Too Good to Be Real made my rom-com loving heart SO happy. This book is like a love letter to the genre with all its tropes, cheese, mishaps, cliches, and hilarity while being completely fresh and unique.

This book had such a fun concept - a week-long live-action role-playing game in a rom-com themed resort called Notting Hill? Sign me up! Seriously. The story was told in alternating POVs between Julia, a writer for a popular website, and Luke, who works for and helped set up the Notting Hill experience. They were such great characters, and I was glad we got to see both their points of view.

Too Good to Be Real had a lot of heart - it was fun and lighthearted, but also had deep and relatable themes like learning to trust yourself and others, breaking outside your comfort zone, being brave enough to open your heart and let people in, and breaking patterns of the past and not reliving your parents’ history. It had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments along with steam and swoons, and I really enjoyed the friendship between Julia and her two best friends, as well as Luke and his little sister.

Fellow rom-com fans, be sure to pick up this delightfully entertaining read this summer, then get your Netflix queue ready because you're definitely going to want to watch (or, if you're like me, rewatch for the eleventy billionth time) Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's, Dirty Dancing, and Austenland, among other classic rom-coms.

As the title suggests, this romantic comedy plays with the idea of what's real and what's fake. The story gave me major Austenland vibes (but make it rom-com) as a trio of friends set off for a week at a romantic comedy resort. I was delighted when the characters made the Austenland reference for themselves in the latter half of the book... great work, team! Our protagonist Julia is a journalist who mostly writes online quizzes and listicles, but she pitches an idea to write about the resort in an attempt to prove her worth in the face of sweeping layoffs.

I'm going to channel Julia and give you a list: Ten Reasons You Need Too Good to be Real

1. It's light-hearted and stress-relieving by proxy.

2. It features dozens of heart-butted corgis and thieving seagulls aka "evil air weasels."

3. It's masterful for a rom-com within a rom-com to not feel too contrived. This one captures the cheesy chemistry of the genre that manages to help you suspend disbelief and just lean into the romance of it all.

4. It packs the rom-com references IN. They're all intertwined and on top of each other and cleverly maneuvered. The Dirty Dancing homage practically made me shriek with excitement from the utter and unexpected perfection of it. It scared my dog.

5. Both Julia and Luke are grounded protagonists. They have their own issues, but not in a terribly broody way. They're perfectly imperfect.

6. The trio of best friends gives me major lifelong friendship goals with their standing Friday night dates of carbs, cocktails, and comedy. Also, their banter is the thing dreams are made of.

7. Luke has a very sweet and layered relationship with his sister that was a delight to see shift and grow throughout the story.

8. The cringey rom-com moments definitely made me want to hide, but did I laugh out loud? Absolutely.

9. Do I want to do a fancy LARP experience now?? I've never been forced to ask such questions before.

10. Finally, this was an all-inclusive vacation for me as much as the characters, and I was all in from start to finish.

Romcom? Check. Cute dogs? Check. Vacation get away? Check. A woman who doesn't know what's next? Check
Really if you love just for reads and all of the romance novel tropes...then you will love this novel by Melonie Johnson.
Instead of more of the same dating apps and the same losers crossing her path, Julia decides to check herself into a resort that promises to give you all the things that make your little heart go pitter-patter...you know like in the movies.
Julia isn't the only one there just to check things out, just to see, but tells themselves it is all in good fun.
But what if all of that good fun is real and you need to come clean? Admit love exists? OR heaven forbid, admit love is right in front of you?
A great rom-com for all ages. Though it is not labeled NA (new adult) readers of the genre will definitely love it and see its page-to-screen capability.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

3.5 ⭐️

Melonie Johnson’s Too Good to Be Real has a really cute premise: reporter Julia Carpenter—who has doubts about the existence of true romance IRL—decides to cover the opening of the Notting Hill Resort, where guests get to fantasize that they’re in a romantic comedy (or two) throughout their stay, in an effort to try to save her job.

The first day there she literally stumbles into Luke O’Neal, who is unbeknownst to her, a software developer working for the resort and not a participant in the festivities.

Luke aspires to have his own game start-up & should be able to after he gets a bonus from his boss at the resort for an Opening experience well done. Which means he needs to make sure the reviewer there (secretly Julia!) has a good time so he can make his dreams come true…or at least that’s what he thinks 🤣.

Feelings intrude & distract both parties from their various goals. Despite the fact that they are both deceiving the other to some degree.

Though the rom com scenes these leads take part in are from movies, the descriptions of the leads themselves feel very “real” & I love it. Luke is not ripped & both leads laughingly reference being “out of shape”; Luke wears video game shirts & his other clothes never fit properly. He’s awkward & I adore that.

& as I mentioned earlier, the rom com references are charming. Like, for example, the guests can sign up to be stuck on an elevator 🤣.

I know books billed as rom coms often get a lot of flak & unfortunately I just didn’t click 💯 with the humor in this one. There are some humorous moments (to me) but overall I don’t totally connect with it.

On the whole, I enjoyed this one & love the refreshing characterization but I didn’t unreservedly swoon.

This is a light rom-com set in a resort where you're supposed to be able to live out your rom-com fantasy. Yep. It's an interesting concept for a resort, that's for sure. Julia and her friends Kat and Addie head there for a week. And, of course, Julia has a meet cute with Luke, who runs the place with his family. Some of this might remind you of Sex and the City, some of it might remind you of other rom-coms (it is sort of trope-y), but the characters are well done and it's funny, genuinely funny in spots. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good beach book.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. This did not affect my rating.
*3/5*

Julia is a writer for what seems like a Buzzfeed or Cosmo type website, writing quizzes and lists. She is facing a potential lay-off and asks for chance to write the next ‘Take Me’ article and her boss agrees – with some googling, Julia finds a RomCom larp at a hotel in Wisconsin – Notting Hill. Julia and her friends Andie and Kat get to go and experience this game for its inaugural week.
This had so much going for it – I loved the rom-com throwbacks and call outs. I also really enjoyed Julia, Kat, and Andie’s friendship – their love for each other was true and awesome (the dick pic conversation had me actually laughing out loud “his penis looks like your shrimp” is the opening line of this book and what an opening line it is!)

The other players were memorable – Harry and Sally, Patrick and David, even the seagulls Bonnie and Clyde!

I also liked Luke, Penelope and Jay – although at times it felt like Jay didn’t have anything to do and was forgotten until the end to have a certain trope... which I didn’t love and while the hints were dropping everywhere, it still felt rushed and out of place.

Now to Luke and Julia.. I just don’t even know. I really liked them at first! The meeting on the beach, their sexy kiss in the woods “I was just looking at the, umm, log. It’s a very nice log. Very sturdy. Makes a very nice place to sit”. But the longer they withheld truths from each other, the more I didn’t care. And the ending again felt rushed and cobbled together. I love that Luke wasn’t the stereotypical chiseled and muscled hero, he had insecurities and hated exercise which I actually really appreciated.

Because we knew that Julia was hiding she was the reporter, the conflict felt forced. There were so many instances where she could have said something. And both hero and heroine lied to each other (which I didn’t love), Julia acted like Luke’s lie was horrible and didn’t even let him explain. Very frustrating.

The game itself was a delight – everyone is given an “identity” based on a romantic comedy (Meg Bryant, Bridget Johnson, etc.) and there were various activities you could pick to do – paintball, karaoke, baking, etc. - plus your romantic fantasy – get stuck on an elevator, be serenaded, etc. We get to see a few of these romcom classics play out. I would have loved to have seen even more!!

Overall, the writing was okay but I didn’t really believe in Julia and Luke’s love.
I would be interested in picking up more by this author though.

And now I want to watch some romcom’s!!

I chose this book solely due to the corgi on the cover. I expected a cute romcom but I found it to be pretty boring and just started skimming to see what the corgis were going to do next. Due to several different references, I’m not sure the author has ever been around a corgi in real life though!

This story has very Austenland vibes but in a rom com setting instead of a romance classic. Filled with quirky characters and a very fun premise, this rom com has the potential to be great. However, it moved a little slow for me and I never quite got past the quirks and into the story.

This is billed as a "rom com' about rom-coms, and it is that. I just can't figure out why these 20-somethings have zero familiarity with any rom-com after the 1990s. I think the set up got a lot of attention from the author, but I didn't really feel the kind of chemistry I would want from the main characters. I liked the friendship groups more than the romance. Super rushed ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟 3/5 stars

Too Good to Be Real is a funny, cute romcom full of movie references and meet cutes. Julia is ready to give up on love after realizing real life is nothing like the classic romance movies. When her job as a writer for a popular website is threatened, Julia struggles to find a story that will impress her bosses. While researching, she finds a resort that promises to let their guests live out their romantic comedy dreams and her and her friends jump at the chance. When she meets the awkward, adorable Luke at the resort, she realizes love may be like the movies after all.

This was an easy read with an adorable premise. However, with a premise that references all the best romance stories, I wanted a little more from the central romance. Luke and Julia are fun characters, but I needed a teeny bit more heat and banter. My favorite part of the story was the relationship between Julia and her best friends. The supporting characters were excellent and I would love to see them have their own books in the future.

Overall, Too Good to Be Real is a great book for your beach bag and will be a favorite among romcom enthusiasts!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

Too Good to Be Real is such a cute laugh our loud read. I loved every little rom com moment. The meet cute between Luke and Julia is so cute. I love Bonnie and Clyde. This book was everything I wanted and more when it comes to a tom com. Just wait until you go on the rom com week adventure with Julia and her friends. It will take you through just about every scenario that you love. This is a love story that will make you giggle, will make you a little gooey and will put a smile on your face. There is something so cute about the awkwardness of Luke and Julia. You just need to meet them. I do not want to say much more other then this because I'm afraid to give too much away when it comes to this one. This is a one clicker for those rainy days or when you just need that little bit of a rom com in your life.

Julia is a writer for a popular website where she creates quirky listicles for the masses. Julia loves her job, but with layoffs coming just around the corner, she knows she has to come up with a great idea to secure her position. As she fumbles to find a pitch, Julia stumbles upon a resort offering guests to live out their romantic comedy dreams. Julia knows better than anyone just how terrible dating is in the real world, so getting to live out her fictional fantasies in real life with her two best friends? Sign her up. Julia was expecting to collect a few fun anecdotes for her article, so she wasn't prepared to have a full-blown meet-cute with the tall, adorably awkward (and oh-so-handsome) Luke, who's also participating in the rom-com experience. The pair are quickly swept away with kisses in the rain, karaoke, and battling pesky seagulls, but both are keeping secrets about who they truly are. Can their relationship last once the credits run?

I don't know about you, but if there was a hotel offering you chances to live out your favorite rom-com moments, I'd be there in a heartbeat. With that in mind, I thought I was going to fall head-over-heels for this, but that wasn't the case. Naturally, this is packed to the gills with references to every popular romantic comedy, and instead of coming off as charming, it made the interactions between the characters feel cliched and lack a sense of naturalness. I also didn't feel like Julia and Luke, and even the side characters (I still can't tell her two friends apart), were developed enough so they felt pretty one dimensional. The romance between Julia and Luke was fine, but again, it just felt like a regurgitation of a movie couple and it was also so easy to see how it was going to play out. Even though I didn't fully click with this, there were some entertaining bits (mostly involving the ridiculous seagulls) and it would make a good summer read for any rom-com fan.

Johnson perfectly captures the rom/com vibe in this delightful novel. Complete with marauding seagulls, a corgi pack, and very eccentric fairy godmother this book has more than a little bit of everything. Come for Notting Hill, stay for the falling in love.

Is this book a total rip-off of the movie Austenland? Sort of. Did I enjoy it anyway? Well... sort of.

Look, I'm going to be real: If you can't name a dozen+ hit rom-com movies off the top of your head, know some of the main actors who tend to appear in said rom-coms, if you don't have a favorite Chris or opinions on Colin Firth vs Colin Farrell - then you probably won't like this book. It is SATURATED in rom-com references, and if you're not at least moderately immersed on rom-com culture than you're just going to spend a lot of time going "huh?" I love rom-coms, but I don't sit around quoting them (OK, except for The Princess Bride, which is totally a rom-com but also somehow about the only one NOT mentioned in this book?) and the constant rom-com references got rather annoying even for me.

Another thing that sort of bugged me? The references to Mrs. Weatherfork's corgis seemed so wrong sometimes. At one point she carries a corgi under each arm! Um, was my childhood corgi just EXTREMEMLY fat, or are her corgis just puppies? Because no way. There are also repeated references about them being yappy little dogs, and jumping up into laps and things. They're smaller dogs, but they're SOLID, and their short little legs aren't made for leaping. We had to build our corgi stairs so he could get up on the bed. It's not a big thing, but it just kept yanking me out of the story.

Still, when it wasn't being completely stalled out and cluttered with Julia and her friends dropping rom-com vomit everywhere, there were some really great moments in this book. I adore Julia and Luke and all of their completely ridiculous rom-com moments. I love a mistaken identities trope, and both Luke and Julia are pretending to be someone that's not quite the whole truth to who they really are. SURELY this won't come back to blow up in anyone's face... ;) The entire concept of a rom-com retreat is so fun, I would totally go! I'm not quite sure how Luke's role as a computer programmer comes into play at what's basically a giant LARP though? It sounds like he designed some software to help with basically the scheduling of experiences, which doesn't seem like it would be very complex... I don't know, I sort of didn't buy his entire role in the experience.

Another review said they were confused by all the different names once Julia and her friends arrive at the retreat, but if you're a historical romance reader you're already used to everyone being referred to by their name and also their title so you should have no probelems, haha. I kind of liked that they were assigned romance movie leads as their characters. (And did anyone else picture Patrick and David as Patrick Dempsey and David Duchovny? Because it did, through the entire thing!)

Despite the at times jarring and unrealistic (well, it IS a rom-com...) story elements, I enjoyed reading this book. There were a few times when I looked up from reading to find my spouse watching me, and realized I had a goofy grin on my face because of some silly thing that had just happened. Enough times that he commented "that must be a good book." If it made me smile so much, it must be? Oh! And I don't normally suffer from secondhand embarrassment while reading books, but BOY, this one made me do a major cringe at one point, which I realized when my spouse cracked up at the face I was making. :D

I absolutely adored the concept of this book. A rom-com book about a rom-com roleplay? Sign me up! Unfortunately for me the book just didn’t deliver. The characters while interesting took entirely too long to develop and for the majority of the book I feel like we got the same character traits worded differently. We get the point; one was a tom boy, Ones quirky, one wants to be loved too badly to actually find it, classic rom-com tropes. Overall it felt like the author thought their reader couldn’t get a point if it was only made once since every point that was made was repeated over and over. I really wish the dialogue had been a bit more witty or at least less forced feeling.

What a fun rom-com! I love Melonie Johnson's books--they're equal parts funny, sexy, and sweet. Too Good to Be Real is probably my favorite one by her yet! It's such an ode to romantic comedies, and it is beyond adorable.

Julia is an aspiring writer for an online pop culture site who is afraid she's about to be cut from her job. She needs a great article to keep her job, and she finds her inspiration in a resort experience based on romantic comedies. Luke is the co-designer of the game for the resort. He's a geeky software programmer and a bit on the neurotic side. Each of them goes undercover (and each of them don't know this about each other!). Luke does this to make sure the game goes well, and Julia does it to get an unbiased view of the resort so she can review it.

Both Julia and Luke are so adorable! One of my favorite things about the hero is that he isn't described as this big alpha male. He's a pasty nerd, and that is so refreshing to read! The story is charming and unbelievably fun, and I can't wait to tell people about it!

Too Good to be Real was such a fun, creative rom com! It’s filled with some hilarious witty banter, a wonderful girlfriend gang, some cute wiggly butt corgis, some crazy seagulls, and a nice mix of all of our favorite romance tropes. ⁣
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I feel like I got bits and pieces of some of my favorite romcom movies with a twist and loved when some of the classics were mentioned. ⁣
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Julie a heartbroken writer who’s all but given up on love, who obsesses over rom coms with her two besties Kat and Andie, takes a leap and asks her boss if she can write for the travel column for their website. A new rom com themed LARP opens and the three girls head there to get the full experience and write an honest review about the resort. ⁣
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So many hilarious things happen, we meet all kinds of entertaining people, we get grand gestures and clever dialogue. Such a good summer feel good read!⁣
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
Thank you @stmartinspress for an ARC for my honest review! #bookstagram #books #netgalley #toogoodtobereal #romance #romcom

Julia is on the verge of losing her job as a journalist and will do anything it takes to keep her job, even if its going on a writing assignment for the travel section when she hates traveling. Which brings her to Notting Hill Resort in Wisconsin on a writing assignment for a rom-com roleplaying weekend where every romantic can live out their movie fantasies. Luke took a job programming a rom-com roleplaying game because it would help his sister out, and the bonus would give him the money he needs to start his own company. Both skeptical of the experience, find themselves caught up in their own real life rom-com, but secrets of their real life threaten to unravel the relationship they form on the week away, and the lines between role playing and real life are starting to blur!

I really wanted to love this book, I mean I'm a rom-com queen, but something about it felt more Hallmark channel and less Silver Screen. I found myself skimming in some spots because I just wanted to see how it ended. However, I could totally see this being a CW series or hallmark movie for sure. Don't get me wrong, this was cute, a bit cheesy and if you like rom-coms you will like this. It was just a little cliche, and I was hoping for more. I loved Julias relationship with her friends, and I liked that when things unraveled she chose the harder route and didn't just forgive the lie. I liked that it was set partly in Chicago, where I live. And I loved that Julia and Logan weren't these perfect hot couple who were just connected after a mysterious spark that a lot of books do. They were flawed and nerdy and I loved that!

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review 3.5 stars!

It’s a rom-com book centered around rom-com movies with our characters having rom-com experiences. You absolutely knew how this book was going to end, but I enjoyed the ride getting there. But honestly, the true love story was between Julia, Angie and Kat. Their best friend relationship was so believable, it kind of outshone the m/f romance at times.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Fun premise. Unique setting. Witty characters. But the writing falls flat and I was not invested. The outcome is pretty obvious from the beginning and I found myself ready for it to be over. My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.