A trope-filled romance

I am a simple woman. If you provide me with fake dating in a romance novel, I will read it and at least somewhat like it. Meet Me in London was no exception.

Victoria Scott is a bartender and aspiring fashion designer. Oliver Russell is a wealthy future heir to a famous chain of department stores and needs a wife to take over the business and appease his ill father. Victoria and Oliver meet, and after a quarrel, they realize they can help one another. Victoria will pretend to be his girlfriend to appease his family and help build relationships with the other local business owners. Oliver will feature some of her designs in the newly updated store and allow her to put on a fashion show for disadvantaged students she teaches.

Their romance feels realistic, and they both have believable baggage that is an issue but doesn’t entirely take over their life/romance. This was surprisingly well-paced and balanced a slow style ‘will they stay together or not’ trope with the typical Christmas fare of fake dating for the sake of family. It slows the pace, but that’s pretty expected in a Christmas romance.

The one thing that may be an issue for other readers is that Victoria cannot bear children, and while it’s not a massive portion of the book, her struggles with it are discussed. She is insecure about what that means for her relationships and question what her future holds if she cannot give birth to children, knowing Oliver and previous men she’s been with yearned for a family. As someone with no interest in ever having children, I don’t feel I can comment on how well this is executed, but I did enjoy that it was an aspect of the novel as I don’t see it often in romances.

This was a quick read, well-paced, and it fulfilled all the standard holiday tropes I wanted.

Title: Meet Me in London
Author: Georgia Toffolo
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9781335459978

Three Descriptors: Simple, Trope-filled, Fun

Read Alikes:
Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses by Jenny Hale
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Made in Manhattan by Lauren Layne
Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber
Starry-Eyed Love by Helena Hunting