Book Review - It Started With a Book by Camilla Isley - #HolidayReading Cyprus

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Title: It Started With A Book

Author: Camilla Isley

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Book

Publication Date: 5th July 2024

Rating: 4 Stars

Lose yourself in this gorgeous new romance from bestselling author Camilla Isley. Perfect for fans of Sarah Adams, Lynn Painter and Jo Watson.

Sometimes, life is stranger than fiction...

When she’s ghosted by yet another Tinder match, Leighton swears off dating for life. Who needs apps and blind dates when she has the perfect-in-every-way (apart from being fictional) heroes of her beloved romance novels?

That night, Leigh finds a second-hand book on her TBR pile that transports her to the small-town of Lakeville Hills, where the heroines wear shorty-shorts and the men drink bourbon. And as Leigh drifts off to sleep, she dreams of billionaire cowboy Killian St Clair, who could win a gold medal for smouldering and bicep flexing.

For a while, Leigh finds it easier to stomach misogynistic supervisors, newly coupled friends, and extravagant bridesmaid duties knowing she can return to Lakeville Hills each evening. Until one day she wakes up to find she’s brought a bit of Lakeville Hills back with her: the impossibly sexy and entirely implausible Killian St Clair is in her apartment.

Now Leigh must help Killian navigate the real world. But as she gets to know the man behind the trope, can she keep her heart safe, or does she risk falling in love with her book boyfriend in real life?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book once I worked out what was going on, and realised that I basically had to suspend reality in my mind, to fully fall into the pages of this story. 

I am not always a fan of reading dreams, or books within books but it was all vital, as Leighton starts dreaming of Killian the steamy cowboy of the book she found on her bookshelf, and then suddenly discovers him as a real person in her bed. 

See what I mean about suspending realty, but once you get into it, it's a lovely story, I loved getting to know Leighton and Killian.  He is a book boyfriend to end all book boyfriends, he knows tropes, he knows romance books, and he is incredibly hot and is willing to try to fit in with the real world too. 

And it's just a really enjoyable story, and leaves me wondering whether I'll ever wake up to a strange man from a vivid dream, in my bed! 

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.