I read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Wow... I really loved the main characters in this story. Leah and Eli were wonderful, real and funny. They were a great match and I really enjoyed watching them getting to know each other properly before becoming a couple.
The side characters were well written too, and the novel definitely had that small town feel.
The references to old movies and quotes were done perfectly, and suited the plot as well.
Was a great book that I'll be recommending to others.

Simply put, the cutest rom com. My first read by Jayne Denker and it was just what I needed. A cute read for that I had a chance to read during the holidays. A slow read but it's worth it.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was an quick and easy read, with two MC's with great backstories and supporting characters who made me laugh.

DNF @ 43%. I enjoyed this book for the first bit, but then found it got boring and I had no interest in picking it up. I've read 4 other books since starting this one and still don't want to pick it up and when I did I would only read a few pages so decided to DNF. It felt like it was going to be very predictable.

Thanks to NetGalley & St Martin's Press for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love romcoms and I love this book. The characters in the book were amazing and I loved getting to have a glimpse into what the author was thinking with them. It was perfect.

Thank you SMP and NetGalley for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

As much as I wanted to be, I was not a fan of the closed door romance The Rom-Com Agenda.

The Good:
Leah is a lot stronger than you realize.
I love anything with found family.
It’s friends to lovers.
There are so many awesome movie references.
The meet cute was a good one.

The Bad
Eli, the male main character, was unlikeable even after he stopped being a moron.
The plot and writing was a bit boring.
There is an odd, weird, sort of love triangle.

This was my Jayne Denker first book and although it was not as enjoyable as I hoped, I would definitely try another.

Well, this was an absolute delight of a book! I absolutely loved it. The found family trope, rom coms, friends to lovers, a makeover?! This has a lot of my favorite things. Character wise, Leah was an absolute gem. I loved her so much. Eli, at first, really bothered me with his completely unrealistic and delusional view of his relationship with Victoria. He was really hard to root for. But once he and Leah started to become friends, I started really enjoying his character a lot more. He had such great character growth. Jenna, Ben, Delia, Gray and Gillian were such a fun friend group and I’d 100% be friends with them. I thought the pacing was pretty spot on! It was very steady and I was never bored or waiting for something to happen. I thought the romance between Leah and Eli was absolutely adorable. They had such great chemistry and it was lovely to see their journey from friends to more than. If you’re looking for a sweet, romantic read, GRAB THIS ONE.

TW: mentions of cancer, death

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

“The Rom-Com Agenda” by Jayne Denker
Believe you are Worthy & Enough
Life can truly be funny, when the hard things are someone else’s life. Yes, this is a romantic story, and a comedy, too. But, there are hard truths here, too. So I laughed and shed a few tears, I wonder if you will also feel this range of emotions. Happy Reading ! !
NOTE: This review expresses my honest opinion.
I received an ARC of this story from the publisher via NetGalley.

Eli was crushed when Victoria, the woman of his heart, left him and went to Rome, So crushed that he gained weight and whined- a lot- until his family recruited Leah to do a make over on him. Leah. who has been juggling balls since caring for her foster mother, decides helping Eli might help her too. And then you know what's going to happen. I know some will quibble that Eli held on to the idea of Victoria for too long when Leah was right there beside him but if he didn't, we wouldn't have the rom-com. I gotta admit, though,, that I liked Leah more than Eli. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A quick breezy read.

I'm honestly sad because I really wanted to like this book. It features tropes like found family and friends to lovers, as well as countless movie references. What didn't work for me were Eli and Leah as characters. Eli spends the first half of the book whining about a girlfriend he had for 4 months, who literally left him high and dry with her CAT, while Leah is working a million jobs and just kind of flopping around like a noodle. And even if you do get invested in their love story, you only get to see them kiss before it fades to black. And not even a super steamy kiss either... I did enjoy the side characters and would hope to see Gray and Delia get a book of their own, this one just might not have been for me.

*Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

This was a very sweet and bubbly romance. I loved the small town vibes with the occasional real talk about one's worth & identity. I really liked Leah & her journey throughout the book.

Leah & Eli's relationship was more of a friendship for me than a romantic one. They had their bittersweet, longing filled moments but somehow the spark was missing. But the ending was delightful & wholesome.

<i>Thank you Netgalley & Publisher for the arc, in exchange for an honest review.<i>

I enjoyed this romcom. Eli obsession for a woman he dated previously sets his sister and friends on a journey to "fix" him after she refuses his ring and leaves the country. Leah is brought into the fold of friends and family when she happens to be working almost every place they take him to try to spruce him up a bit. The problem is that Leah kind of has a thing for him and it gets worse every time she sees him.

Eli was pretty clueless in a lost puppy dog kind of way and his determination to win over the woman who obviously didn't want him was maybe stretched out a little too long. It made his seem a little wimpy. It was wonderful when he finally started clueing in to his feelings for Leah. They really were your classic friends to lovers trope, but it just seemed to take forever for them to really get together. I did love her explaining what he should be learning from all the romance movies that the group had him watching. Leah was a sweetie all the way around.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam Level: 🔥🔥 (kissing and closed door sex scenes)
Trigger Warning: brief mentions of parental abandonment, cancer (side characters), and death of a parent

Eli Masterson still can't get over his ex, even after four months. That's why his sister and best friends decide he needs a makeover to win back Victoria- the one who got away. As he endures shopping trips, haircuts, mani/pedis, and a rom com movie marathon to make him into the perfect guy, he finds himself crossing paths with Leah Keegan- a girl who sees the best in him. Leah's never really felt loved or accepted after growing up in foster care and watching her foster mom die of cancer. As much as she wants to leave town, she realizes that spending time with Eli and his friends is making her want to stay. And as much as she knows Eli's heart belongs to someone else, she can't help the feelings she's developing for him. Will Eli realize what is right in front of him and give Leah a place to call home?

Okay, this was so sweet and heartfelt. While the title inspires fun, lighthearted feelings, this book deals with some serious topics that make it more of an emotional read. Leah had a heartbreaking past, but she was such a strong, caring person. And I loved seeing her find a place where she belonged among Eli and his friends. I can definitely see how Eli might frustrate some readers, considering he spends most of the book pining after Victoria. But I loved the angst and was patiently waiting for the moment he came to his senses and realized he was meant to be with Leah. They honestly just had the sweetest chemistry from the start. I can definitely see potential for Delia and Gillian to get their own stories, so I'll be eager to see what comes next from Jayne Denker!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Overall I thought the book was great. Although it was really slow at times especially with Eli because it took him too long to get over Victoria. He had a hard time seeing what was in front of him. Which wasn’t fair for Leah. I found they weren’t together long enough because of how long it took him to figure it out. I would have loved to see them together longer than 2 chapters.

There was a lot to love about The Rom Com Agenda and I did enjoy certain aspects. Leah was a great character, a good blend of vulnerability and toughness. Eli worked for the most part for me, I do enjoy a good beta male hero who is in touch with his feelings. He was a little over dramatic about Victoria and I wish he got over her sooner. The romance was very much a slow burn and really took a while to get going. I think it was also slowed down by a few subplots that could've been edited out. Overall, 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This book was a struggle for me to get into at first, but I'm glad that I stuck with it. Overall, I enjoyed the concept of the book, but it had a lot of parts that I just couldn't get into.

I liked the idea of a found family because it was great see a group of friends become a family, and they were there for each other. I liked the friendship between Eli and Leah. I liked that Leah had so many jobs, and I loved the names of the stores in town. They were very clever, and I loved the references to Kirk from 'Gilmore Girls'. I liked the references to the 80's and 90's romcoms.

I didn't like Eli's desperation/obsession with getting Victoria back. All of the parts in the book with him talking about Victoria were cringeworthy, and I couldn't understand why he was so obsessed with her after only 4 months. I didn't like that his friends and his family thought it was a good idea to give him a makeover and change everything about him to get her back. It was way too much to read all of the ways that they wanted to change him so Victoria would want to love him.

Also, I think that the pacing in the book was off. There was too much time spent on Eli obsessing over Victoria, and I would have preferred more time spent on his friendship/relationship with Leah.

Leah was much more interesting of a character, and I would have liked to read more about her than Eli. I liked the side characters of Delia and Gray more than I liked Eli.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book.

Ooooof there were so many characters to keep up with in this one. I felt very overwhelmed within the first few chapters with the sheer amount of people to keep up with as they take Eli on a whole makeover spree. Reading usually relaxes me but these scenes weren’t fun for me to read. I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t rooting for Eli. He didn’t make me want to continue reading. Leah was a great character and is the glue for the whole story, but it wasn’t enough to redeem everything else.

Such a cute roMance.
This book was so nice, love the two MC , and how different their personalities are, how they get drawn to each other. Love how is touching on meaningful themes in a tactful way, overall will totally recommend it .

3 stars ⭐️

The Rom-Com Agenda follows Leah Keegan, who is officially ready to leave the small town of Willow Cove, and Eli Masterson who is struggling after a failed marriage proposal. Eli's family takes it upon themselves to give him a makeover in order to get him out of his slump and enlists Leah to help. As Leah connects with Eli and his family and friends, the two grow closer and she starts falling for him - but does he feel the same?

With lots of rom-com references, this book was a fun read! I thought that the relationship between Eli and Leah was just so cute. One of my favorite parts of the book was the found family aspect and the absolutely lovable side characters. Eli's friends and family were so fun to get to know and added a lot to the story in my opinion.

However, the thing that made me not connect entirely with this book was that Eli spent too much of this book pining over his ex. I felt that their connection was so immediate that this conflict was drawn out far too long, making him seem a bit immature considering he is 31 years old. I would have preferred to see more of them actually getting together because although it was a slow burn, it ended up seeming a bit rushed toward the end.

Overall, this was a cute and fun friends-to-lovers rom-com though!

Leah and Eli meet when he is newly single and trying to win Victoria back. His friends and family have listed all 4th rom come he needs to watch and learn from, but will be realise that who he really wants has been in front of him the whole time.
Great read!