BOOK REVIEW: Thank You, Next by Andie J. Christopher #thankyounext #bookreview #contemporaryromance

Alex Turner is ready for love, but finds herself repeatedly being “the one before The One” in her relationships. A great premise for a book, this one didn’t quite deliver for me. I enjoyed parts but ultimately I was ready to say “next” to Andie J. Christopher’s Thank You, Next.

About the Book (from Goodreads)

Alex Turner is never The One–but always the last one an ex dates before finding love–and now she’s determined to find out why in this hilarious new rom-com.

Single divorce attorney Alex Turner is watching reality TV when she sees her latest ex’s new fiancé picking out her wedding dress. Yet again, the guy she dumped went on to marry (or at least seriously commit to) the next person he dates after her. Fed up with being the precursor to happily ever after, she decides to interview all her exes to find out why.

Up-and-coming chef Will Harkness mixes with Alex like oil and vinegar, but forced proximity growing up means their lives are forever entwined. When Will learns Alex and her friends are going on a wild romp through Los Angeles to reconnect with her ex-boyfriends, he decides to tag along. If he can discover what her exes did wrong, he can make sure he doesn’t make the same mistake with Alex.

On this nonstop journey through the streets of LA, Alex realizes the answer to her question might be the man riding shotgun…

My Review

When divorce attorney Alex Turner sees her most recent ex looking awfully happy with his new fiancé picking out a wedding dress on a reality television show, she starts to question whether she is really interested in marriage after all. In a spiral, Alex dives into social media to see where her other exes have ended up, and notices a troubling trend—each of her exes seems to get engaged to the person they dated immediately after their break up with Alex.

Is it possible Alex is pushing men to get married, just not to her? Was dating her so awful they settled with the next person they meet? Alex needs to find out, so she begins to track down her exes one by one. Alex’s friend Will Harkness, a celebrity chef, finds out about her plans and decides he needs to o along on this investigation into her prior relationships. Alex and Will have mostly avoided one another after Will rejected Alex’s feelings as teenagers. However, Will has remained tied to Alex through her grandmother Lexi, a jazz musician who was formerly married to Will’s father. Now, the two embark on a journey through Alex’s past, but find that they may have some feelings between them that haven’t been addressed.

My Thoughts

I felt this one didn’t quite live up to what I was expecting and I wanted to love it more than I did. I loved the premise of it and I liked the idea of a friend helping her work through past relationships only for her to realize he was right there all along—one of the best romance tropes in my opinion! I think for many of us it is also relatable to have an ex (or several) who find their happily ever after right after dating us, and it definitely can get into your head.

Ultimately this one relied a bit too much on the inner dialogues of the characters and lacked a bit of the humor I expected to find. Some romance books fall into the trap of being too repetitive—they really want to hammer home the central break down of communication and feelings between the leads—and I felt this book suffered from that. I likes the supporting cast of characters and I did like the lead characters mostly, though I got a bit annoyed with them at times. Ultimately I think this was a cute story that if you can push through does have a satisfying ending. Some of the misses were in the writing style and plot, for me. I suspect that this author may just not be the best fit for me as a reader, and that’s ok! I can be a bit picky with romance books and I think I wanted a bit more rom com than what this book delivered.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy.