Member Reviews
The most beautiful of unexpected love stories. Packed full of beautiful clothes and beautiful people I just could not put this down. The perfect escapist read for a rainy Sunday.
A lovely romantic read with a slight reference to Christmas. Highly predictable but that didn’t effect my enjoyment. At every twist and turn I was hoping it would work out.
Thanks to Netgalley for the early e book copy.
This is Georgia Toffolo's first novel, fresh from her win a few years ago on I'm A Celeb, where she captured the nation's heart and this is a fabulous read. This filled my little romance heart with so much joy and I loved how Oliver just basically proposed to Victoria the first time he saw her. Fake relationship tropes are my favourites and this was spot-on. I can't wait for Meet Me In Hawaii.
Ohh I loved this book, it was sweet, fun, warm & fluffy. Easy to read, written very well, thoroughly enjoyable. Cannot wait for the sequel! Would definitely recommend!
Very cute romance with plenty to warm the heart, this is a decent first novel from Georgia Toffolo.
The book is centered around Victoria, a bar manager by day and fashion designer by night and Oliver, the owner of a department store, who pair up to solve both their problems. These main characters are well fleshed-out and likable, leaving the reader hoping for their happy ending.
Set in Chelsea, London, this novel is Georgia Toffolo writing what she knows, which works perfectly.
This is a cosy, charming read which is a little predictable in places, but ultimately worth a read.
Many thanks to Netgalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book features one of my favourite tropes: a fake relationship.
I did enjoy this story and the characters. I liked the relationship between Oliver and Victoria and enjoyed seeing this develop throughout the book. The characters felt very realistic and they were experiencing difficulties that made them feel relatable. Whilst the overall tone of the book is lighthearted there were some moments of darkness and reality that I really appreciated.
This is a debut novel and I did feel that in places the writing felt a little clumsy particularly at the start of the book when the characters were being introduced. I did feel that this improved as the story progressed. I was pleased to hear that there is going to be a sequel following another one of the characters that were introduced in this book. I will certainly be checking out the next book.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - I thought the characters were well written and being set in London (being an avid lover of London) I thought it was very relatable. The characters felt like people I could know. I thought the story evolved really well and as the story progressed you fall more in love with the characters and by the end I was wholeheartedly routing for them! Definitely one I'd read again.
A lovely Christmas book, with some deeper issues touched on that keeps it from being completely light and fluffy. The first in a book series, it introduces you to all the main character and gives you a hint to a backstories that I guess we will hear more of in future books. A sweet book that you can read not only at Christmas time!
I put a review of this on my Instagram stories and sold it in my bookshop also.
As a debut novel, this was good and I will definitely read the sequel coming out this year. It took me a while to get into this and I did feel that the romance was a little forced and perhaps not relatable. Nevertheless I enjoyed picturing Victoria’s adventures around London, pursuing her dreams and not letting a man get in her way.
Georgia Toffolo has really hit the nail on the head with this ‘peng’ feel-good romance novel. It is Next Level.
Not only has it got the pretend-but gets a bit steamy- love story of Oliver and Victoria, it touches on difficult subjects such as illness, depression, guilt and a huge one that I am so pleased to see delicately handled INFERTILITY. 👏🏻
I couldn’t put this book down, it was so beautifully written, a brilliant story and lovable characters (aside from Andrew). I can totally see why this is a Sunday Times Top 20 Bestseller.
Oliver is an absolute dreamboat, And the Lost Hours girls are what you want from your girl gang!
I cannot wait to read Meet me in Hawaii (which I am so fortunate to have an ARC paperback of) and of course, the further 2 books in this series!
I definitely recommend this book! My only regret is waiting so long to read this book.
This book was a cute & easy read, and I enjoyed it. Sometimes the scenes between Victoria and Oliver were a bit too repetitive and drawn out. Also not sure why they called the book Meet Me in London. It doesn't really seem to fit the story that well. I would've liked the book to feel more festive. Although it's set in the build up to Christmas, it didn't feel it at all.
Not a bad debut, but I think it could've been polished up a bit more and improved.
Unfortunately this was absolutely not for me; this was honestly painful to finish and had this not been a review copy I'd have DNF before 20%. I must admit, romance is not my genre, and I only requested this novel because I like the author, having followed her on Instagram since her Made in Chelsea times - Georgia 'Toff' Toffolo comes across as intelligent, hilarious and endearing so I thought her novel would be far better than your average romance, but alas, it wasn't. I found this incredibly hard to get into and never truly felt like I was engaged in this read, only wanting to get to the end of it; I simply didn't care either way how this ended. None of the characters pulled me in and I thought they all fell a bit flat: Oliver was boring and felt fake; his actions and responses too stiff to be a real person. Victoria was a little better, with brief interludes of relatability, but I still didn't feel invested in her. I liked Victoria's friendship group and felt that was one of the only things that was quite real but the romance to me was stilted, forced and tedious. I suspect romance fans will have a better time with this, but even so think it is average at best even for someone that loves this genre. I, however, will stick with more thrilling reads, and remember not to request books that I'm not particularly interested in.
A lovely read. A heartbreaking story with a a happy ending, lovely characters and enough twists in the plot to stop you from putting the book down. I will definitely be interested in seeing what else this author comes up with.
Thank you to Mills and Boom for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I saw Toff on I'm a Celeb a few years ago and when I saw this book on netgalley the cover and the blurb drew me in.
Meet Me in London is a cute emotional romance. Our main character is Victoria. She is a small-time designer who manages a bar to help pay the bills. She also teaches a small class on clothes designing. Victoria is haunted by her past. I really liked Victoria. She's one of those people that really cares. She wants to help people. the way she is with the girls in her class is just so sweet.
Oliver is gorgeous. He's also a workaholic. I feel like Victoria really opens his eyes to the person he could be. He's quite closed off at the beginning of the book but the more time he spends with Victoria the more he opens up and becomes the man he wants to be. Also, the chemistry between those two is off the charts!
This is one of the books that is set near to Christmas but it's not Christmas with all the bells and whistles. It sort of runs in the background. The story could have been set at any time really. It is an uplifting light-hearted romance.
I love Victoria's 'squad' as she calls them. They have been through so much and only they will understand. I'm so glad they managed to stay friends after what they went through. I am very excited to see where this series goes. I can't wait to see the other girls books.
I ploughed through this book, quicker than I have read any other book in 2020 and it was joyous. This book is the festive, feel-good romance that 2020 desperately needs. The plot and characters were fun and it was nice to read a romance novel where there was so much sexual tension, but it wasn't driven by that. The main driver of this story is the budding romance between Victoria and Oliver, but for me, it is also a story about the love you have for your friends and the importance of friendship and family.
I really enjoyed this easy-read romance and was fully invested in the characters and the plot. I found myself celebrating all the little wins for each of the characters and really wanting them to succeed. The character development is also fantastic, with both characters going from being withheld when it came to romantic relationships and developing into people that understood the importance of communication and being there for each other.
Although this was a lovely, sometimes steamy, romance, Georgia did also tackle some really important topics, like infertility ("Victoria didn't measure her worth bu whether or not she could have kids. Shame that someone else did."), societal expectations, loss, the pressure's to 'settle down' ("By happy, she meant married. As if you couldn't be otherwise. Although he knew just as many people who were married and miserable as married and happy."), to name a few. With the more serious elements of this story there was some sage advice in the musings of Victoria and Oliver ("So many people thinking The One was the be all and end all of their lives, Victoria thought, with a little pang in her chest. As if being single was such a problem. She liked it. She liked the freedom, liked not having to compromise or worry about what the other person was thinking.".
I did only gave the writing style four stars as there was a lot of repetition of words and phrases that grated on me a little bit (but having said this, that does seem to be the case with a lot of steamy romances). This is a matter of personal preference and definitely doesn't detract from the novel, so don't let that sway you.
This debut novel was a fantastic form of festive escapism for me and even though it was a romance novel, it also completely captures the magic of the count-down to christmas and the childhood memories it brings with it (both good and bad) and the wonder you tend to feel at this time of year ("When did we lose that innocence and pure joy of just being?").
Thank you Georgia Toffolo for writing such a lovely book, that provided me with an alternate reality to what is going on at the moment. I loved it. Can we have a follow up on Victoria and Oliver to see what's in their future, please?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this eARC of Meet me in London, in exchange for an honest review
This was a lovely Christmas book with a believable and slow burning romance. I loved both of the main characters, I really connected with Victoria and loved that Oliver wasn’t stuck up despite being a billionaire. He was very down to earth. The storyline was interesting and unique with the fake engagement and I fell in love with Oliver’s lovely parents too. Gorgeous book with a gorgeous setting.
What do you do when your fake engagement starts to feel too real…
Aspiring clothes designer Victoria Scott spends her days working in a bar in Chelsea, and her evenings designing vintage clothes, dreaming of one day opening her own boutique. But these aspirations are under threat from the new department store opening at the end of her road. She needs a Christmas miracle, but one is not forthcoming.
Oliver Russell’s Christmas is not looking very festive right now. His family’s new London department store opening is behind schedule, and on top of that his interfering, if well meaning, mother is pressing him to introduce his girlfriend to her. A girlfriend who does not exist. He needs a diversion. Something to keep his mother from interfering while he focuses on the business.
When Oliver meets Victoria, he offers a proposition: pretend to be his girlfriend at the opening of his store and he will provide an opportunity for Victoria to showcase her designs. But what starts as a business arrangement soon becomes something more tempting, as the fake relationship starts to feel very real. But when secrets in Victoria’s past are exposed will Oliver walk away, or will they both follow their hearts and find what neither knew they were looking for…
I really liked Toff in the jungle and Made in Chelsea and thought her book would be fab!
However, I was quite disappointed in this book.
I felt that it had such a potential to be a great festive read, but it lacked the festive spirit and the cheer. I found it quite boring and repetitive in places. I found myself skim reading towards the end, which I hate doing, but this one just wasn’t for me.
Sorry, just couldn’t get into it. Writing was dull and didn’t keep me entertained. I’m always wary when “celebs” write books and I could see from the pre-lim pages that Toff wrote this with someone else. Like Katie Price’s “novels” it really annoys me when exceptionally good writers don’t get the recognition they deserve and instead the celeb does. Have up after a chapter as not for me.
The two main characters in the books are Victoria and Oliver. After a chance meeting their worlds collide but this isn’t your normal romance novel. It has varying levels of emotions and readers should be prepared to laugh out loud and then cry at the turn of a page. If you have been following my reviews you will know that I need a book to have depth and not just the back and forth of a relationship. This book has important painful topics that are handled with relatability and realness. I really respected that the issues were in the book to start with. It made Victoria extremely real and I feel a connection to her.
A huge part of the book is community spirit and making sure the small business doesn’t get squashed by the bigger department stores. Right now with the limited means of going shopping out in the world. It’s a great time to remember all the small business online and on Amazon who would love to indulge your retail therapy needs. By supporting them you are putting food on their tables and keeping a roof over their heads.
I recommend this book to fans of Sarah Morgan. You will click instantly with Georgia Toffolo’s writing style. It’s superb and I was really impressed. This is book one in a series and I simply cannot wait for the next instalment.
Five stars!
What a great Christmas read! Made me feel full of seasonal spirit by the end. The book is a very well written romance with some serious undertones and complex relationships and friendships.
I can't wait to read more from Georgia, she's a natural writer!
One criticism I would give is that there were a few steamy romance scenes which were great and lots of build up but then the book cut away from the real action! A bit disappointing as I felt had some serious adult themes in the book so why stop there! Haha!