ARC Review: The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland

“…this book is adorable!!”
~ Under the Covers

Recommended Read!

Ok, this book is adorable!!

Jasmine Yap has a dream: she wants to fly to Paris, and she wants to become a professional chef. But that would mean stepping out of her comfort zone, and she likes her comfort zone. Plus, she and her boyfriend Paul are going to move in together for their upcoming freshman year of college, a lot closer to home than Paris – and that’s safer.

Everything goes according to plan until she discovers Paul has been cheating on her, and now wants some “space” for the rest of the summer to date other people and decide if they still want to move in together. She feels uprooted, unanchored, but her very large and very involved family knows she is so much better off without him, if only she would realize how special she is to the people around her. So her family devises a competition that makes Jasmine a kind of secret bachelorette, the three bachelors being men her family has chosen for her; they have organized meet-cutes, chance meetings, and dates for Jasmine in order for her to see how she should be treated. But what they don’t think about is how betrayed Jasmine might feel if she ever finds out that her summer of love was all a game, and how it might end up destroying the whole summer in the end.

This book is so so sweet!! Jasmine is shy and insecure, hiding her dreams and feelings deep inside for other people’s sakes; I’m almost sure she is an enneagram 6 like me, because I really related to her thought process and her reactions to the events of the book, and I learned a lot from her growth and the way she handled herself by the end of the book.

Naturally, out of the bachelorette competition comes romance!! I had my winner from the get-go, but I was surprised how obvious it became that she was falling in love with one specific bachelor; I felt like the other two needed some more screen-time, but because they didn’t, it also emphasized that the point of the novel wasn’t the romance but the growth Jasmine needed – specifically, that she needed to discover her worth, how special she is to the people around her. Still, there were so so so many sweet, romantic moments (not just with Jasmine hehe), which just made my heart sing!!!

Overall, this book is full of heart-warming moments and lessons on what it means to believe in your unique impact on the world. The format also keeps it interesting, often switching to texts from the family group chat or excerpts from their podcast talking about the behind-the-scenes of the competition. I really liked it, and I recommend it to readers who like fluffy yet inspiring, young adult contemporary romances!