The Love Plot by Samantha Young

Releases 8/29/23

Standalone Contemporary Romance

Thank you Atria and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this early. This post contains affiliate links.

I’ve been enjoying Samantha Young’s books for over 10 years now, so when I saw The Love Plot pop up on NetGalley, I clicked immediately. This NYC-based, grumpy/sunshine, opposites-attract, fake dating romance checked all of my boxes.

28-year-old Star Shine Meadows lives a free and untraditional life. She is unencumbered by a relationship and her jobs consist of professional line-sitting (waiting in lines for other people) and character acting for parties. That’s how she meets Rafe, while being a princess for his niece’s birthday party. It was not a good meeting. He expressed immediate disdain for her job and was frankly a rude dickhead.

“My ambition is to live a life that makes me truly happy. And I reckon that’s probably the most ambitious anyone can be in this world.”

Rafe Whitman comes from a family of wealthy New York socialites, though he doesn’t go into the family business, he runs his own veterinary practice. He had a bad breakup a while back and his mother and sister-in-law now throw every rich single socialite at him. When he runs into Star again, knowing the crazy beauty takes odd jobs, he offers her a LOT of money to be his fake girlfriend for 6 months to get his family off his back.

Star’s parents were polyamorous hippies who left her to fend for herself since she was 10 years old. Rafe is from a close-knit, privileged family. Star’s bohemian style and lack of career plans basically offends them and I enjoyed reading about the awkward encounters.

“Star is unusual.” Rafe glowered at Emily. “Unlike most people, she’s kind to everyone, considerate, lacking in pretension, free-spirited, and the best fucking sex I’ve ever had.”

Likes:

I loved Star! She was so bright and happy, the true meaning of sunshine.
Great banter.
Rafe may have been grumpy but he’s a sweet cinnamon roll on the inside.
There were some important messages about being true to yourself and what’s really important in life woven into the storyline.

Dislikes:

Rafe didn’t work for me as a vet, there needed to be more animal scenes!

The Down & Dirty:

The Love Plot by Samantha Young was a sweet, sexy, fun read with all the tropes I love, grumpy-sunshine, enemies-lovers, very different social classes, and fake dating. I loved the banter and how much Star came into her own in this story. It may not be the most unique or memorable read ever, but I truly read the whole book with a big smile on my face. I highly recommend picking up The Love Plot to read between darker books or to take on your next beach vacation.