Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren is a standalone Contemporary Romance published in September 2018. Hazel Camille Bradford has always been a lot — an army of pets, zero filter, and a talent for saying precisely the wrong thing at the worst possible moment. Most men find her entertaining for about three weeks before quietly retreating. Friends to Lovers stories live or die on the chemistry of their leads, and here the contrast is everything: Hazel is electric, Josh Im is measured, and the Grumpy-Sunshine Dynamic between them is the engine the whole novel runs on.

The two first crossed paths in college, memorably and badly. A decade later, a chance reconnection — via Josh's sister, who happens to be Hazel's closest friend — pulls them back into each other's orbit. Josh has just had his long-term relationship upended by a cheating girlfriend, and Hazel, ever practical and ever enthusiastic, proposes a solution: a series of double blind dates. They'll find each other someone worth keeping. Easy. The Fake Dating energy is reversed here in a clever way — instead of pretending to be together, they are conspicuously, insistently, almost comically not together, setting each other up on increasingly chaotic outings that serve mainly as excuses to spend more time in each other's company.

What makes this more than a standard rom-com setup is the care given to both protagonists. Hazel knows herself. She isn't waiting to be fixed or softened; her Found Confidence is already baked in, and watching Josh slowly recognise what everyone else has missed — that her chaos comes packaged with extraordinary loyalty and warmth — is the book's quiet emotional throughline. Josh, meanwhile, is more than the straight man to Hazel's comedy. Christina Lauren grounds him in his identity as the son of South Korean immigrants, giving his reserve and his gradual loosening a texture that lifts the character well beyond archetype. The Diverse Representation feels organic rather than incidental.

The novel alternates between Josh and Hazel's first-person perspectives — a Multiple POV structure that lets readers sit inside very different minds without ever losing the thread of the story. Hazel's chapters are fizzing and digressive; Josh's are quieter, more observational. The contrast in voice mirrors the contrast in personality, and Christina Lauren handles the tonal shift between them with confidence. Witty Banter & Sharp Dialogue crackles throughout, but the book earns its warmer moments too, particularly as Hazel begins to believe, cautiously, that someone might want her around permanently.

Funny, sharply observed, and genuinely sweet without ever tipping into saccharine, this is the kind of Slow-burn Romance that rewards patience. The blind dates are disasters in the best possible way, the Forced Proximity element — Hazel temporarily moves in after a flooded flat — accelerates the tension neatly, and the emotional payoff feels properly earned. Kirkus gave it a starred review, calling it a standout, and readers have rated it enthusiastically in the hundreds of thousands. For anyone who loves their romance loud, warm, and anchored by characters who feel like actual people, this one delivers.