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A review by rowan_reviews
How to Get a Life in Ten Dates by Jenny L. Howe
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.
Haleigh is tired of dating. One disastrous date after another has made her wish for a hiatus - but her family is on her case about having a +1 to her successful older sister's engagement party/weekend coming up in a few months. Complicating matters is that Haleigh has been in love with her best friend Jack for years - but a disastrous hook-up in Hawaii 5 years ago proved they were better off as friends and they developed rules to maintain the boundaries of their friendship. Haleigh, with the help of Jack, come up with a plan to appease her family and give herself the break from dating that she's craving - 5 family members/friends, 2 blind dates each. If nothing clicks, they leave her alone for 6 months. Let the datepocalypse begin.
I gave this book 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for goodreads. I found the ending to be incredibly disappointing, and unfortunately the reasons why are rather spoilery. Suffice to say, as much as I'm usually a sucker for the main trope in this book, I did not ship it. Spoilers start below.
One of Haleigh's dates is wildly successful and I felt that they clicked incredibly well - I was a big fan of the pair. And after one mediocre date, during which Haleigh seemed like she was going to try to 'turn him' into a reader (despite him making it very clear that he's not a reader), suddenly all the previous chemistry was just..... gone. The abrupt flip was so jarring and out of left field, it was hard to believe that Haleigh found it ultimately so easy to throw aside that budding relationship. To her credit, there was a very mature conversation regarding it instead of ghosting him so thank god for that. I also feel like Jack did not show the amount of personal growth needed for their relationship to develop -- for starters, it took him over 5 years to apologize for the things he said to her that he clearly knew echoed her own deep-seated insecurities over being messy/disorganized/chaotic. He also had crossed the boundaries of their clearly stated and agreed upon rules SEVERAL times, resulting in new rules being created over the past 5 years - and Haleigh says that he's crossed these boundaries when drunk several times over the years. I don't care how much personal history there are between two people, you don't cross boundaries. If he was unhappy with the boundaries, he should have had a conversation with her - after all, HE was the one who said he regretted hooking up. Instead, he had to be convinced to be more open with his therapist about his struggles so that he could go through all that personal growth AFTER they got together. I don't think people have to be perfect/healed in order to be in a relationship - but the fact that Jack didn't ask Haleigh for support through some of these struggles as best friends, and only once they were dating, left a sour taste in my mouth. For the last spoiler - who the fuck thinks it's a good idea to propose to your girlfriend in the middle of her sister's engagement party? Like not even at the end of the weekend - in the middle of the dance floor, on the first day, right at the start? If this was an AITAH post, I would say ESH.
Haleigh is tired of dating. One disastrous date after another has made her wish for a hiatus - but her family is on her case about having a +1 to her successful older sister's engagement party/weekend coming up in a few months. Complicating matters is that Haleigh has been in love with her best friend Jack for years - but a disastrous hook-up in Hawaii 5 years ago proved they were better off as friends and they developed rules to maintain the boundaries of their friendship. Haleigh, with the help of Jack, come up with a plan to appease her family and give herself the break from dating that she's craving - 5 family members/friends, 2 blind dates each. If nothing clicks, they leave her alone for 6 months. Let the datepocalypse begin.
I gave this book 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for goodreads. I found the ending to be incredibly disappointing, and unfortunately the reasons why are rather spoilery. Suffice to say, as much as I'm usually a sucker for the main trope in this book, I did not ship it. Spoilers start below.