Love at First by Kate Clayborn

5*


When Will first visits the Chicago apartment building he inherited from his uncle, his only thought is to sell it as soon as the year his uncle required he keep it expires. He refuses to live there due to the bad memories associated with it, except for one shining exception: the young girl he saw on a balcony tossing cherry tomatoes at the squirrels who strikes his very heart and soul, a feeling he’ll never forget. Although he never got the chance to speak with her, Nora is the one bright spot in a day when Will lost everything. When he finds her 16 years later, living in her late grandmother’s apartment and looking out for the older tenants who are like family, he realizes that his plans to rent the apartment short-term will make him the enemy. Despite Nora and the others’ attempts to sabotage his efforts, the two are drawn to each other.

Clayborn has such a way with words. Describing their first pseudo-date on a Lake Michigan beach and discovering the comfort and joy they find in each other’s company, she writes, ”Between them, the jacket-tablecloth had wrinkled up, a dozing chaperone.” So much of their relationship is conveyed with looks, limited words, and intense feelings that can’t be hidden. However, the path to happily-ever-after is strewn with the baggage of childhood neglect and abandonment for both of them, and Will is determined to avoid falling into the “rash, reckless, selfish” love he witnessed between his parents (as described by his uncle on that fateful day). Out of fear that he might follow in his parents’ footsteps, he spent his adult life proving that he could be stable, measured, and in control, going on to become an ER doctor. It will take a great deal of persuasion on the part of friends who care for him to get him to accept that there isn’t just one way to love.

There’s so much packed into this beautiful, enemies-to-lovers story: genuine emotion, a subtle romance with mild sex scenes, selfish parenting, and a colorful cast of secondary characters who offer a platonic, at times parental, kind of love. This is a very worthy follow-up to Love Lettering, and you won’t be able to help being charmed by the well-meaning extended family. Highly recommend!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Kensington Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.