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nounsensical 's review for:
How to Choose a Guy in 10 Days
by Lila Monroe
2/5
Ok. Quick review of my thoughts on this book!
‘Retelling’ the Film
There is definitely something reassuring about a rom-com, even when it doesn’t quite hit right for you. Tropes and storylines can be predictable, and characters can be surface-level reflections of ourselves and our experiences, but that’s okay! Sometimes reading is about easy enjoyment, comfort, and an escape into a world where rules of life are more clear cut, and emotions can be placed back on the shelf neatly once they’re done.
Conversely, sometimes a rom-com can not quite give me enough – I’m left feeling uncaptured, unconvinced. How to Choose a Guy in 10 Days drew me in with its obvious homage to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which I love as a rom-com. What works for me in that movie is – yes, it revolves around a deception/miscommunication plot, which can often feel cheap – but it is played in a way where the deception comes from both romantic leads, rather than one.
This does a lot to make the final reunion and resolution feel more balanced. No one is right, everyone is a little shitty, but ‘all is fair in love and war’. The ‘com’ part in ‘rom-com’ also does a lot of the heavy lifting, shifting our perspective from seeing everything as charming – the spiralling ridiculousness more like a harmless ball of snow rolling down a hill and getting larger, rather than an out of control truck on the freeway.
Overall, I felt like this book didn’t really have any business linking itself to the film. The only true similarity I see is there being a promotion-motivated bet, but there is none of the web weaving of motivations and intentions that the film balances so well. This results in the book feeling a lot emptier than the film, making the book feel less satisfying to me by comparison. If the book didn’t link itself to the film with its title the way it does, I wouldn’t be directly comparing. However, I feel that the criticism of a shallow set-up and conflict would be valid regardless.
The Plot
The miscommunication plot in this book felt like the plot of a TV episode. The conflict didn’t feel like enough to carry the story for me. By conflict, I mean anything that moves the plot, or creates interesting situations or feelings in the characters, as opposed to ‘characters having fun’. Gemma’s bet with her rival coworker to make over her slobby roommate nicknamed ‘Bigfoot’ isn’t a bad plot per se, but when it is fully transparent to him that she is making him over for her work portfolio, I have to admit, I struggled to emotionally invest much into the reveal to Bigfoot that she was doing so in order to fight for a work promotion.
It’s because of this rather fragile betrayal that the conflict is resolved quite quickly, with everything done and dusted within what feels like less than a chapter. There is a strange moment when but unless I missed it, this moment was just never mentioned again.
In general, I feel like this book suffered from a too-quick resolution, and was able to wrap everything up in a bow and be done with it in a way that I found unsatisfying, and rushed.
The Characters
A personal pet peeve of mine is when books are from the perspective of the main character for a majority of the book, but shift for a few chapters to the romantic lead in order to explain why he is how he is, what he’s experiencing, or essentially demystify anything we would be excited to learn about him from the perspective of the main character.
Instead of allowing the character development to unfold naturally, having that feeling of wanting to know more about the romantic interest, wanting to keep reading, and seeing the characters learn more about each other organically, we are given full context to Zach’s life, why he’s messy, why the ‘bet’ will affect his insecurities, how he feels about Gemma. It felt as if the story didn’t trust us to wait and find out that there’s more to him than being unkempt and messy, it had to let us know as soon as possible that, ‘Don’t worry, he’s not all bad!!!’
Gemma worked as a protagonist: she is driven, not passive in the plot, likeable and bold, never backing down from a question or a fight. There is something to be said about how female characters have to be likeable in this particular way, however. They are always bold but not pushy, driven but never cutthroat, bubbly but not annoying. She works as a protagonist, but I can’t say that I felt drawn into her, or lost in her experiences. Some might say that that isn’t the point of a romance novel, that they’re about easy enjoyment – I can agree, but for me personally, I’m always going to want something to hang onto and think about with a character.
Overall
While a miscommunication plot isn’t necessarily my thing, I can still appreciate its potential for character intrigue, conflict, and the idea that people aren’t perfect, and you can be both flawed and desired. This book didn’t utilize this plot device to its fullest, in my opinion, and overall felt like it played things safe – both with the plot and the characters. There were quite a few sex scenes, but they were so brief and undescriptive that I’m left with the impression that a man puts it in, jackhammers a few times, and then there’s a fountain of simultaneous orgasms. Sex scenes certainly aren’t the most important thing to me by far, but if they’re in a book, I do kinda hope for them to be good……!
I still had fun with this book, and there is charm in the characters and the carefree nature of friendship that it depicts, so I definitely would praise it for that!
Ok. That's it from me!
Ok. Quick review of my thoughts on this book!
‘Retelling’ the Film
There is definitely something reassuring about a rom-com, even when it doesn’t quite hit right for you. Tropes and storylines can be predictable, and characters can be surface-level reflections of ourselves and our experiences, but that’s okay! Sometimes reading is about easy enjoyment, comfort, and an escape into a world where rules of life are more clear cut, and emotions can be placed back on the shelf neatly once they’re done.
Conversely, sometimes a rom-com can not quite give me enough – I’m left feeling uncaptured, unconvinced. How to Choose a Guy in 10 Days drew me in with its obvious homage to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which I love as a rom-com. What works for me in that movie is – yes, it revolves around a deception/miscommunication plot, which can often feel cheap – but it is played in a way where the deception comes from both romantic leads, rather than one.
This does a lot to make the final reunion and resolution feel more balanced. No one is right, everyone is a little shitty, but ‘all is fair in love and war’. The ‘com’ part in ‘rom-com’ also does a lot of the heavy lifting, shifting our perspective from seeing everything as charming – the spiralling ridiculousness more like a harmless ball of snow rolling down a hill and getting larger, rather than an out of control truck on the freeway.
Overall, I felt like this book didn’t really have any business linking itself to the film. The only true similarity I see is there being a promotion-motivated bet, but there is none of the web weaving of motivations and intentions that the film balances so well. This results in the book feeling a lot emptier than the film, making the book feel less satisfying to me by comparison. If the book didn’t link itself to the film with its title the way it does, I wouldn’t be directly comparing. However, I feel that the criticism of a shallow set-up and conflict would be valid regardless.
The Plot
The miscommunication plot in this book felt like the plot of a TV episode. The conflict didn’t feel like enough to carry the story for me. By conflict, I mean anything that moves the plot, or creates interesting situations or feelings in the characters, as opposed to ‘characters having fun’. Gemma’s bet with her rival coworker to make over her slobby roommate nicknamed ‘Bigfoot’ isn’t a bad plot per se, but when it is fully transparent to him that she is making him over for her work portfolio, I have to admit, I struggled to emotionally invest much into the reveal to Bigfoot that she was doing so in order to fight for a work promotion.
It’s because of this rather fragile betrayal that the conflict is resolved quite quickly, with everything done and dusted within what feels like less than a chapter. There is a strange moment when
Spoiler
Zach (Bigfoot) goes to Gemma’s door to reconcile, and he hears a man’s voice in her apartment, who he assumes is her date, and he leaves. As the reader, you assume that the mystery man will be revealed as her male coworker (who is in a happy relationship with a man),In general, I feel like this book suffered from a too-quick resolution, and was able to wrap everything up in a bow and be done with it in a way that I found unsatisfying, and rushed.
The Characters
A personal pet peeve of mine is when books are from the perspective of the main character for a majority of the book, but shift for a few chapters to the romantic lead in order to explain why he is how he is, what he’s experiencing, or essentially demystify anything we would be excited to learn about him from the perspective of the main character.
Instead of allowing the character development to unfold naturally, having that feeling of wanting to know more about the romantic interest, wanting to keep reading, and seeing the characters learn more about each other organically, we are given full context to Zach’s life, why he’s messy, why the ‘bet’ will affect his insecurities, how he feels about Gemma. It felt as if the story didn’t trust us to wait and find out that there’s more to him than being unkempt and messy, it had to let us know as soon as possible that, ‘Don’t worry, he’s not all bad!!!’
Gemma worked as a protagonist: she is driven, not passive in the plot, likeable and bold, never backing down from a question or a fight. There is something to be said about how female characters have to be likeable in this particular way, however. They are always bold but not pushy, driven but never cutthroat, bubbly but not annoying. She works as a protagonist, but I can’t say that I felt drawn into her, or lost in her experiences. Some might say that that isn’t the point of a romance novel, that they’re about easy enjoyment – I can agree, but for me personally, I’m always going to want something to hang onto and think about with a character.
Overall
While a miscommunication plot isn’t necessarily my thing, I can still appreciate its potential for character intrigue, conflict, and the idea that people aren’t perfect, and you can be both flawed and desired. This book didn’t utilize this plot device to its fullest, in my opinion, and overall felt like it played things safe – both with the plot and the characters. There were quite a few sex scenes, but they were so brief and undescriptive that I’m left with the impression that a man puts it in, jackhammers a few times, and then there’s a fountain of simultaneous orgasms. Sex scenes certainly aren’t the most important thing to me by far, but if they’re in a book, I do kinda hope for them to be good……!
I still had fun with this book, and there is charm in the characters and the carefree nature of friendship that it depicts, so I definitely would praise it for that!
Ok. That's it from me!