Emily's Reasons Why Not

by Carrie Gerlach

Though her (biological) clock is furiously ticking away, entertainment publicity pro extraordinaire Emily Sanders didn't hear the starting bell. Hitting thirty and watching her best friends settle down, she too wants to have the life that once upon a time ... wished upon a star ... she dreamed she'd have: the house, the kids, the perfect man. But in L.A., where image is everything, "where every beauty pageant winner is an eight in a sea of nines all wishing they were Julia Roberts," finding true love isn't easy. Especially when boyfriend material includes a beautiful young surfer god, an aging music executive, the boss's boss's boss, and a baseball player with two cell phones (one of which Emily doesn't have the number to). With her confidence heading due south like everything else on her body, Emily turns to a smart, sharp-eyed psychotherapist who helps her get past the "flutter, flutter," her old time-tested method for picking the wrong guy. Soon she finds herself able to spot "the reasons," the previously invisible flags of a destined-to-fail relationship, and narrow her focus to stop looking for Mr. Right and learn how to start looking out for Mr. Wrong. Emily's Reasons Why Not is for everyone who has ever wasted her time chasing down the wrong guy for the right reasons, wondering "why" and "when is it going to happen for me?" With the edge of an insider, but the heart of a dreamer, the disarming and unflappable Emily meshes her views on the entertainment industry she works in, the men she's dated, the therapy sessions she mulled over, and "the one" she knows is out there for every woman ... including herself.

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Humor

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jojo · Rating 1 out of 5]

What crap.

Emily is one of the most unsympathetic characters I have ever read about. I didn't want her to be happy; I wanted her to die lonely and alone and unfulfilled. I wanted to punch her and every other no-dimensional, cardboard-cutout, stereotype of a character in this book.

The characters sucked, the plot was stupid, Emily's voice was annoying, the passage of time was really unclear, and the dialogue just felt off.

How such utter crap gets published is beyond me.

I want back the time I lost while reading this thing.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was so unremarkable that I forgot I finished it... 2 years ago.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why do I continue to read chic lit? It's so rarely worthwhile.

[Judith · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first page was so funny...

This is truly one of the dullest, frustrating and most awful books I have ever read. I simply couldn't finish it (I got as far as page 154 out of 266). Basically the lead character, Emily, is in incredible need of a boyfriend who will become her ideal husband, and it's so hard because oh every man she meets has (at least) ten flaws.

I got so sick of her horny personality - because that's what it boiled down to - I really hated Emily's character. Sometimes her reasons 'why not' were 7 times the same thing: he doesn't want to have sex constantly.

I don't know if in the end she changes and realises that relationships don't just consist of sexual intercourse or anything related to that, and I simply don't care. I hated Emily more than I can possibly describe. I felt no sympathy, and I simply couldn't care less if she ended up miserable and alone and died somewhere without friends.

Honestly, as a single 19-year-old who never had a boyfriend before (which I was when I read this book last year) I had more insight in what was needed for a healthy relationship than this shallow and - again - horny person.

If you simply don't care about storylines, build-up and a lead-character with the most shallow personality you have ever come across: by all means, pick this book up and enjoy. But for the more 'sophisticated' readers: never, ever, touch this book unless you want to set it on fire.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all, the writing is not stellar. When a book contains flashbacks, an author has to treat the timeline and the writing tenses with a great deal of care. This author switches verb tenses back and forth within the same paragraph ("He grabs his backpack and says he is going surfing. I knew he wasn't coming back. He smiled, and walked out the door"), sometimes making it very difficult to know if the action is current-day Emily or if it is another of Emily's reminiscences.

Second, the book has no point. It pretends that it has a point and seems like it has a point up until the last two pages, when the author decides that it's more important to be cutesy than to have even a modicum of relevance or poignancy. I saw the ending coming about a third of the way in, but thought that I had to be wrong because the ending, as it stands, undermines the entire rest of the book.

[Sigh.] I'm really not sure why I even bother with this genre of book.

[Angel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could have given this book 2 stars at most, but there were soooo many grammatical errors it made me wonder if this was even edited. That's kind of a big thing because I rarely notice grammatical errors in novels, but in this one, they were so painfully obvious it'll be really hard to miss them. It seemed like something I could read in FictionPress or some other writing site for amateur writers, to be honest.

I did enjoy reading the story quite a bit, though. Especially loved the part about Emily owning a dog because I recently just a got a dog myself so I didn't completely abhor this book.

[Lauren]

This was cute and funny. I laughed out load a lot! It's the perfect summer, girly book. Quick and easy read. I read it in 3 sittings by the pool.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! Fast, light reading!

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can't relate to Emily - you have a friend just like her. Funny, engaging and an overall very good book.

[Joanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ennuyant & décevant. Le psy n'apporte aucun bénéfice ni réflexion aux amours d'Emy. Une fin sans surprise.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I completely related. It opened my eyes to some decision making!

[Audrey Backus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written like the daydreams of an upper middle class middleschooler wondering what their life might be like. Not relatable at all and the main character is mostly irritating, and a wolf dog? Really? I transitioned from interested reader to hate finishing the book by page 16.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful. I'm so angry that I wasted hours of my life reading it.

[Crystal Borror · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, but not great. The character growth went at the wrong pace for me and the ending was not deserved in my opinion.

[Lindsey Lytle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, quick read.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

""

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone out there remember a short-lived tv series staring Heather Graham by this same title? Apparently few of us tuned in, because only six episodes exist (and I didn't catch even one!). The commercials looked funny enough, and despite Heather "Skank" Graham's staring role, I was somewhat interested...just not enough to be bothered looking up the time & channel listing. So when I happened upon the book version (of which I was completely unaware) sitting all alone on the Half Price Shelf, I felt the urge to repent and bought it.

Emily's Reasons Why Not is the story of Emily Sanders and her relationships -- primarily her relationships with men/potential men and her therapist. She's a single, independent, successful woman living in L.A. but can't seem to find 'The One', so she seeks professional help in the form of Dr. Deperno, a.k.a. Dr. D, who gives Emily a wonderful tool for analyzing her mishaps: a list of ten things that went wrong with each man. Throughout the book we learn what makes Emily flutter flutter and how that's not necessarily a good thing!

What I liked most about this book is the way it was written. Gerlach writes like I talk. For example:

At a corporate shindig Emily is trying to meet her hot boss's boss's boss:

"I try my best to seductively grin at David while he waits for me to finish pouring my coffee. 'Emily, right?' I swear to God he low-growled at me. Tingling. Toes, knees, thighs, tingling. 'Good guess.' 'Not really.' He points at my laminated name tag. SHIT! I am such a looossssseeerrr."

...and when deciphering if her current boyfriend is gay or straight...


"Did he just say he doesn't like things that are WET? Whoa, mental tailspin. I am a woman, for God's sake. I am self-lubricating. How can he not like things that are wet? What does it mean?"

All the ups and downs (and way low downs) of insecurity, doubt, abandonment and the quest for forever love, build up this dime-a-dozen chick-lit plot. It's by no means the end-all-be-all, but I enjoyed it. There was a chapter in the middle that affected me personally, which shows that I did let the characters under my skin, and I would recommend this book to others (hence this entry), but it was by no means my favorite book of the summer.

[Karschtl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emily ist Anfang 30 und immer noch Single, was sie so sehr frustriert dass sie einen Therapeuten aufsucht. Der empfiehlt ihr, eine Liste mit 10 Gründen aufzuschreiben warum die Beziehung in die Brüche ging. Auch bei ihren aktuellen Liebhabern soll sie diese Taktik anwenden, und sobald es 10 negative Dinge gibt die Beziehung beenden da sie dann sowieso keinen Sinn macht. Und so erfahren wir, in Rückblenden in den Therapiesitzungen von Emilys bisherigem und später auch aktuellem Liebesleben.

Nette Chick-Lit-Geschichte, bei der aber leider die männlichen Charaktere und irgendwie auch Emily viel zu flach bleiben. Ich kann mich zB noch nichtmal daran erinnern, dass es eine Beschreibung der äußerlichen Erscheinung von Emily gegeben hat. Oder hab ich die überlesen? Oder mittlerweile wieder vergessen?

Ich hab die Autorin dann mal gegoogelt, weil im Buch drin steht dass sie nun als Drehbuchautorin tätig ist. Hab aber nichts gefunden was sie geschrieben hätte, außer eben das Buch für die TV-Serie die nach diesem Roman entstanden ist. Da spielte sogar Heather Graham die Hauptrolle, 6 Folgen wurden gedreht aber in den USA nach der 1. Folge gleich wieder aus dem Programm genommen. Aber genau jetzt werden diese Folgen beim ORF gezeigt!!!! Nur leider kann ich den ja nicht mehr schauen, hätt ich sonst bestimmt mal reingeguckt auch wenn die Folgenbeschreibungen anders klingen als das Buch.

[Mario · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The writing style was off-putting: short pointless sentences, no sense of flow, random sudden time and setting shifts. The side characters, even the major one, had no life of their own; their only point was to act as chorus to inform the main character's inner monologue. It's a very self-centered book, overall. This is basically trying to be a self-help book, but the author either didn't have the confidence or didn't have the credentials to write one of those, so she basically fictionalized He's Just Not That into You based heavily, obviously, on her own (limited) experiences. This would probably have been a better book if she wrote it 10-15 years later, when her own story was over.

[Gerry Bartlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: If you are a pet owner, dog lover, be prepared. There's a scene in this book that will bring out the hankies. I wish I hadn't read it. I was already depressed and this put me over the edge. Maybe I would have liked the book better if I'd been in a different place. Seems Emily is looking for love. And goes to a therapist to figure out why she's always finding Mr. Wrong. The only true blue male in her life is her dog. Oh, don't get me started. Anyway, the ending is okay but not the neatly tied up happily ever after I like. The book was actually made into a TV movie which is why I picked it up. Luckily I found it cheap because it left me disappointed in a lot of ways and with red eyes. Read at your own risk. Oh, it is humorous. Maybe it will be just what you're looking for.

[Jenno · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I had sworn off click lit. But I was on an airplane and my friend had this book so I read it. (Excuses, I know!) I read the whole book, flying from Houston to Portland...so let's say it's an easy read.

I want to give this author credit- she really does try to break thru the formula. And honestly, had I read this book 4 years ago, I might've made different decisions in my life. :) But still, the writing is average. I often had trouble identifying with the main character and finding humor in her mishaps (which is 90% of making chicklit successful, right?).

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Main character of the book at the beginning was a selfish, whiney desperate woman who is ready to date any one she can get her hands on. As the book continues however, you see her grow as she learns her mistakes with the help of a therapist. I absolutely loved the lists of reasons why not to date certain men. Crack me up. By the end of the book though, Emily is much more likeable than she started out to be.

It was an easy read, but probably not one I'd rant and rave about to any one particular.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all the sense of time on this book was so hard to keep up with. Suddenly 7 months passed in two sentences. What? It was very hard to connect to any of the characters and I found myself skipping paragraphs because I just wanted to get to the next page. I felt like it had no ending. It was really not enjoyable to read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sooo do not relate to this character, In fact, i would not respect her much at all if I knew her. But the "reasons" lists and writing style were so entertaining that I just have to give it a 4. Entertaining!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily's Reasons Why Not is funny. There were pages that had me laughing out loud. It's charming. It's also painfully familiar - the whole dating game, the hopes, the fears, the heartbreaks, the new starts and that longing feeling to finally settle down.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, all in all. It was a quick, entertaining read. The lack of closure at the end bugged me a bit, but it was still a good read.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

That there are more than enough single people out there....

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, but kind of felt like a therapy session. Writing was pretty good but story was kind of absent.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a 30-something single woman, I loved this book. I could see myself as Emily - living the day to day thoughts, struggles and just plain heartache that goes with dating.

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. It is basically about her search for love. I feel like she is portraying an image to women that we are nothing without a man though, which is annoying.