Kate Spencer

Almost exactly what I’m looking for in a romantic comedy, minus one slight hiccup.

If you’re an avid romance reader then this next paragraph won’t be a spoiler, you’ll be familiar with how generally in the final third of a romance there’s a wrench thrown into the relationship, all hope for the couple is supposed to seem lost. To me, the character’s reasoning for the breakup here felt far too flimsy, it seemed like this was less a character dictated decision and more a genre dictated decision, it seemed sort of like it was just ticking the box of what’s expected to happen in a romance novel.

The book did nicely rebound from that somewhat false note, the way the narrative then circled back to certain things, won back most of the affection Franny and Hayes had legitimately earned from me before that unnecessary (or at least under-motivated) bump in their relationship.

I loved pretty much everything else about this, particularly the slow burn, which along with the banter really did give this the Nora Ephron vibes that romantic comedies so often promise and rarely deliver, I could totally see a 1990’s Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks filling these roles. But slow burn isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, nor is minimal steam, if sex early and often in a romance is more your speed this book likely isn’t going to work as well for you as it did for me.

Another area where this really excelled is in the setting, so often New York just kind of feels like the default for romantic comedies, but here it felt so much a part of their love story, with the subway serving as their meet cute, their walks together, the rooftop garden, the Moonstruck references, etc.., if the city is an aspect of Sex and the City you loved, you’ll find a similar feeling here.

Franny and Hayes were genuinely endearing and humorous characters, I liked that she’s a bit of a mess and he’s so particular and that they were often awkward and uncomfortable which made them seem like real relatable humans, plus they made me smile at times which isn’t the easiest to do anymore.

I also appreciated that Franny had stuff going on outside of the romance, that seems to be essential for me these days, there was a time when I wanted all the romance and nothing getting in the way of those scenes, but now I much prefer romance novels where the romance isn’t all that’s on a character’s mind, I liked that Franny had family stuff and a business to get off the ground in addition to falling in love.… (mere)