Reality Bites

 

A scientist walks onto a reality dating show. No, this isn’t a joke. It’s her only shot at saving her lab.

Thank you Harper Perennial and NetGalley for the gifted ARC.

Reality Bites by Amy Mass is the romcom your beach bag is waiting for. 🐸

Grace Lambert is a serious scientist dedicated to saving an endangered frog species from extinction. Her entire family? A bunch of influencers. Her mom has an HGTV-style Instagram, her dad runs a yoga YouTube channel, and her brothers are all over TikTok and Twitch. Grace has never had social media a day in her life, and she’s perfectly fine with that.

Then her lab loses its funding and suddenly the cash prize on a reality dating show looks a lot more appealing.

So Grace shows up on set with zero idea what a reality show is and no interest in the other contestants. And absolutely no intention of falling for anyone. Especially not Andrew, the show’s attorney, who she immediately annoys and who immediately annoys her right back.

You can probably guess where this is going. And it’s a blast getting there. Reality Bites hits every romcom trope you love: fish out of water, nerdy girl who doesn’t realize she’s gorgeous, enemies to lovers, the third act breakup, the grand gesture, the HEA. It hits them well. The banter between Grace and Andrew is sharp and genuinely funny. But my favorite part was watching Grace’s family, the influencers she never quite understood, rally around her when she needed them most and use their skills to fight for her lab. That family dynamic gave the book a little extra heart.

This is a debut novel, and Amy Mass (a TV comedy writer who worked on Last Man Standing and The Goldbergs) clearly knows how to write funny. It shows. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out May 12. 

If you liked this review, you might enjoy my review of Fangirl Down. 

About the Author 

Amy Mass began her career in advertising in New York City. She moved to Los Angeles, where she wrote for hit television comedies, including Last Man Standing and The Goldbergs, for twelve years. During the pandemic, she moved to rural Georgia, where she writes romcom novels and films and lives with her family.