A fun, classic romcom that definitely satisfies!

Our main FMC and narrator, Ellie, wants to save her family business and finds herself needing to work with Theo, the son of a local real estate development mogul, to do so. Through rather unique circumstances, they are faking an engagement in order to trick Theo's father and prevent the competitor business from coming into town.

This is a classic hate-to-love, fake relationship trope story, and I loved every second of it. Ellie and Theo had excellent banter and chemistry. Even though I found Elli frustrating at times for being extremely naive to her and Theo's feelings, their relationship still felt natural.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Star Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating:

I went into Love You, Mean It wanting to root for the main female character. I, sadly, felt no connection to her and kind of preferred the main male character and his awesome ex to her. The story was good but I found the characters just lacking. It was a quick read and wrapped up really quickly at the end and I got a little confused by all that was happening.

This review is my own opinion.

so unfortunately, i did not love this. i didn't connect at all with the FMC ellie, and then it felt like the whole story was building-building-building only to ultimately wrap up in mere moments with a magic like apology accepted! yay! and done. there wasn't enough resolution or payoff and i left the story feeling blah.

*thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Dell and netgalley for the ARC!*

This was such a fun read! I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting! If you loved "You've Got Mail" or "While You Were Sleeping" or just generally a fake dating/engagement trope, this one is for you! I especially liked the added wrinkle of the "extra ex" and the personal growth outside of the relationship we saw for our main character.

This review contains spoilers!


Overall the book kept me interested but the more I thought about it after I finished I wished that there had been some more depth and the ending left me wanting more for example:

Did Ellie continue to make clothes?

Where did Theo get this random idea for an architecture apprenticeship? I know he had an appreciation for architecture but it was never expressed that he wanted to be more involved.

Does she ever get drinks with Jenna? Why did Jenna even come up as a character?

I wished that there was more about her life in New York and what she really gave up to keep the deli open. I felt like there would have been more of a connection to the story in that case and why it was so important that this other deli does not open in town.

I also with they would have developed more on the death of Theo’s brother, something that affects him deeply.

Overall it was an okay read it just really left me wanting more.

So, I love a good fake dating trope, pseudo-enemies to lovers, and the whole "While You Were Sleeping"-esque situation that the story had going on. I'm also a sucker for a small-town romance and the early 2000s romcom feeling this gave me!
I really appreciated Ellie's journey of finding her new direction through her grief and coming to terms with her life not going exactly the way she'd planned and Theo trying to save something meaningful that his father just sees as a possibility for profit. I think where things fell short for me was the lack of communication between the pair. Ellie spent so much of her inner-dialogue saying that she wasn't going to fall for Theo, I feel like we missed when it actually happened. It felt very sudden at the end when she finally realized that she wanted to be with him, and that was a little jarring.
I really loved Sam and Bella's characters and I hope we see more of them in future books if the author plans to expand this little universe.
Overall, I wish I could give half-stars because I think this is solidly a 3.5! I enjoyed it but found myself frustrated which kept pulling me out of the groove of reading. Despite that, I loved the writing style and really look forward to reading more books from Jilly Gagnon!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell, the author, and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my review!

1.5 stars
D: c9-19%

Let me be real, "Love You, Mean It" was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The premise—fake dating, enemies-to-lovers, and a little amnesia—is all the ingredients for a fun rom-com, but unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite land.

First off, the characters—Theo and Ellie—weren’t particularly likable. Theo's a joke of a ML while Ellie’s negative Nancy attitude wasn't doing her any favors. I just couldn’t fully get behind either of them, and that made it hard to care about their fake engagement or their developing relationship.

The fake dating trope is a classic in romantic comedies, but here, it felt predictable and even cringey at times. I was hoping for more laughs or heartwarming moments, but the plot didn’t draw me in as much as I wanted it to. The pacing was off, the chemistry between the characters was almost non-existent, and I found it hard to stay engaged.

Overall, "Love You, Mean It" wasn’t particularly memorable. If you’re a fan of the fake dating trope and don’t mind a bit of predictability, this might work for you, but for me, it didn’t quite hit the mark.

This was a super easy and cute book to read! It moved a little slow for my taste, but the banter and Ellie’s family were really funny. I really enjoyed all the tropes used in this book, but again, I think this could of been a “me” thing, but I just needed more to keep my interest. That being said, if you want something funny and low risk, this is the book for you.

Oooooh this book was SO CUTE!! I loved every second of it and I caught myself rushing to my kindle any time I had a few spare minutes to get back into the story :)