10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston

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Content/Trigger Warnings: Grey area cheating and emotional cheating, high risk pregnancy threats, emotional and mental manipulation, toxic relationships

Oh boy, if you have been putting this book off because of all the hype and out of fear you’re not going to love it then let me be the voice that tells you that everything you hear is true and so much more. So many friends and family picked this book up this holiday season and I wanted to start my year off on the right foot. So after much boosting and much spamming from my friends, I picked this book up. And I’m in love. I can’t believe I fell in love with this book and how quickly I fell in love with some of the characters. If you been here for a hot minute then you know this book holds some of my favorite things that will instantly hook me and boy, does this book have it’s hooks in me deep. This was such a heart warming and delightful book to bring in the new year and honestly, I can’t believe I didn’t pick it up sooner!

10 Blind Dates follows our main character, Sophie who has been planning on celebrating the holidays with her grandparents (and her whole extended family) while her parents are off celebrating with her sister who is on bedrest with her pregnancy. She also thinks she’ll be able to sneak out during the chaos of the holidays and spend some time with her boyfriend, Griffin. But things rarely go as plan and they don’t work out they way she imagined they would. When she drops by at a party and over hears her longtime boyfriend saying he’s having second thoughts about her relationship, she decides to make things easy on both of them and end things. Now her family is swooping in to make this one holiday season she’ll will never forget and hopefully help heal all of her broken pieces.

“I don’t expect to meet the love of my life but maybe, just maybe this will help heal the pieces Griffin broke.”

I adored this book so, so much! I was truly surprised with how much I fell in love with it and there were so many aspects that I adore. I am a huge sucker for different family dynamics and this book delivers. We get that big family dynamic that’s full of chaos, mishaps, shenanigans, and so much love! It’s one big Italian family and I loved every detail we got to see of the different family members especially the betting board, that had me dying of laughter! I also loved that this book didn’t shy away from the pregnancy complications with Sophie’s sister. I really appreciated how this book made it feel very realistic with how the family was handling things and then seeing how the whole family came together to support one another in this time. It really warmed my heart. I also appreciated that this book went into enough details with the complications of the pregnancy that you could feel the urgency and how life threatening the situation was, but without overdoing it on the details that it became too graphic. I think it was all really well done and it was really enjoyable to see how the good and the bad kind of came and mixed with one another, but not to the point of each element overshadowing the other.

“Is there no privacy in this family?’ Everyone at the table answers, ‘No.”

But with every good there is always bad and there was just one element in this book that prevented me from giving this a full five stars. That element is known as Griffin in this book. I was incredibly frustrated with Sophie’s ex-boyfriend. Not to mention his behavior and actions were just unforgivable. Throughout this entire book he was constantly texting her, harassing her about the things she was doing even after Sophie told him they were over. He even shows up at Sophie’s grandparents’ home and has a confrontation with Sophie in the front yard where the neighbor boy even gets involved to make sure she’s okay. He also bought her a last minute Christmas present that was causing a lot of mixed feelings and reactions from our main character. But the most unforgivable thing he did and most stressing, unbelievable thing that this character could have done was used the emergent situation with Sophie’s sister as a way to post on social media, “one-up” Sophie’s family, friends, and the guys she’s been going on dates with, and then try to play it cool and say that the photo was just “nothing.” Griffin is a very problematic character for many reasons, but that scene alone rubbed me the wrong way for so many reasons. It just didn’t sit well with me and I know it was a scene of development for Sophie’s character and to forward the story-line, but it still irks me and it’s one of those moments that’s so bad that I have to bleach it from my memory.

Overall, this is going to be a perfectly cozy, heartwarming, holiday read that you don’t want to miss. This book puts so much importance on (healthy) family, how the love of family can be so strong and unconditional. There’s a big emphasis of sibling relationships, which you all know I tend to flock to. It was just a really soulful book and this book is truly so beautiful in so many ways. If you’re looking for a book to kick off your holidays or new year with a good note then you need to give this book a go. I can’t begin to explain all the feelings this book gave me and all the soft spots of my soul it touched, but I can recommend it with my whole heart and tell you this is worth the hype. And in case you didn’t know already, this book has already been picked up by Netflix! I’m truly excited to see this adaptation and you better believe I’m waiting for the cast announcements!

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