Reading about a plus-size character was refreshing, but that wasn't the main draw for me. It was great to see representation, but what really captivated me was the story of childhood friends attempting to date.

It was fascinating to see them navigate their relationship, facing challenges and realizing it wasn't working at first. Their decision to create a plan with platonic rules added an interesting twist to the narrative.

I loved how everything came together in the end. Despite the love triangle, the story finished on a satisfying note, making it a fun and engaging read.

Haleigh Berkshire a plus-size women, with too many bad dating experiences to count, has given her family permission to set up ten dates for her. Her sister is getting married, and she is desperate to find a plus-one for the big event. Secretly, however, she is really is in love with her best friend, Jack. She has accepted they will never be more than the good friends that they are.
As the dating begins, Haleigh finds herself exhausted and Jack, who critiques each dates finds something negative about each one. He even imposes himself, or you could say crashes one of Haleigh’s dates. Each date has issues of some sort although some are funny and others a surprise when Jack adds himself to the line-up. I felt the family was a bit too aggressive in believing that one must go on numerous dates to find happiness. And from having just the right plus-one.
I appreciated that the issue of mental health, such as anxiety, and panic was tastefully addressed, as well as offering some useful methods of coping.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions and comments are my own.

I am indifferent on this book ONLY because i loved and had moments of dislike.
The main FMC was brilliant in a lot of moments (finding her strength was something I resinated with personally) but i also found her to be a bit obnoxious.
The author's writing style is very good and I wpuld read more from them!

Do not knock it until you try it

First and foremost I want to thank Net Galley and the Publisher for a free arc of this book.

2.5 stars rounded up
I was not a fan I didn’t like the outcome of this book I wish it went in another direction. The main character was insufferable sometimes, no wonder she was single. She complained about financial problems but refused to get a job. Her family was terrible. Oh and lastly Jack sucks !!

I absolutely ADORED this one. This was my first by this author and it certainly won't be my last! The writing was superb, the storyline was great, I just loved everything about this book. The chemistry between the two main characters was off the charts. The only thing that bothered me was that they could have gotten together a whole lot sooner if they'd only talked to each other about their feelings! I don't know why the FMC had to date other people when she so clearly had feelings for the MMC. Oh well. It didn't stop me from giving this book five stars. Brava.

This book had me hooked from the first page! I was kicking my feet and giggling the whole time. It was so nice to see some characters from On the Plus Side too, it was a little treat for fans! I’m a Jenny fan for life

I always appreciate an author who takes the time to write a plus size character who is comfortable in her body and her whole existence is not about her body size and/or making sure someone else is comfortablewith her body size. I also love that there was LGBTQ+ rep with both the FMC and side characters.

I loved seeing some of the characters from On the Plus Side bacm again. I thought this was a sweet book.

The mental health representation was accurate and thoughtful, and it really showed the way anxiety and panic can spiral and create a domino effect. It also displayed what coping mechanisms and thoughtful support from those around you can do.

I love plus size representation in books because as a plus sized woman, it can feel very isolating in the literary world when every character is skinny or model-like. I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait to share it with my patrons.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and e-arc! 😁
Release: December 10th 2024

Genre: Rom-Com
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️/5
🚨NOT YA🚨

Plot: Haleigh the main character is working on her transition into a more stable adulthood and has been struggling with dating since high school. Her best friend Jack means a lot to her and she’s been secretly in love with him for 5 years. They kept a set of 10 rules that you learn about over the course of the book to keep their friendship and FRIENDship. In order to get over Jack and to become more open about dating and adulthood… her friends and family set her up on 10 dates which she goes on over the course of the book. Haleigh learns a lot about herself and what love means to her over the entire book

Tropes: friends to lovers, childhood best friend, love triangle, second chance romance, comedy

Things I enjoyed:

-Has you thinking about future plot lines and turning points right from the beginning
-I loved seeing a learning about the different family dynamics during the challenge
-I loved the 🌮 Tuesday scene ifykyk
-I love the general concept of this book because it left plenty of room for humor, romance, and relationships
-Nothing felt dragged on and it was the perfect amount of detailed
-Interesting to see the past timeline
-I LOVED seeing Haleigh grow as a person as she learns to share her true feelings
-I liked to hear about Stanton and Ryan’s relationship with Haleigh and Jack
-Has the reader making their own list of pros and cons

Favorite quote 💝: “God he was a dork. And that only made him hotter.”

Overall I absolutely loved this book I liked the romance with some humor added into the story as well as it being SUPER fast paced.

Great plus-size representation but hated the "she's just a friend" trope as someone who has been on the other side of this... this one confirmed everything I suspected and honestly was a bit triggering. I'm sure it will work for others, but it didn't work for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

2.5 ⭐️rounded up. The synopsis really drew me in and I really enjoyed the plus size rep and lgbtqia+ rep. I thought Hailey had potential as a character but I struggled to relate to her relentless focus on finding “the one,” especially when her family were pressuring her so much. While the concept of the dates held promise it clearly was just a thin device for Jack to decide he wanted Hailey enough to try. I didn’t feel her relationship with Jack was terribly healthy and I couldn’t bring myself to root for them to get together.

⋆⁺₊⋆𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞-𝐚𝐫𝐜 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰! ♡︎

𝟑.𝟓 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

⋆⁺₊⋆ “jack knew her face, her heart, her soul. so many tiny little threads wove them together, creating a tapestry that could bend and twist but never break. jack was her person. haleigh was his.”

⋆⁺₊⋆𝐭 𝐫 𝐨 𝐩 𝐞 𝐬: child hood best friend, friends to lovers, second chance (kind of?), love triangle

⋆⁺₊⋆𝐩 𝐥 𝐨 𝐭: haleigh has had a hard time dating for awhile and she’s secretly still in love with her life long best friend, jack. five years ago, they tried to date but it didn’t work out so they now have 10 rules for their friendship to keep it platonic. in order to get over jack once and for all, she challenges her family and friends, including jack, to set her up on 10 different dates. it gets complicated when their rules get broken during the dating challenge.

⋆⁺₊⋆𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝: this is my first book by Jenny L Howe, and i was very happily surprised! overall, i really like her writing style she’s kind of like a mashup between lynn painter and emily henry! all of the dates that haleigh went on were very well written and funny and i like how they were all distinct and unique. some of them were hilarious! haleigh is also so funny i love her. another thing i like about this book is the focus on mental health. the author did a great job touching on anxiety and how it can affect day to day life and relationships. also i love that haleigh is bisexual 💜 also i LOVE jack he is such a great book bf. what an amazing friend and person

⋆⁺₊⋆𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞: i knowwww that this is a part of haleigh’s character development but in the earlier parts of the book it drove me crazy how she was tearing everyone else down in her head and being such a negative person. idk it got annoying really quickly. but by the end, haleigh became a lot more confident and secure and it was a lot more enjoyable to read! also one small tiny thing is the author repeated several phrases so many times haha it just got old

⋆⁺₊⋆𝐨 𝐯 𝐞 𝐫 𝐚 𝐥 𝐥: i really liked this book! it was so funny and quick-paced which made me not want to put it down. i will probably reread it down the road when it releases and i can get a paper copy! i definitely recommend to anyone looking for a cute funny rom com!

Cutie patootie booty!!! 3.5 stars for me
What an adorable lil friends to lovers tale, and as a proud member of the community blissfully lost at sea to the trope known as friends to lovers, I must say about Haleigh and Jack, well done sailors. I mean all the good things all there, childhood friends (check), longing (check), sweet tension and spicy times when they just can’t take it anymore?! (smirk wink and check). Throughout the plot I had a great time with our FMC and her crazy ten date experiment. I sympathized with her very real struggles as dating really is very hard. I related to her curvy girl life and appreciated her relationship to her body and her outlook on her dating life. I also found the focus on mental health between both characters very well handled and I appreciated how they each supported each other in their own way. Spice rating for this was like a 2-3 pepper IMO

This book had an amazing synopsis- which intrigued me from the start. However, this book fell a little flat for me. In the beginning it was super fun, but I didn't like reiteration of the main character thinking that she HAD to be in a relationship to be worthy. She mentioned more than once that she had been dating for ___ years, and that it was a struggle. Hailey was also only 25... that seems SO young to be worried about not being in love and having another significant other.

The positives is that I really enjoyed the LGBTQ+ rep. I always love when it is included in writing! I also always love a good best friend romance. I think that it is super cute to watch them grow from friends to more.

This book was a solid 3 stars! The beginning of the book really stood with me as I read on!

I couldn't get into this book or the storyline of let's pretend we're not in love with our ex who is now "best friend", have all these rules about our bestfriendship, and go date other people while we're fantasizing and texting our ex the whole time. I thought this book was going to be something totally different. It was too triggering for being someone on the opposite end of the "they're just my best friend, nothing is going on" thing haha.

So I don't recommend if you've also been in that spot.

Jenny L. Howe is one of my favourite writers when it comes to plus-size characters, inclusiveness and funny banter. How To Get A Life In Ten Dates was funny with a refreshing plot, but fell short towards the end for me. Let’s say that it was clear where the story was headed but I would have preferred the alternative? That is just me though!
It was great to “see” characters from Howe’s previous books and to get a glimpse of their lives beyond their books.
It’s a cute read!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

This is a cute friends-to-lovers romantic comedy - we have Haleigh who is still trying to figure out her "messy" life, as she's juggling a ton of copyediting writing jobs, but feels the burden of her family's disappointment that she isn't in a full time job like her older sister, a lawyer. We have Jack, who is meant to come off as OCD - but I feel, ends up falling into classic stereotypes of someone needing things to be clean and organized. I want to add here that while OCD can present as someone being "obsessive" about cleanliness, the important part is that it's a compulsive action, not that it just should be clean generally.

One of the major breaking points between the two is a prior vacation, where the two had slept together, and then missed a flight that couldn't be rebooked. Haleigh handled it easy breezy - we can get a new flight (which, I'm not going to lie, is laidback in a way I can't understand, but that's okay, I accept) and then Jack freaks out because he has an important exam on Monday which they would be missing. Although they never mention or chalk up any of Jack's idiosyncrasies to OCD, this is supposed to be somewhat representative -- and it just isn't? Really, none of his behavior is, as there's primarily signs of stress cleaning, which is not a compulsion, but rather a coping mechanism. I apologize for rambling about this - I think the author did a decent job with the anxiety representation in Haleigh surrounding her finances, but I'm a big stickler for appropriate OCD representation because it is bungled a lot in media, and that was an important standout point to me.

As far as the book, this was a fast one-day read for me! It's definitely fun, easy to go along, and I enjoyed reading about her many disastrous (or not!) dates. I did get frustrated with Haleigh being so unkind to her older sister in her internal monologue - it felt very self-centered, and a little bit extreme, though I think the underlying sentiment of this sister as a nagger was completely fair, but some of the writing was so...mean? And I also think the "I don't have my life together at 25" representation was well-explored and discussed, and I definitely appreciated that. I didn't absolutely love the resolution of their relationship as far as Jack apologizing for what occurred in the past - I love a good apology and grovel, and I didn't feel like this hit that spot - it would've made more sense to me if Haleigh had come to terms either with "yes, I am a mess" or if Jack had done more apologizing (if Haleigh had held that grudge.) I did love the plus-size representation!! I'd give this book a 3.5 stars in that it was a fun fast read that kept my attention - but the downsides of all the above as I'm typing it out brings it down to a 3 for me.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.


I'm a huge Jenny Howe fan. I absolutely loved "On the Plus Side" and was excited that this included some of the characters from that book.

I really struggled leaving a review b/c I just didn't feel the chemistry between Haleigh and Jack. Haleigh's dates were funny and I was happy to go along with it even if they were outlandish. I think what really annoyed me and slowed the pace was that it took so long for the night in Hawaii to be explained. Having a crush on your best friend and being too scared to tell them is one thing, but having hooked up with your bestie and then pretending you hadn't, setting up rules, and then teasing the reader without early disclosure kind of annoyed the heck out of me. I just couldn't understand what their relationship was -- what the tension was -- what the reason was -- that they couldn't be together and it slowed the pace and really just prevented me from getting into the story.

Also -- if dating is an issue and your roomie works for On The Plus Size -- couldn't they hook you up for a dating show?

Also, as a confident curvy girl, I was surprised that this book wasn't a bit more about the real difficulties of dating when you have a plus-sized body in a society that doesn't always accept that. I'm glad the dates weren't focused primarily on this, but leaving this out is also not realistic. I read the note to the reader and I get it, but I also think that even in body positive literature, there needs to be some recognition that plus-sized people still face stereotypes and prejudices -- so I was mixed about this.

Again, I love Howe's writing -- it's smart and witty and I love her body positive MC's.

3.5⭐️ Such mixed reviews on this one! I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was a love/hate situation but that does embody the rollercoaster I went through as far as my interest.

I am thankful to have gotten the eARC for free from Netgalley and St Martins Press so I can leave my voluntary review.

On one hand it’s great to normalize different body sizes in media in general but I prefer it just be as opposed to be hyper focused on the size of the person. This book is a bit better than some others I’ve read where it doesn’t get too bogged down in her being plus sized however it is still a prevalent thread through her mentioning getting outfits from her roommates job. That job is a reality show called “on the plus side”. Honestly if the show was mentioned one more time I was going to scream. Especially since the book wasn’t about the show at all and we didn’t have real details about it. That’s actually a book I would have preferred to read.

The bizarre part? While her weight is mentioned at the beginning of the book, during the actual dates you never see it mentioned as an obstacle at all. That’s what the description of the book talks about in how it impacts her dating life. It doesn’t. Or at least it’s never mentioned how it impacts things. So much that she talks about how her bad dates have nothing to do with her. The disconnect from the book jacket description to what’s actually on the page is huge.

On one hand the dates that she went on were hysterical. A bit out there in the realistic category but still a fun exaggeration of a bad date. But on the other hand are families that much in single people business that it’s all about them being in a relationship? It’s like she had no value beyond that.

I also liked her relationship with Jack for the most part but the miscommunication trope (with Jack and with others) was too much. However there were part of the book that just got slow and I got disconnected, put it down and read another book before returning to it in an effort to just finish it and clear it from my NetGalley.

So I rated it right down the middle. I think that many will like it and find it endearing and possibly relatable. It’s really predictable for sure but that’s ok.

The book comes out December 10th 2024 so it may be a great quick read to have for the holiday season, especially if you’re single and lonely.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Love Haleigh and Jacks relationship, I wish that we got to see more of them than the dates she went on. I would have been fine just reading Haleighs summary of each date when she told Jack about them.