REVIEW: Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters

In Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters, Evie Summers is about to find out just what she’s willing to do to keep the film and television agency she works for going. Not only does she want to keep the company afloat, but she’s a bit dazzled by the mention of a promotion after years of doing the job of basically three people. Then Evie finds out what she’s required to do. Looking after arrogant screenwriter Ezra Chester is going to be a full-time job. Particularly since he’s encountered a bit of writer’s block while attempting to write his first romantic comedy film. With a script that’s due in a few months.

“I’m really doing it,” I said, slightly dazed. “I’m going to live as if I’m in a rom-com for three months.”

Never one to back down from a challenge, Evie agrees to Ezra’s ridiculous demands that she recreate meet-cutes from the many rom-com movies she adores. And if she can make them work–and fall in love within three months–it will keep Ezra on track with his script. Evie can only imagine the embarrassing moments she’s about to face. She never imagined that it would lead to two very different men vying for her attention in their own unique way. Or that Evie would fall head over heels for one of them, just like she’s the star in her very own rom-com film.

“I was afraid that if I was just another meet-cute, it might not be as real for you as it was for me.”
“It’s real for you?”
“Earth-shatteringly,” he said.

Adorkable rom-com movie meet-cutes met the real world in this entertaining romance–a debut novel by Rachel Winters that kept me laughing and cheering our heroine Evie on through every awesomely awkward scene.

‘Two meet-cutes a week? One had been more than enough. I wasn’t sure I could handle doubling up on the humiliation.’

As a fan of romantic comedy movies *and* books, what could be better than a rom-com book about a woman who must bring to life the meet-cutes in her favorite rom-com movies? And fall in love. In three months. All to get a “boychild” of a screenwriter through his writer’s block and to help him believe that some of what you see in the movies is real. Pretty fun setup, right? Debut author Rachel Winters set this in and around London–yay!–and created a cast of characters who felt like people you could know in real life. (I *definitely* would love to hang out with Evie and her BFFs Jeremy, Maria and Sarah!) And the situations Winters put them all in, while a bit over the top sometimes for hilarity’s sake, seemed like they were about genuine issues we all face, making this relatable as well.

Poor Evie. Without giving too much away, she had spent seven years working hard, doing everything her boss Monty doled out to her without complaint. Helping Ezra, aka NOB, was to be a stepping stone in her career. But it definitely wasn’t easy. I loved that Evie stood up for herself more and more as the story wore on. She felt like herself again after each challenge/meet-cute she faced down, learning who she truly was today and what she wanted in her life. And what–or maybe “who”–she wasn’t willing to concede to. So there was even a bit of female empowerment to the storyline which I adored.

There were also two love interests, much to Evie’s confusion, as a lot of rom-coms feature. There was no cheating, so no worries there. It was just all Bridget Jones-like bumbling goodness filled with cringe-worthy scenes that will make readers laugh as much as they fall for Evie and her lovely friends with all their antics.

If you enjoy delightful romances where you just *know* who you want the heroine to fall in love with and the epic journey ends up being worth every moment of frustration and joy along the way, Would Like to Meet will be a winner for you.

Book Info:

Publication: Published December 3rd 2019 | G.P. Putnam’s Sons |

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.