Not My Type: A Single Girl's Guide to Doing It All Wrong

by Melanie Jacobson

Twenty-three-year-old Pepper Spicer is not living the dream. She ended her engagement at the last minute because her fiance,a musician and soon-to-be reality TV star, wanted her to sacrifice her own career ambitions for his. Now she's stuck at home sharing a room with her little sister, trying to pay off massive debt for a wedding that didn t happen, and spending Friday nights Facebook-stalking everyone who has a better life. Her therapist father urges her to choose her career dreams and count her blessings by writing weekly thank-you notes, but gratitude is a tall order when she botches an important job interview and has to settle for writing an undercover dating web-zine column the last thing in the world she wants to do. Still, as Pepper ( Indie Girl) chronicles her bizarre and hilarious blind dates, she gives her father's challenge a try and slowly finds herself leaving self-pity behind. Life takes a major upswing as Pepper's column hits the big time and she tastes the exhilarating thrill of success. But there's one tiny the intensely hot man she's falling for is having issues with her job (again). Will Pepper trade her personal ambition for another chance at love?

Genres: Romance, Lds Fiction, Fiction, Clean Romance, Chick Lit, Lds, Contemporary

257 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of "chick lit", but I've seen my share of romantic comedies, and "Not My Type" ranks up there with the best of them. The witty, laugh-out-loud dialogue combined with the hilarious life-insights and ingenious metaphors, put this this novel in the "Crazy, Stupid Love" category rather than the "Wedding Planner" class. The characters, while not always immediately loveable, are nonetheless immediately engaging. And I think that's one of the main themes of the novel: first impressions are rarely true. Even Pepper's first dates, who could have easily come off as cartoonish from the pen of a less talented author, exhibit a glimpse of depth before they leave the stage.

Though the characters are LDS*, the novel is never "preachy". It is expectedly a "clean romance" and I believe the theme of gratitude that runs throughout the novel will be uplifting to all who read.

I got the audio book version, and literally listened to it all day from the beginning of work until it was time to put the kids down to bed (they all got to bed a little late that night). The novel is addicting, so make sure you carve out a good chunk of time before you start reading because you might find yourself staying up until 4 in the morning, and then cursing the author for your lost sleep.

Note for the audio book: the narrator is excellent. She is able to make consistent distinctions between characters' dialogue without calling attention to herself. Her timing in delivering some of the one liners is impecable. I listen to a lot of audio books, and I've stop listening to certains books that I really, really wanted to hear because of a bad narrator. This narrator is great.


_____________________________

* that is to say members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka "Mormons".

** OK, in the interest of full disclosure I am the author's husband, but please don't let that dissuade you from believing my review. I honestly mean every word.

[Janette · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I know an author, I tend to think the characters are a lot like the author. That is why I think that Robinson Wells is a robot, that James Dashner kills things, and now I think that Melanie Jacobson is funny and self-aware--because her characters certainly are. I also think that she at some point either had a crappy job or dated a rock star.

No spoliers here, but Not My Type was a fun, clean romance written in an easy, engaging style. Loved the kissing scene--although I'm hereby putting in a request that in the next book we get to the kissing scene before page 181. Just saying. (And no, Melanie, don't you dare go and look to see what pages my kissing scenes are on. That isn't the point . . .)

I look forward to reading more of Melanie's books!

[Susan Henshaw (Auten) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am lucky enough to be a beta reader for Melanie. I've read all four of her books (two are under contract but not in print, yet), and this is by far my favorite. And I like her others very much. Not My Type takes Melanie's writing to a new level--full of lovable but relatable characters, hot chemistry, and a really fun plot--you will not be able to put it down.

So go do yourself a favor and pre-order this baby. You won't regret it.

[Katie (hiding in the pages) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have another favorite author!! I loved The List and this one was even better! I love the characters--they're so real--they have faults just like anyone else.

Pepper Spicer (and yes, all her siblings have spice names, which was very creative) is down on love--and on life. Working a dead end job, living at home and sharing a room with her 7 year old sister, a broken engagement and heart. Her dad challenges her to a task that could change her life around. And things happen that aren't exactly as planned.

Pepper is snarky, sarcastic, yet big-hearted under the surface. I love the growth she experiences. The supporting characters were awesome!! Josh, and his quiet, easy manner; Ellie and her manipulation; Ginger and her eye-rolling typical teen sisterness; Tanner and his unperfect perfectness; the many, many bad dates. Hilarious!!

I can't wait for another book by this author to come out!!

[Kathy * Bookworm Nation · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw Melanie had written another book I quickly downloaded it to my Kindle. I enjoyed her first book a lot and knew I would be in for a treat. I wasn’t disappointed. I thought this was a fun read, with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments. It took me a little while to warm up to Pepper. She didn’t really act 23 in my opinion, but she does grow throughout the story. Tanner is yummy, I really enjoyed his character. I thought Pepper and Tanner had great chemistry and my only complaint it that I wanted more of the two of them together. My only other concern is that there are a lot of LDS references in the story. I’m LDS so I knew what was going on, but it might alienate some readers. Personally, I don’t think you have to be LDS to enjoy the story. It’s a fun chick-lit type book that will keep you entertained and rooting for Pepper to figure things out.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started out actually despising the main character in this book. Her attitude and actions were disrespectful, childish, annoying, ....I could go on. I thought to myself...there is no way I'm going to like this book. How can I with disliking "Pepper" (the heroine) so much. Pretty soon I found myself being sucked into the story, loving the humor, and WANTING to know what was going to happen. Before I knew it I was LOVING it and couldn't put it down. I loved watching Pepper mature and grow and learn a few life lessons. I ended up really enjoying her sense of humor and cheering her on! I also adored many of the other characters in the story and found myself wanting more when it was done. Loved it! Great, quick, clean read.

[Melanie Jacobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uh, so yeah. I'm saying it's awesome. This is my most favorite of the four I've written. AND IT'S ALMOST HERE. Hooray!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Very cute and fun!

[Ranee Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audience: Adult
Genre: LDS Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Length: 272 pages

Rating: ***** (LOVED it)

The Pros: The wit. The snark. The awesome voice. Considering I follow/stalk Melanie on Twitter, none of that surprised me. I LOVED Pepper as a character. Every character was so great, especially the love interests. Yes. Interests. The romantic arc was fabulous, but what I thought was awesome was that this story really revolved more around Pepper and her journey than it did about Pepper finding love -- although that was important too. And it had great lines. GREAT lines. Melanie spilled a great message without ever, ever coming off as preachy. One important thing I noted so I could remember to share -- I like how Pepper is not "naive" about her attraction to the main love interest. She resists, she doubts, but she admits it instead of floating on along, like a lot of romance heroines I come across, wondering why in the world does this guy keep paying attention to me? Yes. Thumbs up.

He Said/She Said: "From the first taste of butternut squash bisque to the last bite of cherry cheesecake, the food was diving -- as in, I think Courtney's mom stirred everything with angel feathers." (LOVE)

"I guess it's so I can feel like making out with you is sanctioned if we're officially dating."

Okay, and I have to share one more. My *sigh* moment. (You guys know how important it is to me to have the *sigh* moment in a romance book.) "... the gentle brush of his lips drew a sigh from me I didn't know I was holding."

Mmmmmm. Yum.

Disclaimer: Nothing.

[Dlora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really not a five-star in terms of stellar writing but definitely a five-star in terms of my enjoyment and laughter. Pepper Spicer cancels her engagement when her long-time fiancee pushes off the wedding date--again--because of his chance to be on a reality TV music show. And now months later she is managing a sandwich shop, paying off her debts for the cancelled wedding, and wallowing in depression and snarkiness. Her parents (who I adore) try out tough love: either she looks for better employment and writes a gratitude note each week or they'll kick her out of the house. And so she embarks, realizing she has sacrificed her dream career of being a reporter to fit in better with her fiancee's plans for stardom, but she's going to try to get it back. She lands a job as a humor columnist for an e-magazine writing about online dating. She's a great hit but problems arise when she starts falling in love with an unlikely suitor but realizes having a date every week for her job will sabotage that developing relationship. This book hit just the right reading spot for me: a funny story, the gratitude notes were teasers to introduce each chapter, the characters are realistic, the parents are quirky but exactly the kind we'd all like to have, and the romance and conflict are satisfying. I like what one reviewer said: "the imperfect kind of happily ever after that kept me turning pages way past my bedtime." Me too, way too much reading when I should have been sleeping.

[Jolene Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt a LITTLE slow in starting, but Pepper is SO lovable, that it wasn't slow, I just knew there was a romance in here somewhere and I wanted it RIGHT THEN!

A GREAT book. Some of the thank you notes had me laughing out loud, and the last one teared me up.

And the guy . . . yum . . .

The author did a GREAT job with him. He was flawed, more logical than feeling (or so it seemed) but was so, so good.

And I was really, really worried that the book would blow up in a predictable way (it is after all a romantic comedy, and they tend to be predictable) but just like the author did in The List - the problems don't come about the way you expect, and the solution is also very unexpected.

I loved that this story was as much about a girl putting her life back together as it was about her falling in love.

Also - I'm totally going to continue to read everything Jacobson puts out because her books are just FUN.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really loved this book. It amused me greatly. All the way through. And if you know me, you know I love a happily ever after ending. That was EXACTLY what I got. No, really. That's the last line of the book. "Happily Ever After." Did I totally just give everything away?

Here is one of my favorite lines from the book:

"Mrs. Lehman, the bean sprout police, had returned for another tour of duty. Seriously, how anyone could be so passionate about a lack of bean sprouts was beyond me. Boo hiss, Mrs. Lehman."

I think now I'm off to do some Melanie Jacobson stalking....

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars. I loved Pepper. I loved her growth. I loved most the humor. Melanie, you make me smile.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot I read this until I read one of her other books "Painting Kisses" and this title popped up. I like to call these types of books "Book sugar." I loved this book. I loved the quirky. I loved the character relationships. I connected to the the time of life of the main character. Literary masterpiece? No. Absolutely delightful to read? Yes.

[Kathryn Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was hilarious and full of sweet clean romance. Audio Book

[Kate McMurry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasant, G-rated, “enemies to lovers,” LDS romantic comedy from 2011

Pepper Spicer is 23 years old and still living with her parents. From age 18 to 22, at her parents’ expense, Pepper attended Brigham Young University (BYU) and lived in the dorms. At the beginning of her freshman year, she began dating Landon Scott, a handsome, charismatic, fellow LDS member, who is a talented musician. Two years into the relationship, they became engaged and, on top of the ongoing financial burden of paying for Pepper’s education, her parents shelled out thousands of dollars for a wedding that Landon canceled at the last minute. Afterwards, he begged Pepper to forgive him and remain engaged to him, with an actual marriage between them to occur at some future, unspecified date. Very much in love with him and not wanting to lose him, Pepper gave in. Two years after that, when the couple were newly graduated from BYU, Pepper was convinced that, this time around, Landon was finally ready to settle down and tie the knot. Far less blindly trusting than Pepper about Landon’s dependability, her parents rationally refused to foot the bill for another wedding. Undaunted by their pessimism, Pepper ran up $5,000 on her credit card and paid all costs herself, with zero financial support from Landon. And once again, in a “Lucy and the football” move, Landon backed out of the ceremony at the eleventh hour. As before, Landon penitently asked Pepper to overlook his second major betrayal and continue to be his fiancé, under the same dicey terms, of no commitment from him as to when a marriage might actually happen. But this time around, Pepper finally summoned enough backbone to admit to herself that this was a relationship with no future, and she dumped him. Unfortunately, Pepper was so broke due to all the wedding expenses, she had to move back in with her parents, rent free, because she couldn’t afford her own apartment and still pay down her credit-card debt. However, because her former bedroom had been taken over by her 17-year-old sister, Ginger, due to the fact that Pepper was supposed to have moved in with Landon when he became her husband, her parents refused to give it back to Pepper, and Ginger did not want to room with her. The only sibling willing to allow Pepper to take up space in her bedroom was her baby sister, six-year-old Rosemary. Which was yet another humiliating setback for Pepper.

In spite of having a degree in English, or maybe because she defaulted into such an extremely non-marketable degree, the only steady work that Pepper has been able to find for the past seven months, during the tail end of the Great Recession (this is 2011), is as the manager of a sandwich shop. Because she hates her job and is mourning her broken engagement, Pepper has spent all this time feeling sorry for herself. Until, at the start of this story, her father, who is a therapist, calls a halt to her protracted pity party and hits her with some much needed tough love. He informs Pepper that it is past time that she starts deciding who she is and what she wants to do with her life. In service of that objective, he sets two conditions for her to fulfill if she want to keep living at home. First, she must write a sincere thank you note to someone every week for the next year, in order to teach her the emotional and spiritual benefits of gratitude as an antidote to wallowing in victimhood. Second, she must decide what she wants to do for a career and make consistent, visible efforts to go after it.

In spite of Landon’s being an immature, narcissistic boyfriend, whose aspirations as a musician at the time of their two engagements had very little chance of creating a stable income with which to raise a large, LDS family, while Pepper was with Landon, her only career plan was to have a large brood of children like her mother did but, unlike her mother, who has a career, Pepper planned on being a stay-at-home mom. It is therefore a mental and emotional strain for Pepper to attempt to decide what possible career she might be interested in pursuing besides motherhood. The past few years, she has been posting a rather self-indulgent blog, that only her family reads, as a kind of public diary of the life and death of her romance with Landon. But, at the very least, it has given her some practice in writing. She was also a reporter on the school newspaper in high school. Based on both of those experiences, as well as her English degree, it suddenly occurs to Pepper that it might be enjoyable to become a journalist. But she soon discovers, to her dismay, that the print news media is massively contracting, and there aren’t any jobs advertised in her geographic area. In the real world, in 2011 (and continuing up to the current day of 2022), there were (are) only two major newspapers in Salt Lake City. That reality is accurately reflected in this novel. The fictional, “Bee News,” in this book is clearly based on the real life Deseret News. DN is owned and operated by the Mormon Church, and its nickname, "the Bee," came about because “deseret” is the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon. Bee News is described as conservative in the novel, and Deseret News is conservative in the real world. The other newspaper in the novel is given the fictional name, the Salt Lake Advocate, and it is described as “liberal.” This paper seems to be modeled after the real-life Salt Lake Tribune, which is owned by the Huntsman Family. It is liberal enough to have endorsed both Obama and Hilary Clinton, but has not endorsed anyone since then.

Ginger helps Pepper polish her resume and, against Pepper’s better judgment, inflates it quite a bit. Pepper sends out that resume to both of the above newspapers. She would prefer to work for the Advocate, but hears nothing from them. When she unexpectedly gets a call from a reporter named Tanner Graham at Bee News about a new position that is opening up, she is very excited. Unfortunately, the interview blows up in her face when 26-year-old Tanner discovers that her resume is next door to a lie, and scolds her like an unruly child. Feeling mortified and indignant, Pepper tells off Tanner and stomps out.

Pepper revises her resume to make it more realistic, sends it out to outlets that are not daily newspapers and, soon after, she obtains an interview with a lifestyle-focused, online magazine called, Real Salt Lake. The woman who owns it, Ellie Peters, is looking for a romantically unattached LDS woman in her twenties to anonymously write a humorous weekly column, under the pseudonym, Indie Girl. The hook for the column is that it will be based on the young woman’s experiences of going on a first date with a series of single, young, LDS men, whom she has met through an LDS, online dating site called, LDS Lookup. The whole concept is horrifying to Pepper. She dislikes the idea of online dating in general, and she has not dated anyone since her engagement ended. But Ellie tells her it's the only way she can get her foot in the door at the magazine. The problem is, on top of the embarrassment of dating strangers, Ellie is only going to pay her pennies for each click through to the column. So in and of itself, this assignment won’t allow her to make enough money to quit her sandwich-shop job. To sweeten the deal, Ellie says she will also provide other assignments to Pepper, such as writing band reviews, which will be posted under her real name as a byline, and which will be paid for at the magazine’s regular, freelance rates. If, through both these avenues, Pepper’s writing becomes popular enough to increase traffic to the site and bring in more ad revenue, Ellie indicates that this might lead her to eventually hire Pepper for a full-time, salaried position. Feeling she has to at least give her sole journalism option a try, Pepper reluctantly accepts Ellie’s offer.

Meanwhile, Pepper starts going to a different LDS church than she usually attends on Sundays, in order to avoid everyone who knows her. She gradually develops a friendship with a 20-year-old woman named Courtney, who saves Pepper a seat every week in the back pew of the church. It is not until she is invited to dinner at Courtney’s house that she learns Courtney’s last name is Graham. And when Tanner Graham unexpectedly shows up for dinner as well, she is shocked to realize that her nemesis is Courtney’s big brother.

This is the second contemporary romance novel that MJ wrote. It was self-published in 2011, early in her career, when she wrote romances geared toward an audience of women who are members of the Mormon church. In that regard, every single character in this book is LDS. They all live in or near Salt Lake City, Utah, and almost all of them are alumni of BYU.

It's interesting that when I read multicultural romances written by Indian-Americans, whose stories are heavily based in their personal experiences of their Hindu religious communities in the USA, it only feels slightly more exotic than reading an LDS romance written for LDS members, based on their personal experiences of their LDS religious communities in the USA. Perhaps because Indian-Americans seem to make a bit more effort to allow uninformed outsiders to understand the esoteric jargon of their community.

Looking beyond the many LDS insider references, Pepper is an intriguing heroine. She starts out the story as immature and self-centered. But she has a significant growth arc over the course of the novel due to the well-motivated, benevolent intervention of her therapist father. Because the LDS religion strongly prohibits sex outside marriage, unlike the completely non-religious protagonists of secular, G-rated, adult romances, it is quite well motivated that Pepper and Tanner could get to the point of moving toward marriage without ever doing more than exchanging a few kisses. However, once authors such as this one and other LDS, G-rated romance authors, such as Emma St. Clair and Sariah Wilson, remove religion from the motivation for their protagonists’ rigorous avoidance of sex outside marriage, it becomes far less believable in today’s world.

Below is a list of all of MJ’s novels to date, with a notation as to which ones she geared toward LDS readers and which ones she didn’t:

The List, 2011, LDS
Not My Type, 2011, LDS
Twitterpated, 2012, LDS
Smart Move, 2012, not LDS
Second Chances, 2013, LDS
Painting Kisses, 2014, not LDS
Always Will, 2015, not LDS
Southern Charmed, 2016, LDS
Perfect Set, 2018, LDS
Love Bytes, 2018, not LDS

Just One Word, 2019, as Brenna Jacobs, not LDS

Last First Dance, 2019, as Brenna Jacobs, not LDS

Finding Jack, 2019, not LDS

Secrets and Second Chances short story collection (includes Love, Not Luck), 2019, not LDS

The Big Easy & Other Lies, 2020, YA, not LDS

Royal's Best Friend, 2020, as Brenna Jacobs, not LDS

Creekville Kisses, not LDS:
Kiss the Girl, 2021
Kiss Me Now, 2021
Kiss and Tell, 2022

Love in New Orleans, not LDS:
So Not My Thing, 2021
Here for It, 2022
Maybe I Will, 2022

[Lala · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good! I had a hard time getting into it because the main character was kinda depressing for a while but after a while I really liked it!!!

[The Flipped Page (Susan K) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second MJ book, and I know I will be reading more of her books in the future. Her mix of humor, real characters, and just enough romantic tension make for a wonderful read! Her setting, in Salt Lake City, with an LDS single adult background, and in the midst of family life and life events, would be enjoyed by anyone with her witty descriptions and characterizations. Portraying the efforts of Pepper to get her life on the right track, out of her romantic woe is me funk after her broken engagement a week before the wedding, a dead end job, and into her dream journalism job, back into the dating scene and a real relationship was funny and engaging. Her journey as she struggles to pay off a debt, and regain her emotional momentum is funny, and a great read! You will feel "pepped" up after reading Pepper's journey. One of my favorite lines, albeit corny was when Tanner says to Pepper on a trampoline date, "I guess I should have warned you that I meant to knock you off your feet." Having read "365 Thank yous" by John Kralik, the thank you notes that her father assigned her to write that were part of each chapter, also tweaked my interest! So glad her note to Tanner didn't doom their relationship! The lead up to their first kiss was one of the best I have read..Jacobson crafts the story so she gets all the little moments that build to the romantic tension that we all crave...One of my top first kiss scenes of all time...The feelings are there, but the tension before the kiss was what makes it fun!
Genuine characters, poking fun at the other dates that Pepper goes on for her column, her funny descriptions of events, her family life, made for a fun read! Laughs, romance, and fun! Enjoy the ride!
Sorry I re-read my review and have to give it 5 stars. It really was clever and if I had to say my absolute favorite of her books. I can't not give it a 5. I usually reserve a 5 for classic literature, but have read this so many times (I hate to think how many), just to laugh and enjoy the characterizations, the clever way the story was told, it really is an excellent piece of writing!

[Annalisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that what drew me most to this book was Sarah Eden's comment printed on the back of it under the reviews. It was a cute modern lds fiction story and really had me thinking about gratitude and writing Thank You notes during this season of Thanksgiving. It is kind of snappy and has some great one liners in it.

Amazon Product Description:
Twenty-three-year-old Pepper Spicer is not living the dream. She ended her engagement at the last minute because her fiancé—a musician and soon-to-be reality TV star—wanted her to sacrifice her own career ambitions for his. Now she’s stuck at home sharing a room with her little sister, trying to pay off massive debt for a wedding that didn’t happen, and spending Friday nights Facebook-stalking everyone who has a better life. Her therapist father urges her to choose her career dreams and count her blessings by writing weekly thank-you notes, but gratitude is a tall order when she botches an important job interview and has to settle for writing an undercover dating web-zine column—the last thing in the world she wants to do. Still, as Pepper (byline: Indie Girl) chronicles her bizarre and hilarious blind dates, she gives her father’s challenge a try and slowly finds herself leaving self-pity behind. Life takes a major upswing as Pepper’s column hits the big time and she tastes the exhilarating thrill of success. But there’s one tiny problem: the intensely hot man she’s falling for is having issues with her job (again). Will Pepper trade her personal ambition for another chance at love?

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

LDS Fiction. Melanie Jacobson is fast becoming one of my favorite LDS authors. She is so much fun to read and creates characters that are flawed and loveable! Pepper is 23 and coming out of the depression that followed her 4-year failed relationship. Her parents give her an ultimatum: to write weekly thank you notes and look for a new job or they will "assume that living at home is holding you back because we're keeping you too comfortable."

Her first interview is a dismal failure; her only consolation is that she will never see Tanner Graham again. As fate would have it, her new best friend kinda happens to be Tanner's sister. So seeing Tanner becomes inevitable.

While there are no surprising twists or turns in this book, it is a really fun book to read as Tanner and Pepper get to know each other.

[Tressa (Wishful Endings) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pepper has been in a funk for months, after her long-time boyfriend/fiance cancelled their wedding for the second time. Her parents feel they have been plenty patient, but no more. They have issued her a challenge and she takes it to escape the consequences. Things are scary out in the real world with risks and challenges. Is Pepper really ready to face them all?

I loved the characters in this book. The two main characters were both realistic and witty and the supporting characters were great too. The story was well written and I really felt for Pepper's fears. This is an LDS book, but I didn't feel it was so much so that others who aren't LDS wouldn't enjoy it as well. I highly recommend this one!

[Lucinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to confess that both the cover and the first few chapters had me a little wary. Pepper starts out as less than lovable and very whiny but then develops into a very attractive character. The thank you notes are the catalyst to her growth as she begins to turn her life around for the better. I loved the chemistry between her and Tanner- it came across so well that I could almost feel it! The characters are very well developed and the plot won't disappoint. It's a very sweet, clean romance and my favorite from Melanie Jacobson.

[Kristina Brownell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melanie Jacobson is arguably my favorite LDS author. Every book makes me laugh out loud and every ending puts a silly, satisfied grin on my face. Now...having said that....this is my least favorite so far. The beginning was slow and the humor surrounding the main character fell flat for me. I almost quit reading. However, I'm sooo glad I didn't! The last half of this book is 5 stars. I loved it. So, hang in there if you're bored for the first 60pgs. It is worth it.

[Tausha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, fun read. I struggled in the beginning with the main character Pepper. Her attitude just put me off, but it was fun to watch her grow. By the end I had grown to admire her and her spunky humor. Tanner "the hero" of the story was great! There were some great lessons taught also...especially about gratitude!

[Christine Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun book! Quirky characters and a romance blooming from bad first impressions makes for a fun romantic tale. I highly recommend this book and I can't wait to read more from this author!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this whole book. The characters were enjoyable and the book had a great storyline. I'm a sucker for fun books with strong and witty female characters. I also love good banter between love interests. This was a delightful book with great romance.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute! I loved this. This was my first book by this author but I am going to read more. I enjoyed the second half much more than the first and I loved how she changed and her perspective changed. I will read this again!

[Ashton Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second time reading this (listened to the audio book this time). So much fun! And it was pretty relatable when I was in my early twenties, so I felt sympathy. I really should read some more of this author’s work because she can write!

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book turned out to be quite enjoyable. The first chapter or so I wasn't sure I would like the main character, but she matured well and kept me rooting for her. There were some really funny parts that made me laugh out loud. Overall a really fun read.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun read! Pepper will keep you entertained throughout.