Love at First
Ratings15
Average rating3.7
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It's no secret that I fell completely head-over-heels in love with Clayborn's Georgie, All Along. So it really should be no surprise that I've committed to trying to read her entire backlist. Georgie was so good, that surely it wasn't a one off, right? Some of her other books have to reach the same level of absolute perfection. At least, I hope so. I started off my journey through Clayborn's backlist with Love at First, and while I did like it, it definitely was no Georgie, All Along.
I think the biggest issue I had was that the main characters weren't enough. Nora and Will were interesting, but they were very ordinary. Nothing really pushed them forward into that romance character sphere, if anyone understands what I mean. They just seemed like people, which I'm sure some people out there will appreciate. A romance book about normal people! Normal, but with a dash of mental health issues, and parental abandonment. (Which woof did I want to grab both of their sets of parents and just shake them. How dare you??) Anyway, I really did like Will — he was trying his hardest not to repeat his parent's issues, to the point of almost pushing everyone else away. I understood his trauma, and I'm pleased with how Clayborn helps him overcome it. Nora didn't seem to realize she had a problem until it pretty much smacked her in the face, and then she sort of forced herself to get over it.
Nora and Will fit together, but it took a while for them both to be on board with each other. I loved their scheme of coming up with excuses to be around one another — that made me laugh. The steamy scenes were average, nothing particularly stood out as extremely hot or anything. They were cute together, but again, the relationship was just...there?
When it comes to the other characters, they were all interesting, and mostly stood out. (Will's boss/best friend stood out the most to me? He reminded me a lot of a doctor I used to go to!) I did love the idea of an entire apartment building being a found family, which is sort of the basis of the entire story. It was semi-unbelievable, but we're in a romance novel, and Clayborn made it work!
I was a little disappointed by Love at First, but I'm not giving up on Clayborn! Not at all. I think I'll read Love Lettering next, and see where that gets me. Three and a half stars for this one, as much as it hurts to say!
Will and Nora were cute or whatever, but Will and Gerry have my heart.
I had one small quibble though. It felt like Gerry was coded as autistic and I don't know how I felt about him having to change so much of himself to reconcile with his wife with seemingly no concessions or compromises from her end. I'm probably overreaching though, there may be nothing here, but I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Beautifully plotted, delicately written contemporary romance. Dr. Abraham and his awkward relationship with Will stole the show, plus I appreciate the gaggle of senior citizen secondary characters who were given fully developed personalities, instead of just “dotty” or “sex-crazed septuagenarians.” Sweet, funny, heartbreaking and very romantic. After reading Claytorn's previous book, [b:Love Lettering 44792512 Love Lettering Kate Clayborn https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558904735l/44792512.SY75.jpg 69446812], I was glad to see that contemporary romance was alive and well, and this book demonstrates again that she is definitely setting the standard for the genre.
Thank you NetGalley & Kensington Books for this ARC for my honest review.
This was an absolute delight from start to finish. Nora and Will's journey about overcoming loss, rebuilding yourself and learning to truly embrace new love; yea, gave me all the feels. I couldn't put this one down, definitely a one sit read for me. This story makes you laugh, makes you want to cry and makes you love again.