Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
Romance | Contemporary
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Released December 3rd, 2019
Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion.
The biggest surprise of 2019 for me has been my sudden love of contemporary romance novels. It was never something that I was interested in before, but, starting with Christina Lauren’s The Unhoneymooners and K.A. Tucker’s The Simple Wild, it’s a genre that I’m really starting to appreciate.
Would Like to Meet is the debut novel of Gonnancz editor Rachel Winters. That’s actually something I was surprised to learn because I never would have guessed that this was a debut novel. It’s incredibly polished, the flow of the story is perfect, the characters are fully fleshed out, and it reads like a novel from a seasoned author.
The novel is about Evie Summers, an assistant at a film agency. In order to help an arrogant screenwriter meet his deadlines for a rom-com that he’s signed on to write, Evie tries to prove to him that meet-cutes can happen in real life. Evie agrees to send him updates of her attempts at romance in exchange for him finishing his script on time.
Evie takes advice from years of romantic comedy films and tries out all the classic meet-cutes on strangers – often with humiliating and hilarious results. It’s all here – accidentally spilling a drink on someone, a road trip, leaving numbers in books, and so much more.
While all of this is going on, Evie also befriends a father and daughter duo, Ben and Anette, who are often witnesses to her attempts.
There was so much to enjoy about this book. Evie was delightful, and while many of her decisions were definitely not choices that I would have made, it was fun to watch her handle some truly ridiculous situations. Anette, Ben’s daughter, may have been my favorite character. She’s spunky and full of life, and her personality breathed a lot of life into the story.
One minor character in the novel that I wish we’d gotten so much more of was Evie’s roommate Jane, whose sexual exploits and dating life warrants it’s own book. There’s one point in the novel where Jane and her partner take an eggplant and spiralizer into the bedroom, and I must know why.
There’s no way that I can talk about the story’s characters and not mention Ezra, the arrogant, annoying screenwriter. I was anti-Ezra from the very beginning, as he is the worst kind of a self-absorbed asshole. This early note I made in the book shows just how much I hated him:
I’ve found that a lot of romcoms are highly unbelievable and cheesy, but this novel wasn’t. While not many people would willingly try out meet-cutes from movies, Rachel Winters did a great job of making the story and characters relatable. Yes, there were plenty of cliches and the outcome wasn’t exactly a surprise, but the book was done very well. I will most certainly be reading any other books that Rachel Winters writes.
Would Like to Meet came out earlier this month, and if you want to finish 2019 off with an adorably sweet meet-cute romance, this book is for you!
Read Yourself Happy 
Yes, I liked this one too! I liked how all the cliche meet cutes were all weaved into the story!
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