Six More of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year

01 Funny Story by Emily Henry

Funny Story is the perfect rom-com read. Henry offers funny banter that made me laugh, some steamy moments, and a sweet love story. Reading this one made me happy.

When Peter abruptly breaks up with Daphne, citing his sudden love for his childhood best friend Petra, Daphne is left emotionally reeling--and without a place to live.

Desperate and devastated, she reluctantly moves into a spare room in the apartment of an acquaintance, "pothead" Miles. He has extra space because he was just dumped by his live-in girlfriend Petra. Who left him for Daphne's fiancé, Peter.

This is exxxxcellent Emily Henry. The banter is fantastic, and I laughed many times while reading this one. There's steaminess and affection and character growth. No one is perfect, no one is swooning, and the love in this happy read is immensely satisfying.

The rom-com conflict that prevents an immediate happy resolution was based on a communication fail--a setup I usually detest, because: just talk to each other!--but this one was so well done and understandable from both sides, I was hook, line, and sinker for all of it.

Henry offers up lots of book love, as usual: Daphne is a dedicated children's librarian.

I listened to Funny Story as an audiobook (narrated by the fantastic Julia Whelan).

For my full review of this book, please see Funny Story.

Henry's Beach Read was one of my favorite books the year I read it, and it made it onto the Greedy Reading List Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism. People We Meet on Vacation was another great Henry story; you can check out my review here, and you might like to check out its spot on Six More Great Light Fiction Stories, plus the five other titles on that Greedy Reading List. Emily Henry is also the author of Happy Place and Book Lovers.

02 The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Katherine Center offers a writing-focused story in which forced proximity, past secrets, complicated life circumstances, and a fear of vulnerability complicate the professional and personal lives of an unlikely writing duo.

Emma Wheeler writes romantic comedies, and she longs to be a screenwriter. But her life in Texas is complicated: her father requires a full-time caregiver, and Emma is it.

When, due to her promising talent and her best friend from high school (who's now a high-powered agent), Emma gets the chance to rework a script by the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates (whose works and quotes are posted all over her room), she bends over backward to make it happen.

Her sister steps in to help with their dad at home, and Emma moves to Los Angeles for six weeks of inspiring, career-building, lucrative, and life-changing work.

Only, the last thing Charlie Yates wants is someone changing his (terrible) script. He doesn't even believe in love, and he's quite certain that Emma is not a solution to any of his problems.

As in all good rom-coms, there's a conflict keeping the potential couple apart, and I appreciated the nuances of this one. Center doesn't rely on a miscommunication trope (my very least favorite), and I could see where both sides were coming from emotionally within their prolonged heartbreak of having to be apart.

Please click here for my full review of The Rom-Commers.

Katherine Center is also the author of Hello Stranger, What You Wish For, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, How to Walk Away, Happiness for Beginners, and other books.

03 The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

The reality-show setting and LGBTQIA+ representation in Ever After flips the traditional fairy tale in satisfying, heartwarming ways in this romantic story.

Dev has dedicated his career to the reality dating show Ever After, helping to shape it into the popular, long-running franchise it is. He's typically the handler for the "princesses" as they vie for the attentions of the show's star ("the prince").

But when his producers cast disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its newest eligible bachelor and assign Dev to be his handler, Dev isn't sure he can salvage the situation. Charlie is devastatingly handsome--but he's awkward, clumsy, private, and quiet...not exactly the most promising television presence. How will they capture enough usable moments to make a show?

Dev spends countless hours with the bachelor, working to get him to loosen up and open up. Dev shares that he's recently broken up with Ryan, who also works on the show. And Charlie begins to realize he feels more of a connection to Dev than to any of the twenty beautiful women currently parading through his life.

The story's romantic storyline depends heavily upon one character's never having entertained thoughts of the sexuality and desire that blooms dramatically within the book. This revelation opens the door to the discovery of and the discussion of various characters' newly realized or revealed sexual identities--as well as, in some cases, the expressed aim of not defining sexuality with traditional rigidity.

I loved the open discussions of mental health, the characters' realistic imperfections, the LGBTQIA+ representation, and the deeply felt romance.

If you like the sound of this book, you might also like the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Romantic Novels Set in the World of TV and Movies.

For more Bossy reviews of books with LGBTQIA+ representation, please check out this link.

For my full review, please see The Charm Offensive.

04 The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore

Laurie Devore's novel goes behind the scenes of a reality dating show, complete with sordid details, manipulation, and manufactured moments, all serving as a backdrop to a fearless contestant's creeping toward destruction--and her struggle to figure out if the love she feels is real.

Jac Matthis is a romance novelist whose first book tanked (the main protagonist chose her career over a man, enraging readers who'd been counting on a different happy ever after), leaving little audience for her second published book and nonexistent demand for a third.

In an attempt to boost her exposure and thereby resuscitate her writing career, the frank and cynical, unapologetically brutally honest, casual-sex fan Jac is set to appear as a contestant on a Bachelor-type reality TV show in which the ultimate goal is a proposal and marriage.

After one last fling, Jac reports to the set--only to find out that her one-night stand is a producer on the show who had been absent during her auditions.

Complications abound as the eligible TV bachelor seems to be falling for Jac, she makes enemies of multiple fellow contestants, she struggles with the staged and manipulated nature of every moment--and she realizes that she's being painted as the villain of the show.

I found it fairly challenging to connect with Jac. For me, her pretending was frequently difficult to parse from what was real.

Yet the cutthroat, often chilling behind-the-scenes dating-show dynamics and logistics seemed plausible and were horrifyingly fascinating.

Devore offers a version of happy ever after, and of revenge, that was fun to watch take shape.

For my full review, please see The Villain Edit.

I mentioned The Villain Edit in the Greedy Reading List Six Romantic Novels Set in the World of TV and Movies.

05 The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

The Paradise Problem is the perfect light fiction read to close out the summer, with a high-stakes fake marriage, comeuppances for the greedy bad guys, our main protagonists' falling deeply in love, art > wealth, and plenty of Christina Lauren's signature steamy scenes.

In Christina Lauren's newest romantic fiction, Anna and West are a young married couple on the verge of divorce.

But this isn't heartbreaking for either party, because they were only married to reap the benefits of married student housing at UCLA.

Several years after saying goodbye, Anna is struggling to pay for her father's cancer treatment and has just been fired from her cashier's job at the corner store...when West shows up on her doorstep. The two were never divorced after all, West has a trust fund--and he has to stay married to Anna to collect on it. Which means traveling together to a tropical island for his sister's wedding, pretending to be soulmates, and fooling West's family.

This is an adorable fake-dating-in-paradise setup with funny dialogue, a wonderfully imperfect main protagonist, steamy moments, and a tantalizing prospect of a Happy Ever After ending.

The writing team of Christina Lauren also authored the books The True Love Experiment, The Unhoneymooners, In a Holidaze, Love and Other Words, Something Wilder, and Autoboyography.

Click here for my full review of The Paradise Problem.

06 Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher

Croucher's young adult queer medieval adventure romance is sweet, spunky, and full of great banter, with characters finding their way (and love) despite complex challenges.

"You aren’t merry," Clem said to her captor. "And you aren’t all men. So there’s been some marketing confusion somewhere along the line."

Mariel is the bristly new captain of the Merry Men and is anxious to live up to the legacy of her grandfather, the retired Robin Hood (who now lives with his true love, William), and to make her hard-to-please father, who has wrested control of the Merry Men, proud.

Clem is a jovial healer from the country who is advancing medical techniques and is sought out for her helpful salves and methods in a time of the outdated use of leeches and attempts to cure dark humors. Clem has only noble intentions of helping others, and she doesn't differentiate between those on the Sheriff's side and those on the Merry Men's side.

When the Merry Men capture Clem in retribution for her help in healing the Sheriff of Nottingham, things get complicated for both Mariel and Clem in this sassy, fun, queer historical fiction young adult romance.

The group faces real challenges, and some characters don't make it through the battles and sometimes-messy plans-gone-awry. Consequences feel appropriately weighty.

It's a young adult book, with lots of love and attraction but very little steaminess (none explicit), and it kept me hooked with the layers of emotional growth, the fights for autonomy, and the determination to build a new future.

I am all in for Lex Croucher novels forever. The banter, the adventure, the medieval setting--yes yes yes.

For my full review--and for a link to my rave Bossy review of Croucher's Gwen & Art Are Not in Love (which was on my first list of rom-com favorites from the past year)--check out Not for the Faint of Heart.