Just when I think that Melissa Ferguson can't surpass her previous works she offers me something as wonderful as 'The Perfect Rom-Com'. This book is an absolute delight! The author's profound way with words in many instances touches me with their beauty and truth, and I add them to a quote list I keep for when I want to feel inspired about the goodness in life. There is humor, romance and exposure to the literary and publishing world that all combine to bring about a joyful experience. I enthusiastically recommend this to one and all!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This was a cute read. It’s not something that will stay with me very long but I enjoyed reading it. I did wish we had more of Bryony and Jack actually being together before it ended and the whole 3rd act felt rushed.

Great story!! Loved the plot and the characters ☺️


Though sometimes I felt really distant from the story and wasn’t grounded in what was happening.
The first chapter for instance: I had no idea what was happening and it wasn’t really explained properly. But then I loved how the story progressed. But there were times where it felt like we were just inserted into a scene without any context and were expected to know what was going on.

Loved loved loved the concept of this. Super unique and also really interesting how a ghost writer has to live without saying what they do.

I definitely enjoyed this read! Loved the banter and casual relationship between Jack and Bryony. I felt that sometimes things got a bit "wordy" and I had to re-read to understand what was going on in the story. Otherwise, I like the progression of their relationship and of Bryony's sense of self. Quite the enjoyable read!

She does it again!! Another amazing rom com. I fell in love with the characters and their story from page 1. I also loved the peek we got into the world of literary agents. This was such a fun story.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This was an easy read and I enjoyed it on a flight across the country. Generally, I liked all the characters and the plot development, though there was a bit in the back half of the book where I was annoyed with the protagonist. Overall, feel good read about books!

This was a cute book but I felt like it was lacking the romance relationship building. It was hard to feel like it was believable when there was barely mention of their romantic interactions. The ending confused me when the characters were talking about how they met in a bowling shop? Maybe it went over my head but I just found that to be confusing.

I liked the inside world of ghostwriting and how the main character struggled with making these her stories but not getting credit.

Loved this cute and short love story. The comedy was there and OK. It is also relatable to modern day stories.

While I've really enjoyed Melissa Ferguson's previous books, this one just didn't do it for me. It just seemed...rushed. And Byrony just annoyed the crap out of me. I will say that my favorite part was 100% the final climax scene at the end. So basically--the last 3 chapters. LOL.

This is a clean read--but definitely isn't anything in it to make it Christian fiction. (which annoys me these days as some of the authors keep being published as CF without a single Biblical anything or even church attendance).

*I was given a complimentary copy of this ARC from the publishers and NetGalley to review. All opinions are 100% my own.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me this free ARC for my honest review. I would also like to thank the publisher of this book, which is Thomas Nelson Fiction, for giving me the opportunity to read this book. Lastly, I would like to thank the author for writing this beautiful book. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I liked the description of the book, and that's why I picked this ARC from Netgalley. It's my first time reading one of her books, and I'm excited to read it. I added one of her books to my TBR list, which is "How to Plot a Payback.".
 
I liked the story of the book, like the writing, the plot, and the characters. I like the Bryony Page character, which I think she's fun and likable. While Jack Sterling, literary agent of the legendary Foundry Literary Agency, works to sell her own book too. Then Bryony's agent offers her the opportunity to be a ghostwriter for Amelia Benedict, a popular romance novelist. This book is fast-paced, which is more likable to read, but some of the chapters are too long to read.
 
I still recommend this book for readers. Similar authors of this book are Emily Henry, Meghan Quinn, Ali Hazelwood, Annabel Monaghan, etc. I gave this book 4 stars because it's also deserved 4 stars rating.

This was my first book by Melissa and I will be reading more of her books. As the title suggests, it was a romcom, but as I got into the book, that felt like a secondary plot to the main storyline of an author, trying to save the community center that she loves and the story of her community, which was beautiful. Don’t give me wrong. The romance was so cute as well, but it was bolstered by a truly wonderful story of community and overcoming.

For me, this book got off to such a great start, but unfortunately around the 45% mark it started to lose me. Maybe not my favorite read ever. Just not for me! Well written though.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Fiction & Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC.

I want to thank Thomas Nelson Publishing & Netgalley for the ARC. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I had previously read “Meet me in the Margins” & “ Famous for a Living” by Melissa Ferguson and really enjoyed them. I have stated this before in a review of “Famous for a Living”, but I think it’s important that people know her books are low on the romance and have no spice so others know what to expect for her stories before they read them or ask for an ARC expecting a rom-com. Her stories are really fun and have heart, but I wouldn’t quite categorize them as “Rom-Coms” just like I probably wouldn’t categorize this book “the Perfect Rom-Com” as one. Which I found that it is quite ironic that Amelia talked about Bryony’s stories having “cartoon covers” and should be rom-coms because of that , but I feel Melissa Ferguson books are quite the same way. They are marketed as rom-coms but don’t quite fit into that category even though it pushes having a love story and a cartoon cover. Maybe this was her way of showing she understands how she is marketed and it doesn’t quite encapsulate what her category her stories fall under.

I really thought this story was unique having the lead as a ghostwriter and love interest as her literary agent. I felt their friendship was genuine and how their relationship developed was very authentic. Bryony’s journey through the writing & publishing world was definitely the main plot for the story. Just like I mentioned in my review for “Famous for a Living” I also feel this book was just slightly lacking the depth I needed. She’s always almost there with it and in the end I don’t quite get what I need. With this story maybe leaning more into the students would have helped round it out, having them more involved instead of the bus/tour/Amelia side would have gained some more of that true “found family”, and heartwarming feel it’s missing. I really enjoyed that I couldn’t predict the ending and had no clue how it would turn out which was fun. I will definitely read more of her books. Hoping the next one she digs a little deeper for her characters because she could really write a fantastic story.

I know before I turn the first page of a book written by Melissa Ferguson, that I will love it, and that I must allow plenty of reading time, since most likely it will be difficult to put down. So very true for this delightful story.
Bryony works at The Bridge, fulltime, teaching English as a Second Language. Her grandmother founded The Bridge, that now has major financial challenges. Bryony also desires to be an author and has written a book, that details The Bridge, however, she’s not been successful at getting it published. She’s told it has far too many characters and is about 150,000 words too long. She disagrees however and continues to experience failure whenever she does get an appointment to pitch her book.
After being turned down yet again, Bryony turns around and marches right back into the agent she was given 15 minutes with because she still has 12 minutes, and a few seconds left. The result of her perseverance doesn’t help her case any with her book, however, it does land her a job as being the ghostwriter for a well-known women’s author.
As I got further into the book, I was cheering Bryony on. Her ghostwriting stories are a huge success, although the author taking all the credit becomes more difficult each day. There are many twists and turns, a bit of romance, and some unforgettable characters I’ll be thinking about for quite a while. This is a beautifully written, heartwarming story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All comments and opinions are my own.

The Perfect Rom-Com

This story is a romantic comedy about an ESL teacher, Bryony, whose dream is to get her manuscript published to help her grandmother’s organization, The Bridge. Bryony attends a writers’ conference in hopes of gaining an agent for her book. She meets with well-known agent Jack Sterling. She is determined to get Jack to represent her, only for him to reject her within a few minutes. Bryony still tries to persuade Jack, but Jack decides to give her a different manuscript and asks her what is wrong with it. She only has a few minutes before her time is up with Jack, so she reads some of it quickly and basically tells Jack everything that’s wrong with the manuscript. Jack was impressed by Bryony so he offered her a job as a ghostwriter to Amelia Benedict. Amelia is a bestselling author, but only has ever wrote her very first book. Bryony accepted the ghostwriter gig because Jack offers to represent her and try to sell her book if she becomes Amelia’s ghostwriter. After two years, Bryony is forced to go on tour with the ungrateful Amelia. On the tour, feelings start to emerge for Jack once she breaks up with her boyfriend. (The book really doesn’t mention a long distance boyfriend until she breaks up with him). Bryony believes Jack is working hard to help her sell her manuscript until she learns otherwise.

It took me a little bit to get into this story. There isn’t a lot of romance in the story. It’s almost an afterthought. The more I read, the more I enjoyed the story about the Bryony and her trials to get her work published. I really enjoyed the ending of the book. I feel it was a good ending for this story. I would read another book by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this free ARC. I would like to thank the publisher, Thomas Nelson fiction, for giving me this opportunity to read this book.

This was a good book. It was a superfun and easy to read romcom. Some events were far fetched - and didn't feel authentic - and the ending meh - felt rushed. But otherwise a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

3.5 ⭐️
This book was really cute, fast paced and fun to read. So it really was the perfect Rom-Com!
The friendship/(work)relationship between Bryony and Jack, with really blurry lines and lots of banter and chemistry was really fun to read about, and it was clear from the beginning that there was something going on between them. Everybody knew, except Bryony :D
As I love reading books about authors, librarians, bookstore owners, etc. this was right up my alley! I really felt Bryonys struggles whilst reading and I*m so glad that everything worked out the way it did, in the end!

This was my first book by this author and I guess it won’t be my last! :)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I had a hard time with the first half, and it felt a little bit slow. However, once I reached the 50% mark, it really picked up and sucked me in. Once I was reading the second half, it also made me retroactively think back on the first half differently and appreciate it for what it was.
Something I really liked about this romance was how the relationship was built. It felt natural because of the span of time. The book starts with them meeting, but then it skips ahead in time to 2 years later. It worked well for this story because it made their friendship, and resulting romance, build naturally with the span of time. The conflict was heartbreaking, and the way the main character processed what was happening was really well-written.
As a writer, I related to this story and was invested in the main characters journey and struggles. I like that it was a cute rom-com, but also had important themes woven in (just like the main character does in her own rom-com books she writes)!

5 stars!
I could not put this book down. This was such a cute and fun read!





Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

~Romance, Contemporary, Writer, and more!~

The Perfect Rom-Com by Melissa Ferguson follows Bryony Page, an ESL teacher who is finally setting out on her dream to be a writer. With her manuscript in hand and her hopes high, Bryony goes to her first writer's conference only to discover getting published isn't as easy as she hoped. After an intense meeting with her last chance of getting an agent, she gets to write, just not how she expected. Agreeing to write one book as a ghostwriter quickly turns into more than that as her book becomes a household name, and the agency can't let her go. So what will happen when Brynony finally gets fed up that her own book with her name isn't published? Will Jack, her agent, be able to make her stay? And does he want her to stay for the agency or for a more romantic reason?

3| Let me start by saying I think this book had some good aspects. I love Bryony being an ESL teacher and learning about her students. I enjoyed some of the witty back and forth. The setting was nice and beautifully described. Sadly, as a whole, this book fell flat. My biggest issue is that our first impression of Jack is him being a jerk. That is all we know about the character, and then suddenly, we have a two-year time skip where they are friends. Without that relationship building shown on paper, my impression of Jack wasn't stellar, which made it difficult for me to root for him as a romantic interest. That and Jack being known as a womanizer didn't help my impression of him. I also thought the Parker storyline was a bit weird. It seems like his character was only included, so Jack and Bryony couldn't be together. I wish we had seen and heard a bit more of him so things came as more of a shock. I felt a lot of the plot was predictable as well, which would have been fine if I had enjoyed the characters a bit more. I did enjoy how much we got to see the behind the scenes of the writing world. It was a fun aspect that made this book unique. Though I wasn't a fan of how much the legal aspect was glazed over.

I wish Jack's character was a bit more complex. It felt like he only existed to help and be with Bryony. We never get to hear about his family or friends. We only see him in the context of Bryony's world. It didn't feel like he was his own person at times. This is one of the reasons I found it so hard to connect with him. Sometimes, I felt like too much was happening, while at other times, nothing was happening. There were a lot of characters, and at times, I wanted to see more of them—for example, Bryony's sister and grandmother. I will say, and I mean this as a compliment, that this author is fantastic at making hateable characters. I could not stand Amelia, so much so that I didn't reach for this book simply because I didn't want to see more of her. At certain points in the book, I got extremely frustrated. I wanted so badly for Bryony to snap and finally stick up for herself and her writing. Towards the middle of the book, I had to stop reading for the day because of how worked up I got towards her not speaking up. Even though this book is marked as romance, there isn't much of it. Since all of Bryony and Jack's relationship building was during the time skip, their romantic relationship seemed rushed. Especially since they get together so quickly, they also never officially get together, which I found odd.

Overall, this was a pleasant enough read. I found it hard to rate mainly because I could see why others would like it. The story's premise is interesting, and I enjoyed seeing more of the writing world throughout this book. While the romance wasn't my favorite, I loved hearing about Brynony's students and how passionate she is about teaching. I liked certain parts of this book, but I don't think it's very memorable for me specifically. I can finally see why others would enjoy it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.