{Review} Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren (@ChristinaLauren @GalleryBooks)

Most men can’t handle Hazel. With the energy of a toddler and the mouth of a sailor, they’re often too timid to recognize her heart of gold. New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Roomies, Beautiful Bastard) tells the story of two people who are definitely not dating, no matter how often they end up in bed together.

Hazel Camille Bradford knows she’s a lot to take—and frankly, most men aren’t up to the challenge. If her army of pets and thrill for the absurd don’t send them running, her lack of filter means she’ll say exactly the wrong thing in a delicate moment. Their loss. She’s a good soul in search of honest fun.

Josh Im has known Hazel since college, where her zany playfulness proved completely incompatible with his mellow restraint. From the first night they met—when she gracelessly threw up on his shoes—to when she sent him an unintelligible email while in a post-surgical haze, Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later, after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air.

Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates means there’s nothing between them...right? 

​There is no one quite like Hazel Bradford. She’s fearless, dresses however she wants and has been hopelessly in love with Josh Im ever since her college days.
 
Coming face to face with her forever crush after all this time has made her realize that maybe they both need to find that special someone and she devises a plan that will help them do it - together. 

At the outset, this should explain how I have successfully never dated Josh Im: I have made myself entirely undatable in his presence.
For instance, the first time we met, I was eighteen and he was twenty and I vomited on his shoes.

​Josh Im always knew that Hazel was one-of-a-kind.  Unlike her, he always seemed to gravitate toward safety and commitment.  Somehow she’s managed to convince him to jump back into the dating pool after his current girlfriend shatters his heart.
 
Enduring one disastrous double date after another brings them closer than they ever expected.  But when complete opposites collide, they either fade away or burn brighter.  And it’s a risk that they are going to have to take.

​While Cali and Adam are listening to the rules, Hazel leans across the table. “You have to be on my team.”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” I reminded her, “we’re supposed to be on dates, With other people.  Play with Adam.” I straighten, but she reaches out, grabbing my shirt.

“I want that cruise, Josh, and you’re smarter.”

“Why do you think I’m smarter?”

“I saw Adam flexing in the windows outside the car. Call it a hunch.”

“Hazel, a normal cruise is bad enough. You really want an all-you-can-eat buffet on a budget cruise?”

“It’s free.”
​
“Diarrhea is never free.”

​Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating  is everything that a modern romantic comedy should be!  It’s wickedly smart, hysterically funny and so swoony that it can’t possibly be measured with modern technology. 
 
Christina Lauren really have perfected their own brand of magic that make their characters truly shine.  Josh is perfection incarnate but it’s Hazel in all of her quirky glory that absolutely makes this book so unforgettable.  
 
So dance like no one is watching, Hazel.  And if they are, they are secretly wishing they were as free and as beautiful as you…

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