Thank you to Net Galley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Enemies to lovers is 100% my go-to trope. Sometimes it falls short, and that’s what happened for me here. Bridie’s conflict just didn’t work for me. Being hung up on one guy for ten years would make sense if it wasn’t over what came across to me as a childish issue. I have no doubt a leaver’s prom is a big deal to a teen, but to still be holding a grudge ten years later and blaming that for all the complications that come with finding love? It just didn’t work for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Aria & Aries for the opportunity to read and review this story.

Bridie and her best friend Hattie (Harriet) are high school teachers in their late twenties. Bridie has introduced Hattie to the love of her life Cal and all signs are pointing to this being their happily ever after moment.

Bridie hasn’t had a decent relationship in years and is tackling a mission to have 20 dates in 20 days. At the end of this, it pretty seems that her hypothesis is true- there just really aren’t any decent guys out there.

But Hattie and Cal have some plans up their sleeve to remind Bridie that when the lady “doth protest too much” there is probably a reason why!

This is a really cute and easy read, filled with “star crossed lover” moments, a la Shakespeare and with plenty of updated for 2021 Much Ado About Nothing-vibes.

Right at the very end of the story, look out for the super cute but not cheesy marriage proposal! ❤️

This book was hard for me to read. I’ve read a lot
Of Brit Lit, but this one was hard for me to fully understand . A lot
Of references I’m not familiar with .

The book started out solidly introducing the characters and the angst between the hero and heroine. I think once they got
Together , the story became stagnant and I think that’s where I just got bored. The problems became dumb and the solutions even more unrealistic . I almost DNF but as an ARC, I wanted to give it the respect it needed .

I can’t say whether I’d recommend this book or not. The love was soo soo good , . Once the plot
Shifted focus to other characters, I’d say call it done. That ending really dragged it down.

Love at First Fight follows Bridie, seemingly cursed with bad luck as her streak of horrible dates continue. Her closest friend, Hattie, disapproves of the 20 Dates gauntlet that Bridie is putting herself through in an attempt to either find The One or give up on love entirely. As Bridie finds her herself coming to the end of her self imposed challenge, she is thrust headfirst into close proximity of the one that started her bad luck spell with love: Ben. The two become best man and maid of honor to Hattie and Cal, but it’s not just the words between them that are heated.

Love at First Fight was a fun summer read. I have always loved the rivals to lovers trope and found the chemistry and banter between them hilarious and organic. My only issue is that I wish there was more focus on the main character and couple as opposed to the issues in the impending marriage of the secondary characters.

Thank you netgalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review. I usually like the trope of enemies to lovers, which is what the description of the book makes it seem like is the story. However, the two main characters love each other from the beginning and the enemies part seems pretty superficial. Their story wrapped up about 75% through and switched gears to drama about secondary characters. I found this sort of annoying and wanting the book to wrap up faster. This was not my favorite and I hard time trying to finish it.

This was a cute, light hearted, frienemies to lovers romance. It was a little slow for me, and there seemed to be two stories in this novel. The Bridie & Ben love story and the Hattie & Cal story. I think it would have done better having only one of the stories as the plotline. I really liked both couples in this book, but really wish we could have seen more of Bridie and Ben's story, a bit more about the chase and of them being together. It seemed like, once they got together, we didn't really have much more romance thrown in.

Unfortunately, this was just a middle of the road book for me. It was a quick and easy read, that I'm sure some people will love and enjoy. I received a copy of this from NetGalley and the publisher for an open and honest review. All opinions are 100% mine.

I enjoyed this book! It's a great enemies-to-lovers read, and an interesting and light-hearted summer read. I did find this book slightly hard to get in to, and it struggled to hold my focus a lot of the time, but it was a great and fairly easy read once I got into it.

Bridie doesn't believe in love anymore. She's gone on twenty dates in twenty days and each was worst than the last. But now her best friend is getting married and she has to put aside her cynicism to be the perfect maid of honor. But then Bridie's lifelong enemy, Ben, returns to be the best man in the wedding. Bridie can't forgive Ben for what he did to her at their prom ten years ago, but when she's forced to plan the bachelor and bachelorette party with him, she has to try. It's been ten years, but have their feelings changed that much? Or, have they just been really good at hiding it all along?

This was such a unique, adorable rom com! One thing that can ruin an enemies to lovers for me is if the two main characters in question hate each other for no reason, but this was not the case at all. There was an internal struggle for me to be angry with Ben for what he did, but also want to forgive him because it was ten years ago! It was interesting to watch Bridie go through all of that, too. I loved watching the two interact as well, they had great banter and chemistry as enemies and as lovers. Another unique aspect of this book was the fact that there were differing point of views and the story also focused on the side characters. I was so invested in everyone's love life that by the end of the novel, I was hooked to the pages. This is a delightful rom com that's so easy to escape into it!

If you're looking for a fun, light hearted read, I definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to Netgalley for a free arc in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I especially liked that there were 2 different love stories happening, and I found the conflict somewhat unexpexted. I also liked how each couple had a turn playing matchmaker. I'll be looking for more titles by Mary Jayne Baker for sure!

Well, this was a really cute and lighthearted romance story that was a fun light read. It just ran a little slow for me and I wish there was more emphasis on Bridie's back story. Bridie's sworn off men, but makes a game out of it by dating twenty guys in twenty days just to prove to herself she's really done after the twenty days. She had it in her head that after the twenty dates, she will see that all men are the same and she can live her life comfortably as a single lady.. Of course, she crosses paths with Ben.... the ultimate playboy who returned home after being abroad. This is an enemy to lovers twist but it just doesn't explore the plotline more. It had a lot of potentials to be an amazing five-star read for me, but it just lacked a lot of detail and drive for the story to progress.

Thank you NetGalley!

Buckle up folks, because it’s time for a little discussion on just what makes a good retelling. Perhaps you can already tell that this book is not that, based on my rating and how I’ve started this review, and in that, you would be right! I didn’t hate this book, but I found it alright as a romance, and flat out bad as a retelling.

Harsh, you may think, but honestly, there’s more to retellings than simply jotting down the main events of a story, roughly converting them into a modern (or otherwise different) setting, and calling it a day. And that’s what this book fails to recognise. Books are like onions, in that respect: you peel away one layer, you find the next. What happens in books also says something about the time the author is writing in. As such, Claudio accusing Hero of being unfaithful is not merely about the accusation alone, so turning it around so the Claudio character is the one being accused does not work. Turning Don John into a jealous ex does not work because Don John’s jealousy is not simply about the relationship between Hero and Claudio.

I do get that finding equivalents between the original and modern day is hard! I think the only retelling I’ve read that I’ve felt truly does this well is Ibi Zoboi’s Pride, because it manages to translate the commentary alongside the plot to the modern day. I haven’t read another since.

Perhaps it’s a little harsh to be expecting a full retelling out of a book that’s very much not aiming to be that! But even setting my issues with that aside (insofar as I could), I found myself getting bored by this book. Benedict and Beatrice are supposed to be cleverly bickering at each other most of the time, but here, it never really felt that clever for one. There was never really any tension between them either, no reason for me as a reader to be rooting for them. The blurb says “sparks fly”, but I never felt them.

On top of this, I just didn’t care about Hattie and Cal’s relationship. Because this book isn’t just about Bridie and Ben, but also those two. This, of course, could be the curse of the established relationship hitting me, but I think it might just be an overall feeling about the book. For vast swathes of it, I was just bored.

So when I finally finished, all I really felt was relief that it was over.

Bridie is looking for love, her best friend Hattie is about to be married! Old flame Ben returns for the wedding and Bridie fights for her feelings whilst trying to work out what love is! Hattie and Cal know what love is but stumble along the way to the altar, will romance win?
I was impressed by the characters and how they all worked so well together, plenty of humour, romance and some serious moments too. A well rounded fun story, a wonderful group of friends, you’ll love the twists and turns, you’ll want to keep reading until the end!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There's no one in the world for me but you.

I didn't expect to find with two stories, but a pleasure. I might have made two books separating the two stories,

This book follows the story of Bridie and Ben who have been friends since school and have spent the last 10 years bickering and claiming to hate each other. However Bridie's best friend Hattie is dating Ben's brother Cal and they believe there is more to the relationship. We then see how the matchmaking goes and what happens to both Bridie and Ben and Hattie and Cal. A real feel good romance which I thoroughly enjoyed. Will definitely read more by this author. Tha ks to netgally for this early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Before I begin, I just want to say that just because I didn’t like this book doesn’t mean other people won’t. I hope this review attracts the kind of people who pick up books based on negative reviews, because maybe they’ll like all the things I didn’t about it.

If I’m going to be completely honest this book just really didn’t work for me. I didn’t find a single one of the main characters relatable and I also found them somewhat boring to read about. I also had to double check to make sure the description didn’t include Cal and Hattie’s plot line besides Brodie and Ben being in the wedding and there was nothing to indicate that they would get their own perspectives as well, which also caught me off guard.

The biggest thing that didn’t work for me was that while this was advertised as an enemies to lovers romance, the “enemies” bit was more of a misunderstanding than anything, and it was resolved to quickly in the story for my tastes. Yes there was some drama added when they found out (spoilers) later, but it just wasn’t the kind of thing I’m looking for with enemies.

One other thing was I just did not share the sense of humor this book had, I really wanted to like it but it just wasn’t for me.

I feel like the story had a bit too much going on in it to be honest. While Bridie and Ben's second chance love meets rivals to lovers was good, the story pivots in the last 75 pages to be about Cal (Ben's brother) and Hattie (Bridie's bff) upcoming wedding and their premarital drama brought on by a influencer ex of Cal. It just felt like a part of another tory that was added into this one. We go get a few side POV chapters with Cal (none with Hattie, besides scheming to get Ben and Bridie together). The story was also a bit long for me, and had some pacing issues and abrupt time jumps that wasn't my favorite.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. When I started reading I didn't know that there wouldn't only be a dual point of view, but actually four. To me that's a lot and I think it would have been better to simple write two separate books. I would have liked to read Cal/Hattie's lovestory separately, because the reason I couldn't finish was Ben. He just wasn't likeable at all to me and had such a horrible view of women. Just the few scenes at the beginning in the pub were enough for me. I struggled for a while longer but I couldn't warm up to him at all. The writing itself was quite good and I actually liked Bridie (as most everyone I struggled a bit with the name) and Cal and Hattie were very cute.

I struggled on where to rate this, because honestly the first and second half of the book were on completely different levels. When I started reading 'Love at First Sight', I actually was really enjoying the book. Bridie ( 'Birdie' in my head because that's all my brain could see 😂) was a fairly charming character, the interactions between all the characters was funny and entertaining. Once Ben returns to town his charm and easy banter with Bridie works great, and their chemistry at this stage works.

However, at about 40/50% in, it felt like the author had either given up on the characters, or lost interest. Once Bridie and Ben had moved past their 'enemies' stage, their interactions were lukewarm, and just didn't feel like they had much chemistry anymore. The focus of the plot outlined in the synopsis also wraps up in the first half, and we spend the entire second half of the book focused on the side characters' plotline ( Cal and Hattie ). While I understand this is because the author ripped plot points from 'Much Ado About Nothing' it just detracted from what the reader actually wanted to read about - Ben and Bridie.

This book had such potential and I truly did enjoy it in the first half. It was a light easy read, but I wish the second half matched up to the first and felt more cohesive.

Love At First Fight follows the stories of Bridie and Ben as well as Hattie and Cal. Bridie has finally sworn off men after a series of disastrous dates and she’s finally admitted she’s still wounded from being stood up by Ben. Ben is a ladies man but could there be more to him than he’s willing to admit out loud? Hattie, Bridie’s best friend, is Cal’s girlfriend and can’t believe her best friend has sworn off men and has made it her mission to change that. Cal is also Ben’s younger brother and becomes an important key into Hattie’s plan to make Bridie and Ben realize they are meant to be together.

While I liked this book I also didn’t like some parts of it. I felt like I was reading two different stories at times. Bridie and Ben’s story and Hattie and Cal’s story. I understand Hattie and Cal’s storyline was just suppose to be a secondary plot but at times it felt like it was becoming the main plot. There were definitely times the story dragged on and the plot got a little murky. Despite those few things it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely say it wasn’t a true enemies to lovers story because their friendship was clearly evident throughout the story even if it was a bit prickly.

Rating 3.5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and publishers for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

So I’d give this somewhere in the 2.5-3 star range. There were a lot of things I really enjoyed but enough issues that I’d probably not recommend it over other romances unless you’re specifically looking for a multi-couple British rom-com.

First off, what I enjoyed. The characters Ben, Bridie (which my American brain will never not read as Birdie and I have to accept that), Hattie and Cal were are fun characters and I enjoyed all four POVs. The banter and humor between both the couples AND all the side characters had me laughing out loud. I do think some of the British slang went over my head so potentially even funnier!

While I enjoyed all the characters, I felt like Ben/Birdie and Hattie/Cal almost could have been two separate books and trying to fit both storylines together added too much noise. Especially as Hattie/Cal weren’t in the synopsis (despite being the plot to bring our MC together) that it was jarring to now get a dramatic POV storyline with them. Additionally, I don’t think I ever got warm fuzzies for Ben/Birdie despite as they really went from 0 to 100 and then HEA with their main speed bump being resolved in a page or two.

Overall, it was fine. I was entertained but not blown away. Thank you to Aria and Netgalley for this e-Arc.