Inspired by an episode of Friends where Ross and Rachel are dating one another’s dopplegangers while antagonizing one another, Someone Just Like You features two childhood rivals tasked with putting aside their differences and competitive pranking to plan a joint anniversary party for their parents. Their forced proximity results in bonding, juvenile practical jokes, and being out and out mean to one another–until they call a cease fire and begin to work together to find a venue.

I don’t dislike frenemies to lovers, but prefer stories where the falling out is over misunderstanding and doesn’t escalate to being mean on purpose. Molly and Jude are outright mean–but not so mean their siblings don’t see through it. Her guilt over ending his baseball career adds a level of depth; her confession is too long in coming. The humor in each dating a look-alike and even their parents doing a double take was amusing, and the banter, chemistry, and Beatles references sustained the story. Judaism is not front and center, but this is a story about Jewish characters, and I appreciate the representation, even if the opportunity to bring in themes of teshuva were missed. The most challenging element for me was the epilogue. Highlight to read this spoiler: They allow their child to be treated meanly–they think it’s cute and bodes well for a future romance–by a neighbor’s child, perpetuating the abusive acceptance of a he’s mean because he likes you” narrative that is harmful to girls and women. We can, and must, do better.

I received a free, advance reader’s review copy of #SomeoneJustLikeYou from #NetGalley, and a complimentary copy in a Jewish romance prize pack.

https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/2023/09/23/someone-just-like-you-by-meredith-s... ( )

The hero and the heroine were former neighbors in the past and has a relationship in which they pranked each other for most of their lives. When their siblings forced them to cooperate with each other to surprise their parents with a combined anniversary party. The hero and the heroine renewed their pranks against each other, but their feelings for each other began to change. As the two learn more about each other, thoughts of happy endings began to form. Can they put aside their rivalry to realize that the right person for themselves is right next to each other?

This is the second Meredith Schorr book that I've read. The premise sounded interesting, and for the most part, the story was enjoyable to read. However, it did feel that certain actions were prolonged unnecessarily, and it would have been nice to have some deeper communications enacted between the couple for the transition to their change in relationship to be believable. Certain actions by the hero and the heroine individually made the main characters not likable in those circumstances. But I liked this book a bit more than the first book I read from this author. Overall, a nice contemporary romance.

** Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own. ** ( )

Molly Blum and Jude Stark - once childhood best friends - have been in a prank war for as long as she can remember. Their families have lived across the street from one another since before they or their siblings were born. At some point their friendship morphed into Jude pulling a prank on Molly and then Molly having to retaliate and vice versa. Things only get worse as Molly tries to uphold her penchant for reliability and planning and Jude is perceived as being aimless.

Molly hasn't seen - has kind of actively avoided - Jude for a few years. But when the Blum/Stark siblings decide to get together to throw their parents a joint anniversary party, Molly and Jude are tasked with finding the venue.

Spending so much time together reignites the animosity that Molly feels for Jude, and that he clearly feels for her. But when Molly's carefully planned life suffers and unexpected blow, the only person she wants to talk to is Jude.

I really enjoyed Meredith Schorr's As Seen on TV so when I heard about this next book by her, I was definitely going to read it. I also so enjoy a good enemies-to-lovers trope so right away the premise checked off a lot of boxes.

However, I found it a little difficult to connect and or / root for Molly and Jude. I think it's because right out of the gate, we're thrown again into the middle of them trying to one-up each other. I mean these are characters who are in their late twenties, I just felt like it was incongruous to where they should be at in their lives. Plus, what stuck with me for some reason, is they're pulling these pranks while trying to find a venue for the anniversary party (initially anyway) so it kind of wastes other people's time and, to me, that's just not cool. It would be one thing if it was only between the two of them. Honestly, though, as quickly as this reignited game is brought up, we move on and they try to take their task seriously.

Then we're on to another hook in the story. Which is apparently Jude and Molly have been dating people - for years mind you - that are exactly like the other. Of course they don't see it, but everyone around them does.

Again, like the pranks, this is an idea that is brought up and then we quickly move on. I would have loved some of these things to be fleshed out a little more. If it had been a longer running gag I think it would have had more of an impact. This in particular I found really interesting and would have loved if we spent more time maybe seeing the various dates that each of them have instead of one instance and then the others are inferred.

It speaks to how the story goes along in general I think. There are so many little ideas that each one is just given a snippet of time and then it's on to the next. I didn't feel the progression of Jude and Molly's relationship. While, yes, they've known each other since childhood and one could argue that the progression has been in play from the beginning, readers have only been with Molly and Jude for this moment in time.

Beyond their central relationship, there is also a lot going on in Molly's presonal and professional life as well just to add into the mix of the story.

While the heart of the story and the writing are on par for what I expected from Meredith Schorr, the overall story, while enjoyable, was ok.

I do look forward to whatever Meredith Schorr has in store for readers next. She has a wonderful way with getting to the heart of a story and they depictions of family and friendship are my favorite moments in the book. ( )

I enjoyed this one even though I had a bit of a rough start with this book. Jude and Molly have known each other for their whole lives and are sworn enemies. They are put together on an assignment by their older siblings and immediately start pranking each other. The pranks felt more mean than funny to me but they eventually started acting like adults which made the book much more enjoyable. I do think that these two were great together once they stopped playing games.

I liked Jude and Molly and thought that they had fantastic chemistry together. They knew each other so well but there were still a lot of things that they had to learn about one another. I thought the fact that they have each spent the past few years dating people that were just like the other. There were several situations where it was very obvious just how much they cared about each other. Once they worked through a few things, I knew that these two would be great together.

I would recommend this book to others. Jude and Molly were both flawed characters that were perfect for each other in the end. I would not hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Forever. ( )