The Love Square

by Laura Jane Williams

‘Joyful and romantic!’ COSMOPOLITAN

‘Full of delicious food, real kindness and sexy men… what’s not to like?!’ BETH O’LEARY, bestselling author of The Flatshare

Men are like buses. You wait for one…

Penny Bridge has always been unlucky in love.

So she can’t believe it when she meets a remarkable new man.

Followed by another.

And then another…

And all of them want to date her.

Penny has to choose between three. But are any of them The One?

The bestselling author of Our Stop will have you laughing, crying and cheering Penny on in this funny and feel-good exploration of hope, romance and the trust it takes to finally fall in love. Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane’s Last Night and Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare.

• ISBN13: 9780008365431
• Publish Date: 6 August 2020 (first published 29 June 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Not An Actual Love Square, But A Solid Romance. I'm a math oriented dude. The imprecision of "love triangle" has always bothered me. For those, assuming both sexes are involved, you need two bi people and a straight person, at minimum. (There *are* possible variations, but a true love triangle would have Person A in love with Person B and Person C - *and* Person B and Person C in love with both Person A *and each other*.) "Love Triangles", in the common parlance, are actually Love *Angles*, such that two points are connected at a common third point. Similarly, for this Love Square to work, it would really need 2 couples such that each couple is in love with each other *as well as* exactly one person in the other couple. Here, we get two side by side Love Angles such that *three* points are connected at a common *fourth* point.

Math technicalities and English imprecision aside, however, this was actually a solid romance tale of finding oneself and what one really wants that put an interesting spin on the colloquial "Love Triangle" by introducing a *third* man that the common woman falls in love with. And in some fairly direct ways, it actually parallels a lot of what Padma Lakshmi said about her own "love triangle" in her memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate. You've got the guy that our female lead - Penny - has an instant connection with. Then you've got the guy that actively pursues her and they wind up together almost via fluke. Then you've got the guy Penny is introduced to and has a fun time with, but who isn't interested in long term or commitment generally. And along the way, Penny gets thrust into situations she doesn't always have complete control of, all while still trying to discover herself after having survived cancer at a fairly early age - mid 20s. The characters are all solid and interesting, and each of the guys makes very strong points about love and what matters. In the end, if you like romance novels at all, you're probably going to enjoy this one. And if you don't, give this one a chance - at least it has a few more-interesting-than-normal wrinkles. :) Very much recommended.

[kiracanread]

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Audio and Avon Books UK for providing me with an advance reader copy in audio and e-book formats in exchange for an honest review.

The Love Square was an absolute joy to read, I just couldn't put it down. It was really fast paced and each character was incredibly well developed. The Love Square is the story of main character Penny Bridge who has been unlucky in love (and dated some absolute arseholes) but when, in succession she meets three men who're all remarkable in their own ways, she has to choose just one. But can she?

I'm not a huge fan of love triangles in books, and so I was incredibly apprehensive to actively go into a book with a love SQUARE, but I'm so glad that I gave this book a chance and I definitely don't regret it. This is the first book of Laura Jane Williams' that I've read and I'm definitely going to look into her other books. This book was honestly just a great, feelgood romance with a lot of hurdles for Penny to overcome, and I adored both the book and the reading experience.

The audiobook is narrated by Carrie Hope Fletcher, whose audiobook narrations I've loved in the past and this was no exception. I think she does a fantastic job with every narration and does an incredible job to bring each individual character to life. It really felt like the narrator could be Penny herself and it was a really great listening experience.