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Title details for A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston - Available

A Novel Love Story

by Ashley Poston
Dorothy Dillingham Blue
Audiobook
2 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 3 copies available
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ∙ 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 25, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593907320
      • File size: 315340 KB
      • Duration: 10:56:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 25, 2024
      Stranger Than Fiction meets Virgin River in this incandescently clever meta rom-com from Poston (The Seven Year Slip). English professor Eileen “Elsy” Merriweather feels frozen in place after her fiancé breaks up with her a week before their wedding. Thankfully, there’s the promise of a “week of wine and happily ever afters” when her Super Smutty Book Club vacations together in a cabin in the Catskills. When Elsy gets lost in a storm on the way there, however, she winds up in Eloraton, the fictional small-town setting of bestseller Rachel Flowers’s hit Quixotic Falls series, the romances that brought the Super Smutty Book Club together in the first place. Flowers died before she could finish the series and Eloraton is stuck at the point where she stopped writing. The owner of the local bookstore, Anderson Sinclair, is the only person aware there’s anything odd about the town. He warns Elsy not to make ripples or change things, but she feels compelled to help her favorite characters find the happy endings their author planned for them. Poston gracefully walks the line between women’s fiction and romance—with just a hint of magic—providing an inspirational story of personal growth and second-chance romance alongside a fascinating exploration of transformative fiction, how readers and writers cocreate and share stories, and the value and purpose of escaping into one’s favorite novels. Readers will want to escape into this one again and again. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Dorothy Dillingham Blue evokes a sense of wonder with her nuanced narration of this unique story-within-a-story. Elsy is delighted when she stumbles into the fictional town of her beloved romance series on a road trip. Soon though, she begins to worry about how this could have happened--and why. Her favorite characters aren't behaving like they did in the books, and the only man who knows that he's living in a story enrages her. Can Elsy help her fictional friends find their happily-ever-after when she's given up on hers? Blue uses a slight Southern accent for Elsy and a thick Tennessee drawl for a local. Blue heaves a sigh from a frustrated child and uses an upbeat voice for perky optimists. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 1, 2024

      Heartbroken after a failed engagement, Elsy Merriweather is further disheartened when her book group flakes on their annual cabin weekend. Elsy decides to take a solo vacation, but a storm pushes her off course. She is shocked to realize that she's landed in Eloraton, the fictional town featured in her favorite romance novels. Everything is in place except for the grumpy, swoon-worthy bookstore owner, Anderson. The longer Elsy stays, the more she changes the story, and the more it changes her. As she tries to avoid falling for Anderson, who seems like he was written just for her, she must also find a way home. In this love letter to romance readers, Poston (The Seven Year Slip) sidesteps tropes to pen a novel story with great depth. Narrator Dorothy Dillingham Blue gives life to the characters, making each distinct. Her portrayal of Elsy brims with emotion and feeling, and Elsy's Georgia accent never veers into hokeyness. Author Poston reads the acknowledgments in a conversational tone that borders on overacting, but she reins it in for a touching testament about the lives readers give stories after they're written. VERDICT A must-read for romance lovers and anyone who loves the magic of stories.--Zoey Colglazier

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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