[Rachel’s Review]: Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters

In this charming, feel-good debut novel, a cynical assistant at a screenwriting agency must reenact the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedy movies in order to help her #1 client get his scriptwriting mojo back--but can a real-life meet-cute be in store for someone who doesn't believe in happily ever after?

After seven years as an assistant, 29-year-old Evie Summers is ready to finally get the promotion she deserves. But now the TV and film agency she's been running behind the scenes is in trouble, and Evie will lose her job unless she can convince the agency's biggest and most arrogant client, Ezra Chester, to finish writing the script for a Hollywood romantic comedy.

The catch? Ezra is suffering from writer's block--and he'll only put pen to paper if singleton Evie can prove to him that you can fall in love like they do in the movies. With the future of the agency in jeopardy, Evie embarks on a mission to meet a man the way Sally met Harry or Hugh Grant met Julia Roberts.

But in the course of testing out the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedies IRL, not only will Evie encounter one humiliating situation after another, but she'll have to confront the romantic past that soured her on love. In a novel as hilarious as it is heartwarming, debut author Rachel Winters proves that sometimes real life is better than the movies--and that the best kind of meet-cutes happen when you least expect them.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Excuse me while I cry at how cute this whole book was! Well, actually it was a complete disaster that gave me secondhand embarrassment, but in the best possible way. This book took all the best rom-com tropes and mixed them all together in one hilarious and devastating love story.

Evie Summers is a slightly neurotic assistant to a highly neurotic film agent and is tasked with making sure a hotshot screenwriter finishes his rom-com script or their whole agency is going to go bankrupt. Screenwriter Ezra says he’ll only finish if Evie can prove to him that people fall in love in real life the way they do in rom-coms, so she sets out to prove that it can be done. What follows is a series of meet cutes (the drink spill, the road trip, the shoe-stuck-in-a-subway-grate, etc) pulled from the reels of her favorite romantic comedies. I squealed each time a trope I loved came up or when the characters referenced some of my all time favorite rom-coms and was rooting for Evie to not only inspire a screenwriter and save her job, but find love for herself.

Evie was shy and risk-averse, so that made the fact that she was doing these outlandish meet-cutes and wad willing to make a fool of herself. I liked her a lot throughout the novel, though she could definitely be selfish and oblivious and I felt that her awesome friends were sometimes too forgiving.

Her friends!!!!! Jeremy, Sarah and Maria were such squad goals. They were always supportive of Evie, wanted to make sure she was looking out for herself and were quick to call her out when she was being a brat. They are the friends we all want in life, lifelong and strong even when you’re separated by hundreds of miles.

If you’re a fan of rom-coms you have to read this!! It’s all the best parts of your favorite movies with a few new surprises thrown in. I loved it from start to finish and can’t wait to see what else debut author Rachel Winters has in store!

ideallyrachel

Hi y’all, i’m Rachel! When i’m not reading or talking about books I can be found rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the 72nd time, working on my own novel, cheering on JMU football (Go Dukes!) and taking advantage of all the great museums and breweries Richmond has to offer.

Check out my instagram highlights and Goodreads page for more reviews of all the books i’ve read this year!