Hardly The Perfect Rom-Com, Melissa Ferguson’s new novel feels a little like a bait and switch–it lures in a romance reader with that title but then doesn’t joyfully deliver on the romance, comedy, or enthusiasm for the genre. Here’s my The Perfect Rom-Com review below!
The Perfect Rom-Com review
Picking a title for your book can be one of the hardest parts of writing a book. Sure, it’s just a few words. But it can make the difference between all of the words you’ve written finding the right reader or even being read at all. But the title can also set an expectation. And with a title like The Perfect Rom-Com, the expectations are sky high–perfect even. Unfortunately, there’s no chance of Melissa Ferguson’s new novel meeting such a lofty title. The book really doesn’t come close for either the romance or the comedy.
Maybe the title is ironic? The title of the book derives from the idea that our leading lady, Bryony, works as a ghost writer for bestselling romance novelist, Amelia. Bitchy and superficial Amelia feels that Bryony’s work has gotten further and further away from romance and tells her to write the perfect rom-com for her. Bryony, meanwhile, has been ghostwriting for Amelia for a few years at the request of their shared super star literary agent, Jack. Bryony initially agreed to take the job if Jack would sell her first novel about an ESL center where Bryony works. She’s hoping to use the money she makes on the book’s sale to save the dwindling establishment. Writing the perfect rom-com really isn’t of interest to Bryony who feels that her work has made Amelia a superstar writer so Amelia should just shut up and let Bryony write whatever she wants to write. The only problem is that Amelia’s star has grown and no one knows she has a ghost writer. So it’s in everyone’s best interests to keep Amelia happy, including Bryony’s. Bryony also strikes up a romantic relationship with Jack, but isn’t sure if she can really trust him given that he also represents Amelia.
This book is really ironic because one of the main issues for Bryony is that her first novel she wants to publish, she is told repeatedly, that she needs to edit. In love with every word of it, she struggles to edit it despite the fact that’s she’s learned a ton about what makes books sell from now writing as Amelia. Without editing it, the book is difficult for Jack to sell. But conversely, this book about the book needed major editing. The first scene where Bryony meets an antagonistic and uninterested Jack at a writer’s pitch conference is interminably long. Then, once Jack agrees to take Bryony on if she will be a ghost writer, we cut two years in the future. Jack and Bryony are best friends now, and Bryony’s sister thinks there could be more there. What? In this romance, we literally skate past all the romance leaving all of it happening off camera. Throughout the book it’s totally unclear why Jack even likes Bryony as we really haven’t seen anything in there relationship to root for.
Bryony’s stream of consciousness thoughts are both neurotic and endless. She obsesses about selling a novel she refuses to edit. She feels physical pain when Amelia tells her to cut out characters from the novel she’s been hired to write under Amelia’s name. She stalks an editor she thinks she could sell the book to, leaving Jack out of it. Bryony reads as more than just standard-issue neurotic writer. She reads as extremely immature. And more than that, she’s disdainful of romance–the genre that’s literally paying her bills and which she’s had great success writing. Christina Lauren has written some books about romance writers (I’m thinking of The True Love Experiment) that manage to both make fun of the tropes of the genre while holding it in high esteem. Here, it just feels like disdain. What a funny thing to invite in romance readers with that title and then belittle their reading preferences throughout the book.
As you can imagine, I found this read to be really challenging. I didn’t particularly vibe with Bryony, and there was very little between her and Jack to get excited about. Their happy ending feels both convoluted and undeserved. I’m always on the search for the perfect rom-com, but just giving a book the title doesn’t land it the accolade.
My Rating for The Perfect Rom-Com
2 out of 5 stars
My Romance Recipe Pairing
Maybe a cocktail would make this one go down a little easier–try it with my Nutella Martinis. At least the drink is sweet.
Synopsis for The Perfect Rom-Com
Synopsis (from Amazon):
She’s written dozens of smash-hit romance novels. Too bad no one knows it.
Aspiring author Bryony Page attends her first writers conference bursting with optimism and ready to sell her manuscript with long-shot dreams of raising awareness for The Bridge, her grandmother’s financially struggling organization where she teaches ESL full-time. But after a disastrous pitch session, she stumbles into correcting another author’s work in a last-ditch attempt to make a good impression with the agent. And she, as it turns out, is spot on.
No one is more surprised than Bryony when the agent offers her the opportunity to be a ghostwriter for Amelia Benedict, popular rom-com novelist. Bryony agrees on one condition: she’ll write books for this vain, demanding woman just as long as Jack Sterling, literary agent of the legendary Foundry Literary Agency, works to sell her own book too.
What nobody predicted, however, was that Bryony’s books would turn Amelia Benedict into the Amelia Benedict, household name and bestselling author with millions of copies sold around the world.
And just like that, the Foundry Agency can’t let her go.
But on a personal note, Jack is realizing he can’t either.
But The Perfect Rom-Com for your Kindle here
