Jane needs a big break for her career as a Hollywood studio creative executive in Los Angeles. But she’s having trouble convincing her boss that the script she’s pitching will be the hit that she knows it will be. She overpromises and now the only way her boss will close the deal with her is if Jane can convince Jack—someone from her embarrassing youth who has become a big recording star—to record a song for the movie. But Jack is not returning her calls. It turns out that Dan, Jane’s nemesis at work, is heading home to NY for a vacation and Jack is going to be singing at an event there. Dan invites Jane to join him so she can make her pitch to Jack in person.
Seems like a convoluted premise, right? That is how it felt to me. But I allowed myself to just go with it so that I could enjoy the novel and I really enjoyed watching Jane and Dan’s relationship bloom. They were very cute together and Jane was able to let go of her usual hangups while they were in NY together.
Dan’s family was adorable. I loved all them. But Jane didn’t make sense to me. She had convinced herself that, without a script, she didn’t know how to behave. She always had to give herself pep talks and she appeared to be an inexplicable mess. She was full of self-doubt, self-pity, and self-deception and I didn’t understand why she was like this until late in the novel. Despite her issues, she really did have a fun sense of humor and seemed to be full of potential. The crux of the story revolved around Jane finally freeing herself of her hang-ups. It just took a while to get there but she seemed to “heal” very quickly once she learned to communicate her truths.
Annabel Monaghan writes fun stories with characters who are a little older than most romances, which I really appreciate. It’s a Love Story did contain a few Monaghanisms that I’ve identified: precious mornings on the front porch, chatting with someone special on said front porch, her female protagonist has an appetite for sweets, takes place in a small town, and her romantic interest is attractive and never before married. But each of her romance novels has a unique storyline.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam, and Annabel Monaghan for allowing me to read this novel ahead of publication happening on May 27, 2025.
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