There's nothing inherently wrong with the book, but I've read many journalist books that it almost feels overdone. It wasn't as cozy as I'd hoped, but the romance was cute. It made the book worth it. Overall it didn't stand out to me.

I enjoyed this book, but didn't love it. It felt like when you watch a Hallmark movie: cute and fun but without real depth. The book kept my attention throughout reading, but I didn't feel a deep connection to either of the main characters or their relationship. Gilmore Girls is my favorite TV show, so I loved those references sprinkled throughout the story!

AS SEEN ON TV is charming, and sweet, as journalist Adina Gellar heads to small town Pleasant Hollow to live out her Hallmark-small-town dreams, and hopefully write an article that secures her a full-time writing position.
This book was comforting and predictable, as Hallmark movies are, and the pop culture references (Gilmore Girls, the Bold Type, Hart of Dixie, etc) were relatable and familiar to me. It felt like there were some fresh, real takes with Finn’s backstory.
I struggled with Adina as a journalist, even her friend “reminded” her she was a journalist and Adina kept thinking how she was asking the wrong questions when trying to interview for her article. She came across as really immature for being 25. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be part of her growth, but I didn’t really feel like she made any.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but I just wanted a little more growth (or maturity from the beginning) from Adina.
Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC of As Seen on TV in exchange for my honest opinion.
This one didn’t work for me. The MC is a 25 year old (Is that too old to be classified as New Adult? It reads more like NA than Romance!) who lives in NYC with her mom, working as a spin instructor and a barista as she attempts to gain experience as a freelance journalist to eventually become a full time journalist. She has a lot of ridiculous preconceived notions about small towns based off of Hallmark movies that just made me wonder if people really think there is reality behind those movies! I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m from a small town or because I’m OLD that this surprised me and made me feel like she was immature. I also felt like her journalism training should have given her a much better foundation from which to begin her small town interviews. I enjoyed that the book was marketed highlighting the Jewish rep of the MC but I felt like it wasn’t as prevalent as I expected based on the marketing.
Maybe I wasn't the right audience for this one? Overall, I was underwhelmed and struggled to be engaged in reading this book, finishing by listening to the audiobook. I did enjoy the narrator, Emily Lawrence, and the ending was cuter than I expected.

4.5/5

As Seen on TV by Meredith Schorr was just the lighthearted and funny book I needed right now. Although Finn wasn't my favorite leading man I have ever had, and this isn't going to be the most believable book you will ever read, I think if you are in the right mood and love a good Hallmark movie it will be a winner. Adina was adorable in that she believes Hallmark movies are real life, so when she travels from NYC to small-town Pleasant Hollow, she is shook to learn that not every small town is straight out of a movie. Her skills as a journalist felt pretty basic and it took the whole book for her to realize it might be better if she talked to people without an agenda and just let something happen organically. This didn't take away from the story for me, but I am sure it will bug someone out there.

There was a great dose of humor throughout, and I really liked that the overall mood of this book stayed light. There are definitely some serious moments mixed in, but for the most part, As Seen on TV is just a great cheesy and predictable read. I know some readers were really annoyed by the MC Adina, but for some reason, I loved her and all of her flaws. I also really loved the audiobook which is narrated by Emily Lawrence. There isn't necessarily anything super special about it, but Lawrence was a solid narrator, and she was completely believable as the voice of Adina. I loved the feelings I caught from As Seen on TV and you better believe I will be buying a finished copy to keep and revisit later. I really hope Schorr will have many more future books like this one, and I look forward to whatever she writes next.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Stopped at 20% before I started skimming.

I wasn't pulled into Adina's character, which is obviously a big problem. I've never seen "Gilmore Girls," nor am I obsessed with the Hallmark Channel, but I suspect even those fans would find Adina's stereotypes of what small towns are like annoying if not offensive; and her attempts to shape Pleasant Hollow into what she thinks a small town should be even more so. Or not--again, I'm not the target audience.

There was a fair amount of exposition. A love interest I totally didn't buy. Glad some people loved it--just was not for me.

AS SEEN ON TV tried too hard to be a younger millennial/older gen z romance. Packed with corny dialogue like “relationship goals,” “my bestie has serious clout,” and most terribly, “you slayed that article” …this was an absolute mess.

It didn’t sit right with me that the author repeatedly used the word “gentrification” when referring to new apartments/businesses being built in an EMPTY, majority-white town. Plus, the whole story is about the main character struggling to finish a 400-word article? This made the stakes feel uncomfortably low, especially considering the conflict was resolved predictably and uninterestingly.

The characters were flat. The romance wasn’t terrible, but still pretty boring. Overall, AS SEEN ON TV was a miss for me. A quick read, but cringy nonetheless.


Content Warnings: death of a parent (past), mention of homelessness, alcoholism

This week has been so busy I haven’t shared near enough love for @meredithschorr newest book, AS SEEN ON TV - available now!!! Huge thank you to @readforeverpub for my gifted review copy.

This is a wonderful, cute, small town romance that made me smile, and feel damn good. We all need more of that!

This is total reread material too! Such a lovely romance and Meredith is the best!

This was a sweet, realistic look at love that had a charming, hallmark loving protagonist. The characters where absolutely great, though I wish some of the side characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. The pacing felt a little off at times but I still wasn’t able to put this one down. This was definitely a solid read.

I DNFd this one. The voice was a little too much for me. I love a quirky heroine but it felt forced throughout. The hero was introduced in a weird way that made me think he was a snob so it was a no from me.

Adina Gellar is 25, living with her mother, piecing together an income by teaching spin classes and making lattes all while she pursues her dream of becoming a lifestyle journalist. When she hears about a big city developer building condos in a small town upstate, she gets the idea to investigate a Hallmark movie come to life. She's disappointed to find that the tropes of movies don't always translate to real life.

The setup for this story was cute and it had a lot of laugh-out-loud moments and funny side characters. Adina definitely reads as a 25 year old who is pretty sheltered and I did find myself rolling my eyes at some of her actions and dialogue. Finn was a good love interest, but his codependence with his father was pretty bad.

Content warnings: Finn's father is an alcoholic and the impact of that on Finn's life is a major theme throughout the book. There's a scene where a drunk father insults and degrades Adina using slurs.

Thanks to Forever and NetGalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars for this because I'm sorry to say that this was a very middle-of-the-road read for me. There is nothing wrong with it, but it's also nothing particularly original. Which, in hindsight, might be what they were going for because it's as formulaic as the Hallmark romance movies that leading lady Adina is obsessed with.
A city girl with big dreams of small-town romance brought on by stories of her parents' story and a love of romantic movies and TV shows, Adina is desperate to launch her career as an entertainment journalist when she stumbles upon what she's convinced is the article that will jumpstart her career: a big corporation invading a small town to build expensive highrises and destroy the cozy, friendly culture of the town. The problem is that when Adina arrives at the small town, absolutely nothing is like she expected.
It is interesting to see Adina realizing that the grass being always greener is a saying for a reason. It's in those scenes where her preconceived notions get torn apart that the best parts of the story take place. Reading as Adina starts to accept things as they are and looking for the positive in things is what made this a worthwhile read.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Forever for the read!

Adina is a writer to heads to a small town to write a “actually happening in real life” Hallmark Movie article. Only when she arrives, the town is anything but that. The people are actually in favor of the Big City Corporate Builder coming in to build a high rise apartment builder and bring in chain stores and coffeeshops…..What?!

The story was entertaining and I loved the connection between Adi and Finn (Big City Corporate Builders project manager). I found it comical that the story didn’t go as planned and Adi had to find different angles…some that also didn’t work out.

This book was billed as a nod to Gilmore Girls, but I seemed to have missed that connection outside of the small town setting. The plot was familiar but not predictable. I also enjoyed the Jewish representation.

4 Stars

Thank you to @netgalley and @readforeverpub for a free copy of this book.

If you are a fan of Hallmark movies, this is the book for you! Cute, small town romance with lots of classic rom com tropes. A fun, fast read!

This was such a delightful read! We follow Adina Gellar, a disillusioned city girl looking for her big break into journalism. She thinks she may have found the story she's looking for when she learns of a big-time corporation's plans for development in the small town of Pleasant Hollow--because if TV movies have taught her anything, it's that small towns will do anything to protect themselves against this sort of threat--but when she arrives, she discovers that everything she knows about small towns may actually come from an unreliable source.

First of all, can we please have more protagonists who still live with their parent(s) in adulthood while they're getting they're footing in a career path? Adulting is rough out here, and if you can live with a parent there's no reason why that should be looked down upon. I also loved how close Adina was with her mom, and it was lovely seeing their relationship on page.

I also really enjoyed the romance and humor in here, as well as ALLLLLLL the TV references. This was such a great read, and I can't wait to see what else Meredith Schorr comes out with!

This was SO cute and so much fun to read! I love Adina and her personality, I loved her relationship with her mom throughout the book. I really loved Finn and the relationship that developed between the two of them. This was a fun, sweet and heartfelt read! I loved the casual Jewish rep!

As a big fan of both Hallmark movies and Gilmore Girls, I was so excited to receive a copy of As Seen On TV. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. While the story was cute, I didn’t really connect with Finn or Adina and was left wanting something more.

Adi is a journalist trying to launch her career in NYC while working as a barista and a spin instructor. She thinks she’s finally found her break writing a story about a big developer breaking ground in a town north of the city. She expects it to be just like a Hallmark movie - charming small town doesn’t want big developer coming in, visiting journalist falls in love with small town man, etc… but that’s not what happens. This book was fun and I really enjoyed it! Would recommend as a fun summer read.

As Seen on TV was just okay for me. I didn't connect to the main character or the romance. There was nothing that I specifically didn't like, I was just generally underwhelmed. I hope this works better for others.

This is one of those books that I thought I would love. I love Hallmark movies, Rom Coms and can even tolerate Gilmore Girls (I know, I know!) I can even suspend disbelief with the best of them. However, I felt like this story lacked in some of places.

The premise was intriguing and sounded promising, unfortunately its execution fell flat to me. I found Adina immature and naive--I did not like being in her head. Her character showed some growth there towards the end of the story, but to me it was a case of too little too late. I did like Finn, but I didn't like him for Adina (which is not good for a romance!). I didn't feel any connection between these two and although some of their chemistry bled through, what little did make it to the page didn't come across as genuine.

I admit, there were some good moments in the story. I found myself laughing out loud at points and genuinely getting into the small town atmosphere of the story, but in the end this was a Romance and I wasn't sold on it.

Overall, I believe my enjoyment of this story comes down to a case of "It's not you, it's me" type scenario. I'm thinking that I dived into the story with certain expectations that unfortunately were not met to my satisfaction.

All in all, not for me but an okay read nonetheless.