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2026 Book 19 - Pickle Perfect by Ilana Long

This is a tough one for me. There were several times I felt like not finishing the book, but I pretty much never DNF. It had some good points - some of the writing was sharp and funny. Ok, that might be the only good points oh, wait, I like the description of Costa Rica, and I was even in one of the parks she wrote about, so it brought me back to that. 

The plot wasn’t good. Single mom Lulu goes on a vacation in Costa Rica after being suspended from her job as a teacher. It’s some sort of pickleball retreat, and her high school ex, Tyler, is there after he torched his pro pickleball career. Ok, sure. There were just so many plot elements that felt unnatural and only there to support the plot. They end up traveling around Costa Rica to teach pickleball and do adventurous stuff, which didn’t feel realistic and felt like it was just to have Lulu and Tyler in stressful situations.

For the first half of the book Lulu thinks Tyler’s still married (It’s a romance, so the reader already knows that can’t be, but the book just drags this out stupidly). If you are famously married and not publicly divorced, but you have a chance with the supposed love of your life, aren’t you going to work into the conversation that you’re single? Seriously? But it’s hush-hush because of the publicity it would bring to him and his ex, except then it’s not because a super famous influencer is also on the trip, and she records Lulu and Tyler’s growing love and sends it out to the influencer-sphere, without any more mention that his divorce is secret. 

It just felt like it went on and on, with Lulu falling for Tyler then pulling back over and over. It was a slog, and I wanted it to end. (6)

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