  

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was left feeling very disappointed with this book. I read Our Stop which I really enjoyed so I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book.

I didn't really connect with the characters or the plot in this one. I found the pacing to be quite slow and I struggled to get into the story. One of the main plot points for this book is the love square between Penny and three guys. I didn't really like any of the love interests so wasn't invested in Penny's decision.

Penny does have infertility problems and her sister offers to be a surrogate for her. I would personally like to have seen more of this storyline and also Penny raising the baby by herself.

Sadly this one didn't work for me but I would still check out more from the author in the future as I did really enjoy Our Stop.

I'm a big fan of Laura Jane Williams and after reading Our Stop, I was excited to read her second novel. I really enjoyed this book, perhaps even more so than the first. I liked the characters despite their flawed presentations and having followed Williams on social media for a long while, enjoyed the ?semi-autobiographical parts. Another great novel.

A lovely, easy read to be able to switch off and get into the lives of the characters. A few twists and turns along the way too

This was a lovely light-hearted read where I really connected with the main character, Penny. When Penny chooses to leave her life temporarily to help out a family member it takes her a little while to relax into her new life. But then she suddenly has 3 men who can all offer her different things and she’s forced to make a choice. Except that doesn’t quite go to plan....

I loved the culinary elements of this book and loved that Penny was such a great female chef.

Journeying with Penny through her different relationships to her ultimate life decision towards the end made me really proud of how she was doing something solely for her and I loved her sister’s part in helping that to happen. The friendship between sisters is such a strong bond and it made me think of what I’d do to make my own sister happy!

This was a great read and I would recommend picking this up if you’re after a light-hearted romance.

This book was a fun, fast read! I loved the main character, Penny, immediately and enjoyed the lighthearted banter between her and the several men in her life. Realistic? Not totally. But it was an entertaining book that i flew through!

[Thanks Netgalley for the ebook. This review is my honest opinion but just another opinion, you should read this book and judge it by yourself]
It seemed my kind of book but sadly it wasn't.
It's light and cute but although it hooked me at first, later I felt more and more disconnected. Everthing was going great but then something happens, Penny must go and the whole book felt wrong for me. I thought Penny's love life was going to be something funny but I was reading and getting angrier at her by her choices and her behaviour toward her love interests. I don't know how to explain it but it isn't the light and funny book I thought it was going to be (my bad, of course).
But it's easy to read so maybe you'll like it.
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//SPANISH REVIEW//
Lo mejor que puedo decir de este libro es que se lee rapidito y que el primer tercio sí me gustó. Luego ya va cuesta abajo y sin frenos. No sé qué ha querido hacer la escritora pero a mí, desde luego, no me ha gustado, pero es algo previsible teniendo en cuenta que ocurre algo que nunca me gusta leer.
Lo del cuadrado amoroso podría haber estado mejor si no fuera justo por esa primera parte, que ya parece una novela romántica por sí misma. Poco a poco la protagonista me ha ido cayendo cada vez peor y casi ha arrastrado a los maromos.
Otro libro de portada colorinchi que me sale rana.

Thank you to Avon and Laura Jane Williams for the advanced review copy. Penny gets herself caught up in the middle of what can only be described as the title says...a love square! I must admit it took me a while to get into this book but I did really enjoy Penny’s journey and her experiences along the way. I do think though that Francesco was out of order to speak to her the way he did when Penny made it very clear that they were friends and yes of course there was underlying feelings but she said she was dating and was honest with him! Her friends should have backed her and told her that actually she wasn’t the problem there but that she did need to decide what she wanted. All in all though I’m glad with the way it ended and would recommend as a light hearted read.

I thoroughly enjoyed the complexity of the characters, especially Penny. The story is relatable and funny in ways that I wasn't expecting. I can't wait to read the next story written by this author!

The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams is a contemporary Women's fiction. It is the story of an accomplished woman who is following her passion, has her own business and lives life on her own terms. She has faced great challenges in her personal life. Despite all these things there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction due to her dating life. She finds that she is never asked on second dates.

With this backdrop I fell in love with the character of Penny Bridge. She is everything any young woman aspires to be. She has amazing family relationships and friendships. When Penny is really going through a bad patch of low self esteem she meets Franscesco who is everything she ever wanted in a partner. Life circumstances push them away and then Penny meets another young man and then another. She is strongly attracted to each one of them for different reasons and the time comes for hr to choose who is the one. Whom dos she choose.

The good part of the story is the journey of Penny in discovering what or whom she really wants. Having said that and having liked Penny, I still couldn't relate to a part of the story. That could possibly be due to my biases but i really couldn't understand her adamant behaviour at some point. Having said that I persisted and liked how the story progressed.

If you are a lover of women's fictions and like to read about strong women protagonist then you will enjoy this story..
I thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of the book and the opinions expressed are entirely mine.

When I received Love Square via Netgalley from HarperCollins (thank you, as always), I was super excited. I’ve read a couple of thrillers in a row and thought a bit of chicklit would be a nice relaxing and fun change. I’ve read great things about Williams’s first book, Our Stop, so it would be a good quality chicklit read, I assumed. But my enthusiasm waned soon enough…

Seriously, nothing happened for the first half of the book. Okay, stuff happened but it was boring, boring, boring. Penny has a boring meet-cute with Francesco and we get every word of their boring dates (hint for writers: recapping the routine convo your leads have is okay - I do not need to read boring word for word transcripts - just cut to the chase), they flirt boringly, they kiss boringly, they have boring sex (literally, this is a plot point) and then Penny has to go up north and she doesn’t want a long distance relationship (I googled it and it’s probably around a 3 hour drive away at the most - every Australian rolls their eyes at the ‘distance’) and they break up and she meets other boring men.

Penny has had breast cancer and is in remission. I’ve been searching for a decent post breast cancer sex scene in a book for a long time. I’ll need to keep waiting.

Williams presented the cancer storyline without any consideration of the ‘show not tell’ style of writing. Penny just basically gave Francesco (and us) an info dump early on. Love Square reminded me of another couple of books I’ve read where the writer has obviously had good intentions by adding a medical issue to raise awareness but fail to make it work. In those other books, and this one, it was a case of poor execution. Here it became like a textbook list of symptoms and side effects without any sense of timing for any of the reveals to make anything heartfelt.

Even though Penny has a plethora of men, she has no chemistry with any of them. Nor did she deliver any humorous lines (stuff I think was supposed to be funny really wasn’t).

Diversity is also poorly executed. Every supporting character ticks off something from the ‘Diversity in Books 101’ list. Except, of course, for Penny. I felt like Williams wanted to have her cake and eat it too. If she really wanted to make a difference, why not just make Penny the diverse character! Or at least give one of the diverse characters some point.

Williams actually had other checklists besides the diversity one to tick off. There was also the Modern Technology in Chicklit one (dating apps and texts and podcasts and inability to answer a real phone call), the Required Occupation in Chicklit one (owner of a coffee shop/qualified chef, just don't expect mouth watering food porn - apparently having one of the characters calling out ‘chef’ now and then covered all bases), and the Pop Culture References in Contemporary Chicklit one (why did they have to spoil Frank Ocean’s music for me).

I’ve also got to mention all the weird head hopping Williams indulges in. For example, it’s Penny, Penny, Penny and then - bam - Francesco for one or two lines before we rush back to Penny. It made my head ache.

No, I did not finish the book. I began to skim more and more and it seemed pointless. I didn’t care about the outcome. (I’ve now found some spoilers and I can’t quite believe I wasted my time on reading as much as I did.)

Disappointing with a capital D but I have a zillion other books to read so, thank you, next.

1 out of 5

Laura Jane Williams’s The Love Square is a laugh-out loud romantic comedy about a woman who finds herself falling for three men who all seems absolutely perfect – but which one is perfect for her?

Penny Bridge has never had much luck when it comes to dating. Prince Charming must have got lost on his way to her address and she has had to make do with the liars, cheaters and freaks. But having decided that romance is simply not on the cards for her, café owner Penny decides to give relationships a very wide berth and to concentrate all of her efforts into her career. Successful and independent Penny is perfectly content with her life – but could things finally begin to look up when she meets gorgeous Francesco? For the first time in ages, Penny has met a guy who is handsome, funny, intelligent and absolutely perfect for her. But just when Penny thinks that the stars have aligned, she finds out that she needs to leave London – and Francesco behind – temporarily to help out at her uncle’s restaurant.

Just when happiness had been within her reach, Penny has seen all of her hopes and dreams for the future shatter in one fell swoop. But there is no need whatsoever for Penny to be so despondent as two other gorgeous men are on the horizon who make her question her feelings for Francesco. Thomas and Priyesh are fun-loving, attractive and charismatic men who are crazy about Penny, but which of her three potential partners is The One? Is Penny ready to choose her Mr Right? Or is she about to make one hell of a mess as she finds herself choosing somebody who is clearly not right for her?

An immensely enjoyable read that will have you laughing out loud, The Love Square is a heart-warming tale about the strange and surprising paths life often takes us down in our quest to find happiness and fulfilment. Laura Jane Williams is on top form with The Love Square and she has penned a witty, enjoyable and sparkling romantic read Beth O’Leary fans are going to love.

I really enjoyed this! It was so much fun, especially the middle part where the square comes into play. I was actually hoping the ending was not going to involve any of the men, in a positive way for her. I didn't really like the way F treated her possessively and really disliked how him being awful to her meant she went to therapy, like she was broken. I was expecting the ending to be her realising she loved him only as a friend and didn't deserve to be treated that way by him, then have her baby and be fulfilled by her family and friendships. I only say this, because the rest of the book was so modern in it's thinking. We have sexuality, gender, sex, non-monogamy etc all woven throughout, I found it inclusive in a natural way, sometimes it feels like authors include a few stilted lines from a textbook about these things, but this was just woven throughout naturally. I think I therefore expected a conclusion that didn't conform to the normal romance plot.
Regardless I still really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others as a fun read!
Edited review (to remove spoilers) added to Amazon today, waiting for it to be published.

This book was just fantastic, from the very start until the end i was hooked.

I fell in love with Penny and felt i connected with her instantly. An independent and beautiful young lady who is funny and has the brains to run her own successful eatery in London. She has over come lots in her life which has made her who she is today.

She embarks on a new journey in life helping out her Uncle who falls ill and has no option but to run his business in beautiful Derbyshire, but this leads to hot new adventures on the horizon.

I loved walking alongside Penny in this wonderful story and I’m so sad to have finished this book, this is how i give a book 5 starts, i never wanted it to end.

This was an entertaining, fast pacing feel good can't help but make you smile while reading book.
I would say this is about a 3.5 star rating for me.
Don't get me wrong this was a nice read almost like watching a nice Hallmark movie on a cold rainy day. It's something to get you in a good mood and take you someplace away from your life.
I think for me the lower rating was only due to the fact that the Penny the main character waited until the end of the story to choose between the men , and made me annoyed with her, lowering my points. But the writing style and pacing is good and of course Penny made a great choice at the end.
So for sure pick this up if your looking for a nice soft romcom to just take you some place .. pick up this book and you'll be transported to the UK for a nice love story.

2.5 stars
The Love Square is a light, cute, feel good romance that I think many will enjoy unfortunately for me it wasn’t my cup of coffee. Penny the main character is highly relatable and a very sympathetic character. I think my biggest complaint and its just me personally is why did it take so long for her to choose between the men. I understand that is the premise of the book but dang it took the whole book to figure it out. I am sorry but there is no way three men you meet consecutively are all going to be that endearing where you cannot decide. Maybe that my pessimism showing. Overall, I think romance readers and those who love multiple love interests will enjoy The Love Square I am more of a love line kind of person.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Love Square was an absolute joy to read, I just couldn't put it down. It was really fast paced and each character was incredibly well developed. The Love Square is the story of main character Penny Bridge who has been unlucky in love (and dated some absolute arseholes) but when, in succession she meets three men who're all remarkable in their own ways, she has to choose just one. But can she?

I'm not a huge fan of love triangles in books, and so I was incredibly apprehensive to actively go into a book with a love SQUARE, but I'm so glad that I gave this book a chance and I definitely don't regret it. This is the first book of Laura Jane Williams' that I've read and I'm definitely going to look into her other books. This book was honestly just a great, feelgood romance with a lot of hurdles for Penny to overcome, and I adored both the book and the reading experience.

The Love Square tells the story of Penny, who owns a successful cafe in London but moves up to Derbyshire when her uncle is taken ill to run his restaurant. Unlucky in love and single for 5 years, she suddenly finds herself in a "love square" with 3 men - who will she decide is her Mr Right?

What Williams does well is make this a book that has a bit more to it than your average romantic novel - it deals with some serious issues (loss, cancer, infertility, surrogacy) and introduces a diverse and interesting cast of characters. Penny as a protagonist is extremely likeable and you find yourself rooting for her as she tries to figure out herself and what matters to her.

Overall a fun read and a real example of a modern romance novel.