Title: Love at First Like by Hannah Orenstein
Published by Atria Books
Published: August 6th 2019
Genres: Romance
Pages: 336
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

Eliza Roth and her sister Sophie co-own a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. One night, after learning of an ex’s engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on that finger to her Instagram account beloved by 100,000 followers. Sales skyrocket, press rolls in, and Eliza learns that her personal life is good for business. So she has a choice: continue the ruse or clear up the misunderstanding. With mounting financial pressure, Eliza sets off to find a fake fiancé.

Fellow entrepreneur Blake seems like the perfect match on paper. And in real life he shows promise, too. He would be perfect, if only Eliza didn’t feel also drawn to someone else. But Blake doesn’t know Eliza is “engaged”; Sophie asks Eliza for an impossible sum of money; and Eliza’s lies start to spiral out of control. She can either stay engaged online or fall in love in real life.

Hannah Orenstein’s Love at First Like is her follow-up novel to one of my favorite reads of last year, Playing With Matches. In Love at First Like, Eliza owns a jewelry shop with her sister Sophie in NYC and, after finding out via Instagram that her ex-boyfriend is engaged, accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on her left hand. Overnight, the post causes a social media stir and brings a lot of attention (and customers!) to her Instagram and her store. With it comes a lot of press and pressure to reveal more information about the ring, herself, and her new fiance. She has two choices – reveal the truth about the sensational post or find someone to be her fiance. When she meets Blake, Eliza feels enough of a connection with him to pursue a relationship with him and hopes his interest is reciprocated enough to actually be her fiance. However, when Blake finds out the truth, Eliza’s lies force her back to reality and to confront herself.

I’ve read a few reviews on this and noticed that some where really turned off by Eliza’s determination to fulfill her accidental Instagram post and bring success to her business, calling it careless and selfish, but would we say the same thing about a man who does the same? I don’t necessarily think so. I liked Eliza’s determination to see her business succeed and that it did take something like this to show her what she really wanted for her personal and professional life. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there personally and professionally, and Eliza did both. Maybe she could have done some things differently, but I think that would have detracted from the lessons learned.

I thought this was cute, enjoyable, and a good examination of modern dating and the questions we ask ourselves when putting ourselves out there. It touches on how we compare ourselves to others on social media, and the reservations we have in revealing our “true” selves, thoughts, and feelings. I also liked seeing some of the characters from Orenstein’s first novel make an appearance as well! I think the only bummer for me in the whole fake dating trope that I like is that I like it when both sides of the relationship are “in” on the fake dating, but it’s a variation on the trope and it works in this novel!

Thank you to Atria for sending me a copy to review! All opinions are my own.