Ashley Poston

None of Eileen’s book club friends can go on their annual book retreat, where they spend the week reading and discussing romance books. Feeling sad and lonely after a bad breakup, Eileen decides to go on the retreat all by herself. On the way, her car breaks down and she finds herself in Eloraton, the town in which her favorite romance series is set. It will take a few days to get it fixed, so the town’s grumpy bookstore owner offers to let her stay in the loft in the store. She quickly makes friends with the townspeople since she knows almost everything about them from reading the books. She’s so comfortable in the town that she doesn’t want to leave and go back to her real life.

A Novel Love Story completely charmed me. While I’m not a huge fantasy fan, I can get on board with magical realism if it’s done right. Ashley Poston got it right in The Seven Year Slip and she’s done it again here. This book is a tribute to romance, not a send up. It’s interesting how self-aware it is. Eileen can recognize the tropes that are playing out right before her eyes. She feels like she knows what’s best for the characters and can’t help meddling in their lives a bit even though the bookstore owner warns her not to.

Eileen does have a bit of a romance herself, but the focus of the book is the journey that both her and the people who live in Eloraton take while she’s there. Eileen has to time to reevaluate her life and try to figure out what would make her happy.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Eloraton right along with Eileen and thought the story was clever and fun. Highly recommended.… (more)

At 15%

Rate the writing style - (easy to read) (0-10): 6

Rate the writing style - (creates vivid mental images) (0-10): 6

Rate the writing style - (logical, coherent, smooth flow of events) (0-10): 6

Rate how interesting the plot is (can't put it down, want to read often) (0-10): 4. The plot is childish and if at 15% it hasn't managed to create any significant interest, I seriously doubt I would find the motivation to continue reading until the end. I stop here.

Book fails: 5.0/10… (more)