Week Thirty-Three—In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer

***This is a review of an upcoming release. This title is scheduled to be released on March 15, 2022.***

We start the book with our heroine, Franny, losing her job. As she runs on to the subway with her meager box of desk detritus, the doors close on her silk dress, effectively ripping it in half. A handsome stranger offers her his suit jacket to cover up, then he leaves her on the subway. They have not exchanged contact information and Franny believes that she will never see him again.

But we live in an era of pervasive technology, and someone has filmed their interaction, and it soon goes viral, which leads to the two being reunited on a morning talk show. We learn that her morning savior is named Hayes Montgomery the Third, which of course it is. The two immediately don’t hit it off. Their personalities clash, they bicker, they glare and they are relieved when the segment ends, because now, they never have to see each other again.

Except they keep running into each other. And each time they do, they like each other a little more.

I really liked this book. I thought that the slow-growth of the relationship was delightful, and had me rooting for them from the start. That they would run into each other ALL THE TIME in a city like New York was a little unbelievable, but I’ve been told that New York is really like a bunch of small towns stuck together, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they would be in the same restaurant. Or that two of their best friends would have met on the set of the TV show and started a relationship…which puts Hayes and Franny even more in each other’s orbit.

The inevitable breakup was where it fell apart a little for me. I understand the structure of a RomCom. There’s the meet-cute, followed by the struggle against the relationship, the inevitable falling in love, the misunderstanding leading to a breakup, and the reunion and HEA. We all know exactly what we are getting before we crack the spine. But the misunderstanding in this one made no sense, and felt forced to me, like the author couldn’t think of a reason to actually break them up that made sense, so just pulled something out of a hat. This is the only part of the book that made me cringe a little. I didn’t think that any of it made sense within the boundaries of the characters that we had gotten to know.

Overall, though, a strong effort, with a funny, quirky supporting cast, and an obvious love of the city that never sleeps. I will be looking forward to more from this author.