Review: Not the Girl You Marry

Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J. Christopher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Based on the back cover description, I was really looking forward to reading Andie J. Christopher's "Not the Girl You Marry." Unfortunately, I ended up being pretty disappointed with it. I've always liked the movie it's based on ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"), but for some reason, what worked for me in the movie didn't seem to translate very well to the page.

My biggest problem with this book is that, unlike in the movie, I didn't get a sense of urgency from either of the main characters, Jack and Hannah, about having to end the relationship when their time was up, so it seemed like they were going out of their way to hurt each other for no reason. In the movie, main character Andie's boss explicitly told her that she had to make a guy fall in love with her and then drive him to break up with her before the magazine's publication deadline. By contrast, I don't remember Jack's boss being so specific with his initial instructions. He just told Jack to write a how-to on losing a girl, and in exchange, Jack would be allowed to work on his political story. It was only in their (much later) follow-up conversation, when Jack told his boss that he wanted to call the whole thing off, that his boss said the girl had to actually dump him. (Regardless, I'm not sure how Jack's boss would have known whether or not the girl did so since he didn't even know who she was, so Jack could have done pretty much whatever he wanted to do, without repercussions.)

As for Hannah, she didn't have to break up with Jack at all. She had just convinced herself that she didn't want to be in a romantic relationship because she was afraid of getting hurt again, so she planned to dump Jack before he could dump her. Unlike in the movie where Ben pursued Andie because of a bet from his co-workers (who actually picked Andie for him!), Hannah's co-workers had no idea that her relationship with Jack was fake. At one point, Hannah claimed that her boss "bet" her to date him in exchange for a promotion, but it didn't seem that way to me at all. As a matter of fact, I don't recall a promotion even being mentioned when Hannah and her boss discussed Jack for the first time. The only thing Hannah's boss promised was that if she did a good job with the engagement party, she would allow Hannah to collaborate with her friend, Sasha, on planning the Senator's daughter's wedding.

Another problem I had with this book was that, because of Hannah's various past hurts and insecurities, I was really uncomfortable with the way Jack manipulated her, and especially that he decided to go through with his plan even though he knew it would make her feel even worse about herself after they broke up. While watching the movie, I knew that both Andie and Ben would likely be hurt by the other's behavior, but they both seemed so confident that it was easy to ignore the potential impact of their schemes. However, in the book, Hannah's vulnerability was impossible to ignore, and I couldn't help but feel awful knowing what Jack was doing to her. That isn't to say that Hannah's actions toward Jack were right, either, especially since she was planning to dump him all along. It felt different to me, though, because Jack didn't talk about his past hurts with Hannah in the same way that she did with him. She may not have known his potential triggers, but he definitely knew hers.

To be clear, I didn't think that "Not the Girl You Marry" was a terrible book, but unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as I had hoped I would. There were a few funny scenes, but despite those, I just don't think I can recommend it.

*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss. All opinions expressed are my own.

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