Love at First like by Hannah Orenstein
3.5/5

Eliza is an entrepreneur as a co-owner of a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. After seeing an Instagram announcement that her ex recently got engaged, she accidentally posts a photo of her wearing a diamond on her ring finger. What begins as an innocent mistake causes sales to increase at her jewelry shop, and she decides to keep up appearances that she is engaged. Now she must find a fiancé.

I could not fully enjoy the story since I disliked the protagonist. Eliza makes a multitude of bad choices throughout the novel and seems to have a one-track mind. While this bilndsidedness is a part of her character, and what makes her a wonderful and independent female entrepreneur, her lack of care and empathy disappointed me. Her motives were rash and questionable in my opinion, and in general I was frustrated by her actions and treatment of others.

I did enjoy the writing style of Orenstein and found it interesting to read about someone I could fully not relate to. There were many references and commentaries on the world of social media and its influences, as well as dating in the 21st century, which were insightful and intriguing.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Headline Eternal for the e-book!

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

Honestly this book was not what I thought it would be. Enjoyed it but it didn't really grab my attention! Will probably pick it up again at some point and give it another chance. But overall not impressed

Love at First Like by Hannah Orenstein a crazy likeable five-star read. This was exactly what I needed, I was light and funny and just made my face ache from smiling so much. Its my first read by this author, but it wont be the last as I adore the writing style it was light and funny, but not all glossy, there was a nice underlying realness to the story. I mean Eliza should definitely be locked up by the men in white coats, but at some point in all of our lives I’m sure that could be said as we all have the capability to do something stupid, admittedly most of us would about turn and make it right, but not all of us, some of us do an Eliza and just keep making more mistakes and going deeper and deeper, it does have a tendency to make life more interesting at least. But if you take this as a dramatic story that will entertain you, make you a little crazy and make you ponder social medias power, then you will enjoy it. If you go into this expecting light, classy and no crazy then you will be disappointed. I personally loved it, but I love me some crazy.

Not your typical romance book - but enjoyable nonetheless! The main character will frustrate you no end and you will want to give her a good shaking, but you can’t stop reading. Gripped by what will happen next and if her plan will pan out!

I fell in instant dislike of the main character in this book. Not in a love-to-hate way, but in an exasperated come-on way. She is so taken aback by the engagement of a boyfriend she broke up with 4 years ago, that she decides to stage an engagement social media post of her own (without intending to actually post it). As if that's not strange enough, she does this regularly, when she's feeling down because of her single status. But that's not all! She also keeps a Word document, where she has kept track of all the men that she's gotten involved with, chronologically, detailed down to whether she slept with the guy, whether she liked him, and whether he was a boyfriend (or merely a date). But, get this, she thinks the guys are pathetic. No sense of irony whatsoever. Now the post goes viral and what's a girl to do, but exploit the situation while bemoaning the fact that people are so superficial that they are happy for her (fake) engagement. She sees herself as a victim of the pressures of society on women, no personal insight or responsibility. Nope, I can't with this woman.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

the concept seemingly is the trope of dreams. a NYC jewellery shop owner mistakenly leads her massive Instagram followers to believe she is engaged - except she doesn’t have a boyfriend let alone a fiancé.

The fake relationship trope normally grabs me but this one just didn’t draw me in. The book is well written however I just didn’t feel the chemistry between the characters.

In Hannah Orenstein's "Love at First Like", a NYC jewellery shop owner mistakenly leads her massive Instagram followers to believe she is engaged - and then decides to keep up the game since the fake engagement encourages popularity and great increase in sales. There is one little problem - she does not have a fiance or even a boyfriend!

It seems stories about online world, Instagram scams and influencers are very popular right now ("the Fyre festival", Anna Delvey story). This cultural fascination is curious if not somewhat scary. The book brushes on this topic and, even though the actual story of the novel is quite predictable with almost zero surprises (okay, zero surprises), it still was an enjoyable read. Especially after a very high-brow critically acclaimed novel I struggled to read before this one.

Great holiday read. It's a classic rom com chick lit fiction. If you know it and still think of getting it - then get it.

I thought this book was going to be a laugh out loud rom com but I was disappointed.

Unfortunately this just did not grab me and keep my attention and DNF at 40%

Sorry

I enjoyed this book, though I didn't think it was much of a romantic comedy! The character of Eliza will probably annoy and anger you with the way she carries out the whole fake engagement, however, I still wanted to know how it was all going to end so I was glued to it. A solid read!

Not your average love story... 💘 Great Read with humour 💍

Eliza and her sister Sophie, co-own their own jewelers in Brooklyn. One night after a few drinks, Eliza wakes to find she unintentionally posted a photo of her hand with a ring on it... 💍 soo much interest, increase in sales and followers, Eliza doesn't correct followers but eventually decides to find the right man to fill the grooms shoes.

Love at first like, is an easy light hearted read, with humour. Times aren't always easy for Eliza, but she wants to stick with it because of what potentially is at stake. Whilst in pursuit of her groom, she doesn't see the perfect match, in plain sight. What will she do choose real love or Blake?..

Really enjoyed reading this book, only disappointment for me was when I got to the end... I was hoping it would've continued further.

This was always going to be a difficult read. I started this book immediately after Anna Bell’s ‘We Just Clicked’ which is about a woman whose Instagram profile is her main priority. She fakes an Instagram relationship to increase her followers and follow her dream to being a full time influencer. The book was well written and characters were very likeable.

Then I started this book!

Love at First Like was not as enjoyable as my previous read, mainly because the main character was pretty unlikeable. As soon as I disconnect from the main character in any romance/romcom I lose interest - and that’s what happened here. I struggled in with the rest of the book but wasn’t overly engaged.

I liked the concept of the book and the blurb pulled me in. Thank you NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 📚

A laugh out loud romance about finding love online. Filled with likeable and relatable characters who you cheer for. The perfect read for summer.

Thank you to Headline for the arc of Love at First Like by Hannah Orenstein.

This book is about a women called Eliza who owns a jewellery business in Brooklyn with her sister. One day she sees that her ex has got engaged so, in a drunken haze, she decides to post a picture onto social media of her wearing an engagement ring, From there she has to fake an entire wedding and within 6 months has to find a man who is willing to marry her!

To start off with I struggled with the main character as she is essentially a catfish who is looking for money and attention for her business and because of this; made it difficult to like her and see her point of view of situations. Whilst I didn't agree with the decisions she made and how she went about doing certain things, I found the story to be gripping and intriguing as we see Eliza continue to dig a deeper hole.

On the other hand, the second half of this book was much better as we see Eliza dealing with new and surprising consequences which made me see her in a different light and by the end of the book, I was enjoying reading about her blunders and her spontaneous personality.

Rating: 4/5 stars

An engaging love story that kept my interest the whole time. The storyline was exceptional and the characters engaging and believable.

Eliza is faking an engagement on social media - it started out as a mistake, but when she realises it is going he help out her business she keeps up the facade. Now all she needs to do is find a groom for the wedding she is organising!

I enjoyed the book, but would ahve liked to have seen more of an epilogue.