Member Reviews
Ever since I picked up my first Kathryn Freeman contemporary romance, I have been looking forward to whatever she writes next. Her newest "Nobody Puts Romcoms in the Corner' doesn't disappoint. Sally and Harry (of course a nod to a famous rom-com) are the lead characters in Freeman's newest novel. Sally is a romantic, and Harry is gruff, cynic who doesn't believe in love. The two end up as roommates, and one night on a dare, they re-enact an iconic scene from a famous romantic movie. Quickly the two become social media stars, and continue to build their following by re-creating iconic scenes from other rom-com movies. Freeman writes Sally and Harry's relationship development so well. They have great chemistry and great banteyr throughout the novel. This was a an easy, enjoyable read. For those who live contemporary romance/rom-coms, this is for you. Freeman's novels are set in England which is a bonus. Maybe there will be an audiobook available. Would be fun to hear this story being told in a British accent! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Looking forward to my next Kathryn Freeman novel!!
I'm pretty sure that romcom fans will find Kathryn Freeman's book good fun. I also suspect that I'm not in its demographic. I loved the fact that it's written in the past tense (what is it with the current crop of present tense novels?) and enjoyed the characters. But it didn't wow me.
This is a cute story & a quick read. It's definitely towards the fluffier/cheesier end of the spectrum and it's hard to imagine these scenarios really coming about - characters' motivations are pretty thin & I particularly found it unrealistic that Harry would go out and rent a place to leave his ex (who cheated on him) living in his house... . but if you just let go & decide to go along on a little romp through the history of rom-com movies, it's kinda cute. I would recommend it to rom-com addicts/aficionados but overall would say it's just OK.
I love romcoms and I loved this book. It was realistic, perfect, and beautiful. The cover is so fun. Can’t wait for what’s next from this author.
This was an easy 5 stars for me. I loved reminiscing about all the classic rom coms it revisited and the journey it took the main characters on. It was just so unashamedly romantic and cheesy in all the best ways. I’ve never read anything by Kathryn Freeman before and I can’t wait to make my way through her other novels now 😊
3.25 stars
Do you love all of the classic romcom movies - When Harry Met Sally, Bridget Jones' Diary, 10 Things I Hate About You, etc? If so - you will enjoy Nobody Puts Romcoms In the Corner.
When Harry moves in with Sally (see, romcom in the making), they end up accidentally making a romcom tik-tok, that's more com then rom, that starts to go viral. They decide to capitalize on their fame as long as possible and soon Harry and Sally find themselves not only recreating the classic romcoms but smack dab in their own romcom.
Nobody Puts Romcoms In The Corner was a light hearted, easy romcom read. Harry and Sally were both enjoyable characters and their love felt real. Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
What a fun, entertaining book. It never disappoints when a book is related to Dirty Dancing, and the reenacting of iconic scenes was a great idea.
Sally was a bit too literal with her romantic aspirations, and that was the thing that annoyed me a bit.
But overall a very good read!
I really enjoyed this! I loved the main characters and their banter and dynamics. There was such good chemistry between them. I’ve never read from this author before, but I’d love to read more now in the future!
If you are a fan of romcoms and romance books, this is the book for you! Harry has recently ended his relationship and moved into a spare room with Sally. This is your classic grumpy/sunshine trope, and there are an endless amount of references to classic romcom movies throughout the story. My only complaint was you don’t get to know the characters separately in the beginning, as they meet in the first few pages. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.
Whilst this book had a bit of a slow start, it picked up quite quickly and ended up being one of my favourites of the year. I am obsessed with Rom Coms, so it was really nice to read a book all about them. This was my first book by Kathryn Freeman and I definitely will be reading more!
We first meet Harry & Sally (loved this nod to my favourite ever film!), Sally needs money and has a spare room to rent and Harry is desperately looking for a room after a relationship breakdown. After one too many cocktails on a Friday evening they decide to try THE lift from Dirty Dancing which Sally records and puts on tiktok, safe to say it goes viral and our story starts there!
I loved that both our characters were three dimensional and whilst they both had character developments neither of them had a whole personality change. I also loved the side characters and I’m hopeful for an interlinking series with some of the other characters!!
Nobody puts romcoms in the corner is a must read for any fans of Sophie Kinsella with a little bit of added spice!
Sally hopes to be the star of her very own romcom one day, sure that she’ll hear the bells and know he’s “the one” from first glance. Little does she know that true love also comes in the form of a blunt, cynical, non-believer of love. Some people just love in their own weird ways.
This book was excellent! Perfect character development. Plenty of laugh out loud moments, and smiling like a goof at my kindle while life goes on around me. Holding back the tears and frustration when things were taking a turn for the worst.
I kind of wish the “turn for the worst” was maybe a different situation? I knew that it was coming from the foreshadowing but how it played out was a little weird. (Maybe Isabelle could have formed her own clip of Harry’s interactions with her and posted it leaving Sally to overthink the situation between them?) It seemed like she was understanding that he loved in different ways and he was just so obvious in his love for her even though he couldn’t say the words. This made her back-to-square-one, does-he-really-love-me because of a trash moment seem a little extreme. But I really enjoyed the story!
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK/One More Chapter for the ARC!
My name is Britt and I’m a romcom addict. A few of my favorites include Always Be My Maybe, 27 Dresses, 10 Things I Hate About You, and When Harry Met Sally. Nothing gets my heart fluttering better than a quick-witted conversation full of sexual innuendos, the smart one making the grumpy one fall to his/her knees, and a wonderful HEA.
That’s why I jumped at the chance to read Nobody Puts Romcoms In The Corner. As a lover of love, this premise sounded so good to me. I’ve read a couple books lately that I was looking for this vibe with that ultimately just fell flat, but I had high hopes this would be the one to satisfy me.
So did I get the HEA I was looking for? Let’s find out!
What I liked about the book:
1. I kind of know what I’m talking about when it comes to Romcoms, so believe me when I say, Kathryn Freeman NAILED IT! This had the perfect mixture of friction, comedy, and swoon. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that more perfectly invoked those same feelings I get when I watch a good romcom. I was so giddy reading this the entire time, that I could not put it down!
2. I loved that we got to see such rich characters in our MCs.
While Sally may have been the lover of all things love, she was also fierce and strong. What the book pointed out so well is just because someone loves love, doesn’t mean they’re blind to reality. We love the HEA, but we realize life is not a fairy tale by any means, we just want the zaps and tingles, or “fuzzies” and “bells”. IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!?! I loved the realistic take on this as a cynic with a love of romcoms.
Likewise, Harry was a true enigma himself and I loved it. With his outer shell of cynicism and sarcasm, it’s easy to bypass his soft-heart and protective nature of those he truly loves. For a guy so convinced love doesn’t exist, he sure did fall pretty hard for our leading lady pretty fast ❤️
Above all else, they had truly sizzling chemistry! I totally bought it that these two were meant to be from the very beginning and the happy butterflies in my tummy and I loved watching it play out!
3. Of course I loved the mix in with social media and the reenactment fails. Reading these scenes having the actual ones in my mind had me laughing so hard! It took the best moments of romcoms and poked fun at them, but still pushed our MCs into real love which was my ultimate hope and dream for this beautifully opposite couple.
4. Spin off potential! It’s there, you all, and I can’t wait to see if Kathryn expands on this group! I can just see something between Amy and Jack. MARK MY WORDS!
5. I did not realize when I requested this book that it was SUPER British. That’s kinda on me, knowing the publisher is HarperCollins UK 🤦🏼♀️. There were definite times I had to reread things to understand what the author was trying to tell me, but once I got into it, it was just such a quaint little addition to the story I really enjoyed. I loved all the phrases and imagining their English accents. Ultimately, it gave this story an extra little pop.
6. Finally, we got a couple doses of body positivity for Sally, who was not plus size but also not stick-thin. I loved that this was incorporated given the social media involved, but also Harry's take on it was so heartwarming.
What could have been better:
1. It would have been nice to have more background into both of the hard parts of their lives. I felt like except for the mediation points for Harry, we didn’t learn too much about his backstory from more than him just telling us. Same with Sally, there was a lot of history there with her and her sister that wasn’t explored as much as I had hoped. I think this story really could have benefitted from at least one flashback for each MC giving us a little more detail and connecting us more to their plights.
Final Rating: 4.5 stars!
Thank you to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and Kathryn Freeman for the free copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed above are honest and voluntary.
I really enjoyed this book! Often when books have a lot of romance recreations it turns very cliche, but this was extremely well done and I was pleasantly surprised. All the characters - especially Amy - showed a lot of growth over the course of the book, and I truly felt like they were real people. Now I want to go watch all the classic movies again!!! I loved all the references. Harry and Sally had an adorable relationship (sorry Harry, I called you adorable) and I was LIVING for it.
Sally is a hopeless romantic, she loves every romcom ever made and owns a coffee shop called the Love Bean (which I thought meant something completely different LOL) which carries cards in the window of every successful romance which has started with a date in her café.
Harry is Sally's opposite. A burly builder, he doesn't believe in romance AT ALL, and doesn't plan to fall in love. After he found his girlfriend 'entertaining' her boss, he left the house he lovingly restored and moved into Sally's spare room. At first the two of them are like ships that pass in the night, keeping their separate shelves in the fridge and only crossing paths in the hallways, then one night after a few too many glasses of wine, Sally tries to explain the iconic Dirty Dancing lift to Harry and they end up trying to recreate it - with predictably hilarious failure. However, when Sally loads the video into TikTok they become an overnight sensation with thousands of likes and comments clamouring for them to (fail to) recreate other iconic romcom scenes.
This was funny and referenced so many of my favourite romcom films, but there were a few I didn't recognise so I may have to watch them. I suspect that this book would be of little interest to someone who hadn't seen the majority of these films, but then I guess you wouldn't choose to read a romance unless you liked the genre in the first place.
I felt that the book lost a bit of focus in the middle, but in some ways that also helped to cement the growing romance between Harry and Sally, you get to see them falling in love gradually rather than it all happening way too fast.
I've enjoyed Kathryn Freeman's books in the past, although I am currently struggling to finish another of hers. This is definitely in the thumbs-up pile.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This book is such a fun and nostalgic walk down romcom memory lane. A nice way to lose yourself in a happily ever after book.
The main characters are unlikely roommates that set out to rrecreate the more iconic romcom scenes. This was a fun book that was a slow development.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.
This is a love letter to all things romance. The references, the pics, all just romance in fine form.
Sally and Harry are great characters and, typically, I fell in total love with their story.
Just wonderful.
Harry and Sally were likeable, realistic, and well-portrayed. The issues they faced were on the realistic side, which was quite refreshing. I enjoyed this story, and I am looking forward to the author's future releases.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.
I liked this book okay. I did kind of roll my eyes a few times at the cheesiness but I suppose that can happen when the title of the book is literally mentioning rom coms.
Sally is a hopeless romantic who owns a coffee shop with her friends. She believes in true love and “hearing the bells” when you find your person. Harry is extremely cynical about love and relationships due to his upbringing. Circumstances have him renting a room from Sally, and they end up making Tik Toks together of rom com scenes.
A story being based around Tik Toks does make me cringe a little. The story was cute, but the conflict was so contrived with Harry’s ex. The grand gesture at the end was very sweet.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What an awesome read! The cover of the book is what really caught my attention, and what a fantastic read it was! I loved how lighthearted this book was, it was incredibly enjoyable, so much so that I finished it in one sitting. This was the first novel I read by Kathryn Freeman, and I loved her writing style! It felt so realistic, and genuinely laugh out loud funny. I would highly recommend this book to any rom-com lover or anyone looking for a fun, light-hearted read!
Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC! I will surely be purchasing a physical copy on pub day!
“What about Sally to my Harry?”
A romcom lover with a non love believer, sharing the same apartment and recreating scenes from her favourite romcoms for her TikTok videos … what can go wrong??
If you don’t consider this book a romcom that will get you ready for the Christmas season !! This book has almost every trope you love in a romance story: forced proximity, roommate romance, grumpy sunshine and banter with an incredible tension between the main characters. I actually enjoyed the spicy scenes despite them not being very frequent nor intese. They were fun nonetheless. I wish I could say that this is the story when the guy falls first but once again with have that situation when the woman falls first and then he follows right after … maybe even the hardest.
Nonetheless I can say that I had fun reading it and it’s a fast read for everyone in love with this kind of books. Especially if you’re really into those big romantic scenes happening in movies like Bridget Jones, Love Actually … and The Notebook of course !!!!
“She settled with Harry meets Sally to do Love Actually”