Contemporary Romance

When Orthodox Jew Batsheva Friedman moves into her new apartment, she’s finally ready for some freedom and independence from her parents. During her first Shabbos with her new roommates, she meets Moshe Binyamin, her roommate’s brother’s best friend. MB’s quirky, immature, definitely not someone Batsheva can see herself settling down with. But the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes there’s more to him than his childish side.

When her former classmates decide to have a reunion, Batsheva is conflicted. As the only unmarried one in her grade, she’s not sure she’s up for seeing her childhood friends. MB comes up with the perfect plan—to pretend to be married so Batsheva can join in the reunion. But that’s crazy. Insane. Yet…maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all. The two of them embark on a journey they never imagined they’d ever be on. Batsheva gets to know her fake husband on a deeper level, and it’s not long before they decide to date. But how could a relationship ever work out between people who are total opposites?

This collection of books featuring Jewish main characters is decidedly non-comprehensive. As we come across books that are described as having Jewish main characters, we add them to this database. The creators of the Jewish Genre Reading Challenge have not read all (or even most) of the books in this database. We have gathered information from many sources and not all may be accurate. Inclusion of a book in our database does not imply endorsement or approval. There is always the possibility that antisemitism may be present in a book, either written into a character's experience or through malicious or ignorant caricature or stereotypical portrayal of Jewish characters and culture. Please take care of yourselves as you read.

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