 
 
From the publisher:
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…
A sparkling and tender novel from the acclaimed author of Love Lettering, full of bickering neighbors, surprise reunions, and the mysterious power of love that fans of Christina Lauren, Sarah Hogle, and Emily Henry will adore.
Review:
Shakespearean retellings are my jam, and especially those inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
We have it all – star-crossed lovers, a balcony, meddlesome secondary characters, and a love written in the stars.
This is a novel about choices – choosing to be the kind of person you want to be, choosing your family, choosing the love that is meant for you.
The story begins with the fateful meeting of Will and Nora met as teenagers. Taking inspiration from the masque scene when Romeo first sees Juliet, the meet cute turns this fateful meeting on its ear, Will does not actually see Nora’s face at all, but falls for her laughter and her antics as she launches tomatoes from her balcony to run off squirrels.
16 years later, they meet in the same building: but now Will owns his deceased uncle’s apartment and has plans to rent it out. Those two houses both alike in dignity are actually Will vs. the quirky occupants of Nora’s apartment building and they are not happy about his intentions to rent the apartment. Nora sets out to thwart Will’s dastardly plans.
What begins as an adversarial relationship grows into friendship, then love as Will learns to open his heart to Nora and the personalities that populate her building. Will’s journey is particularly poignant, given the emotional wasteland of his upbringing and the difficulties he has in expressing his feelings.
Clayborn has a wonderful command of language, delivering emotional descriptions with luminous precision. The promise of beautiful writing in Love Lettering is realized in Love at First. I look forward to the third installment of this lovely series.
Special thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.
Where to buy: