A Novel Love Story

By: Ashley Poston

Narrated by: Dorothy Dillingham Blue

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Most Anticipated by Parade · Buzzfeed · Harper’s Bazaar · Elle · She Reads · The Seattle Times · BookRiot and more!

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction…literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

©2024 Ashley Poston (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“She's making all our biggest book dreams come true…yes, you're totally going to wish that this plot was happening to you!”—Cosmopolitan

"Ashley Poston has written another clever, emotional love story part fantasy, part romcom—perfect for passing a day or three by the pool."—Harper's Bazaar

"I love a romance with a touch of magical realism, and Ashley Poston’s latest fulfills every reader’s dream: actually getting to live in the world of a book...This is a grumpy-meets-sunshine tale with plenty of book-lover tropes sure to delight."—ELLE

Absolutely loved this story

Story was great. Love scenes were tasteful. Fantastic story and narration was absolutely great too

A novel love story

I love this book I like how it’s written and the story how you can fall in love all over again

Read the book!

I wasn’t a huge fan of the narration- I read the book instead and it was six million times better.

What was isn’t

I loved the building of an ironic story of a story. It only took a moment to make the decision to go on this journey with the romance-seeking young woman who takes a wrong turn that turns out to be oh so right. She is following a deceased author whom she adores but who passed away while in the midst of a series in upstate New York. The story and journey builds on itself in a way that forced me to continue along the way and although it didn’t seem like it would have a happy ending, did indeed.
I love this author and hope to find each and every one of her books and read all of them!

LOVED- but

OOF this bit for me but if you want a book that focuses only or mainly on the main romance then this is not it.

But I loved it. Loved

Love of books with friends!

I enjoyed the escape to book world and the story of friendships that build in a book club. Beginning was my favorite getting lost in a town.

Great story made less so by mediocre narration.

I am a fan of Ashley Poston. I adore “Dead Romantics” and “Seven Year Slip”: they’re in my favorites collection and I have listened to both books repeatedly.
I pre-ordered this book as soon as I knew it was coming. The story is good, characters great, and plot is interesting and unique. With that said, I often found my mind wandering and missing minutes of the book (that I’d rewind) because the narrator’s voice was somehow monotone: her voice range limited, character differentiation poor, and tone somewhat unpleasant.
Ashley Poston read her dedication at the end and I wish she had narrated the whole book. She had more expression in those few minutes than DDB during the whole book.

Please, READ the book before rating it… the audiobook isn’t the best

I wanted to love this book SO MUCH! I pre ordered it and couldn’t wait for it to be released… however, I’m a person who finishes the books in a day and this took me 8 days! I just couldn’t keep listening to it, so much that I was tempted to -despite my love for everything Ashley writes- give it a bad review. I couldn’t connect with the characters nor the story… I swear, I had to rewind several times because I just got lost, the voice actor performance is way too linear with no inflections, and hard to differentiate between the “voice” of the other characters. So I finished it (finally!) and… decided to buy the paperback and read it again and OMG! It is SO different.

I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite of all (hard to top The seven year slip) but, it is there! The magic realism, the descriptions… this is a love letter to readers, to book lovers. I loved the book, just not the narration.

I LOVED THIS STORY.

I loved everything about this book. I couldn’t get into the usual mysteries and memoirs I’ve been reading a lot of. And this got me right through the heart. It was easy to fall into this story for me and exactly what I needed. It did exactly what the author described, it lit up my heart. I was in tears. It’s a love story and it was fun and cute, but it was also real life and honest.

A lot going on, sorry Ashley!

I had high hopes for this book, the narrator did a great job. Unfortunately I felt like this story had a lot going on with the characters and I had a hard time following a long.