Romantic Company by Curtis Sittenfeld

 

320 pages

Publisher: Doubleday

Release Date: April 6^th, 2023

NetGalley

 

Blurb

A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each 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 actor 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 whether 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, 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.

 

Review

I’ll be honest and admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book. Would this really be a romance—would it have a romantic arc, would there be angst, would things almost go wrong before (most importantly) concluding on a happy ending?—or was I about to discover the title was Romantic Comedy because the story broke all the rules and didn’t give us that all-important HEA? My concerns only increased when I came across the line “Romance doesn’t require a happy ending”. Spoiler alert: yes! it does.

At the risk of actually spoiling the story, I am going to say here that I worried about nothing. Romantic Comedy is indeed a romance in the truest sense of the word, and a delightful one at that. Allow me to list everything I appreciated.

It was wonderful to have two main characters who have some lived experience under their belt. Both Sally and Noah have been through relationships that didn’t last the course and neither of them is looking for love when they first meet.

The road from meeting each other to ending up together is anything but smooth but the obstacles in their way, self-inflicted as they may be, make sense for who Sally and Noah were. The way they reconnected after a two-year separation (as a result of and during the Covid lockdown) made perfect sense. Whatever angst there was, mostly on Sally’s part, felt realistic and was never overdramatic. And, most importantly, I completely bought the fact that these two, apparently mismatched, characters would find each other.

On a non-romantic level, I loved the insights we got into how a weekly comedy show like Saturday Night Live operates, just as I loved the references to songwriting, performing and music in general.

This story hosts a large cast of secondary characters and all of them were well presented and fully formed.

I also want to give a special shout-out to the ‘Danny Horst Rule’ as introduced in this story. Goodness knows it is true that while society at large happily accepts that average-looking men end up pushing above their weight and connecting with women who are more beautiful and successful than they are, the opposite is almost always met with disbelief and scorn.

And then I have one or two very personal reasons why this book resonated with me. Like Sally in the story, I’m a huge fan of the Indigo Girls and I loved how passionate she was when she spoke about them. Noah’s reflection that he isn’t overly fond of having to play his first-ever hit all the time, also made me smile since I have a daughter who would happily never again play the first song she wrote but finds herself doing so occasionally anyway because it is her granny’s favourite.

I’m looking forward to the ‘official’ reviews of this book when it is released. Provided there will be any, of course. As a rule, romances don’t get reviewed by major newspapers and most other major review sites. It is almost as if romance is less worthy as a genre since it is mostly written and read by women. And that makes me wonder if they’re about to come up with a term like ‘literary romance’. I hope that doesn’t happen for the same reason that I’m not a fan of the term ‘literary thriller’. Adding the word literary to a branch of genre fiction doesn’t achieve anything apart from diminishing the rest of that particular genre. While I’m willing to concede that there are badly written romances and thrillers available, I want to say those are vastly outnumbered by well-written and well-plotted books featuring characters with depth and real stories with real messages. What’s more, who is to decide what is literary and what is not? As with many qualifying definitions, the answer appears entirely arbitrary to me.

Since I don’t want to end my review of this fantastic book with a rant, allow me to summarize my thoughts. Romantic Comedy was fabulous. The story and characters pulled me in from the start, the setting is fascinating, the sparkling dialogue is intelligent, and the overall reading experience was uplifting and very fulfilling. In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I’ve already recommended it to another person even though it won’t be released for another week or two. For me, this book deserves 5 glorious golden stars!

 

 

QUEERS

TITLE: QUEERS

AUTHOR: A.J. ROSE

Pages: 423

Date: 25/03/2014

Grade: 6

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“Within her walls are stories. Love. Laughter. Tears. Lives lived to the fullest, and sometimes cut short before they really get started. She’s seen it all, from homelessness to super-stardom, boys dressed as girls, girls dressed as lamps, and boy, does she have secrets she could tell. Her one truth is that everyone who darkens her doors is accepted with open arms and a song. 

Her name is Queers, and for one of L.A.’s few dueling piano bars, she has a lot of heart. On her stage, the beautiful voice of Duff McKinley rings so true he captures the shattered heart of his boss, Brad Mosely, who checked out of life three years ago. But even lifelong dreams have untold consequences. 

Duff came to L.A. to chase his musical aspirations, but his best friend Garrett Slater accompanied him to chase a wish of his own: finding The One, his white knight. He believes Landon Kennedy fits the bill. Suave, handsome, and powerful in the music industry, Landon can show Garrett a life he's only seen in movies. But even as Landon helps Duff realize his dreams, he brings Garrett into a nightmare he may never leave, one from which Garrett's roommate, Jackson Moriarty, is determined to rescue him. If Garrett repays Jackson by seeing his own charms, so much the better. 

Yes, within her walls, Queers has long history. Unrequited love, sinister intentions, fame, fortune, and a group of friends and lovers who would do anything for each other no matter the cost.” 

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My thoughts:

“Queers was a dichotomy of tasteful and fun, stylish and comfortable, with just the right amount of sass to make it trendy.”

I don’t know why it should be the case but I have a much harder time reviewing books I adored than books I had second thoughts about. I thought sleeping on this story might make it easier to articulate all the thoughts and feelings I encountered while reading ‘Queers’ but no such luck. As it turned out, all that decision got me was a rather disrupted sleep during which my mind was too busy processing the story, thinking about the characters and everything I was fortunate enough to share with them over the past two days to allow me a proper rest. I have therefore more or less given up on the idea of a well worded and balanced review and resigned myself to the fact that this will be – once again – a complete and utter gush-fest. You’ve been warned.

In fact, it seems I’m incapable of writing a review for one of A.J. Rose’s books without turning it into a gush-fest. Don’t blame me; blame the author who manages to transport me into his world from the very first word on the very first page and hold me hostage until the last full stop at the end of the last chapter. Blame the man who writes characters so life-like that you feel you personally know them within just a few chapters. And most of all, blame him who forces you to feel all the emotions; the love, the hate, the fear, the despair, the friendship and makes you grateful for every single one of them. I would say I’m in awe of A.J.’s writing except that ‘awe’ isn’t a strong enough word to describe all the feelings his words, and the way he uses them, evoke in me. But, I guess it will have to do for lack of a better one.

I’m not going to expand on what this book is about beyond what can be found in the official blurb. This story is something you’ll want to experience for yourself. I’ve avoided reviews of this book before I picked it up and am very grateful I managed to resist temptation. I treasured the fact that I got to know the characters as the story evolved, was grateful that I had no idea what to expect and entranced by the scenes unfolding before my eyes.

This is a book about people living their lives the best they can. People who love, fight, make up, do stupid things and try to repair them. It is a story about friendship and all the things you’ll do for your friends even if you end up hurting yourself in the process. It is the sort of story that will break your heart and then helps you gather the pieces back together to leave you feeling uplifted and somehow better for having read the words.

I laughed while I read this book:

“I suspect if I liked guys, and you liked girls, we’d have quite the tumultuous love affair that would end in tears, shattered knick-knacks thrown in a fit of rage and betrayal, and a domestic disturbance call. I bet you’re a minx in bed. And on the floor, and the kitchen counter. Moonshine to Duff

And I cried, sighed and smiled.

“I can go to my grave knowing I experienced real joy. How many people can say that?” Brad

“This was right. This was what he needed like air, like sustenance, like the blood rushing through his veins. He needed Duff.” Brad

The accuracy of Duff’s definition of a live performance took my breath away.

“It’s a conversation with the crowd, sir.”

A.J. Rose managed to take two – on the surface conflicting – universal truths and reconcile them. I love how he managed to remind us of the importance of dreaming big and following those dreams while cautioning us to be careful what we wish for at the same time. That was one very well executed balancing act.

I don’t think there is an emotion known to man that I didn’t experience while reading this book. I can honestly say that I fell at least a little bit in love with all but one of the characters in this book. Duff, Brad, Moonshine, Jennica, Garrett and Jackson; all of them have forced their way into my head and heart. And I can’t help feeling they’ll be staying there for quite some time yet.

The song Duff writes for and sings to Brad? Tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, while I found myself wishing that I could hear it being sung. And, I’m working on that. If my plan works out I may be able to add a sound file to this review in the not too distant future. Keep your fingers crossed.

I rate my books one to five. Sometimes I go beyond that and add one or more ‘+’s’ to a five when I’m really impressed with a book. And on very rare occasions I’ll rate a book with a six. That rate is reserved for books that manage to touch me on a deeper level; for stories that I know will stay with me long after I’ve all but forgotten about other books I may have enjoyed. A six is the rate I’ll give to a book when I know I’ll re-read it even though I rarely – if ever – revisit books. Queers meets all those criteria and then some.

In the hands of a lesser author this story would have been told in at least three different books. A.J. Rose managed to take multiple main characters with their individual - yet connected - journeys and create a complex yet perfectly plotted whole.  In doing so he transported me to a world I want to live in, populated by people I would love to know and call my friends. Reading is always a pleasure. Occasionally it is better than anything else I might be doing. Reading ‘Queers’ was just such an experience. Thank you, A.J.

“I don’t think it’ll matter if she’s gay, straight, or into aliens. There’s no resisting you.” Duff to Moonshine

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CRY TO HEAVEN

TITLE: CRY TO HEAVEN

AUTHOR: ANNE RICE

Pages: 582

Date: 17/09/2013

Grade: 5+

Own

The blurb on the back of the book:

“IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ITALY THE CASTRATI RECREATED HEAVEN ON EARTH.

Their exquisite voices soured above the glittering world of courtiers and nobility. Those who achieved fame were showered with riches and sexual favours. But their success also had a terrible sadness.

TONIO, of noble birth, is the victim of a vengeful brother. Disinherited and forced to join the ranks of the castrati, he plans his revenge while striving to become the greatest of all singers.

GUIDO, sacrificed to the knife at an early age, composes opera and dreams of the perfect voice to give it life. He discovers Toni and becomes his teacher.

Together they reach the very pinnacle of success. Tonio is pushed to the extremes of endurance as he tries to resolve his lust for glory and for vengeance.”

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“Don’t weep in front of these strangers! Cry to heaven, cry to heaven, cry to heaven.”

Oh my, what a book. Beautifully written, it tells a story filled with beauty, music and love while portraying unimaginable pain, desperation and hate. The idea of the mutilation young boys went through so that they might avoid losing their beautiful soprano voices is so cruel, so very inhumane it is hard to imagine that it really happened. But it did. Young boys gifted with promising voices, often from very poor families, were subjected to this form of mutilation to alleviate their family’s hardship and give them a chance at a more prosperous future. Young boys such as Guido in this story, who would never know what it would be like to be a man. Young boys who would grow up to look different from other men, who would be instantly recognisable as castrati, who could achieve fame and fortune but would never have been seen as “normal” people. But if the boys were young enough when the operation took place and if they were good enough to make a name for themselves, they had every opportunity to make a satisfying life for themselves with often only a vague idea of exactly what it was they had lost.

How much worse to have the mutilation inflicted upon you when you’re fifteen, when you’ve had your first glimpses of what it might mean to be a man, when you’ve started to think and dream of everything you might do and achieve in just a few more years. How much worse when you’re Tonio and the thing you love most in the world – singing – is used against you to rob you of your heritage, your family, your home and everything you thought was waiting for you in the future.

And how very well does Anne Rice share the pain of this loss with her readers. Because this is, for the most part, a story about loss. There is Guido who has to come to terms with the loss of his voice.

“It was as if his own voice had been his lover, and his lover had forsaken him.”

And while he finds his salvation in teaching others to sing and writing his masterful songs and operas, it isn’t until he hears Tonio’s voice and is given the opportunity to mentor him that he finds a new and maybe his true purpose in his life.

Guido may have lost his voice, Tonio loses everything he has ever known when he’s just fifteen years old. Exiled from his home in Venice, robbed of his manhood and his inheritance it is no wonder he falls victim to anger and despair.

“No matter how he felt, he would behave as if he did not feel it, and everything would be better.”

And even when Tonio does allow his love of singing to ease his pain, the taboos he still has to overcome are as enormous as the mountain he can see from his bedroom in Naples.

But this is also a story about love; love found in the most unexpected places. The love between Guido and Tonio, enduring, volatile but indestructible. The love of music. The love for others, strong, beautiful and engrossing but never replacing or diminishing the love between the teacher and his star pupil. This is a story about facing the hand life has dealt you and playing it the best you can, only to discover that maybe you ended up with a winner after all.

This is a story that will break your heart in a multitude of ways only to put it back together. This is a book filled with characters that will captivate you and stay in your thoughts for a long time after you finish reading. For me this was a book about a phenomenon I was barely aware of; a phenomenon I found as fascinating as I found it abhorrent.  There is a quiet beauty in this book. The writing appears distant and yet gives such a wealth of emotion and beauty.

I don’t quite have the words to describe just how much this book affected me; how strongly this story touched me. I have the emotion though; I love this book and this story.

I owe Tiffany Reisz a debt of gratitude for recommending yet another jewel of a book. Once again she has brought me to a story that has made a lasting impression on me. I will forever be grateful for the day I found a description of “The Siren” on NetGalley and decided I needed to read it. Who knew that one click on a “request” button would bring me such a wealth of literary, as well as other, delights.

WICKED BEAT

TITLE: WICKED BEAT

AUTHOR: OLIVIA CUNNING

Pages: 399

Date: 15/09/2013

Grade:3.5

Details: no. 4 Sinners on Tour

            Received from Source Books

            Through NetGalley

Own / Kindle 

The Blurb:

From the moment he lays eyes on Sinners’ new front of house soundboard operator, drummer Eric Sticks knows he has to make Rebekah his. Unfortunately, she’s too busy trying to seduce guitarist Trey Mills to pay him much attention. Rebekah never planned to fall for the tall, goofy drummer with the weird sense of humor and a heart the size of the galaxy. But Eric makes her laugh and his constant attention makes her feel sexy and irresistible–exactly what she needs after the things her last lover said to her. A woman who gives as much as she takes, Rebekah makes Eric feel like a total stud–exactly what he needs after surviving a decade of watching the incredibly talented members of Sinners from the wings.

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This book, while I liked it, didn’t really grab me. It somehow missed the oomph “HotTicket” and “Double Time” had. Eric and Rebekah had enough issues between them to fill multiple books, but because there were so many of them, and seemed to follow each other with unrelenting insistency, none of them felt important.  And when I say there are a multitude of issues in this book I do mean a multitude; Eric’s childhood, his eagerness in the bedroom and the resulting insecurities as well as Rebekah’s health issues, her attraction to Trey, her former boyfriend, her mother’s problems, the list goes on and on. With so many issues competing for attention I feel none of them got the amount of time they deserved and that in turn made the story feel rushed; almost as if the author was in a bigger hurry to get to the end of the story than I was.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I can concentrate on what I did love about this book. With a musician, singer-songwriter daughter and a sound-technician husband these book always feel a little bit like coming home for me. Not that either of them is involved with a hot and famous rock band, but who knows what the future might bring. I love the interaction between the band members. The way they are constantly teasing each other but would do anything for the other members when necessary, is wonderful. The jokes the members of Sinners play on each other had me smiling on numerous occasions.

I loved the idea of Rebekah, a girl, getting the opportunity to work the sound for the band. Music is still a very male operated business and it was wonderful to see that stereotype well and truly destroyed in this book. 

I also loved the interactions between Rebecah and Eric. The playful interactions between these two were heartwarming and put grin on my face on numerous occasions. And talking about playful interactions; the role play these two get up to is highly imaginative, not to mention HOT! The way Rebecca and Eric tend to fall out of role play into straight lust was as enticing as it was realistic and wonderful to read. My favourite moments though came early in the story when Rebecah came up with her lessons for Eric. Those were as tender as they were hot and really made me fall for these two characters.

So, overall I have to say that this was a nice and exciting read that could probably have been a bit more if there had been less but more developed issues for the characters to deal with. On the other hand, if you ever find yourself in the mood for hot rockers, independent women, hot and imaginative sex and great fun you could do a lot worse than turn to Olivia Cunning for your next read. I know that I will be reading the remaining Sinners on Tour books in the not too distant future.