Love at First Sight by Jennifer Gilmore #Review

 

Summer reading continues with a romcom by Jennifer Gilmore. Love at First Sight was published by Orion on July 4th.

'A lovely warm escapist read' KATE EBERLEN

She's in love. Just with the wrong man...

Nora is done with dating, but still dreams of finding the one. So when a handsome stranger comes to her rescue one night and vanishes leaving only a business card, it's like a scene out of a movie...

It doesn't take long for the two to 'bump' into each other again, and Nora falls for the perfect-on-paper Gabe. Only a few weeks later, he invites her to Sicily, and she cannot believe her luck!

Until Gabe is forced away for work, leaving her alone with his big and warm family in gorgeous Sicily who welcome her with open arms. Everyone but Luca, his older and distrustful brother, who is always around.

Soon Nora finds herself on a dreamy, romantic getaway-just with the wrong brother.

 My Thoughts

Nora is an excellent central character in this escapist read. She is full of contradictions but that is because of her past. On the one hand she likes the feeling of being with a family and yet she has withdrawn from people following a few bad relationships. Friends are very important to her and she has a tight knit set of them from her childhood. She is desperately lonely after the deaths of her grandparents and mother. A romantic at heart, she is longing for a great love affair and to find the ‘one’. In her search to have the love at first sight which her mother described, she ignores the shortcomings and lack of consideration which Gabe shows.

    I particularly liked the parts of the story which were set in beautiful Sicily with Gabe’s family. Much of the story centres on Nora’s coming of age as she learns to follow her own dreams and not rely on keeping everyone happy at her own expense. Luca is an excellent foil and so unlike his brother, Gabe. You feel he always listens to her and accepts her for herself. The story is well structured and the text messages between Nora and her friends are amusing and show Nora how her actions appear to others. You also have excerpts from Nora’s mother’s journal and follow her thoughts and actions. Family, friends, true love based on getting to know someone and following your own path in life are all important themes.

In short: finding love and following your heart.

About the Author

A charity-working, dog-walking, child-wrangling, dust-ignoring bookworm, Jessica lives in the beautiful and historic city of York with one patient husband, one daughter, one very fluffy dog, two dog-loathing cats and a goldfish called Bob.

As day dreaming is her very favourite hobby and she loves a good happy-ever-after Jessica can't believe she's lucky enough to write romance for a living. Say hi on Twitter at @yrosered or visit sprigmuslin.blogspot.com

You can follow Jessica here: Instagram  |  X (Twitter)

Book links 

Thanks to Jessica Gilmore, Orion and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.