Love Lettering: A Witty and Heartfelt Love Story

by Kate Clayborn

Overview

“The perfect quarantine read. It’s funny, sweet, and beautifully written. The romance is so perfect it made me ache."
—Alisha Rai, Bustle
 
Kirkus Best Fiction Book of 2020
PopSugar Crazy Popular Books of 2020
Amazon Best Romance of the Month 
Top Ten Best Romances of 2019—Entertainment Weekly
Kobo Best Romance of the Year
Bustle 17 Best New Books Of December 2019
SheReads’ Most Anticipated Books of 2020
HelloGiggles 8 Best New Books To Read In December

One of the most beloved romantic comedies of 2020, Love Lettering is a heart-melting and touching story that fans of Tessa Bailey, Jen DeLuca, and Emily Henry cannot miss.

In this warm and witty romance from acclaimed author Kate Clayborn, one little word puts a woman’s business—and her heart—in jeopardy . . .
 
Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing custom journals for her New York City clientele. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Knowing the upcoming marriage of Reid Sutherland and his polished fiancée was doomed to fail is one thing, but weaving a secret word of warning into their wedding program is another. Meg may have thought no one would spot it, but she hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid.
 
A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other, both try to ignore a deepening connection between them. But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it’s too late . . .  

Praise for Love Lettering

"I can't wait for the whole world to fall in love with Love Lettering!" 
—Jasmine Guillory
 
“Delicious and beautiful and perfect.”
—New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean
 
“This book will wake you up in the middle of the night aching for these perfectly imperfect characters.”
—Sonali Dev, author of Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496725172
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	12/31/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	372,541
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Double RITA® nominee Kate Clayborn lives in Virginia, where she spends her days reading and talking about all kinds of great books. Kate loves to hear from and connect with readers—follow her on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. Visit her at www.kateclayborn.com to sign up for her newsletter.

Editorial Reviews

11/18/2019

This whimsical rom-com from Clayborn (Best of Luck) contrasts cute romance with cringe-worthy moments of embarrassment for the bumbling central couple. Meg Mackworth is a New York City calligraphy artist whose intricate hand-lettering is in high demand. No one but Meg was ever supposed to notice the secret messages she doodles into her designs to keep her work from becoming boring. When Meg’s former client Reid, a high-strung math genius, confronts her about spotting the word mistake hidden in the wedding programs Meg made for him and his now-ex, Meg admits to having picked up on the couple’s discontentment. Stalled out on her latest project and feeling guilty for embedding the subversive message in Reid’s wedding programs, Meg impulsively invites him to walk the city with her in search of inspiration in the form of signs both literal and figurative. This leads to a sweet, if frequently awkward, slow burn as the pair grows closer over the following weeks. Though Clayborn’s style occasionally verges on twee, her loving descriptions of New York are deeply appealing. This touching story is full of love and laughter. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Perfect.”
—Alisha Rai, Bustle
 
“Fabulous!”
—The Everygirl
 
“Flawless.”
—The Washington Post
 
“Whimsical.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“Special.”
—Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Grade A

“Flirty.”
—First for Women on Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

“I flew through this creative and original book. I was completely absorbed by the world Kate Clayborn creates — the characters felt so real and their joys and sorrows and struggles and triumphs felt so relatable that I forgot I was reading fiction. I can’t wait for the whole world to fall in love with Love Lettering!”
—Jasmine Guillory, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Proposal
 
“On the surface, Love Lettering is the story of a letterer falling in love, but in actuality, it’s a novel of lush complexity, one bursting with humor, a tender melancholy, and meditations on love, friendship, and life any reader can find solace and inspiration in. It’s lyrical and engrossing, a novel that possesses all the colors, idiosyncrasies, and range of the alphabet. Like the pages Meg designs, Love Lettering is a novel bursting with hidden messages essential to discover – so long as we open our hearts to analyze the codes.”
—A+, Entertainment Weekly
 
“This is the first Kate Clayborn I’ve read. It won’t be the last—this book is utterly captivating, with a voice that leaps forward and then back on itself, like a series of curling loops inked a blank page. Dizzying, in the way of good champagne.”
—Olivia Waite, Seattle Review of Books
 
“Fresh, funny, clever, and deeply satisfying.”
—Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW

“Written in a wry but vulnerable first-person voice, Love Lettering moves at a stroll, but readers will be happy to enjoy the scenery of the city and the interactions between Meg and her friends. With smart characters and authentic di­lemmas, this is a very special romance to both smile and sigh over.”
—BookPage STARRED REVIEW

“Clayborn (Beginner’s Luck) delivers an emotionally resonant love story filled with charming details of city life and the artisanal trendiness of handlettering and calligraphy that adorns the urban setting. This will be popular among the enthusiastic and growing audience for romantic comedies.”
—Library Journal
 
“Love Lettering is delicious and beautiful and perfect.”
—New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean

“Love Lettering made me laugh and made me cry. Kate Clayborn is my new go-to romance author.”
—New York Times bestselling author Stacy Finz
 
"Kate Clayborn's writing is uniquely, intensely beautiful. This book will wake you up in the middle of the night aching for these perfectly imperfect characters. It's layered, nuanced, and unrelenting in how deep it digs."
—Sonali Dev, author of Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

From the Publisher

12/01/2019

Meg Mackworth built a business and a reputation through her fine ability for hand-lettering and is now in demand as the "Planner of Park Slope," designing custom journals and invitations for Brooklyn's well-heeled. On an impulse, and based on her finely tuned intuition, Meg decides to hide a secret message in a wedding program she's designing for Reid Sutherland and his fiancée, warning that the marriage will fail. To her surprise, he appears one year later with no wife and questions her about the hidden word. To assuage her guilt and hopefully overcome her own creative block, Meg invites Reid on walking tours of New York's best signage. Against all odds, the two develop a sigh-inducingly satisfying relationship that's threatened by the secrets they both are keeping. VERDICT Clayborn (Beginner's Luck) delivers an emotionally resonant love story filled with charming details of city life and the artisanal trendiness of hand-lettering and calligraphy that adorns the urban setting. This will be popular among the enthusiastic and growing audience for romantic comedies.—Meagan Day, High Plains Lib. Dist., CO

Library Journal

★ 2019-10-14
A quirky romance between a New York City woman famous for her lovely hand-lettering and the Wall Street mathematician who discovers the secret messages she embeds in her work.

Meg, an Instagram-famous hand-letterer and calligrapher, couldn't resist embedding a hidden code in the wedding program of society bride Avery and her handsome but taciturn groom, Reid. When the wedding is cancelled, Reid, a quantitative analyst who discovered Meg's message ("M-I-S-T-A-K-E"), seeks her out. Reid knows the breakup was for the best, but it brings home how lost and out of place he feels in New York. For her part, Meg has been experiencing artist's block as she prepares to compete for a contract with a major retail chain to feature her work in their stationery line. She invites Reid to walk the streets of the city with her, looking for meaning in the words and letters around them. As their romance heats up, Reid has to contend with some major conflict at work, and Meg is coping with the demands of a new celebrity client and the increasing distance of her best friend and roommate, Sibby. Clayborn's (Best of Luck, 2018, etc.) depiction of the artistry of hand-lettering and the worlds that letters open up for Meg is fascinating. Letters and signs organize Meg's experience: "L-I-K-E, after all, is a word I've been turning over and over a lot in my head over these last two weeks, trying to absorb it into my being, trying to keep it from becoming something else." Meg's dry observations are hilarious (her drink is a "defibrillator in a cup"), and even readers familiar with New York will see the city in a new light, through its signs and symbols. Reid and Meg are wonderfully unique, and their romance carves a sweet, winding, and sexy path to self-acceptance and mutual affirmation.

Fresh, funny, clever, and deeply satisfying.

Kirkus Reviews