Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

 genre: contemporary romance

Sally loves her job as a comedy writer for the hit sketch comedy show The Night Owls. When musician Noah Brewster arrives at the studio in New York to be a host on the show, Sally is nonplussed - she’s worked with tons of celebrities and she knows how celebrity works.  She also knows that guys like Noah Brewster NEVER would go for a "normal" girl like her.  So when he's friendly and surprisingly down to earth, Sally literally cannot make herself believe that he could be genuinely interested.  And thus Sally dooms herself to a life of sarcastic humor with friendship but nothing deeper, because deep down she just doesn't believe that such a thing as real love can happen to her.

OKAY OKAY. I super liked this, like never wanted to have to stop reading.  It is SNARKY and CRASS and CRUDE but also crazy tender and witty and totally engaging.  I rooted for Sally.  I really liked Noah and even though sometimes he was almost too good to be true, I believed in him.  I liked that the story gave me a serious behind-the-scenes look at shows like SNL and honestly, I couldn't believe sometimes how good the comedy was, like I was surprised by the level of writing.  And the romance was slow burn and totally satisfying.  There is definitely some open door minutes but it's not completely romance novel level either.  It's definitely an adult book about adults figuring out how to have a relationship and I liked that it took place in the super present day.  Just the sort of escape I needed.