Rating: 👍🏻

Did I correctly guess every little twist of A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston very early in the book? Yes. But did I still enjoy finding out I was right? Also yes.

The tl;dr here for folks that don’t know: Eleanor, or Elsy for short, is headed to the cabin she and her book club friends go to every year—even though she’s the only one going this time—when she accidentally ends up inside her favorite romance novel series (that never ended because the author died before finishing it). Where she almost runs over a man (a very attractive man). And then like every other Ashley Poston novel, the experience helps her learn what she actually wants out of life. Also she falls in love.

There’s no real way for me to continue writing this review without giving away at least a few spoilers, so stop reading now if you don’t want any.

So far, Poston’s novels seem to play with grief. In The Dead Romantics, Florence’s father has just passed away and in The Seven-Year Slip, Clementine is mourning her aunt. A Novel Love Story changes things up a bit. While Elsy is grieving, she’s more or less mourning the fact that her wants, desires, etc., aren’t in the life she’s built for herself (and her best friend has just pointed that out).

There is grief over the loss of a loved one in this book, but that comes largely from our hero Anders, who is (this is the big spoiler) the widower of Rachel Flowers, the author of the book series he and Elsy have found their way into.

The reason I needed to include that spoiler while reviewing the book is because what I think A Novel Love Story does best is show a widower in a realistic way (which is ironic, since this is magical realism).

I feel like sometimes with widower romances, authors will make it so the hero loves the heroine way more than their deceased partner—or even have them explicitly state that they didn’t love their deceased partner in a true, romantic way (this happens in It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey).

I imagine that choice comes from a desire to show that this romance is the true love of the character’s lives, or to appease any readers who might see the mention of an old partner (even if they’re dead) as “other woman/other man drama.” But in doing so, I feel like they end up cheapening the love between the characters (ironic, really), because it shows a huge lack of respect for someone they previously committed themselves to. And it also gives the idea that people can’t have more than one great love in their life. Idk. I just don’t like it.

So, yeah, I was relieved to see that dynamic wasn’t in play in this book. In fact, Anders was so heartbroken and lost when Rachel died that he ended up in her book series and he stayed there. For years! His grief is real and palpable, and I liked it.

What didn’t work as well in this one for me was the actual romance. I didn’t always feel the chemistry between the characters tbh, even though I liked them together. I feel like they fell in love extremely quickly. But I did like how Elsy’s experience in Eloraton taught her how to understand herself and go for what she wanted more. And I also liked how she left town and made it happen, even if Anders wasn’t with her at the time (third-act separation, you know the drill).

I did leave the book with a few questions, namely: What are the health implications of staying in a book world for literal years? When they reconcile, Elsy notices he has more lines on his face. So how did being there affect his aging? What did that do to his physical health? This is information that was not necessary for the story, but the kind of thing I can’t stop thinking about 🙃

Anyway, A Novel Love Story was a delight. There’s something special about books about books (and books set inside of other books). It didn’t carry the same magic as The Seven-Year Slip for me, but it’s still worth reading, especially so if you’re feeling stuck in life and maybe need to change some things.