Secure Your Copy Not Dressed Designed By Matthew Hanover Available Through Volume

was under the impression that this was a romcom of sorts but unfortunately for me this book fell flat on both the rom and the com.
For starters Jake and Lindsay's relationship was cringeworthy, especially how Jake handled the whole thing, Kaylee was a bit of fresh air but the way she kept self demeaning was off putting.
There were also some edits that need to be made but as my copy is an ARC, I'm hopeful those will be corrected before it goes live.
There were still some redeeming things with this read, . . a few chuckles were to be had and the characters, relationships and life situations depicted in this read truly come across very realistic.
I can completely see these exact situations happening in real life, Overall, not really what I was expecting but still a pretty good read,

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Not Dressed is a funny and charming story about finding love, fandom, and being true to yourself.
Matthew Hanover has assembled a stellar cast of loveable characters who will make you laugh out loud and embrace your inner geek.


Jake is an architect, but hes not sure if he wants to continue to work for his less than competent firm.
The only thing that gets him through the day is the cadre of coworkers who are just as fed up with his boss as he is.
Things with Jake and his workobsessed girlfriend are starting to take a turn, She signs them up for ballroom dance lessons, much to his chagrin, then bails on him when her work schedule changes.


Enter Kaylee, Jakes new dance partner, a perpetual student who hasnt quite found her niche in the world.
Kaylee is also a SciFi fangirl, especially the world of Star Trek, They become fast friends, despite all of the cultural touchstone differences between them,

Jake is horrified to learn how his girlfriend, Lindsay, is earning extra cash to pay for unexpected bills.
The difference in opinion on how appropriate it is for her to do this further drives a wedge between them.
This only adds fuel to the fire in budding feelings for Kaylee,

Hanover does a masterful job of not letting Kaylee turn into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
This story is more about her finding the one thing that will bring fulfillment to her life than it does with Jakes professional and personal struggles.
There is a genuine bond between the two, built on respect and their support for finding their dreams.


Once again, Matthew Hanover excels in his firstperson inner monologue, Its descriptive, humorous, and real, The narrative is woven together in a way that is seamless and a joy to read,
Fans of Nick Hornby, Matthew Norman, and Jonathan Tropper will delight in this romantic comedy of how love goes wrongand rightwhen youre a twentysomething still figuring out how to adult.


Jake, an architectural designer pushing thirty, is stuck in a job he hates, Hes spent the last two years overworked and underpaid in the dark basement of Burnham amp Modine.
He and his coworkers get through the day pulling pranks and gambling on how long interns will last.


Lindsay loves her job as the producer for a talk radio show, She jumps at the chance for a better time slot, even though it means she and Jake are now working different hours.
Worse, she expects Jake to teach her what he learns in a ballroom dancing class she can no longer attend just so they'll look good at his sisters wedding.
Already hurt by Lindsays prioritization of her career over their relationship, Jake feels betrayed when he accidentally discovers that to help pay the bills she's been moonlightingas a nude model.


Kaylee is Jakes new partner at dance class, Shes a cute and freespirited Trekkie geek who's trying to figure her life out after going from high school valedictorian to college dropout.
Soon Jake and Kaylee are spending more time together off the dance floor than on it and the state of being not dressed just might be contagious.
This is my first read from Matthew Hanover, thanks to Voracious Readers,
Im appreciative to the author for sending me a copy, I really enjoyed it,
Very relatable in many ways which definitely captured me as the reader,
Written as a romantic comedy I enjoyed the humorous aspects of Jakes character and laughed through those awkward moments Jake encountered with Kaylee.

I appreciate all genres of books I have received from authors through Voracious Readers, but this particular one worked really for me just from the first glimpse.

I would recommend this book to my fellow readers, Thank you Voracious Readers for a copy of this book! I enjoyed this book but it had a slow start.
The whole part one was basically explained in the prologue, The pace started to pick up in the second half and the final part made for a great ending.
Its the typical “everything in my life sucks” but just one thing goes right and it spirals into a great life outcome for the main character.
I do plan on reading more from this author because the story telling was great, This originally appeared at sitelinkThe Irresponsible Reader along with sitelinka spiffy QampA with the author.

“Hey there, Jake, This should be fun, right”, . .

“I guess,” I say,

“You dont sound too excited,” she says as she takes a hair tie off her wrist and pulls her disheveled hair back into a ponytail.


“Yeah, well. Im not good at dancing, ”

“Obviously! Thats why youre here, Same as me. Im probably just as bad as you, But well learn together, okay”

“Okay, ”

“Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra,” she says,

“Ihave no idea what that means, ”

“Its from Star TrekActually, Star Trek: The Next Generation, It means well work together to solve a common problem, In this case, the problem is learning how to dance, ”

“I gotcha. So, youre likea Trekkie”

“Was my sweatshirt not a big enough clue”

“No, I just”

“Youre not a Star Wars fan, are you If you are, youll have to find a different partner.
”

Jake Evans is our protagonisthe's a decent enough guy, who could probably use some maturing which means he's likeof guys in their twenties.
He's got a great girlfriend although the relationship seems a bit rocky when we meet him and is secondguessing his chosen career partially because he has a horrid employer, and partially because architecture isn't the career he thought it would be.
There are signs that he'd be a pretty fun guy to hang out with, but when the book opens he's got a pretty goodsized cloud over his head between the girl and the gig.


Lindsay's his longtime girlfriend, She works in radio and is very passionate about her job, She's enjoying a little bit of success, and has a hard time relating to Jake's struggles, She's the producer and inallbutname onair sidekick to a Bostonarea conservative talk show host, who calls her "Lefty Lindsay.
" don't worry, politics are absent from the book! At least when the book opens, I really didn't see why the two of them were a couple.
There's a good chance that neither of them rembered at that point, either, it had been so long.


Two things about their relationship provide most of the initial conflict for the plot, First, due to some financial hits they've taken recently, Lindsay has taken some modeling gigs to make some extra money.
She did it back in college, which was recent enough that she still had connections, Why didn't Jake do something to make extra money He's having a hard enough time finding a replacement fulltime job that it didn't seem like a good idea to try to add another job search to his plate.
Besides, Lindsay's moonlighting is profitable enough, What she neglects to mention to Jake is that this modeling is for art classes at a local college.
And, well, none of these artistsintraining are working on fashion degreesclothing gets in the way of what they're learning to draw/paint/sculpt.
Jake's an openminded kind of guy, except when it comes to this, it's not pretty when he finds out although it's a pretty amusing scene for readers when he does.


Meanwhile, Jake's sister's wedding is coming up and Lindsay has decided the two of them need to learn to dance before it.
Besides, it's a fun activity for the two of themthey never go out midweek anymore, and their relationship could use a boost.
So she signs them up for a dance class, and then tells Jake about it after she paid for it, so he pretty much has to agree to it, but isn't really that interested.
So she basically promises him sex if he goes, Which pretty much seals the deal, But then Lindsay's show gets moved to a new and better time slot, So, in addition to not being able to make the class, the couple will hardly see each other during the week.
Her plan is that Jake will go, and then on the weekend, teach her the moves he insists on getting his payment in advance for this.


Jake hates this new plan, and is convinced that he's going to be stuck dancing with the instructor after he and the reader meets this instructor, no one thinks this is going to be fun for him.
Thankfully, just before class starts, Kaylee walks in, You read her opening dialogue up above, She's a few years younger than Jake, taking some time out from college to figure out what she wants to do with her life, and is a major geek.
She's almost a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but doesn't fit the category in a few ways I'm only using that term because I'm afraid this post is getting too long and I want to pick up the pace.
She's also my favorite character ofso far granted, that would mean more if it wasn't Januaryth.


Kaylee and Jake strike up a nice little friendship during the class, and pretty soon, he's going so he has an excuse to hang out with her.
The two of them are fun togethershe's socially awkward and embarrassed to be herself, Jake tries to shake her out of that, and even encourages her to let her GeekFlag fly even if he doesn't get any of it.
Meanwhile, she's encouraging about his job hunt as opposed to Lindsay, who mostly nags or wants him to find a way to succeed where he is, and gets him to be a little less angsty about his life.
I like Jake more when he's in friend with Kayleemode over guy with Lindsaymode, But what do I know I have a tendency to pick people the protagonists don't in these situations I won't provide examples because I'd expose myself to too much ridicule.


The one last bit of Jake's life we need to talk about is his job.
It's horrible. He has a nice group of workfriends who band together for mutual support and complaints, but the atmosphere at work is toxic, and their superiors would be enough to turn anyone against their chosen field.
For example, in the first chapter, Jake's twoyear anniversary with the company happens and he asks his boss about scheduling his annual review which will hopefully involve a raise, which he could really use.
His boss stammers and suggests an alternate date, nine months away, Yeah, Jake's bad attitude toward work makes a little sense, doesn't it

I worked as a draftsman at an architecture firm some years ago, and while the atmosphere there wasn't at all what Jake experienced, Hanover did do a great job of capturing the kind of work and personalities that I sawwhich doesn't really match the typical depiction of architects in fiction.
I liked that bit of realism, I asked Hanover about that in an upcoming sitelinkQampA, but I haven't

read his responses yet, looking forward to seeing where that authenticity came from.


Getting back to Jake's lifewhat we have here is a stagnant at best relationship that's got a couple of pretty big things to work through a job situation that needs addressing and a new friend that is really the only positive thing in his life.
Jake's life is basically begging to be shaken up, is Kaylee going to help instigate that

There's something about Hanover's style that I can't express, but I wish I could.
This book like last year's Not Famous is effortless to read, When I started this book, it was late in the day and I thought I'd just stick a toe in the water, maybe read aboutof it.
Before I knew it, I was about a third into the book and were it not for the time of day, I'd have probably finished it in one sitting!.
It's funny, it's sweet, it's infectious, it's engaging as anything I can remember, I cared about these characters and got invested in their lives faster than I typically do,

Jonathan Tropper tends to have certain character types that show up in every novelparticularly the wise sister/friendwhomightaswellbesister many authors do this kind of thing, I know, but Tropper is who I thought of when I was reading this book.
Hanover shows signs of the same thingsisters play a big role in both of his novels to date.
He doesn't use them the same way that Tropper does, don't get me wrong, but his male protagonists are more honest and open about their emotional lives because of sisters.
This is neither good or bad, it's just a trait that he may haveit's something I'll be looking for next time.
again, see the sitelinkQampA for more on this topic, I like that there's someone who can draw this out of a character without the need for alcohol, drugs or traumaalso, that he bares his soul first to someone who isn't a love interest.


There are other types that Tropper utilizes constantly, too, if I ever get around to my big reread of his corpus, I'll end up compiling a chart.


There's a bit of conventional wisdom discussed here that I didn't know before reading this book.

"You realize that dancing is basically foreplay, right”

“So Ive heard, ” Jake replies

Four chapters later:

“Because dancing is, like, totally foreplay, you know.
”

“Why does everyone keep saying that” Jake asks

I counted someone telling that to Jake four times with at least one more allusion.
Is this really a thing that everyone thinks/says I may need to cancel some of my daughter's plans for the nextyears.
. .

I'd forgotten that Hanover had said there'd be a link between Not Famous and this book.
It's small, and if you haven't read his other novel, you won't miss anything, But if you have, you'll enjoy the brief catchup you get about the lives of the protagonists of that novel.
It brought a big grin to my face,

There was a slight flavor of Nick Hornby wannabeness to Not Famous that's not present here.
Instead, what Hanover has done is take that same voice and put it to use telling a story that's all him while being the kind of thing that Hornby readers will appreciate.
I do think that Hanover could go a bit deeper in his characterizations I have very little sense about Jake apart from work/Lindsay and his plots could add a little more complexity.
I'm looking for a few degrees of depth/complexity, not much, But that doesn't stop me from loving this world and characters, and it doesn't keep me from encouraging you all to grab this book when it releases next month.


This heartwarming tale about being who you are and finding acceptance for it is a real winner.
Adorkable, irresistible, and just funNot Dressed is sure to please, I don't know what Not Description is next for Hanover, but I'm already eager to read it.


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion and this post.
I appreciate the book, but it didn't sway what I had to say, .