How do you solve a problem like an overbearingly pushy mother who’s absolutely determined to matchmake you with a nice man so you can start pushing out grandbabies? Claire loves her mum, but Helen’s getting more and more impossible… to the extent of joining dating apps posing as her daughter to try and find Claire a man.
To be honest, I thought Helen was an absolute nightmare and Claire was a pushover. Helen had absolutely no respect for any boundary Claire set - every time Claire would get angry, Helen would apologize, and then go and do something even more outrageous behind her back. “I love you and I know what’s best for you” is the excuse used by manipulative parents the world over, and it made me absolutely sick to see Claire falling for it repeatedly.
Eric, the love interest, is a sweet enough guy, and in fact he’s just trying to be nice when he ends up talking to Helen after she went to a blind date with one of the guys from the dating app (who rightly freaked out when he got to meet the mother rather than the daughter). Eric’s obviously a bit lonely and at a time in his life when he does want to meet ‘the one’, but really he’s just humouring Helen when he agrees to meet Claire. Falling for her was an unlikely outcome, but now it’s happened, he needs to tell Claire the truth about how they met, because she’s convinced it’s fate and her mother wasn’t involved at all.
I wanted to tell Eric to stop being so wishy-washy and order Helen to butt out. I didn’t really believe in the happy ending because it was so obvious that the next thing Helen would be doing was pushing them to start a family, right as Claire’s business was just starting to take off. The eventual success of her scheme obviously only convinced her she was Right to interfere in the first place, justifying her never, ever stopping being a micro-managing helicopter mom.
This book is based on a movie which I haven’t seen, and it’s possible the romance might be the main focus there, but honestly the book seemed to be more about the relationship between Claire and her mother, a relationship I felt was horribly unhealthy. As a romance, this really missed the spot as far as I’m concerned. Two stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.