whitneydaniell

by: Shamara Ray
published: Jan 01, 2023
genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
288 Pages, E-Book ARC Courtesy of NetGalley

Three friends, Dylan, Ivy and Brooke cook up a plan to inventory all the men they know — friends and co-workers — and create a list of six eligible bachelors to set the others up with. Each woman is responsible for finding six men; three for one and three for the other; that way in the end, each woman has a list of six guys to date. They start at the top of the list and if it doesn’t seem like a match with that guy, they move on to the next. Simple enough right?

Dylan’s last relationship ended badly after, what she thought, was going to be a loving proposal on Christmas Day with her entire family around. Even though that relationship went sour, Dylan did not give up her quest for companionship.

Brooke, on the other hand, has seemingly given up on this idea of Prince Charming. She has put her head down and worked her butt off and considers her professional successes all that she needs to sustain her. Brooke has her walls all the way up.

Ivy is somewhere in the middle of the two. She’s not indifferent to a relationship but she’s not super open either. She goes into the Referral Program with an open mind — not too eager, but not too closed off either.

Final Thoughts: The concept of the “referral program” is cute, if there were more eligible men to date, I think women all over would do this. My only complaint is that I have a hard time coming to the reality that some of these men have never met these women before! Not to spoil it but, one “eligible man” is literally childhood friends with one of the women, how has he never been to a housewarming or birthday party? How have they never crossed paths before — do people keep their different friend groups separate?

Another “eligible man” is one woman’s neighbor. You can’t pay men to believe that he would have never met any of her other friends.

Lastly, these men are super rare unicorns in the real world. No children. Great careers. One of the men can just hop on a plane and jet set to anywhere he wants to go in the world. These men aren’t really out here. One “eligible man” effectively communicates his feelings, desires, goals, etc. Those men are definitely not out there. If you’re out here dating men, then you know that they can’t communicate their way through a Cheesecake Factory menu.

This was a quick read. The dialogue and writing were not terrible. I do feel like the main characters’ development was lacking: To me, the men had more personalities than the women. Two of the three men were more emotionally mature than their women counterparts. And the big ‘TO DO’ that comes out as the “plot twist” was boring and over-blown. At Brooke’s big age and with their long-standing friendship, she should have behaved better.

Would I reccommend it? Yes, it was cute. Would I read it again? Probably not.