DNF at 17% - life is too short to finish books like this

I don't know how this book managed to be both so incredibly bland and incredibly annoying all at once. As someone who grew up in a small town, I just....could not with this book.

Adina reads as WAY too young for her age, has the sense of humor of a teenage boy, and is a horrendous journalist, and it's wild to me that we're to expect that all she knows about a small town is based on what she's seen on TV. She lives in New York, not a backwoods cult, for crying out loud. It was also wild to me that this book went through SEVERAL rounds of professional editing—I've read independently published books that were more compelling.

Overall, this entire book feels so incredibly dull and flat and I just could not bring myself to keep reading. (Fun fact - it was also the lowest rated book on my ENTIRE tbr, and I'm wishing I had paid the reviews more attention).

I started this one and the writing just didn't work for me. The main character felt super young and while I potentially could see myself getting sort of invested in the story I didn't see myself giving this more than 3 stars so sadly I had to DNF.

I have seen decent things about her next book which I might give a try.

I couldn’t get into this book at this time. The language felt too immature for my liking. I hope to come back to it at another time. DNF at 22%

This unfortunately was not my favourite book. I couldn’t bond with the narrator due to her inner dialogue just not being realistic. Some of the spicier parts I found to be very cringey and not well written. I wanted to like it but couldn’t even be drawn in by the plot. I also think the pacing of the book was off because the narrator hooked up with Finn 30% of the way through the book. Not my fave, don’t recommend.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but my frustrations with the main character almost outweighed the things I liked.

I really liked the male lead, Finn. I liked how the community Adi already has in the city mirrors what she was expecting to find in her small-town adventure, and I liked reading about the residents in Pleasant Hollow. I really liked the Jewish representation and the premise of Adi’s career as a writer being put to the test with a challenge to “win” a permanent writing position. I was also pleasantly (no pun intended) surprised by how steamy the romance was at times.

Adi’s insistence on forcing Pleasant Hollow into the mold of what she thinks a small town should be was incredibly annoying. I think it took her too long to accept that her assumptions were wrong, which made the pacing in the first third to half of the novel too slow in my opinion. I enjoyed Adi and her story more after she gave up her preconceived notions and leaned into actually looking for a story angle, but then the way she reacted to both the incident that caused her fight with Finn and its fallout frustrated me again. I was glad to see Adi learn from her experiences and grow by the end of the book, though.

I also felt that some of the references specifically to Gilmore Girls characters were so overt that they were almost distracting. For example, directly explicitly comparing Adi and Kate’s relationship to Rory and Lane’s after you’ve just described their relationship and name-dropping Taylor and Miss Patty during a town hall meeting scene were not necessary in either scene. Either the reader is a Gilmore Girls fan and picked up on the reference without needing it clearly labeled, or the reader doesn’t have the pop culture knowledge to make the connection to the reference anyway—labeling the reference doesn’t add anything for that category of reader. As a fan of Gilmore Girls myself, it felt like the author was overexplaining a joke’s punchline every time it happened.

Tired of NYC, Adina is looking for a story, basically looking for her own Hallmark Christmas situation - big city corporation comes to destroy a small close knit town with their development. She thinks she comes across this story.

What she finds is more of a small suburb that is at best welcoming of the development, and worst, ambivalent. Which was not what she was expecting. As Adi is doing her best to force the small town made-for-TV narrative she came up for, to the point where she's trying to get the town to start all these festivals and activities she's seen on TV, she's also starting to get along with Finn, the representative of the corporation behind the development. And maybe sees some of the good that the company is doing?

At least that's small town story is what Adi is telling people she's looking for. As a reader, you know she's looking for more, but don't think she knows she's looking for more until she finds it.

I enjoyed this novel, and how Adi comes to see that not everything you see on TV is true, even when it's fiction. That it's not the population of the place where you live, it's the people that you surround yourself that can give you that small town feeling. The family and friends that will help you celebrate the Jewish holidays, even though they aren't the same religion. The traditions that you make up with your neighbors that have grown through the years. That your community makes up a found family.

However as someone that doesn't watch these made for TV movies, all the references (because there's just a perceived stereotype to these movies that you know its a reference without having watched) were just too much for me. I really wish there was more found family, and less of the forced small town.

I thought I would love this book, but I just didn't. As Seen on TV starts slow and doesn't really pick up until the last 25%. In addition to the issue that I had with the pacing, I never related to Adina. Given her age, she seemed more immature (emotionally and professionally) than she should have been. And Adina was so quick to make assumptions.

A few things that I enjoyed were the unromanticized version of small-town life, the quirky residents of Pleasant Hollow, and the wonderful mother-daughter relationship between Adina and her mom.

I read and listen to As Seen on TV. I would recommend the audiobook, as the narrator was engaging and entertaining.

This was a nice story idea. Everyone loves Hallmark movies and sometimes it’s nice to have a story that is light and fluffy to read. As Seen on TV is that read. I think a lot of people were put off by the slow start of the book but once the two characters get together I found myself rooting for their relationship. Adina and Finn show a perfectly imperfect couple that learns the hard lesson that relationships take work. I gave this book 3.5 stars because of the slow start and the main obstacle to their love story was solved off page. It was funny and sweet and I’d check out another of Meredith Schorr’s books in the future.

I absolutely thought this was super cute and definitely a book I would recommend!! Loved the characters so much! Highly recommend!!!

*Thank you @readforeverpub for the copy in exchange for an honest review.*

If you're a Gilmore Girls girlie, you need to read this small town romance that's got so many Stars Hollow references. If you're a seasonal (or year-round) Hallmark viewer, you'll get a real kick out of this stereotypically setting that isn't what it seems. This is an anti-cheese, fun, charming romance that won't be for everyone, but it totally was for me! Read this if you want a quick, lighthearted, popcorn book by the pool this summer or by the fire next fall.

A cute Hallmark-esque book about a girl ditching city life to search for the ideal small town life.

And it doesn't work like that.

Entertaining, but not my favorite.

I found Adi quite annoying; constantly comparing everything to a Hallmark movie and hoping she lives one out got old fast. I feel like she has never left her house based on the way she thinks small towns work. I love Gilmore Girls and the thought of a small town like that existing, but you can't change an entire town to make it the way you think it should be. Also, the first draft she submitted to her editor drove me mad - it was just mean and I can't believe no one thought to tell her that until he said something!

Finn was an okay character, I don't think they belonged together and didn't have chemistry. The ending was cute although I think he could have done better but as long as she makes him happy...

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love Gilmore Girls so when I saw that fans of Gilmore Girls would like this romcom, I had to read it! It was lighthearted and really funny. I love the small-town feel of books, and I liked how this one was told in the 1st person POV.

Everyone loves a small town romance read! If you’re looking for a good one to take to the beach then this is for you. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for review

I had honestly been putting it off because of various reviews I had seen but once I dove into it I enjoyed the story and the characters more than I expected to.

Adina wants to become a full time writer but is having trouble breaking into the industry so she pitches a small town hallmark type story which is picked up but only if she can produce the story pitched in a short amount of time. Her story takes her to the small town of Pleasant Hollow where she is soon shocked to find that what she has seen on TV is not what this small town is actually like. She is also surprised to learn that the townspeople aren’t all that concerned with he new buildings coming into town which is the basis for her story. Along the way she meets Finn who teaches her something about a love story.

The story was cute and the characters were charming. Adina annoyed me some with this constant need to compare real like to what she sees on the hallmark channel. It seemed naive and misguided. I liked Finn and his immediate instinct to try to help Adina with her article even if it wasn’t going in the direction she had hoped.

Overall this is a 3.5 star read for me. I was entertained enough to keep reading but there were a few things. That kept it from being a 5 star for me.

Thank you to Forever for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I tried really hard to like this one.. I finished it. But this book was not for me. I was looking for more maturity with character growth but I felt like the main character stayed the same the entire plot.

This book was exactly as it was described.

Gilmore girls meets Hallmark meets Carrie Bradshaw/Andi Anderson.

Adina still lives with her mom but decides she needs to get a real steady paying journalist job. She reaches out to an online magazine and needs to write a great story to secure the job. This big city girl decides to write about a small town romance and travels to Pleasant Hollow to seek it out. There she meets a real estate developer, Finn, who she believes is ruining this small town. She has to bring down this mogul! There she realizes that Pleasant Hollow isn’t like the small town romance movies she’s seen. No festivals, no welcoming residents, no tight knit community. While she’s planning on taking Finn down, she realizes he very different from what she initially thought.

This is a very cute romcom. It definitely had many, MANY feels of romcom movies. If you’re a fan, I recommend. Definitely light and fluffy.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Lots of references to small town tv shows and movies in this one. That was probably my favorite part of the storyline.

The actual small town was super dissapointing, not only for the MC but for me as the reader. I began to wonder why I was continuing to read about such a dissapointing place. I still don’t know if I even really enjoyed it.

The romance was alright but not great.

I’m just sort of meh with this one.

I am a lover of Hallmark movies, so this book was a perfect fit for me, a cup of coffee, and a cozy blanket. Taking a twist on the normal plot, this is about a woman who moves to a tiny town specifically FOR the small town feel and comfort, not because she is forced to. Except the town in question is...not cute. Luckily, there's a hot man there to distract her from the sad state of her surroundings.

Fun, a fast read, and predictable in a good way, this is the perfect antidote to dark winter weather.

if you enjoy Hallmark movies while simultaneously recognizing their (delightful) cheese and possibly wishing they had a bit more steam, you'll love this book. Great setting, and I appreciated the Jewish representation