(Full disclosure: This post uses Bookshop.org affiliate links. I received a complimentary review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review). 

As a lover of rom coms, there’s no way I could resist a book with a title like The Rom-Com Agenda. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the digital review copy of this one.

The Rom-Com Agenda tells the story of Eli and Leah. Eli gets shot down when he proposes to girlfriend Victoria right before she jets off to Italy, but he’s determined to win her back when she returns. Leah is working multiple jobs and saving up to leave town, now that she is no longer her foster mother’s caregiver. When she gets roped into helping Eli learn how to be a romantic hero, sparks fly. 

With a synopsis like that, of course I had to give this one a go. In all, this was a cute story with a lot of great rom com references. Let’s get into the specifics. 

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What I Liked

The small town setting was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed seeing the punny names of the different businesses in the tourist town. This book takes place in the off season, and that was interesting to see, as well. 

There are a lot of good characters in this one, as we get to know Eli’s friends and watch them welcome Leah into their lives. 

The rom-com and pop culture references were a lot of fun, as well. There’s some Gilmore Girls references as well as plenty of nods to the romantic comedies Eli has to watch as part of his makeover. 

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What I Didn’t Like

Unfortunately, I found the whole makeover premise a bit hard to buy. Rom coms are meant to have silly setups like this, but somehow this one just wasn’t believable. None of Eli’s friends believed he should be with Victoria, so why were they trying to get him to change so much to win her back? 

The second half of the book also felt a bit slow to me. After a certain point, there wasn’t a lot of tension to keep me reading, and I was expecting things to wrap up a bit quicker than they did. 

Like other readers, I didn’t love how clueless Eli was about clinging to his intentions to win Victoria back long after he clearly had feelings for Leah. It didn’t bother me a ton, but it did make things feel a bit repetitive after a while. 

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Overall, I enjoyed the first half of The Rom-Com Agenda but felt my interest waning in the second part of the book. It was a cute love story and had a nice bit of a found family angle as well, but something about it just didn’t quite hit the spot for me personally.

I recommend this one to fans of classic 80s rom coms, to those who enjoy a makeover storyline, and to folks with a fondness for small town settings. 

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