OMG. This book is so much fun! Ah, drunkbooking. Love that term! I could 100% relate with Jen all the way through this book. In an age where social media pretty much dominates everything, sometimes all you can do is laugh at your mishaps…and then try to get better, which is exactly what Jen does. It was so interesting for me to read about her interior design business as well, as that is an area that I am sadly quite terrible at, but it made me feel for a little bit that maybe I knew I thing or two about the business! Tight writing, plenty of laugh out loud moments, and even a light-hearted mystery was tangled in here. My kind of book!
5 stars
Stacey Wiedower, whose How to Look Happy (Unlucky in Love No. 3) is out now, vows her eternal love for rom-coms.
Stacey: Since I first dipped my toes in the waters of authoring and publishing, I’ve watched my favorite genre get splashed, dunked and then forced out of the pool. I’m not sure what happened, exactly. One too many Bridget Jones copycats? Thirtieth birthdays became passé? Or maybe it’s just that sparkly vampires took the luster off a genre that was already primed to burst like the real estate bubble.
The thing is, even though chick lit novels went away for a while, their readers didn’t. And though the queens of the genre (Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes) were still signing book deals, new voices in rom-com were harder to find than a Kardashian episode without any whining.
Thank God indie publishing came to the rescue! Suddenly all these writers who came of age reading Something Borrowed and The Devil Wears Prada found another pool to play in — one without a “keep out” sign hanging on the gate. I found loads of new authors to follow on my Kindle, and I found a home for my own books. I read widely, and to this day I love rom-com best of all. Here are five reasons why:
The world is a scary place. I need a laugh.
ISIS, the Syrian civil war, the refugee crisis, climate change. And, lest we forget, the election! (If that’s not scary to you, you’re one brave soul.) The world is full of fear and violence and hatred, and when it all starts crashing down, I can escape it by sticking my nose in a book. Sure, I could accomplish that aim with any number of genres, but my personal favorite is romantic comedy. Along with dreamy sighs and steamy kisses, I get witty social commentary and gut-busting belly laughter. Nothing short of gut-busting belly laughter (and maybe yoga) is enough to make me forget what I see in the news. Namaste.
I like a side of career angst and existential freak-out with my romantic main dish.
I’ll admit it. I love coming-of-age stories. I’ll also admit that to my generation, “coming of age” means something entirely different than it did to my parents. As in, 30 is the new 20, 40 is the new 30 — that’s real. And romantic comedy is like the mothership calling the midlife crisis home. Almost all of my favorite rom-com novels have a central struggle that’s career-related, with heroines who are trying to find themselves as much as they’re trying to find true love. In today’s world, that happens around 30. Or 40. Or … you get the idea. Rom-com celebrates the struggle, validates it and, let’s face it, helps us see we’re not the only hot messes out there.
Reading a great rom-com feels like a girls’ night out, but without the bar tab (though I do love a good book hangover).
I’m pretty sure the same endorphins that are triggered by sipping an appletini and giggling with your besties about the hot guy across the bar are triggered by reading said scene in a rom-com novel. I like books that make me forget they’re fiction — the characters become so real to me, they feel like friends. Plus, book boyfriends are as hot in rom-com as they are in other romance genres.
Smart, sarcastic women who are as imperfect as I am make me smile.
A key characteristic that defines romantic comedy and separates it from its romance-genre cousins is tone. Rom-com almost always delivers its happy ending in a sarcasm-laced pitch that’s especially suited to the modern era. It voices our frustrations in a way that even social media can’t, plus it gives us a better peek into the lives of others than their own heavily edited Facebook walls. We’re the first generation of grown-ups living with a streaming news feed of our peers, and it’s easy to forget that someone else’s life that looks so good on Instagram is actually as messy and imperfect as our own. Rom-com gives us someone else’s problems to relish.
As mentioned above, Chick Lit Is Not Dead. In fact, we chick lit lovers are alive, thriving and lusting for new material.
Thanks to a new name (romantic comedy) and a flourishing indie scene that’s given it a new platform, chick lit is off the ventilator and breathing on its own. I know this not because I’m an author, but because I’m a fan. The number of options out there for readers today is staggering … and I love it. Whether New York publishers begin opening their arms to chick lit writers again remains to be seen, but in the interim, no complaints! We’re spoiled for choice. And now excuse me, please. My Kindle beckons.
Find out more about Stacey and her books at staceywiedower.com.
