I listened to the audio version of Unorthodox Love, which follows Penina, a 29-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman whose infertility and commitment to both tradition and her family have resulted in her feeling like "damaged goods." Deeply committed to her community, she feeds her own need to be needed by trying to be as helpful to as many people as possible. She even agrees to a marriage of convenience to a wealthy man in order to solve her sister's financial struggles.

But even as she "celebrates" her "engagement" to Zevi, the gay Orthodox Jewish man she's agreed to wed, she can't stop thinking about her secular boss Sam.

Sigh. Sam. I have to admit that I liked him by the end of the book, but I am seriously not a fan of the rude-to-swoony character arc that he was written into. For roughly the first half of the novel, Sam is legitimately and inexcusably harsh...but that's supposed to be ok because, really, he's just struggling with his attraction to Penina? (I am rolling my eyes HARD right now.) When are we going to be able to agree that behavior that is understandable, perhaps even excusable, in elementary school is no longer tenable in adulthood?

All of that being said, I did enjoy this book. It is a definite slow burn (and I mean super, super s-l-o-w), but it's well-narrated and kept me listening. Sure, it could have been about two hours shorter--I would argue that Shertok's editor should have specifically asked her to cut about 40% of Sam being an alpha jerk--and we still would've had plenty of pining and character development to make Sam's Darcy-esque transformation believable.

I also have mixed feelings about the compromises that Penina ultimately makes in order to be with Sam. So much of her arc is built on the premise that her commitment to Orthodoxy and tradition is a vital part of her, and then she just...compromises it. But since Sam makes some compromises, too, does that balance things out?

In the end, the issues I had with the novel actually make this an excellent book for discussion. Despite it being perhaps a bit too long, Unorthodox Love would make an excellent book club selection or Readers' Advisory suggestion. That alone earns it a fourth star.

3.75
This book was my first experience with the Orthodox Jewish faith. I hope the portrayal was accurate, because I haven’t a clue, and have no other comparisons.
So, our girl Panina is 29, and never really had a relationship. In her faith, dating is a direct link to marriage and babies. Literally, that’s the purpose as far as I can tell. Which, listen, at least it’s clearly spoken, not just fluffed around. I appreciated that. The problem here, is that Panina can’t have children, and therefore, is basically deemed undateable. She has a matchmaker that is completely unhinged, leading to some of the worst (and most hilarious) bad dates I’ve ever heard of 😂. Panina is a pleaser, who tries to solve everyone else’s problems, loves modest fashion, and has some of the funniest inner dialogue. I really loved her character. She has so much growth throughout the book, but it really takes her a preverbal slap upside the head to realize most things. She meets her new boss, and chaos ensues. The HEA was adorable, but the book felt excessively long. It’s worth it in the end, so sit tight, it’ll happen.
All in all, fun read. I love learning about different religions, and this one really had a ton of tidbits of information about the faith. I really enjoyed reading about the different aspects of it.

What a pleasant surprise! I had never heard of this author, and I had never read a book about Jewish Orthodox so I really didn’t know what to expect when I started this book. And I loved learning about the orthodox, Jewish religion. Penina what is a great character, and I found myself really connecting with her in multiple ways. I love the witty dialogue that literally made me laugh out loud sometimes. I could feel the chemistry between Sam and.Penina and I loved how natural the relationship grew. Super cute, fun, clean romance! Trigger warning for infertility.

I listen to this book on audio. The narrator did a good job with the main character. However, some of the voices of the men in other side characters were a little weird, and her pronunciation of some words were a little off. I would still highly recommend this book and listening on audio is a good experience.

Thank you, NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook.

I'm always if-y when I read religious books, but I'm trying to branch out, and so far, I haven't regretted it. Admittedly, going into this book, I didn't know much about Jewish traditions. However, this novel was both educational and enjoyable.

The characters were sweet, though they had their flaws, and pretty much everything could have been solved with simple communication. Also, the whole "running away when she doesn't love you back" trope is a little overdone.

But, I still loved the plot of this book, and I thought the conflict of him not being Orthodox was really interesting; I don't think it's been done before, which is really hard to find in this day and age.

The narrator, Caitlin Thorburn, portrayed the character well, but there were a few things that she pronounced weird that made me pause. Then again, maybe I'm the weird one.

I was provided an audio galley of this title via NetGalley. This does not influence my opinions.

It has been a while since I have read a romance title. It may be a while before I read another one after finishing Unorthodox Love.

As part of reading this title, I enjoyed learning about another religion/culture that I am not familiar with. However, the characters seemed 2-dimensional and cliché. The summary I was provided made it sound like part of the story would be told from the male main character's (Sam) point of view.....it was not. There were even points where the female main character (Penina) ended her scene and it felt like the next scene should switch to Sam, but we are always brought back to Penina.

Sam spends the majority of the book being mean to Penina and then it is explained that he was only being mean because he was in love with her and dealing with his feelings. No excuse for that behavior.

And Penina is hornier than most bodice-riper main characters I've read. Why?

I listened to the audio version of this title. The narrator's voice is pleasant enough to listen to. However, her attempt to do different voices leaves much to be desired. Her male characters all sounded very much alike to me. The story takes place in Minneapolis and there was a female character with a Southern accent and another with a British accent, with no explanation in the text as to why someone in Minneapolis would have one of these accents!

It was often difficult to know the difference between Penina's inner thoughts/dialogue and when she was interacting with other characters--hopefully that is more obvious in the print version. The narrator also mispronounced several words and it became distracting to me as I listened.

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars and it won't be on the top of my recommendations list.

Unorthodox Love is a hilarious and poignant story. Penina is a 29-year old Orthodox Jew-being single and infertile makes it difficult to date or be matched within her community and she is beginning to think that she is going to be single forever. Penina's life has become very complicated between some serious failed matchmakings, a new grumpy but attractive boss, her sister losing her home, and a proposition from a gay Jew for a fake-ish marriage. Will Penina ever find the love and family that she dreams - this is a romance.

There were so many great things about this book. It was very witty, but still emotional. Penina is such an amazing person and you just want the best for her. She is so dedicated to her family and the dynamic between them all was so fun. I learned a lot about Orthodox Jews and it made me look further into the religion. I love when a book teaches me about a new religion/culture and then makes me do more research to further educate myself; and this book did that. The narrator did such a good job balancing out the hilarious points and the hard-hitting ones. I would recommend the audiobook for this one.

This is not a spicy romance though. There are moments when you feel like Penina is being inconsistent, which some people may not like - I thought it just made her more human. Sam, the taciturn boss, is a bit of a conundrum and his turnaround is not all that believable, I would have liked to have a chapter or two from his POV.

Overall, I highly enjoyed this book. I will certainly be on the lookout for anything more that this author writes. Definitely recommend it to all my rom-com lovers!

This concept needs work. The book probably would have done better to have chapters from the male lead's POV as well. As it is, he is so incredibly unlikeable in the first half of the book that I was flat out rooting for Penina to marry the nice gay guy who wants a beard. Around the 40% mark, Penina says something about trying to reconcile the terrible guy at work with the fun guy he is when they are alone together, but I was like "what? where? because he was also nothing but terrible to her in private either. The female lead is the epitome of "i can fix him" mixed with an unhealthy dose of "any woman who's still a virgin at 30 must be so horny that she'll overlook anything" because GIRL WHAT?!? Maybe if we had gotten to see what was going on inside Sam's head at some of those moments he would have seemed less terrible. But honestly reading this book felt like watching your naïve friend fall into an abusive relationship.

I really liked the idea of a romance about a religiously celibate woman finding true love after waiting for it. Unfortunately, this is not that story. In all the talk of looking for her soulmate, Penina never seemed particularly interested in finding a man with similar religious views. Sure, she looked for Orthodox guys, but it felt like the religious rules ranked higher than an actual love for the God who made the rules. She wasn't looking for a man who took her religion to heart, but rather a man who could check off specific rules of the religion. It was disappointing.

Also, the audio narrator was terrible. Every non-Jewish woman had an inexplicable southern accent. Her male voices often sounded like old women with a frog in their throat. There were a lot of words that were not technically mispronounced (although some of the words were) but were not pronounced at all in a way that the average North American would.

#UnpaidAd | Thank you @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for the free ALC, Unorthodox Love is available today!

Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok, narrated by Caitlin Thorburn, is a romcom centering on Penina, an Orthodox Jew. She's been struggling in the matchmaking department due to infertility, and is considering taking a closeted Orthodox man up on his offer for a cover marriage in exchange for a payout to help her sister. Things get complicated when her secular, and sexy, new boss Sam enters the scene.
I loved that Penina, while deeply religious, still takes part in the secular world through her job at a jewelry store, her friendships, and her volunteer work at a hospital, and we get to see how she incorporates Jewish values into her daily life.
I've got a rather long list of "howevers", though. The book is, at its core, a cishet romance, and it suffers from the usual trappings of one. Sam is at one point called a "powerful alpha man" (barf). The only thing Penina seems to be attracted to is his "masculinity" but like, sis, that doesn't mean anything.
There are also several jokes that poke fun at mental disorders, like Penina thinking she must have a personality disorder because she's so awkward. As someone with a diagnosed personality disorder, these sorts of "jokes" left a sour taste in my mouth. PDs are among the most heavily stigmatized mental disorders, are having the "sunshine" in your grumpy x sunshine say things like this only makes her seem mean-spirited.
As a last nail in the coffin, it was obvious to me that the narrator was not Jewish, between the flagrant mispronunciation of basic words like challah and some overly stereotypical New York Jewish accents. I'm frankly not sure how this was allowed to happen, but it's a big no from me. Fingers crossed they do a re-record for the final release!
Plenty of readers will find lots to love here, certainly more than I did, and of course reading the print brook would solve the narration problems. For me though, I was looking forward to this release and it was pretty disappointing. 2/5

When I was browsing for books to read, a particular book blurb caught my attention, especially the first few lines.

Here are the lines I was referring to: “Twenty-nine-year-old Penina longs for true love and marriage, but being infertile in the Orthodox Jewish community means she’s rarely matched with the cream of the crop—or even skim milk two weeks past its expiration date. Matchmakers either set her up with men twice her age or those with serious mommy issues. At this point, she might as well wear a sign around her neck that says ‘professional virgin’.”

I was sold with the mention of a marginalized community and an older than usual female main character. I was excited to read more about the orthodox Jewish community and I must say that this book was treat in that sense. The main character being someone with fertility issues was also one of the captivating aspects of the book.

I liked the book. It was alright. I just didn’t love it. Trust me, I wanted to love this book, I did. But unfortunately, I was not able to connect with the main characters–Penina and Sam. I tried to connect with Penina. But somehow always felt like an outsider simply watching the events of the story rather than an involved reader present with our characters.

With Sam, I disliked his character from the beginning because of the way he treated Penina. Although he “changed” towards the end or rather it is revealed that it was his constant attraction to Penina that made him behave the way he did. It’s supposed to redeem his character to the reader but somehow I found it hard to get past his rude/weird behavior from the beginning.

But that was not the main reason for my not loving the novel. What I didn't like was that the novel began with an emphasis to Penina’s faith and how it was very important to her. So, the fact that she was able to easily push aside her faith for a HEA, just didnt resonate well with me. While, I am all about character arc and growth, this one didn’t feel like growth.

Overall, the book is a decent read, one that romance fans will enjoy if they put aside the whole faith and angry-coz-I-love-her-too-much male main character trope. I give this book a 3.5 stars out of 5 rounded up to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an ARC copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions expressed are my own.

I found this book so utterly delightful! Though this is a story centered in the Jewish community, I am not Jewish. I don’t think that detracted from my understanding or enjoyment of this story in the least. The characters are fun and lovable and the story is a funny non-spicy romantic comedy. I would highly recommend this book, and the audiobook in particular. I listen to a ton of audiobooks and this is an outstanding one.

Thanks to Dreamscape and NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested to read this because, as I know from for buying my library's romance section, there is *very* little representation for Jews in romance fiction. And as far as I know, zero of that is about Orthodox relationships. so I was keen to read this. Alas, I was disappointed.

Penina is a nice Orthodox Jewish woman who's looking for a nice O.J. man, but her matchmaker keeps sending her on dates with mama's boys and creeps. Penina is unable to bear children, which is a huge detriment for her in the relationship department, but she tries to content herself with living her life, working in a jewelry store, and volunteering to cuddle preemies in the NICU. The hospital is where she has her meet-cute with Sam, one of the hospital's board members, and, as it turns out, Penina's new boss at the jewelry store. SO MUCH is made of Sam's physical attributes, and his limited personality is ignored. He mostly exists as eye candy for Penina (and her coworker Maya), and as a sort of hardass who is rude and finds fault with Penina (who seems not to notice all that much). Penina eventually matches with a rich O.J. man who seems perfect, but who wants her to marry him to please his dying mother, who is unaware that he's gay and has been in a committed gay relationship for years. Penina has a savior complex and takes on all of her family's problems, and her married sister's house is in foreclosure - Zevi, her match, can give her the money she needs to save the day.

At no point does Penina have a conversation about this with her sister. There is a minor plot point in which a 14 year old cousin is pregnant after having slept with multiple partners, but this is only to give Penina false hope of an adoptable child, it seems (no one is concerned for this teenage mom). Penina makes HUGE assumptions about people's lives based on their social media, and is naïve to the point of frustration (and unbelievability). To top it all off, voice actress Caitlin Thorburn mispronounces SO MANY words (Adirondack and challah, just to name a few) - was there no producer involved in this recording?

I liked that she was a "modern" take on an Orthodox woman, but there were a lot of problems with the story that I cannot get beyond. Also, someone please enlighten me as to why an Israeli character reverts to speaking Arabic when excited?

It pains me to say that I was very disappointed in this book. Ordinarily I love a good romance/rom-com, especially one with Jewish characters, but this truly disappointed.

Positives: fun fashion-related quotes at the beginning of each chapter; frank talk about infertility; positive representation of Orthodox Judaism; funny descriptions of bad dates; Zevi’s mother; the Minneapolis setting.

Negatives: the two main characters! Penina is 29 and is not only a virgin, but she has never even been kissed by a man, because of her traditional Orthodox upbringing - the result seems to be that she obsesses over men’s physical characteristics (to put it nicely). She is, in short, horny. Sam is the love interest, but his personality wasn’t attractive at all. There are a couple of scenes where Sam and Penina (she works in a jewelry store where he is the new owner/manager) go to a competitor’s jewelry store to scout them out and the way Sam behaves on their way to the store is incredibly rude - and this is while Penina is being kind and trying to help an older woman who seems lost in the parking garage.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. However, once I realized there were obvious differences between them, I stuck with the audiobook because it was the more recent of the two. The audiobook narrator spoiled the book further for me. At 1.0 speed, the narration was incredibly slow, so I sped it up quite a bit. The worst part was that the narrator mispronounced words: common English-language words like “urinal” and “rabid”, plus fairly common Yiddish words like “challah”, which is almost an English-language word at this point. No, you do not pronounce “challah” with the “ch” as in “church”! She also did a very bad Israeli accent for one of the minor characters. So 2 stars for the audiobook and 3 for the story.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Unorthodox Love introduces the complications of belonging in the Orthodox Jewish communities when it comes to following their traditions and falling in love. The story explores a world where religious beliefs guides the main character's principles. Finding a partner is difficult as it is but Unorthodox Love show readers how religion can take you away from the potential love of your life and how controlling it can be especially in this day and age. This book made me want to throw my phone at something because of how frustrated I was for the main character, Penina, because she simply couldn't just follow her heart. Penina thought a lot of thoughts and it was extraordinary that it was not overwritten. This book made me feel a lot--surprise, frustration, confusion, disappointment, relief and of course, swoon. The book left me yearning for more steam between the main characters, Something like maybe catching glances, eye contact, lusting over forearms?

Now let's talk about the narration. The word "coupe" was pronounced as "coupay," "Zyrtec" as "zyratec," "urinal" as "you-rhi-nal", "patent" as "pay-tent" and "buffet" as "bah-fay". I think it's important that the narrator sticks with the local pronunciation of these words to be consistent with the story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

A book with a mix of overbearing family, a bit of religious trauma, and a cocky MMC. Usually this type of book would be right up my alley, but this time it just didn't hit that sweet spot.

We follow our FMC, Penina, as she navigates her late 20s while her family is all up in her ish to date/get married. I know that this is quite typical of religious families and understand why this, and many other things, are a part of this book. That being said, I feel like this book really beats a dead horse in multiple areas(her family wanting her to settle down, her relationship with Sam(MMC), how she is a fixer, etc). I finished this book because I wanted to read about a culture/lifestyle/religion different than my own - that's what kept me going. The writing itself wasn't bad, the story just didn't feel fleshed out to me.

Audiobook
I will preface this review with the comment that I am not Jewish. I don't know much about Orthodox Jewish culture and traditions, and I selected this book as something different with an opportunity to learn. I did learn something about Orthodox Judaism from this novel. The author clearly explains traditions and customs for those who are not familiar with them. I found this to be well done.
The characters are interesting. The opening section introduces the MC and her situation. This was also well presented and intriguing.
Then the romance ensues. It is fairly predictable, but the way it unfolds and characters are enjoyable. Most romances are a least somewhat predictable, so that is not necessarily a disappointment.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in romance with a cultural POV.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Fiction, Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Deals heavily with infertility and parental sickness. Mentions cancer.

“Unorthodox Love” follows Penina, an Orthodox Jewish 29-year-old that at this point has lost all hopes on getting married—she’s infertile and no proper Orthodox Jew will be okay with not having children of their own. But then in comes an indecent proposal—she is to marry a wealthy (secretly gay) Orthodox Jew in exchange for solving all her family’s monetary problems. It’s a perfect arrangement… so why can’t she stop thinking about Sam, the perfectly secular, objectively attractive, son of her boss, who’ll now be her interim boss as his father is receiving cancer treatment. It makes no sense, he is all she can’t have, so why even give it a second thought, right? Well, wrong.

I loved Heidi Shertok’s writing, it was both engaging and entertaining. I am usually not the biggest fan of clean romance but I must say “Unorthodox Love” left me completely content with this love story. It is truly astonishing this is a debut novel, I honestly can’t wait and see where Heidi’ll take us next.

I don’t think I’d ever heard Caitlin Thorburn as an audiobook narrator but oh, will I be keeping an eye out for her as well. Her voice was absolutely perfect for this novel, she truly found a way to portray Penina in all her anxiously-correct glory, with all her doubts and her inner battles.

I hate when a main character or heroine in a romance novel has to leave aside her beliefs (let that be religious or otherwise) to find a happily ever after. I am so so happy this was not the case for Penina.

Don’t hesitate to grab “Unorthodox Love” if you’re looking for a clean workplace romance where opposites attract and religion is a prominent subject (and where an adorably awkward meet-cute was in play).

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: July 11, 2023

I loved this one! The storyline was good and the characters were interesting. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was great!

3.75⭐️ | 1 🌶️

This was my first read with a Jewish Orthodox rep. When I read the blurb I was quite intrigued so I had to request for the Arc on NetGalley and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to listen to the audiobook!

This ones sweet, funny and light-hearted read. Penina is a 29 yr old, people pleaser who is searching for a partner but after many failed attempts from her matchmaker she’s left to believe she might never find love. Enter Sam… slightly annoying at first, but only because he’s into her! He wholeheartedly respects her beliefs which made me like him more and more through the book.

Overall it’s a really sweet book with a refreshing take on romance.

“I’m sweating like a mohel about to perform his first circumcision”. I absolutely loved the prominent Judaism in this romance! Our holidays, traditions, and values are showcased so beautifully and with humor!
I love that Penina, the main character, has a such a big heart and strong sense of self and I definitely would follow her influencer account in real life!

I also want to point out how much I appreciated the strong message of acceptance throughout this book! I will add though a TW for infertility. I wish I had that ahead of time personally.

Thank you @heidishertok @dreamscape @netgalley for the ARC!

One recommendation - please do not listen to this as an audiobook. I almost stopped listening to the book multiple times due to her inability to do male voices, terrible accident work, and mispronunciation of Jewish words. I only hope it’s re-recorded in the future.

DNF at about 16%
I really liked that it focused on the comedic aspects of a rom-com. However, there was a lot of casual fatphobia, ableism, and other -isms woven into the fabric of the writing.