On the HahaFiction shelf
The Rom-Commers
Emma Wheeler gets six weeks away from caring for her father to pursue a screenwriting opportunity in Los Angeles. Her assignment is to help her idol, action-film writer Charlie Yates, repair a terrible romantic-comedy script. Charlie resents needing help and has little faith in love, leaving Emma to defend the work as well as improve it.
From the publisher’s blurb
“She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?”Read the full description at St. Martin’s Press description
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What makes it funny?
Emma is certain Charlie could never write a bad screenplay until her manager tells her just how bad this one is. Her admiration keeps running into blunt corrections. She is more pragmatic about an ex-boyfriend’s job referrals, which she considers useful repayments for guilt.
The comedy at work
Emma has to explain romantic-comedy conventions to a skeptic while they begin experiencing those conventions themselves. Research extends to line dancing and kissing, making it harder to keep an argument about writing separate from what they feel.
Try this if…
Readers interested in how romantic comedies work can follow a collaboration built around defending the form. Forced proximity and an antagonistic working relationship give the attraction room to develop, with grief and trauma accompanying the jokes.
Good to know
Emma’s caregiving concerns a father with partial paralysis and Ménière’s disease after an accident. Guilt, grief and trauma are consequential parts of the story.
A few distinguishing details
- A romcom enthusiast repairing her idol’s awful script
- A romance skeptic taking part in romantic research
- Six weeks in Los Angeles after years of caregiving
More funny contemporary romance
Sources & further reading
- The Rom-Commers | Macmillan
Publisher
- Publishers Weekly review
Review
- Publisher and opening chapter
Publisher
- Kirkus review
Review
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