ALexa Martin’s How to Sell a Romance is a lighthearted breezy romcom that also explores the workings of pyramid, multi-level marketing schemes.

Emerson is a kindergarten teacher. She’s single, enthusiastic, self-aware and broke. Her boss at school, Nora, has persuaded her to come to an event with her to find out about Petunia Lemon, a skincare (and pyramid) company. Emerson goes along to be polite, but it all sounds so amazing that by the end of the meeting, she’s invested several hundred dollars in their product. She ends her night in a bar and meets dishy Luke, and they have a one night stand. It all goes swimmingly, but in the morning he discloses that he is investigating Petunia Lemon because of a personal connection and its predatory business model. Emerson is hurt and offended, so she runs out on him without giving him her phone number.

Back in the classroom for the new school year, she meets her new students and of course, one of them is Luke’s daughter. From there we see Emerson managing her frugal life with bad financial decisions and becoming more and more deeply involved in Petunia Lemon.

Luke and Emerson both feel their attraction and dance around each other while he and his ex-wife bicker. Nora is also a key player here, recruiting other school staff to the scheme and managing, hyping and selling the Petunia Lemon dream. Eventually Emerson sees the light, and she teams up with Luke to bring Petunia Lemon down at the same time as they begin a relationship.

We see how these MLM companies operate as they prey on (in this case) women who are looking for financial independence and social connection. The author does a good job of showing how Emerson and others fall victim to the ruthless upselling and brainwashing/ indoctrinating, and of demonstrating how insidious these businesses can be.

The story is told in first person by Emerson, and what makes this romance distinctive is her very singular voice. She speaks directly to the reader, her tone and chattiness enabling us to get to know all of her very many quirks. On the other hand, having the full force of her personality directed at you, complete with asides, exaggerations, eye rolling, explanations and repetitions… well, it’s a lot. A lot. Short sentences. Questions? Noddy winky moments. All of it. She is dedicated to her students, hot for Luke, excited for Petunia Lemon, worried about money, spending it anyway, making bad decisions, justifying those decisions, boasting, explaining, humble bragging, and on she goes.

I’d have loved to know more about Luke. He’s a journalist, seems like a nice guy, and a good dad. He’s good looking, and totally into Emerson. But that’s about all I knew about him by the end of the book. I wanted to believe in their connection and that they would be good together, but it feels very insta-love and their chemistry is mostly physical.

I struggled with assigning a grade to How to Sell a Romance because while it has some charm as a light-hearted romcom, I couldn’t connect with Emerson’s self-absorption and silliness. If I’m not cheering for the heroine, the romance falls flat, so this one didn’t work for me.