I love a good enemies to friends story! This story was so cute and fresh, I haven’t read a lot of stories like it. I loved the characters so much and the quirks they had. I usually like a little more steaminess in my romances but this was adorable. I would have liked the ending to have been a little longer and more detailed about where the main characters ended up after but I was satisfied. All in all I enjoyed this read, it was funny, sweet and light hearted.

Laugh out loud funny!! I was charmed and completely entertained. There are areas of the delightful RomCom that will leave you with stitches in your side and swooning just a few passages later.

Ugh, I loved this book. It's incredibly witty, funny and heartwarming. I loved the two authors combined writing style.
It's a modern day rom-com filled with banter and charm. Miles and Zoey are rivals as ghost writers for competing online dating services, (unbeknownst to them). They are also rivals at a coffee shop, competing for space and day old baked goods.
I love Miles's character. He is nerdy, hipster and adorable with an inner hopeless romantic that is absolutely charming. He is also heart broken and a tad bitter about his situation with his ex-fiance. But he can't deny his attraction to cute and quirky Zoey. Zoey is new to New York, from LA, and just trying to get by, make some money and hopefully figure herself out a long the way. Both characters are quick witted and charming in their own ways.
This is more than just a rom-com though. It is an ode to New York and the modern dating world. The supporting characters are just as fun an interesting at the main characters, despite their small roles. This would make a totally adorable indie romcom movie for sure.
Overall, I really liked this book. I laughed out loud and fell in love with the characters. It also made me want to visit New York!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This book is a hilarious commentary on dating in the modern era.

Zoey and Miles are both online dating ghostwriters, i.e. clients hire them to spruce up their profiles, and also to chat with potential matches on their behalf. They are also frenemies who fight over the last day-old stale biscotti at their local café. What they don’t know is that they’ve been chatting with each other online for weeks – posing as their respective clients Bree and Jude, of course – and getting along brilliantly. Soon they both find themselves breaking the #1 rule in the handbook: don’t fall in love with your client’s match.

So what will happen when they find out the truth? Unfortunately, the answer to this question comes too late in the book. I thought the first half of the book was a little… cluttered? A lot was going on in the beginning, and I didn’t really get invested in the book until about 65% of the way in. Too much time was spent discussing their crazy work lives and crazy bosses (Zoey’s boss Mary was an amazing character though!), their clients’ dates, and the Star Wars-inspired Undersea movie that Miles is obsessed with. And as such not enough time with Zoey and Miles IRL, which is a real shame because both MCs are hilarious, snarky, and their fears and motivations are oh-so-relatable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The format or the ARC threw me a bit, because the texts read like the rest of the text, but the story was charming and well paced, I loved their connection, it was a fun, light read.

Oh my gosh. I loved this. It's a romcom that loves romcoms. Even better - it has the flavour of a 1990s romcom. Zoey and Miles are both ghostwriters for people using online dating services - and of course they end up talking to each other while pretending to be other people. The premise was too good to pass up. And this book definitely delivered.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The plot was intriguing but I felt like it took too long for Zoey and Miles to connect and instead there was a lot of information on their jobs. I liked the side characters-Mary in particular. I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

I have to admit: this was smart, unique, entertaining book and I actually enjoyed inner monologues of the characters, cultural references, dating apps’ false advertisement and side effects of virtual build relationships and of course hiring literary Bergeracs as ghost writers to find your ideal match is great plot idea!

But the book was too much wordy and too slow for me! Nearly half of the book, both characters focused on their ghost writing careers and deal with so many absurd situations with their clients and gave each other mean names, cold shoulders, sneaky and hostile glares. The romance parts and their back stories left for the second half of the book and you gotta read a lot of pages till you reach the juicy parts. ( unfortunately we waited too much for GreatScot and DuschessB’s matching parts: which are the online nicknames of our couple.

I wish we may see the matching part and their frenemies to friends to lovers without knowing their identity story-line earlier. And I didn’t like much about Miles: I found him so pretentious, arrogant and I couldn’t empathize with his heartbreak with his ex who cheated and dumbed him, expecting another man’s child. But I liked Zoey and her relationship with Margareth (boss, mentor, big sista), her struggles to gain her freedom and discover the outer world parts, her insecurities and awkwardness attracted my attention. She was lovely kind of quirky character and I hate the guts of her family.

Overall: We have lovely heroine and not so ideal book-boyfriend, irritating hero, smart banters, dialogues, inner monologues. But as I told before the pace is too slow, wordy and we spent so much time till we learn more about characters and their so slow burn chemistry. The book seems like more about online datings’ parody than a cute, sweet romance. I can see the both of the authors are so talented but I wish they could edit some parts and build the couple’s love story a little earlier. I was about to stop reading so many times and it was a little painful experience for me to focus on the story.

So I’m giving smart, humorous dialogues and references: 4 stars

Romance and chemistry : 2 stars

On average :I’m giving 3 stars. I still want to read this duo’s new books. This one has so much potential and promising start. I wish I could love it more or skip the first half to reach the second and more satisfying parts of the book.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for sharing this entertaining story in exchange my honest review.

I love a good Cyrano plotline - add to that the trial and tribulations of modern dating, and you can sign me up!

The story was a bit different from most modern dating novels I've read. I really liked the idea of two rival companies that work to obtain clients who need help with their online dating profile.

Anyone who's used apps knows how hard it is to start up a conversation and maintain it. So this was a really relevant idea, and I'm a little tempted to start something like TITMH (yeah, the acronym sounds exactly the way you think) myself.

Miles and Zoey are both dealing with some stuff, personally and professionally. They don't necessarily think the idea of romance is practical, but continue to endorse it for their clients.

Even so, they're not fully convinced of their services until both of them end up ghosting with each other. This leads to a series of hilarious scenes where Miles and Zoey struggle to be professional and end up working to stop their clients from being with their match.

Tash Skilton's writing really drew me into the story. I loved her snarky observational style. I enjoyed the banter between Miles and Zoey and their inner monologues were hilarious.

There was a good balance of humour and emotional scenes, and the emails were a really nice touch.

I liked the ingenuity of the dating apps invented for the story, and how well they were described through conversation, as opposed to an info dump. In fact, so much of the book could have been an info dump, but the author cleverly wove it into conversation or inner dialogue.

What I didn't like was the style in which the texts were written. There were some points I couldn't tell where the text ended and narration began. It would have been helpful to have the texts in a different font, or indented on the page.

I loved the characters and enjoyed their backstory, especially Miles. It's so rare to see Jewish and Muslim mix children, for the reason the author mentions - so his parents' story was refreshing.

Miles himself is a lovely character. Practical, reluctantly optimistic and kind. He has his flaws, in terms of letting his insecurities after a bad break up guide his emotions, and being kind of prickly at times. But he's endearing in how he's quick to see his mistakes and find ways to make up for it. He's sweet, thoughtful and real - definitely a break from the alpha wall street type heroes who let one bad relationship define them. How Miles handles everything is so much more real.

My heart went out to Zoey. When I learnt her back story, it really hit me in the feels. I wish we had heard the full story a little earlier. I was a bit annoyed by her reclusive behavior at times. I knew there was a reason, and when revealed, it made sense - but it could have been hinted at during the times she struggled at the start.

Nonetheless, she's a great character - smart, funny and self-aware. She's lonely and isn't sure whether she likes it or not. It's something introverts deal with all the time, that feeling of being content by yourself, but also wanting more. She's socially awkward but makes it up with her wit. She knows her shortcomings but tries so bravely throughout the story to overcome them. She just needed a life push.

The side characters were great. Clifford was fantastically annoying and we all know someone like him. I wish we had seen more of Leanne than through emails, I'm sure she would have been great. Ayesha was a wonderful buffer between Miles and Zoey.

Evelynn was hilarious and I really enjoyed Jude and Bree's side story - they were amazing characters on their own.

I loved Miles' parents and hated Zoey's. But the star side character was of course, Margaret. She was eccentric in the best way and I loved her relationship with Zoey. She also brought a geeky fandom side to the story which I loved.

In terms of the buildup, there was definitely chemistry and I enjoyed the gradual progression. Rivals to friends to more is always a nice arc.

I wish that it hadn't taken so long, though. It took almost 40% of the book for Miles and Zoey to tolerate each other. Too much of the book focused on internal office politics and matching with different people. It would have been nice if GreatScot and DuchessB had matched earlier and spent more time chatting online - even if Zoey and Miles were still at odds IRL. I really wanted to see more of that anonymous connection between the ghostwriters, which I didn't get enough of. That would have elevated the story for sure.

Overall, I think Ghosting drew from some typical rom com tropes and offered them up in a fresh and relatable take on modern dating!