Tag: Graydon House Publishing

3 Really Cool Takeaways from How To Hack A Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway

.Reading time 7 minutes.

How To Hack A Heartbreak

by Kristin Rockaway

Published July 30, 2019 by Graydon House

Goodreads Rating: 3.62 Stars

 

Plot:

By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—”Hatchlings”—who can’t even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she’s matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr.

But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It’s called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight.

Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she’s the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever.

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Takeaways: 

I really, really enjoyed this book. The romance truly did it for me. New York City is always an awesome setting for a romance and the heroine, Melanie’s girl gang is truly Squad Goals. As much as I’d love to sit and type a regular review, I decided to share what I took away from the book.

I’ve been married now since 2013 and before meeting my husband I had never put myself out on any dating sites, so I love that we are seeing a slight rise in romance novels that include them. I feel like an outsider looking in and with books like How To Hack A Heartbreak, I feel like I get an honest look at what the online dating scene is like.

My first takeaway is that people have different expectations when they are putting themselves out onto these sites. We get a good insight into this in chapter 2 when Melanie and her friends are chatting about the reasons they’ve all used the site Fluttr, and shared their experiences.

“The problem,” Whit said, “is that you’re going about it all wrong. Fluttr isn’t the place to go looking for a happily-ever-after.”

Whitney, one of Mel’s close friends, makes a really good point. Whit uses the sites for hook-ups. For fun. She doesn’t use them to meet someone to take seriously. Now, I have seen in real life, some success stories, but as we see as the book continues on, you kind of have to go into it with your expectations a little low. Mel early into the book is completely stood up by one guy and receives unsolicited penis picks from another. Which poses the question of, is the smart thing to do, to go into it, just for fun?

“I’m not even looking for a happily-ever-after,” I said, “I’d be satisfied with a happy-for-now. To meet a guy who actually took the time to get to know me and told me the truth and treated me with respect.” 

“Well, you’re not gonna find that on Fluttr.”

 

My second takeaway was learning about the data, and how all kinds of websites are in the business of data collection. There is a scene where Melanie goes off to Silicon Valley to meet with a team who wants to purchase the site she created, Jerk Alert.  She arrives thinking she was going to receive a job offer and under the impression that the Fluttr creators, created the site with the intentions of helping people.

“We’re not in the business of relationships here. We’re in the business of data collection. Do you know how many people use our app every month? Twelve million. Every day, we average over a billion swipes worldwide. That’s an incredible amount of information. Our databases are overflowing with locations, interests, behaviors, messages. That data is powerful and valuable. That’s what matters.”

This isn’t just a plot line the author wrote into the book. Feel free to read this article here and see for yourself.

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My third takeaway is that we need to spend less time online and more time actually interacting with people. I, myself am so guilty of this. I use the excuse that I’m at work all day talking to people..so I come home and fall immediately down the internet rabbit hole. How unfair this is to my kids? I get so zombied out that I don’t notice the little moments that pass me by forever with them sometimes. Obviously Mel uses her #GetOffTheInternet with the intention of helping people realize they may have passed the love of their life today while walking down the street, or on the subway but never would’ve noticed because they had their nose stuck in their phone. I loved it. Such a reminder to be mindful and actually be in the moment.

How To Hack A Heartbreak was such a fun read. I can’t recommend it enough. If you’ve read it and want to chat about it, hit me up! I’d love to discuss it with you.

Until next time, take care of yourselves. We will chat again soon.

xo.

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Midnight At Wandering Vineyard by Jamie Raintree

.Reading time 7 minutes.

Hello Friends. Spring Reading is in full effect. I am determined to enjoy this season as much as possible, because I feel like it’s the season I’ve shown the least amount of love to in the past. I love beautiful spring flowers and as I reflect on it, cozy romances give me all the perfect for Spring vibes. I recently finished a semi cozy romance which was my first ever read by Jamie Raintree, Midnight At Wandering Vineyard.

Midnight At Wandering Vineyard by Jamie Raintree

Published March 26, 2019 by Graydon House

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.77 Stars

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

“Maybe no one entirely gets over their first love.”

 

Synopsis:

The follow-up to Raintree’s sparkling debut Perfectly Undone, MIDNIGHT AT THE WANDERING VINEYARD brilliantly meshes the provocative relationship fiction of Jennifer Weiner with the nuanced family dynamics of Karen White in this story of a young woman who reconnects with her estranged best friend to complete their teenage bucket list, but the man who came between them years ago reappears to challenge their bond once again.

A young woman at a crossroads in her life returns home to her family’s vineyard in California when tragedy strikes and reconnects with her estranged childhood best friend. They decide to complete the bucket list they created the summer they were 18, the summer that saw their friendship torn apart. But when the man who came between them all those years ago reappears, it challenges their fragile new bond and pushes each woman to confront past hurts and buried truths.

 

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My Thoughts:

Midnight At The Wandering Vineyard was a good book. I liked it. It was okay. I couldn’t give it more than 3.5 stars because it wasn’t anything more than just okay for me. I didn’t realize this book was a book two, or follow up book to another until I was already too far into it to turn back. I’m not sure if had I read the first book that I’d feel differently about this one or not, but I wanted to love it more than I did.

“That’s the thing with Sam. He’s always been able to either make me feel like the most important person in the world, or like I don’t exist. But never in between.”

I think my experience with reading this book was that I went into having expectations, yet not really.. I feel like this “review,” is going to be a bit all over the place, but that’s honestly how my thoughts on it are. Beautiful cover, the cover to this book is absolutely stunning. The descriptions of Mallory’s (the main character) family vineyard are breathtaking.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you what happened in the first half of this book. Have you had the experience of reading something while also being easily distracted because the story isn’t holding your attention? That was me with Midnight At The Wandering Vineyard. 

Mallory returns home and it’s super tense. She is hoping to rekindle the long lost friendship between her and her ex best friend Kelly.  Once upon a time, nothing could come between these two..until it did, in the form of Sam. It didn’t really hit me until further into the book that regardless of how swoon worthy Sam may be, he is also a tad bit of a douchebag.

The friendship between Mallory and Kelly felt a little over the top. I feel bad for saying that because each woman her their stuff going on..but it just felt over the top at times. I had my moments where Kelly felt a little too needy for my liking.  Then there is all this tension about Mallory never coming home. I have never been to neither California nor New York, but knowing Geography, I know they are on complete opposite coasts. So I’m assuming that unless you’re financially capable, that very few are constantly making the trip back and forth between the two.

I did have a favorite part though, and that was advice Mallory’s Dad gives her about relationships. I won’t go into all the details, but I will share what his specific advice is, because I loved it:

“the first thing I think it’s important to do is let go of expectations. I’ve seen a lot of good friends divorce because they had unrealistic expectations of their spouses. But this is true in friendships, too. Take what people give you and let that be enough. Because people usually give all they’re capable of giving, the way they’re capable of giving it, and expecting more than that is just setting the relationship up to fail.”

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

“Relationships are the most important thing. It can take a while to figure that out, but if there’s anything I’ve learned from talking to people older than me, we all get there eventually. At a point in everyone’s life, after all the titles have been earned and the money has been made, we look around and realize none of those things have given us the happiness we’ve been searching for. But when you’re  surrounded by the right people, a ten-minute conversation, walking through a vineyard with someone you love, can mean everything.”

 

Overall, this was an okay book. Maybe I will go back and read it’s predecessor to see if maybe I missed something. I wanted to Love it more than I did.

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