Rock Your Reading With These Two Rom-Coms

by MK French

Summer is wrapping up and school is starting (if it hasn't already started for you) soon. Life can be stressful in normal times, but the past 18 months or so haven't been so normal. If you are turning to books to find respite for the complications of life, then I have a couple of romantic comedies for your reading enjoyment. One is a contemporary rom-com and the other is a Regency-era romance - both are guaranteed to lighten your mood.

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The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee

August 2021; St. Martin's Griffin; 978-1250621122
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); romantic comedy

Tara Park is busy with Weldon Brewery, so she swore off serious relationships. Seth Kim is her best friend’s brother-in-law, dared her to go on a series of dates with him before he leaves for a new job in Paris in a month. Each one is plagued by romcom-worthy complications, and the two grow far closer than they planned.

While The Date Dare refers to events in Jayci’s earlier book A Sweet Mess (read my review), you don’t have to have read it to know what’s going on here. Seth has a good sense of humor from the start; so when he’s faced with Tara’s prickly demeanor, he manages a game of Truth or Dare to get four dates with her. Even the situation surrounding the game was rom-com worthy, with a very drunk Tara too out of it to coherently tell him how to get her home from the brewery. So he brings her to where he’s staying, only for her to puke on his shoes and eventually fall asleep. From this beginning, it goes all downhill from there for the reader’s hilarity. Their banter from the start is wonderful, and I’m a sucker for witty comebacks as part of the courtship.

There isn’t really an external wedge to drive them apart. Tara and Seth hide the relationship, and their own pasts haunt them. That’s the wedge, and it’s only once they each come to grips with how their past relationships ended that they can move forward. I love that they can rely on their friends and family for support, and as painful as the breakup is, I know it’s temporary. It’s a fairytale kind of ending, one that makes for a wonderful visual and a perfect rom-com finale.

Buy The Dating Dare at Amazon

Miss Lattimore's Letter by Suzanne Prater

August 2021; Berkley; 978-0593197424
audio, ebook, print (272 pages); romantic comedy

Sophie Lattimore is her young cousin's companion in Society and wrote an anonymous letter to a young man she thought was about to propose to the wrong woman. This gave her some notoriety, enough that Sir Edmund Winslow approached her for help in finding him a wife. While she'd like to be considered, she doesn't believe he has any interest in her. The man who'd spurned her affections a decade ago seems to have some interest now. Is it going to be a repeat of her past or will she finally marry?

Miss Lattimore's Letter is told much in the manner of Jane Austen novels, and those famous novels are referenced here as well. We have the obvious romantic rivals for Sophie, who went from being the poor relation to the toast of the town. Frederick Maitland had never proposed to Sophie ten years ago, instead marrying a woman with money he mocked even after death. He's superficially handsome and everything that Society says that Sophie should want. Edmund is a bit stuffier in comparison, but genuinely cares for Sophie's opinion and gets so flustered around her that he ruins his chances whenever he progresses.

This is very much a novel of social etiquette, with misunderstandings and hurt feelings because of expectations of marriage. The only things Frederick has going for him are his looks and fortune, and he takes that to mean Sophie will practically fall over herself to marry him. Everything falls together in the final quarter of the novel, and all turns out for the best for all the characters involved.

Buy Miss Lattimore's Letter at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever. 

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