Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Romantic Comedy

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Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

33 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Infinitely cute. Noah is everything I’d want in a partner (in character - I could live without fame and wealth, and character is what makes someone “hot” to me). I’d still want to date if I could find more people, men in particular, who are like Noah. So even though he’s fictional, it was a pleasure getting to know him alongside Sally.

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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daniofthewood's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ariana3's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book took me a LONG time to get in to. I was going to give up, but I stuck it out, and it definitely paid off in the end! This book is an easy, light-hearted, funny, beach-read type book. It was hard for me to get over some parts, but once I accepted the premise and knowing essentially how the story was going to go, it was much easier to read and I enjoyed the last two-thirds of the book! The book is split up into essentially 3 parts. The first part feels chaotic, with too many characters being introduced and confusing and slightly annoying. However, I was sucked in during the second part, and then I found myself being pulled back to the book to find out how it ends.
Plot summary:

Sally works at The Night Owls (TNO), which is so obviously a rip-off of SNL. This was the biggest part for me that was so hard to get over. It felt annoying and stupid that the writer would put this story within a show that is so obviously something nonfiction that it was irritating. However, I eventually got over this and just accepted it. Anyway, Sally has been a writer at TNO for the last 9 years. She's in her mid-thirties, has previously been married, and just doesn't date because she no longer trusts her instincts and has settled into the fact she won't find love. Noah Brewster, a mega-hot, mega-famous star hosts TNO and she spends a considerable amount of time with him for the week. She feels like there's a flirtation but she must be crazy. At the after-party, she thinks he's going to kiss her, so she freaks out and says something a bit snarky as a jab (since her coping mechanism is snarky comments/humor, obviously). He feels hurt, their flirty friendship ends, and that's that. BOOM - Covid hits 2 years later. The entire 2nd part is in the format of emails to each other back and forth. Noah reaches out to Sally to rekindle a friendship, it gets honest and emotional, as two people during the pandemic are longing for a human connection. It's raw, emotional, honest, and their feelings are shared. These emails span over 5 days, which then leads into the 3rd part. The 3rd part, Sally and Noah start Facetiming and speaking on the phone. It's still early covid times, and she agrees to go out to LA to visit him. When she gets there, its kind of a will we/won't we hook-up, what are we doing, confusing mess. However, the feelings and conversations are so adult and mature, and they're primarily initiated by Noah which is a refreshing take on heterosexual relationships. Sally eventually comes around and shares her honest feelings and thoughts with him instead of her snarky quips. So, they obviously sleep together, they confess they love each other, etc. etc. Sally's stepdad gets sick so she flies out there to nurse him back to health and make sure he's okay. Noah comes out to help, and that's when they both realize, I think, they want to be with each other. It was his "grand gesture" to her to show that yes he loves her, yes he wants to be with her, yes this is real. There's also an epilogue which says they get married a year later, and her stepdad and his beagle eventually move out to LA and live with them.

I think I just love how wholesome the book turns out to be. There's plenty of ways it could take a dark turn or end a little bittersweet, but everything ends so happy and lovely! I wanted to give this book a lower score initially, but that fact alone bumped it up at least another star once I finished the book. And then I came through and bumped it up another 1/4 star haha

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kyriannaj's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book heavily deals with COVID in the immediate summer of 2020 with uncertainty, anxieties, and all other political events that happened in the US during that time.

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abidavisf's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Sexy, funny and deeply heart-warming, Romantic Comedy is a triumph.

This story reads like a conversation. It is not filled with drama and action, but raw human emotion and interaction. I’ve never read prose like this before and I loved it. I listened to the audio book and found myself giggling at my desk at the end of Chapter 2.

I’ll now be buying the physical copy because I need to read this again and desperately need to make notes!

Two of my favourite lines:

1. “If you were a musician, you got to be viscerally magical.”
2. “When I’m talking to you, I’m a funnier and smarter version of myself because you are funny and smart.”

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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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hydeandseek's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I genuinely did enjoy this book! I bought it at 4 PM and read it that afternoon. The premise of the late-night comedy show was really compelling, and I liked the timeline and fast-paced structure. However,

the initial portion where the plot was contained within Noah’s week hosting TNO was my favorite part of the book. Unfortunately, the COVID email element slowed the momentum significantly for me (even though I acknowledge that it was super relatable and definitely intentional). This interruption made the climax have less effect for me—Sally could have had the same growth outside of COVID, I think.

I did like the realistic struggle of Sally’s insecurity and self-sabotage, even if the book was a little too self-aware at times. It’s about a writer and called romantic comedy, after all. Overall, a good time!

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quiet_reader's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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danajoy's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted

3.0

I wanted to love this one but it was pretty mediocre.
Sally was pretty bland and I feel like I don't really know her. She is painfully insecure and not conversationally funny or witty. There wasn't really charming banter which you might expect from a book with this title and a character that works for their version of SNL.
Noah was ok.
This story did also really strongly feature the Covid19 pandemic in the second half.

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