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Books that Won’t let Me Go

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Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

I did not expect to write about Ali Hazelwood again so soon, but then I read Deep End and, well—I went off the deep end, metaphorically speaking. In the author’s note at the beginning, she says it’s her favorite book she’s written, and by the end, it was my favorite book of hers as well. And not just because of the fun callbacks to Olive and Adam from The Love Hypothesis, who are the main characters’ professors at Stanford.

I was recently hijacked by another book that was totally unexpected: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming.

Here’s my review of these two books and a list of other romances I can’t stop obsessing over.

Books I wasn’t done with after the last page

When I finish a romance novel—or movie, for that matter—I often go back to my favorite scenes before starting a new book. For me, that tends to be the third-act breakup and the reunion after it, their first kiss/getting together, or other pivotal scenes that move the love story forward.

How much rereading I feel compelled to do is part of my personal rating system for a book. If it was just meh, I might be done when I read the last page. Most of the time, though, I’ll go back to two or three scenes I want to savor again. But if a book has me by the throat and I simply don’t want it to end, I’ll go farther and farther back in the story, reading and rereading favorite scenes, savoring dialogue, spending more time with characters I can’t get enough of, and putting off starting the next book because I want to stay in this book’s world. It’s like having a great taste in my mouth after eating a dish that was perfectly seasoned; I’m sad when the next meal overrides the lovely flavor.

Some other books on my obsessive reread list:

Movies I keep rewatching:

  • What’s Up, Doc?
  • Clueless
  • French Kiss
  • 12 Dates of Christmas
  • Holidate
  • Love Hard
  • Many others, too numerous to name—mostly holiday romcoms because I am a sucker for them.

Deep End grabbed me and wouldn’t let go

In many ways, Deep End is a typical Ali Hazelwood romance: socially awkward heroine meets tall, handsome man of few words who’s totally smitten with her. In Hazelwood’s expert hands, the formula works and I’m here for it, but there was more in this book for me.

Scarlett Vandermeer is an elite-level platform diver who was injured by a bad dive the year before the action starts. She still can’t do the type of dive—inward—that she was doing when she got hurt. Although she’s physically fine, she struggles with a mental block. And, for me, I think this was the particular hook because I’ve been struggling with a mental block about a physical activity I love (riding a bike) and slowly working my way back to feeling comfortable doing something I used to do with ease and joy. So I was right there with Scarlett the whole way.

Another thing that hooked me was the slow, intense burn of Scarlett’s budding relationship with Lukas. They explore BDSM, a long-time desire and first for both of them. But what makes the sex so mesmerizing is the emotional heft of it, the way Scarlett describes being pulled apart and reconstructed by it, and feeling truly seen, the trust and care they give each other.

Add in Hazelwood’s humor and vibrant supporting characters, and this is a book I’ll savor for a long time.

  • Humor level: low-key funny and serious by turns
  • Spice level: super spicy
  • Tropes: sub/dom power play, overcoming mental challenges, elite athletes, STEM

My first alien: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

When my romance writer friends start talking about reader preferences and where readers will or will not follow a writer, I’m baffled. I’m not like that, I say. I read and enjoy MM, MF, FF, and trans/nonbinary love stories. I read authors of different races and cultures. I’m broad in my tastes.

But I’m a big liar. Because the truth is, there are more romance subgenres I don’t read than ones I do. I DNF’d my first Colleen Hoover on page two because it was too violent for me. I only pick up books with magic in them by accident and I’ve never read a romantasy. Mafia, why choose, and reverse harem are tropes I know about in theory but haven’t read.

And I need to get over myself. Because when I accidentally read a romance with witches, I like it. And I also liked Kimerly Lemming’s sci-fi romp, I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com.

I only picked up the book because the title made me laugh and the cover art, reminiscent of a B-movie poster from the 50s, also made me laugh. And then I read the book and it really made me laugh—and reconsider my narrow reading preferences.

Lemming’s novel, a delightful take on The Wizard of Oz, has Dorothy whisked away by aliens to a terraformed planet. Only, the aliens didn’t have much time to study Earth (budget cuts), and they’ve gotten a lot wrong.

Dorothy’s love interests are horned, hooved aliens, Lok and Sol, who bicker for her affection and attention as the trio becomes more bonded. So I guess I’ve read my first why choose romance? Look at me being all open-minded!

The book includes a talking lion, talking owls, a pink dinosaur, and much more mayhem. I loved it. It stayed with me and I’d recommend it, no matter what kind of romances you think you like.

  • Humor level: one of the funniest romcoms I’ve read in a long time
  • Spice level: lots of 3-way spicy human/alien sex, including one sexual encounter that ends in one of the funniest scenes in the book
  • Tropes: Wizard of Oz retelling, sci-fi, why choose

Author Interview: Alyssa Jarrett Puts the “Com” in Rom-Com

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Plus her new holiday novella, Love Me Merrily

If you, like me, are a fan of romantic comedy with an emphasis on the comedy, you’ll love Alyssa Jarrett’s Glam Fam series. Centered on a group of friends in the entourage of a wealthy influencer, the books are peppered with spicy observations about Bay Area culture, the tech world, and family relations. Her tagline, “Romcom with extra com,” is spot on.

I recently spoke with Alyssa about her books, her choice to be fully herself as an author and through her characters, and what’s next for the Glam Fam.

I’ve summarized some of our conversation below, but you should watch the full interview to hear what Alyssa has to say (and ignore me — I clearly have a lot to learn about being on video). You’ll want to hear her articulate, funny, and irreverent take on being an indie author, sharing her Armenian heritage, and writing about an elite rock climber when she’s a “self-described bougie bitch.”

What would it be like to be them?

Alyssa Jarrett has published three full-length novels: Love Apptually, Love on the Rocks, and Love and Paklava. But it turns out the first book she wrote will be the last one in the series: the love story of Alex, a daughter of wealth turned influencer who’s the center of the eclectic group of stylists who call themselves the Glam Fam.

The origin story for the series starts over a decade ago, when Jarrett was going through a breakup with her high school sweetheart and wondered what it would be like to be famous and have the whole world watch you walk through that. In the end, though, “I saved Alex’s story for last because a millionaire heiress wasn’t the most relatable,” she says.

In Love on the Rocks, Jarrett asked herself a similar question after watching Free Solo and wondering what it would be like to be the girlfriend of an elite athlete so focused on his sport. The result is a funny and tender collision of two very different worlds, along with some very detailed advice on rock climbing.

In her other two books, however, she explores more personal themes.

Paying homage to her community

When asked whether the Bay Area-centric humor poking fun at tech culture in Love Apptually will translate to readers who aren’t local, Jarrett says, “As for the inside baseball of it all, I know there are some elements that people may not understand.” But, she adds, “I set out to write a book that I knew the people around me would appreciate, and I think I did that.”

Paying homage to her community is important to Jarrett. “Am I going to be Colleen Hoover famous? Probably not,” she says. Telling stories that are authentic to her is more important.

With Love and Paklava, she gets even more personal, building a love story around an Armenian baker from Fresno, where she grew up. It wasn’t until she went to college in Santa Cruz that she realized most people don’t know much about Armenia or the Armenian genocide, which preceded the Holocaust of World War II and was one of the events that emboldened Hitler. “[The Armenian genocide] continues to have a ripple effect even now,” she says.

But Jarrett wanted to show “modern-day resilience and love and joy” in her community through her rom-com, and she succeeds. Bonus: the book includes the hero’s scene-stealing grandmother, Queenie, based on Jarrett’s real-life grandfather and the source of very funny interjections into the romance between the baker and the punk-rocking aesthetician.

Love Me Merrily: A holiday novella that turns up the heat

Jarrett wrote the holiday romance Love Me Merrily because, she says, “I wanted to see Summer [a side character from Love on the Rocks] have a happy ending.” Also, “I wanted to talk about grief as it relates to the holidays.”

The love interest in this novella, set in a wintry Yosemite National Park, is the brother of one of the Glam Fam. As in her other books, Jarrett deals thoughtfully with trauma, loss, and anxiety, while also delivering a big dose of humor and a lot of spice.

When asked why an out-and-proud atheist would write a holiday romance, Jarrett said that adding a little punk rock to the season was a way to reclaim a time of year that’s not her favorite — on her own terms.

  • Humor: Without the funny asides of the full-length books, but still spiked with wit.
  • Spice level: Steamy.
  • Tropes: love after loss, winter in Yosemite,  getting snowed in, hating the holidays, dry humping, elder emos, atheist Christmas, mental health issues/anxiety/agoraphobia

Watch the full video interview on my Substack.

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Classics Reimagined: Sonali Dev’s Jane Austen Series

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 A couple of years ago, I saw Sonali Dev present at a writer’s conference. She was both lovely and impressive, and I picked up the first of her Jane Austen-inspired novels, Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors.

But when I first started reading, the book was an immediate DNF for me—too much backstory at the beginning. I gave it to my wife, who is infinitely more patient than I am, to read and tell me if I should go on. She liked it, but it took me another year and a bout of COVID to start again with the determination to read on.

I wasn’t sorry. In fact, I was obsessed and immediately picked up the other three books in the series. Dev takes the familiar outlines of Austen’s plots and weaves them around the stories of the children of the wealthy and influential Raje family. The books and the characters belong to Dev, not Austen, but finding lines or scenes from Austen’s books made for a delightful Easter egg hunt. If you haven’t discovered this series, you’re in for a treat.

Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors

Now that I’ve read the whole series, I understand the need for extra explication at the start of the first book. The books revolve around the Raje clan, plus friends, cousins, and extended family. History weaves in with the present, and Dev tells generational stories, mixing humor with healing from the traumas of the past.

In Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors, Dev flips the gender from Austen. Tightly wound brain surgeon Trisha Raje is prejudiced the first time she meets chef DJ Caine, assessing that what he does in the kitchen is less important than her work. She makes it clear who has the upper hand—literally—pricking DJ’s pride. The two are thrown together, reluctantly, because Trisha is treating DJ’s sister for a brain tumor. Dev hits the highlights of Austen’s story—the overheard insult, the rejected offer—and weaves them with a rich story of family, pride, and history that will continue to unfold through the rest of the books in the series.

Spice level: closed door

Humor: some slapstick—the best kind of humor

Tropes: enemies to lovers, family rift

Recipe for Persuasion

Recipe for Persuasion is a second-chance love story based on the mother of all second-chance stories. It might be my favorite of Austen’s books; I love watching Anne come out from under her mentor’s thumb and realize she hasn’t lost her only chance at love. Dev’s retelling involves a reality show, a soccer star, and a chef who needs a miracle to save the crumbling restaurant her father left behind when he died. It’s delicious.

Spice level: closed door

Humor: funny!

Tropes: second chance, family secrets, reality show

Incense and Sensibility

In Incense and Sensibility, a political up-and-comer and the center of his family’s ambitions, Yash Raje, was misused by an intern who drugged him and made a sex tape early in his career. As a result, he’s been in a fake relationship of convenience with his friend Naina for years. But when fate throws him in the path of Raje family friend India Dashwood—with whom he has a past—everything changes. This book deals with difficult themes of trauma and violence, and it’s also sweet and funny and includes a stinky but beloved dog. Dev handles heavy issues with deft grace; I felt the healing by the end of the book.

Spice level: closed door

Humor: sweetly funny

Tropes: second chance, fake relationship, hurt/comfort, politician

The Emma Project

Emma is my least favorite Jane Austen story, and the only book of hers I have never read. I started it and disliked Emma so much that I put it down. But The Emma Project is definitely my favorite in Dev’s series. She flips the genders: Naina Kohli is a decade older than Vansh Raje, whom she’s known since he was in diapers. Recovering from her humiliation at Vansh’s brother Yash ending their faux dating, she finds her life, and soon her bedsheets, entangled with Vansh. This is the sexiest of the series, which I love, but what makes it an absolute delight is the dialogue between Vansh and Naina: playful, spicy, brutally honest, and unexpected. The best thing an author can do is upend my expectations and Dev does that in The Emma Project. This is one I’ll read again and again.

Spice level: slightly ajar door

Humor: delightfully witty dialogue

Tropes: age gap, secret relationship, family disapproval

I didn’t have a column last week, and I might be spotty for the next few weeks as I’ll be traveling. Lots of great things percolating and lots of reading time in my future. Share your romcom recommendations, and I’ll add them to my reading list.

All that makes this an odd time to turn on paid subscriptions, but I’ve learned Substack will make Romcom Ratatouille more visible to new subscribers if you. Free subscribers will still get all the content; please don’t feel any pressure to upgrade to paid, unless you have a few extra dollars and want to support a writer on her way up. Thanks for being a part of my reader community!

Love Is Love: Three Queer Rom-Coms Everyone Should Read

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Happy Pride! When you come down off the high of the parades and the parties, I hope you’ll pick up one of these fabulous rom-coms and support queer writers.

And if you’re not into Pride, I get it, but you should still check out these books. Romance has a broad spectrum of subgenres that allow readers to specialize. If you like werewolf love stories or shifter bonding, there are books for you. But I urge you not to reject books based on the genders of the main characters because love is love, and these love stories will move you, no matter your sexual preference.

Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I’m going to be predictable and say that, while the movie of Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, & Royal Blue was luscious, the book is better. If you loved the movie and haven’t read the book, just imagine Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine as Alex and Prince Henry.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is the irreverent and opinionated son of a female U.S. president. One of Alex’s opinions: that Prince Henry, younger son of the British monarch, is a stuck-up twat. But when an unfortunate incident with a giant cake at a royal wedding forces Alex and Henry to spend time making nice for PR purposes, a deeper connection blooms.

Don’t get me wrong—I loved the movie adaptation and you should totally see it if you haven’t. But the joy of the novel is the complex and fascinating web of politics and intrigue that Alex and Henry swim in. I love books that take me behind the scenes into settings I’m not familiar with, and this was a funny and fascinating look at life in the swirl of politics.

  • Tropes: enemies to lovers, politics, royalty, coming out
  • Spice level: 2
  • Humor level: Consistently witty with lots of sharp dialogue.

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

In The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, the titular Webb, mostly retired highwayman and current coffeehouse proprietor, isn’t looking for a relationship when Edward Percy Talbot, the very gay son of a very evil duke, comes looking for a criminal. Cat Sebastian manages to wrap a sweet romance inside a hilarious adventure as the story unfolds.

Bonus: Book two in Sebastian’s London Highwayman series, The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, is also delightful and opens with an exchange of snidely polite letters between the two main characters that had me in stitches.

  • Tropes: historical romance, reformed criminals, royalty, murder, escaping a bad marriage
  • Spice level: 3
  • Humor level: So, so very funny.

Husband Material by Alexis Hall

Boyfriend Material is one of my all-time favorite books. Luc O’Donnell, son of rock star parents, has a history of bad press. When a compromising photo threatens his job at a charity focused on saving dung beetles, Luc needs a fake boyfriend to make him look respectable. Enter Oliver Blackwood, uptight barrister with a strict code of ethics. Hilarity and romance ensue.

The romance is lovely, and I adore Luc and Oliver, but what makes this book is the secondary characters. Luc’s friends are an artistic and idiosyncratic bunch, and his bumbling coworkers make for irresistibly hysterical scenes.

Honestly, I don’t think I’m doing this book justice. Just read it. It’s sweet and funny and well written.

  • Tropes: fake dating, famous parent, opposites attract
  • Spice level: 1
  • Humor level: I laughed so loud I kept waking my wife up. Made her super mad, but I couldn’t help it. ROTFL.

Bonus: I loved Boyfriend Material so much I gobbled up everything else Alexis Hall has written, and it’s all great (but Boyfriend Material is the best if you love romantic comedy). Hall’s A Lady for a Duke is another great Pride read. It’s a historical romance with a transwoman as the heroine and the exploration of what it could mean to be trans at that time is beautiful and hopeful.

A note about F/F romances

I am aware that this list includes only M/M books (with the exception of The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, which is M/F). I have read lots of lesbian romances, and there are some good ones out there, but none that set me on fire like the books listed here.

I certainly haven’t read everything on the market, and I hope I’ve missed the good ones. Please recommend your F/F favorites in the comments—as a queer woman, I want to find these books. I do think we need more lesbian romances that knock the socks off readers of all persuasions, and I plan to write them. Stay tuned.

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Getting a Dual Timeline Right: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

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A while ago, I told my wife I don’t like second chance romances and she pointed out that I totally do. I love Jane Austen’s Persuasion—at least the two movie versions I’ve seen; I read the book so long ago I don’t remember it. And I very much enjoyed Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation (which I see is going to be a Netflix movie—fab!).

But. Here’s the thing I don’t like about many second chance romances: they are told in two timelines. In the present, you see the former lovers maneuvering around each other. In the past, the reason they’re apart in the present, even though they clearly still love each other, slowly unfolds. And I am basically lazy and don’t enjoy jumping between two timelines, remembering what’s going on in each, especially if both are kind of depressing. I am all in it for the HEA, so waiting for the bomb to drop in the past is particularly displeasing to me. Yes, I know every romance needs a falling out in the third act, but somehow, that’s different. I get impatient being dragged into the past when I just want to see the two of them get together in the present. It’s like being forced to wade through a mountain of backstory to get to the good parts.

In fact, I recently did something I never do: I started reading a romance and quit after the first chapter. It wasn’t that the writing was bad or I couldn’t identify with the characters. The author is excellent, and you might read her books and love them—lots of people do. But it was a second chance romance with a dual timeline and I realized that not only was I going to live through the ups and downs of the characters in the present time, I would have to go back to their past every other chapter and live through a painful experience that doesn’t have a happy ending. And it’s just too exhausting, so I put it down.

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Second chance – Contemporary

Except when it works. I love Julie Soto’s Forget Me Not, even though most of the book flips back and forth between the past and the present.

Here’s the magic: the past is almost exclusively told from the viewpoint of grumpy, self-conscious florist Elliot Bloom. The present is narrated by chipper wedding planner Ama Torres, as she’s forced to work with Elliot on the wedding that will make her career three years after they broke up. Ama takes us through her daily struggles to have faith in herself and her business while reigniting the feelings for Elliot that never really went away. Elliot tells a parallel love story: the first time he saw Ama, her barging into his shop, the first time they kissed. The past is all about the good parts. It’s a hopeful, sweet story that reveals the chemistry between the characters and I was happy to live in both timelines.

It doesn’t hurt that the Sacramento setting is vibrant and lived in, there are lots of plot twists and a great villain, and Soto’s writing is delightful and funny. If you haven’t read Forget Me Not, it’s on Kindle Unlimited or, if you’re old school like me, buy the book.

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