Review Detail

‘The Meet-Cute Project’ by Rhiannon Richardson tells the story of Mia, a high school junior with a dilemma. She has to find a date for her sister Sam’s wedding, and Sam is not making the process all that appealing. The wedding is coming up in a few short months, so with the help of Mia’s girlfriends, they set up meet-cutes based on their favorite movies, all as a means of helping her find her special someone with whom to walk down the aisle and enjoy the wedding.

It’s not all that easy, though, even with the meet-cute idea going full force. From guys who would rather flirt with anyone else, to a slew of misunderstandings and dog troubles, Mia has her work cut out for her. It doesn’t help that she feels that Sam is breathing down her neck, and that if she can’t find a date, she’ll end up stuck with Sam’s fiancé Geoffrey’s younger brother, Jasper, a middle school student she would definitely like to avoid having to call her date.

When she begins working with her mother at a local garden to gain some volunteer hours, she meets a guy, Gavin, who becomes her friend. They seem to be able to talk about mostly anything, but one day things change between them, and Mia doesn’t quite know what went wrong. As the story goes on, she realizes that maybe what she was looking for has always been right under her nose, but she desperately wants to see things through with the way she had always wanted things to turn out—to do so, she throws caution to the wind, not even listening to her friends when they warn her about what she’s getting herself into in doing so.

The story is sweet, creative, and a great romantic comedy of errors that despite starting off and staying on the wrong foot for a while, leads to good changes for Mia that help her grow into a better, more well-rounded person. Her compassion and empathy are two of the best characteristics that she learns from as the novel progresses.