Thank you Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. This book was not up my alley and a bit of a tedious read for a romance novel.

The love hack is one of the best reads for me this month. It had everything, the banter, the understanding between the characters, the funny moments, the oops moments...what not.
I love how quickly Lucy and Ross become friends, how quickly they actually start to fall for each other and finally get their happy ending.
Lucy is such a relatable character, the way she loves her cat, Astro. The way she's a bit clueless when it comes to guys, the way she doesn't trust easily, the way she has a heart so beautiful, the way she hypes up her friend to the guy she likes just because her friend also likes him. The way she actually dishes out such good advice, the way she's a little clueless when it comes to her love life. I love how she easily settles into her new work routine, how quickly she becomes comfortable working there and starts to open up. How she's a real mastermind at solving puzzles, how she does things and then overthink them later. I just really love her so much.
Ross is the guy who likes Lucy but doesn't know how to tell her. He falls for her first and so damn hard, it makes me crave the same type of love. The way he blushes whenever they make eye contact, the way he stumbles over his words when he's with her. The way he just knowss, that it's her >>>
I love their fun convos, the way she trusts him to look after Astro, the way he helps plan a whole trip with her, the way he keeps on calling her to check in, the way he just gets her.
I love Lucy's sister's side story, the way she actually takes such a big and hard step. I love how Lucy went after Zack, though I wished there was a scene where Lucy or maybe her sister confronted him.
The book is so damn relatable and so beautiful...but oh c'mon, where am I gonna find a guy like him?
I definitely recommend reading The Love Hack whenever you need a book to life your spirits up.


xoxo
🎀🫶🏻

A decent workplace romance and the banter between the two characters was well written and I thoroughly enjoyed that

Even though I'm not a huge fan of workplace rom coms. I did enjoy this one. Because I'm a sucker for good banter between the hero and the heroine and this one gave me that.

There were so many entertaining components to this book that make it so enjoyable. I loved how clueless Lucy was when it came to men and even her own self esteem. Over time, Ask Adam helped her grow into a positive and self confident person who was slowly learning what it took to be a good partner and be supportive, all the while standing up for and maintaining your own boundaries. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Ross and Lucy and the chemistry they very clearly had as well as Lucy's relationship with her younger sister. The Love Hack is an adorably wholesome book that actually has some pretty great relationship take away's built in. Perfect weekend read for this summer!

A decent rom com style book that took me a bit longer to get into than I would’ve liked. But I ultimately found the work romance a fun storyline and the comparison to Emily Henry was not far off. I would suggest this as a beach read, I just wish it had more spice to it.

To avoid being laid off, Lucy just got a new job working as an advice columnist at a men's magazine. The only problem - she hasn't been on a date for years and she has little to no understanding of the male mind. With the help of her sister, Amelie, and her trusty AI sidekick, Lucy's "Ask Adam" column starts to succeed, and Lucy begins to feel more comfortable in her all-male office, especially with her co-worker, Ross. However, when everything starts to go wrong, Lucy has to start figuring out the answers to all of her reader's (and her own) problems for herself.

This was a pretty traditional office romance, with a few quirks thrown in. I thought the use of the "Chat GPT" model was a cute way for Lucy to show off her background in technology, and it gave the book a modern, but not too sci-fi feel. The mystery of Amelie and her husband Zach's relationship was definitely giving more sinister, almost thriller vibes, and at times it overshadowed the other question of what went wrong in Lucy's relationship with Kieren, It was pretty obvious early on in the book that Lucy and Ross were going end up together, but I did enjoy the realistic conflicts they encountered along the way, and I was happy with the sweet ending.

Lucy meets Ross on her first day at her new job. I didn't like how he apparently wanted a chance with her but thought is was OK to still be together with someone she knew.

digital arc was provided by Netgalley and Storm Publishing

What happened to Sophie Ranald? This one's pretty disappointing to read.

Synopsis
Almost being fired, Lucy created a new column, Ask Adam, to save herself and her job even if it's a far cry from being a tech column. Being a woman didn't help either. Now, Lucy must answer various woes from men, crushing on her coworker, Ross, and coping with the upcoming wedding of her beloved sister, Amelia.

What I like
Technicality first: the cover, the way Ranald sometimes opens the chapter with Ask Adam question, and maybe that's it.

What I don't like
Lucy, as a whole. And it was hard to care about her when her personality revolted me. Lucy couldn't even differentiate between daydreaming and reality. I didn't even find her charming, or weirdly charming. Her relationship with Ross was forced. Their interaction to warrant attraction was mid at best. And Lucy, for the life of her, couldn't even act like a human being at all, relying on AI and sleuthing instead of talking to her sister. No wonder she didn't have any friend. The bridesmaids were all Amelia's.

Final thoughts
I came with joy because I've read 3 previous Ranald's books and they were more than fine. Reading this one didn't give me joy. Maybe next time?

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the advanced reading copy.

Y'all, the way my jaw hit the floor when I saw this was barely sitting at a 3 star rating on Goodreads when I went to write this review. I skimmed over some of the negative ones, curious as to why people were rating it so low, and there does seem to be one major flaw that we can mostly all seem to agree on (I was planning to mention it here already) and that's that this book is not a romcom. It's barely a romance. I'd say it's more aptly chick lit, and while that didn't detract from the story for me, when you're marketing it as romance and people pick up the book expecting it as such, they're likely to be a little upset when it's not what they're getting. Comparing it to Emily Henry, especially, was a bold move.

Now, if you can put all of that aside and you're okay with the biggest relationship in this book being the relationship that Lucy has with her sister, then this is for you! The biggest conflict in this book is the conflict that Lucy has with herself. She is not a confident woman, and it bleeds into every aspect of her life. Desperate times have her pitching an advice column for men to save her job, when she's very clearly not qualified to be giving advice - and if you weren't sure, don't worry. She mentions it at least a half dozen times in the book. Thinking she can lean on her sister for advice, she's put out when her sister tells her she has to take a step back and focus on her upcoming wedding and married life. So Lucy turns to AI.

I will say, this felt like an interesting dilemma, and I thought the use of AI would be more of a conversation starter for those who read the book. There's a very interesting question here about the way we use technology in our lives and what makes AI qualified to advise us on the human experience. It's also a little controversial and could have us questioning the ethics of using AI for things like this. Why does a company want to invest money in Lucy when they could feed questions to an AI for free? I think there's a lot of good talking points here.

Things get even more complicated when Lucy receives a particular letter to her column, and she's pretty sure she knows who sent it. It sends her on a wild chase, stumbling along to find answers.

Notice how I haven't even mentioned the romance yet? That's cause it's not prominent. We get a handful of crumbs of affection scattered between the pages of the real story. But I ate up every last one of those crumbs, I wanted more of them.

Here's the thing - it's hard to like Lucy. She complains about everything, she's too codependent on both her Sister and her cat, she's a bit naive, she's hyper focused on letting one bad experience ruin dating for her, her lack of self confidence has fumbling through her life... and yet I wanted her to win. She was insufferable, but she felt like a real person. Say what you will, but I devoured this book in under 48 hours. The writing is strong and thoughtful even if the subject matter isn't quite what we were promised.

Yeah, I don't really know what to say about this book. I really wanted to like it.
All of it was just weird in my opinion. Sooo slow burn with the slowest slows and like a second of burn (if that). I was really interested when I read the premise of the book, but it just wasn't for me. It took me soo long to get through it, and the actual storyline was basically Lucy, her problems and her delusions. And I am all for real, not picture perfect fmc, but????? I honestly don't even know what happened in this one.
And Ross????? Honestly, I was gonna say I wanted to have had his POV, but maybe it's best this way so I don't have to stress myself out any more with his childish and nonsensical behavior throughout the whole book.
I liked Sophie's writing style (what made me be able to finish the book) and will try to give her other titles a chance, eventually.

Thank you Storm Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Love Hack is a contemporary romance focusing on Lucy, a rookie advice columnist, struggles with the remnants of a past relationship while developing a crush on a new co-worker. When her column goes viral and her inbox overflows, Lucy turns to an AI bot to help decoding romantic troubles, including her own. Can AI really give sound relationship advice or will it all end in disaster?

It is a cute and relevant concept but for this reader, the pacing was off. It took a bit too long for the story to get where is was going. I also did not care for the secondary characters or their development or resolutions.

After some very good reads lately "the Love Hack" was a let down for me….
Lucy as the FMC really did not do it for me.
The Love Story went from 0 to 100. There was no build Up at all. It felt extremly rushed. There was no romance aspects at all for the beginning 30%.

I can't really say more because for me it was absolutely not a fun read.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

Well, this book didn't turn how I expected it to turn out...I was looking for a cute, romance between coworkers, one who is the voice of "Dear Adam" an advice column for men written by our female lead Lucy. While there were some cute moments there was too much lacking in the romance department. And unfortunately, Lucy didn't come across as a quirky, fun heroine just kind of needy and a "woe is me" kind of personality. Her previous relationship with a coworker was totally cringe worthy so I don't blame the girl to be standoffish for another relationship, but...
Then add to the fact that Russ our male lead/romantic interest has a "girlfriend"/someone he is dating for most of the book. The sister's relationship as a newlywed was also toxic. So much took away from the few sweet moments we got with our couple and the true romantic relationship didn't happen until the end of the book and felt so undeveloped and quick even though Lucy had romantic thoughts about Ross through most of the book. I just couldn't get invested in them as a couple.

This was my first book with this author, so maybe with a different story I might feel differently because the writing wasn't bad, I just couldn't get on board with this storyline.

2.5 stars

After some very good reads lately "the Love Hack" was a let down for me.
Lucy got on my nerves quite a lot.
The Love Story went from 0 to 100. There was no build Up at all. It felt extremly rushed.

I can't really say more because for me it was absolutely not a fun read

This book was okay enough for me.

Will I be thinking about this book for months to come? Doubtful, but I enjoyed the story either way.

Like other reviews have stated, it took me a little longer to get into the book. I wasn't constantly putting it down to do other things, it just started off a little slow for me. Some readers are into that though, so take this with a grain of salt.

I love workplace romance books, so maybe I got my hopes to high. It wasn't a bad story, just not my absolute favorite.

I still believe other readers should give it a chance though. Not every book is meant for us, and that's okay.

I'm still grateful to have received an eARC for this book.

I couldn’t for the life of me get past chapter 4. I ended up DNFing the book. I don’t know what it was, whether it was the plot, the characters, or the writing but it wasn’t working for me unfortunately.

Loved this book, a nice cute story about love, friendship, sisterhood and self acceptance. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing style and the characters are well rounded and likeable.. with a few exceptions, but what's a story without a villain?! I will the first part of the book is a bit slow and it took me a few chapters before I really got invested in the plot, but if you give it a go and keep on reading then you won't be disappointed! :)

I need to be hooked into a book within the first few chapters and unfortunately this book just didn’t do it, it never hooked me at all. I like the premise, especially with the AI aspect to keep it current but this book just didn’t do it for me. It wasn’t bad but I guess it was just more of the same romance type book.

Sophie Ranald is a new author to me and I have enjoyed my first read of one of her books. I found this book light-hearted and funny in many places and is very well written.