Review: Would Like To Meet by Rachel Winters

Title: Would Like To Meet

Author: Rachel Winters

Published: December 2019, G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Format: ARC E-copy, 336 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary: 

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.

My thoughts: I really don’t know why I don’t read more rom-coms…I love watching romantic comedy movies and every time I pick up a rom-com to read, I end up loving them! And that is exactly what happened with this one!

This meet-cute rom-com couldn’t have been more delightful and even though I had my suspicions as to where it was headed almost from the beginning, I still enjoyed the journey. After all – I think after seeing tons of romantic comedy movies and reading enough romance books in the past, we can all probably figure out who is going to end up with who, right? But for me, it’s not really about the ending as much as it is the journey…I love seeing how a couple falls in love and what happens along the way.

This book is filled with some delightful, charming, and quirky characters and some that will get on your nerves and that makes it all the more endearing. It’s a book that is full of rom-com references, so if you are like me and have seen many of the popular movies, you are sure to chuckle when they are named – and if you haven’t seen them, consider this the list you didn’t know you needed!

What sets this one apart from other rom-com books is that this one is all about writing a rom-com movie. It’s low on the steam factor – it really only involves a few kisses here and there – and is more about the meet cutes than anything else. But that’s not to say that the main characters aren’t well-developed, because they are. I felt like I really got to know them and understand what was driving them. 

I really enjoyed this story and will definitely be making a point of reading more rom-coms in the future…especially books like this that are not heavily reliant on the steam factor. Rachel Winters clearly shows that it isn’t always needed!