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Title: The Love Square
Author: Laura Jane Williams
Sub-genre: Contemporary; women’s fiction
Content Warnings: cancer recovery; infertility; loss of parent (in past, not on page); health scare with a different parental figure
I probably should have guessed from the title that this one wouldn’t be my favorite, but it had some good moments, despite a somewhat disappointing love story.
Penny owns a small cafe in London, which she loves. She also happens to be unlucky in love. Until she meets Francesco. The two chefs immediately hit it off and everything is going swimmingly until Penny’s uncle gets sick and asks her to come run his pub for him, in a small town outside of the city. Penny and Francesco haven’t been together long, and she doesn’t want to ask him to come with her, so the two end things and Penny moves. At her new job, she meets Thomas, who is hot and fun and not looking for anything serious. He and Penny start a friends with benefits type relationship which doesn’t lead to anything serious, especially since Thomas is on the road for work most of the year. And then there’s Priyesh, who Penny also meets through the pub. He’s about twenty years older and much more serious overall, but Penny is mostly into him because the sex is good. Penny juggles relationships with all three men, sometimes simultaneously, all while also dealing with some of her own issues stemming from a bout with cancer. In the end, Penny does choose one of the men to be with, and somehow manages to stay friends with the other two.
Alright, so first, the highlights, which were all of the stuff outside the love stories. Penny and her sister have a great relationship, sending each other voice memos to document their days, which I thought was cute and unique. Penny also has some solid friendships, both at her home in London and at the pub. I also liked reading about Penny’s journey with her cancer diagnosis and treatment (not that it was fun, but I thought it was well-written), and her subsequent fertility issues. I thought both topics were relatable and well done.
The biggest issue I had with the book was the love stories, and maybe it’s because I went into this expecting more of a romance than it actually was. I have no problem with a heroine who dates multiple people, but I didn’t ever feel like she was really open to love with any of them, even the one she eventually “chose”. I didn’t particularly like any of the heroes, and honestly, I would have felt better about the book if she would have ended up alone.
Overall Rating: 3.5 stars