Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Story: 5/5
I really enjoyed this (very) funny, well-written, and actually insightful rom-com written by the author of Evvie Drake Starts Over. I like rom-coms when they are clever, witty, and most of all — NOT STUPID. I can’t stress that last quality enough. This was a perfect, read-in-one-sitting exemplar of exactly what I love in a rom-com and perfect for this stressful season.
Cecily is a podcast producer who agrees (think forced, bribed, coerced) to star in a podcast about modern dating with the help of a dating guru / popular Influencer. An introverted audio nerd by nature, this takes her so far out of her comfort zone that she feels impending implosion looming everywhere. Plenty of (well-paced, well-written) comedy follows, but I was impressed that she gained some real insight into aspects of her own personality that were getting in the way of her getting more of what she wanted from life. While I can’t bear to read about physical makeovers, psychological makeovers — are fascinating.
As an aside, I learned interesting components of podcast production (and marketing) which were new to me and described with a depth that showed true understanding on the part of the author (pet peeve: I hate when characters have a huge passion for something but then never do or think about it in any meaningful way).
A cross between Lori Gottlieb and Curtis Sittenfeld — the best of them both!
Some great quotes:
“I wondered exactly where that research had been done. Presumably the University of Unsupported Hunches, where I was guessing she was a tenured professor.”
“He took me to an ax-throwing bar on our first date, and he was very good at ax-throwing, which I suppose impressed me, because you never know when you might need a guy who can kill a monster in a cartoon dungeon.”
“But we finally agreed on a loose top that fell off one of my shoulders and a pair of pants that had just enough stretch to accommodate my newly emphasized hips without making me look and feel like a vacuum-sealed pork shoulder, ready for a sous vide bath.”
“He had the facial symmetry and the perfectly shaped dark hair of a Lego prince.”
“I tried to dig my smile out of the recesses of my personality.”
“It made for a long dinner, learning quite that much about Andrew’s gym routine.”
Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 25th, 2025.
Books to look forward to ... 