A great light read. Ever watch a GOOD romance comedy that made you frustrated but love it all the same. That is the feeling the book gave me.

Fun, light-hearted, and a cozy romance escape. I definitely recommend this book to lovers of Nora Ephron.

Things I enjoyed about this book: the many, fantastic pop-culture references, and the found family aspect for MC Leah.
That being said, this was overall not my favorite by any stretch of the matter. I felt like Leah was a pushover, Eli was clueless, and the story was fairly average. There wasn't even any spice to speak of. I am not saying this is a bad story, but it is not super memorable, either. If you are looking for a clean, easy-to-read romance, this would be a good choice. However, I would have liked both more rom and com.

Well, this was definitely a sweet book. It kind of fell short for me. I wish Eli would have gotten over his ex a little sooner in the story, and instead of being so hung up on her she should have been focusing on himself and bettering who he was. For those reasons the book really fell short for me and made it hard to read.

I had received this as an ARC a couple of months ago, but I fell so behind and tried to stay on top of reading the few that I was approved for, but failed spectacularly 🤦🏻‍♀️. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to no longer put in requests for ARCs, and to work on reading through my physical and Kindle TBR piles. So far, it’s working out! I also happened to start reading this on the book’s actual pub day, oops...

The Rom-Com Agenda is a sweet small town romance that gave me Drive Me Crazy movie vibes (makeover to win an ex back); however, it also included found family, leaning on others, and finding a place where you belong after feeling unwanted for so long. There were some parts that I felt were dragged out, and I ended up skimming some paragraphs because I felt like the scene wasn’t going anywhere. I did. Love the Gilmore Girls reference (the FMC is the town’s Kirk) and the many classic rom-coms that the MMC had to watch for homework: Love Actually, The Princess Bride, Pretty in Pink, etc. The friend group was very quirky and even though they were a bit overbearing with the MMC makeover, they really take care of each other. Quick read overall!

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this ARC

The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker centers around Leah who has been in the small town of Willow Cove for the past year caring for her sick foster mother. She meets Eli–a man heartbroken over his ex–when his friends are trying to make him over for Operation: Get-Your-Ex-Back.

Leah is accidentally sucked into this makeover scheme, and the story unfolds from there! I loved Leah; she was a sweet character going through a lot and working hard to make ends meet. She quickly displayed her good character by realizing the best in Eli as well.

I wish Eli had gotten over his ex even sooner, but the characters had great chemistry. The book is jam packed with very current references, and I loved when they mentioned that Leah is the “Kirk” of Willow Cove.

This book was written for you if:
1)You want a romcom without spice that focuses more on the love story at hand
2)You love found family
3)You like friends to lovers

While this was an adorable premise, I didn't enjoy Eli and thought it was too long for what it was.

Eli was about getting his ex back instead of focusing on himself and his growth. Personally, his family/friends should've given him tough love and encouraged him to get over it. While this could've been a fantastic read, the execution wasn't well done.

Eli is still hung up on his ex and Leah has been enlisted to help turn him into a romance hero to get his ex back. Despite believing his ex is his happily ever after, Eli and Leah begin to fall for each other. It's a slow burn as their chemistry becomes apparent to each other and those around them. The more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to deny their attraction. Was I rooting for them? Yes. Did I also want to smack Eli on the head? Also, yes!

This is a rom-com for rom-com lovers. Not only is their chemistry palpable, it is filled with familiar rom-com tropes for the romance aficionado. The highlight of the book--other than Eli and Leah's chemistry--is the romcom movie references that immediately evoked nostalgia. So many are included and the book itself gave off Some Kind of Wonderful vibes.

Read the Rom Com Agenda for the romcom references and the slow burn. If you're a fan of romcoms, you'll like this one. (3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars)

I love friend to lovers trope so I was so excited to get approved for this title, unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. Mostly I didn't enjoy Eli. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review. 3.5 stars

This was a quick cute read. A little bit of a wordy book but the plot was somewhat cute. I wasn’t totally in with the romance just because it felt like a rebound love story. Eli was kind of dumb but I loved leah!

The Rom- Com Agenda is such a cute romance book. It’s the perfect book for readers who enjoy swoon worthy books!

I cannot get behind a book that continues to stigmatize mental health disorders. Having bipolar disorder doesn't automatically mean you're going to be an unfit parent. There are plenty of parents with no mental health disorders who are completely unfit.

This was such a cute romance novel. I loved the main characters, both were likable and not frustrating during the story. There was mention of many rom-coms during the "makeover" and the friends to lovers theme was great. I would recommend this to a friend!

This was a pretty typical romance, but I did, overall, really enjoy it. The characters were fun, albeit a little foolish at times. There was some miscommunication, but it was by no means the sole conflict of the story and there was no 3rd act break up (2 tropes I struggle with in romances).

Eli is in love, except Victoria does not return the sentiment, then she up and leaves for Rome for the next six months. In her absence, Eli decides it's time for a makeover. Not just for his looks and wardrobe, but a whole personality makeover too. Leah needs to leave. After caring for her terminal foster mom for the last year and her foster brother's constant threat of eviction, she works any and all odd jobs to save every penny to move out of Willow Cove and never look back. Her and Eli meet by chance, yet Eli has no clue that Leah already knows exactly who he is... he's the guy that got spectacularly dumped after proposing to his girlfriend at the docks. They bond over watching romantic comedies, Eli's most important learning tool for his makeover, and slowly the romance begins to happen off-screen as well.

The Rom-Com Agenda was a sweet romance with fun characters and classic romance tropes, but didn't feel overdone. A cute romance to pick up any time of year!

** actual rating is 2.5 stars **

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

There’s a lot of this book that just didn’t work for me personally. For one, the writing style wasn’t engaging me at any point while reading. It felt like I was just reading a detailed account of what happened, I didn’t really get any excitement from the writing, even when it was supposed to be an exciting scene.

As well, I think it is *very* hard to use pop culture references well. I have read too many books where the pop culture references become cringey and/or annoying. I definitely would put these references into the cringey category. I am not sure what I expected, going into a book that is solely about other romcoms, but hearing every single character say something along the lines of “you haven’t seen — ???????” Like, when the movies you’re talking about are Love Actually and Better off Dead (which lbr is not a romcom, it’s a dark comedy), it’s really not that surprising. I can’t count on one hand, excluding family, anyone that has seen Better off Dead.

I did like Leah, I think she is sweet and is going through a lot emotionally. She works so many jobs, I don’t know how she has the energy to do any of this. On that note, I felt like everyone kind of… made fun of her? I don’t know if that’s the word, it was just really insensitive how they treated Leah & her multiple jobs imo.

When her new friends recruit Leah to help Eli win back his ex-girlfriend, the two end up bonding over rom coms.

Like I wanted to like it, but it just didn’t work for me. I thought this was dumb.

3 stars!

I think that my main issue with this novel was that I really just did not care for Eli. He was wayyyyy too into his ex which is fine until I'm supposed to be caring about his love story with Leah. Eli was literally giving me whiplash because he was just way too uncertain. I did think the found family carried where Eli lacked, and I did laugh at times so points to this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely LOVED Leah. Eli’s obsession with Victoria was sorta cringe like I get he’s upset and heartbroken but babe you gotta accept what happened at some point. Also Victoria is giving very much pick me ick energy. 3/4 stars are for my girl Leah. She really carried the book & I love her. Also some of the jokes in this book actually had me laughing, this was a true rom com book. I liked it! Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was fun and relatable! I feel like romance books are usually not relateable, but Denker managed to me actually are about and relate to these characters. I'll definitely be reading from this author again.

This was a cute ode to all things romcom. I really love all of the movie references.
I do feel like the mmc took way too long to figure his stuff out but I enjoyed the story. It was a good pallet cleanser for sure.