A Novel Love Story is a 2024 romance novel by best-selling American novelist Ashley Poston. A work of magical realism about love, loss, and the stories we tell, A Novel Love Story centers on Elsy Merriweather, an avid romance novel reader whose life is at a standstill after a broken engagement. Elsy magically finds herself in the small-town setting of her favorite romance series, where she meets a man whom she believes to be the protagonist of the last, unfinished novel in the series. By employing many of the classic tropes of contemporary romance, Poston explores the complexities of beginning life anew. A Novel Love Story incorporates themes such as Life After Loss, The Positive Impacts of Fictional Stories, and The Importance of Taking Chances.

This guide refers to the HarperCollins e-book edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide refer to death from a car accident and grief.

Plot Summary

Eileen “Elsy” Merriweather is on her way to an annual book club retreat when she is caught in a thunderstorm. This week-long vacation is an occasion she normally looks forward to, but this year, all her friends are busy, so Elsy feels that she must go on her own. Not sure where she is, Elsy pulls into the nearest town and almost hits a man who is standing in the middle of the street in the rain. Though the man isn’t hurt, Elsy’s old car breaks down, leaving her stranded in this unknown small town.

When Elsy goes into the local bar to ask for directions, she learns that the only hotel in town is under renovation. Luckily, the bartender knows someone who has a spare guest room. Unluckily, that person is the man Elsy almost hit with her car, the local curmudgeonly bookstore owner named Anderson “Anders” Sinclair. Despite their rocky start, Anders offers Elsy his guest room for the night, but the next morning, Elsy’s car still doesn’t work. As she wanders around the small town to find a mechanic for her car, Elsy starts to realize how familiar the town is. She begins to panic as she realizes that she is actually in Eloraton, New York, the setting of her favorite romance novels: the Quixotic Falls quintet by Rachel Flowers.

Elsy believes that she must be dreaming, but Anders finds her and confirms that they are indeed in Eloraton, but the two of them are the only ones who know that they’re in a book. As this news settles on Elsy and she sees her favorite characters and locations from the stories, Anders tells her that she must leave as soon as possible so as not to make any unwanted changes to the story. Anders is cold to Elsy, telling her that she will not find whatever magic she expects in the town, but she is surprised that the other members of Eloraton seem to tolerate him. All the while, Elsy thinks that there is something familiar about Anders that she can’t quite put her finger on.

When Elsy finally comes across an auto shop, she learns that the mechanic is out of town, so she will be stuck in Eloraton for at least a few more days. As she explores the town, Elsy sees that it seems to be stuck in place after the fourth novel of the Quixotic Falls series was finished. Elsy was heartbroken a few years earlier when the series’s author, Rachel Flowers, died in a car accident, leaving her fiancé widowed and the final novel unfinished.

The more time she spends in Eloraton, the more Elsy wants to stay. Her life has been at a standstill since her fiancé broke off their engagement a week before their wedding a few years earlier. Elsy feels unsatisfied in her job, and the only solace she has had is in reading romance novels and being with her friends from the book club. However, as this year’s failed annual retreat has proven to her, Elsy’s friends are moving on with their lives without her, so she questions why she can’t stay in Eloraton and become a character in the background of her favorite story.

Elsy determines that she needs to help the characters of the story find their happy endings, disregarding Anders’s advice not to make waves. Throughout her time in Eloraton, Elsy grows closer to the characters from the novels. Though Elsy knows the Quixotic Falls series by heart, she still does not know where Anders came from. She determines that he must be the protagonist of the fifth novel and thinks that she needs to help him find the heroine that he is destined to be with. However, Elsy also feels herself growing closer to Anders as she learns more about him and his past.

Elsy and Anders eventually admit that they have feelings for one another, but Elsy knows she must still return to the real world because Anders is fictional. Yet, when she tells this to Anders, he is confused and leaves Elsy with many questions. Just after her car is fixed and when she is about to leave, Elsy comes to the realization that Anders is not fictional. Instead, he stumbled upon Eloraton like herself and has been staying there because he was Rachel’s fiancé.

Anders confirms this and tells her how he was frozen in life after Rachel’s death and how he wanted to come to Eloraton to remember her. He didn’t want Eloraton to change because he still sees Rachel in it, but he has come to realize that it should change and move on, as he should as well. Elsy feels that Anders is still able to get his happy ending in Eloraton, especially when the character whom Rachel always described as most similar to herself comes back to town. Elsy realizes that she is not content being a background character and must move on with her life, so she finally leaves Eloraton and Anders behind, forcing herself not to look back.

Elsy starts to make changes to her life once she returns to the real world. She starts dating, quits her job, and follows her dream of opening a bookstore, all while putting herself first and taking a chance on herself. At the grand opening of her bookstore, Anders appears, telling Elsy that he wants to turn the page on the past and be part of her future. Elsy admits that her life with Anders at the bookstore is not a perfect happy ending, but it feels like home.