3.5 stars
This is the first book that I've read by Curtis Sittenfeld and the very start almost put me off continuing.
I already had some knowledge of an SNL-style show, having read a few memoirs of previous cast members but this spent far too long describing every little intricate detail of how the show worked.
I liked the emails back and forth in the middle section but it really takes until the last third for this to get going.
Did I need it being set during the pandemic? No, I did not.
I almost wish there had been some mention of this in the blurb or advertising as I rarely enjoy reading about COVID, etc. Maybe one day I'll be able to look back on it but right now it's still too fresh to warrant me wanting read about it.
I know some people loved this but sadly it was pretty average for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to get into this book it just felt super slow and almost like a chose. When I did eventually get into it I enjoyed it but dont think I would read it again

Ultimately, I ended up liking this book, but I found the first third of it a bit of a slog. IMO it spends way too long going into the detail of what the day-to-day work is like on a show like SNL. It's only in the Covid-era second part that things pick up and the real romcom sparks fly. It's then that Sittenfeld can give us a relationship that's a mix of fantasy and groundedness.

A decent read but not her best work. ROMANTIC COMEDY felt a little too bogged down in detail and overexplanation, which detracted from the story. I also didn’t really feel the chemistry between the two main characters, much of their dialogue felt unnatural and at times, far fetched.

This was my first book by Curtis Sittenfeld and I really enjoyed it. Though I'm not much of a romance reader, this one really pulled me in with how real the characters were.
Most of the story takes place on the sets of The night owls, a weekly comedy show that Sally, the female MC writes sketches for. I found the whole process of how ideas are generated, discussed, and then transformed into actual acts very interesting as I've always been fascinated by this creative aspect. Sally is very funny, sometimes to the point of being self deprecating but she's very relatable too as the woman in her thirties who has given up any rose tinted notions of love.
Enter Noah who is a pop music sensation and the musical guest as well as host one week. Sally and Noah bond over his ideas for a sketch and her conviction that highly successful and very attractive men don't date women who aren't either or both begins to waver.
I loved their interactions the most because they were both so smart and their communication free of cliches and there were no contrived misunderstandings. They truly seemed authentic and had conversations that I could see happening in real life. In that sense this was a very mature romance.
The humour was situational and not forced. I particularly liked the epistolary bit in the middle where they exchange emails.
The ensemble cast of the book was also great with their own quirks and wit. I found this a really satisfying read overall. One that I felt good about.

Personally I thought this was brilliant - a pitch=perfect rom-com, with an added dose of homage to SNL. Would recommend as a beach read or for fans of the author's writing; again she has written brilliant characters with depth and insight.

This was a highly anticipated read for me and it did not disappoint. I’d call this the thinking woman’s rom com, it has smarts and steam. I like this particular type of book that blends women’s fiction and romance without compromising on the relationship or the story.

It's a cosy weekend read, and fulfils its own brief of romance and comedy. I'm not sure it fully convinced me, and I'm too sure about the love-story-by-email centrepiece, but I was entertained. Comedy fans, particularly sketch and improv fans, will love the first section of this book.

Very clearly inspired by SNL, sketch writer for The Night Owls Sally develops a crush on guest host and pop star hunk Noah Brewster. The first third of this book takes place in a week over 2018 as the TNO writers and cast prepare for the live show which Noah is hosting. This part was a bit info-dumpy and the multiple references to one character burping and their smells was a quite off putting. I also just don’t really find the humour of sketch shows that funny so I definitely didn’t find this anywhere near as funny as the reviews suggested it was.

I enjoyed the first section the best, even if it was a little tedious with the endless explanations of how a late night sketch show works.

The middle section, told through emails was also enjoyable, but I would have loved this to have been longer. Sally and Noah reconnect two years later in 2020 during, yep you guessed it, the pandemic. They email back and forth and arrange to meet up, which they do in the final section of the book.

The final third was a bit of a slog. I hate that Covid was used as a plot point, it just felt unnecessary and I’m nervous to see if we’re going to get an influx of pandemic novels that were written in 2020/2021 and are now going to press. I don’t find it enjoyable tbh especially when this (major) plot point isn’t mentioned anywhere in the blurb of the book, it just kind of comes out of nowhere and ngl I rolled my eyes when it came.

My main issue with this book was that while I definitely believed these two characters had chemistry, I didn’t believe their love story. It felt really rushed and unrealistic, and I usually don’t mind the miscommunication trope but in this it didn’t make any sense and therefore was infuriating, especially since their big dramas were resolved in a matter of pages (where’s the angst?). It all felt a bit pointless.

I think this has succeeded with a massive publicity campaign and because of that I was really disappointed in it. It was fine: I enjoyed the plot on the whole and did find myself wanting to pick it up to continue reading but the entire thing read like a first draft and so much of it could have been cut. Wouldn’t race to read this one tbh.

3 stars

I didn’t think I would enjoy a pandemic novel but I felt this love story helps to highlight some of the good that could come out of a situation like that. Lovers of 30 Rock will devour this and I found myself really enjoying the romantic comedy narrative which isn’t my normal genre preference.

A wonderfully light but deceptively deep story about dating and male/ female dating standards and societal expectations. Sally is a mid-30s successful comedy sketch writer who has just written a skit about how famous less-attractive men can date 'upwards' to more traditionally attractive and younger women.
She meets famous and hot singer-songwriter Noah at one of the filmings, and finds herself falling for him but doesnt believe it can be reciprocated. Cut to a few years later, and in the early throes of the COVID pandemic, Noah gets in touch with Sally and they start emailing their deepest thoughts to one another.....

No prizes for guessing where its going to go, but the story of their relationship is so beautifully told, I was willing them both be honest with one another.

A solid 4/5

A fascinating insight into the lives of comedy sketch writers - in this case a behind-the-scenes peek at an SNL-type show. The premise is intriguing - how is it famous women often date non-famous men, but famous men don't date non-famous women? Brilliantly done, full of wry observations about modern-day dating.

Look, if I could wipe my memories to read Romantic Comedy for the first time again this weekend, or indeed on an imminent holiday, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'm a longtime Curtis Sittenfeld fan (admittedly, I far prefer American Wife and Prep to the... confusing Rodham) and I don't even think I bothered to read the blurb before I requested an ARC of this on Netgally. The author, cover and title were enough for me, but the premise is right up my street too.

The book begins with Sally, a writer on a show that is *not* SNL getting fed up with Ordinary Joe male writers on the show getting together with the beautiful female guest stars (apologies Pete Davidson), and deciding to write a sketch about it. This is all well and good until singer and heartthrob Noah hosts the show and Sally begins to fall prey to the very thing she ridicules her male colleagues about. I loved the first section of the book set in the claustrophobic, chaotic week of the tv show, and especially as I do enjoy the real show I enjoyed getting a real feeling insight into what it must be like behind the scenes. I was also really charmed by how the idea for this novel came from Sittenfeld and her family binging the show in lockdown.

The rest of the book is set some time later, during the COVID pandemic, which won't be for everyone, but I really enjoyed the intimacy blooming over email in isolation so I didn't find the setting too difficult to read about. I also just found Sally really easy to like as a character, though I wouldn't necessarily like working. The Sally we see in her scripts, internally and externally all seem different, and it's lovely that it's around Noah we see how all those sides of her make up who she is, and it reminded me of what really good romantic writing does, we see how he draws something out in her without having to be told it, and we really do root for them and believe in their chemistry. Their course doesn't run smooth, but Sittenfeld balances it all beautifully, as always.

I didn't really enjoy this book at all. I thought I would as I do like romantic comedy, but it wasn’t my cup of tea at all

I absolutely loved this book - what a joy to read!

This is the first Curtis Sittenfeld title I've read and I'll be going back for more!

Sally is a script writer for a TV show and when her male friend starts dating a very attractive woman (punching above his weight!) Sally notices that the opposite never happens - with a man and a woman. The novel follows her through her career and then the pandemic. I was worried the pandemic sections would be long or get boring but they didn't, it kept the flow going.

I heartily recommend this.

This was a perfect novel, really, genuinely funny, and so pacey, I truly couldn't put it down and absolutely want to start a petition to get it made into a film!

A new Curtis Sittenfeld is always cause for celebration, and romantic comedy is a genre at which she particularly excels (I reread Eligible on a yearly basis). And yet… I couldn’t find it in me to love this novel. I think if I was a Saturday Night Live fan, or at all interested in the process of comedy writing, I would have felt differently but I’m not, so I didn’t.

Some pros: the supporting characters - particularly Sally’s colleagues - are wonderful, and the relationship she has with her step-dad is adorable.

But I couldn’t find myself too invested in Sally and Noah’s romance, and was bored by the behind-the-scenes of the SNL-esque TV show stuff.

Still, a middling Sittenfeld is still very readable and, while it’s not one I’ll reread, I enjoyed it.

This book is about a TV writer, Sally Milz, who works at a SNL-style sketch show called The Night Owls.

Sally is dumbfounded when time and time again, her decidedly average male colleagues end up in relationships with famous female celebrities who guest host. She calls it "The Danny Horst Rule" after her workmate Danny starts dating a glam celebrity - Sally knows that this would *never* happen in reverse. No male celebrity would be seen dead with an "ordinary" woman, right?

Until Noah Brewster. Noah's a famous, popular, gorgeous musician and Sally is sure there's some chemistry there. But the notion that Noah would ever feel the same is laughable. Right?

I don't really want to tell you too much more, because I went in blind and it was a really enjoyable, easy read. I felt that the sections set during the pandemic were done well, and it made me think about how many connections were made that we'll never hear about. It's important to recognise that despite the horror of those few years, some good things came from that time too - people reconnected, people re-evaluated their priorities, people rediscovered passions that the busyness of the world had taken away from them.

Sally's insecurities grated on me at times, possibly because I could identify with a lot of them with regard to relationships. I do think she grew throughout the novel, and I did like her as a character despite wanting to shake her 😂.

I loved the idea of 'lampshading' - acknowledging the existence of something that you can't control, parking it and moving on with your life. I also enjoyed the behind-the-curtain look at how the TV show was made.

This was the first book that I've read by Curtis Sittenfeld, and I will read her others based on it.

I love the writing of Curtis Sittenfeld, and have read all her previous novels. Romantic Comedy did not disappoint. I loved the inside info about the challenges and process of producing a topical to comedy show, but really enjoyed the dialogue between Sally and Noah, which develops into an email exchange. Recommended.

I LOVED this book !! To the point i was obsessed ...

I have been a fan of Sittenfeld's work for years and i will admit I was very scared when i first read the synopsis for this one as it is worlds apart from her other novels . I do not read romance so would this be for me , am i the wrong generation for this novel, will it annoy me, so many questions going round in my head ! But i had faith in her writing and it did not disappoint . Yes, it is very different but it worked . She writes with the same intelligence but has brought it to a contemporary setting which will appeal to a much broader market .

It's divided in to 3 parts, all very unique. Part 1 is the 'SNL' section and i think if you're not a fan of the show or these type of sketches then you may get lost. Part 2 is a series of emails set in the covid era , all very current , and part 3 is where the tone changes and becomes more of a story. I loved all parts equally , i loved the characters, the story, the writing and i want to see this on SCREEN !!

Another winner