Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating

By: Christina Lauren

Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn, Jayme Mattler

A hilarious, warmhearted, and swoonworthy romance about two people who are definitely not dating…no matter how often they end up in bed together, from the New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners and Love and Other Words.

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?

Good, but not great

This book was ok. Endearing in parts and silly and repetitive in others. The end is definitely not as strong as some of the rest.

good, but something with the sound being off

Really cute, really funny, lovely story!
The male voice should have been louder, so if youre listening to the story on good speakers, you have to keep turning up the sound every time its Josh's side of the story being told - and turning it back down when its Hazel's.

Angsty and Laugh-out-loud funny

I loooooved the narrators - they truly MADE the story! It's rare to find a book where both narrators add so much more to the story than what lies on the pages, but they do!

This story was perfectly paced, perfectly angsty (without the dramatically cliche friends-to-temporary-enemies-once-they-screw-it-up thing), and I loved everything about it.

Loved Hazel. Loved Josh. Loved them together.

This author duo is truly one of my favorites - their books receive consistent 5-stars from me. They can write the subdued, but confident guy character like no one else; the alternating POV displaying the characters' unfiltered inner dialogue and slow-but-hot build-up make these characters (especially the men) unforgettable.

I'm Having Mixed Feelings...

I picked this book because of Jayme Mattler, who I really liked when listening to The Elizas by Sara Shepard. I had honestly never heard of Christina Lauren (sorry, gals), but my chick-lit knowledge is pretty limited. I liked Hazel a lot from the beginning - her hot-mess-ness started out really relatable and Jayme did a great job. I also think Todd Haberkorn is very talented overall - his guy voices (imo) were very realistic and distinguishable. I thought his voice for Josh was cute and he is SO expressive. I recently just got done listening to The Selection by Kiera Cass and I hate to say this, but Amy Rubinate sounds like the book is being read by Siri. Flat as a pancake. Todd has great delivery and I literally laughed out loud at the trivia night part (when talking about the prizes) and there was one line (the last thing Josh says to Dax) that for some reason really won me over. It was so "real" and I could see the pissed-yet-chill expression on Josh's face in my mind's eye. But man, oh man. Todd's Hazel voice about killed me. It legit sounds like a combination of Michael Scott imitating Kelly Kapoor, the Wayans brothers in White Chicks, and Courtney from Bob's Burgers (if you know even ONE of those references, you can pretty much get the gist). This really kinda killed Hazel for me. I could not think of her as a quirky-but-sexy woman anymore.

Aside from the reading, though, I don't know... I saw some people have said that the ending is abrupt, but that didn't bother me much. I still think it wrapped up nicely. For me, it was more that by the end, I was feeling kinda bummed out. It felt oddly heavy. Earlier in the book it was a little more lighthearted, even with some seriousness weaved in. It started to transition into what I thought was just me feeling the lovesick ache along with them, but by the last four or so chapters, I almost just switched to something else because I was really kinda over it!

I didn't hate it by any means, but I didn't really love it.

EDIT: By the way.. just sharing because this was funny... my fiance was watching Naruto Shippuden and I heard a voice and my head snapped up so fast. I was like "...HAZEL??" So I go on IMDB and there's Todd's name on the cast list. I was like I KNEW IT!!! It was too funny. :-P

Predictable but...

Predictable but still really cute. Worth a listen if you’re looking for something easy and light.