With the classic big city girl and small town boy trope, this novel follows Lucy and Liam navigating past heartbreaks and achieving their dreams. Lucy has given up on love, and Liam is closed off and wary of letting new people into his life. This book follows Lucy as she is sent on a work trip to Liam's small town, Hudson Hollow, to find inspiration for a romance novel; despite feeling discomfort out of her city lifestyle.

'How to Write a Rom-Com' captured the small town vibe perfectly, and Lucy experienced so many wonderful new adventures with Liam. The friendships in this were just lovely to read, from Lucy's support network back home, to the new friends she made along the way.

Unfortunately, I ended up rating this novel three stars as there were many critiques I personally had, a lot of which look me out of the story.

To start with, I wasn't the biggest fan of our main character. Lucy was constantly blurting out rude statements, often at unpredictable times. I found this behaviour a bit difficult to follow in order to enjoy the flow of the story. She also often made contradicting statements, and there was a lot of jumble to her thoughts. Lucy is described as having dyslexia, which was great representation to see somebody with a learning disability working in the publishing industry. However overall, her sudden rude statements without thinking were very repetitive and rude, leading to me not particularly rooting for her character.

Lucy's inner dialogue just wasn't my favourite. It was very negative and full of sarcastic quips. I understand there was the aspect that she has grown up in a different environment to a peaceful small town lifestyle - with a fast paced, hardworking city life - but she wasn't a very likeable character to me, and was very stand-offish to the characters she initially meets.

Another critique is that Lucy often said the phrases "why am I like this" or "classic Lucy" which I found quite awkward.

I also found it very awkward in the beginning between Lucy and Liam, the main love interest. A lot of their conversations were uncomfortable to read. I think there is a right way to portray that closed-off-ness (for example the way Luke has in Gilmore Girls), with a good amount of attraction and tension, without it just coming across as stale. My interest in the romance wasn't captured from the get-go, leaving me feeling an emptiness where excitement should have been.

This is a story of self-discovery for Lucy, which I do think was portrayed very well. I found that naturally throughout the book, the attitude I noticed she had ended up changing. But unfortunately, it had already put me off her character quite a lot.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this!

*I received this book as an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) for free in exchange for an honest review*

How to Write a Rom-Com is a fourth wall breaking romantic comedy that really plays to its strengths of being a writer's guide to romantic novels. The author has done a fantastic job in blending the techniques, elements and structures required to write the perfect romance novel. Focusing on various subjects such as romantic tropes, and even the character building. It was a fascinating concept of having the MC be the person who is aspiring to write her own novel, whilst starring as the main character in this novel, it was brilliantly executed as well.

There were numerous emotional moments, and one-liners, and the character development and scene setting were really strong, I could easily enjoy the story whilst also using it as guide to plan my own romance novel, if I really wanted to but as Lucy says, not everyone can write a romance! I especially loved Lucy’s take on “Happily Ever After” and completely agreed with her sentiment about it, like why can’t we live in the “Happy Ever Now”, I think that is a great aspect for romance novels to take on, it really highlights about living in the present rather than the future.

The characters were are really lovely as well, other than Ruby who felt a bit out of place, but I especially loved Liam, and the twins, the relationships built between Lucy and the small-town characters were great, and it definitely did feel like the scripts of one of those Hallmark movies that Lucy loves to talk about. This is your cosy meet-cute, small town romance novel, that delivers exactly as it promises on the tin, engrossing and adorable enough that you become invested in the romance. The author has done a fantastic job with this story, and I really enjoyed being along for the ride.

I found it a little hard to get into at the beginning, but I think that was my fault as my brain was still processing a Romantasy book.

When I say I couldn’t put my kindle down tonight - I mean it!

“Come on, City Girl, let’s see how country you can be” - I was grinning like a loon!

‘Thumb-to-pointer-finger theory: proven. - had me choking on my drink!

The bus trip? My heart was in my throat!

I can’t wait to get a hard copy for my bookshelf!

I need to reread this soon!

A huge thank you to the Aria and Aires team at NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. A gorgeous 4 star read book from me. What an exciting plot, vivid storytelling and relatable, rich characters. I couldn't put this book down – absolutely loved it.

My love for bookish books and romcom made me ask for this arc and I wasn’t disappointed 💞

Cannot wait to go buy my own copy to add it to my collection 💞

Lucy trabaja para una editorial y desea un ascenso. Su jefa le dice que si le da una idea para el siguiente libro de su famosa autora, Ruby, le permitirá conseguir el ascenso. Pero para llevarlo a cabo, Lucy debe viajar a un pequeño pueblo, conocer a todos sus habitantes, hacerse amiga de ellos y utilizarlos como inspiración para el libro. Así que Lucy viaja, pero no esperaba encontrar personas tan maravillosas ni mucho menos enamorarse de Liam, el chef del lugar, quien le enseñará que la vida es más que trabajo y le ayudará a redescubrir las pequeñas cosas que hacen la vida especial. ¿Perdonará Liam a Lucy cuando se entere de que lo está utilizando? ¿O se dará cuenta Lucy de que está cometiendo un error y dejará de lado sus planes para estar con él?



Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a great book! I love rom coms and this was the perfect book on book form. It was so fun seeing a write love out her rom com dreams. Loved every minute. Liam was so charming and I hope this gets adapted to a movie. It was that good.