Weather Girl

Ari works as a meteorologist for a TV station in Seattle. She's admired her boss since childhood, but actually working for her has turned into a nightmare as said boss and another high-ranking employee loudly navigate a combative divorce.Ari's coworker Russell commiserates as both long for more support—or at least peace—in the workplace. Together they hatch a plan to reunite their bosses, and can you believe it, in so doing another spark ignites.This was...cute, I guess? I wanted to like it a lot more. In the beginning and middle I liked it fine, but my patience wore thin as it went on. I think it just wasn't for me, which makes me feel bad in rating it so low, especially because Jewish representation of this sort is so hard to come by.It just felt trite and surface-level. And I know, romance is fluffy and light. But in the Dear Reader intro, Solomon makes it clear this rom-com has substance and darkness to it. Topics like mental health and parenthood and body positivity are important to address! I was just underwhelmed by how they were addressed. The surface-level spoonfeeding of how we're supposed to feel about Serious Real Things was jarring alongside play-by-play sex scenes. Like [b:Chloe Brown 43884209 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1) Talia Hibbert https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1614273529l/43884209.SY75.jpg 66903616], there is also one line I will never get over, and that line is (click to reveal at your own risk, I was and am outraged by this): “What do you want me to do to your pussy, Weather Girl?” I wanted to omit this from the review, but this sentence will haunt me for the rest of my days, and I cannot bear this burden in silence.As workplace dynamics “improved,” really they just got codependent and weird. In a sense they had to, because Ari didn't have any friends. Why didn't Ari have any friends? The pacing was all over the place. The epilogue also contains two of my pet peeves in one: 1) proposals during someone else's wedding, and 2) public proposals in front of large groups of strangers. I get that just because I don't want something for myself, doesn't mean it's inherently bad. But also, I do be me. I do be myself. And I do dislike both of those things.I think for others, Weather Girl is probably equally good to curl up with on a rainy day with some tea, or to lay out reading with a tropical cocktail on the beach. It's easily digestible and allows Ari room to grow without the stakes getting too high. If you like [a:Beth O'Leary 13038484 Beth O'Leary https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1546818419p2/13038484.jpg], [a:Christina Lauren 6556689 Christina Lauren https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1554664497p2/6556689.jpg], [a:Sarah Hogle 18914276 Sarah Hogle https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], or weirdly, I'm gonna say, the show New Girl, you could give it a shot. I am just unimpressed. Sorry to be a romance genre Grinch, but Ari taught me it's better to be negative and authentic than fake and cheery. Time for a nonfiction book about cults.