It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie.
Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it.
Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she opened her mouth, and a big fat fib fell out. She claimed that Jack Quinlan, hottest popstar of the moment, has promised to write an original song for the soundtrack. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years.
Now, Jane must turn to the last man she’d ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan’s hometown on Long Island, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan while facing down her past is Jane's idea of hell, but Dan just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?
Review: I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this book with fairly low expectations. The only other book I have read by Annabel Monoghan is Same Time Next Summer, which I actually read just a week before this one. I found it just ok. Just ok!
But this book! Way more than just ok! I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this rom com. It is easily in my top rom coms I've read this year.
What worked for me:
- I loved the way they met. Casually, on the street. They feel instantly drawn to and intrigued by the other. It felt like a natural connection. But quickly they find out that they are work rivals. I loved the tension! And the fact that each knows the other finds them attractive, but because of their professional differences, don't give in to the pull they feel for each other.
- DAN'S FAMILY. This was a huge selling point for me. When the pair travel to his hometown and meet his huge family, many of which are staying under one roof, it gave me major The Family Stones vibes. I love that the mom makes huge breakfasts! I love that Dan is one of five boys, and they all look so much alike! I like that they have a massive family text chain that blows up all the time with floods of texts! I love all the nieces and nephews running around that look so much like their Uncle Dan! I LOVE that they had to share a room (ok they were twin beds, but still!).
- I LOVE all The Notebook references!!! Dan and Jane have running banter about his love for the movie and her lack of enthusiasm for it. Allusions to the movie are made over and over again and I ate it up. They even get caught in the rain just like in the movie!
- The slow burn, yearning, buildup of tension in this was top tier. The tension absolutely snapped, popped, and crackled in this and I ate it up.
- I thought it was kind of fun that Jane was a former child star! But rather than making her rich and famous, her former role as a TV nerd and punch line has made her self-conscious and leery of being recognized. She feels like Dan likes her in spite of her prior acting role and it's something she has to move past as an adult.
Now, was this book perfect? No:
- Jane is way too hung up on something that happened when she was 14. Who among us didn't have a humiliating interaction in our teens? Girl, you need to let it go already! I understand having insecurities because of her absent father, but the teenage crush gone awry subplot felt way overblown in terms of the role it played in her dating insecurities and sense of self-worth.
- The reason they must travel to his hometown seemed flimsy at best to me. All the chasing down of a former co-star of Jane's to ask him for a favor just felt far-fetched. Also, Dan and Jane are supposedly both committed to making a script they love into a film. But they never really say anything about the movie other than it's a love story. It just would have made their partnership despite their dislike, the journey to his hometown, etc. feel a bit more believable if we had a better sense of what the movie was even about and why they like it so much.
- I grow weary of third act breakups.
But despite these minor complaints, I enjoyed reading this book SO much. It truly delighted me, and I was sad to finish it.
Some of my favorite (swoon worthy quotes):
- "I have a quick thought that he looks like a bed you'd want to climb back into on a Sunday. Because it's raining outside, and your body just wants to sink back into the warmth."
- "The kiss is explosive. He cups my face when he pulls away and smiles into my eyes. It should be raining, and we should be standing in front of the house he built me."
- "This feels like wealth, I think. This is the thing you save up for. You live your whole life so that you can be surrounded by too many people in too small of a room and tell the story of how it all happened."
- "We're rinsing dishes in my tile-countered kitchen and laughing. I imagine him pulling sheets out of the dryer. I have never felt this way before, and I want to tell him, but I don't know how. I've never read a script where the heroine tells the hero that she wants to do chores with him."
A huge thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this delightful book.
Stars: 5
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