⭐️⭐️.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.

I don't mind pop culture references but I hate when author's make the FMC a huge bookworm and that's all she talks about because it just feels author self-insert-ish. Please, don't talk about Booktok in your books, it's just annoying. The jokes weren't really funny either so that kinda sucks for a rom-com. The romance itself was fine, just a it bland and the characters didn't have a lot of chemistry which was disappointing. Just very meh in general.

What I love about love me do is it make me laugh a few times loved the plot the characters i was so invested loved the sarcastic between 2 characters this is the 2nd book i read of Lindsay Kelk 4 stars and thank you net gallery and HarperCollins for the ARC

**Listened the the audio book as well as reading hard copy**

I have lots of Lindsey Kelk's books over the years, and I usually have loved them - although the last could of releases have been a bit more miss that hit with me.
However, I feel like Kelk is back on form after reading this book!
I found the characters to be super likeable, and super real - it didn't feel too far fetched or over the top - in character and in plot.

The audio book narrator was one of the best I've heard in a long time. She was just fab at portraying each of the different characters. She really added to my enjoyment of reading the book!

The story has lots of different strands and sub-plots but all were super engrossing. Sophie - our protagonist is so much fun and I could relate a lot to her! She just wants to make everyone happy... but sometimes this meant that she was left unhappy.

Kelk's writing is so filmic, and I could picture it so vividly playing out in my head - imagining a film or tv series. It would make a great netflix original!

So pleased I'm back loving Linsey Kelk again! Bring on her next book!

I absolutely ate this one up! I knew that I would probably enjoy it, but I did not realise just how much.

This book has me laughing out loud in the middle of the street multiple times. There was a great balance between romance and family which gave it a feel of being almost a Romeo and Juliet retelling. This was funny as it was commented on later on in the book.

I did find the family to be a little frustrating but that was definitely intended. I loved the comment on the importance of Romantic Fiction as I have felt like I've had to defend loving romance books quite a lot. I did like how it was also resolved and the development arc of the characters in reaching that resolution.

Insta-Love is definitely not a favourite trope of mine but I loved how LK dealt with it here - with a nice sprinkling of smut to keep us all sweet.

I absolutely loved the audiobook and feel like this will be one that I revisit when I am wanting a light-hearted romantic comedy.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, HarperCollins!

I ATE THIS UP, 4 stars

this was the perfect, no brains, pure vibes fluff read I needed. Love Story is funny & adorable at the same time. could I predict most of the plot? yes. did I still enjoy it? also yes.

bonus points for all the romance, fantasy & litfic book/author references.

I already loved this book from ebook format but the narrator has an amazing cadence, great accents and some star inflection. Really elevated an already stellar book.

I have read most if not all Lindsey Kelk's books and enjoyed them all I was looking forward to this one.

Sophie is a primary school teacher and has secretly written a bestselling book under a pseudonym Este Cox. Only two people know who the author really is , her editor who is also her godfather and her agent who happened to be her brother. Both are sworn to secrecy but are encouraging Sophie to reveal herself as the author and claim the limelight. Sophie is adamant that she will not because she fears she will lose her job and that her literary industry parents will be ashamed of her because of the genre of the book.

The book is called Butterflies and I would definitely want to read it if it wasn't a fictional entity.

Along comes Joe with an instant attraction between them despite this being Sophie's most disliked trope.

We get to meet the family and are entertained by them, especially her brother. I disliked the bag scene, it seemed unlikely even for a fake. I also felt very uncomfortable about a scene with an aunt and the main male character and felt it should have been handled better by the female lead rather than being seen as amusing. It was an assault and under the umbrella of sexual violence after all. If it had been against a woman would it have been laughed off?

I probably didn’t get all of the Taylor Swift references although I did get the title, but I did get the Bridget Jones ones. I have also read most of the authors Sophie mentions. Overall it was a very enjoyable read and the narration was excellent.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK audio for the DRC.