whisperingchapters's Review of When Joss Met Matt

by Ellie Cahill

In the tradition of New Adult superstar Jessica Sorensen, Ellie Cahill’s debut novel is a charming friends-with-benefits story . . . with a twist!

What if after every bad breakup, there was someone to help “cleanse your palate”—someone who wouldn’t judge you, who was great in bed, someone you were sure not to fall in love with? “Sorbet sex” could solve everything—as long as it never got too sweet.

Joss and Matt have been friends since freshman year of college, meeting one night after Joss is dumped by her boyfriend. After a few drinks, Matt humors her with a proposition: that he’ll become her go-to guy whenever she needs to heal a broken heart. In return, she’ll do the same for him. The #1 Rule: They’ll never fall in love with each other. People scoff at the arrangement. But six years later, Joss and Matt are still the best of friends . . . with benefits.

Through a string of boyfriends and girlfriends—some almost perfect, some downright wrong—Joss and Matt are always there for each other when the going gets tough. No strings. No attachments. Piece of cake. No problem. After all, since they wrote the rules, surely they can play by them. Or can they?

Advance praise for When Joss Met Matt

“Hands down, one of my favorite New Adult reads . . . Ellie Cahill is definitely one to watch!”—New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack

“This is one of those books that make you forget everything around you. Prepare to be consumed by this story.”—Sophie Jordan, New York Times bestselling author of Wild

“Fun, sexy, and full of amazing chemistry, When Joss Met Matt is an entertaining escape that will leave you smiling with every turn of the page.”—Cassie Mae, author of The Real Thing

This 2.5 stars review was published on Latte Nights Reviews on August 17, 2015.

**Contains some spoilers**

I had high expectations for this book. I love the NA books that have those friends with benefits stories so I was hoping to love this one but sadly, it wasn’t the case.

For the first half of the book, I was enjoying myself. I was loving the story and the characters so much but then it just… I don’t even know what happened! One minute the mood of the book was light and fun and the next, it’s moody and sad. This majority of the story it is told by Joss in flashbacks, but it also has some present time. The flashbacks start 7 years ago, which I had a bit of a problem. You see, we never really get to read about Joss and Matt being together until the end of the book. All the while, it’s just them having sex and Joss pining after Matt once she realizes very late in the story that she has started to develop feelings for him. The thing is they are never together because while they do have sex, once the “sorbet sex” is done, they start dating other people. The thematic of the story was fun but it got to a point where the “sorbet sex” was getting to me and I kept rolling my eyes.

I think this is the second time I read a book that I wish the characters had never gotten together in the end. They acted more as friends than anything. I never felt any romantic pull from either of them, which made it hard for me to see them together at the end. I had never read anything by Liz Czukas. This is my first book by her under the pen name Ellie Cahill. I have heard many others raving about her YA books, which I plan on checking out some time in the future but maybe not now.

You guys may be wondering why I don’t have a content warning above the post and that is because this book is a New Adult coming of age story, meaning the main characters are in college but it doesn’t have explicit content at all. So for you young readers (above 15, maybe) you can go ahead and read this book, in my opinion.

When Joss Met Matt

by Ellie Cahill

Reviewed by whisperingchapters on Aug 7, 2015

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