I had high hopes for The Perfect Rom Com, but unfortunately, it didn’t fully deliver for me. While there were definitely some cute and charming moments, I struggled to feel truly connected to any of the characters.

One of the biggest gaps for me was the two-year time jump in the main characters’ relationship—I kept wanting to know more about what happened during that time, and without it, their connection didn’t feel as deep as I had hoped. Additionally, the way the book’s big secret was revealed felt unrealistic, and I couldn’t quite believe that the main character would have been okay with it in real life.

That said, the audiobook was enjoyable, and I appreciate the chance to listen to it through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. While this one wasn’t a favorite, I think fans of lighthearted rom-coms might still find it entertaining!

This book really was the perfect rom-com. It has heart, humor, angst, and of course love.

The peek behind the publishing curtain is enlightening, and makes you see books in any entirely new light. And the character development is on point.

The narrator was fantastic, and as an audiobook, this was a quick and wonderful read.

Highly recommend.

This book was a treat. I truly enjoyed getting this peek behind the curtains in the literary world. Bryony and Jack were the cutest. With aspirations to get her book pu lished and shine a light on the facility that means so much to her family, Bryony attends a literary conference. With one agent left to look over her manuscript, she is feeling a little down. When it doesn't go as she planned, she fights to show that her book is worth the time and effort. When she is asked by the agent, Jack, to read another manuscript and tell him what was missing, she has the right answer. This starts a whirlwind of working as a ghost writer for an incredibly popular author. All of the work with none of the credit is difficult for Bryony. She ppurs her heart into each novel only to have the author she writes under pick at and tear them apart. When everything boils to a head, Bryony can't take it anymore and makes a drastic change. Reeling from the sudden loss, Jack fights to keep Bryony not only with the agency doi g what she loves, but with him as well. He doesn't want to think of life without her in it. So, he cooks up a whopper of a plan and the most amazing grand gesture. Thriught this story there are struggles to stay true to yourself, to keep pursuing your dreams, opening yourself up to possibilities, and overcoming even the most daunting tasks to find your happiness. I really enjoyed this book and the characters. The plot was well paced and flowed nicely. I recommend this book if you want a great read with a fantastic plot and a hallmarkish feel!

[Really liked it]

This was such a fun book! The narration of the audiobook was perfection. Karissa Vacker is becoming one of my favourites narrators. So easy to get into the story and kept me entertained throughout. I recommend checking this one out.

Thank you to the author for providing a free advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Bryony is an aspiring author who attended a conference in hopes of getting an agent. She needs her book to bring awareness to The Bridge program her grandmother started. She teaches ESL full-time at The Bridge and is struggling to keep the program going. She doesn’t get a book deal for herself, but she is offered a ghostwriting job by Jack, the very grumpy agent who only represents the best. He will be her agent if she is his ghostwriter.

This book was marketed as a romance, and the title makes it seem that way as well. There is very little actual romance in this book. I feel like it was more of fiction or even women’s fiction and if I went into it with that in mind, I would have likely rated it higher. I was just waiting for the romance to hit. The romance started towards the end but the story was more about Bryony, The Bridge, and the community she built.

The Perfect Rom-Com
By: Melissa Ferguson

The vibes:
- workplace romance
- ghost writer / aspiring author / teacher + literary agent
- coworkers -> friends -> lovers
- he falls first

This was such a cute story!! It was a bit of a slow start for me (which was why I gave 4 out of 5 stars), but once it got going, it was so fun & sweet! I loved the grand gesture and how Jack was helping working things out for Bryony’s goals all along. I highly recommend this read!

Thank you to NetGalley & the author for access to this ARC in return for my honest review!

The Perfect Rom-Com is just that. I read a lot of love stories and often feel the 3rd act drama coming right on time but this one does it a little differently, which I really enjoyed. I listened to an ALC courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and I highly recommend that if you have access to the audio, you listen as well. The narrator did a great job of making Bryony and Jack come alive.
The ending left me a little confused as to how they pulled off what they did, but I don't want to think too far into it - if you read it, maybe you can tell me what happened?!

ARC provided by NetGalley and Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio in exchange for my honest review.

The Perfect Rom-Com is about Bryony, an aspiring author who is so desperate to save the ESL-language centre run by her grandmother that she wrote a novel about it, takes on a ghostwriting job by the current hottest romance author in the hopes of getting her own manuscript published alongside her job.

This was basically your run of the mill romance book, with the extra community element of the ESL-centre. That was very enjoyable and added an extra dimention. This was good, because the romance fell a bit flat for me. At one point there are two year long time jumps in the story, which kind of restrict us from really getting into the relationship between the main character and the man who will become her love interest later on.

Overall an enjoyable story, with a good narrator.

An adorable story about an aspiring writer that gets sucked into ghost writing and thinks she'll never get her own manuscript published. A story about family, culture, helping others, legacy and love. I enjoyed this book a lot, devoured it in 2 days.
I loved the way Jack was silently loving Briony and supporting her and working towards her independant success (even when she didn't want anything to do with him). The only thing I felt was a little let down is the "long-distance relationship" she was supposedly in. That sub-plot was missing something in order to be believable. Other than that, I have to say this was sweet, and heartfelt. I loved it!

Bryony is a full time English teacher to refugees and non English speakers at her beloved Bridge. But she is also an author. One that is desperate to be published. And then she meets Jack - who agrees to be her agent, should she write as his star client and Instagram success’s ghost writer. Naturally bryony’s ghost novels are a triumph and this author and agent spend a lot of time together on tour…

This book is a total delight. Bryone and Jack are brilliant characters with genuine chemistry that makes you long for them to get together. I sometimes find that books about books/authors can be a bit cringey but this didn’t feel it, and was a lovely read.

As the denouement came about i found myself really hooked and desperate to find out what happens!

It worked incredibly well as an audiobook too. The narrator was brilliant and all voices felt really different.

*2.5
First impression of this book was that the cover looked cute & I was ready to give a romance book a try for a change (not my usual genre). I absolutely LOVE an audiobook and will smash one on double speed (thanks to ADHD brain for that gift) as soon as I get it. I loved the narrator and felt she perfectly captured the voice of Bryony - there's a LOT of monologues and the narrator slayed that.
Maybe I'm just cynical for my 2.5 star rating but that ending??? Maybe you just have to suspend belief for romance books like this??? Whilst I may not know much about the publishing industry I know pop culture and talkshows and that stunt would NOT have been pulled off in real life.

I've gone back and forth on my feelings about this book! I think the story really wasn't as much as a romance as I anticipated and that can be fine - I'm all for romances that also handle more things than the romance itself - but I think even the other storylines fell a little flat. The romance doesn't really seem to start until 2/3s into the book and the FMC is still technically in a relationship with someone else for the first half... I had a hard time getting invested with where the romance would go (when we would eventually get there). I think maybe a dual POV would have helped this. The singular POV in the FMC could have been helped with some POV chapters from our MMC just to develop the romance to it all a bit more. It all just felt almost a little flat.

I'm also very annoyed at how unrealistic the very end is. I couldn't see a realistic ending while the plot lines were starting to wrap up and REALLY think that the chosen ending was too ridiculous for the professions that these characters have.

I was certainly intrigued though to continue this story to the very end. I wanted & needed to know how this could end happily for our MCs.

The audiobook narrator was pretty good. I had no real complaints about the audiobook. The narrator did a nice job with the tone of our FMC and the enthusiasm she had!

So I do think I enjoyed this book… eventually. It was a slow start and I was at least half way through before
I was fully invested in it. Once I was into it though it was cute. Jack has a good mysterious side. But he also has a seriously wtf side? I was back and forth.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review

I really enjoyed listening to this! It was extremely fun and I really enjoyed the way the narrator read the book. I definitely recommend if you’re looking for something just downright fun with a touch of romance!

#ThePerfectRomCom #NetGalley
This was a cute little story. I really don’t have much to say about it other than it was short and cute.

The Perfect Rom-Com - Melissa Ferguson

The cover is what drew me in, I had no idea what it was about and I didn’t care.

So Bryony is trying to sell her manuscript… She goes to a writers conference and things do go the way she hoped. She doesn’t sell her manuscript but she is offered the chance to ghost write for a hot author… She never expected to write the kind of books millions of people read but it hurts that she cannot take the credit for her work and yet she can’t give up the hope of publishing as herself… Jack is the only bright side to her current predicament and it's up to him to keep her happy in her contract…

It’s cute. Too blinking CUTE!!! Jack… ah Jack!! I love their friendship. I love that he respects her as a person and author and admires the heck out of her. They are such good friends that they wordlessly do things like take the food the other person doesn’t like off their plates and swap it for something else. It’s intense. To build a friendship like that and move seamlessly to love. It’s too cute… SIGHHHHH I am not a massive fan of friends to lovers but I kinda feel like the lover part was always there they just didn’t know it yet ya know.

I love books that have book talk within them and this is clean cut and adorable! Great narration and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

4 stars

I received this book via NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing | Thomas Nelson Fiction as an ARC. This review is my own opinion of the book.

This is a wonderful, heartwarming, and fun story. It did not feel as much romance to me as it did coming of age. It is perfect for those who do not like spice in their romances.

I thought I would list the topes, when it comes to contemporary romance books I find them very helpful.

-Workplace romance
- Forced proximity
- Friends to lovers
- He falls first

The Perfect Rom-Com truly is the perfect rom-com!

First off, love the narrator! Karissa Vacker brought so much life to the story.

This book was funny, witty, and completely engaging. The chaotic, behind-the-scenes look at the publishing world was such a fun setting, especially as a reader. From the very first chapter, I was hooked, and I devoured the audiobook in just two days.

I knew I was in trouble when I found myself smiling, kicking my feet, and fully swooning. And the betrayal? I felt that in my soul.

I was absolutely engrossed every time the FMC talked about the writing process or the difference between how a reader versus a writer experiences a book. That aspect made this story even more special for me.

As an over-thinker, I have never felt more seen. This book had me crying and not only happy tears, highly recommend.

Thank you Melissa Ferguson, HarperCollins Christian Publishing & Karissa Vacker for providing me with an alc, this is my honest review.

Audiobook review: The audiobook reader did an excellent job. I enjoyed her performance. I think if the book would have had more dialogue I would have enjoyed her performance even more. It’s hard to listen to inner monologue continually for pages but she made it bearable.

Book review:
⭐️3.5
just kisses

Bryony desperately wants 2 things; to save her beloved ESL nonprofit school “The Bridge” and to find a literary agent to represent her first novel SO she can use it to promote support for “The Bridge”. After all the rejections of her novel, in a last-ditch effort, she takes a meeting with famed literary agent Jack Sterling. When he asks her to critique another writers work and her comments are spot-on she unintentionally becomes the ghostwriter for famous author, Amelia Benedict. After years of ghostwriting and no published works to her name, will Bryony get to fulfill any of her initial goals and will she find something she didn’t even know she was looking for?

This was a sweet story. It did make me chuckle a few times. I loved the dynamic between Bryony and Jack, I just wish there could have been more banter. I also enjoyed the stories of the ESL students but rarely did they happen in real time as well. It felt like a huge chunk of the story was Bryony’s inner monologue where I wished it was playing out in the dialogue more.

Overall, a sweet and fun read.

Book about a book my favorites! First off loved the cover, catchy and perfect colors. Reading the description dragged me even further in…! But I think it might have missed the mark a little, it was a long dragged out in the beginning and not enough banter, enemies to friends or something to make me devour the book but I found myself struggling to get into it. Wish we would have gotten to know more about jack and his side…and even some banter?!! Overall it was a good clean rom com and have a few friends in mind to recommend it to! Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for allowing the early read in turn for my honest opinion.