Romantic Comedy (Reese's Book Club)

A Novel

By: Curtis Sittenfeld

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions—a “smart, sophisticated, and fun” (Oprah Daily) novel from the author of Eligible, Rodham, and Prep.

“Full of dazzling banter and sizzling chemistry.”—People

“If you ever wanted a backstage pass to Saturday Night Live, this is the book for you.”—Zibby Owens, Good Morning America

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, BuzzFeed, PopSugar, Harper’s Bazaar, Real Simple, She Reads, New York Post

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called The Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.

©2023 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A love letter to the prototypical rom-com . . . Sittenfeld’s work exists in the dissection and comprehension of female desire: what we want, what we absolutely don’t and, maybe paramount, what we’re even allowed to have. . . . A fizzy ride.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“From the heart to the funny bone . . . What makes all this particularly delightful is that the woman narrating Romantic Comedy is hyper-aware of the conventions of romantic comedy, and she knows full well that real life is no fairy tale. But could it be this time?”—The Washington Post

“If you’re in need of [a] smart, sophisticated, and fun diversion right now (and who isn’t), this is your book. Like her literary foremother Jane Austen, Sittenfeld brings together exquisitely sharp dialogue that fizzes, excruciating sexual tension, and incisive social observation.”—Oprah Daily

Not really for me

This book is definitely for somebody, but it wasn’t for me. On paper, I seem like the target demo: I’m a liberal feminist woman in my late 20s who loves romantic comedies and was looking for something light to read, but Romantic Comedy was at points kind of exhausting to get through.

The main character, Sally, wasn’t quite annoying enough for me to stop reading, but she was annoying enough that I didn’t like her and wasn’t really rooting for her. She has many faults (cynicism, cruelty, anxiety, insecurity, self-importance) and learns next to nothing after they get in her way. Noah, her love interest, is a golden retriever of a man- he’s nice, and that’s really his only defining characteristic. Their chemistry (and their fights) read as contrived to me.

Also obnoxious (to me personally - you may love this) were the references to politics and to covid. Again, I’m aligned with Curtis Sittenfeld politically, if not even more left-leaning than she is, but romance novels released in 2023 don’t need to rehash the 2016 election. We get it, Hillary Clinton is the savior of upper middle class white ladies who still use Facebook, but aren’t we all exhausted? The “Hillary should’ve won” discourse isn’t productive and it doesn’t really even ring true for a character like Sally who always sees the worst in everyone. It’s, as Sally would say, pretty cheesy.

Two thirds of the book take place during covid, and it’s HEAVY on the covid. I’ve been there, done that. I lived through the pandemic and don’t really need to live through it again in my beach reads. It didn’t work well for me. Along the same lines, there really was hardly any plot in the book in general. I kept waiting for something (anything) to happen, but nothing really did. The conflicts all felt contrived and so did Sally and Noah’s closeness. I wasn’t fully convinced that this couple even would like one another, and if I could suspend my disbelief for long enough to pretend that they would, there was no real reason for them not to just be together already.

There are a few positives though. It’s a light read, and it was easy to follow even as I was doing other things. I liked that Sally was in her late 30s instead of younger. There are some nice moments of cute rom com fantasy fluff that sneak through the cynicism. The narrator was great. And like I said before, even though it wasn’t my favorite, I can definitely tell that some people will love this book. I wish I was one of those people, but not everything can be for everyone, and that’s okay. Curtis Sittenfeld is obviously a talented writer, and I’ll give one of her other books a try.

Delightful Losten

This was such a fun listen and is one I can imagine myself returning to on a summer vacation. Curtis is such a smart writer and I love pretty much anything she gives us, and this was no exception. I enjoyed Kristen’s narration too.

Perfect read

Perfect read. Very witty and clever writing. Read it again immediately after finishing it. I highly suggest this - it's a fun sneak peek into what it's like to work at SNL.

Touching and funny moments

To say at first I do love the idea of a NY comedy show as background that’s reminiscent of SNL but the references are a bit trite. I had never read the author prior and thought it was a man by the name - therefore felt the odd subject of a “less than attractive woman” and “hot celebrity male” was a bit misogynistic but upon realizing it was a female writer with the unfortunate name of Curtis I figured the subject to be more a personal psychological journey. It was an easy story and a good narrator. Passed the time quickly as is evocative of the title. No clue what the reviews about wokeness are about - ignore them.

Easy read

This was a cute, cheesy read that I found myself smiling at for some stupid reason. It was a nice change of pace and was light and fun. Sure the characters weren’t particularly interesting or original but I still enjoyed them and the course of the story.

First time reader of Curtis Sittenfeld

I enjoyed the behind the scenes setting, for part of the book, at TNO(SNL). This book was both funny and cringy as this couple navigated the treacherous waters of an adult relationship. I also love it when an author includes female friendships. Thanks for a great read(listen) Ms. Sittenfeld

It’s ok.

I wanted to like this. But the main character says she is a democrat and feminist but is so whiny and not sure of herself. She is annoying.

Rom Com with amusing amount of cynicism

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the story. First of all; the narration is too notch. This is the first audiobook I’ve listened to narrated by Kristen Sieh and I would definitely listen to a book narrated by her again.

As for the story: other reviews call it too heavy on politics or boring. Personally, given the line of work of the main character it would have been weird NOT to mention the political attitude of the time including the digs at Trump and admiration for Clinton. That was very much the Zeitgeist feeling at SNL during that time. I’m terms of the pandemic in the second half of the book: the author used it effectively as the backdrop without making it the main thing. The main characters were more complex/cynical/flawed than your average glossy romcom characters. The banter was witty, style unique (second chapter is almost entirely email exchanges between the characters), and the meta layer of the cynical main character wanting to one day write a romcom and her life then essentially being one was enjoyable. This book was an enjoyable summer read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something light-hearted that is still based against the backdrop of real life.

Surprisingly Loved It

This was not what I would usually grab and I unexpectedly loved it. I couldn’t stop listening.

Cute story

I actually enjoyed the political conversation in this book. It made the story very current and real for me. If you are super conservative you may want to pass on this one.