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A review by lynnedf
The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in return for an honest review (apologies for being a year late in getting it read).
Remember old school rom-coms? And by old school I mean: Say Anything, Sixteen Candles, Dirty Dancing. Toss in Love Actually and this is basically our story.
* Girl meets a guy and falls for him. He is charismatic, TALL, sweet, thoughtful ... and in love with someone else.
* There is a makeover. Of course there is a makeover.
* There is a gaggle of friends and family that just have to butt into everything.
* Hero needs to realize that the girl who has become his best friend - is really THE ONE and act on it.
* Girl has suffered a trauma (well several) and acts like everything is fine, until she can finally depend on new friends, and the guy to support her.
* Asshole comes and tries to bring her down (in this case her former foster brother) and the gang is there to tell him to get lost.
Told in alternating POVs (Leah and Eli) this was cute but something about it missed the mark. I think maybe it went a tad too long - the beauty of old school rom-coms is that they were rarely longer than 75-90 minutes. This book went about 75 pages too long. At the 70% mark I wondered what was going to fill the last 30% of the book. And honestly - we could have cut out more of the beginning, or even the entire getting Victoria back storyline - and still had a cute little story.
The good: Both Eli and Leah were great characters. This book is obviously the start of a little series about the rest of the friends (Gillian is next in "Hedging Your Bets", and I can't imagine not getting Gray and Delia's story)
The bad: Since I know more books are coming about "Willow Cove" I think maybe the"world building" of the whole group just took up too much bandwidth and stalled the story a little. Eli's sister Jenna is a tad annoying (like over the top - but I guess we need one of those characters if we are re-creating old school rom-coms).
That said. I was able to read this pretty quickly and loved how Leah was able to explain Love Actually to Eli in a way that totally addressed the issues we all have with it today - while still admitting to loving it.
My one question was... why no Jerry Maguire? When Leah tells Eli about the "grand gesture" - that should have been a reference point! At least based on the movies being referred to throughout the book. (I also found it a little strange that they would pick those movies when they likely would have watched movies from the late 90s and ealy 2000s based on their age... but that's just me).
3.5 Stars.
Remember old school rom-coms? And by old school I mean: Say Anything, Sixteen Candles, Dirty Dancing. Toss in Love Actually and this is basically our story.
* Girl meets a guy and falls for him. He is charismatic, TALL, sweet, thoughtful ... and in love with someone else.
* There is a makeover. Of course there is a makeover.
* There is a gaggle of friends and family that just have to butt into everything.
* Hero needs to realize that the girl who has become his best friend - is really THE ONE and act on it.
* Girl has suffered a trauma (well several) and acts like everything is fine, until she can finally depend on new friends, and the guy to support her.
* Asshole comes and tries to bring her down (in this case her former foster brother) and the gang is there to tell him to get lost.
Told in alternating POVs (Leah and Eli) this was cute but something about it missed the mark. I think maybe it went a tad too long - the beauty of old school rom-coms is that they were rarely longer than 75-90 minutes. This book went about 75 pages too long. At the 70% mark I wondered what was going to fill the last 30% of the book. And honestly - we could have cut out more of the beginning, or even the entire getting Victoria back storyline - and still had a cute little story.
The good: Both Eli and Leah were great characters. This book is obviously the start of a little series about the rest of the friends (Gillian is next in "Hedging Your Bets", and I can't imagine not getting Gray and Delia's story)
The bad: Since I know more books are coming about "Willow Cove" I think maybe the"world building" of the whole group just took up too much bandwidth and stalled the story a little. Eli's sister Jenna is a tad annoying (like over the top - but I guess we need one of those characters if we are re-creating old school rom-coms).
That said. I was able to read this pretty quickly and loved how Leah was able to explain Love Actually to Eli in a way that totally addressed the issues we all have with it today - while still admitting to loving it.
My one question was... why no Jerry Maguire? When Leah tells Eli about the "grand gesture" - that should have been a reference point! At least based on the movies being referred to throughout the book. (I also found it a little strange that they would pick those movies when they likely would have watched movies from the late 90s and ealy 2000s based on their age... but that's just me).
3.5 Stars.