Kathy Rewrites

If you’re looking for some writer romances or romantic comedies featuring writers, this post is for you! And if you’ve got a writer on your gifting list, hopefully this helps. If your writer friend is struggling with writer’s block or finding a publisher, this will definitely make them feel less alone.

Beach Read

Emily Henry’s books usually feature writers or editors, and Beach Read by Emily Henry has a brilliant premise. Here’s the blurb:

“Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.”

My favorite Emily Henry is Book Lovers, which features two book editors. So I recommend that one as well.

Dead Romantics

Another brilliant premise. Here’s the blurb for Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston: “Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.
 
When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.
 
For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.
 
Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.
 
Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.”

This one has a strong undercurrent of grief running through it, so just be forewarned.

By Any Other Name

Here’s the blurb for this one: “What she doesn’t know about love could fill a book.
 
With a successful career as a romance editor, and an engagement to a man who checks off all ninety-nine boxes on her carefully curated list, Lanie’s more than good. She’s killing it. Then she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with world-renowned author and her biggest inspiration in love and life—the Noa Callaway. All Lanie has to do is cure Noa’s writer’s block and she’ll get the promotion she’s always dreamed of. Simple, right? 
 
But there’s a reason no one has ever seen or spoken to the mysterious Noa Calloway. And that reason will rock Lanie’s world. It will call into question everything she thought she knew. When she finally tosses her ninety-nine expectations to the wind, Lanie may just discover that love By Any Other Name can still be as sweet.”

As a writer, my favorite line in this book was: “You know how the second draft is the point where things start to make sense? . . . It’s why I blaze through my first drafts so quickly–to get there.” Only I wish I blazed through my first drafts.

Is This for Real?

And I have to include Is This for Real?, my friends-to-lovers, fake dating romantic comedy. Take one relationship recluse writing a novel with a fake-dating trope. Add in one yummy romantic guy shanghaied to fake date for her romcom research. Layer in a history of genuine friendship on top of her recent heartbreak. Is this a recipe for true love or disaster?

Here’s the blurb for this writer romance:

Love is all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. Usually, me. I admit it. I’m a relationship recluse. Ironic, given that I write romantic comedies. So, I’m on a sabbatical from dating.

Which is why fake dating my best friend, Rory, is fool-proof. Rory suggested it because he needed a date for work functions. And I can use our experiences as fodder for my romcom novel.

Plus, my sister doesn’t know it’s not real, and she is thrilled that I’m not walling myself off emotionally. Her words, not mine. But I do wish she would stop saying that she always suspected there was something more between me and Rory. She should realize that we’ve been friends forever so I’m immune to his appeal.

We would never work. Rory is such a romantic; he still believes in that perfect love similar to his parents’ marriage. My parents fought bitterly. So, we are better off as friends. I can’t risk losing our friendship, even if this might be my chance—before his ex-girlfriend wins him back.

Those flickers of attraction? Easily extinguished by cold-water reality, like a two-mile hike in drenching rain over sand with wheelie luggage.

But our relationship is not sticking to the plot—or is it?

Let’s Talk Writer Romances

Do you have any writer romances to add to this list? Next up, I’ll blog about some of my favorite writing craft books, which also make great gifts for writers.

I’m also looking forward to watching THE NOEL DIARY, which features a writer 🙂

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