Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, by Christina Lauren

Five out of Five Stars

One sentence summary: Josh and Hazel are meant for each other, and everyone seems to know it- except them. 

First thought: I am so happy I ended the year with this book. It's one of those that's so good, I don't think to pause to add many review comments to my notebook. 

Why I read it: This book was featured on The Story Bites Podcast as an audio book. While I read the paper back version, I was hooked after Tanya Eby and Sarina Bowen's audio excerpt. 

POV: Alternating M|F. First Person, Present Tense 

Setting: Portland Oregon 

Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Rom-Com 

Our Heroine: Hazel. A teacher! I love when characters are teachers, and she was such an adorable 3rd grade teacher that I was wishing I had kids to put in her class. Sometimes a quirky character can come off as insincere, but that's not the case with Hazel. She was well written. I loved her passion and her openness. She often refereed to herself as undateable and that made me want to just shake her- but you know, in a way you shake your bestie for being down on themselves. 

Our Hero: Josh. He was great. A sweet, steady guy devoted to his family. Sometimes these heroes can be a bit boring, but what I liked about Josh was that he was along for the ride. Also, Josh had a bit of a dirty streak and I'm here for it! I mean I may have been internally cheering. 

Overall thoughts: It was so fun to watch these characters dance around each other. I haven't read many true friends to lovers tropes, but I could see that this was very formulaic, and you know what- I did not care. I thought the characters were so well done, even Emily and Dave, that I was in love with the story. 

The humor in this book was so well done. My husband only gave me the side eye a few times before realizing I'd be laughing a bit more. There were so many situational comedic moments, which I always like a lot more than funny dialogue. 

I'm not sure what percent I was at since I read this baby as a paperback, but when I was crafting my TLDR sentence below, Christina Lauren hit me with a plot twist. It's not too often that a romance takes me by surprise, but this one certainly did. It's almost as if the author heard me say to my husband, "okay, the characters have to do these three more things, then the book is over." That didn't happen. Want to know my prediction, ask in the comments!  

The sexy scenes: omg. Is it okay to say, the best I've read in a while? 

The best part of the book: The bad dates! Hazel's honesty about Josh's beauty. Josh's mom...  

Worst part of the book: That it's over? Okay.. sorry for fan girling. 

TLDR: Josh and Hazel follow the typical friends to lovers story arc, but the characters tug at your heart strings so deeply that it feels like you're reading this trope for the first time. 

How I read it: Paperback! Ordered from the "used" section on Amazon.   

Links: Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating on GoodReads & Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating on Amazon

Enjoy my blog? Follow me on Twitter or add me on Goodreads!