One-Star Romance — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Laura Hankin
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 400

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A struggling writer is forced to walk down the aisle at her best friend’s wedding with the man who gave her book a very public one-star rating in this fresh romantic comedy from Laura Hankin.

Natalie and Rob couldn’t have less in common. Nat’s a messy artist, and Rob’s a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends—who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob’s best man.

Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling: Nat from imposter syndrome, and Rob over the reason he needed to write it.

When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they’ll never meet again. But, as they slip from their twenties into their thirties, they’re forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices—and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match.

After all, even the truest love stories sometimes need a bit of rewriting.

First Impressions

The cover honestly didn’t do much for me. I think I’m over some of the cartoon covers. Sometimes they’re great but they also make me feel like it’s going to be a light romance. The summary on the other hand won me over for this book. As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to review this one.

What I thought

I didn’t realize that this was the same author who wrote The Daydreamers! I started this book and felt like it was so well written that I needed to know what else she had done. When I saw that I had read not one, but two of her previous reads I was surprised. I think I now need to consider myself an official Hankin fan!

Natalie is best friends with Gabby. Rob is best friends with Angus. Over the course of 8 years their lives continue to be forced together for big life events in Gabby and Angus’s lives. What makes this so difficult is that the second time that Natalie and Rob met, she discovered he gave her first published book a one star review on Goodreads. Now they have to continue to be civil as they move through their lives, ignoring the spark they felt the first time they met.

This book follows Natalie and Rob over the course of 8 years. The perspectives do alternate, but not necessarily every chapter. I did appreciate getting to see both sides of this story. I think without it, you would get frustrated with both of the characters. Instead, you get a very solid understanding of who they are and why they act the way they do.

Hankins balances romance, comedy, and serious storylines beautifully in the story. The cartoon cover I feel really lessens the heart of this book. The way that Natalie grows through this book is wonderful and so relatable. It truly is a coming of age story from your early twenties to early thirties. She has to deal with who she thought she was going to be and who she actually became as well as friendships and how they change as you get older and you friend’s life changes as well.

This is the slowest of slow burns with a hint of enemies to lovers. I appreciated that Hankins didn’t rely on miscommunication or other simple tropes to build the relationship or cause conflict. The reason that Rob gives Natalie’s book a one star review isn’t petty which makes him more likable as a character too.