I enjoyed this book. It didn’t blow me away by any means, but it was still a cute read.

Parts of it were very cringy but I think that was the point because of hallmark vibes.

I started out by listening to the audiobook and I didn’t not enjoy the narrator so I think I might have liked this book better if I would have skipped the audio entirely.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

My favorite part of this book is the cover.

The first three quarters of this book were so bad, but by the end, it had grown on me a bit, which is why I gave it three stars rather than two. Though it could have grown on me because it was just SO LONG. At least, it felt way too long.

The main character, Adina, has the worst case of main character energy in the universe. She thinks she is the main character in everyone’s life and everyone else is just a dumb side character, there to fill a sterotypical role. The language and slang were so cringe and difficult to read at times. I wish I had written down every line or word that made me cringe or go WHYYY, but I think I would’ve taken down a third of the book.

I will be filing this under “couples who don’t stay together when the book ends” and hopefully erasing it from my memory.

At the end of the day, this author wrote a book, and I didn’t and that is something to be proud of. Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Light, fun spin on the Hallmark movie market and the classic celebrity-in-real-life dilemma. Realistic characters and romance without being syrupy. That's not easy to pull off!

Adina hasn’t had much luck with love or with her writing career. That’s when she sees there’s a small town being targeted for development she starts thinking. How about she goes to this small town to find her happiness and maybe even help save the town? If she writes the article that can do this, she might be able to start her dream career as well.

I’m a big fan of the small town romances and movies/shows. Gilmore Girls has always made me want to live in Stars Hollow, so I was hoping Pleasant Hollow would be the same. Our main character finds out that not all small towns are what they seem and her dream article may not be what she wanted it to be. I do love that the author showed us that not all small towns are like what you see on TV. Even if we all want them to be.

I did love learning about the people who lived in town and Adina wanting to help them keep things cozy instead of turning into something its not. That’s where things got tricky, because Adina did get on my nerves at time. When the town wasn’t what she wanted she decides she should change it for her article. I mean you can’t force things to go a certain way.

The encounters with Finn were interesting and I loved him as a character. His life had him busy and certain things made relationships hard, but Adi started opening up those walls. Apparently you can find love in other places than expected. I enjoyed that their relationship wasn’t perfect from the start and they did have struggles. The article Adi ends up writing really made me smile and how it all ended as well.

If you’re looking for a fast and fun read with some Gilmore Girls references I definitely suggest picking up As Seen on TV!

I was so so so SO excited when I learned Meredith Schorr would be publishing a new book and with Forever, no less, one of my favourite publishers. I’ve known Meredith for years and have loved her work so to have her traditionally published rom com, As Seen on TV, in my hot little hands was a thrill. And it was such a enjoyable read, too!

Here's the book’s description:
Emerging journalist Adina Gellar is done with dating in New York City. If she’s learned anything from made-for-TV romance movies, it’s that she’ll find love in a small town—the kind with harvest festivals, delightful but quirky characters, and scores of delectable single dudes. So when a big-city real estate magnate targets tiny Pleasant Hollow for development, Adi knows she’s found the perfect story—one that will earn her a position at a coveted online magazine, so she can finally start adulting for real . . . and maybe even find her dream man in the process.
Only Pleasant Hollow isn’t exactly “pleasant.” There’s no charming bakery, no quaint seasonal festivals, and the residents are more ambivalent than welcoming. The only upside is Finn Adams, who’s more mouthwatering than the homemade cherry pie Adi can’t seem to find—even if he does work for the company she’d hoped to bring down. Suddenly Adi has to wonder if maybe TV got it all wrong after all. But will following her heart mean losing her chance to break into the big time?
OK – tough things out of the way first. I have to say that I wanted to love this one more than I did. Does it mean it was bad? NO. It just means my expectations were SKY HIGH. It was tough to swallow when Adi drove me nuts with her incredibly naïve views on small towns, as I grew up in a small-ish town. That said…I did really like that the story was a twist on the Hallmark movies we’ve all watched. The small town isn’t always the place to find a Happily Ever After!

There was a bit of a nostalgic feel to this book, even though it’s very much a contemporary set rom com with a young heroine. It felt like the rom coms of many years ago, you know the classic ones that we all rewatch over and over again. There was a lot of heart and a lot of cringeworthy moments with laughs along the way and all wrapped up with a Happily Ever After bow. It was delightful.

Schorr created an amazing cast of characters with this book. Even with Adi’s questionable thoughts about small towns and how to be a journalist (my partner is a reporter so I’ve had a front row seat on the profession for a long time), I still loved her. I wanted to hang out with her and really get to know her better, which is something I always look for in my rom coms. And Finn!? Yes, please. I shouldn’t be surprised that Schorr wrote such a fabulous hero because the love interest in her self-published Blogger Girl series is just as wonderful. Adi’s best friend, Kate, and Adi’s mom were amazing side characters and I loved how strong all the relationships were between the women. So good.

Meredith Schorr’s new novel is perfect for fans who love old school rom coms. As Seen on TV is full of love and laughs and will leave romance readers feeling satisfied.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Forever, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Adina is obsessed with Hallmark movies, when she has the opportunity to travel to a small town to right an article for a online magazine about a small town she jumps on the idea. As she soon finds out not all small towns are like that of the Hallmark movies she loves.
While looking for a story she meets Finn. Can she have her Hallmark movie ending?

I was not as excited about this book as I wish I could have been. To me the writing was lacking. It was a cheesy Hallmark movie kind of story. I felt there could have been better character development and chemistry between the two characters.

I choose to listen to this book while I was driving and doing chores as well. The audiobook did add a bit more feeling to the story, but I felt having more than one narrator would have made it even better. The audiobook did help with the reading pace because without it i found myself bored.

Adina Gellar loves Hallmark movies - You know the ones: typically set in a small town and "against all odds" the two main characters fall in love. Well, that is exactly what she is expecting in Pleasant Hollow (which is just a few hours outside of New York). Except Pleasant Hollow doesn't care about the big-city developer moving in on their town, nor do they have quaint little events in the town square. Pleasant Hollow doesn't even bake their own baked goods! It's a travesty really. That is until Finn Adams. Is Finn her dream man that she was supposed to meet? Or just another one of those disappointments from Pleasant Hollow?

Adi knows she'll find love in a small town away from thew city because that's what happens in all of the romance movies she watches,. Only when she actually gets to the small town, it's not charming or quaint. People are not as welcoming as she was imagining they'd be and quite frankly she doesn't enjoy it until Finn is discovered and maybe just maybe she'll find her happiness oooor will she miss her big opportunity instead?

The main character is from NYC and is visiting a small town hoping to find Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls, she even has the same last name as a main character...) and star in her own real life Hallmark romance movie while spinning an article to land her a full time journalist job.

This sounded cute and light which fits my reading mood right now. Unfortunately, I didn't love the main character. She came off a bit clueless, with immature humor and is boy crazy which made her annoying to me. The cringe worthy love scene should have been when I put the book down. I also had a hard time believing she would be a capable journalist since she demonstrated poor ethics and questionable vocabulary. This wasn't for me.

I was skeptical going in as someone who's comfort show is Gilmore Girls that this would be anything remotely close to it. I was, unfortunately, right. I don't think I would have minded if there weren't so many references to Hallmark (though, I get it, that was the whole point), but it was just too much.

Adina rubbed me the wrong way from the start. I don't like a woman that thinks she needs a man to be happy. She can't REALLY believe every small town is like the movies, can she? And that she has to "fix" the town by making it more like Gilmore Girls? Ugh, go home. Her article was so condescending, and I'm shocked Finn didn't tell her that. I'm glad the editor said it, at least! No wonder the Pleasant Hollow residents hated her. She was just creating problems left and right for her own amusement, when the Pleasant Hollow residents clearly didn't have an issue with the new apartment complex.

She never really grew on me. Once she realized she shouldn't try to change the town, she moved on to trying to change Finn and his relationship with his father. Whining about Finn not introducing her to his father as his girlfriend, when Finn clearly had other things on his plate? Grow up! She never really seemed to learn or grow throughout the story.

Finn didn't treat Adina all that well either, but at least he was honest at the beginning about not wanting a serious hookup. They should've enjoyed each other for the time she was in town and then gone their separate ways.

The whole story felt very young and immature. I think I've established that I just don't like New Adult, but I didn't see anything labeling this as such.

Finally, what are the odds of finding one specific person's dating profile in NYC...twice? Also Kate found it on Hinge but Adina saw it on OKCupid.

This story - meant to be Gilmore Girls meets the Hallmark channel - was not my favorite. I loved the own voices Jewish representation, but the story romance felt awkward and contrived. The main character seemed obnoxiously clueless and out of touch with reality, and while there was a little aww moment in the end, overall I found this whole story to be trying too hard.

I love the premise for this story - who DOESN’T want to encounter a small town hunk and fall in love a la Hallmark? Plus, Gilmore Girls references? GIVE IT TO ME. Much like Adi’s experience in small-town wasn’t what she expected, this book also wasn’t what I expected. I had difficulty liking Adi from time to time, and, I didn’t exactly feel like the relationship between her and her love interest was overly well developed. I just felt like I needed to see more development of how they got there, I just couldn't play it out in my mind. Overall, it wasn’t a book I disliked, I just felt more underwhelmed by it than I had hoped for.

I loved Finn and Adina! Adina is a girl after my heart with all her love of Hallmark! She soon finds out that life is not a Hallmark movie, unfortunately. A truly charming story.

Although the basic premise seemed a little bit forced into the sunny Hallmark movie style plot line, I did enjoy watching Adina growing as a person and learning that her viewpoint isn't always the best for everyone, and seeing how she and Finn worked together in their relationship.

This was a cute and quick read. I felt like there were just too many Hallmark references…..which I get is part of the premise of the story….but at times it was a bit much.

All in all a sweet read!

As Seen on TV shows that the best romances are messy, real, and don't always follow Hallmark movie storylines. Adi and Finn learn to let go of expectations, grow up, and kindle their romance where they least expect to find it.

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influenced by receiving this eARC.

Look, I liked this book. Was it a favorite of mine? No. But did it leave a lasting impression on me, also no. It's a cute romance that tries to flip "the typical Hallmark Romance" on its head, which would be a great book! However, I felt like while the book did hold up to the premise (ish), Adi's character didn't really develop in the way I had hoped.

So I am roughly Adi's age and oh my word, would we not be friends. I felt like she had a lot of growing up to do and she never did it over the course of the book or even had the inkling that she might grow up after the book was finished. But no. And honestly I think this is why I had such a hard time getting into it. I really wanted to like this book, but it fell a little flat for me. Finn was fine, and the town wasn't obnoxious either so I appreciated that. But all in all I ended up skimming some pages in the middle and end trying to finish. And I did.

It wasn't the worst thing I've read (obviously I didn't DNF), but I won't be rereading it either. I will be interested in seeing what else Schorr writes in the future though. I thought the book was well written just the characters and some of the plot wasn't for me, which is fine. There were many people who did enjoy the book and that's awesome. Definitely feels like something those who loved The Hating Game by Sally Thorne would enjoy!

This book was so cute. If you're a sucker for Hallmark and small-town romances, this one's for you. The small town vibes made me picture Gilmore Girls and Stars Hallow the entire time, which is always a plus.

Adi is a journalist who lives in New York City. She's very over dating life in the city, and as a big Hallmark fan, thinks the place to find love will be in a small town. She's also trying to find herself in her career. So when she gets an idea for the perfect small-town story, she thinks she's on her way to landing both her dream job and a man. But everything isn't always as it seems.

This was just a super sweet book. I also absolutely adored the Jewish representation. Meredith Schorr did a great job at making the book the perfect twist on a Hallmark classic and making it not too cheesy, but just right!

As Seen on TV by Meredith Schorr
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This story simultaneously captures the hearts of Hallmark movie aficionados and stirs a little bit of chaos in their minds. Meredith Schorr knows how to craft a charming, cheerful and trope-challenging romcom. 👏🏻

❤️‍🔥 Pros
The underlying messages were powerfully and impactfully imparted, including: finding comfort and joy in every element of life; not judging a book by its cover; living in the moment; leaving our agendas at the door in order to engage in truly meaningful conversations; and refraining from forcing our preconceived assumptions onto people and places.

The leading lad, Finn, is compassionate, driven, thoughtful, insightful and sweet. I adore Finn and his strong sense of self. He is a dynamic and unique love interest that kept me turning the pages.

The plot is interesting, flows easily and prompts you to consider the conscious and subconscious assumptions that inform how you see the world. Meredith accomplished this in part as result of expertly polarizing big city anonymity with small town intimacy — but with a twist.

The writing is fantastic: from perfect diction to lyrical phrasing, Meredith is technically and structurally an exceptionally talented crafter of stories. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed her descriptiveness, thoughtful word choice, attention to detail and flow.

❤️‍🩹 Cons
The plot lost me for a little bit in the middle, which could have been resolved with tighter editing. As well, as a freelance journalist I 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 wanted to connect with Adi, but she is not believable as a 25-year-old freelance journalist. Her indecisiveness, lack of confidence, absence of creativity/adaptability and wavering professionalism was frustrating and interfered with my ability to wholly suspend my disbelief. She might have read better as 20-year-old still learning her craft, the nuances of the profession and the level of dedication required to succeed, especially as a freelancer.

❣️ Overall
This is an easy read and fun story from Meredith. I am eager to read more of her work! Her creativity and writing is fantastic, so I am genuinely very excited by her potential for future storytelling adventures.