Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/The Cougar
The summer is here and with recent movies like the “Hit Man” and “Fall Guy” the conversation of Hollywood needing to invest in romantic comedies is back once again. While Hollywood is behind schedule on making and releasing romantic comedies, the book industry is flourishing.
Here are a few books that should be on everyone’s never-ending book recommendations list:
“People We Meet on Vacation” by Emily Henry
Poppy and Alex, best friends who had vacationed together every summer since they first met in their freshman year at UChicago a decade ago, have not spoken to each other in two years.
Poppy has the career of her dreams and is killing it as a travel journalist but she feels lost. When Poppy is asked when she last felt happy, she knows without a doubt it was when she last saw her best friend.
Poppy somehow convinces Alex to take one more trip together, giving her a week to fix their relationship and one last chance to fall in love.
While the novel is set in the present, readers will visit Alex and Poppy throughout their vacations in chapters from the past. This friends to lovers’ book strikes a perfect balance between telling Poppy’s story and love story.
“Dating Dr. Dil” by Nisha Sharma
Kareena Mann is a hopeless romantic and a homebody who dreams of a marriage like her parents’, but she prefers working on her car over dating. Dr. Prem Verma, is love-phobic and is the host of The Dr. Dil Show, focused on raising money to build a community center as a heart-health expert.
After an argument between Prem and Kareena about love goes viral, Prem is left short-changed and presented with an unusual offer from Kareena’s meddling aunties: convince Kareena he is her soulmate and they will fund his clinic. As the condition to buy her family house from her father, Kareena has four months to get engaged and Prem desperately wants to open his community clinic.
With conflicting views on love and arranged marriage, Prem and Kareena form a mutually beneficial alliance, and might discover that fate often begins with hate.
Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” this is the first book in the inter-connected “If Shakespeare Was an Auntie” series. This book offers an honest, hilarious and heartwarming story to its readers.
Sharma writes two strong protagonists and a hilarious and diverse supporting cast of characters that readers can’t get enough of. This is the ideal book for lovers of Shakespeare and romantic comedies.
“Delilah Green Doesn’t Care” by Ashley Herring Blake
Delilah Green vowed never to return to her hometown. However, when her estranged stepsister, Astrid, persuades Delilah to photograph her wedding with a hefty dose of guilt and a five-figure check, Delilah reluctantly finds herself back in Bright Falls—a place she once fled.
When Delilah crosses paths with Claire Sutherland, an old, stuck-up friend of Astrid’s, she starts to think that being back might not be so bad after all—full of fun and a chance for retribution.
This is a funny, honest and clever sapphic romance about accepting love with all its difficulties. This book is ideal for romance enthusiasts who enjoy stories about taking risks and wedding day shenanigans.
“Better Than the Movies” by Lynn Painter
Liz Buxbaum and Wes Bennett have been lifelong acquaintances and car-spot feuding frenemies. When Liz’s childhood crush, Michael, returns to their high school, the hopeless romantic is determined to take him to prom— even if it means fake-dating Wes.
This young adult novel is an ultimate rom-com about rom-coms. Filled with tropes, friendship and love, this novel is perfect for rom-com lovers.
