Reviews - Not Quite by the Book

497 reviews for:

Not Quite by the Book

Julie Hatcher

3.43 AVERAGE

cmdg66's review

2.0

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Diverse cast of characters: No

ladylongshanks's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mbransti's review against another edition

3.0

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

95% of the characters where annoying as shit

digitalduckling's review

3.0

funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ineffablebob's review against another edition

3.75

emotional lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not Quite by the Book by Julie Hatcher is listed as "women's humorous fiction" in the Amazon's First Reads offers, which I took to mean "romance with a bit of humor and without explicit language." Not my usual fare but since it was right there in front of me, and I had a couple of days while the library holds came through on my next read, I figured why not give it a shot. It starts off with Emma despairing of ever finding love and deciding to make the most of life without a romantic partner, and making the crazy decision to go off by herself for six weeks to commune with her inner Emily Dickenson. Unsurprisingly, this does not lead to immediate inner peace, and she spends the time dealing with problems at her retreat and worrying about her family relationships, which are deteriorating while she's away. But she also connects with a new community of friends and acquaintances, and does enough self-reflection to recognize changes needed in her life.

This is a pretty engaging story, with plenty of funny moments and some good character growth. Emma starts out in denial over some pretty obvious problems in her family life and career, and over the course of the book is led to recognize ways that she needs to make changes. There's the obligatory love interest, a relationship that bounces up and down pretty much daily during her six-week getaway, which I honestly thought was the least interesting bit of the whole story. Emma's realizations about how she needed to improve communication with her loved ones and change how she prioritized her time and attention was by far the better portion of the book. In the end, it all works out pretty much how you'd expect, so don't read this one for suspense. If you're in the market for a heartwarming tale of self-assessment and life adjustment, though, this is a pretty good read.