Melonie Johnson

"The perfect combination of sweet, sexy, and make-you-grin moments." - Lyssa Kay Adams, author of The Bromance Book Club "An ode to everything we love about rom-coms." - Alexis Daria, author of You Had Me at Hola In her trade paperback debut, Melonie Johnson brings her signature humor, sexy romance, and strong female friendships in this hilarious romantic comedy about finding perfectly imperfect love, Too Good to Be Real. She plans to prove there's a dozen reasons why life isn't like a romantic comedy, only to discover the one reason it is... While her friends wish for meet cutes worthy of their favorite rom-coms, Julia is ready to give up on love. Swiping right has replaced getting swept off your feet and good old-fashioned romance has become, well, old-fashioned. A writer for a popular website, love becomes the last thing on her mind when impending layoffs threaten her job. As Julia searches for the ultimate pitch to impress her boss, she stumbles upon a resort offering guests a chance to live out their romantic comedy dreams. Real life dating is so bleak, who wouldn't want to spend a week in a fantasy rom-com world with your best friends? At the resort, Julia literally falls into a not-quite-meet-cute involving an aggressive seagull and an adorably awkward guy named Luke who is also participating in the rom-com experience. Julia hides the fact she is there to do a story, but Luke harbors a few secrets of his own. Among further encounters with thieving seagulls, a gaggle of corgis, kisses in the rain, and even a karaoke serenade, their feelings deepen quickly. But could their love be real when they haven't been honest about their true identities? Once the fantasy is over, can they have a relationship in the real world?

A Novel

Too Good to Be Real

sydney

This book was adorable, at first I wasn't sure because it going pretty fast but it was so good. The ending was so cute and such a good parallel to the beginning of the book.

Alexis Aumagamanaia

I DNF’d at 63% bc I simply lost interest but it was cute, enjoyable for the most part. I definitely wasn’t frothing at the mouth to read it, but I also wasn’t having to beg myself to get through it.

Justine Rose

This book really did not work for me. From the cringey attempts to appear modern (the in depth conversation about Big Dick Energy was just so eh), the insta love that really would have benefitted from being slow burn, especially considering the fact that both characters were working and for one of them it was their jobs rule to not fraternise with the guests. Even the Luke, Penelope and Vijay storyline was just painful to read because Luke refused to believe what was in front of him. 
Also the proposal between some side characters? In a book that focuses on how much these characters love rom-coms and grand gestures, the fact that the proposal was so casual and was more involved with telling a third character rather making it a special moment was just so lazy and felt out of character. 
For me the redeeming character/storyline was Andie. Curt actually became someone I liked, and I would have preferred if this story had revolved around them. 
I was very happy to finish this book and not have to listen to Luke and Julia's inner monologue ever again.

Heather Harrington

*I received a copy of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Julia is a writer for a popular website where she creates quirky listicles for the masses. Julia loves her job, but with layoffs coming just around the corner, she knows she has to come up with a great idea to secure her position. As she fumbles to find a pitch, Julia stumbles upon a resort offering guests to live out their romantic comedy dreams. Julia knows better than anyone just how terrible dating is in the real world, so getting to live out her fictional fantasies in real life with her two best friends? Sign her up. Julia was expecting to collect a few fun anecdotes for her article, so she wasn't prepared to have a full-blown meet-cute with the tall, adorably awkward (and oh-so-handsome) Luke, who's also participating in the rom-com experience. The pair are quickly swept away with kisses in the rain, karaoke, and battling pesky seagulls, but both are keeping secrets about who they truly are. Can their relationship last once the credits run?

I don't know about you, but if there was a hotel offering you chances to live out your favorite rom-com moments, I'd be there in a heartbeat. With that in mind, I thought I was going to fall head-over-heels for this, but that wasn't the case. Naturally, this is packed to the gills with references to every popular romantic comedy, and instead of coming off as charming, it made the interactions between the characters feel cliched and lack a sense of naturalness. I also didn't feel like Julia and Luke, and even the side characters (I still can't tell her two friends apart), were developed enough so they felt pretty one dimensional. The romance between Julia and Luke was fine, but again, it just felt like a regurgitation of a movie couple and it was also so easy to see how it was going to play out. Even though I didn't fully click with this, there were some entertaining bits (mostly involving the ridiculous seagulls) and it would make a good summer read for any rom-com fan.

Krystal Pollock

This was such a cute and fluffy read. I really enjoyed the rom com resort theme as I haven't seen that in books and definitely neat to see what that would be like enjoying activities based on rom com cliches. The love interests were fine, communication sooner would have been better but other then that it was a great read.

Too Good to Be Real A Novel

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