Unorthodox Love: A laugh-out-loud, enemies to lovers, love triangle romantic comedy for 2023
Penina has grown up believing the Orthodox Jewish teaching that there is one soulmate out there for everyone. But now she's twenty-nine and single, she's starting to wonder if she's the exception. She has tried everything to find 'the one' and after yet another disastrous date, she can feel even her faith starting to dwindle. Add to that spending her days surrounded by diamond engagement rings in the jewellery store where she works and her new boss, Sam Kleinfeld, making her life a living hell, and Penina feels more hopeless than ever. Until she meets Zevi, a handsome, successful, Orthodox singleton just like her. Who has a rather unusual proposal. Could Penina be about to get everything she's ever wanted? But then there's Sam, her very non-Orthodox, pain of a boss, who she just can't stop thinking about... Penina has always followed the rules. But will finally getting a chance at true love mean she needs to break some?
PRAISE FOR UNORTHODOX LOVE
“Shertok’s debut delivers both sparkling banter and realistic relationship hurdles…Lovingly rendered…This tale of intrafaith love is sure to please.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“Shertok deftly informs readers about Penina’s faith as part of the plot in this chaste, opposites-attract romantic comedy.”
—Library Journal
“[A] feel-good love story.”
“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
—Kirkus Reviews
“One of the funniest rom-coms I’ve read.”
—Author Catherine Walsh
“A beautifule tale of learning how to reach for exactly what you want, even if it sometimes seems impossible.”
—Stacey Agdern, Author of B’nei Mitzvah Mistake
“I devoured this book!”
—Meredith Schorr, author
My Story
Why hello…fancy meeting you here! I’m Heidi and I’m an Orthodox Jewish woman who loves to read and write romance. (I’ll give you a minute to process that.)
Anywho… I’m a reader first, writer second. I LOVE to read books of all genres, but my favorites are romance and psychological thrillers. There’s always a pile of books on my nightstand, some of which have guaranteed Happily Ever After’s and some of which contain violent homicides and kidnappings that investigate the human psyche. That’s normal, right?
Anyway. My love of reading inspired me to create my own stories and I penned my first novel at the tender age of twelve. It was a mystery, but for reasons I can’t remember, I killed off all the characters. Hormones, probably.
I was too exhausted in my twenties to do much of anything thanks to my three darling children. At thirty, I wrote and self-published a romance that I now pray no one reads.
Soon after, I moved to Minneapolis so my children could get a Jewish education and was introduced to JULIE CARPENTER!!! Julie, an extremely gifted writer herself, invited me to join her writer’s critique group where I learned how to accept feedback in a graceful manner (i.e. without curling into the fetal position and sobbing). One day, Julie convinced me to write a romcom in an Orthodox Jewish setting and I was like, “Is that even a thing?”
Around three years later, I was offered representation by two literary agents, one in the US and one in the UK. They sold my book in three different continents and got me a Hollywood agent. Claire Friedman and Hannah Schofield are my heros.
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Thanks for visiting and happy reading!
Love, Heidi
“Heidi Shertok is a pure breath of fresh air. Every word she writes is magic, and I will be buying multiples copies of all her books.”