How to Get a Life in Ten Dates by Jenny L Howe
If you’ve ever felt frustrated by dating, you’ll enjoy new release How to Get a Life in Ten Dates by Jenny L Howe. This romantic story follows Haleigh, a freelance editor and dog walker who is working really hard to get her life together. And one of mountains that she wants to conquer is dating.
This story features a fun dating challenge in which Haleigh asks 5 of the people closest to her to set her up on dates. The premise is that she will go on 10 dates total, and if she doesn’t find love in the end, she’ll go on a dating sabbatical. And NO ONE can give her any grief about it.
Will Haleigh find true love? Or will she move on to tackling her other goals and challenges? You’ll want to read this book to find out. But first, keep reading for my full How to Get a Life in Ten Dates book review.
And if you enjoyed today’s book discussion, you can find more romance reviews here.
What is How to Get a Life in Ten Dates About?
In this charming new rom-com from Jenny L. Howe, a young woman who’s fed up with dating challenges her family and friends to set her up on ten dates, but gets more than she bargained for when her best friend adds himself to the roster.
Dating as a plus-size woman has been exhausting for Haleigh Berkshire. Sure, she’s only twenty-five, but she’s been doing it for a decade, and she’s beginning to think it’s time for a sabbatical. It doesn’t help that she’s been madly in love with her best friend, Jack, for years—but one disastrous weekend in college taught her the hard way that they’ll never be more than friends.
With her sister’s engagement celebration fast approaching, and her friends and family nagging her about a plus-one, Haleigh and Jack do what they do best: scheme. Haleigh agrees to let her friends and family set her up with ten people—and she’s sure that, once none of them prove to be good matches, her loved ones will finally let her fade into romantic retirement in peace.
To her surprise, some of Haleigh’s dates go better than expected, and for the first time in forever, she’s actually having fun. Until Jack starts breaking all the rules they’d made to mend their friendship in college. He produces a laundry list of flaws for everyone she likes, crashes some of her nights out, and finally shocks her by throwing himself into the mix. Dating Jack has always been the dream, but Haleigh is afraid of the reality. Is it worth risking her best friend for something that may have never been meant to be? (from Amazon.com)
My Initial Thoughts
I don’t know how to explain this, but I loved the writing style right off the bat. Haleigh is a very matter of fact character who was nice to read about, and I felt myself become absorbed in her story right away. I credit that to Jenny L Howe’s writing. She just created this really engaging story that had me rooting for Haleigh from the very beginning.
That’s not to say this is a perfect story. There were certain areas that I will get into later that I felt were lacking and could have been developed more, but overall I really enjoyed this book. I was so intrigued by Haleigh’s dating challenge and wanted to see how it would go.
Haleigh’s Ten Dates
I have to imagine that the author had so much fun coming up with the 10 dates along with ten different personalities to go along with these dates. Some of the different… quirks shall we say? Yes. The quirks that the different dates had were so funny.
In the beginning of the challenge, Haleigh has to decide who gets to pick the dates. She winds up choosing her mom, her grandfather, her roommate, her sister, and her best friend. Each of them get to set her up on two dates.
Haleigh gives them a questionnaire for the dates to complete so that Haleigh can get an idea of who they are, which was a fun idea. I laughed at some of the answers that the different dates gave.
My Small Critique
A side plot to this story is that Haleigh and her best friend Jack were kind of a thing back in the day. In college they went on vacation together and hooked up. And it almost ruined their friendship. But many years later they are back to normal. Supposedly. But we know that Haleigh has had to work extremely hard to get over Jack, and that he’s still on her mind very frequently.
For me personally, this plot line did not really work. It felt absurd that they would have that wonderful few days in Hawaii and then just completely give up on it.
I guess if you factor in that Haleigh has anxiety and panic attacks and Jack has some sort of control issues (Possibly OCD?) of his own, it makes sense that the two of them would just avoid their issues for years on end. But that’s not really healthy.
I know that the author mentions that each of them is in therapy, which is good. But it also feels like maybe the two of them aren’t ready to date yet.
I’m not trying to be overly critical. But I am also in therapy for anxiety and it doesn’t make sense to me that Haleigh and Jack would avoid their problems for so long and that their individual therapists would be okay with that. Lol.
Would I Recommend this Book?
Absolutely! I really enjoyed this book. It was a pleasure to read about a character who knew what she wanted, and what she deserved. Haleigh’s confidence in herself was refreshing. And as a fellow person with anxiety, it was great to read about a character who was anxious, but was also setting goals and working to improve their life.
In Conclusion
Thank you so much for reading my How to Get a Life in Ten Dates book review. If you enjoy contemporary romance (with humor and heart), definitely check out this book. It’s a really engaging story that will make you want to root for Haleigh (and whoever she ends up with… no spoilers!).
