I don’t know what it is, but this is another book I’ve had lying in my book stack for little over a year and never truly felt like picking it up. Until now. I was actually looking for an item that fit any of the remaining items of the reading challenge list, but go figure, this one spoke to me. I sat down, opened the book and before I knew it I was halfway through.
This book is everything main character Sally wants romantic comedies to be: smart, sharp, and funny, with imperfect main characters. It’s a bit meta but it works. Obviously, The Night Owls sketch comedy show that Sally is a writer for, is based on Saturday Night Live. The workplace descriptions were a lot, but because the work is intense and the only thing in Sally’s life, along with her best friends being on the show as well, it makes sense. And this isn’t a normal job; it requires less pages to describe a generic Human Resources department or law firm than it is the behind-the-scenes of a sketch show.
Sally’s sketches and her sense of humor are really good, and the fact that she of all people, falls head over heals in love with the host-of-the-week hottie singer, Noah Webster, is ironic and funny. (There was still the expected cliché of the handsome singer being alone and sad in his cage of gold and admiration, but, to stick with the story, Noah plays it off well.)
Noah is instantly attracted to Sally, and vice versa, but because Sally is a “normal” woman and not a twenty-two-year old model, she considers Noah out of her reach and focuses on a professional relationship instead. Noah decides to talk to her about her prejudice after the show has wrapped, and shocked to be confronted this way with her own behavior, Sally lashes out at him and they don’t see each other anymore after that.
Then the pandemic hits and Sally receives an email from Noah. Being stuck home alone in his mansion he’s had time to reflect and wonders if they should talk things out.
Sally, who has moved home to Kansas City after feeling claustrophobic in her New York City apartment, welcomes the email with surprise and is happy with the distraction from lockdown life. (Living with her senior citizen stepfather Jerry, life has been focused on chair yoga, walking the dog, and early dinners.)
They talk things out over email, and the email correspondence is fun to read. It’s an easy way to have Sally and Noah explain their behavior and their past, without having them to go into long, winding speeches. Then Noah asks her if she wants to visit him in California and because she doesn’t dare to ask what his intensions are, she drives to California without knowing if it’s going to be a platonic stay or something more.
It quickly becomes clear that a platonic relationship is not what Noah has in mind, and their “pod” becomes a love bubble.
One day during a hike they are pulled out of the bubble by paparazzi waiting for them in the car park. Noah’s reaction is to let go of Sally’s hand and encouraging her to hurry to the safety of his car. Sally misreading the reaction nearly blows up the relationship but they manage to talk it out and even prepare a statement for their agents to publish.
The reactions to the pictures on social media play on Sally’s insecurities, and confirm to her that the relationship makes no sense. So, she takes a break and moves into a hotel for some distance, and to clear her head.
A few days into her pout-and-run she gets a call that Jerry hasn’t been seen in two days, and her aunt fears he’s been struck down by Covid. Because the aunt’s husband is in a high-risk category and they’ve basically been in strict quarantine since the outbreak of the pandemic, Sally gets over herself and calls Noah to let him know she needs to travel home. They put aside their differences and Noah not only arranges a private jet for her, but travels along with her and they become full-time carers for Jerry and dog Sugar, and stay until Jerry is fully recovered.
The book is divided in to two parts (2018 and 2020), with an epilogue (2023).
For anyone eager never to think back to pandemic times, better ignore this book, because it plays at the height of the lockdowns, that first summer when nobody was going anywhere and if you had to, it seemed like the apocalypse had happened with the empty streets and the masks and gloves, and not allowed to stay anywhere inside.
This is, of course, as the title says, a romantic comedy. It’s an easy breezy read and if you like anything based on Pride & Prejudice, you’ll like this.
There is a meet-cute in a meeting room (ha), conflict, and a misunderstanding. There is an invite to stay at a mansion (it’s not Pemberley but still), and there is even a big romantic gesture at the end. Also, a feisty but insecure heroine, and a romantic non-player hero, that you’ll be rooting for by the end of the first chapter.
Bookworm in the City 