I had really high hopes for this book but I just couldn’t enjoy it.

The herbal / chai tea obsessed characters, the very sudden enemy to lover change, the only twist for me happened just around then time I was about to give up, the twist did Lee me reading a little more but I really struggled to read abs enjoy this.

This was a cute read...I did enjoy it, however it was lacking something im not sure if its because the main character seemed to be very immature for her age or what.
However I did love Colin and the whole radio segments and will definitely read another by this author.

This is a cute novel about romance brewing within the constraints and confines of the lockdown that occurs during a pandemic.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Angela is recently out of a job, selling her things to make rent and trying to avoid having to go live with her mom, when the global pandemic hits the UK. Angela soon finds herself without a place to live. Enter Colin, who lives in her building and hosts a radio show from his bedroom. As part of his "Daily Inspo" segment, he decides to invite Angela to live in his spare room until she can afford to pay rent, since he's not using it anyway. However, as things progress, his listeners are pairing them together, aching to hear more about their "close proximity" romance trope. Overwhelmed, Colin seeks Angela's help to write the segment, as she's always wanted to write romance, but how much is fact and how much is fiction?

Though the book started off feeling a bit cliché, it quickly transformed into the book I didn't realize I've been wanting to read. Though the pandemic has given lots of people more time to read, I haven't read anything pandemic-related that wasn't entirely heartbreaking, so this twist on reality with a bit of hope was the perfect romance read for the upcoming 1-year pandemic anniversary. I have always enjoyed "enemies to lovers," and throwing in social distancing, quarantines, and banding together in the face of adversity made this novel more than "just" a romance.

This book was okay! I didn’t get attached to the characters as I would have liked. I also felt like the topic of 6 ft apart and masks, etc is too raw and too current to be put in a book, but it’s also real and it’s happening. Although, some of the book made me laugh out loud so that made up for it. I wish the main characters had more chemistry. I feel like they only got together because they were “locked in” together.

This was a quick, easy read and packed with humour - I definitely found Colin and Angela's relationship funny and I enjoyed that Angela was passionate about reading and fiction writing. Ishani was a great character, funny, loyal, very supportive.
However, aside from the humour and fun elements of Colin and Angela's relationship (e.g the blanket and pillow fort), every character in this book was slightly self-interested and pretty much just a brat. Angela is the martyr for the cause type none of us appreciate in lockdown, angry about toilet paper hoarding and other people's behaviour but happily going regularly to the coffee shop without a mask at times for slightly unnecessary social meetings. Colin cashed in on the pandemic and Angela's misfortune, Leo was just a nasty boss with no compassion for people's lockdown needs and Ben and Emily were just..well..not nice people.
The main middle section of this book was enjoyable, with Angela and Colin isolating together, playing silly games and bonding, showing the more fun side of this pandemic that we will all remember fondly - stuck in with our family watching films and being silly. Unfortunately though a lot of the other plot elements going on around it were a clear insight into the future of pandemic cliches we are now going to see in literature - talk of loo roll, masks, and all the moaning groaning and unpleasant elements that don't make for light and fun reading, now do I do personally wish to have cemented in fictional history as well as our very real history.

When I saw this book up for grabs, I was interesting in reading this because I wanted to see how the pandemic situation would be handled, and frankly, I quite liked it. It was funny, without being disrespectful and it portraited very real situations making it very relatable as a reader. This was a nice, easy and quick read. Fake dating and forced proximity is a favorite trope of mine. But that is also where this book falls flat. There is a serious lack of heat in the book. For all the comments that are made about each other's figure and assets outlined in skinny jeans, there’s no real heat written on the page. Which is fine if this book is meant to be a clean romance, but then, maybe don’t mention the spark between someone’s thighs if you’re trying to keep it that clean, because at that point it makes the reader think there is a sex scene coming as payoff and there isn't one. It was fine, but it left me wanting more out of the story. I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the lockdown book I didn't know I wanted. It's the first romance I've read that keeps up with the pandemic, and I loved seeing the realism of managing to have a love life while also worried about health. The romance / dialogue fell a little flat sometimes, but overall this was an enjoyable read!

The concept of this book is really cute and unique, but at times I felt the quarantine / lockdown aspect was a bit too much too soon (for me at least.) I loved the motley crew that made up Colin's work colleagues, and thought the radio show was a really interesting storyline. Overall though I felt like Colin and Angela didn't have much chemistry, and Angela was so uptight. Definitely a cute quick read though.

Angela's down on her luck. She's been evicted and fired-all during a deadly pandemic. She's desperate to avoid moving in with her mother, even if that includes moving in with her neighbor nemesis, Colin.
Colin is in desperate need of inspiration to fill up his radio segments or he'll lose his jobs. He spontaneously offers Angela a place to stay. Although she thinks it from the goodness of his heart, it's really for entertainment on his show. Colin finds himself ranting about Angela on his show and his listeners are starving for this forced proximity romance. Eventually, Angela agrees to help him write plot points for their fake romance. But when Angela's exposed, they're forced to spend every minute of the next two weeks together, and as they do, their fake romance doesn't seem so unbelievable anymore.

This book had all the right notes, I just don't know if they hit them. I felt like there was so much potential for tension in this book, but it was replaced with fluff, and that's just not what I was looking for in a forced proximity, lockdown book. I think this book is a little before its time, too. Living through all of these rules makes it really frustrating to hear all of them again, over and over. I couldn't ever relate to Angela because she felt so distant from the reader. I did, however, feel like I knew Colin on a really deep level because we got so much of his backstory. I didn't like him as a love interest, though. Everything happened so quickly! It was their first day of quarantine and suddenly they were both super interested in the other! I think some tension could've done wonders for their chemistry--even a deeper reason behind their enemies to lovers storyline.

I did laugh out loud at the toilet paper bit. I had been expecting some Santa suit fetish in the wardrobe and the toilet paper was hilarious!

Although this book wasn't for me, I'd recommend it to people who like timely novels with fluff!

I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. It was quirky and it made me laugh out loud a few times. Especially during the "courting" period.

It's the first book I'm reading that is set during the pandemic and I wasn't sure how that would play out but the writer does a decent job. At some point, it does get a little bit repetitive but I don't know if that's because I'm also hearing about social distancing everywhere in real life as well.

That said, the romance was just not there for me. The characters individually were pretry cool but I wasn't really rooting for them to be together. I feel like they had cute and funny banter but the chemistry wasn't really there.

I've read a couple of books based on finding love during lockdown that I have enjoyed. This one did not grab my attention. I felt there were too many references to social distancing (we all know we have to do it no need to remind us each paragraph)
Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

I was super excited to get this book, it seemed right up my alley.... unfortunately I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It was slow going and dragging at times, and I had a difficult time engaging with and connecting to the characters.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. Angela really grated on me and I couldn't find even one thing to like about her.

I will admit that I only made it to about 36% of this book and pretty much gave up. I then read the last two chapters and felt like I didn't miss a single thing. Every character was utterly boring. I felt no connection with any of them. I read no real chemistry between the two characters. Her best friend, acting slutty, and then blaming the main female character was the last straw for me.

Angela did all she could to avoid Colin before the global pandemic but then she was evicted and he offered his spare room for free. It sounds sweet in theory but it turns out Colin only offered because he needs a good deed to talk about on his radio show. His listeners love hearing about his situation with Angela so in order to satisfy them he creates a serialized romance with her help. Angela's the perfect writing partner since she loves romance novels and hopes to write one herself. Can the two of them create a believable romance during a lockdown?

I feel like the story was pitched as an enemies to lovers romance and there was some tension at the beginning of the story but Colin was very quick to invite Angela to live with him and the two of them were immediately very kind to each other. In my opinion, there was never a clear reason for why they disliked each other in the first place and they moved to being super friendly too quickly for me to be invested. So overall, this was a pretty average romance to me. It was sweet and I was rooting for them but it lacked chemistry and purpose.

It was enjoyable to meet Colin's coworkers and to see the prep that goes into radio shows but I sadly couldn't connect to them since their interactions were so brief. Alyce working through her relationship and friendship issues was an important aspect of her character and it was nice to see her development. I am very happy with the relationships she had formed by the end of the novel.

The portion of the story depicting life in lockdown was my favorite part of the story. Initially, I wasn't sure how I would feel reading about something that is still very real but I loved having characters I could relate to that were going through similar things. This element of the plot was extremely relatable and honestly very refreshing.

Thank you to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley to leave an honest review for a copy of the book.

I wanted to like this book. So much. But I couldn't buy the romance. Angela and Colin were surface level. Nothing to really dig into, not even things they had in common. Everything felt very 21-year-old, not 31s. Pillow forts and fights, arguments over tea, a wardrobe full of quarantine contraband.

Ultimately, I think the book suffered from editing. Developmentally, there was no character arc for Angela or Colin. Not enough for the grand gesture to work. In the month or so this book takes place, neither character seems to move beyond those surface level feelings. That doesn't count the typos or missing words.

I was looking forward to the idea of a quarantine time love story. It's been almost a year and a lot of lives have been changed. Some have found love as forced proximity is at an all time high. Unfortunately, this book didn't capitalize on these elements.

I almost DNFed around 65% through. I really enjoyed the book for the first 45% or so. I'm sad it took me almost 3 weeks to read the book since I'm normally much more engaged. I wanted to finish because I love finding new authors. I'm not sure this book is a good representative for the genre, subject, or author.

Love and Lockdown perfectly captures what the lockdown / pandemic experience has been like this past year and there were many many aspects of this book that hit very close to home for me. I think books like this one will be neat to read many years from now to help refresh our memories on the experience. Or even to show the next generation of readers (or my own future children!).

The novel is a fun and easy read, and much of the book resonated with me though, especially comments like the need to chat up grocery store clerks or coffee shop baristas as they are the only people we can see in person.

I’m still stuck in lockdown myself so it didn’t feel as lighthearted to read as I think it will feel in a year or two. Some of the romance and conflict in the novel fell a little flat for me but overall it was a fun read and captures very well the pandemic lockdown experience.

Thanks to #NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I must admit that the whole premise of this book caught my attention (mainly because it’s a romance novel set on our present COVID-19 time). This is a roommate-to-lovers love story that develops during lockdown, which seemed really fun and interesting.

I still believe that the underlying story is very interesting and fun, but I didn’t particularly enjoy this book. And this was mainly because I didn’t really connect with the characters. There are some very unhealthy relationships in this book (which didn’t help), but it was more than that, I simply couldn’t connect with the female lead.

There were some snippets of the book that I really enjoyed, mainly involving flirty banter and cute interactions between the two main characters, but they seemed too few and very far apart.

I wouldn’t particularly recommend this book, but if you like the trope or are curious about the premise of the story you might enjoy it.

**NOTE: I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute and adorable rom com based during the current global pandemic. The plot was fun, the characters were relatable and as a whole the book was a fun and easy read