virgoreader

★★★★ New Girl with a reverse harem twist: 3 popular podcasters give their bad-at-dating neighbor training on how to date by all being her fake boyfriend.

I picked this book up last minute for my vacation, and absolutely LOVED it. Most reverse harems center around fantasy-ish books, where there's a reason for the multiple love interests... like an omegaverse or "four horsemen of the apocalypse" set up. This book is contemporary and a true romantic comedy. And a complete delight!

I liked the quick set up of the plot: Layla is a workaholic who is put together in every area of her life except romance. Her friendship with the guys is already set up - they've been neighbors for years and have become very close friends. One night after her latest date jumps out of a window to escape her, the guys cook up a new idea: they will teach her to date. 

I love "sex lessons" and while that's definitely touched on in this book, the majority is really them teaching her how to flirt, how to open up, how to trust someone. And again, the reason is sound: they have their own dating podcast that's flagging in the ratings, and decide to make this a new segment on the show (in exchange for Layla getting some advertising airtime for her business). 

The reverse harem aspect was interesting, because of course poly relationships exist in real life but I guess they're more rare in romances? Like I said, I feel like most reverse harems I see are in a non-contemporary setting. But the guys are totally down for it from the jump - they dated another woman previously, so are familiar with this kind of set up. 

The inclusion of podcast episodes as transcripts was genius, as was the positive and negative social media comments we got to read. 

This was a book where I was truly laughing in delight as I was reading, and kept turning the page, not wanting it to be over. The book is over 500 pages but it really flew by.

My only complaint would be the resolution of the third act conflict - I really needed a bit more groveling. Or at least some more time apart before the happy ending. 

But overall, I loved this and I want all my reverse harems to be romcom's, please and thank you.