Mis-Matched in Manhattan - Tash Skilton

Description

'A sweet, genuinely funny, banter-filled delight of a rom-com. I absolutely loved this modern day You've Got Mail' Kerry Winfrey, author of Waiting for Tom Hanks

Love can happen when you least expect it . . .

Dumped by his fiancée, Miles is reduced to couch-surfing across Manhattan and using a local café as his office. Also, he no longer believes in love - not exactly a good look in his line of work.

Zoey's eccentric L.A. boss sent her to New York to 'grow'. But beneath her chill Cali exterior, Zoey's terrified to venture beyond the café across the street.

Miles and Zoey have absolutely nothing in common. The only thing they share is their daily battle for the café's day-old biscotti. They don't know they're both ghost-writing 'authentic' profiles for rival online dating services. Until they meet online, pretending to be other people . . .

As their clients head for dating disaster, Miles and Zoey spend their virtual time falling for one another, but will their online connection turn into a perfect match when they realise who they are IRL?

Review

As usual this book had me at "set in New York" and I was not disappointed one bit by what I read. There's a wonderful part where Zoey goes on a walk on the High Line and it was so descriptive that I really want to go and do that walk too.  It also happens to quote one of my favourite films "You've Got Mail" and references the original film that it was based on "The Shop Around the Corner", so for me this was just a win win. 

To begin with the book has a slow start and is punctuated throughout by emails from the owners of two rival firms that Zoey and Miles work for. The language is definitely that of late/early 20 somethings and I did have to google two acronyms! But I figured it was only like the days when I used to have to look up words, these are just new ones to me.The language is very American and by that I mean it's not been edited for a UK audience, so if you don't know contemporary US references you might be a little baffled by some of the remarks or different meanings for words. For me it just made it all the more real. 

So in the tradition of the two films I mentioned, Zoey and Miles don't know each other, except that they actually do because they have been communicating online with one other but as someone else. This cat and mouse routine takes over most of the book but for me it was wonderful. Will they won't they find out who the other is and if they do what will happen? Alongside this is a really sensitive backstory to Zoey and the way Miles dealt with it just melted my heart. Miles too has a backstory that comes back with a bite near the end. 

I read the whole book almost in a day because once I was hooked I could not put it down. The writing is really funny and had me laughing out loud at some of the lines. The dialogue is fast paced - my only gripe there is that Zoey is from LA and I've never met anyone who talks that fast from the West Coast, but she certainly keeps up with New Yorker Miles. and give him a run for his money in one liners.

It wasn't until I finished the book that I realised the author is in fact two people and I have to say that I never picked that up in the writing as you sometimes can with a collaboration novel.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.