Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat by Lauren Appelbaum

Standalone Women’s Fiction with Romance

I was really excited to read Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat by Lauren Appelbaum. It sounded perfect for me—a Jewish hot mess FMC, a meddling Jewish mom, and a great friend group? This should have been my favorite book! Unfortunately, it was a total miss for me. From what I understand, it’s a Jewish retelling of Pride & Prejudice, but I have to admit—I’ve never read Pride & Prejudice! Yes, I might be the only romance reader who hasn’t.

Looking back at my annotations, here’s what I noted as I read Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat: Chapter 6: “Weird short sentences and abrupt stops.” Chapter 8: “I hate her.” Chapter 9: “UGH I HATE HER.” I almost DNF’d the book several times, but something made me push through. Rachel did start to redeem herself a little, and there were some funny moments that kept me going.

Rachel is turning 30, hates her tech job, and has a terrible track record with boyfriends. Her mom is desperately trying to set her up with the new neighbor’s rich Jewish son, and her younger twin sisters are even more awful than she is. She has a friend group chat, and I liked her friends for the most part. But what really kept me reading was the neighbor’s son, Christopher, who was immediately obsessed with her.

Rachel, though, was a character I found hard to like. She was shallow and thought she was flawless:

“By eight o’clock, I was back to my usual level of perfection, though still a bit dehydrated.”

“No, actually, this whole debacle has shown me something. It’s shown me that… I’m literally flawless.”

She was nasty to Christopher—well, to everyone—but he especially didn’t deserve it. Some of her sarcastic comments made me snort-laugh, but overall, I struggled with her. Around 50%, I was ready to quit, but since I didn’t have another book queued up, I stuck with it. Thankfully, Rachel did start to change and grow, and by the last quarter of the book, I no longer hated her. In fact, I ended up liking the last part of the story.

As a Jewish woman, I hate seeing us portrayed so badly in books and media. This book played up some of the worst Jewish stereotypes, and that’s the last thing we need right now—more reasons for people to hate us.

Likes:

Some of the lines made me snort-laugh
Jewish representation
Her friend group chat
Her older sister Jane
A LOT of character growth

Dislikes:

I hated Rachel for 75% of the book
Christopher was a little stalkery
Why was he obsessed with her so quickly?
Played into the worst Jewish stereotypes
Not enough romance at all
A #metoo joke? Seriously?
Short choppy sentences

The Down & Dirty:

I wanted to love Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat, but to be honest, I probably should have DNF’d the first time I considered it. Loving the FMC is usually a requirement for me to enjoy a book, and sadly, I just couldn’t get around Rachel’s behavior. While she did become more bearable as the book went on, she never fully made up for the terrible first impression.