This. Book. Was. So. Cute.

If you liked the movie ‘He’s just not that into you’ you will eat this up! It’s so similar (maybe a little concerning but loved it anyways haha). Leah and Eli have me all the feels and they had me hooked from the first meet. Ugggg read this now!!

A cute rom-com. Enjoyable, easy to read. The pages flew by. I enjoyed how Denker created well-liked characters, who I rooted for the entire time!

I really liked that the story was about Leah and Eli growing both separately and together. Both were great characters. The cast was fun.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

The Rom-Com Agenda follows Leah who is used to being alone and when her foster mom dies she wants nothing more than to leave the town of Willow Cove behind her. Eli thought he and Victoria were meant to be together forever. But then Victoria decides to go to Rome for a year. So in order to win Victoria back, Eli decides to change himself into Victoria's ideal man and win her back. Leah ends up becoming his guide on how to win Victoria back. And soon Eli might be trying to win over Leah and forgetting about trying to get Victoria back. 

This was such a cute read. It was basically a romance book about romance. I love how Eli and Leah found love when they weren't looking for it. There was a lot of references to romance movies in this book as well. Also, throughout the book you were rooting for Eli and Leah. If you are looking for a cute romance read I would highly suggest this one. Thank you Netgalley, St. Martins Press, and Jayne Decker for the ARC of this book.

4.75/5

What an adorable little treat of a book! It gave me all the feels & had so many things I love in a rom com. It was meta (in the best way) & included so many throwbacks to rom coms of the 80s. It’s the story of Leah, who inadvertently witnesses Eli getting dumped at the beginning of the book. When Eli’s sister & friends agree to help him with a “boyfriend makeover” to win back the girl, Leah gets pulled into the gang to help.

I loved spending time with Leah. Her tenacity & tenderness were really well drawn. Eli was a great romantic lead, even if I did want to shake him for the first part of the book so that he would see that he was meant to be with Leah and not that other girl!

Small town romance is not a trope that I normally gravitate towards, but the ones I like always have great secondary characters. The Rom Com Agenda had a stellar supporting cast of characters, & I hope the author is planning for their stories, because I’m going to need to have a book for each of them!

I adored this one & I can’t wait to get back to Willow Cove for more.

I loved the plot of this book. I loved the different types of relationships it portrayed and I loved all the romance movies it referenced. Eli and Leah’s slow burn was perfect. The dynamics of Leah and Eli’s family were so sweet and I loved that they brought her into their family. This was a fun light rom com to read.

👍🏼 a sweet rom-com for movie buffs

John Cusack fans, this one is for you. I honestly think that Janye Denker has set a record for the number of movie references. I mean all of the classics are in here. Pretty in Pink, Dirty Dancing, Love, Actually. And my personal favorite, When Harry Met Sally. So wonderful.

If you have seen all of those movies, this book is for you.

Our hero, Eli, has a delightful group of family and friends that have decided that in order to land the girl of his dreams, he needs a serious makeover. A key part of this makeover aside from the manscaping is intensive research of all of the greatest rom-coms of our generation.

Enter sweet Leah. She’s always lived on the edges, never in one place for too long. But she is tempted to fall in love with the idyllic small town of Willow Cove. Sucked in by Eli’s raucous circle, she is recruited to assist in Eli’s makeover.

Eli thinks that his dream girl is Victoria, his summer girlfriend who has left for an extended trip to Italy. Leah thinks that she just might find a reason to stay this time.

This book was so fun to read as Eli and Leah bob and weave around their feelings for each other until they finally figure it out!

Set in during a northern winter, this was an excellent diversion from the record heat we’ve been having here in Houston. Find some air conditioning and settle in for this cozy, heart-warming read.


Thank you to SMPromance and netgalley for the early access!


Note: this book does feature Leah’s experiences with the foster care system for those who are sensitive to that topic

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from St. Martin's Press and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Feel good romance with all the trappings you come to expect in a rom-com. Fun read for a day you want to be lazy and lose yourself in a book.

I enjoyed the book. The plot was interesting and held my attention throughout.. I loved the characters. The relationships were interesting romantic, friendships, and family dynamics. The story addressed building support systems.. the main character Leah had a difficult upbringing and never truly felt supported. She bounced around in the foster care system due to her biological mothers mental illness. As a teenager she found a more stable foster home. Leah leaves the foster home at 18, but comes back several years later to care for her foster mother. I loved the focus on self discovery for several characters. I give this book 4 stars

Leah is dealing with a challenging time in her life, as a former foster child who recently experienced a significant loss. She has a hard time letting people in, but when she meets Eli, she struggles to keep him at arm's length. Leah gets recruited to help give Eli a rom-com montage-worthy makeover in hopes that it will win back his ex.

I love when a romance book is developed enough that there is a plotline that keeps me interested beyond the romantic storyline. The Rom-Com Agenda gave each of the lead characters a challenge to overcome so they could grow as people. However, it didn't quite meet my expectations.

Leah's character felt underdeveloped, and Eli's infatuation with his ex went on longer than I felt was needed to move the plot along. I didn't feel invested in the story or characters as much as I would have liked.

There were some aspects that I did really enjoy, such as the rom-com & Gilmore Girl references that were sprinkled throughout the book.

Overall, it was a quick and light read, with a slow burn, closed-door romance, but not one I'd necessarily recommend to my friends.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eGalley copy in exchange for an honest review.

So I’ve never read anything by Jayne Denker before, but the concept of giving a guy a ROMANCE MAKEOVER won me over and I decided to ask for a copy.
While I didn’t LOVE the book, I did like it. The characters are well drawn and the plot is solid. So are the secondary characters.
Where the book fell short for me was in the constant internal struggle of the hero and his almost blind devotion to a woman he’d known for 4 months who didn't really treat him very nicely. He seemed a little…needy to me.
Having said that, the story was good and I loved the ending.
Thanks, Netgalley and St Martin’s press for a sneak peek!

Thank you netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review. This book had a slow start, and I didn’t get into it until more than half way. Honestly I hadn’t seen most of the movies that were referenced and I thought Eli was frustrating and so was Leah. There was also no spice which was disappointing because it was teased a few times.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and did not want to put it down!
The book starts with Eli who gets dumped by his girlfriend who is leaving the US for 10 months. In the meantime, his friends and family decide to give him a total makeover to help him win her back. Enter Leah who has 4 million (a bit of an exaggeration) jobs around town and gets looped into helping this makeover, which includes watching all the best rom coms to learn from.
Eli is such a dreamy guy and I love the character growth in Leah throughout the book!
Eli and Leah are definitely a couple I'm going to be thinking about for a while. I'm almost sad I finished the book because I want more!
*Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review! *

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I enjoy this and could not put it down. This is a sweet feel good book and I loved it. The first half moved a little slow but when it picked up it really took off. I adore Leigh and Eli.

I really enjoyed this cozy feel-good read. With a peppering of humor and an exploration of different emotions, it was both enjoyable and entertaining. I appreciated that the focus wasn't just on the two main characters, but on how Leah found a whole community of people to support her. The author did well in her depiction of how growing up in foster care can result in necessary independence, and that those tendencies can be hard to overcome. Overall a great book to read!

This story is adorable! It has all the makings of a great hallmark movie (a snowy small town, a group of friends that feel like family, a hopeless romantic, and a makeover) without feeling cheesy.

This book felt so genuine in so many ways.
Eli is a hopeless romantic who falls too hard too quickly and just wants to be loved. Leah is fiercely independent and has a hard time trusting people (for a good reason). These characters feel real, and I feel like most of us could see ourselves in one or both of these characters.

The friend group in this book is so much fun! They all have distinct personalities, and I loved seeing them bring Leah into their family.
Also, Delia and Gray book when???

Also, as someone who loves a good rom-com, these movie references and moments made me so happy. It also made me want to rewatch when harry met sally, lmao.

Overall I really really enjoyed this book and would recommend it!

Thank you to @netgalley for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book is possibly my favourite beach read of all time and it just so happened that I devoured the whole thing while lounging by the ocean. Both Leah and Eli were engaging characters who immediately drew me into the story. I couldn’t tell you which of Eli’s friends were my favourite but they all complimented each other perfectly. This cast really made the book for me, especially because side characters are often overlooked. The Rom-Com aspects were amazing and since there is nothing I love more than a book making fun of itself, I really enjoyed the little references to shows and movies that I love. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves Rom-Coms that make you laugh and swoon.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of so many classic rom-coms (and a John Cusack fan for life), I was completely enchanted by this book! The story of Eli and Leah was sweet and romantic and lovely, and I couldn’t put it down. This was my first book by Jayne Denker and she has a new fan. I especially liked the clever store names (“Tattoo-ine,” for example), I appreciated the analysis of some of those great movies, and I thought the supporting characters were just wonderful. I will absolutely be on the lookout for a book about Gray and Delia!
I’m grateful to NetGalley for letting me read this, as I’m not sure I would’ve found it otherwise.

I loved it so much!! I found myself sneaking away so I could read more about how Leah and Eli's relationship was progressing. I especially love how well written Eli's character was, his cluelessness was accurate and endearing. (haha)

I saw another reviewer call this book "very deeply okay" and those words spoke to my soul. The overall concept of giving the male main character a makeover based on romcom movies is decent enough. But the mix in with it happening because he wants to win back his ex who he proposed to after 4 months of dating is.....not my vibe. I found the male main character to be kind of annoying, especially when he realizes he has feelings for our female main character but still is doing all the stuff on his list to get his ex back. Feels gross to me. If I were the female main character I would NOT be into that or happy about it and I'd probably go far, far away from that man. So if the concept was just you know, this guy is lonely he's been single for a while and his ex from like 5 years ago kind of broke him so his friends and family decide to give him this make over so he can get back into the dating scene that would have gone over a lot better for me. But, it is what it is. It's not bad by any means, just maybe not so much my style. All the characters felt pretty surface level to me. They all kind of had their "thing" that didn't get explored much. The whole crew of characters is set up pretty well for sequels/a series of books with each character as the main character so maybe that's why they were left a little shallow?

I'd recommend waiting for the middle of winter to cozy up and read this. Especially given it takes place during snowy times. It's pretty well written and the romance/leading up to the main characters getting together is cute (when it's not weird because he's on a mission to win back his ex) but don't expect anything to really blow you away.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.