LAURA JANE. WILLIAMS

She's single. But that doesn't mean it's not complicated...

The Love Square

Laura Jane Williams

‘Joyful and romantic ... tailor-made for summer!’ COSMOPOLITAN ‘Full of delicious food, real kindness and sexy men... what’s not to like?!’ BETH O’LEARY, bestselling author of The Flatshare

Joana da Silva

I had the highest of expectations for this book, because Our Stop made stay up all night with its banter, chase and british humour. I really like Laura Jane Williams' characters, but I had a hard time getting in line with this plot. I usually don't go for love triangles, so why did I go for a love square? I don't know, but LJW makes me laugh out loud and she just gets what it's like to be a single woman nowadays. It's a cute book, and the food references are so great (but still won't defeat the ones on Tweet Cute).

Caroll-Ann

I just finished this book and honestly I didn’t really have any expectations for this book but it was absolutly amazing. This book might be a cute romance but it’s so much more than that. For me the biggest plot in this book is the search for oneself and figuring out what you want and what you wish for or need to be happy. This is a story about self discovery with a subplot of a good little romance story. This book might be one that you can either see as just another romance book but personally this might be one that I’ll be thinking about from time to time. It really made me think about a lot tbh.

Elisa Bieg

Well, this was a rollercoaster of emotions, wow. Lots of stuff going on and these two just don’t get a break, do they. And Penny just making everything harder for herself, even if sometimes she was doing that by having lots of fun. 
And me, ranting at the mistakes in the Italian because honestly, that bothers me SO MUCH, and it’s so lazy. 

But in the end, this was a good read, which had me committed enough to the characters and story to feel frustration, roll my eyes, shed a few tears... so I’m rounding this up to 4 STARS and hoping that if you decide to grab this, you’ll find this as heartwarming as I I have.

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. 

This book has content warnings for cancer, misogyny and depression.

God, this book was boring. It was so slow moving. The plot was kind of weak and the romance was so dang predictable. I didn't like any of the love interests and there's three of them. One I didn't mind that much but it was obvious he was never a serious option. There's actually two of those. Two out of three were so obviously not an option to me, just there for sex and no meaningful relationship. Which is fine but towards the end they tried to play one of them of as something serious. Then the actual love interest I didn't like that much. I don't know. He was kind of bland and towards the end unnececarily a dick. The main character was kind of nice and I liked the growth she went through. I just don't like that the narrative ended up punishing her for not taking relationships serious for a little bit. I'm not for that. Also she kept saying "I'm a bad feminist" when talking about things like falling in love and wanting to have kids. How does either of those things have to do with being a good feminist. For the rest I also just don't think any of the three relationships was really developed and I didn't care for them. That might be because I liked none of them but oh well. It did have some great family and friend dynamics but they were pushed so much to the background it was a shame. In conclusion, I was expecting quite a bit from this book but I ended up being bored and dissapointed as fuck.

Charlotte Nelson 

Review and digital copy supplied by NetGalley. 

Ever since I read OurStop I’ve wanted to read something by Laura Jane Williams and this book didn’t disappoint. A quick and easy summer read with a cute premise. 

Penny Bridge has always been unlucky in love and things she will be single for the foreseeable future until a man changes all that...... and then another..... and another. Penny finds herself in a lovesquare but are any of her options THE ONE! 

I really enjoy Williams’ style of writing and it is a good fluffy Rom com which also highlights some important topics of cancer, infertility and sexuality.

Pam Sartain

The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams is a great modern romance, with Penny, who owns and runs a cafe in London, who has to suddenly drop her life in London, and the beginnings of a romance, and move to Derbyshire, to take over her uncle's pub.

This is an enjoyable story, with Penny putting self care high on her list of priorities, and explaining it to others.  

 The Love Square  was published on 29th June 2020, and is available to buy from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

I've reviewed Laura Jane William's first fiction book, which you can find here:  Our Stop .

You can follow Laura Jane Williams on  Twitter ,  Instagram  and her  website .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Avon Books .

'Joyful and romantic!' COSMOPOLITAN 'Full of delicious food, real kindness and sexy men... what's not to like?!' BETH O'LEARY, bestselling author of The Flatshare

Arabella Mai Wallis

I think my issue with this book was that I had hyped it up so much for myself and it just fell short.
Where this book was cute in parts, it overall did not do a lot for me and although I don't know what I was expecting initially, I just don't think this book is really for me. There was nothing inherently bad about it I was just not a fan of the plot lines most of the time and felt that I was misled a little with the synopsis.

Anika | @chaptersofmay

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

The Love Square is honest and emotional read with lovable characters and a satisfying conclusion. It highlights the importance of finding yourself, and discovering what will make you truly happy.

The book started off strong. It was engaging and funny, I liked the characters and it felt mature and relevant. But as the plot went on it started to lose me. I think part of that is because I expected the book to have the same levity to Our Stop. And while it did have some sunnier moments, it was much more of an emotional story as opposed to a fun romantic comedy.

The story follows Penny Bridge, a café owner in London who temporarily moves to Derbyshire to run her uncle’s pub in Derbyshire. I loved Penny. She’s a business owner but also a family-orientated, strong-willed and courageous woman. We also listen to the same podcasts so I was instantly a fan. Although she considers herself unlucky in love, Penny soon finds herself at the centre of affections from three men: Francisco, Thomas and Priyesh. 

One thing I realised early on in the book was that I didn’t particularly care who Penny ended up with. I wasn’t keen on any of the men, and I found their individual arcs to be unimpressive. Romantic chemistry was seriously lacking between the three and Penny. I was more interested in her infertility struggle and journey to IVF than who she actually fell in love with. The Love Square didn’t read like a romance despite its title, which was disappointing.

The main character is a cancer survivor, and I really liked how the author highlighted the struggles that come after treatment. The character points out how anyone going through treatment is desperate for it to be over, but no one really talks about what happens when it’s actually over. And as someone who has not been through that kind of traumatic experience, it was interesting to learn how someone who is cancer-free feels after their victorious battle. It doesn’t all just go back to normal, and I really wished this was explored a bit more in the book.

Laura Jane Williams is brilliant at writing conversation. The dialogue in The Love Square, much like Our Stop, is appealing and charming. As a reader, you thoroughly get to know the characters through their speech. The personalities of each of the characters really shines, especially through the way they interact with one another. I found it really easy to distinguish the difference between Penny’s love interests, her family and her friends.

When I first started reading, my imagination was as active as the plot. But sadly, I felt like the book slowed in the middle and I had to push myself to keep reading. A lot of the time I felt like I was turning pages but the story wasn’t moving forward. There was a huge urge to skip chapters because I kept waiting for something to happen, which is a shame because the premise really excited me. 
I had the same issues with this book I had with Our Stop. While it’s well-written, it still feels like a giant BuzzFeed article. The jokes didn’t make me laugh, the celebrity name dropping was irritating and it made a book with heavy topics feel surface level. 

Overall, The Love Square was okay. I adored it in the beginning, but as the story developed I lost interest in the original concept. By the end, I was only focused on Penny’s stability rather than her love story. 

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The Love Square

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