Experiments in Offline Dating
by Kat Mackenzie
· contemporary romance
· romantic comedy
· forced proximity
· road-trip romance
· Irish road trip
· Matchmaking festival
Once I read the premise of Experiments in Offline Dating, I was so excited to read it! Maya Davis is a podcaster who makes content about the disasters in her dating life. She decides to meet an Irish matchmaker at a well-known matchmaking festival in Ireland. The matchmaker has a lot of successful matches under his belt and few that didn’t go so well (including his son’s divorce).
True Love or True to Yourself?
As Maya sets out on this adventure, it is unclear if she really believes she will fall in love, or if she is mining the experiences for podcast content. I think it is a bit of both; she wants to find love, but she is afraid to admit it, in case it never happens for her. Although she goes on many dates, she rarely shares her heart or acts like herself.
Blind Date Disaster
When Maya arrives in Ireland, she is thrown straight into the matchmaking festival. She is forced on-stage in a pub, in a dating game style set-up. She ends up choosing the guy who she can tell LEAST wants to go on a date with her, sheep farmer. This man is, of course, tall and handsome and grumpy, but he likes to keep to himself (after a past heartbreak, of course) and might relate more to sheep than people.
Right after the dating game, these two potential enemies-to-lovers embarked on the enemy stage of their relationship; they go on a first date and it is horrendous, cringe, and quite frankly, painful to watch/read. It was kind of funny too. Maya had watched famous Irish comedian Aisling Bea’s stand-up routine in which she says that Irish people like to insult each other as a way of flirting. I had seen that routine and wouldn't take it literally, but the FMC doesn’t quite trust herself, her judgment, or her reading of social cues. She is on the autism spectrum and has trained herself to try to become someone else in most social scenarios, someone who she thinks will excel at dating or be more palatable to others, for the podcast and in her life. This has not served her well on hundreds of dates, but even though the FMC loves collecting data, she hasn’t changed her dating strategy to actually act like herself.
Well, our FMC takes Aisling’s dating advice literally (even though it would likely only work if both parties were Irish) and she is roasting the guy and he has no clue WHAT is going on. He is just plain insulted. The date goes badly, and they walk away hating each other.
Forced Proximity Strikes Again
But in this small corner of Ireland, they will bump into each other again and again (forced proximity is about to get even more forced). Even though I could tell what was going to happen, it was a fun journey.
Matchmaker Jack has a few tricks up his sleeve…he is known for his unconventional methods. He sends Maya and grumpy farmer (his son) on a trip around Ireland, to interview couples he has successfully matched and for her to go on dates, in places like a cave and a castle and even a horse and carriage ride. Along the way, he keeps setting up Maya with people she probably wouldn’t like and a lot of the dates are funny, like the carriage ride with a so-called eligible bachelor and his mom, who is actually vetting her the whole time.
Romance is in the Air and On the Cliffs and in the Caves
There are some romantic moments that involve eating cake in a cave and falling in love and lust in the rain (a lot of rain) and walking along the Cliffs of Moher together. The two characters went from hating to liking to loving each other pretty quickly, but I think it was believable in the sense they had spent a lot of time together in a short period and went through many high-emotion experiences next to each other. Once Maya gave up on her façade, she realized that being herself could lead to him liking her better than when she was acting and masking.
A Grain of Salt
I read some early reviews of this book and some people did NOT like the FMC or think she was funny AT ALL. However, I always take reviews with a grain of salt, because some people might dislike a character and then they are unique and/or one of my favorite or most interesting characters. I found Maya’s character interesting at times and relatable at times.
Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
