Cover Image: Not the Girl You Marry

Not the Girl You Marry

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This book was just an okay read, I felt like I was reading it just to say I read it. It wasn’t a badly written book, the story just was not holding my attention. There was no surprises. No big plot twists. Jack and Hannah has good chemistry but it felt like this story has been done before.

Was this review helpful?

i enjoyed this book, but it has been a long while since i have read this, and i do very much apologize for that. but this one just wasn't that enjoyable for me, even though i did somewhat enjoy it.

Was this review helpful?

i loved everything about this book. The characters and the humour really hit the spot!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Was this review helpful?

Yikes, terrible writing. And so VULGAR. I really didn’t need to know that much about the “hero”’s oral sex habits with his exes right in the first chapter. Unbelievably boring instalust between the MCs as well.

Was this review helpful?

This was a fun read. A bit predictable but it was a re-telling so I wasn’t too hung up on it. While I know the whole point was that they were both lying to each other for promotions, it all made me feel kind of icky. I also didn’t love that, once it was revealed that they were lying, one person’s lie was somehow worse than the other’s..? Three stars. I look forward to what the author does next.

Was this review helpful?

I was initially drawn to the book because of it's comparison of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Dates. But the more I read, the more I remember why I don't watch this movie often. The concept in book format just made me cringe and the deception aspect made me more uncomfortable than I would've liked. The gender flip was a good idea in theory but watching the hero act like Kate Hudson's character was more than I could handle. I wanted to love it but unfortunately I found it more frustrating than anything.

Was this review helpful?

I see the loose threads to How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days, but that is what barely kept me attached to this story. The characters spoke and acted very out of of character for this setting and it overall was unnerving. Overall, this was such a disappointing romance for me.

Was this review helpful?

Loved this story and this take on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Is it perfect? No, but it satisfies that quick read and definitely makes me want to read more in the series.

Was this review helpful?

I always love a good rom-com read so I was really excited to pick this one up. It was short and sweet and pretty entertaining. I felt like I was reading a mashup version of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. So that part was fun. There wasn’t really anything wrong with this novel, but it also wasn’t too memorable. Just a a fun, light, and enjoyable read! Thank you netgalley for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

This gender swapped take on “How to lose a guy in 10 days” ultimately fell a little flat for me. The concept was definitely there and while I love multicultural characters, the plot was a bit too predictable and the moved far too slowly for my taste.

Was this review helpful?

Andie J. Christopher is a new-to-me author, so zero expectations going in. After shutting the last Kindle page on Not the Girl You Marry, I’m still not sure what I thought of it. It was definitely not a DNF, because “duh” here I am writing about it. So, a page-turner, not in a thriller I want to know what comes next way, but well-paced and engaging. There were many scenes I enjoyed and I think Christopher has a cool way with words. But … there were things about it that turned me off. These may be more about my taste and sensibility than flaws in Christopher’s book, which means it will find many a loyal reader, irrespective of my moues of disapproval/dislike. I know, for one, I didn’t like the premise. Hero Jack Nolan is handsome, charming, and fancies himself “the perfect boyfriend”. He wears the “not a dick” button proudly, as compared to his moronic dickish friends. When the novel opens, he’s drinking with said friends – reluctantly – because he’s sworn off the dating scene; too many of his girlfriends, though he did all he could to keep them happy, have dumped him. He’s sacrificed too much of his career to them, so his career (more of that later) is what he’s focussed on.

He meets a beautifully feral woman at the bar, however, and the best laid plans of mice and charming, green-eyed men go astray, at least initially. The beautiful woman is heroine Hannah Mayfield, who’s out with her female buds, having sworn off men after she was dumped by her last boyfriend, Noah. The chemistry, she is thick; the banter, she is sharp. Over a street-burrito, Jack and Hannah kiss …

… and the plot thickens because, despite all evidence to how much Hannah and Jack like and are attracted to each other, they separately decide to use the other to further their careers. Jack works for an online paper writing fluffy dating-scene pieces, but he wants to write politics. His boss says he might give him a shot at it if he writes a fluff-piece on what to do to get yourself dumped by a girl. Jack decides his guinea-pig girlfriend for the dump-piece will be Hannah. Hannah, in turn, works as an event planner of raucous sports-themed events, but yearns, despite her cold, cynical anti-love heart, to plan weddings. When she approaches her boss with this desire, and with no less a senator’s daughter’s wedding on the line, Annalise, Hannah’s boss, says she might give her a chance to prove her wedding-planning chops were she to show Annalise that she can be someone’s girlfriend. Hannah decides, though she’s sworn off men, sex, and relationships, that Jack will be her pretend-boyfriend. And what Jack doesn’t know won’t hurt him. So, you have two people resolved to lie to the other builds this romance novel.

The dating dance, which at least now, under pretense, can be sustained to keep these two apart and yet together deals with Christopher’s need for a conflict. Make it internal and make it a lie (well, lies). What is lost, in the interim, at least from this reader, is any liking for the protags, and what is added is an impatience to get the ruses out of the way. Christopher never convinced me to like Jack, or to believe Hannah’s hard-ass act. Jack often came across as smirky and Hannah as soft vulnerability … except for her constant harping on emasculation, in one scene with her stilettos; in another, an ice pick.

Hannah and Jack’s banter was funny, clever, and quick and I did enjoy it when Hannah wasn’t being particularly bloodthirsty. The extended premise-lie? Not so much. Christopher is a pithy writer and I enjoyed the writing if not the characters, or premise. The other thing I found annoying was the strangely crude, yet strangely closed-door love scenes. However, to give credit where credit is due, I think Christopher had a good thematic reason for them. And when the grovel-HEA-final-love-scene arrived, it was magnificent. I loved it. So, some good, some bad is my final half-baked verdict. Would I read Christopher again? I’m still not sure. With Miss Austen equally-conflicted and way more scandalized, we say Not the Girl You Marry is “almost pretty,” Northanger Abbey.

Andie J. Christopher’s Not the Girl You Marry is published by Jove (Berkley). It was released in November 2019 and may be procured at your preferred vendor. I received an e-galley from Jove-Berkley, via Netgalley.

Was this review helpful?

I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, it was not the book for me. The characters felt very flat and therefore, I didn't care about how they got together or their romance. The idea was really interesting and I didn't mind the writing style. I will likely give this author another try in the future.

Was this review helpful?

This really pains me to do, but after two separate tries, I've decided to put this one aside and not finish. I really liked the idea of the story, and knowing how much I enjoyed the movie 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,' I was hopeful that this would be a fun and unique twist on that.

I'm not sure if it was the writing style or the characters themselves. I am not a fan of instalove, although what was displayed here was much more instalust, if you will. For me, Hannah came off too harsh and hardened. I get that she's been burned by guys and that could make her jaded and bitter. I didn't much like being in Jack's head either. I just honestly couldn't find enough in the story to like in order for me to keep pushing through.

It wasn't my cup of tea, but everyone likes different kinds of tea so... try it if it interests you.

I would usually not give this a star rating in order to not unfairly skew the average, but NetGalley requires a star rating, so putting a 3 to try and neutral.

Was this review helpful?

I will take a romantic comedy like this any day where the man has real feelings and the woman has agency of her own. Looking forward to the next book in this world or otherwise.

Was this review helpful?

It wasn't as bad as people said it was but I can tell how some people hate the writing because it reads dry but then the girls have these sassy dirty personalities coming from left field. I got tired of the mentioning of dick pictures being the worst thing to happen to anyone. It also doesn't make sense that she was having a double standards. She tricked him to having a relationship just as he did that to her?? Why should he be the one only to be blamed? I also understand why the author felt like she needed to explain how insecure our main female character is of her race and how annoyed she was for ignorant people but it was overdone in a way that made the main female character seem stand offish. She wasn't giving anyone a chance and had put her insecurities on others.

Also, the big happily ever after was too big and felt unnatural.

Was this review helpful?

This was just not the book for me, I couldn't get into it compared to the first book. Where I loved the first heroine I wasn't as connected to this one. The writing was still great but I didn't care about either character so it was a DNF for me.

Was this review helpful?

A fun take on the fake-dating trope -- will be recommending this one to fans of romances with tons of banter and chemistry! Fans of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days will not be disappointed!

Was this review helpful?

If you know me at all then you know I am a sucker for a good rom-com novel, and once I discovered Not The Girl You Marry, I knew I would have to check it out!

Not the Girl You Marry was described as How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days with a millennial makeover, and I was super curious to get the authors version of the story. I watched the movie a few years back, and while I didn’t love it too much, I still appreciated the storyline, and I was curious to see how this book would compare. While I had a few issues with the book, I found it to be a fun, steamy read!

Here’s what I liked about the book:

First, it has some pretty great characters. I loved Hannah. She was smart and witty, yet sometimes a bit shy and modest. I loved her snarky attitude and how fearless she seemed. Her roommate, Sasha, was pretty awesome as well. Can we all have a friend like Sasha??

I also liked the storyline for the book, but I didn’t LOVE it. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that both of the main characters were lying throughout the book for their jobs, which is fine and is a storyline that I have read over and over again. Unfortunately I didn’t love most of Jack’s storyline…

Which leads to what I didn’t like about the book:

So, I really, really wanted to like Jack. There were some times in the book where he seemed likable, but then he would do something completely stupid in order to try to 'lose' Hannah for his job. Call me old fashioned, but some of the things Jack did were really awful, and I had a hard time separating the ‘job’ Jack from the ‘real’ Jack. Maybe it’s because I’m hard to forgive, but he really pissed me off with the way he treated her, even if it was for work, and I had a hard time looking past that by the end of the book.

(That being said I did love his family!)

Overall; While I did have a few issues with Jack’s behavior in the story, I did still find this to be a fun read, and I definitely plan to check out Andie’s next book, Not That Kind of Guy, which is about Jack’s sister, Bridget, and set to release in April 2020! (I can’t wait! I loved Bridget!) If you’re looking for a steamy rom-com, do check this out!

Happy Reading!

Was this review helpful?

Andie's writing just keeps getting better and better. Full thoughts and review posted on bookbub at https://www.bookbub.com/profile/nisha-sharma

Was this review helpful?

>YESSSSSS
>How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, (one of my favs) Gender swapped meets The Wedding Planner
>Think the premise & gender swapping is brilliant and worked.
>Perfect for fans of Nicole Byer’s Why Won’t You Date Me? Podcast
>I really enjoyed it, devoured it.
>Guess you’ll either love it or hate. I don’t get the hate, TBH. To each their own.
>Hot steamy make outs and sex scenes
>Totally down for a sequel following another couple
>Liked the characters, fell in love with Hannah quickly. Jack had to grow on me with his too perfect nice guy shtick. But he did.
>Yay BFFs! Opposites that balance and have the right similarities. This one is not as pathetic and put down as the one in the movie.
>Oral sex with pubic hair!
>Man with mommy issues and divorced parents
>Hannah is biracial and dealt with an awful hotep ex.
>I thought it was obvious why Jack was calling Hannah “dutchess” given MEGAN FUCKING MARKLE.
>Jack’s How To article wasn’t as moving as the original in the movie
>Liked this ending better, no complication with moving to further a career
>This is my first Andie J. Christopher book and I’ll be reading more!

Was this review helpful?