Product Description

Tessa Dennison, an early-thirties finance professional, resolves to define love on her own terms after a series of busted blind dates. Justin Martin, her best friend, has secretly loved Tessa since childhood. However, risking their friendship and their differing ethnic backgrounds holds him back. But it's now or never when she convinces him to screen Internet bachelors for a love match. Will Justin continue to let societal forces dictate his happiness or will he opt for full disclosure before Tessa finds a cyber match? Is Justin too firmly planted in the 'friend zone' to advance into Tessa's dating portfolio?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #729876 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

Love Was Always There
Tessa Dennison is on a hunt for love in Laura Major's Mismatched. Tessa, a thirty-something go-getter in the world of finance, enlists the help of an internet dating service and her best friend and co-worker, Justin Martin. Justin agrees to screen Tessa's dates and look out for his childhood friend regardless of the fact that he has been secretly in love with Tessa since they were children. Justin not only wants to protect his friendship with Tessa, but he is also concerned that his being white and her being black may cause more problems than they could handle. Tessa jumps head-first into her search for true love while Justin sits back and pretends to help out, all while trying to figure out what will happen if he just tells her the truth.

Major's Mismatched was a wonderful idea for a multicultural romance. Though the premise was great, the passion that really makes a romance fell short between Tessa and Justin. I wanted to love this story but there was something about Tessa that was not pushing the story along as it should have. Justin was a great character but the connection between him and Tessa could have been explored more deeply. As a reader, I just read about them being together but I did not feel it. Major had such a nice base to this story that I hope she uses it as a springboard to go into more depth in her future works.


Reviewed by Donielle
APOOO BookClub

Promising Premise...But Lacking
"Mismatched" is the debut novel by Ms. Major and it had a lot of potential; unfortunately it just didn't meet my expectations. She had a WONDERFUL idea, and I like the way she started the story. She pulled you in QUICK; however it started to lose some of its appeal in the middle. I was definitely looking forward to the concept of the couple being friends first and possibly venturing into romantic territory. But the author didn't pull the storyline together as effectively as I was anticipating. Apparently Tessa and Justin had been friends since they were little children, but the author didn't establish many details into the "workings" of their friendship, and after reading for a while, it appeared their relationship was more one-sided, with Justin doing all the giving and Tessa constantly being the taker. I ENJOYED Justin's character and the depth of his feelings for Tessa but, I just couldn't get caught up in the very SLOW developing romance. Justin Martin's witty dialogue and sometimes hilarious antics, while setting up dates for Tessa, were very entertaining. And once Justin and Tessa decided to "take the plunge", to move from being just friends to lovers, I found the passion lacking in any fire or heat, so despite the ups and downs of their FINALLY budding relationship, it wasn't a very memorable romantic tale. While reading this novel, I often found myself wanting to skip ahead. If the story wasn't filled with so many UNIMPORTANT details, it would've been a more engaging read. Ms. Major also left me hanging a little; I NEEDED more conflict resolution, before she wrapped up the story. The ending came too quickly and it didn't hold enough detail to leave me satisfied. Overall it was a okay first attempt. It's definitely not the worst romance I've ever read, but, I just didn't get swept away.

Avidreader
Mismatched was a good story idea that didn't quite develop into a terrific story. I did not connect with either of the main characters and could not root for them to get together and take their relationship beyond friendship. In my opinion, the story kept them in the friend mode way too long so that when they did finally had sex it was blah.

Despite the weakness in the story, the writing was good. I just wish that there was more fire between the main characters to help make the transition from friends to lovers believable.