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Book Summary and Reviews of It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

It's a Love Story

by Annabel Monaghan

  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • May 2025, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV actress-turned-Hollywood producer whose "fake it till you make it" mantra sets her on a crash course with her past, forcing her to spend a week on Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love.

Love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth.

Jane Jackson spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punch line on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she's trying to be taken seriously as a Hollywood studio executive by embracing a new mantra: Fake it till you make it.

Except she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she claimed that she could get mega popstar Jack Quinlan to write a song for the movie. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn't spoken to him in twenty years.

Now Jane must turn to the last man she'd ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan's hometown, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan as she faces down her past is Jane's idea of hell, but he just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] bingeable beachy contemporary ... Monaghan mines a lot of joy out of [a] close-knit family dynamic and the scenic coastal setting, while creating a heroine readers will root for. This is an addictive romp." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[T]here is satisfying depth to the story ... Monaghan writes another charming rom-com, this time with enemies-to-lovers and forced-proximity tropes. Monaghan fans will not be disappointed." —Library Journal

This information about It's a Love Story was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Annabel Monaghan

Annabel Monaghan is the New York Times bestselling author of It's a Love Story, Summer Romance, Same Time Next Summer, and Nora Goes Off Script, as well as two young adult novels and Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big?, a selection of laugh-out-loud columns that appeared in The Huffington Post, The Week, and The Rye Record. After twenty-five years in the suburbs of New York City, she now splits her time between Connecticut and Florida. Her novels have been translated into twenty-three languages.

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