A charming read and a good beach day read. Just not much depth.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I’m really upset about this one!! I thought it was gonna be great for me but I just wasn’t vibing with the characters. I didn’t like how long Eli went after the other person. Felt like it was the entire book and they didn’t come together until way later. It was hard to see the two main characters together

A darling novel about found family and finding real love.

Eli’s sister and friends decide he needs a makeover and romance lessons if he’s going to win back his ex, Victoria, that he’s hopelessly still pining over. When they stop in Thousand Island Dressing (a clothing boutique in their small town) they meet Leah at one of her 500 jobs (Eli charmingly refers to her as Kirk from Gilmore Girls, which I greatly appreciated).

During the transformation and education in the form of watching so many romance classics Eli and Leah become close and Leah also becomes close to his friends and family. Leah is working many odd jobs to make money to leave town, as her foster mother passed the previous year and her foster brother is more than a bit of a nightmare to deal with.

I really enjoyed the growth in Eli and Leah’s relationship and the growth within Leah as she learns to deal with her anxiety and accept that she’s part of a fiercely loving and loyal chosen family.

4 stars

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a cute story! Predictable, but always what i'm looking for when I pick up a rom com. I would definitely recommend this one!

3.5⭐️
I loved the concept of this book and the inspiration of older romcoms and that’s what initially drew me in. It did take me a while to really get into the book and adjust to the third person dual pov. It was a bit of a slow burn which I love but I didn’t like how long the mmc was stuck on his ex. I loved how welcoming Eli’s friends were of Leah, it was sweet to see her find her place. Although the ending left me with questions it was a cute and quick read!

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

If you are looking for the nostalgia that 80s and 90s romcom movies can bring, look no farther than this novel, as it will provide a thorough education on that movie genre. Unfortunately, those movies do not bring a sense of nostalgia to me and ended up feeling like a waste of page space. In all honesty, this book did not meet my expectations and the story, as a whole, floundered on the back of its premise.

I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief as I worked my way through this book. There was a myriad of reasons for that: the friends and family accepting the idea that Eli needs to completely change to attract a romantic partner; the lack of stakes over why we should root for Eli and Victoria getting back together; and the stigmatized depiction of Bipolar 1. These three plot points overshadowed the personal journey that Leah (and Eli) was on and didn’t provide a great foundation to endear me to any of the characters.

The greatest weakness of this story was the themes, or messages, hiding within the pages. There were two messages that stood out to me: 1) that you need to change yourself to attract a romantic partner; and 2) that someone with bipolar disorder is not capable of caring for their child. It has been proven that neither of those messages are true, and I found it to be damaging that the plot hinged on both ideas. Not only were these messages present, but they also weren’t addressed or challenged in the novel. It was uncomfortable to see these messages be so prevalent without true consequence being present on the page.

The plotting was uneven in this novel. It takes 75% of the novel for Eli to come to realize he loves Leah, not Victoria. This only provides 25% of the novel for Eli and Leah to move into a romantic relationship and handle all the challenges that come with that. And throughout all of that, it was expected that we believed Eli’s end goal was to end up with Victoria. I couldn’t find myself rooting for Eli in any aspect, and that was for one important reason: we never got backstory about Eli and Victoria’s relationship. In fact, the only times Victoria was seen on page was when 1) Leah watched her breakup with Eli, 2) when Eli and Victoria spoke over the phone, and 3) when Eli helped Victoria get engaged to another man. The missing backstory details were a detriment to the overall quality of the story.

Additionally, there was a significant lack of conflict across the pages. Was there internal conflict? Sure, as Eli and Leah were both on developmental journeys. However, there wasn’t much in terms of external conflict; without that conflict pressing on the characters, it made for a rather lackluster read.

Overall, this was a mediocre contemporary novel. I don’t wish to call it a rom-com, despite that being in a title, as it often felt like I was reading commentary about old rom-com movies instead of being present in a fictional story.

Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Cute, fun and lighthearted, couldn't get any better than that. I had a great time reading this book, I enjoyed Willow Cove and Leah as a character. Very easy to get behind and relate to which is all I really ask for as a reader. Great for a quick read.

This was a good book. It was cute, but lacked depth in a lot of places. I really didn’t feel a connection with this book like I generally feel with rom-coms.

There were parts of this book that worked really well for me and others that fell flat. Let's start with the positives.

I've seen some criticisms about how long Eli was pining for his ex, and I understand that, but I enjoyed how that lead to the slow-burn romance between Eli and Leah. It wasn't insta-love; it felt genuine and earned.

Leah was a great character; her backstory was tragic and so interesting to me, so I loved seeing her POV. Eli's POV, in comparison, fell a little flat because he was so obsessed with his ex, Victoria, but I still rooted for Leah and Eli to get together nonetheless.

I am also a huge sucker for a found family dynamic, and this story is full of that. Leah not having a lot of family growing up and learning how to let herself be loved and become part of a family was really heartwarming.

However, I didn't love Eli's friends and family going along with him needing to change so much just to win back someone who didn't care about him. I felt like the makeover ruse went on a bit too long, and I found myself wishing his friends would give him the tough love that Leah eventually gave him.

A decent book overall! Not my favorite, but I could see myself potentially turning to it again.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Adorable, sweet, weirdly realistic.
With that said it's pretty lack luster.
All the ideas are wonderful and they hit their mark but at the same time, it leaves you wanting more.
Outdoorsy himbo who is absolutely mopey and dopey about being dumped? His friends and family determine he needs a make over because he's super hung about his ex and hoping he can win her back? This is a+ stuff.
It gets even better because he non stop runs into the most darling and hard working and caring young woman everywhere he goes. It's kismet or serendipity or something.
The only chemistry felt between the two main characters is their ease about each other and the fact that based on the book being romance they'll inevitably get together.
The sparks fly randomly and sometimes without reason but it's a feel good book all around and it's worth the read solely for that.
It's frikken cute.

This was a DNF for me unfortunately. Couldn’t connect with the characters or storyline. I will not be sharing reviews as I only share ratings/ reviews for books I complete.

Rom Coms are my absolute favourite for reading and movies. This book did not disappoint. The references to rom com movies and quotes were so much fun. I loved seeing Leah and Eli evolve and fall in love. The background characters added a lot of humor as well. Maybe we'll see Gray's story next??

Absolutely recommend to all fans of rom com.

This book is a total rom com movie but in a book! Small-town romance, forced proximity- so many good tropes. I really enjoyed Leah's backstory about her foster mom and her mom. Like the audience, Leah talks about why the way that she is, but I would've liked to see more of the stories from Leah's childhood. The same goes for Eli, we never got to see their character's childhood, just very brief stories. I think it was interesting to have Leah fall for Eli so early on in the book, by the 30% point she already admitted that she had feelings for him, I for sure would've predicted her being the type not to admit any sort of feelings until the end. Eli though, he gives off golden retriever vibes. So sweet, yet such a dummy lol. He really kept telling himself that he was pining over Victoria when he could only think about Leah. Also, I liked how the author didn't make Victoria seem like a spawn of Satan. She just didn't love Eli, but she got her own love story. Overall, this book was cute, all the intimate scenes happen off the pages and the development of the love throughout the book pulls on your heartstrings. Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of the book!

It was okay. A little juvenile for being 30 year olds. It did read like a rom-com but was super reference heavy and pretty repetitive. There wasn’t a lot of tension or really a third act conflict. It fell a little flat. Also, it was closed door which was kind of disappointing.

After making my way through the Harry Potter books, I needed something different and figured The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker would give me exactly what I needed. It definitely did that and more, and there are so many things to love about this super sweet (as the name implies) rom-com. Not only did I love the humor and basically all of the characters, but I loved the substance as well and the fact that Leah was in the foster system. Although I was ultimately placed with my aunt and uncle, I also had a foster family and could understand to a certain extent how she felt. Eli was the most adorable love interest, and his family was the best. I loved the ongoing banter between all of the characters, and that it was in all of the relationships, not just the one blossoming between Leah and Eli.

Although there is a male and female viewpoint, the audiobook is narrated solely by Erika Schindele. I do wish they would have had a separate narrator for Eli, but I enjoyed listening to Schindele all the same. She was a pleasure to listen to and I thought she was perfect to be the voice of Leah. Her narration was smooth and emotive, and I would gladly listen to her again. I also appreciated that she didn't try to do a different tone of voice for the men because I feel like unless you are REALLY good at that, your own voice is always best. This one did get a little emotional and I was so happy that Denker didn't pull the miscommunication trope into the story. If you are a rom-com fan, The Rom-Com Agenda is the perfect book to grab for Valentine's Day!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Cute in theory, but the execution was not there for me. The pacing felt off and not thought through. Also, the story got caught up in the details - i.e. too many irrelevant details and side-projects for characters that it felt like the story was a conglomeration of stories and not cohesive.

Cute idea, but needed more thought.

rom coms are my favorite genre so of course this was going to be another 5 star. I mean it has rom com in the title lol. I really loved the characters. they were likable from the start and I just fell in love more and more.

I really wanted to love this more than I did. Parts of the book felt like a parody of a romantic comedy and that unfortunately made it really hard to connect to the story & characters. Very cute, very cliche lighthearted and fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A lovely, warm, and just so sweet rom com. I really adored this one more than I thought I would. Thank you St Martinis.

That you netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

What I loved:
Leah and all her jobs
The romcom movie references
The guy getting a make over

This was written in dual 3rd person pov, not my fav I don’t know why. This is obviously a me thing.