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rusereviews's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
3.0
The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker is a cute contemporary closed-door friends-to-lovers romance. We follow our two main characters with alternating third-person points-of-view. The audiobook clocks in at a little under eleven hours and is narrated by Erika Schindele.
After growing up in the foster care system, Leah is used to feeling alone. She spent the last year back in Willow Cove, taking care of her sick foster mother. Now she has nothing left to tie her to the town and it's time to move on yet again. Eli's ex-girlfriend just flew off to Rome for a year, but he thought their relationship was going amazing. After telling his family and friends how determined he is to get her back, they decide to give him a makeover inside and out.
This was cute, though there were some deeper moments. I especially liked all of the pop culture references, especially to rom-coms. I liked everyone in the friend group, and I hope we get a Delia book sometime in the future. Leah's foster brother Patrick was a major tool. There's some casual queer rep with a bisexual side character, but I wish there were more.
Leah was great and there were a lot of parts of her personality that I identified with. Eli was okay, but I feel like he was stubbornly holding onto his plan to woo back Victoria for a little bit too long. That being said, I really did like the two of them together.
I had a hard time reading the ebook version; for some reason it just wasn't holding my full attention. I think my main issue was with the pacing. There was also some weird information missing, at least in my reading. I don't think I realized Eli's sister's husband was not white until very near the end of the book when he had an offhand comment about having more melanin than his wife. It's possible I missed some references to this but the author could have shown this in other ways.
Once I switched over to the audiobook I had a much better reading experience. I think the narrator did a good job, but with dual POVs I tend to prefer having two different narrators.
Tropes in this book include: found family, slow burn, friends to lovers, small town, closed door
CW: death of parent from cancer (prior to book), description of panic attacks and dissociation
I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
After growing up in the foster care system, Leah is used to feeling alone. She spent the last year back in Willow Cove, taking care of her sick foster mother. Now she has nothing left to tie her to the town and it's time to move on yet again. Eli's ex-girlfriend just flew off to Rome for a year, but he thought their relationship was going amazing. After telling his family and friends how determined he is to get her back, they decide to give him a makeover inside and out.
This was cute, though there were some deeper moments. I especially liked all of the pop culture references, especially to rom-coms. I liked everyone in the friend group, and I hope we get a Delia book sometime in the future. Leah's foster brother Patrick was a major tool. There's some casual queer rep with a bisexual side character, but I wish there were more.
Leah was great and there were a lot of parts of her personality that I identified with. Eli was okay, but I feel like he was stubbornly holding onto his plan to woo back Victoria for a little bit too long. That being said, I really did like the two of them together.
I had a hard time reading the ebook version; for some reason it just wasn't holding my full attention. I think my main issue was with the pacing. There was also some weird information missing, at least in my reading. I don't think I realized Eli's sister's husband was not white until very near the end of the book when he had an offhand comment about having more melanin than his wife. It's possible I missed some references to this but the author could have shown this in other ways.
Once I switched over to the audiobook I had a much better reading experience. I think the narrator did a good job, but with dual POVs I tend to prefer having two different narrators.
Tropes in this book include: found family, slow burn, friends to lovers, small town, closed door
CW: death of parent from cancer (prior to book), description of panic attacks and dissociation
I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
analenegrace's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I went into this book hoping I'd enjoy it quite a book, but during the middle, I actively turned to my roommate and said, "this book is terrible," something I don't often say. While by the end, it got better, I still did not enjoy this book like I thought I would. The MCs were so mind-numbingly stupid at times, and the side characters were so frustrating throughout the book, that it was hard to enjoy the actual romance.
Also, there are multiple Harry Potter references that are not necessary for a book published in 2023, we all know JK Rowling is transphobic, antisemitic, and more, it's time to leave Harry Potter out of your pop culture references (especially when you write a Queer Character into your book.)
Leah's character was the most interesting throughout the book, much more than Eli, but even still, her plot as an aged-out foster child dealing with caregiver burnout after having both her biological and foster moms die felt so overshadowed by everyone else's "problems" that it wasn't until the literal last 25 pages that anyone cared about her issues beyond Eli, sometimes when he wasn't being dramatic. Leah dealing with caregiver burnout and dealing with it was quite good, and if the other plotlines hadn't been written as more important, it could have been really good. Leah being written as a complicated foster child who had a relationship with her bio mom and foster family is really important, and showing her reconnecting with her bio mom before she died was a nice touch.
On Eli, who proposes after four months like that and then, when he's rejected, decides to win her back almost a year later?? It felt like a huge case of not respecting Victoria's boundaries constantly, between constantly texting, calling, and stalking her Instagram. Her character felt written so one-dimensionally that not another character could really say much good about her, not even Eli, who was supposedly in love with her. He seemed not to realize he loved Leah untilVictoria was no longer available at all, and that rubbed me the wrong way entirely.
As mentioned above, I found the side characters so frustrating. Their dedication to fully changing Eli was very annoying, and like, Jennathrowing out his favorite hat from when he coached Little League was so insane of her. Jenna was probably my least favorite character in the book, as everything she did was actively mean or demeaning to others. Her harassing some kids at the school where she worked was probably my last straw with her. Gray also made me actively upset as he was fully written as a bisexual stereotype of a slut who can't settle down even though he loves someone. It made me very uncomfortable the entire time, especially since we get hints of his and Delia's past and present relationship while he literally disrespects her and sleeps with people she knows. The other characters were not memorable enough to discuss.
The ending with the Will was insane, and as someone who has worked in an estate planning law firm, I was personally very invested in that plotline and would have loved to see a resolution!
Also, there are multiple Harry Potter references that are not necessary for a book published in 2023, we all know JK Rowling is transphobic, antisemitic, and more, it's time to leave Harry Potter out of your pop culture references (especially when you write a Queer Character into your book.)
Leah's character was the most interesting throughout the book, much more than Eli, but even still, her plot as an aged-out foster child dealing with caregiver burnout
On Eli, who proposes after four months like that and then, when he's rejected, decides to win her back almost a year later?? It felt like a huge case of not respecting Victoria's boundaries constantly, between constantly texting, calling, and stalking her Instagram. Her character felt written so one-dimensionally that not another character could really say much good about her, not even Eli, who was supposedly in love with her. He seemed not to realize he loved Leah until
As mentioned above, I found the side characters so frustrating. Their dedication to fully changing Eli was very annoying, and like, Jenna
The ending with the Will was insane, and as someone who has worked in an estate planning law firm, I was personally very invested in that plotline and would have loved to see a resolution!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent and Gaslighting
Minor: Mental illness, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Panic attacks/disorders
thesmutsister_emma's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is an Advanced Review Copy I received to give an honest review
Shoulda Had Duckie
So for starters, this was a pretty decent book. With that being said, I have opinions.
The first 35-40% of the book felt very slow to me. We were consistently shown that Eli was trying to get his ex back and that his friends deemed he had to jump through all of these hoops to be able to do so. That chunk of this book was simply used to show us Eli doing these things. There of course were some interactions with Leah, but one of them felt substantial.
Around the 40% mark, things picked up to be more of my speed. We saw more one on one time with Leah and Eli and saw more of their interactions outside of the group and it was adorable. I flew through this part of the book. From here until about the 75% part, I loved the book. It was so much fun and was so cute.
Yet, around the 75% mark, it started getting stale again. We were having the same issues over and over as well as just feeling like the book was droning on. I also felt like Leah and Eli had a stronger bond than to be having the issues they were having at this point in the book.
The last 10% of the book was pretty solid despite all of this.
The Final Verdict
I feel like this is a pretty decent book for the most part and I will definitely be recommending it to people who I know like these types of tropes within a book.
Shoulda Had Duckie
So for starters, this was a pretty decent book. With that being said, I have opinions.
The first 35-40% of the book felt very slow to me. We were consistently shown that Eli was trying to get his ex back and that his friends deemed he had to jump through all of these hoops to be able to do so. That chunk of this book was simply used to show us Eli doing these things. There of course were some interactions with Leah, but one of them felt substantial.
Around the 40% mark, things picked up to be more of my speed. We saw more one on one time with Leah and Eli and saw more of their interactions outside of the group and it was adorable. I flew through this part of the book. From here until about the 75% part, I loved the book. It was so much fun and was so cute.
Yet, around the 75% mark, it started getting stale again. We were having the same issues over and over as well as just feeling like the book was droning on. I also felt like Leah and Eli had a stronger bond than to be having the issues they were having at this point in the book.
The last 10% of the book was pretty solid despite all of this.
The Final Verdict
I feel like this is a pretty decent book for the most part and I will definitely be recommending it to people who I know like these types of tropes within a book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Cancer, and Death of parent
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