It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Rating: 5/5
Spice: 0/5
Plot: 5/5
Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance
Blurb: From the USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love. 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?
My Thoughts:
Annabel Monaghan (I have now crowned her queen of summer beach reads) has the Midas touch - I have yet to read something she’s written that isn’t pure gold. I read her last book Summer Romance and I could not stop thinking about it, it just resonated with me. Well, she’s done it again. She writes the most relatable, magnetic characters, especially the females. They have exactly the right amount of insecurity and a just a hint of self loathing. Her characters are perfection and that’s what makes her books so magical. You feel like you could sit down and talk to them. You would be friends with them. The way that she describes physical contact in this book is electric, it’s intimate without being explicit. This is a closed door romance and I didn’t miss the smut once bit if I’m being honest. This book was a bit of a mashup of The Proposal and I’m Glad My Mom Died but so much better than you could ever imagine. Annabel has a way of yanking emotions out of me like tears and smiles while I'm reading her books. I’d highly recommend you just say yes to It’s A Love Story (obviously had to put a Taylor Swift reference somewhere in here).
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