It's hard to rate this.. For me personally it was very boring and the writing was stilted. I think it literally read like a Hallmark movie--expository dialogue, a very immature main character who doesn't act like a real human, a grudge against the MMC, etc. Which I think would be fine, but the illustrated cover and description made me think we'd get a little more here. I feel like the illustrated cover thing is that they end up being for the romances with more depth? Or that are the newer style rom coms that have more more unique hooks and characters. Whereas I would expect to see this book in the grocery store and the cover to be a generically pretty model either holding a pen and looking thoughtful or glaring/smoldering at a strong-jawed generically handsome man. I'm giving three stars because once I modified my expectations this was somewhat enjoyable. But really the cover looks like an Emily Henry book and that is not a comparison you want to draw here.

Victoria Walters had me at the mention of Mr. Darcy in her latest romcom, The Love Interest.  I read this in one afternoon and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

You know that feeling when you're on a rollercoaster and it starts going down, and your stomach clenches? Or, even better, you talk to the person you fancy, and they start smiling or even looking at you and you get those annoying butterflies? Well, that's basically what I felt for most part of the book. Every banter, every conversation, actually everything these two - Aiden and Liv - did made my stomach clench with butterflies. Every. Single. Time.

Aiden is Liv's brother's best friend and ever since something happened ten years before, they became enemies. Liv only had to tolerate Aiden twice a year - at Christmas and for her brother's birthday. But then Aiden gets a job in London and Dan, Liv's brother, invites him to stay with them while he settles on a house.

You can imagine how two people who supposedly hate each other, might react while they are forced to live together. Especially Liv, who probably hates Aiden more than he hates her.

What I have loved of this book is that Liv is so relatable. I was basically her. Love Pride and Prejudiced, swooned over Colin Firth in the BBC rendition of Pride and Prejudice - who didn't though - fantasised on their current crush as Mr Darcy in the lake scene. We have all been there. She's working in a library - dream job, anyone? And she's always dreaming of finding that perfect guy, since Mr Darcy set the bar too high for her - and all of us really.

Aiden at first is portrayed as someone who had to tolerate his best friend's sister whenever they hang out together. Or even obnoxiously crashing into Liv's date with a colleague, just to annoy her. Of course this is what we get, reading Liv's POV. But you can see immediately through facade Aiden pulled up to avoid showing what he really felt.

I also didn't mind the miscommunication trope in this book. I'm not usually a fan, but the way Victoria handled it was fun and interesting.

If you've stuck with me so far, you won't regret picking this book up, when it comes out on February 12th. It's got banter, a bit of spice - which is always welcomed - and the best tropes out there: enemies to lovers and brother's best friend!

Thank you to Boldwood Books for providing this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Olivia “Liv” is an assistant librarian at a university, and she wants to write a romance novel. She lives with her brother in London. Aiden is a film professor at the same university and is temporarily living with Liv and her brother. Liv and Aiden can’t stand each other.

Things I liked: Liv’s passion for romance and writing, as well as her love for Pride and Prejudice. I liked reading about Liv’s writing process, journey, and the development of her story. Her relationship with her brother was beautiful; they shared their feelings and insecurities, gave each other advice, and encouraged one another. The romantic gestures that Liv and Aiden made for each other were lovely.

Things I didn’t like: Both Liv and Aiden were annoying. I didn’t like Liv and Aiden’s constant bickering; it seemed childish. Aiden was defined by his Irish accent, good looks, and role as the perfect love interest. The character development was lacking, which was a bit disappointing. Liv’s constant mention of Pride and Prejudice and Mr Darcy was a bit overdone at times, even though it was cool to see her wanting her love interest to be like Darcy.

The book was a quick read with a fast pace, which I really liked. However, the plot was pretty predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC of The Love Interest by Victoria Walters. This book was a dream come true! It had all of my favorite things -- enemies-to-lovers, all the Pride and Predijuce references, book and film lovers/references, a quirky, confident lead, a delicious love interest, a fantastic supporting cast, and so much more! This one is smart, sexy, and one you won't want to put down. I smiled through my entire reading of this novel, and I think you will, too. Add this one to your TBR; it publishes on February 12!

The Love Interest
By: Victoria Walters
Review Score: 4 Stars

Boogie’s Bulletpoints
-I love Liv’s work, and her process for writing her novel.

-Liv has really supportive friends and family!

-Aiden and Liv have amazing chemistry!

-The end is a little cheesy, but it was still really cute.

——
The Love Interest was kindly provided as an ARC by Netgalley and Boldwood Books. Thank you for allowing me to enjoy this wonderful book!

Release Date: 2/12/24

The Love Interest was such a cute book. Liv is trying to write her romance novel, but she is struggling to find a real life leading man to use as inspiration. Enter Aiden, her brother’s best friend.

As Liv and Aiden’s relationship evolves, she uses it to write her story, but obviously things don’t always work out the way you want, and it all blows up in Liv’s face.

I really enjoyed this story. It was fun and engaging, and I loved the chemistry between Liv and Aiden. Anyone looking for a light and romantic read will enjoy this.

#bookstagram #books #readingnow #boogiereadsbooks #fivekeyfeels #audiobooks #audiobook #fiction #arcreview #netgalley #boogiesbulletpoints #theloveinterest #victoriawalters #boldwoodbooks

Fairly predictable rom com but it was still a good read that I enjoyed. About how guys sound so much better on paper.

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC of The Love Interest.

I devoured this book in one sitting! The perfect enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy for 2024.
Olivia (Liv) works in a university library, while dreaming of writing her first novel. Soon, she discovers that her brother's best friend Aiden (think the ideal love interest) might be joining the university as the head of film studies. Suddenly, she finds herself inspired for her first book. Romance ensues...
Aiden is the modern Mr Darcy, combining his beautiful Irish accent, height, looks, and sharp wit, with a sincere and loyal adoration of Olivia from the first moment they met, ten years ago.
I am obsessed with this story!

The Love Interest follows the relationship of Liv and Aidan. Liv is an aspiring author working in a library, Aiden her brothers best friend and a film professor on staff. As Liv pens her first novel, an enemies to lovers romance, life starts to imitate art…

This was a fun and well paced read. I loved the college setting and particularly library. Arden and liv's relationship felt authentic, and I also enjoyed their relationships with Dan and Stevie. While I read this as an ebook I remember thinking that Aiden and Liv’s witty banter would be great as an audiobook.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Love Interest is a cute light-hearted romance, it's so easy to get sucked into and is a quick read.

I liked Liv and Aiden, their banter in the first half was great and I enjoyed the build-up of their relationship. I do think they became quite cheesy and sappy once they got together, I would've liked more of their quips to carry on to keep the humour going.

The third-act breakup is ok, there's a lot of miscommunication and assumptions but they do resolve things in the end through grand gestures. The grand gestures were a bit much for me to find romantic, I prefer a little bit more realism in my romance books. The way the characters spoke to each other often felt a bit formal and awkward too, it didn't flow the the way people would speak to each other in real life.

I did enjoy this book, it's a really sweet story and I think it's a perfect palette cleanser. I read this after a fantasy book and it was exactly what I needed!

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this.
I really wanted to love this. I LOVE enemies to lovers tropes and books that center on books. I also LOVE epistolary books: books within books is great! I also don't mind forced proximity and adore British writing. This sounded right up my alley: Olivia and Aiden are childhood acquaintances who have always squabbled, but being forced back together shows that animosity may be linked to something more.

But honestly this is really hard to get through. I don't love the writing; it's a bit all over the place. The transition from enemies-to-lovers is really sloppy and doesn't feel well developed at all. I think the two biggest problems for me were rooted in the interiority and the best friend character. I didn't really feel drawn to any of Olivia's internal dialogue, whether through her book or through her own thoughts: it just felt SO disjointed and so argumentative, but not in a good way? I also REALLY wanted more from Stevie. Her entire role was to really just foil all of Olivia's thoughts, but not in a way that felt genuine.
I just didn't like this :-(

I enjoyed the overall storyline/plot of this book. In my own opinion, it was a little bit too spicy for my taste, however, I enjoyed the romantic side of should Olivia stay with Aiden should she not in the book. I am giving this book a 3 out of 5 stars just because of the graphic spicy scenes that were depicted, I loved how the main character in the book was writing a book inside of a book aspect which was neat. This was my first book I have read of Victoria Walters and I hope to read more of her books in the future.

*3.5 stars rounded up*
i've been sitting on this review for a bit to collect my thoughts as one does.
so, first of all what i liked,
i really liked the premise of the book and the love interest himself funnily enough, that being said i at times found Olivia more cringey than relatable, and same critique goes for a lot of the dialogue.
maybe this is a bit biased since i really didn't like pride and prejudice, but i really wasn't too keen on the fact that she kept mentioning mr. Darcy every page or so.
but besides that it's a very solid rom-com, it hit the nail on a lot of the tropes it was using and even though it took me a bit to get into, once i reached the point where i got to know them, i felt like i really couldn't put it down :)

as always thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publishing company for letting me receive an arc of this book, i'm incredibly so grateful to have received this.

What do you get when your entire book is the miscommunication trope and an oblivious and not cute as she thinks she is FMC? A book I didn't enjoy :(

Really enjoyed the story! We follow Olivia and her journey to becoming a romance author. She currently is living with her influencer brother Dan and is working at a university library where she finds out her nemesis is interviewing and that nemesis is also her brother’s best friend. As the story progresses, we see the love story that is blooming inside of Olivia‘s head has connections to her real life however, her leading man in this love story happens to be Aiden the nemesis and brothers best friend she loves to hate but maybe hate really isn’t what she’s feeling. We follow along with the witty banter and swoon worthy moments between these two, and you can only hope that their love story gets a happy ending.

This book has so many moments where as a romance reader, you are giddy over and excited for, and there are moments where you want Olivia to act with a more open mind and heart. I thought that the story flowed naturally and I didn’t think anything was rushed or misplaced. One thing that stood out to me the most was that I had things that did bother me as a reader about Olivia and her reactions to situations, and one thing that the author did was actually addressed them in later chapters with Olivia‘s explanations for her actions and I appreciate that so much. A lot of stories you don’t get explanations when you need them the most. I’d highly recommend this book. It was such a fun story to read!

An absolutely gorgeous romance novel with brilliantly written relationships featuring a whole cast of fabulously endearing characters that you really root for. With a loveable heroine you'd want as your best friend and a swoon-worthy hero to die for, this book had the lot!

This was my first Victoria Walters novel, yet it will not be my last. Thoroughly enjoyed the writing in The Love Interest and couldn’t wait for the will they/won’t they scenes to be resolved. I was kept guessing right to the end and had a great big smile on my face as I read the epilogue. A super romance story which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Now where can I find me an Aiden?

Cute story! What a fun coincidence that Olivia starts writing a rom-com only to start living one in true life. Enemies to lovers, brothers best friend and pride and prejudice references, what’s not to love! This was a quick and entertaining read. Thank you to NetGalley for this free advanced copy. I’m leaving this review voluntarily

The Love Interest by Victoria Walters is a sweet romance book that inspires all book girlies to keep their standards high and their Mr. Darcy will find them eventually.

Shortly after moving in with her brother, Olivia "Liv" Jones is inspired more than ever to start writing her romance book, not because there is a great love in her life, but because her love life is lacking. Stevie, her best friend and fellow romance reader who works with Liv in a university library in London, encourages her every step of the way, pushing Liv out of her comfort zone. But between writing and hanging out with her content creator brother, Dan, and his boyfriend, Theo, Liv's world is turned upside down when her nemesis enters her life more permanently.

Aiden Rivers is Dan's best friend going on ten years, but after their disastrous first meeting, Liv and Aiden butt heads every chance they get. After avoiding Aiden as much as she could for the past ten years, Liv learns he's been hired as the Film Department Head at the university where she works with Stevie. Even worse, Dan has invited his best mate to crash in his apartment until Aiden gets his place, and his room is next to Liv's.

Now, Aiden seems to be everywhere and a hopeless romantic. Liv doesn't know if his actions are to drive her crazy or to woo her over. He's shirtless in their kitchen when she tries to get coffee after her morning yoga sessions, he's in the cafeteria line on Liv's lunch break, and somehow, he appears in Liv's book as the love interest after Stevie points this out to Liv.

When an accident strikes the Jones household, Dan leaves Liv and Aiden up to their own devices for a week, and everything could go either right or wrong. Is Liv going to speak up about her own love interest, or is their hatred for each other standing in their way? After all, opposites do attract, don't they?

The classic romance scenes from movies that made their way into "The Love Interest" were stunning and swoon-worthy. The romantic gestures that Aiden made for Liv throughout the book were lovely, and I had to ask myself how she didn't see that he was head over heels for her the whole time!

Dan and Theo's relationship evolution and healing throughout the story allowed more light to be shed on why Liv reacted to relationships drastically differently than to romance. A single mother raised Liv and Dan after their father walked out on the family when the two were young, leaving their mother, whose heart was broken, to pick up the pieces and carry on. Both Liv and Dan were hesitant about committing fully to a relationship, and the fear of heartbreak was always on their minds.

The spicy scenes that appeared around 50% of the way through the book were well written and almost a bit too much for the book since it had the feeling of a fluffy romance instead. It wasn't all about the spice and sex, even though it was in the story.

Liv's character is immature and lacks specific depths that most female main characters in books of this genre seem to have. While being obsessed with romance stories, to the point where it's nearly all she can think about, Liv's character doesn't seem to know the whole picture most of the time, and frankly, Aiden deserves better than her.

"The Love Interest" is a single-point-of-view book, and if Aiden's POV had also been written in, the pacing and overall storyline would have been more enjoyable. Liv was a somewhat whiney character whose perspective wasn't always compelling to read from. While the Mr. Darcy references were slightly endearing at the beginning, and the grand gesture at the ending was swoon and laugh-worthy, the constant reference that he is the "perfect" man and who every woman envisioned was slightly annoying.

With Liv writing her romance book parallel to the storyline, some excerpts from that are inserted. While it was a "story within a story," it was annoying that it wasn't the best writing quality and was more cringe-worthy than anything. This caused the epilogue to fall flat and was unconvincing.

Stevie's character had so much potential to find her happy ending rather than simply accepting that she had her heart broken and now must be a severe career woman. Despite being a "side character," Stevie was a great friend to Liv when she needed it the most, and the way that Liv took her for granted most of the time was irritating.

"The Love Interest" by Victoria Walters was an entertaining romance book to read, but it was not without its flaws, especially in its characters and repeated references. Any book lover with a soft spot for grand romantic gestures will likely find this book enjoyable.

Thank you to Boldwood Books for allowing me to be an early reader of "The Love Interest" by Victoria Walters, which comes out on February 12, 2024. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

“What makes a great love interest?
* Attractive but flawed
* A fully realised character with their own agency
* Chemistry and conflict with the protagonist”

Sweet, cozy, enemies to lovers, brother’s best friend romance when they become roommates and the forced proximity will lead them soon enough to turn them from enemies to lovers. Adrian and Olivia’s banter was so fun to go through and their romance was light spicy and quite entertaining, especially considering she is trying to write a romance novel. The fact that he has an Irish accent and I could easily imagine his voice in my head was quite a plus! Their tension was intense and the development of the book made it quite enjoyable. I have to admit that the third act break-up was quite predictable but it’s absolutely fine!!! I had quite a fun time getting through this book and the fact that the MMC was a handsome man … it was a plus !!!

'Reading romance doesn't make you hard to please. It gives you standards. Why shouldn't we wait for someone special and not settle down with just anyone? Why shouldn't we want someone to treat us well and be romantic?'

“Because this undeniable tension, this heat between us, could either burn brightly or implode.”

This was a super cute and super quick read. I loved Aiden. Liv was a little too oblivious for me but overall, I felt the connection between her and Aidan. I would’ve loved to see more of Theo and Dan’s relationship as well.

Overall, a really sweet read