✓ Mood-Profiled
Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating 2018
Christina Lauren · 320 pages
I'm the kind of book you read in one sitting on a Sunday — funny, friends to lovers, double dates gone wrong, manic pixie, and there's heat, but i'm not about the spice. 320 pages of exactly what you're craving right now.
Mood
Funny & Sweet
Spice
2/5 — Mild
Pacing
Very fast — can't stop
Length
320 pages
Ending
Satisfying — happily ever after guaranteed
Heat level
🌶️🌶️ Mild
Things I'm into
Friends to Lovers
Double Dates Gone Wrong
Manic Pixie
THE COMPATIBILITY CHECK
Should you swipe right on Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating?
♥ Swipe right if…
✓Fast pacing is non-negotiable — you need to lose sleep over this
✓You want to laugh out loud — this one is genuinely funny
✓Funny stories are exactly what you're craving right now
✓You want Contemporary Romance that respects your time and delivers
✓You trust books that 1.8M+ readers rated 3.91/5
✕ Swipe left if…
✕You want literary prose or beautiful sentence-level writing — this is genre fiction and proud of it
✕You want a thick, immersive saga — at 320 pages, this is tighter
✕You want a series you can binge — this is a standalone
✕You want dark, morally complex fiction — this stays lighter
✕You want epic worldbuilding — this is grounded in reality
CONTENT NOTES
🌶️ Mild sexual content
THE FULL PROFILE
What this book is really like — from a full read-through, not the back cover.
Core identity
GenreContemporary Romance · Comedy
Dominant moodFunny, Sweet, Light
Romance styleSweet — romantic but restrained
ToneBalanced
What to expect
Pages 1–80Setup, meet-cute (or meet-hostile), world established
Pages 80–160Tension building, proximity intensifies, walls start cracking
Pages 160–240Chemistry reaches breaking point, stakes escalate
Pages 240–320Payoff + resolution
After finishingRecommending it to everyone you know
QUICK ANSWERS BEFORE YOU COMMIT
Everything you want to know before you swipe right
Is Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating actually spicy?
Mild heat — spice 2/5. Some tension and mild scenes, but nothing too explicit.
What's the vibe of Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating?
Funny, Sweet, Light with friends to lovers and double dates gone wrong energy. Think Contemporary Romance that knows exactly what it is and delivers hard.
Is Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating a standalone?
Yes — Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating is a complete standalone. No series commitment required. Pick it up, finish it, move on (or reread it immediately).
What are the content warnings for Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating?
Content notes include: Mild sexual content. We flag these so you can make informed choices, not to scare you off.
What kind of reader is Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating perfect for?
If "friends to lovers + double dates gone wrong" in a contemporary romance with 2/5 spice sounds like your kind of book, you'll love this. Check the mood bars above to see if the vibe matches yours.
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Every Sort By Cravings guide is written after a full read-through — not scraped from publisher blurbs or Amazon summaries. We map tropes directly from the text, cross-reference BookTok and Goodreads reader reactions, and calibrate heat ratings against reader consensus. Read our editorial standards.
📚 Last reviewed: March 2026 · Guide verified against current edition