Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I enjoyed The Love Hack, which went a bit beyond just being usual chick lit fare to explore emotional trauma from past relationships and the mark that leaves.

We are introduced to Lucy, who sees her tech editor role at a women’s targeted magazine being consolidated with that of the brother magazine targeting males. In a bid to keep a job she proposes an Ask Adam column which will act as an agony uncle to the male readership at the magazine. Unfortunately Lucy isn’t very sociable, which extends to her dating life, so she finds herself at a loose end as to how to answer the queries. That’s where her newly married sister, Amelie, comes into play. As Lucy settles into her role (and Amelie no longer feeling comfortable helping her with the column), we meet Ross (the remaining tech editor) and her male coworkers, as well as delve slowly into her past relationship which caused her turtle into herself a bit.

The Love Hack tries to cover a variety of plot points and ground which sometimes means we don’t go very deep into any one, but at its core it’s very entertaining and a little touching. If you have Sophie Ranald’s past books you know she always has unique plots and likes to create an emotional bond with her characters, and I thought she was in her usual form here! This was a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for me.

Just finished this book in less than 24 hours! I can honestly say I really liked this one, and I think I’m definitely in my romance era🙃 a fun story with some loveable characters, and a good twist!

London-based Journalist Lucy works as “Ask Adam”, an advice columnist for men who send in their personal and love life questions. 2 problems. 1, she knows nothing about men. 2, her dreamy American co-worker Ross who just so happens to be seeing one of her sister’s best friends. Since her last relationship went up in flames, Lucy’s spent years single and she’s not sure she’s willing to dive back in anytime soon.

Such a cute twist on your typical office romcom! It’s such an easy one-sitting read, with a healthy male love interest and a female MC who doesn’t feel the need to constantly be perfect. Lucy was such a real character, and I loved the way the relationship helped her grow into herself. Incredibly wholesome and perfect for a warm weekend.

The Love Hack - 3.5 ★

A must-read for any fans of ‘The Hating Game’ & ‘Book Lovers’ & ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’

Lucy Masters has found herself in a new job as the brain behind ‘Ask Adam’, a male magazine’s agony uncle column. This is a problem for Lucy for two reasons - one, she categorically does not understand men, and two, she fancies her new colleague Ross. But Ross is currently seeing Lucy’s sister’s friend. Awkward!

And to complicate things even further, Lucy receives an email from a reader admitting to considering cheating on his wife - and she’s 99% certain that the message has come from her sister’s husband. The husband who has just moved himself and Amelie (Lucy’s sister) across the Atlantic to New York. As any normal person would do, Lucy decides to head out to New York to try and catch him cheating so she can break the news to her sister, but it doesn’t go quite to plan!

I liked this book! Lucy wasn’t your typical rom-com heroine and I liked that. She didn’t fit the mould of a typical ‘girls girl’ and I really liked her edge and the quirkiness that she brought with her character. I also loved her relationship with her sister Amelie and how she quite literally flew across the world to be there for her. Lucy and Ross’ relationship, although an important part of the book, wasn’t central to the storyline. I liked how they developed a friendship first and then the feelings came…it felt really natural and realistic. I also liked how modern and current this book was - the references to AI, and the way dating is, it just gave the book such a realistic feel.

Special shoutout to Astro 🐈 we love a furry friend character! Overall, an enjoyable read! 😊

A cute little rom com! This is the story of Lucy and how she navigates the elimination of her job, family drama and falling in love. Can’t help but fall in love with Ross but at times the story felt a little immature. Would recommend for a light, fun read!

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this!
I would give this a solid 2.5 out of 3 stars.
Lucy is a writer who takes on a "Ask Adam" column, advice for men in dating and life. She's able to use AI to get through the questions she really isn't familiar with, which I thought would be a much bigger plot point than in actuality. She works with Ross, a coworker she has a crush on. I didn't think their chemistry was very believable. Their trajectory just didn't have the build up it really needed to make me really invested. There is also a side story about her sister and her husband (whose pretty gross) and a past romantic failure that really hinders Lucy's growth.
Overall...this is ok. Just ok.

I found this to be a lighthearted entertaining story. A slow burn romance with some dramas along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This story turned out to be quite touching, sweet and a bit of fun. I'll be honest, after the first few chapters, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with it, but I'm really glad I did. The reason I wasn't sure about continuing was Lucy's constant inner arguments with herself ... pages worth! Sure, she's feeling a little insecure and at first it was quirky, then it just got really irritating. But, once she started to get over herself after the first few chapters, the story really came into itself and the pages worth of Lucy's thought processes settled down. A good read with some touching moments, especially during the trip to New York.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Sophie Ranald for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this but it took a while to properly get into the story. I found myself only reading a chapter or two at a time, then putting it down and coming back to it a few days later. It was lovely, sweet and fluffy but fell short for me.

I wanted to like this, but it fell short for me. The main character read as very immature. Her early infatuation with the male main character seemingly came out of nowhere, and their relationship never felt fully fleshed out. They barely interacted before the inevitable happy ending. The FMC was very much ‘not like the other girls’ which is a trope that I personally do not mesh well with. She seems to not really like or respect women very much based on the few interactions she has with them, and the language she uses to describe them (calling a few women ‘the indistinguishable blondes’ instead of learning their names for example). She also does not understand men. I repeat. Lucy does not. Get. Men. This fact is stated over and over throughout the whole story. The repeated use of ai to generate her advice column was also a strange take in my opinion. I don’t think it was necessary to drive the plot along. Overall, I was not very satisfied with this story, but enough of it was enjoyable. Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this eARC

Getting to know Lucy and her job as a journalist was a treat I was not expecting! Walking through a career where you are one of few women while navigating your baggage can often feel daunting. However, Lucy does it with grace and fortitude!
As Lucy takes on her role of an advice columnist (with a caveat), the friendships/relationships that evolve are fun, easy, and only a little spicy, (I mean if you blink you'll miss it).
If you like sister bonding and office banter with the bonus of a secret crush, then this should be on your TBR.
Loved this read and can't wait to grab more by Sophie Ranald!

Lucy was about to lose her job and ends up writing an advice column for men pretending to be a man. This was the interesting part of the book. She actually came to more of an understanding of men through some of their letters and her interactions with her coworkers. Her sister was her help then disappeared into her lousy marriage. Her work crush was with someone else and was up and down with her, which would honestly confuse anyone. Lucy was still not past her years old fling with an older coworker that was simply trash and ended with her losing her job. As infuriating as these things were, it made the characters real. Maybe, in some cases, not likeable, but real.

First thank you the NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

So I early round up but in this instance for what the book was. A fluffy clean romance novel it was delightful.

I would give it 3.5-3.75 stars had I had the option. It took me a bit to get into but once I did I wanted to know how everything turned out so the pages kept turning (or swiping as the case may be)

There is definitely a lot of repetition and could have had a better edit but on the other hand it could have used more fleshed out side plots and building of the relationship between Lucy and Ross. It suffered from what a lot of books do as it doesn’t delve into the meat of the how their relationship built in meaningful ways. It consisted of looks over a computer screen and random blushing. It was missing the why of how their friendship was built.

Anyway, I did enjoy the different sub plots and wished there was more. Would so read it again? No. Am I glad I read it and got entertained by it? Absolutely. It would make a great hallmark movie to be honest.

So if you’re looking for some clean fluff beach read, give it whirl.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I really struggled with this book. The premise has all the makings of a story that I should love (slow burn, office romance), but I found Lucy to be a bit insufferable and the pacing extremely slow. I do think that readers will enjoy this book, but it ultimately fell a little flat for me. Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The idea behind this story is so lovely. Someone who wants to help men with love problems is not something I've seen before and I was really intrigued by the idea and am very thankful for Netgalley for allowing me to read it before release.

I absolutely loved it, the banter between the characters, Lucy trying to understand men better to help them through the ‘Ask Adam’ column. Lucy and Ross becoming friendlier and starting to catch feelings for each other. Lucy wanting to help her sister when needed.
I couldn’t stop reading when I started it, and ended it in one sitting. I was so hooked and wanted to know how it would end and the ending was all I could ask for. It was a slow burn romance, but a nice one and I am glad that Lucy and Ross got their happy ending.

The characters were likeable and it’s a story where they struggle between their job, love and personal lives. It was also really nice that there were multiple locations included. The Love Hack is for sure a book I would recommend if you like a quick read with a bit of comedy.

I gave it 4.5 stars because I couldn’t put the book down and was into it right away. I enjoyed the characters, the setting, the build-up between Lucy and Ross and most of all the happy ending. It’s not a 5 star, but that’s because there were a few bits that could be changed to be better. But overall I really enjoyed it and hope more people will take a chance on it when it’s released.

I somewhat struggled to finish. It just didn’t really pull me into the story. I enjoyed the writing style but overall the story just wasn’t for me

So this book… it was nice. I feel like there was a lot happening and oddly I liked the Ross having a potential gf storyline but I really thought it would be a grumpy/sunshine read. Instead it was a very insecure FMC and a Labrador male love interest. I loved Ross, I loved his backstory, I feel like it added depth. I wasn’t keen on how it felt like it was rushed. There was just something about the pacing that felt very off. There were pages and pages of what felt like useless description but a quick mention of a tube destination and her home, no clue even what her flat actually looked like but I know inch by inch what her sisters face looks like.
That being said, it was nice and sweet and there was mild banter throughout. The POV of the men in the emails and the office vs the POV of the ladies WhatsApp thread and nights out was fun to read. I feel I could’ve had more of that and honestly none of Keiran. Honestly that man is disgusting.

I was excited by the premise of this book. I have read some office romances that I really enjoyed but sadly this book did not really read like a romance. This felt much more like a women's fiction book. The MMC played with our FMC emotions a lot during the book. While our FMC did a lot of ranting. Unfortunately this book fell flat for me.

Not my favorite romance lately but still a good short book. Some of the parts seemed slower than others and I think that’s why it was just ok for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Actual Rating: 2.5 🌟

For full review, please check my goodreads review linked below. If there is a possibility to take in consideration some comments especially joking about a bomb as this is a seriously offensive matter to a lot of people I'm sure, then it would be great. Thank you for the e-arc. The author has a flowing writing style which made this a readable book despite its many flaws in the story and characters themselves.