Sample

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
A Novel Love Story  By  cover art

A Novel Love Story

By: Ashley Poston
Narrated by: Dorothy Dillingham Blue
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
activate_primeday_promo_in_buybox_DT

Publisher's summary

Most Anticipated by Parade · Buzzfeed · Harper’s Bazaar · Elle · She Reads · The Seattle Times · BookRiot and more!

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.

©2024 Ashley Poston (P)2024 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Romance

Critic reviews

“This one goes out to all of the magical realism lovers out there. If you aren’t familiar with Ashley Poston, you should be.”—theSkimm

“A romance lovers dream of a book. Whimsical, romantic and packed with charm, Ashley Poston is the queen of high concept love stories.”—Sophie Cousens, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Part

“Ashley Poston has done it again. I fell into these pages just as effortlessly as Eileen tumbles into Eloraton. Whimsical, emotional, and tender, A Novel Love Story is another enchanting romance from Poston."—B.K. Borison, author of Business Casual

What listeners say about A Novel Love Story

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Please READ, don’t listen to this lovely book

I absolutely adore Ashley Poston. Like other reviewers I preordered this after Seven Year Slip & Dead Romantics.

And listening to Ashley narrate the acknowledgements & afterword (“Books and their Readers”) made the audio purchase ALMOST worth it.

Bottom line: the story is beautiful, imaginative, fun, romantic and immersive. Poston’s brand of magical realism is perfection — her characters ask the same questions we do and feel as baffled by their surroundings as we do. And when they go along with it, we do too. And therefore, when they give in and fall in love, we do too! Basically, I want to vacation in an Ashley Poston novel.

HOWEVER, I got all of this by going back and re-reading everything I missed after repeatedly zoning out and getting lost and/or frustrated by the monotone, really oddly paced, really quite terrible narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Everything

I loved the narrators subtle voice changes for characters which weren’t so abrupt that you were distracted. Her slight southern drawl was so alluring and kept me wrapped up!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story made less so by mediocre narration.

I am a fan of Ashley Poston. I adore “Dead Romantics” and “Seven Year Slip”: they’re in my favorites collection and I have listened to both books repeatedly.
I pre-ordered this book as soon as I knew it was coming. The story is good, characters great, and plot is interesting and unique. With that said, I often found my mind wandering and missing minutes of the book (that I’d rewind) because the narrator’s voice was somehow monotone: her voice range limited, character differentiation poor, and tone somewhat unpleasant.
Ashley Poston read her dedication at the end and I wish she had narrated the whole book. She had more expression in those few minutes than DDB during the whole book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A love letter to book readers!!!!

Ashley poston has become such an insta-buy for me!!! This story was phenomenal and it made my heart hurt (in a good way). The narrators country accent threw me off at first but I quickly got used to it. Listen to this, you will not regret it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another lovely mildly magical romance

My favorite stories are the ones like this which employ what I call (for lack of a better term) ordinary magic. I don’t really prefer elven lords or werewolf packs or vampire covens. What I love are stories about ordinary and practical-minded people stumbling into little pockets of magical oddity in the world and (after the initial surprise) taking it in stride until the magic nearly seems mundane.

This story, about a woman who finds herself in the fictional town populated by the fictional characters of her favorite book series, revisits the theme of adjusting to loss and change. It’s a bit of a love letter to the romance novel industry, authors, readers, and Very Good Friends.

Ashley Poston really had me going at nearly an hour before the end of the story. I was already writing my somewhat disappointed review in my head but in the end I got the HEA I needed to soothe my savage nerves.

I also appreciated the cameos near the end of characters from Ashley’s other book(s). It’s always lovely to unexpectedly run into beloved characters again. I think The Dead Romantics remains my favorite Ashley Poston book, but this one was lovely too.

(Note: I’m not very good at “spice” rating, but I guess this would be approximately two chilis out of five. There is intimacy and it’s not fade to black or anything, but it’s not overly explicit or crude)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A nice romance

I’m not sure why other people aren’t liking this? It’s basically Ash Poston’s MO?

We get a hilarious FMC who loves books and is obsessed with this small town books series. She accidentally enters the fictional town from the books. And a grumpy MMC who isn’t sure about this girl coming into town.

We get a little bit of mystery here and it’s much less predictable than Seven Year Slip buuuut it still is fairly predictable once you get to a certain point. I guessed the twist which I did in all of her other adult romances too. It’s definitely a pattern in her books where she’s not exceptionally great at foreshadowing.

Now, what I did like is that this idea was original. It was cute and funny and I loved the aspect of figuring out your life after you break up with a love interest, and relationships in general. As it was about a romance novel series with different relationships, it was kind of a nod to the romances we all read - and the relationships in them… and what happens “after” the HEA.

It’s very cute and funny and honestly imo it was WAY better than Seven Year Slip but not as good as Dead Romantics.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting premise but boring story

I’ve liked Ashley Poston books. But this one had trouble keeping my attention. Nothing happens. No angst. I had trouble believing the romance between the main couple. In a few days they’re in love?

The narrator did not help. She wasn’t that good. I like when narrators use different voices.

Such a disappointment. Seemed like it would make a great story….but no.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!