If you’ve been reading my blog or have been my friend for any length of time, you already know that I’m a fan of reality TV (Confessions of a Reality TV Junkie). Call it my guilty pleasure, I am definitely part of Bachelor Nation.

While the newest season of The Bachelorette is preparing to air, we’re still catching up on the current season of Bachelor in Paradise. Corinne’s schedule ramped up pretty quickly with the start of the school year, which includes drama rehearsal, speech rehearsal, mathletes…so we’ve gotten a little behind. But in the few episodes we’ve watched, we also managed to suck in my sister-in-law Stephanie, who had never seen an episode but after the first, she lamented, “We need to see who gets the roses!” 🌹🌹🌹🌹 Honestly, it’s like a train wreck. Once you see it, it’s hard not to watch.

Do I know that the vast majority of people are on these shows for their 15 minutes of fame? Of course I do. Do I care? Not in the least. I love watching the group dynamics. I love watching the drama. I love watching this mindless, inane television that I can leave on while I draft a blog post or do crossword puzzles and just appreciate the entertainment value. And the more than three million viewers each week mean I’m clearly not alone.

What I have noticed over the last several years though is that the prediction of being “the most dramatic season ever” really comes true. I’m certain most of it is choreographed by producers and that there’s something to be said about individual edits that will draw in viewers. That said, I am still sometimes flabbergasted by the things that people will actually do on national television. I mean, they can SEE the cameras! 🎥

On this particular season of BIP (pronounced “bip” in our house…we do not spell it out or say all three words), one of the male contestants spent the whole first day literally letting it all hang out. The only “wardrobe” he had was tattoos (way to represent Chicagoland 🙄). But the women…ohhhh the women. Now I’m not talking about ALL of the women, but some of them are downright mean and backstabbing and petty and and and—to the men and especially to each other.

One of the women (we’ll call her Woman B) intentionally went after a guy someone else was interested in (we’ll call her Woman A) after Woman B spent all day pretending to be Woman A’s friend and confidante. And when the guy was still interested in Woman A, Woman B’s answer was to ask him if he wanted to “go back to the boom boom room.” (I am truly horrified that that’s a thing this season.) So they went to the boom boom room the first night, and her solution to possibly losing him was to try to seduce him again. I say “try” because he actually turned her down. There was a lot of cheering for him in our living room that evening.

I know, I know. It’s drama, and it keeps people watching, but it makes me wonder if girls still mature faster than boys. When I see shows like this one, I don’t know that I believe it anymore. These are grown women acting like high school girls (or younger), just with a lot more boom boom room activities.

A while back, Corinne and I watched the movie Mean Girls. Corinne is in high school, so she could totally relate to some of the characters, although I think she came across some of them in middle school. And I have said more than once that kids are just so mean to each other these days. Then they grow up, and typically that means maturing. But watching this season of BIP, I can kind of see which of the cast members were the mean girls in high school…because they are still the mean girls in adulthood.

Don’t even get me started on the mean girl comments about these cast members on Twitter and Facebook. It’s truly just as bad and makes me wonder why some people watch if they’re going to be so hateful about people who are total strangers.

I recently finished a new release that reminded me of the “mean and backstabbing and petty and and and.” I have to be honest…I didn’t really like it in writing anymore than I’ve liked it on television.

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Book Review

⭐⭐
2 Stars for Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl

320 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: July 27, 2021
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Gallery Books.

Publisher’s Description

Brinkley Saunders has a secret.

To everyone in the academic world she left behind, she lost it all when she dropped out of grad school. Once a rising star following in her mother’s footsteps, she’s now an administrative assistant at an insurance agency—or so they think.

In reality, Brinkley works at Heartbreak for Hire, a secret service that specializes in revenge for jilted lovers, frenemies, and long-suffering coworkers with a little cash to spare and a man who needs to be taken down a notch. It might not be as prestigious as academia, but it helps Brinkley save for her dream of opening an art gallery and lets her exorcise a few demons, all while helping to empower women.

But when her boss announces she’s hiring male heartbreakers for the first time, Brinkley’s no longer so sure she’s doing the right thing—especially when her new coworker turns out to be a target she was paid to take down. Though Mark spends his days struggling up the academic ladder, he seems to be the opposite of a backstabbing adjunct: a nerd at heart in criminally sexy sweater vests who’s attentive both in and out of the bedroom. But as Brinkley finds it increasingly more difficult to focus on anything but Mark, she soon realizes that like herself, people aren’t always who they appear to be.

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Main Characters:

• Brinkley – Northwestern psychology graduate program dropout, aspiring artist who is working at Heartbreak for Hire (H4H) to finance her own art gallery
• Dr. Saunders – Brinkley’s mother who is the psychology chair at Northwestern, believes that Brinkley is an administrative assistant at an insurance company
• Markus (Mark) – one of Brinkley’s failed targets who ends up coming to work at H4H, adjunct professor at University of Chicago vying for a professorship at Northwestern
• Margo – owner of Heartbreak for Hire (H4H)
• Emma – Brinkley’s best friend who also works at H4H

This is described as a “smart, sexy, and witty romantic comedy,” and I could not wrap my head around it. Intrigued by the premise, I believed how Brinkley got to where she was, but this did not feel like romantic comedy. Romance, yes…it follows the formula. But definitely not comedy.

Margo hired Brinkley at Heartbreak for Hire (H4H) when Brinkley was at her lowest. She had changed her major from psych to art in grad school, been dumped by her egocentric boyfriend Aiden, ostracized by her psych major friends, and eventually dropped out before finishing her degree. So when Brinkley was at her most vulnerable, Margo hired and trained her to take down, vilify, embarrass, add another horrible action word, men who have wronged a woman. With four “heartbreakers” on staff (covering egos, players, cheaters, and grifters), Margo’s business plan was to play to the weaknesses of the men and to bring them down in grand style.

Here’s the issue, and precisely what set up the romance part of the book with Brinkley and Mark: what if the target was innocent and the woman paying H4H was just being vindictive? THAT was the problem I had with the whole concept. The heartbreakers basically ruined their targets, and that’s not something you can take back. An eye for an eye goes too far if the target actually is the victim.

Eventually, Margo hired four men as heartbreakers (Mark being one of them), for that exact reason…that it’s not always men who are the jerks in life. Sometimes women play the same games. But again, what if someone felt scorned and hired H4H to be vengeful as opposed to just a little petty. That’s what made all the characters so unlikeable, especially Margo, who was excruciatingly manipulative. In fact, she was probably the most toxic of them all because she kept reminding the women where they were when she found them and hand-picked them to join her.

“You’re so pretty. Men love to take advantage of a pretty face, but you already know this. Look at what Aiden did to you. If you don’t learn how to exert power over men on a professional level, you will always be a silly, pretty little toy. This is making you stronger. Don’t forget, unlike the other people who have let you down in the past, I’m always thinking of you.” Gaslight much?

When I think of rom-coms I’ve recently reviewed, To Sir With Love (Cherish All the Footprints on Your Heart), Four Days of You and Me (Ross and Rachel, Meet Lulu and Alex), Tweet Cute (Witty People of the World, Teach Me Your Ways), Love Lettering (Like Father, Like Daughter & Opposites Attract) stand out. Those were all genuine romantic comedies that I would recommend if you’re looking for a fun, well-written, light read.

This book was vengeful and toxic and manipulative all rolled into one, and Emma, another H4H heartbreaker who is Brinkley’s best friend, was really the only character I liked. There also were side stories with Brinkley’s mom and Brinkley’s desire to open a gallery that resolved too easily and with an unbelievable cash windfall.

Finally, it felt like the author was trying a little too hard to add erotic love scenes. The flirting prior to the love scenes was more innocent than risqué. The sexual tension was more unspoken because we only have Brinkley’s point of view, so we don’t really know how Mark is feeling through the whole story. I’m not a prude by any means, but when the love/sex scenes came up, they felt almost out of place, like they didn’t quite fit with the rest of the book. This author previously focused on young adult fiction, and it looks like this is her first foray into adult fiction. Sorry, but it shows.

The only reason I gave it two stars (as opposed to one) is that there were some redeeming qualities in the relationship between Brinkley and Mark that I thought were sweet and well-done. It had potential. Unless you’re a diehard fan of Hartl’s previous books, I would say skip this one.

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