Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J. Christoper is delightful twist on the well-known rom-com—How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. The main characters, Jack and Hannah embark on a fake dating journey for different career reasons. However, as their journey progresses and the story unfolds—these two dynamic characters get more than they bargained for dating each other. Andie J. Christopher delivers a story to readers that is full of romance, fun, and lots of feeling.

Written as a re-imagined How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days for the millennial generation, this was a fun book to read, but one that ultimately altered too much of the central aspect to the original movie to work for me. Still, there’s a lot to enjoy here so let’s dive in!

I think there are lots of readers who will and have loved this book, and there were definitely things I liked about it as well. The movie is one of my favorites, and this book somehow managed to be almost exactly like it, and nothing like it at all. It was fun to see what aspects the author wanted to re-imagine. But that brings me to my first point, and one I couldn’t have anticipated until I saw how it played out…

The gender reversal of the original story is problematic--it was a fun idea, but one that did not work for me. When I read it, I didn't enjoy seeing Jack emulate the kind of toxic, misogynistic behavior that men treat their partners with all of the time. It wasn’t cute, though it was meant as part of the jest. The original worked because they both in some ways pretended to be into one another but didn’t realize that they actually were. Here, I struggled watching Hannah pretend that Jack’s bad behavior wasn’t a problem. I didn’t like watching her “play it cool” when he did truly appalling things. I also felt like I struggled to see Jack as the nice guy that he was, when he was treating Hannah so poorly.

Let’s talk about Hannah for a moment. I loved her, and I loved that the author chose to make her biracial. We saw quite a bit play out in terms of how some biracial women may experience dating, and I thought that as great to see in a main stream contemporary romance novel. Hannah herself is tough on the outside, but vulnerable inside. I also loved her friendship with Sasha, who was a really fun character as well. And I think these two are where Christopher’s writing really shone in this book! I also have to say, the event planning space was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the story of the wedding she was trying to help plan.

Many of these scenes were almost exactly out of the movie, and I think that’s where you see some readers saying this was too much like the film. I thought those scenes were a lot of fun. For instance, in the big party when everything comes to a head, I thought it was a fun re-telling of the original movie and I was so glad to see that scene included!

The problem is, I learned through reading this that delving into the mindset of the two main characters reveals a troubling aspect that the film was able to gloss over. Here we see chapter after chapter of how much these characters like one another and don’t want to go forward with their manipulation. And yet, they still do it. And somehow, seeing how much they didn’t want to do it took a bit of the fun out of the plot for me. The movie worked because neither had real feelings at first. They met because of their work assignments. Here, they actually meet and form a connection before their assignments, and it bothered me.

Let’s get to the steam—there was quite a bit of it! I don’t mind some steam in books, but this one had a vulgarity to it that just didn’t resonate with me. The sexual tension actually seemed to be the main driver of the plot here, and it left the whole book feeling like a fifty-shades-of-gray fan fiction of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. In the original movie, the sexual tension never felt like a key driver of their behavior.

So what to make of this? Here’s my take: this is a fun idea for a book and I think lots of readers will love it. In every way that the movie put the “com” in rom-com, this went the opposite direction, and I think a lot of contemporary romance readers like when the steam level is ratcheted up as it is in this book! For me, I think because that was so different from the original story, it didn’t work as well. But that is just one reader’s opinion. There was also a lot that I did love about this book!

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book because it's pretty much a re-telling of one of my favourite movies ever, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. And I generally believe if it's not broke don't fix it. But I gave the book a chance anyway and I'm so glad I did.

Written as a re-imagined How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days for the millennial generation, it's a fun story, that essentially alters many aspects of the movie. While it doesn't stray too much from the movie I love that the roles are reversed and there is added diversity which is truly so refreshing. While a few parts felt a little dragged out overall it was fun, sweet and a nice romance.

In this gender-flipped reimagining of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, we have Jack, the Nice Guy, who can't catch a break with women. They just leave him, no matter how nice he is, no matter how good he is to them, no matter how gorgeous he is. And we have Hannah - biracial, smart, and a confirmed bachelorette who's tired of having her heart broken. When the two meet at a bar one night, sparks fly.

Jack wants to break out of this fluff listicle reporting he's doing for a guy site; he wants to do investigative journalism, he wants to write about politics. His boorish boss tells him to write a listicle on how to lose a girl in two weeks, and he'll get the chance. Hannah, an event planner, wants to stop planning sports parties and do something high-end, like an upcoming senator's daughter's wedding, and her boss tells her she doesn't take romance seriously enough to plan a wedding. Jack and Hannah each have something to gain from the other... can they negotiate their real feelings for each other and make it through this?

As likable as Jack and Hannah are on their own, they were a mess when put together. They each acknowledge that they have feelings - genuine feelings! - for the other, yet they both keep up their manipulation game. We keep reading about what a Nice Guy Jack is, and how Hannah is Not Like Other Girls, which made me feel like saying, "Okay. I get it." Having said that, as the book progresses, there's less of that and more about their developing relationship and the emotional fallout from previous relationships that explains so much more. I was happiest with the last third of the book. It's a cute, fluff rom-com with enough sexy times to satisfy romance readers.

I was super excited to read this book as I love rom-coms, and a gender-swapped version of a classic rom-com sounded amazing! Unfortunately, the execution didn't quite hit the mark for me. The fact that Hannah and Jack feel such a connection to one another but still decide to manipulate each other is pretty crappy and hard to understand. Their internal monologues were also a bit repetitive and unnecessarily long. It felt, at times, that certain chapters were included just to increase the word count. Cute but not extraordinary. Characters make weird choices and are kind of mean to each other.

Hannah has a lot of issues around the fact that she's biracial which could be interesting but unfortunately ends up as just another repetitive thing for her to be bitter about. For a character of this age at this stage in her life, I'd expect her to be more accepting or at peace with the struggles she's faced. Basically, both of these characters need therapy, for real. And the book needs actual editing and could afford to lose like 30% of the first half of the book. Still, it had cute and funny moments. Although it's such a close match that fans of the film might be better off just rewatching the movie.

I’m a huge fan of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, so when I saw this book and read the synopsis, I knew it was one I wanted to read.

As a big fan of books by Christina Lauren and Sally Thorne, I found myself hoping this book would follow suit with witty and charming characters that ultimately melt into a charismatic love story. I was... wrong :(

It could just be a “me” thing, but by the first few chapters of the book, it’s all a bit too vulgar for my liking. I kept pushing through, but the plot and characters never really seemed to make up for the weak writing. Hannah is always talking about how hot Jack is, Jack is always going on about how Hannah’s “not like other girls.” I get it. I GET IT.

Hannah and Jack do not have the banter, connection, chemistry, anything that Andie and Ben have from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days - and with how blatant this role reversal is, that’s something that you kind of NEED. Like, if you’re going to reboot an iconic movie, you have to do it right. You know?

Ultimately, this book was a DNF for me.

Thank you so much to Berkely for this ARC!

The thing I’ve noticed about reading more romance is that a lot of the time, what separates one book from another isn’t just the plot or even the characters—it’s a subtle combination of the two, mixed in with both the author’s word choices as well as their tone. Could these characters exist in the real world? Is the plot just the right amount of sweet? Do I enjoy the sex scenes—or are they just unbearably cringy? Is the plot going the way I want it to or do I want to throw the book across the room? Etc etc.

But Not the Girl You Marry surprised me, y’all—in so many little ways. Andie J. Christopher not only gave voice to an unfiltered, career-focused, bawdy leading lady—she also wrote a hopelessly romantic male love interest. (!!!) Although the plot basically boiled down to Hannah needing Jack to be her pretend boyfriend for two weeks so she could get a promotion while Jack needed Hannah to be his pretend girlfriend for two weeks so he could get a promotion, I was still left thinking “hmm, I wonder what will happen… 🤔”

Throw in some insane chemistry, truly laugh-out-loud moments, and a take on How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, and Not the Girl You Marry hit all my buttons. If you’re looking for a fun contemporary romance, this one deserves your attention.

DNF'd after 3 chapters. I didn't appreciate that the author essentially took How to Lose a Guy in 10 days and only changed the character to give it more representation & a gender flip. The premise sounded promising, but I was looking to read something different, not a book version of the movie.

Thanks for sending this book! I did recommend it to a group of library patrons that come to my read whatever you want and book talk it book club. I'll likely also suggest it to others.

This very funny and fast-paced romance is a retelling of 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'. Here, it's the guy who is trying to lose the girl. Hannah has sworn off men, and Jack is portrayed as the perfect man who really knows how to treat women right. He is a journalist and is assigned to write an article on how to lose a girl.

This book is told in alternating points of view. It is a fast-paced, modern romance with tons of funny banter and some VERY steamy scenes. Although both Jack and Hannah are playing games, they are genuinely attracted to each other and actually neither one wants to lose the other. I loved that Hannah was biracial, and I adore seeing more diversity in my romance stories!

A very sexy contemporary romance, this book is mostly a romantic comedy but there are definitely some serious moments. I really liked the author's breezy writing style and look forward to reading more books from her. If you are in the mood for a modern, very sexy romantic comedy, then you'll love this book!

If you liked How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days I think you will enjoy this book. This retelling of sorts is believable and entertaining. I loved watching Hannah and Jack each come to care about each other as they work to succeed and progress in their careers. I also think there was a lot of great self reflection and personal growth. If this is the start of a new series, I'm a 100% behind it because I need to know what happens with Father Patrick.

This book was described as a gender-swapped "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" for millenials. I saw it and thought, "Hard pass" because I did NOT like that movie. Both characters were pretty despicable and I had no interest in reading a book based on them. But then I heard Christopher on two different podcasts. She seems likable and the characters sounded like they might actually be decent so I thought, "What the heck" and requested the book from NetGalley.
It may be that I had lowered expectations but I liked this book. Part of it might be having better access to the character's though processes but a lot can be attributed to the author and I look forward to reading more from her.
Jack and Hannah both develop over the course of the novel (good character development is one of my catnips). Hannah starts out with a chip on her shoulder because she, admittedly, hasn't been treated well by men in her past. Meanwhile, Jack prides himself on being the perfect boyfriend. Both find out that they have skewed views and they are better together.

Four stars
This book came out November 12th
ARC provided by Berkley and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Absolutely loved it! Although I did feel that Hannah was a little too much, I did come around and like her. There was just something about her tough girl exterior that felt too forced. Jack took me a while to get as well I guess because I knew he had ulterior motives. Then somewhere around the 40% mark it all changed for me. I simply enjoyed and devoured every last drop of this book.

Arc provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just very "meh" for me. I didn't hate it but didn't love it. I really enjoyed the movie "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days" so I figured that this book would be right up my alley. Not my favorite read this fall but I would definitely try this author again!

I had a hard time getting into this one, mainly because it was an EXACT replica of How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Seriously . . . they were EXACTLY the same! I guess the main difference was that the main female character was biracial. That part was an interesting addition to the story. I thought the author did a good job with Hannah's struggle of not appearing white enough or black enough. I also thought the chemistry between the two characters was pretty hot. I liked the in depth backstories for each character, but I agree with another reviewer that Jack's determination to act like a jerk didn't really jive with his nice guy schtick. I think that I would have bought that if he didn't know that he liked her right away. And even though the characters were likable and I was rooting for them as a couple, I just couldn't get past the fact that the plot was not original at all.

This was so much fun to read. I really loved Hannah and Jack's developing relationship and them fighting against their feelings developing while both trying to do further their careers. I liked that both characters were very ambitious with their goals in life and that it was a central part of the plot. Both characters experienced some really great character growth and dealt with some important issues within themselves and I loved it a lot.

Not the Girl You Marry was full of wit, sass, flirty banter, all the stuff that makes a romance book great. Hannah was a wonderful take-no-crap heroine and Jack was a real sweetheart. Definitely pick this up if you're looking for a lovely romance.

Everything about this was just meh or bad. I really enjoyed the movie back in the day but this version just didn’t work for me.

You're either going to love this or hate it. Andie J. Christopher has written a fun retelling of one of my all-time favorite movies How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with a twist! The guy is trying to lose the girl and the girl is the one this time trying to prove she can stay in a relationship. They do it for all the wrong reasons, and over the course of the book, well...you'll see.

This book is getting some mixed reviews, so let me see if I can help some folks decide if it’s for them. Are you looking for a gender-swapped retelling (almost beat for beat) of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but where the first time we see our biracial heroine she is flipping the bird and is described by the hero as looking like a “sexy rabid raccoon”?
While the book absolutely follows the plot of How to Lose a Guy, the tone isn’t the same at all—to the point where I might hesitate to recommend this book to my mother (who loves Hallmark-esque movies and 90’s rom-coms), but would absolutely give it to my fellow city-dwelling 30-something friends. Yes, it’s more blunt, or crass, or whatever other words reviewers are using. But it still feels authentic to some people’s non-PG13-movie experiences to me. More importantly, I appreciated that the book spends a LOT of time and energy showing our leads dealing with the emotional baggage they bring into this maybe-relationship, and how hard it is to not apply your past to someone new. Here, love doesn’t magically happen in a scene or two, as it would in the movie. It takes work and it takes communication.
Finally, I’ll add that if you liked The Proposal and The Wedding Party from Jasmine Guillory, I think you’ll dig this too. I would definitely put them in the same care package for a friend

Thank you to Berkley via NetGalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

There’s an old saying that “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince/princess.” That has certainly been true for Hannah Mayfield and Jack Nolan from Not the Girl You Marry. For them, love is a battlefield, and they are battle scarred and combat fatigued and neither of them wants to date again. Ever. But when they meet, they suddenly wonder if maybe love deserves one last chance.

Hannah’s never had trouble attracting men. She’s beautiful, has a bawdy sense of humor, and is a considerate and adventurous lover. She’s every man’s dream hookup. But the latest loser she was with told her she’s simply “not the girl you marry”. She takes his words deeply to heart, accepting that there is something so broken about her raunchy personality and “ethnically ambiguous looks” that she simply isn’t “keeper” material. She puts up walls, and gives any guy who tries to breach them her best full on bitch treatment.

Jack is the perfect boyfriend, who rearranges his life to accommodate the woman in it. He’s had three long term relationships which have all resulted in him being dumped for a far less nice guy. So he’s taking a break from dating. Naturally, his friends think this is a problem and drag him to a bar to help him get back in the game. When he sees Hannah, he figures his pals might just be right. He charms his way past her defenses and gets her number. Now he just has to move himself from friend to boyfriend by proving what a great guy he is.

Hannah doesn’t care how great a guy Jack is, she’s not trusting any man again. She has bigger things to worry about than her love life anyway. Her job as an event planner has stalled. She plans bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and sports themed events but her boss keeps her far from the most prestigious celebrations they do, weddings. Her supervisor fears romance deriding Hannah lacks the proper attitude to plan the kind of charming, sentimental nuptials their clients are looking for. When it looks like a newcomer to the firm will be promoted to a plum matrimonial assignment over Hannah because of this imagined deficit, Hannah knows it’s time to act. She needs to prove she can make a relationship last, and she has a ready-made opportunity to do just that with Jack. She decides to give him a chance.

Jack just needs a chance. His popular how-to videos for the online magazine he’s working for are a hit but he wants to do political reporting. When he finds a juicy lead, he asks his editor for the chance to investigate it and write it up. His boss is reluctant to pull Jack off his current fluff pieces but agrees – if Jack will do a vlog on how modern men are doing all the wrong things while playing the dating game. The catch? He has to show himself behaving badly with a girl he actually likes to prove that even true love can be derailed by stupid behavior. He hates to do this to Hannah – but he really wants to write political columns. I think we all know what he decides.

I had all kinds of problems with the set up for this tale. A boss who treats you the way Hannah and Jack’s bosses treated them is probably sending a message about your prospects at that firm. There was no sense of either supervisor helping the hero or heroine succeed and it was clear the two were not being seriously considered for the promotions they were angling for. Since this is a novel, this simply meant the premise for the story was handled a bit clumsily. Fortunately, once we were past that hurdle the plot ran more smoothly and we settled into a delightful contemporary romance in which two people fall in love with some stumbles along the way to the HEA.

I’m not going to detail the antics the two get up to as they try to accomplish their dubious ends because what shone for me was how the author managed to keep them likable, sympathetic people in the midst of their doing and thinking some rather ridiculous things. A lot of that has to do with their backstories. Jack has rearranged his life for women in the past and his career has suffered for it. His vlog is the most popular feature the magazine has but his salary certainly doesn’t reflect that since he’s barely surviving on what he’s making. His chances of getting another, better position elsewhere are slim in the current job market, so he feels (very reluctantly) trapped into doing what his editor requests. His naturally thoughtful, attentive nature makes it almost impossible for him to comfortably take advantage of Hannah and consequently, he turns out to be quite bad at doing it with some hilarious results.

I really felt for Hannah. As a biracial woman, she’s had a hard time finding a place where she feels she truly fits in. She explains it this way:

When asked about her racial identity she always told people that she was biracial. This tended to bother black people because they thought she was trying to deny or downplay her blackness. White people tended to be curious about her race and then ignore the fact that she was half-black until it became inconvenient for them. For the white guys she had dated, it usually became inconvenient around the time it seemed natural to date exclusively or introduce her to their parents.

The problem goes beyond race, though. At work, her ability to blend with the less straight-laced customers and to mingle with clients with working class backgrounds has had her stuffed into the “party girl” category. That, along with her ex-boyfriend’s endless put downs, has her thinking she lacked – not just class and elegance, which was what was said – but that she herself is somehow simply lacking. When he told her that she wasn’t the type of girl one married, the subtle ostracizing that had been the hallmark of her whole life caused her to accept that as fact.

Things start to change as she finds herself able to fit in with diverse friends and family, who come from all different walks of life. She realizes that her ability to mingle across class lines is an asset and begins to see the full value of the spectrum of who she is. Jack sees that his image of himself as “the perfect boyfriend” is part of what makes him not one and begins to relax and enjoy being himself around Hannah. Their love story is sweet, humorous and tender because in spite of trying to use each other for employment gain, they are kind to each other, bring out the best in each other, and are actually perfect together.

Not the Girl You Marry is a delightful modern take on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days that’s not only for fans of that movie. If you like contemporary romantic comedies at all, give this one a try. You’ll find a lot to enjoy here.