This book was my introduction to Lindsey Kelk and I have to admit I was impressed. It was captivating and I loved how the characters were bantering with each other. I personally needed Sophie to be more sure of herself. I mean, she was a badass author, she could’ve been more convincing. Joe was funny and I liked how he pursued Sophie. They are definitely cute together.
I listened to the audiobook and I have to say it was easier to listen to it since I was sooo busy lately. Doing chores while listening to this cute story it was nice!
Thanking to Netgalley, HarperCollins and Lindsey Kelk for this ALC! It was a great opportunity that I’m very grateful for!🫶🏻

This is not my first Lindsey Kelk book but it is my first audio listen of one of her books, and it has been a while since I read one of her books and it was a fun dip back into her writing.

I thought the narration was fab for this book, Kristin Atherton did a great job bringing the book to life.

I personally enjoy more relationship building in my books, but we definitely see more of the romance in this book than others I’ve read by her in the past where it is lightly touched upon.

I liked that it was a quick and easy read and it would be a great holiday read. I loved that she touched upon the internalised misogyny that romance readers and writers face and I enjoyed the witty lines from Lindsey that we always get in her books.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK Audio, NetGalley and author Lindsey Kelk for this arc.

I thouroughly enjoyed Love Story.

The writing was nice & punchy and gave the story a good flow. The narrator, Kristin Atherton, did a fantastic job bringing the story and characters to life.
The plot was unique and the character fun with a little quirk.

I didn't love the insta-love aspect but it wasn't too front and center so I'll give it a pass. The dreaded third-act break up due to miscommunication is also a trope I think we should retire - at least for a while. And I would've liked an epilogue.

All together a fun and quick read.

As previously advised, I am unapologetically in my romance reads era (again) and so I was all over this one when it showed up.

Quick summary of Love Story to get you started:
* Sophie Taylor, primary school teacher. Parents (one an editor of worthy tomes, the other a literary critic) reckon she’s wasting her potential a bit.
* Sophie’s ex: has written a worthy literary tome. Her dad loves him. Sophie has also written a bestselling book, but no one knows because she’s used a nom-de-plume. The book is a bit spicy.
* Joe Walsh, publishing house creative director. Good hair. Aggravating. Over-endowed with confidence.

Sophie’s struggling with writing the sequel to her debut bestseller, and she can’t talk to anyone about it (secret, aye?). She can’t even spend the weekend tearing out her hair over the edits, because she has to return to her family home to attend her dad’s birthday celebrations. Her 18 year old sister is determined to be the centre of attention, and Very Important Bags are going missing.

This is such a well-crafted book. There’s a lot of knowing side-eye references to the tropes and criticisms of romance novels, but also an unashamed joy in the shared experience of reading and living a happy ending. The cast of characters is chefs’ kiss: from the parents to the best friend, the annoying ex to the unwitting fans of her book that Sophie meets - the voices feel authentic and there are several laugh out actual loud moments.

The tension is built and broken with just the right rhythm, the conventions hold (there’s only one bed! Someone will have to sleep on the armchair! - unless…), and the 🌶️ scenes are good if you like that kind of thing 🙃 The mirroring of the plot to Sophie’s own book is steered with a light touch; like all the themes in the book it doesn’t bludgeon the reader over the head. The representation of sibling relationships is the best I’ve read in some time.

Kristin Atherton narrates the audiobook, and she does an excellent job; with multiple female characters it might have been hard to differentiate the voices, but I was never once confused. Her timing is spot on, and her delivery of one-liners leaves no crumbs.

Whether or not you’re in a happy-ever-after place in your life just now, Love Story probably has something you’ll enjoy. The bouncy castle scene may satisfy those revenge fantasies, for instance - you’ll see what I mean. Get it got.

This is what it is - an easy romance. Unfortunately I didn't feel the chemistry between the main couple and was actually more intrigued by how the FMC's authorship would be revealed.

I have loved Lindsey Kelk since the ‘I Heart’ books.
This one didn't disappoint. It was such a fun romance novel. The main characters were likeable, and this book contained all the elements I have come to love from a Lindsey Kelk novel.
The narrator was great. Very talented and had a range of different voices. This is a perfect summer listen.

I usually love Lindsey Kelk's books but this one didn't work for me so much. There were a LOT of pop culture references which I think will date this book incredibly quickly. There are also an incredible amount of Taylor Swift references, which got to be too much even for me as a pretty big Swiftie.

A lot of the characters were also incredibly unlikely, up to and including Sophie's sister Charlotte. She was truly awful and irredeemable. In fact, most of the side characters in here were truly irredeemable. The whole family gave me weird Saltburn vibes.

I also didn't enjoy the sexual harassment scene and felt it should have been removed.

For a book centred around a book so spicy the author doesn't even want people to know they wrote it, the book is rather closed door. That was rather jarring.

⭐️⭐️.5 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️/🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

This book was very eye opening. It was nice reading about characters older then the usual romance books, usually the characters in romances are in their early 20s, while the two MCs of this book was in their late 20s/early 30s and it was eye opening. The FMC, Sophie Taylor, is a secret spicy romance writer - working as a primary school teacher by day and one of the best selling romance authors by night, working under a pseudonym, so there's many references to romance books, tropes and current romance authors. The MMC, Joe Walsh, is a creative director of a publishing company, but he's honestly nothing really to write home about if I'm being honest. The sun really shines on the Sophie and her journey, her relationship with her family and her relationship with herself as she works on trying to stay anonymous. Sophie's parents are both really famous in the publishing world, as a critic, editor or agent, but they mainly deal in classic literary fiction and really wordy stuff so they're really snobby to romance novels. So seeing this story play out was honestly really easy to listen to and read. One thing I would've liked... is more spice, for a book about a best selling spicy author, we had one almost closed door but still a little spicy spice scene and about 2-3 kisses. Really nothing to write home about, it was kinda insta lovey but it wasn't really developed looking back on it. The audiobook was decent, but it would've performed better as a duet or if it was dual POV. Overall an easy read but could've been better.

There's something I love about authors writing books that focus on writers and the process of writing - it's like a very meta breaking of the fourth wall that I really enjoy. Not to mention, a MMC who loves books is basically crack to me. There is, however, a fine line between meta and indulgently leaning into inside jokes within the online literary community. This book did cross the line fairly often into feeling like a parasocial relationship with Tiktok viewers and bookstagram in a way that felt not quite professional and rather a little wattpad-y. There were also a lot of very specific pop culture references (Taylor's Version, friendship bracelets, etc) that made the book already come across as being dated to the specific year of release and gave me a bit of an ick (and I say this as a certified Swiftie).

I did enjoy the relationship between the two MCs, it felt like a believable relationship progression, and I wish Lindsey had leaned further into their professional rivalry - the chapters at the beginning where Joe was suspicious of Sophie being Este Cox were some of my favorite interactions between the two of them. The periphery characters were a bit overdone in my opinion - the sister with no personal boundaries and the ex boyfriend with no sense of humility felt a bit like 2-dimensional stock characters and I wish they'd had a bit more substance, but I did enjoy the conflict and resolution between Sophie and her parents. Both Sophie's brother and best friend I liked a lot, and wish we'd seen more of - although I would have preferred again a bit more distinction between their characters, as they both fulfilled a similar role in her life.

I keep going back and forth about how to rate this, but I think it was a 3 star read for me - enjoyable, but not my favourite contemporary romance (and not even my favourite of Lindsay Kelk's books, if I'm entirely honest).

2 stars

Love Story had a lot of potential. The characters were well-defined, with an interesting enough premise: I loved the idea of a romance focused on an anonymous author, but Love Story didn't live up to my expectations.

The pop culture references were excessive (& the Iron Flame one was particularly jarring) and really pulled me out of the story, and I didn't enjoy the insta-love element. Joe's redemption fell a bit flat as his horrible attitude at the start of the book was never really addressed, and it felt like the author was hinting at there being more to his background, but it was never explained. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be funny on every page, resulting in more serious moments not being explored when they could have added much more depth, and the sexual harassment Joe experiences being glossed over as a joke.

Exploring the attitudes towards authors like Sophie could have been a very interesting theme of the book, but it was very surface-level commentary, with anyone who actually read Sophie's book discovering they actually love it. I also found the pacing confusing, as it would have been much more interesting for the party weekend to take place at the very start of the book, and follow Joe & Sophie's relationship after those events. Additionally, I didn't enjoy the narration of the audiobook, as it felt overly dramatic and only made it harder to feel involved in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for the ARC.

This was such a final and quick read. Being a part of book community seeing a romcom from book industry just makes my experience more wonderful. I love the characters and their interactions were amazingly penned down by the author.
This is my first read from the author's work, now I am definitely going to check out the other works too.

Now it’s been a while since I’ve read a book by this author….but I don’t remember her previous books being as saucy and spicy as this!! I listened to this on audiobook and thought I was safe listening to it in the garden or with my back door open, but I found myself turning it down at some points so my neighbors children couldn’t hear it 🙈🤣

Don’t worry though… there’s far more to this book than what I’ve just mentioned. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and the characters and it was nice to have a easy listen in a audiobook.

💕 I absolutely devoured the audiobook😂 it was brilliant! ✨

Original, spicy, enemies to lovers bookshop romance that had me jumping up and down one minute, to absolutely swooning over every word Joe whispered in Sophie's ear the next.. 🫠

Their typically British romance is like any other I've come across, it's so real! you could almost picture it being your own life. Creatively written by Lindsey.. it's a must read! 🩷

With a fierce and funny, unapologetically real FMC (Sophie)- you can't go wrong. The MMC (Joe) is created by the gods🥵, and can get any woman he wants... but he can't have Sophie. (that easily!)

I love the dynamics between the ex, the family, the best friend and the current pursuit.. it's all fabulous!💋

You tell me.. living as an anonymous romance author but falling for the creative director within the same publishing company and having to stay in a cottage for the weekend - what could go wrong? 😂

👏🏻 Every romance girly out there, add this book to your TBR! 🥰

.. safe to say ALL Lindsey Kelk books are now on my TBR.

I love a Lindsey Kelk story and this one had me gripped from the off! I loved the premise of the story and found the narration engaging and easy to devour - I listened to this all in one

This felt different to other books by Kelk that I’ve read in the past - this was much more rom com with way more exploration of the romance tropes. This also contained a bit more steam and spice than previous books and I was totally here for it.

I did predict little bits of the obstacles that the couple would endure, but that was totally ok. Definitely will be recommending this to fans of the genre

Sophie Taylor has a secret and it seems that Joe Walsh knows all about it. He's very attractive, extremely good-looking – and a little too confident.
As it happens, Sophie really needs his help. She's lost her laptop – and her sequel to the sensational, spicy romance that everybody's talking about.
Sophie is hiding something big. She's Este Cox, the mysterious romance author everyone wants to unmask...
Should she tell the truth or continue to live in shadow?

I know it is romance book but I had so much funny moments so I couldn't hide a smile. The narrator with amazing british accent made this book even more better.

Thanks NetGalley for audio ARC of this book.

Audiobook Review

This was such a great read. The narrative was fantastic.

I really loved the fact that it touched the facts and bias surrounding the drama with romance novels and the reasons a lot of authors use pen names.

The plot was very entertaining and fun. It was written with lots of humour, and I loved that.

What I loved most was the banter, absolutely brilliant 👏

What a book! I got the audiobook from Netgalley (thank you for that!) and I didn’t want to sotp listening. I loved the humor and the spice, the characters and their dynamic. Some of them were very annoying but I thought that’s the point for them being like this. It’s cheesy and has many tropes, but it’s also called Love Story so I kind of expected that. It did shed a light on how female and male authors, romance novels and their content are being perceived by the book community and people in the book industry, I felt this topic is quite important and it could be a book of its own.

If you are looking for a classic love story with good humor, many tropes and love pop cultural references, then this is for you! I laughed and gasped and giggled!

This is a lovely romance book - forced proximity and miscommunication tropes. Lots of pop culture references to other romance authors and Taylor Swift. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great that the author touched on the shame a lot people feel around enjoying romance because fuck that. Live a life that brings you joy.

🎧Audio Listening Review🎧

Love Story - @lindseykelk

Thank you to @netgalley for providing me with a copy of this audio book. I really enjoyed the narration of this book.

This is my favourite Lindsey Kelk book. It gave me everything - drama, humour, love, secrets, lies and lots of mentions of my favourite authors.

The book centers around Sophie who has written a romance bestseller under a pen name. She doesn't want her family to know she's written it because they are big in the publishing world and she's worried about how they will react to her "smutty book". But everyone is talking about the book Butterflies and can't wait for the sequel.

When she meets Joe who is so handsome but also very annoying she just wants him to go away. But he seems to be everywhere and has even followed her to her Dad's 60th Birthday Party Celebrations.

What I loved about this book was how the author has written a book about a genre that a lot of people turn their noses up at. And it was great to see some of the characters do a u-turn and not judge a book by its cover. We like what we like and that's ok. I liked as well that we got a good inside into the literary world and I found this interesting.

I loved all the side characters too which added to the drama and I didn't feel like any of them were fillers. It was so well written I can picture this family clearly in my head.

The only criticism I would have is that this takes place over 3 days but so much happens I feel it would have been more realistic to take place over a longer period of time. But it did not affect my enjoyment of the book as I lived it and have ordered a physical copy for my bookshelf as I know I'll pick this up when I need a good read. I feel this book is a bit like a comfort blanket.

I loved this charming little book. It's is about a romance writer who kees her identity secret due to the racy nature of her book and potential famiy disapproval. There are family dynamics, romantic entanglements and several laugh-out-loud moments, Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in excahnge for an honest review.