Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

This was unfortunately not to my taste and I didn't enoy it. It felt like it started out about Ben and Bridie but then the focus shifted to Cal and Hattie. It wasn't a straightforward romance.

Hopefully next book will be better. :)

Love at First Fight by Mary Jayne Baker is a cute romcom based on Much Ado About Nothing. It follows Bridie, a teacher who has sworn off love and Ben, a handsome casanova. Both of them went to high school together and have some history from back then.

I started this one and it had me laughing from the very beginning. I loved Bridie and her friendship with Hat and Cal, their interactions were funny and felt real.

I liked that the story didn’t center around Bridie’s unsuccessful dates but more about what happened afterwards. The teaming up for the wedding preparations was really fun to read and I think Baker did a great job portraying Ben and Bridie’s chemistry.

The pacing was quick and I very much liked that even with miscommunication issues, these were resolved within a couple of days. It was refreshing that you don’t get all the dwelling and miserable characters for long.

I also enjoyed all the side characters (except for JoJo) and their shenanigans to get Bridie and Ben to open up about their feelings for each other.

Overall, I’d recommend it to romcom readers and anyone looking for a light, fun summer read full of humor and banter, as well as swoony moments.

✨Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Aria for an eARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.✨

This review will be posted closer to pub day on my Instagram account: @bm.bookish.girl

Bridie Morgan has no luck in love department. Currently she is going on twenty dates in twenty days. But unfortunately non of dates turn to be the one. Right then her best friend is getting married and she ask her to be a maid of honour, she has again a challenge. And guess who is the groom's best man? No one else than her lifelong nemesis Ben Kemp who returns home to join the wedding party. Ben, who hurt Bridie. Ben, who left her waiting outside their leavers’ prom in a brand-new dress, alone. Then the friends combine things in order they spend a lot of time together. They have a new chance to talk, to explain and everything.

The story was nice. I was really interested in how they will become friends again. I loved the friendship between friends. I needed time to adjust to Bridie as a name. But ok for lazy summer read at the beach.

I have to thank Netgalley.com and Aria & Aries for a copyin exchange of an honest review.

Such fun read. The first couple of chapters had me hooked with funny dialogue and interesting characters. I liked the fact that the two main characters had a interesting history that gave the story more depth. The only thing I kind of didn’t like was how fast everything between them got resolved and the way it got resolved. It felt too easy and took a way from the story. But in the end a fun read. 3 out of 5

This was my first read by the author and I can honestly say I loved it. In fact, I could not stop reading it, I started it after midnight and was up till 6 AM this morning just devouring the book. The characters were so much fun, and the plot was very well-paced. Without spoilers, I just want to say that the main storyline was the perfect amount of cute, witty, funny, and angsty. The brewing romance that neither MCs were aware of for ten years culminates into something very satisfying. I will say that there was some angst that could have been avoided by a simple conversation and honesty (I mean full honesty). I also found some of the things with the side characters a bit too much, but I definitely understand the role it plays in solidifying the relationship between our MCs and building a foundation of trust. Overall the book was quite enjoyable and definitely a quick read. Also, I am pretty sure I pronounced the main character's name wrong for at least 60% of the book.
P.S. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

"Love at First Fight" by Mary Jayne Baker
Release Date': 8.5.2021

Bridie Morgan has decided to end her 'dating' stage of life with a bang -- 20 days in 20 days! She has to meet "the one" that way! Plus, she needs a date for the wedding of her best friend, Hattie.

Ben Kemp comes home for the wedding and joins the wedding party! Of course, Bridie is not happy. Ben is the boy who left her outside alone on their school dance.

Bridie and Ben need to help plan the wedding, as they are the maid of honor and best man. This is a ploy from their friends to try and get them together.

This reminded me of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," except of prose, there is witty banter!

Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #netgalley #netgalleyreads #netgalleybooks #2021bookreleases #loveatfirstfight #maryjaynebaker #romcom #contemporaryromance

I receive this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for providing me with access.

So I am a sucker with enemies to lovers. However, I didn't feel like this book quite hit the mark.

Ben and Birdie are more frenemies than actual enemies, and while their banter was good, I didn't quite get the tension that I wanted out a traditional enemies to lovers. Even knowing that this book was based on Much Ado About Nothing didn't help, as I felt that relationship with Beatrice and Benedick was more fraught with tension than this one.

Additionally, the inclusion of Hattie, Cal and their perspective left things a bit disjointed. I was fine with them being secondary characters, but to bring them into the forefront felt really out of place.

Enemies to Lovers is one of my favorite tropes so as soon as I saw the title I was so excited to dive into this novel! But, after reading iI was left with some mixed feelings. This may be due to personal circumstances as I am American and this book was filled with popular Brit terms (I knew some but had to look up a lot) which made it a tad difficult to read. Although, I did love the banter between Bridie and Ben and really enjoyed how their story unfolded! I also enjoyed Hattie and Cal, but I think the four characters had a lot to say and it felt a bit rushed between all of them for this singular book.
I did think this was a precious book and can definitely see this being popular fun light-hearted read for when you need a little HEA!

Special Thanks to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm normally not into contemporary romance, but I picked this up in hopes of finding a lighthearted read during a very stressful month... and it didn't disappoint! I devoured Love at First Fight in less than 24 hours. It's well written and fast paced, has plenty of funny and enjoyable banter and is enemies-to-lovers. What more could you possibly want? A love interest that's described as a mix of Aidan Turner and Chris Hemsworth? You got it. Enough drama to keep you on your toes without dragging on for too long? You got it.

I did have a moment of hesitation when the plot took a new twist at the 70% mark where I thought that the book might be a tad too long. Fortunately, there was no unnecessary melodrama and it didn't drag as I had feared. I was hooked until the end! All in all, an enjoyable read that I'm sure fans of contemporary romance will love.

I have mixed feelings about this one...on one hand, the blurb and even the title is misleading. I wouldn't classify this as an enemies to lovers romance. I wouldn't say this is a huge spoiler because you realise this quite early on. The blurb also mentions Bridie's 20 dates in 20 days and honestly, that plays a very small role in the story which is annoying because I think if it had played a bigger role, I might have enjoyed this more.

Positives? I thought this was well written and I did like the romance and ship it. It just wasn't the enemies to lovers romance I was expecting and wanted to read.

Negatives? The biggest one for me is that Bridie's friend Hattie's story plays quite a large role and we're following her life as well and it was really hard to care about that because I didn't feel like I knew her character well. The story arc wasn't bad...it just wasn't what I wanted to read. If Hattie's story was going to play such a huge part then I wished that she'd been introduced as a protagonist and that we'd followed her earlier on.

Overall, this wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't the story I expected or wanted. Would I recommend this? If you're looking for an enemies to lovers romance - no. If you looking for a romance - maybe but probably not.

I liked this book, but I think it would have been better if it had been two separate books. There was Birdie and Ben…and then Hattie and Cal. Both couples could have had their own books and I would have loved to read them!

The story focuses on Birdie and Ben, who have known each other for many years but had a falling out when they were 18. It’s an enemies to lovers story, but not with a ton of emphasis on the active enemies part.

I really liked the banter between Birdie and Ben. They were able to go back and forth really well! Birdie was a funny character. There was a part towards the end with an additional character I didn’t totally care for, but overall I enjoyed the book!

I'm someone who adored Much Ado About Nothing back when I read it in high school. At least, I adored Beatrice and Benedick.

So this book, being a modern retelling? That sounded like it was just about them? Perfect!

Only, it's not. You're getting Hattie and Cal's story too.

And it bored me as much as Hero and Claudio did in the play. Everytime one of their sections popped up in this I was bored to tears. I wasn't invested enough in Bridie and Ben for putting up with the other stuff to be worth it.

Sigh.

4.5⭐
I absolutely loved this one, the banter and humour between the main characters had me laughing out loud, I loved that we got to follow the side characters too, it's two stories in one but the balance is really well done.
I could of done with a little bit more angst, I think a few things were cleared up a little bit too quickly but that is just personal preference.

The romance went frome hate to love in an instant, I prefer more of a slower burn and realisation.

Overall I loved this though and would definitely read more from this author in the future.

There's nothing wrong with a cheesey romantic book where you know you're going to get a HEA, and this book delivers exactly that. It is a fun & lighthearted read, and it did make me laugh at times. However, I did feel that this was two stories in one - if this had focused on Bridie & Ben, and a separate book focused on Hattie & Cal, I would have enjoyed it more.

Enemies to lovers is 100% my go-to trope. Sometimes it falls short, and that’s what happened for me here. The book fell flat as the enemies part wasnt strong enough. It was still a fun light hearted read but not anything life altering. I still enjoyed but it wouldnt be something i would read again.

So, this was cute, but not life-altering. Honestly, the story felt very juvenile. Like, with a few changes, you could easily set this story among the high school set. And then there was a secondary subplot that completely over took the end of the book, and that all felt unnecessary. But it was quick and cute, so three stars.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The story follows Bridie and Ben, lovers turned enemies. Both of them hate each other but they are stuck together since Bridie's best friend, Harriet, and Ben's brother, Calvin, are getting married.

This story was a typical enemies to lovers story. Even though I enjoyed reading the book I didn't find anything new in it. The characters were annoying at first but there was character growth and they grew on me, I ended up rooting for them.

It felt like I was reading two stories parallelly one of Bridie and Ben and other of Harriet and Calvin. By the end of the book, the story concentrated more on Harriet and Calvin and I felt like there were some unnecessary twists. I would have liked it if the focus was more on the main characters and the side characters were just that, side characters.

The language is very hard on British slang, even though I understood what the characters wanted to say, it was quite difficult to get through.

I think I would have had more fun reading this book if the characters and their backgrounds were more fleshed out and the main characters were the main focus of the book.

This was almost a two-for-one romcom as it really centered around two separate couple’s relationships. I really wasn’t expecting it but the last third surrounded the couple that was pretty established at the beginning of the story. The idea of centering it around two couples wasn’t bad but I found myself wanting more of the main first two.

I liked the real characters—no one was perfect. There wasn’t a whole lot of depth to the story though. It felt weird that the whole friend group was so invested in their friends love lives that they orchestrated some interactions. Usually these books add more to the characters by focusing on their work or other aspirations, but this one solely focused on the relationship. It made it fall a little flat for me.

The ending was a good resolve, but the epilogue was a little too buttoned up to its how quickly they moved in the relationship.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a fun and light-hearted read!
It's an enemies-to-lovers story, however I would not say that the enemies part was particularly strong. The couple had a great angst as well as a lot of cute moments that made the book enjoyable. I liked the characters, they seemed relatable and not overly fake.
I'd say that some parts were confusing as there were a lot of British references that I did not understand but for me this isn't a turn off. Another thing that I did not particularly like was the pacing of the story, to me personally it seemed like the romance aspect was rushed but maybe it's just me.
Overall, this was 3,5 stars read.

Enemies to lovers is a near instant way for me to read a book, but this one just fell flat. It had such an interesting premise and I truly loved the premise and starting of the book. But the shifting perspectives for brief moments to carry on the story threw me out of the story. There were references I didn't understand which also took me out of the book (which, I don't want to penalize the book for this, because had I understood them, I probably would have loved it).