This was a typical friends to lovers romance and while usually that is my favourite trope, I wouldn’t say this was one of my favourite versions of it. I did like the book, I just found it a little cliche at times. It was still a really cute story that I think most people will love.

Thank you to NetGallery and St. Martins Press for this eARC!

Mixed feelings here.

Leah Keegan returned to her foster mom’s home to care for her in her last days. She is living in her home (anticipating her mom’s son kicking her out) and working for funds to leave town.

Eli Masterson has just had his heart broken and is looking to win her back. His family/friends decide he needs a total makeover (physical, manners, etc.), and Leah helps by selling him a new wardrobe. He is then pushed into watching rom-coms to learn how to be a sworn-worthy hero. Eli and Leah become friends and begin hanging out (movies, plus ones, etc.).

Will Eli FINALLY get over Victoria and recognize who’s right in front of him? Will Leah stop running away and stay with her new friends/Eli?

First off, the movie references (mostly 80s) are wonderful…great memories. But the storyline would have been better for younger mains. At 30, I found Eli too immature, especially in his reaction to and failure to accept his breakup…but honestly really overall. He did have his sweet, redeeming moments, but they were overshadowed by the specter of his “true love” Victoria. And unfortunately, I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I felt I only saw them superficially, not anything with depth. The writing was fine but just not enough to make up for my other issues.

This is my overview. I’m sure others will enjoy this one without any caveats.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for providing the free early arc of The Rom-Com Agenda for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

The Rom-Com Agenda is a delightful read full of endearing characters and rom com references. Leah is a former foster kid who feels like she has never belonged anywhere or with anyone. She works a handful of jobs, trying to make enough money to leave town and start over somewhere new. Eli is the opposite- loving mother, older sister who clearly adores him, and a friend group full of unique personalities. Eli is caught up on his ex girlfriend, and his sister and friends decide he needs a complete makeover to get her to take him back. Leah gets drawn in and starts to help with the plan after helping the group while at one of her jobs. As Leah and Eli get to know each other, sparks start to sizzle and both begin to doubt their previous feelings.

The lead characters have amazing chemistry that grows so naturally throughout the story. Their banter is adorable, especially when bantering about all the rom coms Eli’s sister demands that he watch. Leah is a strong, independent female character who is unafraid to call out the makeover plan as unnecessary even as she supports Eli through it. I did want to talk some sense into Eli at times, but luckily he gets where he needs to go in the end! I adored the secondary characters and how they became a found family for Leah, the first family she has really ever known.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / St. Martin’s Griffin for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

The Rom Com Agenda
⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎥This book was your classic rom com, where at points it was almost a bit too cheesy. They even reference a ton of classic rom com movies throughout. Now while parts were a little cliché, and this was a closed door romance, you could feel the connection between Leah and Eli.

🎥While this book wasn’t too different from any book I’ve read before, I did appreciate how I did root for Leah throughout the book, I enjoyed how warm Eli’s friends and family will make you feel.

🎥If you’re interested in an easy going rom com, family and friends who will always have our female and male main character’s back, and an independent female main character, this one is for you! You can check it out when it is released January 10, 2023.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Griffin for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Eli just got dumped by his girlfriend of 4 months. She goes on an extended trip to Europe and Eli pines for her back home. To pull him out of his breakup funk, his family and friends decide a makeover is in order. If Eli is so intent on winning Victoria back, he’s going to need a complete overhaul.

Leah has spent the last year taking care of her dying foster mom. Now juggling a dozen different jobs, Leah is trying to save money so she can finally leave Willow Cove behind her. After all, she doesn’t have any reason to stay… until she meets Eli.


Things I liked:
💗 Friends to lovers trope
💗 Found family trope
💗 Eli’s friend group/family
💗 All of the rom-com movie references
💗 Leah’s background + her resilience

Things I didn’t like:
👎🏻 Eli spending so much of the book pining over Victoria
👎🏻 Eli’s wishy-washy feelings towards Leah
👎🏻 The makeover came across as mean at times

Thank you St.Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Rom-Com Agenda

- Friends to lovers
- Slow burn
- Found Family
- 80s 90s 00s rom com movie references

This book was fun. It was cute and easy to read. It follows Eli who plans to win back his ex girlfriend who broke up with him and left for Rome. Eli and his friends create an elaborate plan to win his ex back by using rom com movies. Leah just suffered a huge loss and is just trying to get by, until she is reluctantly recruited to help Eli in his plan to get his ex back. She becomes Eli's expert on rom com movies and the two begin a sweet friendship that has developing feelings that feel less like friends and more like love.

Overall I enjoyed this book and all the pop culture references and Eli's friend group. However, I did not like the pacing of the book and all the random side plots. There was too many side characters and the whole point of Eli being so oblivious to leah's feeling was not my fav. The book felt unfinished at points.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. It managed to make me fall in love with the characters right from the start, wich is rare for me. It was everything I needed and more, I simply could not stop smiling.

Please give this one a chance if you love a good romance that will not only warm your heart but also make you care deeply for the characters.

This book was so good and went so much deeper than I expected. Leah is such an amazing character and I really felt her struggles and emotions throughout the novel. Eli was such a sweetheart, misguided at times, but still sweet. I adored the friend group that surrounded Eli (and then Leah) and how authentic their interactions were. Even though this is a romance, Leah and Eli both have growth throughout the story and this book also highlights the foster care system and foster kids. It balances the deeper moments well where they don't feel too heavy but you know they still matter. This was mostly closed door romance (nothing graphic beyond making out) so 1/5 for spice. Really recommend checking this out for a deeper-connecting romance.

I also hope to get more stories from this town and friend group in the future!

This book was so cute and I loved it so much! I really enjoyed it. It was right up my alley. So good.

Eli and Leah. Eli has a failed marriage proposal, months of wallowing, and then his family decides to give him the rom com makeover to try and woo his ex into taking him back and wanting to get married. Leah gets roped into helping with the rom com makeover.

Tropes: found family, friends to lovers
Things I liked: the side characters, Eli (when he wasn't being an oblivious man), Leah
Things I didn't like: Eli spending too much time pining over the ex, Eli going back and forth between Leah and the ex with thoughts/actions

Overall this is a good choice for a rom com lover and an enjoyable read. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader.

Poor Eli. Dumped by his girlfriend when she leaves for Rome and turns down his proposal. Into the sulky depths he falls and his friends have had enough of it. If he intends to win her back, he needs a serious makeover. Poor Leah is dragged into the makeover situation by chance and gains a loyal group of friends. Along the way and still sniveling about the lost love, Eli discovers something in Leah and she in him. But the ex is hovering over everything.
It is a cute and fun novel with lots of pushing and shoving Eli and pulling at Leah.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really wanted to love and adore this book, but something really held me back. While I enjoyed it overall, and thought it had really redeeming qualities, it all felt just a bit too much throughout the book.

We had a loud friend group - fun, until it felt like too much.
We had the love sick Eli - head over heels Gaga in love with someone he’s known for 4 months who clearly didn’t return the favor, but the entire book is about getting him ready for her return? Felt like too much!
Leah - what a tough life. I loved her story because it added some much needed depth to the story. This part I liked!

Overall, i think this could have been edited a bit more to be less extreme and more real.

3 Stars. As someone who loves rom-coms, I enjoyed the references to some of my favorite movies. The premise was cute and I liked the main characters. I had a hard time enjoying this one. It had a heavier tone than I anticipated from the title, and some things felt a little over-explained, if that makes sense. I also felt like with all of the different side characters, there was just so much going on, If you enjoy a romance that isn't all light and fluffy, you should pick this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley & St, Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This completely predictable but very sweet and satisfying romance is about a man pining for the one that got away. Eli’s siblings push him to watch romantic comedy movies so he can make a grand gesture when Victoria returns from her time abroad and more often than not, their new friend Leah becomes his default practice date. A bit of an introvert (and a bit insecure), the more time Leah spends with Eli, the more sure she is that he is pretty perfect as is, and anyone who didn’t accept him doesn’t deserve him. Eli is confused at how he can be attracted to Leah when he is waiting for the return of a woman he prematurely proposed to.

The story has a lot of the heart, and the allusions to many favorite romantic comedies (and the dissection of them!) is a major plot point,. Lots of fan service for Gen-Xers.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #TheRomComAgenda from #NetGalley.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC copy. I had so much I didn't like about this book. The characters, plot, romance, EVERYTHING. I found myself struggling with relationship between the MC's - Leah was such a catch from the start, and Eli was way too stuck on another woman that wasn't even worth his time. However, Leah was also incredibly self-deprecating and didn't realize how special she was either. The side characters were frustrating and adding nothing to the plot. I skipped the last 25 pages and read the end because I was that frustrated. It was really bad. I almost didn't finish. Do not recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are honestly given.

In The Rom-Com Agenda, Eli finds himself heartbroken after being dumped by his girlfriend, Victoria, who rejects his marriage proposal and moves to Italy. Supported by his family and friends, he teams up with Leah, who is at a crossroads after the death of her foster mother, in order to make himself into the perfect man for Victoria. Their partnership is only meant to be a mutually beneficial arrangement in order to makeover Eli in preparation for Victoria’s return, but it grows into something more than either planned. Will Eli and Victoria be able to determine where their hearts and their future truly lie?

I’m a sucker for a romcom, and The Rom-Com Agenda has so many fun callbacks to classic romantic comedies. These references, and Jayne Denker’s easy, engaging writing style were some of my favorite parts of this book. Part of me did feel like the set-up was a little strained— Eli definitely came on a little strong in the beginning, proposing to a short-term partner without really talking about long-term plans (which was a necessary ingredient to kick off the makeover montage), and his friends/family seemed a bit overly invested in changing him rather than telling him that the right person wouldn’t force him to change in order to be ‘right.’ But all in all, this was a fun read that many romcom lovers are sure to enjoy! 3.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of THE ROM-COM AGENDA by Jane Denker. I really enjoyed this cute romance, with two of the sweetest MCs ever that were just so easy to root for. I also enjoyed the friend group from which I can see signs of future books in this world, and the rural upstate New York setting was lovely. The banter, the tension, the realistic characters were all so great. I definitely recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.

A cute story with references to some of my favorite rom com movies. I didn’t love the main male character - he seemed really over the top and between his girlfriend and sister controlling his life it got annoying.

CW: death of a parent (mentioned), cancer, bipolar disorder (mentioned), foster care, heart attack, panic attack

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Leah Keegan is making her way through finally leaving Willow Cove after the death of her foster mom. Eli Masterson is now the inspiration of his friends’ makeover session to win back his girlfriend Victoria. When Leah winds up assisting in Eli’s makeover, she realizes that she’s falling for him.

The Rom-Com Agenda should be a good rom-com novel coming out this January. One of the things I really loved about the book is the dynamics between Leah and Eli. You could tell from early on in the book that they were so good for each other. Leah was able to understand the quirky parts of Eli and Eli was able to bring Leah out of her comfort zone and not be afraid to make connections with other people. In a sense, I feel that you see them bring out the best of each other throughout the book and that’s what I really love about it.

One thing I noticed early on in the book is about whether or not Eli is autistic. I’m autistic too and I noticed that some of Eli’s characteristics and actions in the book are similar to people on the spectrum. Though, I didn’t like the fact that Eli’s sister and her friends tried to make him change his entire personality for no reason after he got dumped by Victoria. I felt like it would have been better if they focused their efforts on helping him get over Victoria while staying true to himself instead of making him something that he’s not, especially if Eli is actually autistic. At least Gray was the only person in that friend group that had the sense to realize that all these changes were completely unnecessary.

Now, other than the whole changing Eli for no reason complaint, my other criticism of the book isn’t as large. One, the whole subplot of the will they/won’t they romance between Delia and Gray wasn’t necessary. I felt like it would have made no difference to the plot if it were left out and it would have been better to see more of the relationship between Leah and Eli.

Overall, if you want a rom-com novel going over the irony of rom-coms while also serving as a swoon-worthy friends-to-lovers, The Rom-Com Agenda is for you.

A friends to lovers, slow burn romcom with a cozy feel. I felt for Eli, cheered for him to come to his senses quickly, and enjoyed the banter among his sisters and best friend. It was a quick read that reminds us all that you shouldn't have to change who you are for someone to love you. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and opportunity to provide an honest review. 3.5 stars rounded up