Thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads: Happy Singles Day
Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca
Publication Date: 19 January 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

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As a Certified Professional Organizer, everything in Paige Parker’s world is as it should be. Perfect apartment, perfect office, perfect life. And now, the perfect vacation planned to honor Singles Day. After all, what’s better than celebrating her pride in being single? Because who needs a man anyway? They have zero taste in quality television, leave the toilet seat up, and sleep with your best friend. No thanks. Her life is fine just the way it is.

As the owner of a now-dormant bed & breakfast, Lucas Croft’s life is simple and quiet. It’s only him and his five-year-old daughter, which is just the way he likes it. Because who needs a woman anyway? They nag you to clean up your stuff, want the toilet seat put down, and expect the dishes to be done the same day the meal is cooked. No thanks. His life is fine just the way it is.

But when Paige books a room that Lucas’ well-intentioned sister listed without his knowledge, their two worlds collide. If they can survive the week together, they just might discover exactly what they’ve both been missing.

TL;DR: The cover is what first caught my eye and the synopsis sounded interesting so I was really looking forward to reading it! This was an easy-to-read romance that had some funny and silly moments but ultimately it’s not a romance that stands out for me and is somewhat forgettable. Also, if you’re not into reading steamy scenes, you’re in the clear for this one as it’s very light on the steaminess with fade-to-black scenes.

Hope and Lucas weren’t awful characters but there wasn’t anything particularly memorable about either of them, and neither do we get to know them beyond a very surface level. Hope was a sweet heroine who became a workaholic after being hurt by love in the past and decided that she won’t make time for it in her future. She’s a professional organiser and has her own company that allows her to pretty much be like Marie Kondo. I really liked her “bff” and assistant, Sammy, and reading their banter was probably the most fun I had in the book. I really wish we saw more of him!

Lucas definitely started off on the wrong foot and was honestly a right knob. Of course, I understand why he’s ‘grumpy’ but at the same time his judgements were so unnecessarily rude and because of what? All Hope did was breathe and he lost his cool and went off on some pretty patronising and misogynistic rants that definitely didn’t work to endear him to readers. It doesn’t take very long for him to shed that rudeness but I felt that his change in attitude came about very suddenly, and (imho), happened mostly due to his sexual attraction to Hope. Again, we don’t learn very much about their characters or go into greater depth exploring their pasts or understanding makes them tick other than what we learn of their surface.

The story itself takes place over a week so to say their romance happens quickly isn’t an understatement and while I normally hate insta-“love” I initially felt that it didn’t progress very unrealistically. People have sexual chemistry, bonds grow in close quarters over short periods of time–it happens, right? But then that ending happened (even before the epilogue) and blew that thought of the water 😂 It just made the romance unrealistic because I don’t think their chemistry was *that* great. I also felt that the epilogue was entirely unnecessary and also confusing in parts because I didn’t get the timeline. Overall, if you’re looking for a very light and quick read that doesn’t take much thought to get through (say, a palate cleanser), this could be the book for you. Sadly, it wasn’t really for me!

Have you read Happy Singles Day or is it on your TBR?