Love at First: A Heartwarming Tale of Love, Redemption, and Second Chances

Coco: I desperately want my husband to read this book and take notes, please and thank you very much. (He won’t though😭)

United States on Sep 29, 2023

Kindle Customer: This book was deep in a shallow story. At the end I felt kinda empty. The main characters in this story just didn’t have the chemistry that made this story believable. Not my favorite read

United States on Jul 09, 2023

Patricia Rowan: Earlier this year when I read Love Lettering, I could not stop recommending it to people and the word I used to describe it was “tender”. Get ready people because I’m going to be just as annoying recommending Love at First!

Will Sterling first encounters Nora Clarke as a sullen teenager on the balcony of the building where her grandmother and his uncle live. Sixteen years later, Will’s uncle dies and leaves him the apartment where he meets Nora and her crew of neighbors and solicits their ire by having the audacity to turn the apartment into a short term rental.

Watching Will and Nora fall in love feels like a privilege on these pages. They are whole human beings with dysfunctions and hang ups and so much love. The entire cast of neighbors (and Gerald and Sally!) are integral to how tender and delightful this story is.

United States on Apr 26, 2023

Kindle Customer: There are a reason why these books are included in Kindle Unlimited\Prime collections, the overall quality of writing and story is poor, hardly any literary investment in plot, characters etc, this one slightly better than most. The result, time filling reading but no real sense of satisfaction when the book is finished. It reads like Ms Clayborn dashed it off on a long weekend. Filling a book with a list of tasks, candle and menu selections is just useless filler. Time to step up.

United Kingdom on Feb 21, 2023

Jack Mac: Just loved this book, it was so well written and heartfelt tugged at the heart strings. Just wanted it to go on longer.

United Kingdom on Aug 28, 2022

megan: ‘Love at First’ has me a little conflicted as there are both strengths and weaknesses. The plot centres around six apartments where the characterful residents have built long-standing relationships with one another, becoming like family. The book is the gently told romance of Will and Nora that relies heavily on introspection and musings which I enjoy.
Kate Clayborn writing is insightful and tender, with a touch of humour. She sets up a serendipitous scenario, then gradually unpacks the details so readers learn Will and Nora’s full stories. There’s a dual POV, so you get both sides. The underlying themes are about change, resolution and hope.
Best quote, in my opinion, had to do with resolution :
“... you versus you. You versus your fear. You versus your sadness. You versus your anger.”
Why only 3 stars? The book starts very well and the premise is strong. But then it all drifts away, despite the deep reflections of the author. Specifically, the plot is emotionally intimate, but then it jumps to cute, then back to emotionally intimate again – clumsy and segmented without blending. Next, both Nora and Will become a tad dreary and their conversations are...

Australia on Dec 17, 2021

Kim C.: This book is adorable, not in a cheesy way. The beginning is slow but very needed for the storyline. It could qualify for an enemy to lover, but it is so much more subtle than that. Moreover, I loved the writing in the third person, very appropriate in this case. As a reader, it made me feel like a quiet observer of Will and Nora's emotions.

France on Mar 21, 2021

Kayla: I was going to come up here and leave some cutesy one liner review saying, “I always knew I had a thing for characters named Will” and whilst that is extremely true, I did not expect the waterworks of the last chapter before the epilogue to come and ruin all my halfassed plans to waste.

NO ONE EVER TOLD WILL THEY LOVED HIM? NOT EVEN HIS PARENTS? Broke me. Absolutely shattered me. Someone hold that fictional man tight and never stop telling him GOODNESS GRIEF

Canada on Mar 19, 2021

CameraCourt: Love at First has many fun and sweet things to recommend: whimsical prose, unexpected kittens, a cozy Chicago setting, a doctor hero who wears GLASSES with a tender heart, a smart and no-nonsense heroine with the coolest apartment building, Poetry Night, and a grand gesture moment. My favorite was the funniest, most unlikely bromance-friendship. I can’t divulge details because they would spoil the dry humor of the situation, but let me tell you, I LOLed as it developed!

The romance incorporates the best tropes, with an almost-friends (4am balcony convos!) to enemies to friends to lovers with a little found family happening in the background for both leads. I really liked the deeper themes covered in subtle ways as Nora and Will get closer: moving on from grief, learning how to love, and how vulnerabilities cause people to shield or self-sabotage their intimate relationships.

I loved that Clayborn has used 2 POVs in this story, that of the hero and heroine (the other Clayborn novel I have read, Love Lettering [shoutout to Reid and Meg and NYC!], has just the heroine’s POV and it works SO WELL for that story’s purpose). I really liked getting Will’s...

United States on Mar 17, 2021

Mainer: This is one of the books that I want to give more stars to. It deserves all the stars. I didn't think I'd like another Clayborn book more than Love Lettering, but I was wrong. Okay, am I raving? Yes, I am.
Sixteen-year-old Will visits an old apartment building in Chicago where he finds he has a previously undisclosed to him uncle. The visit is life-changing, both because of the family disclosures and because of the girl Will spots on a balcony above the apartment. Twelve years later Will is back, having inherited his uncle's apartment.
I'm not usually big on love at first sight romances but this one is just perfect. Ms. Clayborn's writing really sells the concept here. It helps that Will and Nora are made for each other. And the cast of supporting characters is great, from Will's boss and his ex-wife to the other residents of the apartment building. No one is a caricature; every single person owns their place in the narrative.
There's a lot going on besides the romance. Nora's fear of change, Will's loneliness and fear of rejection, Gerald's attempt at a second chance with his ex, and the various activities of the people in the building.
It's a lovely story,...

United States on Mar 03, 2021