Love Interest

In her debut novel, Love Interest, author Clare Gilmore uses workplace romance and enemies-to-lovers literary tropes to create a charming and compelling read. Casey is a straight-forward and analytic finance expert, Alex is a sensitive and creative project manager. When Alex gets the job Casey had applied for, well I probably don't need to tell you what happens. But this is a romance novel, after all, and it quickly becomes obvious that Casey and Alex are meant to be more than coworkers.

This novel was an excellent debut from Clare Gilmore. I personally could have used a bit more tension between Alex and Casey before they crossed the enemies to lovers line, but that is hardly a criticism of this book. The characters were all lovable and I appreciated that the side characters had a some depth. There was also a welcome diversity in the characters, although it may have been a bit overdone at times (Alex's eyes were repeatedly referred to as “hooded”). Romance novels can often fall into the trap of the female character getting in her own way by imagining roadblocks that aren't really there. There was an acceptable amount of this in Love Interest, but overall I really appreciated the arc that Casey took throughout the novel and that her story stood on its own outside of her and Alex's relationship.

I really enjoyed Love Interest (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) and I eagerly await Clare Gilmore's next novel! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted copy of this book.