*I was given an audio ARC of The Pizza Man in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Victory Editing and Eddy Twice for my copy of the book*

Synopsis:

Bella’s life at the advertisement agency is all about work, until Joe, a pizza delivery guy in an oversized costume, unexpectedly becomes her client.

With stolen glances, shared moments, and lingering kisses, Bella finds herself drawn to Joe’s carefree spirit and infectious charm—a stark contrast to her life.

Now, Bella must will she embrace the unknown for a chance at true happiness, or retreat to the safety of her familiar world?

Review:

I decided to check out The Pizza Man as I was in need of a fluffy contemporary romance, which is what the synopsis makes this sound like. A lot of people probably would think that it is, or even enjoy this book, but not me. Strap in, this one’s a little long.

I’m so sick of the “workaholic woman is miserable because she doesn’t have time for anything” trope. It makes me instantly dislike the character. This doesn’t mean they can’t develop and have me like them in the end, that does happen often. But not this time. I didn’t like any of the characters.

Opening the book with the male main character talking about how he’s obsessed with this random woman he served once is not a great way to make me like him. He refers to her as “starlight” because he doesn’t know her name and even awkwardly calls her it at one point.

He doesn’t help himself when he says “You’re my girlfriend Bella” not “Will you be my girlfriend Bella?” Like she’s an object he can claim ownership over. Gross. So, other than being obsessed with Bella, owning a restaurant and being from a stinking rich family, there’s not much else to Joe. I was also confused as to why a British family is living in America but that’s never talked about.

Which brings me nicely to my next point. Every accent in this book was horrible. I couldn’t tell if one character was supposed to be Scottish or Northern Irish as the narrator either switched between them or did some horrific mix of the two.

The dual POV got a little confusing at times as Joe and Bella would be in the same scene but their chapters weren’t chronological. This meant you’d go back in time a little just to hear about the same situation again but from another perspective. 

The whole book reads so awkwardly it’s a whole lot of “I did this. I did this. Now I’m doing this.”. This isn’t helped by the fact that a lot of the narration is flat and robotic. This does get better the further in you get but the whole production quality isn’t great. Actually I take that back, the production is terrible. There are moments that sound like the narrators accidentally hitting the microphone and there are editing errors with repeated sentences. Did no one listen to this audiobook before releasing it to reviewers?

The ‘romance’ in this book is completely all over the place and just felt very flat. The characters had zero chemistry and you’re not really given any evidence as to why they should like each other, so imagine my surprise when Bella starts asking herself if Joe loves her after they’ve known each other for about a week. It could have been longer, who knows? Not me, I kept zoning out while listening. 

I find it hard to believe that someone who is still a virgin at 30 years old would jump into bed with someone after meeting them twice and going on one date, which according to them, wasn’t a date. The whole scene felt so clunky and awkward. More of the “I did this, then I did that” descriptions. Which when it comes to steamy scenes is horrific to listen to. What’s the weird obsession with women being virgins in romance books recently?

Also, Joe’s dad was dating Joe’s best friend that Joe dated for a while in college. Every single relationship in this book is so messy. Oh and she also gave his dad drugs which caused a heart attack and he died. If you didn’t think The Pizza Man was all over the place before that sentence, I reckon you do now. 

Which makes me think of possibly the weirdest part of this entire book. You jump from Joe asking Bella to go to his dad’s funeral with him at the end of a chapter (his dad literally just died, like that very day) to them getting it on at the very start of the next chapter and then the chapter after that is the funeral. WILD. What was the point in the middle chapter? It’s almost like authors know some people only read romance books for smut.

I’m going to have to stop my review there as I feel like I could rant on about everything wrong with this book for at least another 500 words. I’d love to have some positives to talk about, but I personally really didn’t like The Pizza Man.

---

Check out Young Creative Press on all socials

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Goodreads
• Instagram
• Facebook

You can also check out my StoryGraph here

Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Confessions: Books I Did Not Finish #7