Adina Gellar wants a full-time job in journalism. Specifically, she wants to write pop culture columns for an online magazine named Tea. She did an internship there and loved it—the type of writing they do is exactly what she wants. But the editor Derrick is slow to accept many of her story pitches or to offer her a job. So in the meantime, she gets by working as a part-time barista and a part-time spin instructor. And she lives with her mom. But they live in Manhattan, and housing is especially expensive. Or at least, that’s what she tells herself about why she stays in the rent-controlled apartment that she grew up in.
But then she gets the idea, the one that Derrick may finally buy. There is a small town a couple of hours outside of New York City called Pleasant Hollow, and there is a real estate developer who is building a multi-story apartment complex that will have shops and restaurants in it. And Adina knows that people in small towns hate for big real estate developers to come in and ruin their small-town charm with noisy construction and competition for the mom-and-pop stores that line the lovely Main Street. At least, that’s how it is in all the Hallmark movies about small towns. The big-time real estate developer could destroy everything that makes the small town so perfect, from its apple-picking festival to its award-winning pies.
Adina’s idea is to go to this small town and find the townspeople who are rising up against the developer, who are protesting or maybe plotting in secret to put a stop to his plans that will corrupt the heart and soul of their small town. Derrick understands the pull of the Hallmark movies and shows like The Gilmore Girls that romanticize life in the small town, and he too thinks this story idea may have am audience. He agrees to buy the piece Adina writes, but he won’t pay expenses or give her an advance. But if she can write the piece, and it gets 20,000 views, then he’ll offer her the full-time staff position that’s coming open after the first of the year.
This is Adina’s chance. She packs up her suitcase and pulls cash out of savings and heads to small-town Pleasant Hollow to band with the locals and help take down an evil real estate developer. Only . . . that’s not what she finds.
Instead of all the small-town tropes Adina had expected, she finds a surly B&B proprietor, a hometown brewery that only serves two styles of beer—Light or Dark, and a hometown diner that doesn’t even have any pie. She does meet one handsome eligible single guy soon after she gets to town, but as she talks to the people of Pleasant Hollow, she discovers that the townspeople are not banding together to stop the real estate development. In fact, they’re looking forward to the new development. Some have their names in for an apartment, others are looking forward to the amenities. And that handsome guy Adina met? He’s the man in town overseeing the construction for the real estate mogul, Finn Adams.
Adina is disappointed to find that her fantasies of Pleasant Hollow don’t measure up to her beloved TV movies. But as her flirtation with Finn heats up, she finds that her week in the small town isn’t quite as disappointing as she had feared. But can Adina take her disillusionment with small town living and turn it into a story? Can she take her small-town fling and turn it into a relationship? Or will Adina end up right back where she started, let down by her Hallmark movies and still struggling to be an adult?
As Seen on TV is a rom com with a cute idea that takes a look at real life versus the beautiful movies we all love so much. Author Meredith Schorr takes our love of small town romance books and movies and lets us see what plays out when they are held up to real life. Like Adina’s idea for the story that will get her a full-time writing gig, this has a high concept that zings with possibility.
But for me, As Seen on TV falls a little flat. I thought that the characters were interesting, but I found Adina a little immature. I wanted to believe in her. I wanted to root for her. But I just couldn’t connect with her. Overall, this is a good book. I was just hoping for a great book.
Egalleys for As Seen on TV were provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) through NetGalley, with many thanks.
