Abandoned by Booklikes

Wow. I don't know what to say about this book. Oh yeah, I do. This was terrible. A terrible main character who wants to get married for some really ridiculous reasons who seems to be stalking a woman who is tied to another character he knows. I didn't laugh once while reading this, though I was told this was supposedly humorous. The main character (Ben) really just needs to be by himself, because even though he is a struggling artist with a terrible place to live, he still sees there should be some higher standards concerning whatever women he fools into marrying him. I wish the book had ended with some self-awareness on his part, but Dunn ends things so you can tell what is probably going to happen next.

"The Good Bride Guide" has Ben Grant feeling thrown when his agent pops up engaged. He finds out that his agent has an arranged marriage and that he feels less stressful about his life because his parents ultimately picked the woman he is going to marry in a few months time. Ben who we already meet and who is dealing with breaking up with a woman who he says didn't like him for him and was not right for him decides all of a sudden that he should get married too. So the book follows Ben as his parents try to set him up with a variety of women while Ben sits back and criticizes each woman. There's even a creepy meet-up when he hangs out with a woman who back in college he and she drunkenly promised to marry each other if they didn't find other people. That whole scene was cringe inducing.

I didn't like Ben. I thought he was self absorbed and I never got a sense of why he wanted to marry. He's not a hopeless romantic. He doesn't watch romantic comedies. He's judgmental as hell. 

The other characters are barely developed though we spend the most with his family who you can tell Dunn tried to write as kooky but lovable, but ended up reading more ridiculous than anything to me. 

The writing was so-so. I think if it had been longer, maybe he could have developed Ben more. As it was, this book felt rushed. 

I was thrilled to get to the end.