About the Book
One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure.
A woman with high standards. A rival coworker. And the promotion that stands between them . . .
Coder Marina Spicer has no time to waste when it comes to love, hence her long list of dealbreakers. Frustrated by the online dating world, she created Dealbreakers, an anonymous app where women review how men stack up to their internet profiles. Her high standards have served her well at work, so why not in love?
Enter Lucas Kennedy. A charming Irish content writer, he’s the only one standing between Marina and her long-deserved promotion. Much to Marina’s chagrin, the two are paired on a project to test out date ideas, ultimately determining which of them will run the department. Taking a peek at Dealbreakers hoping to learn some dirt about her rival, she finds he’s the worst-rated man on the entire app.
As Lucas and Marina argue their way through mixing cocktails, salsa dancing, and throwing axes, Marina finds herself having more fun than she’s had in years. So when temptation becomes too strong to resist, Marina allows herself to break some of her own rules. After all, if the Dealbreakers say he’s Mr. Wrong, he can’t possibly be Mr. Right . . . can he?
My Review
The end of summer rom coms are coming in strong, and this is another one perfect for a beach day or when you grab your early PSL. I love that Marina is a female coder, and creates the app Dealbreakers to help women review the men they date. Are they being true in their dating apps? Are they a good guy but just not for them? Do they have any icks? Marina had her life planned out, dating her boyfriend for half her life with plans of marriage and kids imminent – until her breaks up with her on her 30th birthday. With all her clocks ticking, Marina doesn’t have time to mess around with Mr. Right Now – she wants that ring and babies and her life to be back according to plan.
Waltz in Lucas, a content writer who works at Marina’s day job and could be standing in the way of her promotion. When the two are assigned to work together and essentially go on a list of dates, Marina gets curious and finds Lucas on her app. Her suspicions are correct – he’s one of the worst-rated men on there and known for a good time and not a long time. While it’s clear Lucas is trying to charm her, she stays steadfast in not breaking from the plan – find her next husband immediately.
While sometimes I felt Marina was a little too stuck in her ways and kind of desperate to find her next partner, I could relate to that sense of losing all your normalcy so quickly and wanting it back. She was smart, talented, and had a great group of friends around her, and was easy to root for. I was completely charmed by Lucas and admired how strong she could be around him – I would be signing up to go on a date with the Irish writer immediately. It was refreshing to see just a good guy being written about – his downsides were played up by Marina and what she desired in a partner, not on Lucas himself. There was a line in this book that really gave me a pause, especially as someone who works full-time in social media. “People loved to talk sh*t on the internet.” “If you could trust anything, it was that people would ruin stuff.” Even the best intentions are met with side-eyes, those with good hearts questioned. Marina trying to do good with the app she created turned into women talking down about their dates and picking apart nice men because they didn’t meet their standards or their list of dealbreakers. While this is a rom com, it really had so much heart and more behind the words. Living in the moment, trusting your journey and being okay throwing away the lists and the timelines. Truly a great book.
5 stars
