Unorthodox Love: A Novel

by Heidi Shertok

Overview

Perfect for fans of Ali Hazelwood and Sophie Kinsella, Heidi Shertok’s delightful debut about love and family will tug on your heartstrings.

Twenty-nine-year-old Penina longs for true love and marriage, but being infertile in the Orthodox Jewish community means she’s rarely matched with the cream of the crop—or even skim milk two weeks past its expiration date. Matchmakers either set her up with men twice her age or those with serious mommy issues. At this point, she might as well wear a sign around her neck that says “professional virgin.”

As if things weren’t bad enough, her sister Libby then shares a terrible secret: her husband’s failed businesses have already put strain on their marriage, and now they might also lose their family home. Penina is desperate to help, so when a secretly gay Orthodox Jew offers a payout in exchange for a fake marriage, it feels like kismet. Who needs true love anyway?

Enter Sam Kleinfeld. Rude, secular, undeniably sexy, and also…Penina’s new boss. The last thing he wants is a relationship, especially not with a beautiful, smart-mouthed employee. But soon an attraction builds that they both can’t ignore. Will Penina follow her heart and find true love, or will she stick to the traditions she knows best?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639103768
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	482,664
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Heidi Shertok is an Orthodox Jewish woman, wife to a stud muffin engineer, and mother of three. When she isn't writing, she can be found walking her eight pound attack dog, admiring other people's gardens, or hiking in high heels.

Editorial Reviews

05/29/2023

Exploring the difficulties of dating in Minneapolis’s Modern Orthodox Jewish community, Shertok’s debut delivers both sparkling banter and realistic relationship hurdles. Jewelry seller Penina Kalish, 29, wants a family but worries both children and love are out of reach due to her uterine hypoplasia, which renders her infertile. Matchmakers haven’t completely given up, but the pickings are slim in a community that prioritizes large families. Accepting that she may never find a partner, Penina dotes on her nieces and nephews and volunteers at the local hospital’s NICU. Most days, it’s enough—until she meets the sexy—but secular—Sam Kleinfeld, her new boss. Not willing to pursue a non-Orthodox relationship, Penina ignores the attraction and instead agrees to a marriage of convenience with a closeted gay Orthodox man in exchange for his help bailing her sister out of a financial bind. There are some light Indecent Proposal overtones to this arrangement, but can money really dampen the chemistry between Penina and Sam? Shertok’s description of the Modern Orthodox community and how it fits into secular society is lovingly rendered without stifling the plot. This is sure to please. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Unorthodox Love:
“Shertok’s debut delivers both sparkling banter and realistic relationship hurdles . . . Lovingly rendered . . . This tale of interfaith love is sure to please.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[A] feel-good love story.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Shertok deftly informs readers about Penina’s faith as part of the plot in this chaste, opposites-attract romantic comedy.”
—Library Journal

“Original, funny, and of particular appeal to readers with an interest in a Jewish take on romantic comedy.”
—Midwest Book Review, audiobook review

“Unorthodox Love is a page-turning romance with delightful characters, hilarious banter, and finding love in the most unorthodox ways.”
—Abby Jimenez, New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly

“Subversive, hilarious, and heartfelt . . . Unorthodox Love reminds us all that the things which set us apart, make us the worthiest of being loved.” 
—Jean Meltzer, international bestselling author of The Matzah Ball

"Unorthodox Love is everything I love in a good rom-com: sizzling chemistry, electric banter, and scenes that made me laugh out loud. Heidi Shertok’s heartwarming enemies-to-lovers romance will keep you turning pages right to the perfect end."
—Cara Lockwood, USA Today bestselling author of I Do (But I Don't)

“Penina had my whole entire heart. Winsome, hilarious, and impossible not to root for. I loved following this Ortho Jewish QUEEN to find her one-and-only.”
—Goldy Moldavsky, New York Times bestselling author of The Mary Shelley Club

“Delightfully Jewish, laugh-out-loud funny, and full of snappy dialogue, Unorthodox Love was an absolute joy from beginning to end! Penina is a character to root for—endearing, kind, and worthy of the happily-ever-after she ultimately gets. Sam is as delicious as he is grumpy and the two of them together are simply magic. I devoured this book!” 
—Meredith Schorr, author of As Seen on TV and Someone Just Like You.

“Romcom fans will lose their minds over Unorthodox Love, a hilarious debut from author Heidi Shertok, whose quirky and lovable characters are remarkably relatable, even for readers who might not know a mitsvah from a matzoh ball. I fell in love with Penina and Sam as they stumbled and tumbled (in Penina’s case, while wearing seriously great shoes) to their happily ever after. And believe me, there’s no burn like the slow burn of two people who aren’t allowed to touch each other . . . whew! It was an absolutely perfect ending except for the part where it, you know, ended. I can hardly wait for the next book by Heidi Shertok!” 
 —Carly Bloom, author of Big Bad Cowboy

“I adored Penina, her story and the journey she takes through the pages of Unorthodox Love. Heidi Shertok has penned a beautiful tale of learning how to reach for exactly what you want, even if it sometimes seems impossible. Even as you're falling in love.”
—Stacey Agdern, author of B’Nai Mitzvah Mistake

From the Publisher

06/01/2023

Penina wants to marry a good Orthodox Jewish man and have a family. Unfortunately, she's infertile and 29, both of which stand in the way of her dreams, but her deep, joyful commitment to her faith and her family ease her sorrow. To help her sister out of a financial disaster, Penina accepts a proposal from a gay Orthodox Jew who's willing to pay a lot for Penina to be his fake bride. Meanwhile, Penina's new boss Sam, a non-practicing secular Jew, is also causing her stress. Sam is grumpy, confusing, insulting, and incredibly handsome; he's also very opinionated about Penina's faith and personal life. But the longer Penina spends with Sam, the more she wonders if his perpetual frown is hiding a Prince Charming. Ultimately, while Penina is a likable, fully developed, three-dimensional character who will resonate with readers, Sam is so unlikable that those same readers will wonder what Penina sees in him. VERDICT Orthodox Jewish protagonists aren't common in romance, and Shertok (And Along Came Layla) deftly informs readers about Penina's faith as part of the plot in this chaste, opposites-attract romantic comedy.—Heather Miller Cover

Library Journal

2023-04-24
A 29-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman is contending with her last hope for an arranged marriage when new possibilities allow her to hope for something more.

Ten years of bad first dates haven’t stopped Penina Kalish’s matchmaker from trying. Penina herself is stalwart, cajoling herself into meeting the increasingly unimpressive bachelors in public places and attempting to find a nice Orthodox man to marry. With 22,000 Instagram followers hungry for her modest yet sexy outfits each day, a job at a jewelry store, and an offbeat sense of humor, Penina is loath to complain about her predicament. “Maybe G-d was distracted the day He assigned soulmates, and accidentally skipped me,” she thinks. Despite her beauty and kindness, Penina ranks low on the marriageability scale because of her infertility. To Penina and her community, a woman unable to bear children is “missing the most important part of [her] womanhood. Like an ornate jewelry box that’s empty inside.” For that reason, when Penina is set up with a young, handsome, penthouse-dwelling man, she knows there must be a catch, and she’s right. Still, marriage to an affluent man would solve her family’s financial woes and would also help her avoid thinking too hard about Sam Kleinfeld, her secular boss at the jewelry store, and why her heart rate mysteriously doubles when he’s nearby. Penina wonders whether the satisfaction of her family and community is worth the sacrifice of her own happiness. In the time it takes her to decide, she spends more time with Sam, revealing her vulnerabilities and puzzling over his obvious interest in her. A slow burn is to be expected, but Penina’s naïveté turns the reader’s eagerness into impatience as the dim Hanukkah-candle chemistry just keeps burning and burning and burning. Though her community is obviously of central importance to her, Penina’s unquestioning commitment to her religious lifestyle is difficult to reconcile, both with the many obstacles it presents to her happiness and with the more regressive beliefs she asserts—the largely unremarked upon pregnancy of a 14-year-old cousin is difficult to overlook.

A familiar feel-good love story dressed in modest clothing.

Kirkus Reviews