A Novel Love Story – Book Review

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

After reading Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her latest novel, A Novel Love Story. Poston writes really unique romantic plots with a magical and fantasy twist in it, which makes reading romance novels more interesting and intriguing. Like Seven Year Slip, A Novel Love Story also is a romance story with magical realism in it. But it wasn’t as good as Seven Year Slip.

Eileen Merriweather is an English professor. She had recently ended engagement with a man named Liam and her best friend Pru went off to Iceland with her boyfriend as she suspect that her boyfriend was going to propose her there. Feeling lonely, Eileen decides to drive down to annual book club retreat even though she might be the only one in the book club and get lost herself in a book. But her car unexpectedly breaks down in the middle of the quaint town which feels like it came out of a novel…and it really is. And it’s none other than Eileen’s favorite novel series. Eileen could place all the characters in the book–Junie, Will, Maya, Gemma, Ruby, Jake…but there is one character that Eileen couldn’t place. Anders who owns a book shop and a cat named Butterscotch who offers his loft for her to stay in until her car gets repaired. It is said that her favorite author who wrote the series died without finishing the novel and Eileen must find a way to end the story a happily ever after.

I really liked the concept of the book. Of course, I wished I was like Eileen, lost in the fictional world in real life and meeting all the favorite characters in the novel. The whole story was cheesy, well written and of course the sizzling chemistry between Eileen and Anders is intense. Not to mention the grumpy sunshine trope in the book. It was also quiet enjoyable, and there were funny parts in the book that will make you laugh out loud. However, the love story between Eileen and Anders didn’t start out until much later in the book and thus couldn’t explore much into their relationship. I also though Eileen’s reaction when she realized that she was in the fictional town was slightly bland–if I realized at once that I was in a fictional town, I would get freaking crazy!

Overall, this was a fun book to read, really liked the uniqueness of the plot. Worth four stars.