A Novel Love Story — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Ashley Poston
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 368

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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.

First Impressions

I read Seven Year Slip by Poston earlier this year and immediately went to read everything she had written. I love the colors on this book too. Of all of her books, I think this one would catch my eye first, followed by Seven Year Slip. I also love the summary.

What I thought

Eileen/Elsy is taking a trip to a cabin for her yearly book club vacation. However, she is the only one to make it this year. On her way to the cabin, she gets lost and winds up in the town of Eloraton. This town is familiar to Elsy because it’s the fictional ton of her favorite romance series. When she arrives, she meets a man named Anderson who she doesn’t recognize from the story. She’s forced to stay and meet all of the characters from the story and help them move forward while her car is fixed and she ends up falling for Anders as well

Recently, I read a book called Prime Time Romance where the girl and her roommate fall into the world of her favorite television series. This book feels very similar to that one. I really enjoyed that one and I did enjoy this one too. The only thing I didn’t love about this book was it almost made me want to read the fictional romance series the main character is obsessed with more than the book I was actually reading.

Even though I did enjoy this book, I think that it’s my least favorite of the three of hers. I found the writing to be repetitive. If I had to read one more time about the mint color of Anders’ eyes or how burnt the burgers were in Eloraton I was going to rip a page out of this book. In fact, I was able to predict the twist before I hit that halfway part. I think because of this Elsy got on my nerves because she wasn’t acting how I wanted her to given the knowledge that I had.

Elsy and Anderson were cute though. And I loved getting to know all of the book characters through Elsy’s eyes. I found her growth to be well written and I also really liked the ending of the book. I am trying to figure out what it was that was missing for me from this book, but I truly think it just spent so much time talking about the love and perfection of a fake book I felt like I was missing out. Whereas with Prime Time Romance, there were some flaws in the show and the show world and I never felt like I would rather be watching the show than reading the book.