Annie Cassidy is living the life every hopeless romantic has always dreamed of. She spends her days writing screenplays and her nights dreaming about finding true love. In this day and age of online dating, all anyone wants is to find a real life meet cute. Unfortunately, it looks like Annie may never find her Tom Hanks. While working on a local movie set, Annie meets Drew Danforth. Drew is the least Tom Hank-like person in the world, but maybe there's more to him than meets the eye. This book is crazy sweet, and as a hopeless romantic myself, had me hooked from the very beginning. It was light and easy to read, but I also couldn't put it down.

I didn’t like that the heroine was a caricature. But I’m a sucker for romance, so although the plot was too cliched, too cheesy, and sometimes too OTT for me, I kept reading. I did find the connection between Annie and Drew sweet.

This was a did-not-finish for me. The pacing moved incredibly, unbelievably fast, and all of the romcom references felt forced and gimmicky rather than natural. I wanted to love it, but it came off cheesy, and not in a good way.

DNF. I found the writing repetitive and just could not connect with the main character. I will still offer it to those who are looking for romantic comedies since my opinion seems to be an outlier.

An adorable rom-com and a new author that i will definitely be recommending to anyone looking for a fun romance!

I heard all about this book. It kept popping up on my feeds for the longest time. It completely lived up to the hype. Anything with Tom Hanks is a great movie. The same is now true with book titles, too.

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS

I received an arc from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for a honest review.

I wanted to give a fair warning to those who are interested in this novel to not really take this one seriously. What I mean by this is that there are two ways to interpret this one and if you interpret one way the other, your rating can range from a 2 or a solid 4. My interpretation is that this book is loosely based on the formula of a romantic comedy. Therefore, we see themes of prejudice, miscommunication, and a female lead who isn't so confident in herself so there's a lot of self-doubt which can be annoying.

Waiting for Tom Hanks is a romantic comedy featuring a small hometown girl named Annie, and a big Hollywood star named Drew. Annie has bias and prejudice against Drew simply because she does a lot of 'research' (reading tabloids) that prove that Drew is dumb, a womanizer, and definitely does not meet her unrealistic goals of a romantic partner. So when Drew, who is working on a romantic comedy film in her hometown and Annie suddenly gets a job as the director's assistant, pays more attention to her, she can't bring herself to trust him. Annie fights her attraction against Drew to the best of her ability, listing out reasons why they could never work. Drew travels around the world while Annie is perfectly okay with staying in her hometown with her two best friends and her uncle. In the end of the novel, I'm glad Annie came to the realization that she was being SILLY all these years for trying to follow fabricated plots with perfect heroes.

Once I started to realize Annie was being judgmental solely based on her low-esteem and that Kerry could have possibly purposely written this novel to mimic a typical romantic comedy, I let go of the idea that this was supposed to be a book featuring realistic characters. Under this impression, this book was cute, entertaining, and something that is worth reading unlike the reviews you might have read before or after this. Instead of missing the mark, this book is dedicated to all romantic comedy fans out there!

Anyways, I think I couldn't give this one a 5/5 because I was in a reading slump and I just really wanted them to get together but of course, they had to go through a lot before they could live happily ever after.

MY RECOMMENDATION

Read with perspective and try to think of how there are different ways to interpret this one and you may enjoy it!

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, this story was not for me and I was not able to finish. I look forward to future titles.

The concept for this book was super cute, but I couldn't connect with the main character. She was a bit frustrating and the story relied on the Tom Hank references a bit too much.

This is a short and sweet romance, and who doesn't love a good Tom Hanks movie? I loved the story behind this one, Annie loves romantic comedy movies, and is sure she won't have her own happily ever after. She is also writing her own screenplay.

Movie star Drew isn't her idea of a romantic co-star, but the longer they hang out the more that starts to change. This is a delightful book, and a very satisfying read! Highly recommended.

Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I've always been a fan of Nora Ephron films, especially Sleepless in Seattle. So this novel was right up my alley and it quickly became one of my 2019 favorites!

I really liked all the characters, even the quirky ones. The story was sweet and romantic, as well as humorous. While it carried a rom com predictability, there were a lot of surprises thrown in, as well. Drew seems like he would be amazing in person. I liked the sexual tension between him and Annie. There were some emotional moments throughout the story and I even got teary eyed at one point. This was a love letter to rom coms in the same way the TV series Four Weddings and a Funeral is.

I recommend this to anyone who needs a story that will make them swoon. I already can't wait for Not Like the Movies!

Movie casting suggestions:
Annie: Jane Levy
Drew: Jeremy Jordan
Chloe: Bailey De Young
Rick: Adam Rodriguez
Carter: Benjamin Walker
Uncle Don: Greg Grunberg
Tarah: Kiersey Clemons

“𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭-𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘫𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭.”⁣
⁣
𝗪𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝗺 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 is rom-com references heavy, so if you're into that, you're in for a treat. It was very cinematic and I could completely picture this book playing out like a movie in my head. ⁣
⁣
The characters were fun, but Annie’s rom-com filtered glasses wore me down a little bit. It was either all or nothing with her and that kind of approach can get frustrating. Her obsession with finding very specific traits in a man and how she meets him were a bit out of touch, but it made for a fun read.⁣
⁣
If you have someone wanting to dip their toes into the romance genre but might be scared of the sexy-times, this book would actually be perfect. The steamy level is 1 out of 5, so they'd be safe. With all that said, I’m very much looking forward to the next book about Chloe and Nick.⁣
⁣
𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟯/𝟱

SO cute and fun! These lighthearted feel good romcoms are my comfort food. Sometimes it’s just nice to read a book filled with charming characters, doing silly things. A little over the top, a little cheesy, but a lot of fun! Annie is the ultimate romcom lover. She is consumed with having a meet cute and meeting her very own Tom Hanks, Houseboat and all. When a romcom movie is being filmed in her town she just knows that this is her big chance. What ensues is a delightful story filled with charm, whimsy, and humor.

Annie was a likable character even if her head was in the clouds. Drew was a great love interest even if Annie didn’t think so. I loved all the secondary characters as well and I’m excited that there is a follow-up to this book with Chloe and Nick. Next time you’re in the mood for a romcom this is your book! Not only is the book totally adorable there are also tons of Tom Hanks movie references.

This book in emojis. 🎬 ☕️ 💞

*** Big thanks to Berkley for my copy of this book ***

After 3 hours of the audio, I have to give up on this. I can’t get over how obnoxious Annie is. She gets a job via nepotism and then wants to question a professional actor why he’s in a rom com when he isn’t obsessed with them like her. She is perpetually annoyed and angry with Drew even though he’s perfectly pleasant and so far the only parts of his personality we’ve seen are “agreeable” and “loves Columbus”.

I really enjoyed this rom-com full of quirky characters and lots of charm! It's exactly as described by the cover copy and the cover. It's definitely entertaining. I enjoyed the reading experience - I was able to finish it in about 24 hours. It was a cute and interesting read. I definitely recommend to those who enjoy rom-com's!

Honestly, the heroine bugged me, it's just a personal thing. Other then that the book was really funny and I did enjoy how trope heavy the book was. Also audiobook narrator was amazing. I just couldn't get past the heroine.

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

As someone who loves romcoms, I loved the premise of this book. I've read Kerry Winfrey's YA books before and I really appreciate her humour and all the pop culture references she adds to her writing. I've already recommended this book to customers.

This story was so cute! Waiting for Tom Hanks is the perfect book for someone looking for a light, fun romance. It was a bit cheesy at times, but I didn't mind. I would have loved if there was more romance and maybe a bit of steam (I love steam!) Regardless, this one was adorable. 3.5 stars