Love Lettering

Love Lettering starts off very technical with lettering terms. Which if you are familiar with them it will be a fun aspect, BUT if fonts are not your thing, it will probably drag the reading flow down. I personally loved it and thought it was very creative. I enjoyed the main & supporting characters and how they developed through the book. The romance is a slow burn, but I think it lends to the plot. I was intrigued by how the characters processed the world in different ways, but came together to decode it with a game. The female friendships and how they support and uplift each other was a great addition. Modern. Fresh. Creative. Thoughtful. Funny.  - the best way I can describe this book! If you haven't tried a rom-com, this would be a great one to add to your pile. And if you are a fan of rom-com, you won't want to put it down!

DNF @ 9%

I'm not going to rate this because I only read two chapters and think it might be a decent book. I just can't take the long-winded exposition. I find myself skimming and honestly had to come go and re-read the “code” paragraphs to figure out how he saw mistake and honestly it is literally spelled out so clearly, it's just my brain shuts off when trying to read this.

Maybe if I had picked this up at a different time I would have enjoyed it more.

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Love Lettering was so so close to being as good as Georgie, All Along, but just barely fell short of achieving that goal. Meaning, I really really really loved this book. Our main character, Meg, shines off the page. She's a delightfully sunny person with a huge huge sarcastic streak. She is a people pleaser who eventually realizes this about herself and tries so hard to change. She wants to be truthful to people without hurting them. She tries her best. She's also a hand-letter-er? I guess? Is how you'd say that? She's an artist, who specializes is handwriting, and she's damn good. I wish we could have “seen” her work, but Clayborn does a fantastic job of describing it. So on one hand, we have Meg, a sunny artist. And on the other hand, we have Reid, a stoic mathematician. Two absolute foils of one another, so of course they fall in love.

Not to compare Love Lettering to another one of Clayborn's books, Love at First, but what really worked for me this time was how over-the-top these characters were. They weren't ordinary people. They didn't blend into the background. They had strong personalities, and reasons for them. I missed that in Love at First, so that's definitely why Love Lettering ranks above that one for me. The complete contrast between Meg and Reid was so much fun to watch, too. I kept picturing Meg in all these bright colors and patterns next to Reid, in his blue/black/grey suits. Reid does warm up, and open up to Meg, and we do get to know him quite well, but the foil between them remains the whole book. I enjoyed that. Neither one of them change who they are fundamentally, they just sort of...shift enough to let the other into their life. It was perfectly done.

The plot was just interesting enough to keep me interested — Meg has a creative block and is using Reid to help boost her out of it. There's something going on with Reid, but you don't find out what until the end of the book in a rather explosive way. (No, there is no cheating, in case some of you were worried!) The side characters are all well done, too, though I think the side-plot of Meg's best friend was a little...idk. Contrived? Unneeded? I wasn't the biggest fan of Sibby. You'll understand if you read! Either way, no matter what, I really really loved Love Lettering. Four and a half stars.

Typically I would give a book like this, this being issues I consider it to have, two stars. But Katy does do something well with her characters. Especially her leading woman, who in this book actually has a personality! Something I'm running into on my quest to find romance books I enjoy, is that the woman is often plain. She is average and this is her defining quality. Meg in this is an artist, she loves, she has a skill, she knows she's good at it and she tangles it.

Reid and Meg's number v letter talk was also fun. Most romances come with a cute gimmick like this that I feel is often dropped or played too much, but the prose while talking about art and math was some of the most enjoyable parts of the book. It gave it extra flavor.

So now I bet youre thinking, “why it sounds like you enjoyed the book why only three stars? Dare, you said two!”

The pacing felt a little strange to me. The last half of the novel was overly dramatic, which I do not always mind, but it felt a little too silly for the tone of the rest of the book. I liked the FBI coming and the raid but I think it could have been done better. Also god that letter was soooooooooooo long. Had to skim that part. It really brought down the entire book for me.

As a self-proclaimed font addict, I know A LOT about fonts and lettering, but even for me the beginning was a little difficult to follow and get into, but I persisted and was rewarded in the end. The romance is a slow burn, but it stuck with me. Our female protagonist is (all kinds of ways) in her head and I could really relate to her insecurity and loneliness. This warm, but seemingly aloof stranger walks into her shop and she finds herself drawn to him. I totally caught the feels with this one. Here it is, a month after I finished this book and I'm still thinking about it. I borrowed the copy from Kindle Unlimited and checked out the audio from Libby, but I really want to own copies for keeps, because I know I'll want to read Love Lettering over and over again.

Overdrive book club pick - Got 2 hours in audiobook

I think I'm suffering a slight book hangover after loving [b:Xeni 53133786 Xeni (Loose Ends #2) Rebekah Weatherspoon https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1570276619l/53133786.SX50_SY75.jpg 73607459] as much as I did, because this was just a little bit of a letdown - I still enjoyed it, but the pacing was somewhat off for me, with the slowish burn of the romance and then everything happening with Reid's job and the scandal in the last 50 or so pages. I loved Meg and her journey as a character from being somewhat passive and avoiding conflict to learning how to fight in a productive way. Since this is entirely from Meg's POV (and first-person), so Reid is a little less developed as a character for me, though that late reveal does clarify things a little. The writing was overall excellent, and I also loved how much attention was paid to Meg's friendships and the relationships between the female characters as well (actually, now that I think about it, Reid is really the only significant male character, which is not a complaint). This book (combined with [a:Ruby Lang 13495728 Ruby Lang https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1493417079p2/13495728.jpg]'s Uptown trilogy) really made me want to visit New York again. Maybe someday that'll be possible.Edited to add that I really appreciated that Meg had cramps in this book - I know romance novels are fantasy but that little note of realism was well-done and uncommon. More of it please!(2020 summer romance bingo: dad jokes. Would work for set on island or ice cream as well)

I love this book. But it's a quiet, contemplative kind of love because the book itself is largely quiet and contemplative. Despite it's misleading title and marketing this is not a romance, I mean there is a bit of romance, but it is largely chick-lit. In that, it was centred around a woman's journey of self-discovery. My favourite relationship in this book was not Reid and Meg's but rather, Meg and Sibby's. I loved the portrayal of a female relationship which is initially breaking apart, but in the end, gets reshaped into something healthier and better. I loved that despite Sibby's less than positive feelings, she was not demonised by the story's narrative. I loved all the other strong female relationships in this book. I loved Lark, I loved Lachelle and I loved Cecilia. Perhaps the only person I didn't have a fount of love for was Reid. I liked him, he was a perfectly serviceable love interest but he was not one of the stars of this book. I loved the lettering, I loved Reid's letters to Meg. Considering the number of times I have repeated the word love in this review, it is a bit of understatement to say that this has been one of my favourite reads of the year.

Adorable and sexy, what more can you ask for? Reid is a special kind of charming and Meg is very cute, but their chemistry is what made this so easy and enjoyable to read. A lovely jaunt with Real problems not Misunderstandings, thank goodness.

Wow, I wouldn't have given up on contemporary romance novels years ago if there had been more authors like Kate Clayborn around! This is a funny/sweet/sad book with lots of small moments beautifully executed and the slow evolution of two people falling in love. If you can get past the slightly clunky premise that brings Meg and Reid together, you'll be charmed by their interactions (even when they're uncomfortable or awkward). And perhaps you will root even more for Meg to learn to stop avoiding conflict and fight for the relationship with her best friend when she feels the closeness they've always had slipping away and can't figure out the reason. Best of all Meg is a competent heroine - she's talented, she manages her finances, and she even yells at Reid for assuming that just because she is creative she must be some kind of manic pixie dream girl.

Yes, Meg gets the guy in the end after a rather surprising twist (I will have to re-read to see if I missed the clues) but she also finds friendship and professional success as well. I will definitely check out Clayborn's backlist and be on the lookout for her next book.