Review: When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill

When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: February 24th 2015
My rating: 4 stars 

Dating can be fun, but it can leave a nasty taste in your mouth. For Joss, ever since her longtime boyfriend cheated on her, she doesn’t want her last memory of a guy to be that jerk. Enter her college friend, Matt. They come up with a theory: after a bad break-up, a person needs to cleanse the palate with a little sorbet sex. Lovers for a night, but always back to being friends in the morning. The two can handle it because they have a contract: rules they wrote, rules they follow and rules they can sometimes bend. The arrangement works: everyone needs a little sorbet now and again … until it starts to be the only thing you want. And then Joss breaks the one rule they never wrote down: don’t fall in love.

I haven’t had the best of luck with NA books, so I’ve always been a little wary when going into an NA read, however with the steady trickle of praising reviews for when Joss met Matt and the fact that it was written by Liz Czukas, an author whose debut I adored, I went into this book with some hope that I would finally have an NA read which I would adore and I’m glad that this was the case.

Joss had been in a long term relationship with her boyfriend Ben, but when he dumps her saying he has met somebody else, Joss just needs someone to make the pain go away and that’s where Matt comes in. It sort of casually just happens where they come to an arrangement to have a sorbet sex, to sort of cleanse their palate after their last relationship which goes wrong. I could see the appeal of having a back up guy like Matt to fall back on; he was funny, handsome and knew the right things to say when you had come out of a bad relationship. I loved how Czukas gave us the story of Matt and Joss’s relationship, with the story flipping back and forth to when Matt and Joss first met and to the present day. The flips to the past weren’t random at all but in a chronological order, so giving you all their insights into all the relationships Matt and Joss had to experience to what they were doing now. To be honest I don’t think Matt and Joss’ arrangement would last that long, Matt and Joss found themselves in a lot of relationships and some did seem as if they had the potential to be a long term (I was especially heartbroken for Matt, when his relationship with Megan didn’t work out, honestly who wouldn’t want to be with Matt?). But at the time I was kind of happy when their relationship with other people didn’t work out. Okay Joss and Matt fell into their routine with each other really easily, I guess because they had been with each other for such a long time, they were comfortable around one another, but with the more time they spent around one another, it was obvious that they had something special going on,, more than what the other relationships they had been having had to offer.

At first I just wanted to gulp down everything Czukas had to offer from Matt and Joss’s past in one go, I didn’t  want to be with them in the present for now. I loved seeing their relationship develop and seeing how they were always there for each another through some of the dodgiest relationships. But then as things started getting more serious, I was dying to be in the present with Matt and Joss, I needed to know what would eventually happen between them, also the serious tone of Matt in the present scenes did have me super nervous that things wouldn’t work out the way that I was hoping them to. I’m not actually going to say how things actually turn out for Matt and Joss, but their story is one you don’t want to miss out on.

When Joss met Matt has a sort of restored the faith that I had lost in NA reads, it has definitely made me want to reconsider some NA books and to not to put them all in one typical bracket as I have come to experience. As When Joss met Matt is not your typical NA read; it’s a fun, flirty read which explores a great relationship between two really funny (not broken *first pump*) characters. Joss is an amazing character which I had no problem relating to, she wasn’t you typically damaged character who needed someone to build her confidence. She was quite a confident girl, saying what she felt needed to be said when necessary and although she went through some crappy relationships, she was still willing to get out there (with some encouragement from some great friends, Nellie her friend was awesome in being honest with Joss and telling her how it should be). And Matt where do I even begin with this guy? He was a character any girl would have a hard time resisting, but also he was a great guy, the guy that Joss really needed around.

Overall When Joss met Matt is one of the best NA books I have read in a long time, if you like me have been burned by the NA genre definitely give this book a go. It will leave you with a big dopey grin on your face and warm fuzzies; it’s definitely a book that you won’t regret giving a go