Is it meta to write a review about a book about an author reading a review about a book that I wrote? No way to clear this off my shelf otherwise, and so here we are.

Marvellously funny and witty, Dating by the Book was a delightful read.

Synopsis:
Six months ago, writer and bookstore owner Maddie Hanson was left at the altar. Since then, she’s had zero interest in romance—despite the fact that she runs a book club full of sexy eligible bachelors. But when her latest novel is panned by an anonymous blogger who goes by the name Silver Fox—and who accuses her of knowing nothing about passion—she decides to prove her nemesis wrong by seeking a romance hero in real life . . .

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I’d rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

This was cute book, with a lot of well-rounded characters. They each had redeeming qualities, as well as annoying quirks, which made them all the more real. I recommend this book to fans of romcoms, especially the classics (think Meg Ryan era romantic comedy).

I mostly review Christian romance, but when I saw Dating by the Book on NetGalley, I had to request it. First, the cover. I love the cover. It’s pink. It’s a simple illustration. And it says “funny contemporary romance”, and that’s my jam. So I clicked “request” and Kensington Books were kind enough to grant my request, even though Dating by the Book isn’t what I usually review.

Yes, I am somewhat over the debut-novelist-as-main-character trope, but pairing that with a book reviewer was a unique twist, and one I was keen to read about. Yes, this is a novel featuring an author and a book reviewer. I’m a book reviewer, so any novel featuring a book reviewer as a lead character has my attention.

Having said that, let's start this review with two public service announcements:

Authors, please do not contact reviewers you don't know. Especially don't contact them to give "feedback" on their three-star review.

Reviewers, please don't say you received the book "in exchange for an honest review." First because Amazon doesn't like "in exchange" because that implies a form of payment. Also because "honest review" always gives me the impression of some kind of snake oil salesman.

Now, onto our review.

Madeline Hanson half-owns a failing bookstore in a small town. She's also about to become a published novelist, under a pen name. And that's what kicks off this whole story: when she receives a "three solid stars" review from some unknown book blogger who implies she knows nothing about romance.

She's incensed, so she does what an author should never do: fires off a drunken email telling Silver Fox why his review is wrong. In the real world, this kind of behaviour is likely to start a Goodreads flame war that ends with the blogger deleting all their Goodreads reviews, and the author having their next book contract cancelled.

But this is Romancelandia, which means Silver Fox replies privately to the email, and the two start chatting online and discussing their life problems, including the lack of passion in Maddie’s life.

And Maddie has lots of real life problems. She's the co-owner of a failing bookshop in her home town. She runs a bookclub that only her friends turn up for. And she's sharing a house with her best friend, because she can't afford better. Nothing in her life is going to plan:

I wanted to emerge as the heroine of my own adventure. A badass heroine controlling her own destiny. But how?

Maddie also has man problems. As in, Maddie has too many men in her life. As Maddie says:

My independence was a sham and I couldn't even pass a Bechdel test in my own mind.

She has Peter, the ex-fiance, who wants her to sell the bookshop. She has Dylan, the ex-boyfriend turned rock star, who wants her back in his bed. She has Max, her best friend's brother, who wants some kind of business partership. She has Charlie, an English professor and steady customer, who might want something more than friendship. And she has Gentry (which I kept misreading as Gendry and wanting him to be the good guy), head of the local Chamber of Commerce, who is generally officious and annoying. It didn't take me long to work out that there was a good chance Maddie's Silver Fox was one of these men (but hopefully not Gentry-not-Gendry).

But who?

I had my suspicions, and I'm glad to say I was right. There's nothing worse than a love triangle where she picks the wrong guy (although with four possible suitors for Maddie, Dating by the Book is more a love pentagon than a love triangle ...)

So, yeah, Dating by the Book has All The Tropes. It also has a great cast of characters including Layla, the best friend and roommate who's also a full-time music blogger. It's funny, and the dialogue is excellent. And it works, even though it's full of overused tropes like the aspiring author and the owner of the failing bookstore. The author knows her tropes, and knows how to twist them to produce an excellent debut novel. My only issue was the sex scenes. The first two were somewhat meta, and I found that a little weird. You'll have to read them to understand what I mean.

Recommended for fans of fun and sexy romance or romantic comedy.

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing Corporation and Mary Ann Marlowe for the arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.***

If you like a slow burn, then Dating by the Book, by Mary Ann Marlowe, is a great choice. Left at the altar, bookstore owner and author Maddie is over love. When a reviewer accuses her of not knowing a thing about passion, she sets aside her reservations and goes in search of a real-life romance hero so she can prove him wrong.

I really liked this book. A slow burn is not for everyone, but I thought Marlowe did a great job with the long game. I honestly didn’t know who Silver Fox was, but I adored the Silver Fox reviewer idea. I found Maddie easy to relate to and she showed excellent growth, healing her broken heart. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish Maddie hadn’t spent so much time in her head at the beginning of the story. There were moments in the story where I wished it had moved faster, but by the end the pacing made perfect sense.

This was a really cute romance! I really enjoyed the characters and their development throughout the book.

This was a sweet and enjoyable story. Mary Ann Marlowe is a new author to me, and I found I liked her writing style. It flowed well, was easy to read, and kept the reader engaged and entertained.
The story certainly had a lot of promise, and to a large extent, it was well executed. The characters were well developed, even those more secondary to the story, and it was easy to become invested in the small cast of main players. The dialogue was often witty, and Maddie’s verbal jousting with the Silver Fox often brought on a smile.
The only real negative I have is that it took way too long for Maddie to discover who was Mr Right for her. I love a slow burn, but Maddie’s stubbornness to accept what was right in front of her face became a bit frustrating after a while. Her toing and froing became a bit monotonous, and after a while I really wanted Mr Right (no spoilers) to walk away and leave her to it!
Regardless, I did enjoy this story. It was light, with a good sprinkling of humour, lots of snarky repartee and generally a feel-good book. It was a great way to pass a rainy Sunday.

I thought I was going love this book, a rom-com set in a small-town bookstore. In the end, I liked it but had a hard time with the main character She was so insecure and reacted childishly when events didn't go her way.
However, the writing and plotting were good once I got past my frustrations with Maddie.

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fun, quick read that mainly takes place in a bookstore. Maddie, the bookstore owner, is left at the alter. Not only does she have to come to terms with that she is aslo having to save her little bookstore. There are the usual small town characters that made me chuckle along with an old high school "friend" who makes her life interesting.

I tried to read this book but I couldn't seem to connect with the main character. Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me.

This was a very sweet story that felt very Hallmark movie to me. Had some fun book references, interesting characters. The story didn’t wow me - but it was fun.

This book was not really my cup of tea. I didn’t really relate to the main character, Maddie. Months ago she was left at the alter and is now running a bookstore in her small town. She has also written a novel under a pen name that no one knows about.

When the first review comes in with 3 stars Maddie is first incensed at the criticism of the reviewer known as Silver Fox, their correspondence turns into another kind of relationship and with the anonymity of the internet, Maddie is able to work out some of her fears, testing out fragile thoughts while gaining a few epiphanies.

Several men are vying for her attention and it seems like she is to caught up in herself to notice. The book had a good foundation but I felt like there was a lot going on and it seemed a little to jumbled to me.

I received a free copy from netgalley in exchange an honest review. Dating by the book is a retelling of You've Got Mail and little shop around the corner. Maddie receives a bad review for her first novel and is told that she needs to get the love life basically because she doesn't know how to write Romance. This inspires her to take a risk and all of a sudden there are potential partners everywhere. I feel like the romance was underdeveloped. It feels like we should have felt something because they were friends first but it's never really presented properly. The story was good but again it felt underdeveloped in the romance Department ironic because that's exactly the issue reviewer had with Maddie's book. 3.5 stars

I love books about bookish people, so when I discovered that Dating by the Book is about a woman who is an author and owns a quaint little bookshop I was immediately excited to dive in. The fact that she hosts a book club was icing on the cake for me.

1. This is just a happy book. It’s so light and happy and sweet. It reads like a Hallmark movie, and we all know how much I love those. It also reminds me of the movie, You’ve Got Mail, with the cute bookshop and the mysterious emailer and the big competitor wanting to buy out the little guy. It all felt very familiar in a comfortable way.

2. Maddie is super relatable. She was left at the altar, and is anti-romance right now. She did one of those bad things authors aren’t supposed to do, and read online reviews for one of her books. I don’t know why she got so bent out of shape over a 3-star review, but she did and she let it fester and fester until she wrote to the author of the review and let him have it. A big no-no! But since this is a happy, fluffy, sweet book the two form a bit of a friendship. Luckily he doesn’t go and subtweet about her on Twitter! He claims her book wasn’t good because she doesn’t know real romance, real passion, and she sets out to prove him wrong. She’s human. She makes really dumb mistakes and has a bunch of men after her. I loved her and hated her.

3. I loved the mystery of the Silver Fox, and his emails back and forth with Maddie. Their flirtations and deeper conversations were really fun to read. I was dying to figure out who he was!

4. I found the book club discussions to be rather boring and drawn out, but not enough to detract from the book. Maddie’s book club reads and discusses the classics, and since I’ve read very few of them I kind of felt like one of those kids who sits at the dinner table with their chin in their hand, bored to death by the grown-ups having grown-up conversations that they have nothing to add to. It’s just no fun listening to people talk about something you have no knowledge/interest in, and that’s how I felt skimming through their book chats. Luckily they didn’t last too long!

5. Mary Ann Marlowe is a great writer! Everything flowed nicely, and I was very comfortable while reading. I didn’t get tripped up by details, and I followed everything. I loved the humor and the way she wrote her characters.

All in all, this was a win for me! I loved everything about this book, and would love to go and visit these characters (particularly a few of the minor ones) to get their stories. There’s a bookish professor who I’d love to see get his own love story. Highly recommended!

D- review at SBTB:

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/dating-by-the-book-by-mary-ann-marlowe/

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

I had hard time with this one. I couldn’t connect neither to the story nor to the characters. There was chemistry lacking. I wish I liked it more because I thought the premise sounded interesting.

DNF

I really wanted to love this book as I was a fan of Marlowe's previous titles, but I had a hard time getting into it. The primary reason why I couldn't connect to this book was the heroine. I felt like she was a bit all over the place and the scenario with all the guys frustrated me. I'll read Marlowe's books in the future as I still like her writing enough, but this one did not work for me.

I received an Advanced Review Copy of Dating by the Book by Mary Ann Marlowe from the publisher Kensington Books in exchange for an honest review.

I'm gonna be brief because I did not enjoy this book and don't want to write a terrible review, this book does definitely stress the pain of receiving a bad review and I think its important to be honest but not super harsh.

Here's the Good: This book is bookish. The lead character is an author who owns a bookstore and the love story is between the character and a mystery book reviewer. So there's that.

However, this book was just too cheesy for me and I struggled through finishing it though I did. I think if you don't mind cheesy romances this could scratch this itch but it just really wasn't for me.

I had a hard time with this book. I found it difficult to get a read on Maddie, much less connect with her (which is something I think you want for a romance/women's fiction read). Sometimes I could related, but most of the time, I really couldn't – even though her overall circumstances weren't that far out of the norm that I shouldn't have been able to. Also, when it came down to it, she really treated Max horribly throughout quite a bit of the book and then, voila, they're a happy couple? I never really felt that their relationship grew organically/believably.

*Advance copy provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*