I knew I’d love this and I really did. Like a conversation over coffee and cake with your smartest friend. Ella Risbridger is a brilliant writer and really knows romance novels. Recommended.

I would, I think, quite happily read Ella Risbridger's thoughts on any subject. I've adored her blog, her newsletter, and her cookbooks, and despite seemingly wrestling with a different topic, her style translates really well into this contemplation of romantic literature. I found myself jotting down notes about new books to add to my TBR whilst reading In Love With Love, but I also greatly enjoyed the discussion around what motivates people to read and/or write romantic fiction.. I found the discussion of gender and sexuality in relation to how romance is published and consumed to be especially insightful - and especially in the consideration of fanfiction as part of the genre.
I will continue to seek out everything Risbridger writes, and can be fairly confident of having both an enjoyable and introspective time while reading it.

Ella Risbridger's collection of essays on romantic fiction and its history is a total delight. I came away from reading it full of joy and with a list of book recommendations to seek out. Her writing is fun and comprehensive and I think I will go back to reading this time and time again.

Overall I enjoyed this book looking at the different types of romantic fiction available. Interesting to see how recurring character tropes have and continue to appear throughout literary history. I was surprised not to read about some authors work in this collection. But was pleased to add a few more books to my never ending "to-read" list, from authors I hadn't heard of. Mainly I just love reading books about books! This was a nice addition that complimented my book clubs theme this month, which was the works and related works of Jane Austen.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in an exchange for an honest review.

God knows I wanted to love this book but it was so frustratingly written and constructed, bouncing around all over the place and extremely attached to the Caitlin Moran school of exclamation marks! liberally and breathlessly sprinkled everywhere! Like a tween diary! It's a shame Risbridger's writing has not evolved past this stage.

I also disliked its acquiescence to heteronormative romance; queer romance was segregated into a chapter of its own and neglected in every other part of the book. (Shades of 'separate but equal'.) Risbridger could have been far bolder, particularly as she has self-identified as queer/bi in the past.

Her fans will love this extremely 'Substackesque' book.

I represent the reader who picks this book because of its inclusion of literary criticism and I have found what I had been looking for.

The topics were uniquely interesting and witty and Risbridger's analyses were equally fun.

Glad it was not about sentimentalism but rather the richness in romantic literature, or where romance exists in the selected cases in this book.

Will look forward to Risbridger's future work.

An engaging, thoughtful overview of the romance genre, this is the perfect non fiction for me. It wears its erudition and learning lightly, it invites you in as the reader and after a while you forget you're reading because it feels a lot like you're having a chat with a trusted friend. This is humorous without being patronising and thoughtful without being ponderous or judgmental. We go from Jane Austen to tentacle porn, from the classics to ebooks and fan fiction and there is not a hint of snobbery in the way Risbridger engages with any of it. I came away with a huge reading list, which I was very happy about.

2.5 ⭐

ARC Review

The first chapter of this book was great and if was really interesting to see how similar the tropes are from classics but after the first chapter the book lost it's spark.

A lot of the sections and paragraphs were just too long and convoluted to understand the point of them.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Ella Risbridger’s In Love With Love is a fascinating exploration of, and a deeply felt love letter to the romance novel. Though I’m afraid to say it wasn’t quite for me. There is no doubt that Risbridger not only knows her stuff, but that she is deeply committed to joys of romance novels. There were a lot of really interesting insights throughout and yet I also felt I was missing quite a lot in not being as familiar with many of the referenced texts; though that’s not to say that she doesn’t explain them exceptionally well, but more that I felt a little disconnected to it. This is wholly an issue with my own reading of this book, which I know will be adored and discussed by many others. It may be that I simply didn’t read it at the right time and will pick it up again and gain so much more from it. I appreciate the opportunity to have read it nonetheless.

Such a beautiful book on the power of romantic love and the beautiful books it showcases in. Perfect for lovers of that genre like myself.