Stopped reading after the first 5 chapters. I didn't care for the writing or characters. The premise was cute not executed well unfortunately

I DNF'd it pretty quickly, I wasn't sold on the whole idea of how everyone met, and I just wasn't connecting at all. I will try to read it again in the future, but it just wasn't really for me right now.

The clock on the concourse at Waterloo Station is an iconic symbol in stories and films set in London and it serves as a believable setting to bring Nadia and Tom together. Both stood up, they befriend three other who are assembled there and form an unlikely but heartwarming friendship. With one pair getting engaged and another breaking up with her husband, there is a lot going on!

Tom amd Nadia form a fake dating pact which leads to much humour as well as the promise of romance. I particularly enjoyed Nadia's trip to Tom's family home and the events that followed. Nadia has had a series of disastrous first dates so she is keen to impress her work colleagues with her latest 'boyfriend'. Being such likeable and decent people, both Nadia and Tom soon realise that misleading their friends and families is not the way to go and then of course, their relationship gets more involved. With a wry look at romance and friendships old and new, this is an uplifting read, perfect for a weekend away.

In short: fate brings strangers togethe

You can’t go wrong with the classic fake dating trope, and Jo Lovett’s latest read doesn’t disappoint.

The scenes with the Waterloo five, and wish there could be a spin off book about the whole group from each of their perspectives.

I enjoyed watching Tom and Nadia’s friendship (aka relationship in denial) blossom, although I did find Tom’s character a bit irksome at times - especially how obsessive he was throughout about the other woman he was supposedly in love with (despite having only met her once).

My personal highlight was the scene where Nadia met Tom’s family for the first time (especially the tennis dress drama). However, it was a shame that we didn’t really get to delve into each character’s family background at all after that.

While I could easily predict where the story would end, this was still a wholesome, easygoing read that I could happily recommend to anyone looking for some light romance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars!

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Very cute story with lovely characters. I’m not usually a fan of dual narratives but it worked well here. Wouldn’t mind reading books about the rest of the Waterloo Five. Pleasant read with a cup of tea.

I picked this book up because the synopsis had so much promise. I love fake dating, I love clandestine meetings, so this book had tropes that were right up my alley, However, with all that potential, this book fell so unbelievably flat for me that it was like pulling teeth for me to finish this story (but I did).

First off, it’s never a good idea to start a book off with a possible terrorist threat. While it’s glossed over pretty quickly, it really put a hamper on Tom and Nadia’s meeting. However if that was the only issue, it would be very easy to overlook. Both MCs were extremely dry and quite boring. They both rambled and complained about a lot of things through the book that made them hard to tolerate. Also, if I heard about Nadia’s foot issues one more time…I know what the author was trying to convey but it didn’t come off as endearing. Also, both characters rambled on with their thoughts and so much of what happened in the book was based on not wanting to upset something else rather than wanting to be together. Not the best when it comes to a romance.

Speaking of romance, there was zero chemistry between the two MCs. This was evident when they spoke about how much they didn’t have in common for the first part of the book, so when they started talking about their physical attraction, it just didn’t make sense. The final nail in the coffin was the end when Tom tells Nadia he loves her, and they dragged out the resolution through dinner because apparently saying I’m in love with you doesn’t mean he wants to be with you? Ugh.

At one point, I thought maybe it would be better to listen to this as an audiobook, that maybe I’d be more invested in this story, but that wasn’t the case. I was more frustrated for the lack of romance than anything else. I don’t know, I thought maybe it was because it was a British author set in Britain, but…nah, I’ve read plenty of romances written by British authors and this was just not it. I give it 2 stars because while it’s not for me, the writing was not bad and there is nothing offensive in the book that would warrant 2 starts. Unfortunately I need more romance in my romance books of me to like it.

**Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. While this one wasn’t for me, I appreciate the opportunity”

This is the first book I’ve read by Jo Lovett and it will not be my last! After finishing Meet Me Under the Clock, I immediately looked at her other works and bought the audiobook for Another Time, Another Place.

This was definitely a story I needed right now!

The book opens with Nadia’s point of view and she’s waiting under the clock for a blind date who is late. The next chapter is from Tom’s perspective and he, too, is waiting for someone - a woman named Lola he met ten years ago and promised to show up, under this clock, if he was single. Lola also appears to be running late. Nadia and Tom’s lives intersect when there is an announcement stating there are delays at the station.

Waiting for things to get running again, Nadia and Tom literally collide thus meeting one another and they also meet a newly engaged couple in their 70’s; two delightful women, Bea and Ruth. The two waited 60 years to be able to openly admit their love and became engaged at the clock, not wanting to be apart for one more second.
The last two people waiting with Nadia, Tom, Bea, and Ruth are Carole and Roger. They were also meeting at the clock to celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary when Carole hears Roger luridly speaking to her best friend on the phone.
Roger aside, the five form an instant connection while they wait and agree to have dinner with one another when it became obvious Nadia and Tom’s dates were no-shows.
Tired of being set up and disappointed, Nadia and Tom bond over their woeful dating histories when a thought occurs to them - they can be one another’s “plus one.”
I’m a big fan of fake dating so I found this four-star read to be delightful and lovely.

Thank you NetGalley, Jo Lovett, and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to find great enjoyment reading this in exchange for a review.

Nadia, who is not lucky in the love department, is set up with Dougie a friend’s roommate. The meeting is supposed to be under the clock at Waterloo Station. Ruth and Bea, in their 70’s just got engaged, Tom is waiting for Lola, someone from his past, Carole is all alone in her anniversary.
Five strangers are in the same place at the same time, and when a security threat forced them to spend the time in lockdown, they start to interact with each other.
Cute story.

A fun and lighthearted romcom! This was a quick and easy read that had me laughing out loud at times. While the plot was somewhat predictable it was still a great story. The Waterloo five characters were hysterical and a great addition to the story. Enjoyed this story by Jo Lovett. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Meet Me Under the Clock is slated as a 'romantic comedy' set in London with a friends-to-lovers love triangle. The plot is pretty predictable, and the first quarter of the book is all about one night at Waterloo Station. Nadia, a 33-year-old accountant who's unlucky in love, is set up on a blind date with Dougie but ends up stuck at the station due to a security lockdown. During this time, she meets Tom, a 35-year-old man who's been separated from his ex-wife for nine months and is waiting for Lola, a woman he had a brief encounter with ten years ago.

Along with Nadia and Tom, there are a few other colorful characters—the "Waterloo Five"—including a couple of long-time friends, Bea and Ruth, and a married couple, Carole and Roger, who are having a major fight. The five of them head to a restaurant and bond over their shared experience.

Nadia and Tom become friends and agree to be each other’s plus-ones to fend off others' questions about their love lives. While they obviously have great chemistry, Tom’s lingering feelings for Lola get in the way of him realizing how perfect he and Nadia are for each other.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Such a fun setup—five strangers stuck at Waterloo Station due to a suspected terrorist threat, and each of them has their own reason for being there. Nadia’s waiting for a blind date, Tom is supposed to meet someone from his past, Bea and Ruth (both in their 70s!) just got engaged, and poor Carole finds out her husband is cheating… on their anniversary. Somehow, they all end up bonding over food and stories, dubbing themselves the “Waterloo Five.”

Tom and Nadia decide to fake date to get their friends and family off their backs about being single. At first, they don’t seem like a good match, but the more time they spend together, the more things start to shift. It’s a sweet and charming story—until Tom gets cold feet and ditches Nadia to chase a woman he met once ten years ago. That part really lost me. He threw away something real for a fantasy, and I didn’t love that choice.

Still, the group dynamic was heartwarming, and I enjoyed most of the journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the free advanced copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was a sweet and easy read with a fun premise, but I found myself wanting a bit more from it overall. The idea of five strangers meeting under the clock at Waterloo Station and forming a bond was really charming, but I didn't feel much chemistry between Tom and Nadia. Their relationship felt more situational than sincere, and I just wasn’t super invested in them by the end. The pacing also felt uneven, and certain plot points—like Lola’s return—seemed rushed or underdeveloped.

Overall, it was light and entertaining, and I appreciated the diversity and the themes of unexpected friendship, but I think the romance could've used more depth and spark.

Meet Me Under The Clock - a short and sweet romance including new friendships, fake dating and friends to lovers.

All the characters meet by chance under the clock at Waterloo Station. The MFC Nadia is meeting a blind date who doesn’t show up, The MMC Tom is meeting a long lost love - Lola - who also doesn’t show up. The secondary characters Bea and Ruth are an elderly couple who have just got engaged after knowing each other for years and Carole has just split up with her cheating husband on their anniversary.
After an emergency at the station, forcing everyone to stay in place, the characters all get talking and end up spending the evening together, making fast friends and becoming ‘The Waterloo Five’.

As Nadia and Tom live on the same train line, they spend more time together with Nadia supporting Tom as he struggles with Lola dismissing him. They make a pact to ‘fake date’ to stop the pressure of family and friends trying to set them up on dates.

The book has chapters in both Nadia and Toms POVs and both start feeling attracted to each other as they spend more time together, however Tom is still hung up on Lola.

I loved the slow burn romance of Nadia trying to fight her feelings in order to preserve their friendship and Tom being confused about who or what he wants.

I found myself getting frustrated with Tom who claims he’s in love with Lola despite only spending a few hours together 10 years ago. He’s still obsessed with her despite her ghosting him and messing him around and I just wanted to scream at him to get over her.

I loved the fast friendships that were formed in the book with The Waterloo Five, supporting each other through marriages and divorce despite being people of all ages and backgrounds.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was sweet, easy to read and I’ll definitely seek out more books from this author.

I love the fake dating trope so this book did not disappoint!

Tom and Nadia randomly meet each other and 3 other friends under the clock at Waterloo Station. The group become quick friends, calling themselves The Waterloo Five. Tom and Nadia were each there to meet up with a date and end up being stood up.

Tom and Nadia fake a relationship to get coworkers and family off their backs and you know how that goes!

I did not want to put this book down and actually stayed up way too late one night to finish!

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy, all thoughts are my own.

I really enjoyed Tom and Nadias story, it was a true slow burn and we really got to see a great friendship blossom as they grew closer and the banter was top notch!

Also if you're a fan of fake dating you'll adore this one

Highly recommend!

This was a cutsey romance story, a bit of a will they won't they.. perfect holiday reading, light and easy to read!

Nadia and Tom meet when they have both been stood up. They soon agree to be each others dates for some events, but what will happen when feelings get involved?

Meet Me Under the Clock is Jo Lovett’s newest cozy romantic comedy set in London. It’s a friends-to-lovers love-triangle story with a very predictable plot. The events of a single night account for the first 20 percent of the book.

33-year-old Nadia is an accountant who is unlucky in love. She is a very capable and caring woman who is overlooked by others. After six terrible dates from an app, she is set up on a blind date with a co-worker’s roommate, meeting Dougie under the clock at Waterloo Station. When she arrives wearing a red dress, no one is there who meets Dougie’s physical description. After waiting awhile, the station is locked down for over an hour due to a security threat. During this time, Nadia makes conversation with three women and a man who was also waiting for his date to arrive.

35-year-old Tom has been divorced for nine months and is lonely. He recently reached out to a woman, Lola, who he met ten years earlier and spent two hours with. While he felt that he loved Lola after their initial meeting, she was pregnant and felt that she should try to make things work with the father of her child. While Tom is waiting for Lola, who he hasn’t seen in ten years, Waterloo Station is locked down and he begins talking with four women who are standing nearby.

Bea and Ruth are long-time friends who hid their romantic love for each other for 50 years. Now they are open about their lesbian relationship, getting engaged, and encouraging others to not waste their lives. Carole and Roger are supposed to be celebrating their wedding anniversary, except that Carole discovered Roger’s communication with his lover. They feud loudly and Roger leaves. Tom, Lola, Bea, Ruth, and Carole declare themselves The Waterloo Five and go to a nearby restaurant.

Nadia and Tom quickly become friends and agree to become each other’s’ plus-one in order to get others off their backs. While Nadia doesn’t care that Dougie blew his chance with her, Tom is very worried about Lola’s no-show and lack of contact. As Nadia and Tom spend more time together, it’s obvious that they are very compatible and should form a romantic connection. However, the specter of Lola hangs around.

While Meet Me Under the Clock is a well-written story, I feel like it would have been a much better story had it been written or marketed differently. The story as written had too much emotional angst regarding Lola for it to be labeled as a romantic comedy. Tom’s insta-love for Lola made zero sense, and the reader knew that she was “no good.” Tom spent more time with Nadia in the evening when they met than he did with Lola in ten years. He absolutely should have recognized what a treasure Nadia is and gotten over his fantasy obsession with Lola much sooner. The camaraderie between The Waterloo Five is what makes Meet Me Under the Clock a special story. It’s a celebration of friendship, and familial, romantic, and platonic love.

I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) from NetGalley and Boldwood Books for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a romance with a real difference, a familiar trope developed in a wholly original way – with superb characters whose individual journeys I very much enjoyed.

Nadia is rather half-heartedly approaching the prospect of yet another first date – but this time it’s with the friend of an acquaintance (with the assurance that he’ll be the perfect match…), rather than the more usual on-line dating disaster. Waiting at their meeting place under the clock on Waterloo Station, it looks like she’s been stood up – but there’s no chance of her giving up and going home when there’s a lockdown, a police incident, and no-one is able to leave. It’s a popular meeting place, and when it happens there are a few people standing under the clock – an older couple celebrating their engagement after many years of separation, a warring couple arguing loudly and in the act of breaking up… plus Tom, who’s also been stood up, having hoped to resume a relationship from many years before. The five who remain – the husband of the fighting couple is soon seen off – head off for a meal together once they’re able to leave and a friendship ensues, the “Waterloo Five” joining together again whenever they find an opportunity.

But Nadia and Tom have a particular affinity because of their less than successful love lives – perhaps even some rather promising chemistry, but Tom is still rather obsessed by no-show Lola, however hopeless their relationship might appear. Becoming friends, they decide to undertake some fake dating – a handy plus one for those social occasions, with none of the pressure. Until that becomes distinctly uncomfortable – it’s all well and good putting on a front for acquaintances and workmates, but less comfortable deceiving family and close friends who are entirely convinced that they’re love’s young dream. The sadness is that it’s quite clear from their first meeting that they’d make the perfect couple – but there might just be too many obstacles for that to ever happen.

There’s nothing that new or different about a fake dating scenario, but I found this one particularly engaging – and there’s a lot of well handled emotional turmoil, especially around the impact their fake relationship has on others. Tom is endlessly frustrating, unable and unwilling to move on – but the kindest and loveliest man. And Nadia really had a place in my heart – and she has a Tom-shaped place in hers, if only he could see it too. Their journey is tremendously engaging, with all the right emotional touches – and it was one I thoroughly enjoyed, even if I sometimes wanted to bang their heads together. But the added extra to this lovely book was the quite wonderful supporting cast – the friends, the family, and the other well-drawn members of the Waterloo Five as their lives moved on.

I just found the whole book a delight – beautifully written, with such well developed characters and relationships, and real emotional depth. But it’s very entertaining too – plenty of humour, lots of delicious awkward moments. And then there’s that gentle tangling with the moral issues, deceiving people as they do – with real uncertainty about there being any possibility of a happy ending. I really loved it – and look forward to reading more from its talented author.