Stretch out with a gentle novel about love (8)
I believe the answer is:
elongate
'stretch out' is the definition.
(to elongate is to stretch or extend)
'a gentle novel about love' is the wordplay.
'novel' indicates an anagram (letters in a new or novel order).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'a'+'gentle'='agentle'
'agentle' is an anagram of 'elngate'.
'elngate' enclosing 'o' is 'ELONGATE'.
'with' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for elongate that I've seen before include "Draw out" , "Stretch, lengthen" , "stretcher will do!" , "Lengthen or prolong" , "Widen" .)