A Novel Love Story

I'm a huge fan of Ashley Poston's immersive writing style and blend of romance and magical realism, and I could never resist something written by her, particularly if it praises romances.

The story follows Elsy, who for several reasons feels stagnated on her life, and accidentally finds herself on the fictional town of her favourite romance series (lucky Elsy!).

As usual, Ashley takes the readers on her characters' journey of self-discovering and healing, writing carefully about love and loss, while celebrating everything good that is contained in the romance genre.

“Maybe that's why I read romance novels so often, because they're pretty stories clearly shelved in fiction, and that's where I wanted to be. And then I came here, to a fictional town, and I think ... in the back of my mind I just ... I knew I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay in a world where the plots are predictable and the endings are happy. Somewhere just as frozen as I am.”

I particularly appreciated how the friendship between Elsy and Pru was portrayed, and how Elsy was able to found her ground again, unfreezing herself from heartbreak.

While I did love most of the book, some events left me a bit disappointed and are currently overshadowing my feelings on the book. This book consolidated my opinion that though I LOVE Poston's writing style, I don't buy her love stories, and the reason really is quite simple: Poston stories tend to go for a Happy for now, and I read romance for the predictable happily ever after.
Is it more realistic? Certainly! It just doesn't give me the same giddiness. In this particular case, I believe I would have preferred no romance at all rather than what we got.

Still, Ashley Poston will continue to be an auto-buy author to me, and I'll keep rooting for the tender romances between the main characters.

3.5 ✨ rounded up (or down?) still deciding