This book was really cute. I loved Leah and Eli's story every step of the way. From Leah accidentally ease dropping at the beginning to Ben and Jenna's wedding anniversary. This was a sweet story. Jayne Denker is a great writer. Thank you netgalley.

Loved the dual prespective and am a huge fan of found family and friends to lovers trope i thought the novel was well excuted and highly entertaining

The Rom Com Agrenda started my 2023 romance reading with a bang!. I'm a huge fan of Rom Coms and this one tugged at my heart string. I identified with all the movie references especially from Say Anything and Sixteen Candles (Jake Ryan forever). Eli was just an adorable guy and Leah's quirky jobs had me cracking up the whole way through. I loved everything about this small town friends to lovers romance and highly recommend checking it out.

I did not like this book. I don't know if I am just too old for it, but I found it more annoying than cute. I wanted to care about the main character, but deep down I really didn't. I am sure it is just not the book for me.

This was a sweet romcom. I love romance and the characters were so cute and well developed. I loved the makeover aspect and I really enjoyed seeing their relationship blossom during the book.

Eli was a pretty unappealing male main character. I truly don’t know what Leah saw in him honestly. I liked the found family and small town vibes the best. I really enjoyed the narrator on this one.

Eli and Leah meet when she witness his break up with Victoria when she leaves for Italy. Somehow later on Leah gets pulled into helping Eli get a makeover to be able to win Victoria back. Leah has been a loner and getting pulled in by Eli and his friends has been great for her. Of course as time goes on Eli and Leah get to know each other and fall for each other. There are lots of movie rom com references. It was fun and great narration.

Leah and Eli met under strange circumstances. Leah overheard Eli's break-up with Victoria and months later in an effort to win Victoria back Leah inadvertently gets roped into helping him become a better Eli for Victoria. There's just one issue: Leah ends up liking Eli more as she gets to know him better. Eventually Victoria ends up in a relationship with an Italian she met while away and Eli realizes he's fallen for Leah. It's the epitome of a rom-com. The narration is great and funny. It was an enjoyable listen.

Loved the idea of this book. Most of the time it's the woman getting the makeover for a man instead it's a man wanting to get a makeover for a woman. If you love Rom Coms you'll love this.

This was a cute fluffy romcom. I'm a big fan everything romcom, so I was glad to get a chance to read this. I'm more a fan of enemies to lovers, but friends to lovers is really cute too, and that's what this was.

The Rom-Com Agenda follows Eli, who just got dumped by his girlfriend, and Leah, an adult whose last family member just passed away. It's supposed to be a classic friends to lovers story, with tidbits of a "found family" kind of trope. Eli is obsessed with winning his ex-girlfriend back, who has literally moved half-way across to the world after dumping him, so his friends put together a makeover scheme to make him more "attractive" to his ex-girlfriend.

However, it really fell kind of flat for me because Eli spent the majority of the book just being obsessed with his ex-girlfriend and waffling back and forth before finally deciding Leah was the one for him. But for me, my biggest problem with the story was that Eli didn't have this sudden "realization" about how great Leah was until after his ex-girlfriend told him that she was in love with a new guy and Eli basically had 0 chance of winning her back. If I were Leah, and heard that, I would never feel like Eli "chose" me. So the happy ending didn't seem realistic to me. Hence the 3 stars.

I listened to the audio book version of this and I think the narrator did a decent job but couldn't make up for the pitfalls in the story.

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

I listened to this book on audio, that may or may not have colored my opinions. I did enjoy the narrator and found the book very easy to listen to on the go.

Pros:

I love that while this is a makeover story plot that the author made some very important aspects. Having the makeover changed to the man really felt refreshing as it so often is women who feel they need to change what they look like and how they think before they can be loved. I’m also really happy that the main male character didn’t fully change himself.

The found family in this book is lovely and I hope to read more about the characters in the future. It’s one of my favorite things when an author can develop the relationships amongst a group in a way that makes you want to join in on their fun.

Cons:

I didn’t have a lot of problems with this story. I try to say something with every book for balance though so I would say that I’d like more of a solution at the end for a certain rude character. I wanted to see him get a little bit of punishment for being cruel but I understand that wasn’t the point to this story and truly not necessary to the outcome hopefully in a future story!

2.5 Stars. I requested The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker from NetGalley just for the title and cover. RomComs are my favorite trope both in books and movies, so this sounded perfect. It started out really strong but sadly didn’t stay that way.

Leah was great, I loved her character. She came back to town to help her foster mom while she was dying. Being a foster kid made her have trouble making friends and having roots, so after her foster mom dies, she works every odd job she could find to make enough money to leave town and move on.

While doing one of these odd jobs, Leah overhears Eli getting dumped by his girlfriend. He proposed after only a few short months, because she was leaving for Europe. He wants to win her back, so his sister and her friends are helping by giving him a complete makeover. But everywhere they go, Leah is working there and she end up getting roped into the makeover.

One of the ways they are trying to help him is by making him watch a ton of rom-com movies so he can learn from them, only Leah is the only one with a VCR. Leah clearly liked him yet all he did was pine away for his ex in Europe. I mean he was obsessed with his ex for the majority of the book! Leah deserved so much better.

Likes:
•I liked Leah so much, and I loved her foster back story.
•Her found family in Eli’s family.
•I liked the old 80s/90s movie references.

Dislikes:
•He pined away for his ex almost the whole book!
•A few subplots were started and kind of left hanging.
•It was very long for the story told at 11 hours.
•Eli was a total wimpy guy with a nothing personality.
•Single narrator/3rd person.

The Narration:
Erika Schindele was new to me and did a great job with the material. It was just a very strong 3rd person (if that makes sense? Sometimes you really notice, sometimes you don’t) and I felt like a male voice doing his sections would have helped.

The Down & Dirty:
The Rom-Com Agenda was an OK read for me. I put it down once and listened to another and came back to it hoping it was my mood, but it wasn’t. I wanted to punch Eli in the face and knock some sense into him for pining away for his ex and not seeing what’s in front of him, and I was mad at Leah for putting up with him. Though I can't say I really didn't like the book at all, I still wouldn't recommend it.

Rating: 2.5 Stars, 0 Heat, 4 Narration

I knew I would love this book as soon as I read the premise. I loved the main characters and thought their development was really fleshed out. I thought the audiobook was really well narrated, and I loved the pacing of the story. I was also happily surprised that there was no "miscommunication" trope, which is something I've come to dread reading contemporary romance novels. Now I'll be over here impatiently waiting for a companion novel about Delia and Grey. I highly, highly recommend.

I love a great rom-com read, and a rom-com which lends homage to all the amazing 80s rom-com movies.....event better! While the plot wasn't entirely unique (girl waits for boy to come to his senses), it did not detract at all from the loveable characters. This is heartfelt, witty, and entirely entertaining. The narrator did a fabulous job of keeping my attention and bringing the characters to life. This is a cute one that I would definitely recommend for all the lovers of feel-good rom-coms! Thanks so much to Jayne Denker, the publisher, Dreamscape Media, & NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC audiobook!

A fun romantic comedy. The story is told in multiple points of views but in a great and engaging way. I was hooked through the entire thing.

I loved the chemistry between them in this book. it kept me reading and I never wanted to put it down. I can't say enough good things you need to read this one.

I really enjoyed this book. I love the coming of age trope, and even better when it's mixed with a little romance. There is just the right amount of heavy subject matter, young love, and humor.

What a fun, sweet, and just cute-as-can-be romantic comedy. Jayne Denker delivered a lighthearted and slightly spicy beach read that will be a win for any romance lover.

It all starts when Eli asks his girlfriend to marry him just before she leaves on a year long work trip to Rome, and since they have only been together for about 4 months she rightfully says no. Now all he wants is to get her back and he decides he will do anything it takes like a total makeover from his friends, and movie homework of watching romantic comedy movies. Leah gets entangled in their scheme since it's such a small town and soon is part of their friend group. She is dealing with her own trauma of losing her foster mom to cancer and packing up her house because her foster brother is going to sell as soon as he can. After Eli and Leah spend more and more time together they start to see each other in different light and can learn a lot from each other.

I thought the small town feel or a touristy place did a good job of portraying what it's like to live in a town like that. I liked the friend group and how they were really trying to make Eli happy even though they knew Victoria wasn't for him. I also liked all the movie/romantic comedy references, and that airport scene at the end was great!

I didn't care for Leah's foster brother and how he treated her less than. I thought that Leah not wanting to put down roots in the small town because she thought she would be leaving was definitely relatable.

If you are looking for a small town, slow burn, friends to lovers, non spicy book you should check this out.