I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I'm a HUGE rom-com fanatic, even if I haven't seen all the movies listed in this book. But for being an adult romance (with a male protagonist over the age of 30), this felt like such a YA story. I have no issue with fade-to-black sex scenes, and sometimes even prefer it, but this whole story just felt too young for me, even though I am the same age/younger than our main couple.

Leah was a pretty good character, and I liked her quite a lot. But Eli... he was so annoying. As were all the friends/siblings, who all just acted far too young for their ages. Eli is 31 and still doesn't realize that just because a woman is pretty doesn't mean you should propose to her after 4 months and then keep pining after her for 8 more while she's in Rome. He just gave me the ick, so I really didn't care if they ended up together or not in the end (which is sad, because I'm such a sucker for a good friends-to-lovers book).

Instead of reading this, just go watch an old, beloved rom-com instead.

"The Rom-Com Agenda" by Jayne Denker covers all the standard troupes' Rom-Com lovers know and love. As a lover of the friends-to-lover and found families troupes, this book hit both in a lovely, and unique way. This isn't a book that feels like other rom-coms. A solid 4-star book, readers will enjoy.

Things I Didn't Love:
The first few chapters were a little slow and took me a little time to get into the story. I wish there was more of a grab from the jump, but once the story picked up it was hard to put down.
Eli grated me a bit in his dopey love obsession for a woman he actually barely knew. It felt like a stretch that he'd be so desperate and hang on for so long.
The audiobook had an odd feedback/echo throughout the entire book that made the listening process a little annoying and took some time to get used to.

Things I Loved:
I truly loved how the author unveiled Leah's story. It was so heartwarming to see how much she loved her foster mom and the care she took in her final days and beyond.
I also really loved how Leah's birth mother's mental health was spoken about - it gave sensitivity to a tough topic without casting a negative image on the struggle of so many.
As much as I hated Patrick, I really appreciated the author's effort to reflect what real families look like, jerky family members included.
While Eli wasn't my favorite character, his dedication to his family and willingness to go along with his crazy sister's plan, were very endearing. And for his nieces to be so crazy for him, helped win me over.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book and would rate it a solid 4 stars. There were just a few things that held it back from a full 5 star but I very much look forward to reading future books from Jayne.

Thank you so much to Jayne Denker, NetGalley, and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book hits every trope because just like the title suggests its all about Rom-Coms and their antics and that is what makes it so good. It isn't trying to be any one type of book or copy anything all while taking pieces from what we love most.

Things that fell flat.
For some reason the first chapter of the book was slow for me, but once the story started picking up that changed!
Eli's sisters are crazy. I get wanting the best for your brother but they truly seamed like that wanted to change every single part of him. Although not gonna lie I side with them when it comes to needing dishes in your house. YOU NEED MORE THAN TUPPERWARE!

Things that worked
I loved that they talked about how Leah's mom loved her as best as she could but her own mental health issues made it hard for her to take care of her. It wasn't that she didn't love her daughter. My heart broke for her the whole time.
I was mad at her foster mom and first for giving breaks to her stupid ass son but part of me wonders if she just gave up with him and instead put her time and energy into the girls.
I loved the whole General Leah/Leia bit. It made me smile
I love Eil's whole family dynamic and how much they truly love there mom and how much his nieces love him.

Overall I am going to give this book 4 stars. It was great but there was just a few spots that kept it from being a full 5 stars for me. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Jayne Denker’s “Rom-Com Agenda” had me laughing from page one to the last sentence in the book. I was so sucked into the protagonists “General Leah’s” and Eli’s stories that I finished it in one day because I couldn’t put it down.

It was totally a life imitating art situation, as after a brutal breakup, Eli wants to win Victoria back. His squad hear him, and make Eli agree to a makeover, to include learning from every 80’s, 90’s, and beyond rom com out there. The first step of the makeover involved a trip to “Thousand Island Dressing” clothing boutique, one of Leah’s bajillion part-time jobs, which is the unintentional meet-cute of the century. Leah holds her own and is hilarious, while proving herself to be “the one” when she hangs onto the hat, even though he doesn’t know that for months.

With all of the lessons in love and dating and being a leading lady/gent/person in a film (or life) being illustrated through rom-com movies through the years, it was so relatable and giggle-inducing. The author had me at hello. LOL Well done, Jayne Denker!!!


Thank you so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC!!

What a sweet Rom-Com! I binged this audiobook in one day because it was so good and the narrator was great! The storyline is a fun one of friends to lovers + found family. Such sweet tropes.

Eli + Leah first meet when Leah accidentally eavesdrops on Eli getting denied a proposal to a girl named Victoria. That crushed him for a long time. Long enough that his friends and family made a project of him and gave him a makeover to make him more husband material. While I don’t love the whole makeover concept (because everyone should be accepted for themselves) this one was fun because it got him and Leah connected again. From the start Leah was trying to show Eli his worth and help him understand that Victoria isn’t the one for him. He was stubborn but eventually saw what was right in front of his eyes the whole time. I LOVED the “homework” of watching Rom-Coms and the VCR comeback? Classic! And also the Gilmore Girls references…perfection!

Leah finding her family within her friends was enough to make my heart swell. She finally found where she belonged. Such a strong and fierce lady!

This book was the perfect amount of sweet, dramatic, emotional, and hilarious. While at first I was overwhelmed with the amount of characters, I have to say I love them all - all the character’s developments in this book were great. I’m a fan of this author’s writing style and will be on the lookout for more by her!

Thank you NetGalley for this early audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

I wanted to love this so badly, in fact, as someone with a little bit of a rom-com obsession, I expected this to be a 5-star read. I loved the idea of it - guy gets dumped by the love of his life so his sister and friends rally around him to make him the ideal man of rom-com dreams to help him get her back. An amazing plot that unfortunately fell flat for me.

My list of issues with this book is pretty extensive:
-To start, all of the characters seem extremely one-dimensional. We know nothing about Eli or his friends except for the fact that Eli is in love with Victoria and his friends hate her
-The author seemed to be aiming toward a more YA crowd with the word “woke” being used 5 times in one paragraph
-Eli’s obsession with a girl he dated for less than 6 months who is clearly not interested in him was bizarre
-Eli’s sister and his friends were insufferable. Their insistence on making him an entirely new person to win back a girl they didn’t even like felt gross and just plain mean
-The characters themselves felt like just that - characters. They didn’t feel like real people, they all felt like exaggerated tropes
-Leah’s foster brother was a nightmare
-Leah having a job at every business in town just felt like a convenient way to have her show up in every situation. It felt clumsy and awkward

This book was not for me, but if you are obsessed with 90’s and 00’s rom-coms maybe give this one a shot, you may have a different opinion than me!

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and Jayne Denker for the opportunity to review this book!

The Rom-Com Agenda is my first ARC through NetGalley! This delightful Rom Com by Jayne Denker tells the story of Leah, a former foster child that is trying to find her way in the world and Eli, a lovesick outdoorsman who is trying to win back the "love of his life" while failing to see that the perfect girl is right in front of him!

This slow burn love story features the friends to lovers and found family tropes and is a clean romantic read. Eli deals with his sister and friends forcing him into a "makeover" over all areas of his life in an attempt to win back Victoria, the woman he proposed to (and rejected him) before she boarded a plane to Italy. Leah stumbles across this group by chance when she is working in one of the stores where the girls bring Eli into for his clothing makeover and quickly becomes an integral part of their friend group.

Eli spends far too long pining over his ex before realizing that Leah may just be the perfect woman for him after all. I won't ruin the rest ;)

I really enjoyed this author's writing style, the narrator was fantastic and I am happy to recommend this book to anyone who loves a good old fashioned Rom Com! 3.5 stars. Thanks to Dreamscape media and NetGallery for the advanced audio of this book in exchange for my honest review.









Thanks to Dreamscape media and NetGallery for the advanced audio of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Rom-Com Agenda is a quick read with lovable characters. It is a friends to lovers and a book about a found family.

Leah comes to town as a foster child and stays with her foster family until she ages out and goes back to live with her birth mom until she passes away. She moves back to town to take care of her dying ex-foster mom. She stays in town after her death until she earns enough money to move on. Thinking that she has no one, no reason to stay. Leah overhears the proposal and breakup of two people on the bridge while below the bridge. She catches the guy when his to-be fiance leaves. She sees him and thinks he sees her. Until he leaves and she goes home. Eli spends the book watching movies to learn how to be the romantic hero he wants to be to get Victoria back.

The movie references that Eli is forced to watch as part. of his rom-com makeover are great! From the 70's, '80s, and '90s romantic classics to even some fandom movies, such as Marvel and Starwars. I loved the references and how Leah keeps popping up as her many jobs keep her showing up from the clothing shop to the tailor, to a restaurant, house cleaner, and even pizza delivery. I also like that the person getting the romantic makeover in this book is Eli, not Leah.

I really enjoyed this story and would recommend it to any rom-com, friends to lovers, or found family book lovers looking for a light read.

Thanks to Dreamscape media and NetGallery for the advanced audio of this book in exchange for my honest review. The Rom-Com Agenda
by Jayne Denker Narrated by Erika Schindele was so enjoyable. I loved the fact that these characters really seems to love one another no lies, no deceit, no loss of trust. These two build their friendship and fell head over heels. This was clean sweet story and I really enjoyed it. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I look forward to reading more. 3.5 ⭐️ for it being so dang cute!

I really enjoyed this story for the small town cozy romance feels. I agree that it took a little bit for me to get into and the setting up of the plot seemed a bit awkward but once I was into it, it kept getting better. Friends to Lovers isn't my favorite trope in that it can be really hard to portray a true sincere friendship but I think the author really achieved it here.
I also really appreciate when authors portray love stories that are rooted in imperfection and imperfect people. Everything that was holding me back from rooting for them got addressed along the way through conversation between the main characters without the big dramatic miscommunication scenes we've become accustomed to. Overall, it's an adorable love and found family story that will literally warm your heart. I definitely will be trying more books by this author.

I received this ARC audiobook from Dreamscape Media and NetGalley. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully listening to the audiobook.

4.25 ⭐️

This book was sweet, had movie references, draws you in, has found family, and everything you could want in a feel-good book. I did think it was a bit too long and could have been condensed, but the characters were well-developed and it was a fun book. Definitely pick it up if you love a rom-com!

This is an adult book with a few mentions of sex and some language used, but there are no graphic scenes, so it would be appropriate for high school students in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine!

Eli is devastated when the love of his life, Victoria, leaves to go to Rome for a year. Eli’s friends decide that he needs a makeover to win Victoria back, which according to Leah, means he needs to learn from movies. Not just any movies, but rom coms. This was a cute idea, which is what caused me to request this book on Netgalley, but there was very little character depth to Eli. This hindered the story a lot. Leah was a well-developed and likable character who had a difficult past but realized information about herself as the story continued. I loved all the references to the 80’s and 90’s rom coms. This was a friends to lovers romance which was very predictable. The way these characters talked and solved problems, seemed juvenile for their actual ages which were around 30. I think it got better as the book went on but was really distracting as I don’t believe 30-year old’s to solve problems like this. This felt like a YA romance, where there was very little spice and not much action.

This was an ok rom-com. I enjoy found family themes and I usually like the friends-to-lovers trope. This was a SLOW burn book. It took forever for the plot to get anywhere while we wait for Eli to figure out his life. The references to the 1980s-1990s were ultimately more enjoyable than the plot for me. I listened to this ARC and I wish they had brought in a second voice. We have a dual POV but only one female narrator for this one. It's a definitely throwback to the old rom-coms I grew up with and I think that nostalgia probably bumped up the stars on this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to review this book ahead of publication. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

The Rom-Com Agenda is a great story that lets you see how a relationship starts and how it can build.

Eli had his heart broken. All of Eli’s friends and family are trying to get him through this hard time. In their small town, they keep running into Leah. Leah is going through a lot of her own stuff and not even thinking about her love life. Leah and Eli first become friends and then you watch that friendship blossom into more.

I really loved everything about this book. The characters are all well written and have a tremendous amount of development. Leah and Eli are on my shortlist of favorite rom-com couples.

The supporting cast of friends and families are the best. Not only are they an amazing support system to Leah and Eli but they are just great characters. They have so much depth to them and don’t take up that many pages. It’s truly great writing to have you learn so much about so many people without making it feel forced.

I really loved this book and recommend it to everyone.

Every once in a while I find myself reading a contemporary romance that makes me remember why I love the genre so much.

From the first chapter of this audiobook I was hooked, rooting for Eli and Leah, it was the perfect meet-cute followed by the perfect amount of family guidance and flat-out interference, and come on those pop culture references took me right back to my high school years.

I can't count how many times I was laughing while listening to this fantastic book, it is everything I didn't know I wanted right now. The perfect blending of so many of my favorite genres.

Now let's talk about our Narrator for a moment, Erika Schindele is a true talent in this industry, I fell in love with our characters through her talent and the personality she gave everyone from Elis's nieces to Patrick everyone had a voice and a unique personality and that my friends is proof of the true talent of both the narrator and the author.

I love this book, there's nothing else I can say, read it, listen to it, have someone send it to you in morse code if that's your thing, I just think everyone could find something to enjoy in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Audio for providing an advance copy of this audiobook, I have voluntarily listened to and reviewed this audiobook and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a really adorable romance with a nod to 80s and 90s culture. The idea that you could learn how to be something to someone based on popular culture. Leah is a favorite heroine, she has lived through a difficult childhood, and lives everyday being true to herself. I loved how the whole village enveloped around Leah to accept her. I loved that this HEA was not only for romance but for being accepted whole heartily.

Thanks NetGalley for early access to this audiobook. I love friends to lovers and I’m always the biggest fan of classic romcoms 😍. This book was definitely both of those and it was so cute. I enjoyed the story but a few things bugged me. The storyline of “getting the ex back” was getting old after he was already into his friend. And the sister still trying to change him the entire book! Like It would have been fun for a few chapters but it was on going for way too long.

Spice- ketchup levels of spice. However, the spice that was there was totally my jam. I love an author that can really make my heart beat with the emotional connection between MCs. So, maybe, like, fancy ketchup level of spice.

With a premise of Eli learning to be a rom-com hero through watching movies with Leah, I did not expect to like this book so much. I went into this expecting Hallmark, surface-level fluff. I had the plot outlined in my head already. What I got was unexpectedly layered. I’m not a huge friends-to-lovers fan, but this one really hooked me. I not only fell in love with Leah and Eli, but all of their friends.

Eli was 100% an idiot for a good portion of this book. He stuck with the idea of Victoria being the One for way too long. He was, admittedly, hard to like. However, the pacing was perfection. It wasn’t rushed and that really gave us the opportunity to see each character as a more than one dimensional. I really appreciated being able to see inside how Leah felt and Eli felt (thankfully in 3rd person). I could really feel Leah pining for Eli and those little heartbreaks that come from loving someone you think will never love you back. I could feel Eli learning to love the little things about Leah and realizing slowly that his relationship with Victoria was really about him just wanting to be in love. It just added that extra layer of tension that was heaven when they finally connected. It felt very authentic.

That said, the real star of the show was Leah finding a place of belonging with Eli and his friends. I love love loved seeing them as a family rally around her. We get to cheer for not just the relationship she found, but for the life she found.

Bonus points for the audiobook. The narrator was amazing.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC

This book was cute. It was your typical, predictable romance story. Friendship to lovers in a small, cold town where everyone knows everyone. I enjoyed the familiarity of it. I did like the 80s and 90s movie throwbacks.

The 3 stars came from the fact that it was overly predictable. Additionally, I listened to the audio version of this one and was not thrilled with the person doing the reading. Something about her voice grated my nerves. I still finished it though.

If you want an easy read with some romance thrown in…a Hallmark movie in a book, you’d enjoy this.

This was amazing! I’ve always loved a found family trope and this book hit it perfectly. Eli and Leah were cute even though he was falling for her while pining over Victoria. The whole makeover thing, but on a guy was new for me and I really liked it. Also there was a Gilmore Girl reference and I like to make my personality 75% based on shows like Gilmore Girls.

The location was fun. It was a small town somewhere around Potsdam and Syracuse. My mother’s family haddock that area, so I found it a cool place.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for my ARC of The Rom-Com Agenda.