Review: Adventures in Online Dating by Julie Particka

Adventures in Online Dating
by Julie Particka
Publisher: Entangled: August
Publication date: Nov. 12, 2018
Genre: Romance
Rating:

For Alexa, the answer to everything comes down to numbers. Three sons. One divorce. One great life…except her boys are getting older and they really need a man in their lives. Enter the number twenty, as in after twenty minutes with someone she knows whether or not she wants them in her life. So, she hatches a plan to meet any man who even remotely strikes her interest—for a twenty-minute date at her favorite coffee shop. It’s the perfect plan to find her perfect match in the most efficient way possible.

Too bad coffee shop owner Marshall isn’t keen on the idea. He doesn’t want his shop to be her speed dating zone—especially since she’s made it clear he’s too young to be a contender. But Alexa finds herself drawn to Marshall in ways she can’t quantify. There’s no easy answer, and once the kids become involved, her well-ordered world threatens to fall apart—twenty minutes at a time.

 

 

 

Alexa is tired of being alone. However, the idea of online dating and meeting the guys who actually email her on there just seems like a huge waste of time. She’s tried meeting people in social settings, but just never clicked with anyone. So, when her friend pushes her to meet some of the guys who’ve messaged her on the online dating website, Alexa comes up with a plan. Instead of giving each guy a date night full of wining and dining, she’ll give each guy twenty minutes at her favorite coffee shop. After all, it shouldn’t take too long to figure out whether the person you’re meeting is compatible or not. However, her plans go off track when she finds herself being drawn to the coffee shop owner. A guy ten years younger and not at all compatible with her life.

This is a cute story. It kind of reminded me of Luke Danes and Lorelei Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. Marshall runs this low-key coffee shop. He’s been eyeing Alexa ever since she started coming into his shop. They have a bit of banter, he hands her her coffee, and that’s that. She doesn’t view him as dating potential. I don’t know why but they just reminded me of Luke and Lorelei for some reason. Maybe it was the whole coffee shop owner and the single mother thing. I don’t know.

With that being said, I wish we could have seen these two interact a bit more on a personal level. A lot of their time together was spend bumping uglies. I never fully felt like they had anything in common. In fact, a lot of their differences were pointed out and never fully addressed. I’m still confused on how Marshall could leave her house in such a complete mess after watching the boys for her one night. I mean, it didn’t even appear that he tried to clean up their fun party night and she wound up staying up the whole night cleaning up the mess… and it never gets addressed. Maybe I’m just weird but that really bothered me. He didn’t even acknowledge that he’d completely dropped the ball, and she didn’t bring it up to him. It was things like that that made me wonder if these two were even on the same page with anything other than sex.

I did really like this story though. I thought as a whole it was a cute and sweet romance. The epilogue brought a few tears to my eyes. I think that epilogue was the best part of the whole story.

 

Favorite quote…

“I learned the hard way that life comes at you faster than you can possible imagine, and I’m not willing to waste time planning when I could spend it living.”

 

 

 

 

5 Thoughts on “Review: Adventures in Online Dating by Julie Particka

  1. Leaving my house a mess would have been a deal breaker for me lol

    It does sound cute and sweet though 🙂

    Karen @ For What It’s Worth

  2. Sometimes the ending makes the whole book worth reading.
    sherry @ fundinmental

  3. That sounds good. I’ve never watched Gilmore Girls but I’ve seen commercials for it on tv.

  4. This sounds like it would be worth picking up even if it has a few issues. A good epilogue can really make a difference.

  5. I hate when the majority of the relationship consists of sex but they say it’s more than sex lol I need to see it to believe they can withstand the test of time.

    But this sounds fun overall.

    Karen @ For What It’s Worth

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