Dating can be fun, but it can leave a nasty taste in your mouth. For Joss, ever since her longtime boyfriend cheated on her, she doesn’t want her last memory of a guy to be that jerk. Enter her college friend, Matt. They come up with a theory: after a bad break-up, a person needs to cleanse the palate with a little sorbet sex. Lovers for a night, but always back to being friends in the morning. The two can handle it because they have a contract: rules they wrote, rules they follow and rules they can sometimes bend. The arrangement works: everyone needs a little sorbet now and again … until it starts to be the only thing you want. And then Joss breaks the one rule they never wrote down: don’t fall in love.
Title: When Joss Met Matt
Author: Ellie Cahill
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Expected Publication Date: February 24, 2015
Brooke's Review:
I want to thank Ballantine Books for providing me with a review copy of this book to read and give my honest opinion. Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my idea or review.
I have to say that, while predictable, this book was really quite a fun read. I knew what would eventually happen but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book as I watched it unfold.
What would you do if your best guy friend suggested you use each other to get over your breakups? What Joss does is take him up on it. Every time one of them breaks up with someone, they come together to wipe their memories clean with the hopes of it clearing their slate.
Joss and Matt set up a list of rules. But each time they come together to wipe their slate clean, it seems that list grows. And it does so in a way that allows them to be together more and more. There's no doubt and absolutely no way they could forever stay being friends with all they put between them as the years fly by. And you know that it can't possibly end well. Either one person is going to get hurt, or they both will realize what they have has always been more than just friendship.
And relationship after relationship doesn't work out for either of them because in the end, Joss has figured out she's fallen for Matt. When she finally does get the courage to tell him, it seems he's moved on.
There were quite a few heart clenching moments in this book. And certainly times when you were rooting for these two to figure out they were meant for each other but it doesn't happen. I honestly wasn't sure if it would work out to be a HEA and that really would have disappointed me.
I will say I wasn't a huge fan of the now and then chapters. I understood why it was used, but it was a bit hard to remember where I was in the story. And since the story spans 8 years, you can imagine where the confusion might surface.
If you are looking for a read that is fluffy and fun, one that blends a bit of heart ache with a lot of happiness, then this is the book for you. A light romantic read that leads right where you think it's going to go, even if it does take 8 years to get there!
Liz Czukas is the author of fun YA romances like ASK AGAIN LATER (HarperTeen '14) and TOP TEN CLUES YOU'RE CLUELESS (HarperTeen '14). She also writes fun New Adult romances like WHEN JOSS MET MATT under the name Ellie Cahill.
