Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review..
Okay, now that I’m sitting down to actually review this book, I can no longer remember why I didn’t bump my 4.5 rating up to 5 . . . so I’m just going to do that right now. There. Fixed. (To be clear, this is still a 4.5 until I can re-read, but it’s living so pleasantly in my mind right now and I’m still laughing about the pool/drunk/dress scene.)
So this is a romance book about romances. Our main character, Emma, is a screenwriter, and she loves rom-coms. But her favorite screenwriter is phenom Charlie Yates, who has never written a rom-com in his life. But now he has to! In order to get his gangster movie made, first he has to write a vanity project script for his director’s mistress. The script is supposed to be a rewrite of It Happened One Night and it is an utter and complete disaster, a terrible, terrible piece of writing. So Emma’s agent (who is also Charlie’s agent) finagles her the chance to co-write this rom-com with him. They butt heads immediately, and their bickering/banter was so good.
The plot of Emma trying to get Charlie to appreciate the joys of romance and rom-coms would have been enough on its own, but both characters have something deeper going on. Emma has been the caretaker of her disabled father for the past ten years and hasn’t had the chance to actually try and become a professional writer, but the chance to work with Charlie is one she can’t pass up (and one her family won’t let her pass up). Charlie has his own stuff going on as well, which I won’t spoil.
I just loved this so much. It’s my favorite Katherine Center book, easy. I love the open-hearted defence/apologia to love stories. I love the characters. It was really frickin’ funny. This one might end up being a stealth fave of the year. Highly recommend. (The audio narration by Patti Murin was excellent.)
[4.5 stars, rounded up]