I’m a hard sell on romantic comedy. By which I mean, I love reading it, but usually consider it a win if it’s mildly amusing. This isn’t a jab at rom com authors at all. I have an oddball sense of humor that doesn’t line up with what a lot of other people consider funny.
Becca Kinzer’s novels? Are funny.
Not in a slapstick sort of way, nor in the dying-of-embarrassment sort of way. Just great interior dialogue and situations that get a tiny bit (or a large bit) out of control. I know that as a writer I like to inject some humor, but I’m under no illusions that I can be funny on purpose for an entire novel! Becca can.
She’s a romance writer burned out on love. He’s her famous baseball star ex-husband. The last man she wants to be forced to work with is the one who broke her heart.
Rom-com writer Gracie Parker hasn’t written a bestseller since she and her husband, a major league baseball star, divorced five years ago. On thin ice with her publisher―and with a looming deadline―Gracie couldn’t have picked a worse time for a painful injury that has her flat on her back. At this point, she’d accept help from anybody . . . except her first love and ex-husband, Noah Parker.
The baseball season has just ended in massive disappointment for Noah. He’s facing the stark reality that he gave up everything for a career that’s let him down and that it might be too late to get back the one person he should’ve held on to. So when Gracie’s nephew calls, saying Gracie’s looking for a tenant for her next-door rental, it feels like it’s meant to be.
All Gracie cares about is turning in her manuscript on time, which is directly at odds with Noah’s attempts to win her back, even if she is slightly charmed by his kindness. But can people ever really change? Then Noah throws a curveball that could give Gracie the extension she needs, but it will mean working directly with Noah, something she’s not sure she can face. With no other choice, and everything on the line, Gracie must decide if it is too late for a second draft of their own love story.
First off, I’m not keen on sports novels. Noah is a famous baseball star. While that’s important to the story, sports scenes are thankfully a very minor part of the story.
Second, my experience as an independent author of Christian romance often causes eye rolls when I read about author characters. They so often are a one-hit wonder! But Gracie’s big sales are in the past (incidentally achieved when married to a baseball player and writing baseball romance) and now she is struggling in a major way.
Enter Noah, who not only takes care of her after her accident but steps back into his former role as muse and idea-bouncer, though Gracie doesn’t want him for those roles or any other. He picks up a scene she wrote and said the couple couldn’t kiss in that position seated on the steps. Of course, she isn’t willing to test it with him, but he calls on Gracie’s nephew and his would-be girlfriend to prove to Gracie that what she wrote is impossible.
This was by far the funniest scene in the story and it definitely got some verbal laughs from me, not just a smirk or a quiet snicker! The dialogue as well as the interior monologue as well as the couple’s attempts to act out Gracie’s scene were, frankly, hilarious.
As post-divorce romances go, this one was fairly believable as readers come to understand the details of Gracie and Noah’s marriage and downfall. Highly recommend.
If you enjoy the kinds of stories I do, sweet and funny, I recommend you pick up a copy of First Love, Second Draft. It releases April 815 2025.
I requested an ARC (advanced reader copy) from Netgalley.
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