Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
This book was really cute. Full disclosure, it took me about 43% of the way through before I wasn’t really angry with some parts of it, literally ranting to my boyfriend about it, but it was worth it in the end. I realize it is slated as enemies-to-lovers but in my opinion it is very much a friends-to-lovers, with it also being not-right-for-each-other-to-exes (is that a thing? it is now).
It follows Lanie as she gets a conditional promotion where she gets to work with her idol, a recluse author who is notoriously difficult and experiencing writers block. The promotion will become finalized if the author, Noa Calloway, produces a viable manuscript by the deadline necessary for it to go to print that summer. You know, budgets and things. Lanie loves this author because she read one of her books in college that changed her life and helped give her a list of 99 things to look for in a man to love, which she has found in her fiancé Ryan. AND THEN EVERYTHING HAPPENS.
I don’t want to spoil anything so I am not going to go into any more detail about the book, but I am going to list a few pros/cons I feel are non-spoilery about this book below, don’t read if you don’t want maybe potential spoilers. In the end, I give this a solid 4/5 – it is a nice clean romance, with some predictability but is comforting.
Pros: Jewish female! I love to see Jewish history played out in realistic ways but not shoehorned in. Strong friendships between the characters. Lanie knew what she wanted and really stuck to her guns. It is an easy read.
Cons: It eventually stopped but some of the misogynistic undertones in the beginning of the book really got to me. Gender is a construct in my opinion and I was really struggling with some of the conversations about it. I struggled with Lanie’s reaction to meeting Noa – it was not understandable or believable to me.