Hello everyone!
I am back with another review, today it is Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren.
This book follows Hazel, an eccentric pet owner who does what she wants and won't change who she is for anyone - especially the men who date her and think eventually she'll mellow out. When Hazel runs into her college-era idol, Josh, who just happens to be her best friend's brother, she doesn't know what to think. From their first meeting at a party where she threw up on his shoes, to an unintelligible post-surgery email when he was her TA, to now, they've considered themselves incompatible. But with a cheating ex-girlfriend and a flooded apartment, Josh and Hazel decide to make the best of the situation and go on a series of blind double dates to help the other find someone. Their string of bad dates has nothing to do with their past, right?
I want to start by saying that I've heard a lot of people comparing the characters in this book to Olive and Ethan from The Unhoneymooners and I have to say, I think I disagree. Sure Olive and Hazel have some quirks, but they are definitely very different from one another. And while Josh and Ethan might be a bit more similar, but I think getting Josh's perspective in this book, something we didn't get from Ethan's in that book, separates them. Of the two, I think I preferred Olive and Ethan's story a bit more, but that doesn't mean that I didn't really enjoy the two books independent of one another. They're different books and I'm not sure they should even be compared.
While I love a good enemies-to-lovers, I do think that this one was a sweet romance where pretty much everyone around them saw them together, except them, which is a close second in the romance genre tropes for me. Especially when they were so adamantly against it in the first place.
Some other reviewers have mentioned the ending is a bit over the top, and I get that, but like also, sometimes you just want an epilogue with a happily ever after, you know?
Overall, I enjoyed this book and will be hurriedly looking for more Christina Lauren to devour!