In The Rom-Com Agenda, we follow Eli Masterson who, encouraged by his rowdy group of friends, is on a mission to win back his jet-setter ex-girlfriend by undergoing a makeover. Eli's friends enlist the help of Leah Keegan, a woman of many talents from carpentry and plumbing, to styling and waitressing. One of Eli's many assignments includes watching a massive list of rom-coms like When Harry Met Sally and Sixteen Candles. If you like subtle pop culture referenches, found family, and a slow-burn romance, this is one for you.

In Michigan, January and February are always cold, dark, and loooongg. Pick out your favorite cuddly blanket and check out The Rom-Com Agenda when it comes out on January 10th for some adorable romance to keep you company through those long, cozy winter nights.

Many thanks to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed 75% of this book, but the last bit was so inconsistent that I went from an easy 5 stars to solid 4. I really enjoyed Leah as a character and someone who had been strong and independent for so long. I enjoyed watching her break down her walls and push herself to accept the love being given to her by her new friends, but Eli's growth and character development stuttered so many times and it got to a point where I was just frustrated with him, which when he and Leah finally got together I was mad that she didn't push back more. He went from telling his mom to get on board and he would give her tons of grandkids to making out with Leah. I think the point was that he was in denial, but it didn't translate to the page. Overall, I really enjoyed the book as a whole, but the last chunk was more frustrating than enjoyable.

this was cute! like a 3.25!

eli and leah were real sweet but there wasn’t any excitement about them. they were just so tame. i loved their group of friends/the found family but gosh they were so much more fun than the main characters were.

i liked it overall and the synopsis sounded so cute but the pacing wasn’t my fave. it was a little too slow for me. also yall know i looove a dual pov but i think this book wouldve thrived more if it was a first person dual pov (its in 3rd person). the main leads were just so bland, i think a first person pov could’ve made it a little more exciting.

i’m glad i got to read it but not sure i’d pick it up again.

thanks netgalley for an arc in return for an honest review.

super cute concept but kind of lackluster execution. i think my main issue was with eli and his friends/family lol. leah, the heroine was really sweet and dealing with a lot. but so much emphasis was placed on helping eli get his ex back. i didn't understand why his friends/fam couldn't give him some tough love and say "hey dude, get over it."

i think it would have been cool if he was trying to do some work on himself just for the sake of being a good partner. rather than trying to win back an ex. would have made the transition of being intent on winning ex back to being head over heels for the heroine a little easier to accept.

Just like every corny and sweet rom-com, this book was fun if not predictable. I really enjoyed the friend group and would love to hang out with them in real life. It was a little far-fetched that Leah had every single job that was open in the town, but the comparison to Kirk made me chuckle. I also liked all the references to popular rom-coms and pop culture.

Just when I thought there was going to be little more than surface development for the characters, we got a peek into Leah’s family life. It gave her more depth and actually made me feel even more protective of her heart. Eli was a little clueless but honestly a nice guy that deserved more than Victoria could offer him.

The narration was well done and the ending was what one would expect in a feel-good rom-com. This is the perfect read for a snowy day.

What would you do to win back the love of your life? In “The Rom-Com Agenda” by Jayne Denker, Eli is about to test just that. After attempting to propose to his girlfriend, Victoria, and being shot down, Eli is willing to do whatever it takes to win her back, including a complete rom-com makeover, courtesy of his sister and her friends. But in the midst of the makeover Leah is enlisted to help and he can’t get her out of his brain- isn’t he supposed to be winning back Victoria?

This book was definitely more of a slow burn type. We all know Leah and Eli are going to fall in love, but it takes a while for them to realize that they’re going to fall in love. BUT I will say it was cute to have them become kind of friends first. I love a good friends first relationship.

Leah’s side of the story is so complicated and I would have loved to be able to have the time to dig deeper into her past. We get a little taste, but I really wanted more of it to better understand her reactions.

In the end, I enjoyed this one a lot. I gave it a solid 4 stars!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I enjoyed this! At the beginning it struggled figuring out who all the characters were because I was listening on audio but it didn’t take me super long to figure out who everyone was. I liked both main characters though I did think Eli’s love for Victoria was a little ridiculous. I really enjoyed the found family aspect of this! I thought the family’s lessons for Eli were fun! I enjoyed the audio book and thought the narrator was good! This is a solid 4 stars for me. Thank you to NetGalley, St Martins Press and Dreamscape media for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was late to posting my review, but this book was a pleasant surprise. I had a string of meh romance books, but this one stood out! I really enjoyed it!

A charming read and a good beach day read. Just not much depth.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I’m really upset about this one!! I thought it was gonna be great for me but I just wasn’t vibing with the characters. I didn’t like how long Eli went after the other person. Felt like it was the entire book and they didn’t come together until way later. It was hard to see the two main characters together

A darling novel about found family and finding real love.

Eli’s sister and friends decide he needs a makeover and romance lessons if he’s going to win back his ex, Victoria, that he’s hopelessly still pining over. When they stop in Thousand Island Dressing (a clothing boutique in their small town) they meet Leah at one of her 500 jobs (Eli charmingly refers to her as Kirk from Gilmore Girls, which I greatly appreciated).

During the transformation and education in the form of watching so many romance classics Eli and Leah become close and Leah also becomes close to his friends and family. Leah is working many odd jobs to make money to leave town, as her foster mother passed the previous year and her foster brother is more than a bit of a nightmare to deal with.

I really enjoyed the growth in Eli and Leah’s relationship and the growth within Leah as she learns to deal with her anxiety and accept that she’s part of a fiercely loving and loyal chosen family.

4 stars

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a cute story! Predictable, but always what i'm looking for when I pick up a rom com. I would definitely recommend this one!

3.5⭐️
I loved the concept of this book and the inspiration of older romcoms and that’s what initially drew me in. It did take me a while to really get into the book and adjust to the third person dual pov. It was a bit of a slow burn which I love but I didn’t like how long the mmc was stuck on his ex. I loved how welcoming Eli’s friends were of Leah, it was sweet to see her find her place. Although the ending left me with questions it was a cute and quick read!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you are looking for the nostalgia that 80s and 90s romcom movies can bring, look no farther than this novel, as it will provide a thorough education on that movie genre. Unfortunately, those movies do not bring a sense of nostalgia to me and ended up feeling like a waste of page space. In all honesty, this book did not meet my expectations and the story, as a whole, floundered on the back of its premise.

I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief as I worked my way through this book. There was a myriad of reasons for that: the friends and family accepting the idea that Eli needs to completely change to attract a romantic partner; the lack of stakes over why we should root for Eli and Victoria getting back together; and the stigmatized depiction of Bipolar 1. These three plot points overshadowed the personal journey that Leah (and Eli) was on and didn’t provide a great foundation to endear me to any of the characters.

The greatest weakness of this story was the themes, or messages, hiding within the pages. There were two messages that stood out to me: 1) that you need to change yourself to attract a romantic partner; and 2) that someone with bipolar disorder is not capable of caring for their child. It has been proven that neither of those messages are true, and I found it to be damaging that the plot hinged on both ideas. Not only were these messages present, but they also weren’t addressed or challenged in the novel. It was uncomfortable to see these messages be so prevalent without true consequence being present on the page.

The plotting was uneven in this novel. It takes 75% of the novel for Eli to come to realize he loves Leah, not Victoria. This only provides 25% of the novel for Eli and Leah to move into a romantic relationship and handle all the challenges that come with that. And throughout all of that, it was expected that we believed Eli’s end goal was to end up with Victoria. I couldn’t find myself rooting for Eli in any aspect, and that was for one important reason: we never got backstory about Eli and Victoria’s relationship. In fact, the only times Victoria was seen on page was when 1) Leah watched her breakup with Eli, 2) when Eli and Victoria spoke over the phone, and 3) when Eli helped Victoria get engaged to another man. The missing backstory details were a detriment to the overall quality of the story.

Additionally, there was a significant lack of conflict across the pages. Was there internal conflict? Sure, as Eli and Leah were both on developmental journeys. However, there wasn’t much in terms of external conflict; without that conflict pressing on the characters, it made for a rather lackluster read.

Overall, this was a mediocre contemporary novel. I don’t wish to call it a rom-com, despite that being in a title, as it often felt like I was reading commentary about old rom-com movies instead of being present in a fictional story.

Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Cute, fun and lighthearted, couldn't get any better than that. I had a great time reading this book, I enjoyed Willow Cove and Leah as a character. Very easy to get behind and relate to which is all I really ask for as a reader. Great for a quick read.

This was a good book. It was cute, but lacked depth in a lot of places. I really didn’t feel a connection with this book like I generally feel with rom-coms.

There were parts of this book that worked really well for me and others that fell flat. Let's start with the positives.

I've seen some criticisms about how long Eli was pining for his ex, and I understand that, but I enjoyed how that lead to the slow-burn romance between Eli and Leah. It wasn't insta-love; it felt genuine and earned.

Leah was a great character; her backstory was tragic and so interesting to me, so I loved seeing her POV. Eli's POV, in comparison, fell a little flat because he was so obsessed with his ex, Victoria, but I still rooted for Leah and Eli to get together nonetheless.

I am also a huge sucker for a found family dynamic, and this story is full of that. Leah not having a lot of family growing up and learning how to let herself be loved and become part of a family was really heartwarming.

However, I didn't love Eli's friends and family going along with him needing to change so much just to win back someone who didn't care about him. I felt like the makeover ruse went on a bit too long, and I found myself wishing his friends would give him the tough love that Leah eventually gave him.

A decent book overall! Not my favorite, but I could see myself potentially turning to it again.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Adorable, sweet, weirdly realistic.
With that said it's pretty lack luster.
All the ideas are wonderful and they hit their mark but at the same time, it leaves you wanting more.
Outdoorsy himbo who is absolutely mopey and dopey about being dumped? His friends and family determine he needs a make over because he's super hung about his ex and hoping he can win her back? This is a+ stuff.
It gets even better because he non stop runs into the most darling and hard working and caring young woman everywhere he goes. It's kismet or serendipity or something.
The only chemistry felt between the two main characters is their ease about each other and the fact that based on the book being romance they'll inevitably get together.
The sparks fly randomly and sometimes without reason but it's a feel good book all around and it's worth the read solely for that.
It's frikken cute.

This was a DNF for me unfortunately. Couldn’t connect with the characters or storyline. I will not be sharing reviews as I only share ratings/ reviews for books I complete.

Rom Coms are my absolute favourite for reading and movies. This book did not disappoint. The references to rom com movies and quotes were so much fun. I loved seeing Leah and Eli evolve and fall in love. The background characters added a lot of humor as well. Maybe we'll see Gray's story next??

Absolutely recommend to all fans of rom com.