I love rom coms. Movie rom coms, book rom coms, graphic novel rom coms – I’ll take whatever format I can find. Rom coms, also known as romantic comedies, run the gamut from high school romances to senior living sparks, NFL football players working in cupcake shops to Alaska wilderness guides. And now – birding.
Rom coms tend to follow a handful of general plot outlines, and main character Emma Jablonski is in the “fake fiancée” category. Emma works in her parents’ Polish bakery and becomes interwoven with her wealthy down-the-hall-apartment neighbors when she agrees to watch over a young model recovering from addiction (see, exciting already).
Emma lives a sheltered life but loves birding, and birds are interwoven throughout the book as ways to both move the plot and bring characters together. She makes bold choices to really start living, and eventually, she becomes the model’s cousin’s fake fiancée to get his meddling parents to stop matchmaking. But (you guessed it) they develop real feelings for each other, and the whole thing comes to a head when Emma sets off looking for ivory billed woodpeckers.
I once read 100 rom com books in one year, so I can tell you from experience that falling into a plot category or describing some rather out-of-the-ordinary scenarios do nothing to take away from the enjoyment of the book. It took me 10-20 pages to get into Andrea Ezerins’ writing rhythm, but after that I zoomed through the work in a weekend. If you like lighthearted fiction interwoven with birds, this book is for you.
Note: If you’re recommending this book to a young person, just note I’d probably rate is as PG-13. Happy reading!
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