Mom-Com by Marika Ray

I so wanted to love this book. The blurb was awesome, it was a whole new spin to the most classic of tales, and it felt really fresh and inventive.

What could possibly go wrong when the story is about Lily-Marie, a single mother of two, who decides to try tips from the 1950s to catch a husband? All the while her new (hot) neighbour Jameson is trying to prove to his son that romantic love doesn’t exist and uses Lily-Marie as his subject. That sounds like a fun, quirky story with endless potential.

But unfortunately, my high expectations weren’t met.

Don’t get me wrong, it was an entirely nice and passable read. The story had the most charming vibe, the characters were appealing and the family dynamics were lovely. There was such a homey feel to it all, I kind of wanted to go live in the book for a while.

I love funny and witty reads. The romances I enjoy the most are the ones that combine lovable characters with wit and smut. So it felt like an utter letdown that Mom-Com so clearly tipped over the edge, from wit to exaggerated comedy, so quickly. Many of the scenes were so over-the-top silly and embarrassing that I just had to stop reading and take a break. In other words, I was pulled out of the story again and again simply because I was cringing so much.

Once I accepted the fact that the story was more of a comedy than a romance, I did enjoy the read way more. I started to re-evaluate my first impressions and was almost entirely convinced it was actually really charming, and it being so original made it even better.

Then the ILU-incident happened. I mean, what the ever-loving fuck! Come on! I had just started to warm up to the read again and Ray had to ruin it by introducing declarations of love way too soon for it to make any sense. But okay. I took a break. And went at it again. And I learned that yes, I could in fact enjoy the story despite the ILU.

Only then date-night happened. The scene when Lily-Marie and Jameson finally get it on is probably one of the most awkward sex-scenes I’ve ever read. Sure, they changed positions a lot, but that was about it. I felt completely cheated. I was counting on the dirt to save the day …or read, as it were.

And as the icing on this very irregular cake, I had a very hard time overlooking the obvious misconceptions of how scientists work. Jameson’s “experiment” doesn’t fulfill even the most basic criteria of experimental research, so to repeatedly refer to him as a professor, a scientist, and mention his analytical capability is just irritating. But I realise that most readers won’t bat an eye at those fallacies in Mom-Com, but since I’m an actual scientist myself, it’s hard not to flinch from Ray’s descriptions.

In conclusion, this is a perfectly readable book. A solid 3-star. It’s a shame really, because the story-line is really fun and original, and the characters are awesome. But to me it was the most uneven read in that some parts were fantastic while some parts ruined the entire experience.