Stefanie's Thoughts: When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill

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.

 What a busy week this has been. We had the Annie matinee yesterday and the first evening performance; I feel like I hardly had any time to read (which sucks). Luckily after this Friday it’ll be back to normal (until next year) to my rather uneventful life, filled with watching bad made-for-TV movies and reading. I’m currently binge watching Blossom, since I realized this week that a channel has started to play two episodes a day of it.

What I did get to read is When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill. I loved her two books under the Ellie Czukas name: Ask Again Later and Top Ten Clues You're Clueless. Both five star reads, so when I spotted this at the library I knew I'd want to read it. The cover is really adorable too and I read comparisons to the Boomerang series by Noelle August (side note: I really enjoyed that series and it was the first new adult series I had read). 

Can I say though how this book made me feel like I was back in college and then at the same time made me feel very old. 

I was skeptically of Joss when we first got introduced to her; she seemed very self absorbed and had this feeling of arrogance to her. I know when she first met Matt she was in a relationship with someone from high school, but I don't even know how to explain it. She just seemed so self-righteous. Matt was a decent enough male lead, but I guess nothing from him really stood out. 

I think what also took away from the story was the constant back and forth to the present and into the past. We'd go from present day Joss and Matt to some random other relationship. Also those two at times seemed to be complete idiots (how do you not realize that you like the other person after 8 YEARS). I think too that it was just hookup with random other people, hook up with each other, and then go back to hooking up with other people. I also always love the friends to relationship plot line in books and movies (I mean I could write an entire post listing movies and book titles that use this. My personal favorite being the Melissa Joan Hart movie Drive Me Crazy) but this fizzled. I was hoping for a solid relationship story with the expected bumps along the way, but those bumps were complete cliches. Nothing new was brought to the table and I actually questioned if Matt and Joss were really suppose to be together. 

After reading this I guess all I can say is just how disappointing I am with this one. All those glowing reviews built this one up to be my next five-star book. I might check out one of her other new adult books Call Me Maybe, but I hope it doesn't turn out to be another pretty cover victim. 

2 stars for this one and based on how many books and movies that use the friends first relationship after premise, I'm going to bombard you with my favorite books and movies that use that. Beware though; it'll be pure fluff. 

Until my next review,

Stefanie