The Modern Gentleman
by Meghan Quinn
My review:
“She specifically told me to crawl into my own scrotum and drown in my sperm. I’m pretty positive when a girl wants my unborn children to kill me, she’s not going to want to talk to me again.”
Meghan Quinn always has a smart and witty way with words and the brilliant mental imagery that they can create, and ‘The Modern Gentleman’ in its entirety is a great example of that skill.
In this standalone rom-com the leading characters, Wes and June, meet in a moment facilitated by a 3-eared dog and a pile of dog poop. Most of the book is told from Wes’ point of view and then it switches to June’s perspective at the very end. For this story, it’s a technique that works perfectly. Wes is the author of an online advice column entitled The Modern Gentleman. A directive from his employer puts Wes in the position of needing to start and develop a relationship with a woman as a series of lessons for his readers – a “how-to” example in real life. June has very old-fashioned attitudes about dating, which really keep her in the dark about what goes on in Internet trends, so although she knows Wes is a writer, she has no clue what he actually writes. She also has no idea that he is documenting their dating history for his column. You know from the beginning that it’s going to blow up in the end. Yet The author executes the story so well that the predictability is actually anticipation to see what happens exactly, and how it happens.
I thought both characters were likable, as were the key secondary characters. Some of the funny scenes did make me laugh out loud, which is always a plus. The character growth displayed in the story is excellent, and I loved the ending. There are some excellent pop culture references sprinkled throughout the book, and that’s also fun.