baronessekat | 2023 PopSugar Challenge: a book published the 2nd half of 2023

Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok

My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars

I'm being generous with a 2**

+++++++

Penina is a single woman in the Orthodox Jewish Community of Minneapolis. She longs for love and marriage and family. But she cannot have children and that makes the prospects of a good match difficult. The Match Maker keeps matching her with older creeps or "way too emotionally attached" Momma's Boys.

When Penina's sister admits that she and her family are on the risk of losing their home to foreclosure, Penina feels she has to make a sacrifice. When she's matched with a Gay man who wants to get married to a woman to make his dying mother happy and agrees to help pay off the outstanding debt on her sister's house, she thinks she's found the best option - once her mother in law dies she can get divorced and move on with her life.

Then one day her boss gets ill and his incredibly handsome, single and rich son takes over. But he's not Orthodox so that means he's out of bounds.

Now she's torn - faith, family or feelings?

++++++++

I received this audiobook free from Net Gallery in exchange for an honest review.

I found no chemistry between Penina and Sam (the boss' son). She constantly obsesses about how handsome and attractive he is, but I felt nothing. And it seemed like she was constantly commenting on her infertility. We get it - you can't have babies, there was no need to bring it up in almost EVERY chapter.

But then we get to the reader of the book. Throughout the book she pronounced Hebrew words wrong (I asked many of my Jewish friends to be sure) and everytime she said them, she said them differently. She even pronounced non-Hebrew words oddly and I found myself being constantly distracted by it.

So I do wonder if I would have liked the book more had I physically read it, but frankly, I do not wonder enough to find a print copy and rereading a book I did not like.

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