Publisher: BerkleyRelease Date: June 11, 2019 (out now!)
Source of my copy: publisher
Series: standalone
My rating:
Synopsis
A rom-com-obsessed romantic waiting for her perfect leading man learns that life doesn’t always go according to a script in this delightfully charming and funny novel.
Annie Cassidy dreams of being the next Nora Ephron. She spends her days writing screenplays, rewatching Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she could just find her own Tom Hanks—a man who’s sweet, sensitive, and possibly owns a houseboat—her problems would disappear and her life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks is nowhere in sight.
When a movie starts filming in her neighborhood and Annie gets a job on set, it seems like a sign. Then Annie meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky prankster who couldn’t be less like Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet-cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon Annie finds herself sharing some classic rom-com moments with Drew. Her Tom Hanks can’t be an actor who’s leaving town in a matter of days…can he?
I had a couple false starts reading this book because I was in the middle of a book slump when I picked it up, so the help me finish it I downloaded the audiobook via Scribd (see my rating for the audiobook below).
Basically, Waiting for Tom Hanks is about this rom-com obsessed girl named Annie Cassidy, who lives in Ohio and is a freelance writer. But, if I remember correctly, she graduated with a degree in film and she's been writing her own rom-com screenplay on the side. When a rom-com movie starts filming in her neighborhood, she found herself working as the director's assistant. But, before the filming even started, she had a run-in involving spilled coffee with the movie's lead actor, Drew Danfort, and this started this animosity-filled situation with Drew that's mostly one-sided on Annie's part.
There were a lot of things I love about Waiting for Tom Hanks: the friendship between Annie and Chloe (I want Chloe to be my best friend!), the coffee shop where Annie hangs out (most of my favorite scenes all occurred in the coffee shop), Annie's thoughts about rom-coms (I found myself nodding along when she was explaining to Drew why rom-com is such a special genre) and the multiple mentions of some of my favorite movies of all time (this book made me want to watch Sleepless in Seattle and You Got Mail again for the 500th time), the humor (there were scenes and lines I found myself laughing out loud), all the secondary characters (I loved them ALL!), and our hero Drew Danfort who deserved better than Annie freaking Cassidy.
Yep, she's the reason I'm giving this book only three stars--maybe even 2.5 stars. Waiting for Tom Hanks is told through Annie's first-person POV so there was no escaping her super annoying and frustrating self. She's obsessed with rom-coms so she wants a rom-com romance with, like the title says, a Tom Hanks rom-com type love interest and she had this tunnel vision focus about it that I found so frustrating. I guess she's supposed to come off as charming and quirky, but instead she's oversensitive and really annoying. I found myself rolling my eyes at her a lot--I seriously don't get why Drew was so attracted to her because she gave him nothing.
Since Annie is such a huge part of the book, I couldn't really give it a much higher rating even though I liked everything else about it. The romance was pretty cute (I have a weakness for airports so like the ending a lot) but again Annie is one-half of that and, well, you all know my feelings about her. Surprisingly, I even like the whole Hollywood celebrities/making a movie part, which is not usually my cup of tea (I think it's because WfTH is not set in LA and it doesn't have that LA vibe I don't like and the celebrity characters in this book were not the stereotypical high-maintenance plastic types).
Will I read future Kerry Winfrey books? Definitely! Her next book is about Annie's BFF Chloe and Nick (who owns the coffee shop and reminds me of a less grumpier version of Luke from Gilmore Girls) and I can't wait to read about them. We got a bit of their background and their relationship in this books and I am hyped!
Audiobook Review: I give the audiobook book ★★★★ out of 5 stars! I have no complaints about the audiobook. The narrator, Rachel L. Jacobs, did a really good job capturing Annie's voice and personality, which is important because it's in first-person POV. She didn't do anything too special when it came to different voices of other characters, but overall there was a distinction between male and female voices, which was helpful because I was not always following along with the text. Overall, she gave a great performance and the audiobook was well produced overall. I hope she'll also narrate Chloe's book.
I blink a few times, staring straight into Drew Danforth’s face. It’s like when you’re a kid and there’s a solar eclipse, and all the teachers are like, “Don’t look directly into the sun! You’ll destroy your retinas!” but there’s always that one kid (Johnny Berger, in our class) who can’t stop staring.
In this situation, I’m Johnny Berger. And I guess Drew Danforth is the sun.
“Are you okay?” he asks again, enunciating his words even more as if me understanding him is the problem. His brown eyes, I notice, are flecked with tiny bits of gold, which is something you can’t see when you watch him on TV. His hair is just as voluminous as it seems in pictures, but in person, I have the almost overwhelming urge to touch it, to reach out and pull on that one lock of hair that hangs over his forehead.
“She’s not responding.” He turns to Chloe. “Is something wrong?”
“She’s French,” Chloe says without missing a beat. “She only speaks French.”
“I’m not French,” I say, breaking my silence. Chloe and Drew’s heads swivel to look at me.
“I’m sorry about your coat,” I whisper, then I run toward Nick’s.
Chloe bursts in the door behind me, the bell jingling in her wake. “I’m not French?” she screeches. “Those are the first words you spoke to Drew Danforth? Really?”
“Well then, why did you tell him I was French?” I shout, ignoring the curious stares of everyone working on their laptops and the calming melody of whatever Nick put on to replace the Doobies.
“I don’t know!” She throws her hands in the air. “You weren’t talking, so I thought I’d give you an interesting backstory!”
I put my hands over my face. “This is ridiculous.”
“No,” Chloe says, grabbing me by the shoulders. “This is your meet-cute, and now you need to go back out there and find him and say something that isn’t a negation of your Frenchness or an apology for destroying his probably very expensive coat.”
“Meet what?”
Nick stares at us from behind the counter, a dishtowel in his hand.
“A meet-cute,” Chloe stands up straight, shoulders back, as if she’s delivering a Romantic Comedy 101 lecture to Nick and his patrons, “is the quirky, adorable, cute way the hero and heroine of a romantic comedy meet.”
Everyone stares at her blankly.
“Or hero and hero. Or heroine and heroine. Not to be heteronormative,” she clarifies.
“Like how me and Martha met at her wedding,” Gary says.
Chloe thinks about it. “I don’t know that I would necessarily call that one a meet-cute, but sure, Gary.”
“Did you just make that up?” Nick asks, arms crossed.
I shake my head. “No. It’s a thing.”
“Watch a romantic comedy, dude,” Tobin says.
Nick rolls his eyes.
“Anyway,” Chloe continues, “Annie straight up ran into Drew Danforth and spilled a cup of coffee all over his coat, which is, like, the cutest of meets.”
“That doesn’t sound very cute,” Nick says skeptically, rubbing the scruff on his chin. “Was it still hot?”
“Scalding,” I say, sinking into my chair and resting my head on the table.
“Sounds like a meet painful,” says Gary, and a few people laugh.
“Thanks,” I mutter. “I’m so glad you all find my embarrassment entertaining.”
“Annie!” Chloe sits down across from me as a customer walks in and the rest of the shop stops paying attention to us. “This isn’t embarrassing. This is merely a story I’ll tell in my toast at your wedding to Drew.”
I lift my head to look at her. “I hate to break this to you, but I don’t think he’s my Tom Hanks. I think he’s just a famous guy with a possible third-degree burn on his chest. And now my first day on set is going to be super awkward because I accidentally assaulted the lead actor with a beverage.”
Chloe’s about to say something, but then a song starts and she closes her mouth, looking up toward the speakers. “I swear to God, I told Nick not to play any more Bon Iver. It makes people look up their exes on Instagram, not buy coffee. I’m gonna go put on some Hall and Oates.”
As she walks away, I rest my head on the table again. As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough to have my uncle get me a job on set, now I have to deal with this.
About the Author
Kerry Winfrey is the author of Love and Other Alien Experiences and Things Jolie Needs to Do Before She Bites It. She’s written for many websites, including HelloGiggles. When she’s not writing, she’s most likely baking yet another batch of cookies or watching far, far too many romantic comedies. She lives with her husband, baby, and dog in the middle of Ohio.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét