2024 the best romantic comedy books review

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(as of Dec 11, 2024 06:35:15 UTC - Details)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions—a “smart, sophisticated, and fun” (Oprah Daily) novel from the author of Eligible, Rodham, and Prep.

“Full of dazzling banter and sizzling chemistry.”—People

“If you ever wanted a backstage pass to Saturday Night Live, this is the book for you.”—Zibby Owens, Good Morning America

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, BuzzFeed, PopSugar, Harper’s Bazaar, Real Simple, She Reads, New York Post

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called The Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I Loved This Book!
Review: I thought this was a sweet, smart, and enjoyable book. I listened to the audiobook and feel it was better than reading due to the skill of the narrator. I would highly recommend this book.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 4 star romance— 3.5 star overall.
Review: I actually ADORED this story. I definitely enjoyed the first half of the book more than the latter half. I felt very involved in the TNO setting. Curtis Sittenfield is a master at putting you right into the story. I also loved the email exchanges— it felt very genuine and believable.There are two things that I didn’t mind, but I know might ward some rom com readers off.1. There is COVID as a secondary plot point. This is actually one of the better renditions I’ve read since the pandemic, but I know a lot of other readers don’t want to read it’s reality. It doesn’t overshadow the story though. It’s actually a really useful tool in the reconnection of our characters.2. Obviously given the blurb of this book, there are pretty deep feminist undertones. I do think there were two small instances of it teetering on the edge of preachy. It wasn’t distracting or overbearing though. I do love that we got a REAL fmc. 36, divorced, funny, and arbitrarily average!? LOVE IT.I definitely recommend this read, it just might not be everyone’s jam.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fun romance
Review: I've seen some mixed reviews on this one, and I can definitely see where every side comes from. I personally enjoyed this one for the most part, but definitely wouldn't call it anything super ground breaking by any means. It was fun to experience and get a behind the scenes feel of what real life shows like SNL are like. However, I do feel like there was maybe a little too much background and detail given, which maybe the author should have focused a little more on building up a more realistic connection and development of the relationship between the two main characters. I mostly enjoyed Sally as the female lead - but while she was a strong character in some scenarios, there were other times where she was just way too unconfident and self sabotage-y, which became irritating at times. I'm not the biggest fan of the narrative when the lead is their own biggest obstacle 🙄 But I did like that the author seemed to make her a "real" character. She was very relatable in that aspect. And her uh, anxieties, when it came to how one relieves themselves when in a new relationship was a very humorous bit 😆The other bit of criticism I have is that the author was very forward with where her stance is on a lot of real life topics, and this book mentions a LOT about Covid. That kind of thing doesn't always bother me, but to have a good chunk of the book to be taking place during Covid and lock downs kind of ruined the magic of disappearing into a fictional story for me, and it was just too much for me. Having to deal with that in real life was good enough for me, I'd rather not read about it when I'm trying to escape reality, thanks. And it just wasn't necessary, there could have been other scenarios used as a catalyst to get the same story across. For that reason, I can understand where a lot of people did not enjoy this one.All in all, was an enjoyable read, but not one I'd recommend to everyone.

Reviewer: Susan A. Sebra
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book, Well developed characters
Review: I loved this book. I just read it again. The premise is great. The characters are well developed. Is it realistic? Who knows especially in light of the Dave Grohl uh oh baby.

Reviewer: Kristen Williams
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I very much enjoyed this book!
Review: I very much enjoyed this book! I really debated on my star rating and just a couple small things made me knock it down by half a star. 1. It’s a 300 page book composed of a Prologue, three chapters, and an Epilogue. Only. Three. Chapters. I’m someone who doesn’t like to stop reading until I reach the end of a chapter so it bugged me when I had to stop at an odd point. BUT. I did like the format of the chapters. Each was a different year and gave good perspective of the timeline. And I loved that chapter two was entirely composed of emails. I have a soft spot of books written through emails, messages, etc. 2. Certain parts were very liberal, especially when it comes to the pandemic. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a very conservative person. I have nothing against the other side (so please don’t take this the wrong way) and I am happy when people give their views in respectful ways, but I don’t always like when it’s given in a book. For me, it makes a book less relatable and more like it has a political agenda. I prefer just keeping political opinions separate. But it wasn’t overbearing in this book so I did like that.I loved the relationship between Sally and Noah. It’s just so genuine and real. Sally portraying her insecurities and her reactions to different situations was something I really connected with. Their relationship is one that I know I personally strive to have in my lifetime. True love. *sigh* my hopeless romantic heart just swoons!

Reviewer: Lyn Thomas
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An intelligent love story
Review: I loved the smart dialogue, the believability of the relationship between Sally and Noah in the beginning, and the enormity of research Curtis Sittenfeld did to make TNO into a SNL look alike. I felt like I was backstage seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff that "Saturday Night Live" has given us for decades. My only caveat of regret--I kept forgetting Sally was 40. Her character read more like a young twenty something. I wanted her to show the real growth of a 40-year-old woman, someone who's been around the block, knows a few things about being with people--not just men.It was supposedly her self-confidence that drew Noah to her in the first place. He liked that she knew who she was and had a comfort in her own skin. But that all faded away, and there were times I wondered why Noah stayed. I wanted Sally to champion all women everywhere with overlooked charm and wit in favor of the vacuous stunners who have nothing other than beauty to offer.And one other thing while we're at it. WHAT DID SALLY LOOK LIKE? Was she overweight, nice body, or dumpy, short hair, long hair, bleached blonde, mousey brown, or a redhead. But then again, maybe that was the point. We weren't supposed to know. No matter, still a five-star read for sure!

Reviewer: Canadian shopper
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Words cannot express how much I loved this book. I literally couldn’t put it down. I read it while eating dinner with my family. Lol. I loved the behind the scenes SNL-type inside scoop. I LOVED the character dialogue and the relationships that Sally had with her friends and family. And I loved the love story. I think Sally’s insecurities are something many of us can relate to. I laughed out loud several times, Noah made me swoon several times, and I just thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Reviewer: B. Higgins
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Took a while to get into this book, read the first half over several weeks, the second half in less than 12 hours. Unexpected, laugh out loud funny, and inspiring in its own way. I read a lot and rarely wake up in the morning still thinking about the book I read last night - I think this will be on the periphery of my mind for a while. If you’re unsure about buying this - just do it!

Reviewer: DSS
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Novel is promising and original in parts. Then descends into cliche towards the end. Pretty good vocabulary and relatively strong heroine are the big selling points.

Reviewer: Aida Kolakovic
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Not so much comedy

Reviewer: A. Kelso
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I had a hard time with the first half but once the emails started I was hooked!! I love Sally and Noah together ❤️