Title, Sarah. The Undateable. New York: Zebra/Kensington, 2017.
Mass Market Paperback | $4.99 USD | ISBN-13: 978-1420141832 | 310 pages | Contemporary Romance
3.5 stars
I picked up The Undateable originally because I love finding librarians who are also romance authors (or romance authors who used to be librarians, or librarians who love romance in general), and the premise of a stereotypically “Disapproving Librarian” finding love sounded fun. I bumped it up my TBR when the book I originally was going to read proved a bit too much to focus on while reading simultaneously with the final (currently available) Stormlight Archive book, since I craved something a bit more light and fun.
And it is that. Sometimes the humor in books doesn’t translate well for me, but this one definitely did, and I found myself laughing out loud multiple times at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. While a book being devoted to a heroine being set up on multiple dates with other men by the hero might not work for everyone, I enjoyed this setup.
It especially worked in terms of establishing Bernie’s growth. While I was a bit unsure if she was doing it for the right reasons, I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, as an undateable recent library and information science graduate on job hunt, and I was very much living vicariously through her, knowing that if I had the resources and especially the courage, I might be doing the same thing. And while it is initially awkward to see her try to negotiate things like makeup and heels and whatnot, by the end, I feel like she finds what works for her.
However, I’m not sure if this plot entirely worked as a romance, as I did not really root for her and Colin at all. I mean, Colin has his moments of growth, like the realization that he has gleaned a lot about what women want through Bernie, but there’s not a lot about him that stands out as being spectacular. But there wasn’t a big “aha!” moment where it really all came together where I felt like they were meant to be a “forever” thing, as it’s presented to be by the end of the book. I could see them start dating, but considering how they don’t even like each other at the beginning, I felt like there was a weak transition between opponents and forever lovers.
This was generally a cute book, but weak in developing the essential selling point of the genre for me. However, it has its moments and with its laugh-out-loud-worthy humor, I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good romantic comedy.
Courtney Reads Romance 