Say Bovary at this point hosting love-in (7)
I believe the answer is:
heroine
'say bovary at this point hosting love-in' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'this point hosting love-in' is the wordplay.
'this point' becomes 'here' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'hosting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'o'+'in'='oin'
'here' going around 'oin' is 'HEROINE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for heroine that I've seen before include "Chief female character in a book" , "Leading lady" , "Woman of outstanding courage" , "Eg, Emma, Jane Eyre" , "Intrepid woman" .)