If you’ve ever wanted to find a fictional world somewhere in the real world, then this is the romance for you. Thanks to Berkley for the gifted read.
Here’s more about A Novel Love Story
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.
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My thoughts
I’ve seen my fair share of stories where fiction becomes reality. The big one that comes to mind is Pleasantville where the two siblings are zapped into the wholesome TV show where nothing ever goes wrong and everyone lives in a blissful ignorance of the world outside their little town. But the other is Austenland, where the Austen lover goes on a ridiculous trip to pretend to be in a Jane Austen novel. That’s kind of what I expected from A Novel Love Story; a woman who finds herself unexpectedly in the town she loved reading by her favorite romance author.
In many ways, that’s what we get. We find a place that’s forever stuck in the world that the author created for them. It always rains at noon. The burgers are always burnt. The taffy is always sticky and regardless of what day it is, the same starlings show up every morning to sing their little song. I think any reader can relate to this and every reader has that one fictional world they would love to visit and for Eileen and Anders, that daydream is a reality.
I loved this concept of entering a world that you’ve only seen in movies or in books. It’s why I love going on the Universal Studios tour in Hollywood because you actually see the sets where your favorite movies are filmed. The fiction becomes reality and Ashley Poston does that brilliantly here. It becomes the place where Eileen can process being dumped by her fiance and much better than retreating to a small cabin just to read the same books; she gets to live it.
The best part is the way she helps the people in this town finish their stories. The sad caveat of her dream town is that the author has passed and there wouldn’t be a happy ending for some of the folks who live there. Eileen taking her shot to help them find their own happy endings really made the story so much more interesting and in the process of finding a happy ending for herself. Of course, this is coupled with Ashley Poston’s writing, which is always top notch. I always find myself highlighting some wise words about life and love that I can ponder later.
Of course, I loved Anders and Eileen. Anders being this grumpy bookstore owner whom Eileen assumes to be the unfinished character her favorite author created but didn’t finish made me so happy. I hoped there would be a happy ending for them, but it actually came in such a surprising way that I was a little surprised! Turns out there’s more to Anders that meets the eye and that made me so happy.
Overall, I loved this one. I’m surprised by how much I loved this one because when I finished the book I wasn’t sure. But sitting on it and thinking about it made me realize the hidden depth to it all, the subtle way Ashley Poston creates realistic characters who struggle through serious issues and come out the other end better people than they were before. And you have to admit, going to your favorite fictional world is like adult Disney World for me and I would take that opportunity in a heartbeat.
Simone and Her Books 