Book Review: Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok

Unorthodox Love is a romantic comedy based upon Orthodox Judaism. Written by Heidi Shertok, the main two characters are Penina, an Orthodox Jewish fashion blogger who also works in a jewellery store, helps her family out and volunteers at the local Nicu and their cuddle program. Sam Kleinfeld, who is Jewish (but not Orthodox) and is her new grumpy store manager. 

Penina still strictly follows the Orthodox Jewish teaching that everyone has a soulmate but as she is still unmarried at 29 despite being sent on lots of disastrous dates by her matchmaker and working in a jewellery store which sells engagement rings to happy couples every day she is starting to wonder if this is actually true. Unfortunately for Penina she is sadly unable to have children and as the family is a central tenant of the Jewish faith this means her options are limited. She needs to get married in order to help out her sister and brother in law otherwise they will lose their home in three months time. 

Sam is the jewellery store’s bosses son. He has come to manage the shop whilst his father battled cancer. Sam is grumpy and whilst he is Jewish he is not from the Orthodox branch. As he isn’t an Orthodox Jew he can see beyond the fertility/ brood mare aspect and sees Penina as a fashionable, caring fun person who wants to help everyone. He takes the time to talk to her at every opportunity and slowly their relationship shifts. 

Zevi is a guy she meets via the dating app. He is very rich and has an intriguing proposal for her. He will pay her to marry him as he want to please his mother before she died and hide the fact that he is gay. 

Penina had two choices marry a rich gay guy in order to help her family or marry Sam who will either have to adapt to the Orthodox way of life or she will have to give up her religion which she holds dear to her heart. 

The ending is very uplifting and the epilogue ties the whole book together. 

I enjoyed how I was gain a tiny insight into  Orthodox Judaism and it’s customs. It is a fascinating religion. I follow a few Orthodox Jewish fashion/ family Tiktokers and I don’t think I would ever be able to live their lives. There are so many rules and customs. 

I thought this book was fascinating and went way beyond the traditional rom-com novel. I enjoyed that Penina wasn’t depicted as the archetypal frumpy Jewish girl but as a fashion blogger (who had modest success on ins) she was interested and blogged about kosher food, fashionable modest clothing and their religion’s customs and teachings. The infertility/ still a virgin at 29 aspect and how uncomfortable Penina was with feeling that she didn’t fit in to the social hierarchy despite being there to help anyone who needed it is rather sad and as a reader I felt for her. I also felt sorry for Zevi who had to hide his sexuality from his dying mother and presumably the wider community. The banter between Sam and Penina was fun and more interesting than if they had just fallen into bed together. I really enjoyed this novel, it is a funny yet poignant read and would love to read other books by this author.

I received this book via Netgalley and Embla Books in exchange for a honest review.