I loved this story! It was so sweet!

The focus on moving forward and resilience was so heart warming.

Though I can’t imagine being divorced in my 50s this book was still relatable and a fun read.

Cari's debut novel looks into the life of Jessica who is a mum of two grown up kids and recovering from her second divorce. Instead of relishing some alone time, Jessie throws herself into the world of online dating with some encouragement from her kids and her best friend Eddie. Her loyal dog Pen sees her through some short lived romances and many dating disasters and grief when her ex moves on to a new love. However tragedy then strikes and Jessie has to spend time learning how to be on her own before she can finally welcome new loves her into life. With a lot of laughs, a smattering of sex and a few tears, this was a great debut novel.

I really enjoyed this story, it was super sweet. I really liked the main character and her continuous mindset to keep moving forward in a positive manner.
I liked how she had support from her children and her friends.

Romance - but more general fiction

Quaint, quirky and completely relatable!

Jessica Gabriel has just gone through her 2nd divorce, has 2 mostly grown kids and is at a crossroads in her life. She needs a new job and maybe a new man to share her life with. Jessica is 57, so the world of online dating is completely foreign to her. She does all the wrong things and meets all the wrong kind of guys. She gets help from her kids and the dates get better, and it seems so do the men, but do they really?

This book is funny and unabashedly truthful about being single in this modern age, yet it still remains hopeful. Just a lovely sweet read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC of this book.

I can’t imagine being divorced, in my 50s and trying to navigate the world of online dating. I believe that Scribner captured this perfectly. The things online dating brigs doesn’t have an age limit, older men and woman have to deal with the same troubles that the younger generations do.

I found this book to be totally relatable. Dating is not an easy world, although it’s nice to know right away that things aren’t going well on a date. I found Jessica personable and real. She could be my mom, or my neighbour, or anyone.

A cute,predictable, and lovely story.

I have been drawn to light-hearted reads with good character development since the pandemic began and this book does not disappoint. I love that the main character is older and the situations that she finds herself in are humorous. "A Girl Like You" was exactly what I expected and more.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

What I liked abut this book:
> the main character was in her 50's. That was a nice change from other books I've read recently.
> the chapters were very short. This made it easy to pick up, read for a little bit and stop at a logical breaking point.
> some of her date descriptions were really funny.

What I didn't like about this book:
> there was a lot of focus on the heroine's ex=marriages. We knew early on that she had two failed marriages and all the time spent discussing them didn't really add to the story.
> about 75% into the book, there was suddenly a lot of explicit sex. It almost felt like the author was running out of ideas and decided to add sex because it was something new to write about. It really didn't fit in with the tone of the rest of the book. It felt jarringly out of place.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me which was disappointing as the description sounds like it's right up my alley.

Jessica has been divorced twice and is making a foray into the online dating scene, which is a little more complex because of her mature age.She encounters some bizarre , unusual men in her pursuit for companionship and closeness, but this seems reflective of all the men that she has had relationships with in the past.Her open relationship with her grown kids is admirable and helps to steer her forward in her quest.While some situations could be seen as over the top, the entertainment factor cannot be denied.I laughed often reading this book and cried when they faced heartbreak Jessica learns new lessons and comes to treasure the new relationships she develops and appreciate living in the now.There are some life lessons to be gleaned here without them being admonitory.Highly recommend this one, would love to see sequels on her kids.

I wanted to love this book but I just couldn't. Let's start with the misleading title: A Girl Like You.
Jessica (Jessie) is the main character, and is 57 years old. I have no issues with reading a book about a 57-year old woman trying to find romance. I honestly don't. I just wouldn't call her a 'girl'. I'm 50 and I don't even call myself a girl. If she's hitting menopause, then I think she can be called a woman.

Let's talk about the cover. The clothespin? Is that really what the publisher wants to focus on? Since it's right out in the open, on the cover, do we really want to talk about how this book goes from a story about a 57-year old, twice-divorced (no judgement) woman navigating the dating world to 50 Shades of Grandma... in the blink of an eye? From funny stories of dating mishaps and Geezer co-workers to clothespins on the nipples.

Not for me. Nothing against erotica, and up until that point, the book's sex scenes were appropriate for the story. Masterbation scenes - make sense. Hot sex with a hot man? Absolutely. But then bring in Hudson and the descriptions and scenes go off the chart. It just seemed incredibly random and way over the top in my opinion.

And then why put it on the cover when Penny was more important to the story?

Not a win for me, but also not a loss either. A lot of the situations (BDSM aside) were ones I could relate to, and most were plausible and entertaining.

So read at your own risk.

This book had so much potential based on the summary. I have so many friends back in the dating pool after divorces and i could really identify with many of the situations that Jessica dealt with. I jst couldn’t get past the explicit sex. This felt a touch like erotica which is NOT how it was classified. i guess i would say that I’m disappointed . This book had the ability to appeal to an older female audience looking for t a humorous take on the dating world today - but it missed the mark for me. 2 stars.

A Girl Like You was a brutally honest tale of Jessica, a woman in her 50's, facing the fall of her second marriage. Jessica has a wonderful relationship with her grown children and her best friend, as well as a great passion for finding new love. Through much turmoil, perseverance, disappointments and heartbreak, Jessica finds her way. Thank you NetGalley, publisher and the author Cari Scribner for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

I found a lot of humor in the book! Thoroughly surprised me. I guess I just didn't expect to be so entertained.. Twice divorced Mom and her 2 adult children all getting into the dating pool at the same time and comparing experiences.. So entertaining, but at the same time quite frustrating and sad thinking about what people have to go through to meet the right person.. Interesting to turn the pages and read about the dating process! On a side note some surprising details and I will never look at a clothespin without remembering this story.! Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy..

I gave this book a chance, but I just couldn't get into it
I couldn't see where the story was going and it didn't grip me.

A Girl Like You // Cari Scribner // I was so excited to read this book with a main protagonist in her mid-fifties.  How delightful for someone beyond her twenties to have the lead plot line in a book and the story about her love life, no less.  After two failed marriages, we follow along with Jessica as she re-enters the dating scene using online dating platforms while her young adult children are doing the same.  Some of the dates are absolutely cringeworthy while others are laugh out loud funny.  There is a pretty big section of “open door” romance (in fact super graphic sex) that I wasn’t quite prepared for but that was my fault for not knowing the genre/author.  Overall, I found this to be a sweet story of a woman trying to find the right partner in life and learning a lot about herself and her independence in the process. // “I hadn’t, because I knew both of us needed — deserved — more than what our marriage had become.  We stopped bringing out the best in each other” // 


Thank you to Circuit Breaker Books for the chance to review this book that is available as of today!

Having completed menopause, I've pretty much moved through my chick-lit period. So I was a bit excited to read this, which was seemed to promise a chick-lit experience with an older protagonist. The premise lived up to the execution. This book was fun, funny and sexy -- I liked it a lot.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

Thank you to the author, Circuit Breaker Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book I really wanted to like - a woman over 50 taking the initiative to find happiness (we'll leave the issue of needing a man to be happy out of this, that's for another discussion). Described as humorous, I found it heavy going with lots of looking back at her two failed marriages, and lots of boring details I could have done without. The dates she went on centered on going through the process, but with little result - it seemed to be either a case of getting through them and getting away from this awful person, or falling much too quickly for someone, only to be ditched hurtfully shortly after. I did enjoy her attitude of not bad-mouthing her ex-husbands, and the place her little dog had in her life. However, it was much too long for what it was, and it ended just as she finally encountered someone who seemed as though they could be a good fit.

This is a story about someone in their mid 50's who after two divorces finds herself starting all over again. Jessica Gabriel with the help of her two grown children creates an online profile of someone maybe a few years younger than she actually is and starts to look for love with very humorous results. She meets many unusual characters along the way. I don't want to give too much away with this because some of the men she meets made me laugh out loud! I really liked how this main character was older and had to deal with ageing in today's new way of dating and meeting people. I have been reading a lot of mysteries and historical fiction lately so this was a fun, welcomed change!

A coming of age story for a new generation. After failed relationships, and trying to figure out what to do with her life, Jessica's children convince her to try online dating. Although online dating isn't a new concept to many of us, for those who are dating again after decades of relationships this world is new, exciting, and also quite scary. A string of weird (lets not call them failed, because there is a positive outcome there) dates, Jessica starts to learn more about herself and what she wants out of a relationship. This was a great story and I love reading about a woman coming into her own, no matter the age group.

4/5 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Circuit Breaker Books for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fifty-something woman looking for The One after two failed marriages. So, she tries online dating, and, oh, the trials, tribulations, goofs, and outrageous behavior of some of those matches. I laughed so hard at times that I had to put my phone down until I could catch my breath again. But, like I have done, she finally comes to the realization that Time will make things work out the way it’s supposed to (or, as her children say, organically). This story is a good reminder to those of us that are still single, in our later years, that things will happen in their own time, you just have to wait for it to come about.
This was a great, entertaining story, and I hope to see more from this author in the future.

I love the idea of an MC that is a woman over 50. I just wish Jessie, our protagonist, had been more open to embracing her age. The opening scene gives you a taste of what is to come but then for nearly 30% of the book she talks about her exes. In my opinion, this took way too long. It slowed the story down and made it feel like forever until she actually starts dating. Once the dates begin it was one horror story after another. I felt bad that she struggled so much but felt like she wasn’t realistic in her approach to dating. She made the same mistake of falling too quickly over and over again. She lacks a backbone and keeps giving in to what other wants from her. It still felt like I was reading a story about a 20 something on the dating scene. Actually, it seemed like her kids knew a lot more than Jessie. Wasn’t a fan of the gay bf trope as it has been done to death and only seemed there to further the plot. Jessie does seem to grow, it just takes a while.
All her experiences, whether good or bad, help shape and give a clearer picture of what she wants from life. I just wish she came on to the dating scene honest about herself from the beginning.