Love at First

By: Kate Clayborn

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Sixteen years ago, a teenaged Will Sterling saw - or rather, heard - the girl of his dreams. Standing beneath an apartment building balcony, he shared a perfect moment with a lovely, warm-voiced stranger. It's a memory that's never faded, though he's put so much of his past behind him. Now an unexpected inheritance has brought Will back to that same address, where he plans to offload his new property and get back to his regular life as an overworked doctor. Instead, he encounters a woman, two balconies above, who's uncannily familiar....

No matter how surprised Nora Clarke is by her reaction to handsome, curious Will, or the whispered pre-dawn conversations they share, she won't let his plans ruin her quirky, close-knit building. Bound by her loyalty to her adored grandmother, she sets out to foil his efforts with a little light sabotage. But beneath the surface of their feud is an undeniable connection. A balcony, a star-crossed couple, a fateful meeting-maybe it's the kind of story that can't work out in the end. Or maybe, it's the perfect second chance....

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Kate Clayborn (P)2021 Tantor

Blah

I had a hard time staying with this book. The narration was wrong. OK, ending in story if I would recommend it to be listen to.

So Charming

This was such a delight. My second Kate Clayborn book, and I can now say for sure that I really love her style of writing. She has a great ability to develop a wide range of supporting characters in a way that makes you love them almost as much as the main characters. The relationship between Gerald and Will was one of my favorite things about this book.

A wonderful delight

I can’t believe I had this in my wishlist and I just now read it!! What a great book! Incredible. The story was so subtle and beautifully beautifully done. I love that even when I was mad at Will for not ‘getting his ass out of his head’ I was made to realize that of course he needed some help cause his beginnings were so messed up and that was so beautifully shown. Just amazing please read!!!

Love the story, not the narration

I love this story, talks about grief and finding out how to be yourself without other people’s expectations. Very descriptive and a slow burn but great build up. Narrator mixed up a few lines and the volume wasn’t consistent. She kinda sounded like a news reporter at times.

Sweet

Lots of character development. Narrator was great-maybe not as animated as others but very solid. ❤️❤️❤️

Loved it

I loved all the characters. A place I'd love to live. Listened while at work. It was a good night.

Peters out post-rivalry

This one might have registered as more comedic or breezy with a different reader, but Ezzo's performance leans into the novel's wistfulness. Clayborn's writing is earnest and bittersweet, which makes that narration a smart match.

The story's premise shares some fringe territory with 1998's "You've Got Mail" (which, itself, was adapted from 1940's "The Shop Around the Corner"). One of the bigger differences, however, comes from the feeling that Nora's efforts to untidy Will's plans are disproportionate to what's really at stake. Still, the ways in which those plans stir and cause pain eventually do resonate, do draw some attention to how stubborn-but-vulnerable people imbue places and things with immense meaning that the rest of the world cannot always apprehend (and, in turn, cannot always honor).

Sadly, like many of this genre, the book lost a great deal of momentum as the urgency of its central conflict dulled. But it was worth a shot.

Not much storyline

Felt like I was reading a high school novel. Not much storyline. Too much gazing into eyes and emotional feelings.

Kept waiting

Kept listening only to see if there was actually more story other than the repetition and the abundance of sappyness- nope.