Here for the Drama

April 4, 2022
There’s drama both on and off the stage in this cute rom-com from Bromley (Talk Bookish to Me). Playwright’s assistant Winnie allows her powerful boss and surrogate mother figure, Juliette, to drag her along on a trip to London, but she tries to draw a line at Juliette’s request that she go on a series of internet dates to inspire Juliette’s next play. Winnie wants to focus on her own career as a playwright, not romance. Then she meets Juliette’s dashing nephew, Liam, who offers to help by feeding her tales of his own romantic misadventures to bring back to his aunt. There’s a spark there, but the ever-demanding Juliette makes it clear that she would frown on a relationship between Winnie and Liam, and also bans discussion of her own troubled relationship with Liam’s mother, Isabelle. Still, hopeless romantic Winnie is determined to set the stage for a happy ending for all around her—with unexpected results. Bromley brings out realistic family dynamics with an effective blend of sensitivity and humor. Unassuming Winnie’s insecurity about her future as a writer makes it especially easy to feel for her. Plays, plotting, and puppy love amount to a sweet production especially suited for theatre lovers. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary.

April 15, 2022
After five years of working as an assistant to Juliette Brassard, an heiress and playwright, Winnie is anxious for her long-planned vacation. She needs to finish writing her own play to enter a prestigious contest, but demanding Juliette browbeats Winnie into accompanying her to London for a restaging of Juliette's masterpiece in a pop-up theater in a park. Desperate for a fresh new play idea, Juliette coerces Winnie into signing up for a dating app and going on three dates. Leaving the park where she met her first date, a total flop, Winnie finds a bedraggled dog shivering in the bushes. Naming him Ollie, she takes him back to Juliette's posh London home, where he is key in starting a conversation between Winnie and a nerdy yet gorgeous man who turns out to be Juliette's nephew. Bromley follows Talk Bookish to Me (2021) with another delightful rom-com, a jaunt around London involving dates with strangers and an unconventional theater production sweetened by tail-wagging Ollie, who has a way of bringing folks together. Bromley's joyful romance is sure to please.

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May 15, 2022
A young New York playwright works to take the next steps toward fulfillment. Winnie has spent five years working as a personal assistant to Juliette Brassard, an accomplished playwright suffering from writer's block, hoping to stay close to the theater world after graduate school. Now Juliette is going to London, where one of her plays is being restaged, and though Winnie is reluctant to go--she'd hoped to get some work done on her own play while Juliette is away--Juliette persuades her and also promises to finally give her feedback on her script. During their three weeks abroad, Winnie begins a secret whirlwind romance with Liam, Juliette's nephew, while Juliette is trying to persuade her to join a dating app to provide material about the dating scene in London that Juliette hopes might help her get over her block. Over the course of their trip, Winnie and Juliette's friendship and working relationship are challenged as Winnie begins to reclaim some of the confidence she lost during a disastrous grad school performance and strives to complete her play, while Juliette is forced to confront ghosts of her younger years, including her estranged sister. Bromley has written a wonderfully engaging novel with snappy narration from Winnie, and she deftly balances moments of humor with depth by providing her characters with deep backstories and complicated emotions. Though Winnie's chipper perspective feels a bit over-the-top at first, this eases as the book settles in, and the narrative displays a wonderful sense of patience. By allowing characters their moments of awkwardness and anger rather than rushing toward easy resolutions, Bromley ensures that the ending feels completely satisfying when it arrives. An entertaining, romantic story of a woman's personal and professional coming-of-age.

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