Romancing The Stacks: Love at First Like

Welcome to Romancing the Stacks. This is a series of reviews featuring one of my favorite genres: Romance Novels! Nothing is better than curling up with a good romance. This review will explore Love at First Like by Hannah Orenstein.

I love new technology. I couldn’t live without my phone, so I love it when a romance novel takes technology and adds a romantic twist. This novel takes the “crazy” idea that people live a different lives than what their Instagram is showing the world.

Love at First Like Summary:

Eliza Roth and her sister Sophie co-own a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. One night, after learning of an ex’s engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on that finger to her Instagram account beloved by 100,000 followers. Sales skyrocket, press rolls in, and Eliza learns that her personal life is good for business. So she has a choice to make: continue the ruse or clear up the misunderstanding. With mounting financial pressure, Eliza sets off to find a fake fiancé.

Fellow entrepreneur Blake seems like the perfect match on paper. And in real life he shows promise, too. He would be perfect, if only Eliza didn’t feel also drawn to someone else. But Blake doesn’t know Eliza is “engaged”; Sophie asks Eliza for an impossible sum of money; and Eliza’s lies start to spiral out of control. She can either stay engaged online or fall in love in real life.

Book Review:

I read the book summary wrong. I thought this was a novel where girl gets a fake fiancé and ends up falling for him in real life. So I was sorta set up to be disappointed in the book when it turns out differently. I love a good fake relationship that turns real, it is a ridiculous trope that I love to read every time. This book is not that trope. It is worse.

Eliza manipulates her relationship with Blake to end up engaged. She even has the nerve to say she loves him when she really doesn’t. At first the book was understandable: The guy who dumped her just got engaged, and she got drunk and accidentally posted a “he just proposed pic”.

As the co-owner of a jewelry store, this blew up her struggling business, so I understand the lie. I just don’t understand the manipulations. I wish she had been straight forward with Blake and was only looking for a fake fiancé. The author did a good job of showing the lack of chemistry between the two.

If this book was a fake fiancé but falls in love with someone else, I would have love it. That is not what this book is though. It is about a girl who manipulates a random guy to end up proposing to her to have a free wedding and blow up her business. Despite the overall negative feelings I have for the major portion of the book, there were some enjoyable parts. The relationships with the other guy that she was falling in love with was great. I felt their chemistry, and he didn’t tolerate being her second pick. If this book was focused more on them than the awfulness that Eliza committed it might have been rated higher.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

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