ARC Review: "Prime Time Romance" by Kate Robb ★★★

ARC Review: Prime Time Romance by Kate Robb

Isn’t It Romantic meets Pleasantville in this really sweet roommate romance, with magical realism and a comfort TV show that may not be as it seems. I cannot stress enough that I fudging (if you know you know) loved this, the concept is refreshing but the story itself lacked depth and dragged on for me.

“You can’t start the next episode of your life if you keep rewatching the old one.”

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
Brynn Smothers, from Torronto, is just turning 30. She has been divorced for 4 years, goes on another failed date, and her friend group has forgotten her birthday and is only using her to go clubbing. There she finds her roommate, Joshua “Josh” Bishop, working as a bartender. He has always dreamed of running his late father’s bar but it is up for auction. He wonders about buying it.

After losing her purse and phone at the club, Josh offers to take Brynn home. He then decides to watch her comfort tv show Carson’s Cove, which got cancelled after season five’s cliffhanger. The main characters Sloan Edwards (town’s sweetheart) and Spencer Woods (dreamboat) were high school sweethearts and should have got together but a problem at the Ms Lobsterfest pageant means Sloan does not profess her love and Spencer leaves for LA.

A knock at the door reveals a mysterious Uber Eats deliveryman who gives Brynn a small “Bake a Wish” cake for her birthday. She makes a wish for a better life: one which will have her happily ever after. The next morning, she and Josh end up in Carson’s Cove. The man who gave her the cake, Sheldon, has brought them here to complete Sloan and Spencer’s story. Brynn will be Sloan, Josh will be Fletcher Scott (town’s badboy). Sloan will win the pageant this time, and they can go home. The only problem is, the day of the pageant is the same day as the auction Josh wants to go to!

Being surrounded by old familiar faces, Brynn is all in and enjoys seeing friends and enemies in real life. But not everything is as it seems. Perhaps Sloan was not the practically perfect sweetheart all along, perhaps Brynn has got the characters all wrong. Perhaps Josh is starting to fall for her, and is forced to watch her fall in love with someone else. And perhaps Sheldon strives for perfection and is willing to do everything it takes for his show to go on – even putting others at risk.

This is told from the first-person present-tense POV of Brynn and Josh.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Having never read Kate Robb’s books before, but hearing nothing but high anticipation and praise for this one, I was delighted to jump in. This captured incredibly well the essence of TV shows in the early 2000s and how important comfort films and shows are. When times are hard, escapism is ideal, and for a lot of people that is into books or shows:

Carson’s Cove’s predictable patterns were a balm. A steady presence as life as I knew it shattered around me.

I myself know that if I did not have Jane Austen adaptations and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, I would not be where I am today. And I would be devastated if being there for real was a disappointment, something which is again explored well here.

Robb provides an Easter Egg Hunt section at the back of the book which explains a lot of the inspiration behind her story, from its plot, to character and place names. Its main plot is akin to cult classic Pleasantville (1998) where a TV repairman gives a remote to two children and gets transported into their favourite black-and-white 1950s sitcom about an idyllic family. Carson’s Cove itself is inspired by Dawson’s Creek. The Bronze, the pub in Carson’s Cove, is named after the nightclub in Buffy. Poppy’s surname Bensen is akin to Ashley Benson, who played Hanna in Pretty Little Liars. There are plenty of other examples but these struck me the most.

I really liked the concept and I knew I would when I read the blurb. In a lot of ways it is a great read: it was a good concept, there was a bit of humour, some serious moments, some self-discovery, there were some predictable things that happened (which matched the vibe of things being a comfort because they are predictable and safe), the romance itself was sweet too. My favourite funny moment is probably when they realise they cannot physically swear when they’re in Carson’s Cove.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this as much as I’d have liked. Some of the characters felt shallow because there was not much going on and some questions at the end never got answered. Right now, this is a 3.5 for me. Had characters been fleshed out that would have been great. It feels more like a young adult book so I would have probably enjoyed this more if I was younger.

The ending where she is given another cake and is to make a wish, is so perfect!

<< Positives >>
🠚The cover! Very cute, very fitting.
🠚Love the book’s dedication: To Joshua Jackson and whoever knit him that damn sweater.
🠚The recipe at the end of the book is charming: “Bake a Wish – Possibly Magical Birthday Cake”
🠚Brynn being divorced and her growth as a person: she is worried about how she is perceived and how she perceives herself, until she realises there is nothing wrong with her.
🠚I like how this is meant to be a perfect show and Spencer is the perfect man but there are so many clues that he is not the right man at all: from detesting the sight of blood, to not offering his hoodie when she is cold, to tucking a strand of hair behind the ear frequently, and the romantic picnic where there was awful food! This was well done!
🠚The complexity of Sheldon was good. One minute he seems like a cool fan the next he is in charge of everything and there is even a darker dangerous side to him. His story about being an extra who never was able to further his career because of the show was interesting and it was good he had a motive. I am glad that Brynn doesn’t accept his apology straight away – as she should!
🠚A lot of the plot was predictable but this did not detract from the story.
🠚I like the plot twist that Luce is a lovely person and the friend Poppy is actually the backstabber.
🠚The romance was great! I like that Josh is not the love interest, I was more expecting the fake dating trope to come into play but it turns out he is loving Brynn from afar. The spice was average, and quite quick.
<< Negatives >>
🠚I felt the story started well but because it is set in the one place, it limited what was possible and its only plotline of the pageant dragged things out.
🠚Most of the characters did not have enough depth, which I could tell because I did not care much for them. Luce was the only real exception.
🠚What happens to all the characters at Carson’s Cove once Brynn and Josh return home? Do they remember things? Are they sent back home too?
🠚I assume Brynn left the friend group but I would have liked to have seen that written.
🠚It would have been nice if Brynn’s mother had been included, there was not much interaction with her.
🠚When Brynn says “When you go back. Don’t forget me, okay?” and he says nothing, I felt like he should have said something – for romantic quotes sake at least haha. I assume it is to add some uncertainty.
🠚When Josh goes back to the real world, the rest of the story is from Brynn’s POV, and it would have been good to include one POV, either of when he got back or when she gets back and heads out to find him.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Brynn꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I unfortunately understand that feeling of being forgotten about. I also relate to the description of “I respond with a double thumbs- up, which I immediately regret, knowing it did not come off as carefree or cute as I intended.”

“I am okay to wake up every morning and know that there aren’t guarantees in life, but that there is adventure. That there are new beginnings. That I need to love hard for whatever time I’m given because life can throw curveballs at any moment, and sometimes those curveballs are wild.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Josh꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I like the side-plot with Josh where he has been scared to re-open his father’s pub but through working at The Bronze and doing a good job, he has the courage to try again.
🠚I love how caring he is! How he looks out for her and expects nothing in return.

“I don’t have a whole lot I can promise you at this moment. I can’t even promise you I can get us home, but I can say that you’re it for me. And I want to be it for you.”

FAV QUOTES • it’s next to impossible to meet a perfect man while bundled up like a burrito in front of my television screen, so unless Uber Eats starts delivering dream dates, I’m once again swimming in this very shallow dating pool.
• The last thing I needed was Temptation Island in my kitchen making breakfast for dinner. I almost terminated our roommate agreement right there.
• finding love wasn’t my problem the first time. I want to keep it. I want my life to play out exactly as it’s supposed to for once. No plot twists. No Bumble jerks with cinnamon roll profiles. Just friends that understand me and will forever have my back. I want to finally get the perfect happily ever after.
• Could we have sleepwalked here?” | Her brow crinkles as she contemplates this. “Both of us?” | “Good point. Maybe we were kidnapped?” | She throws up her arms. “I thought that too, but who the hell would want to kidnap us? I need a roommate to pay off my mortgage. You work in a bar. I gotta think there are more profitable kidnappees out there.”
• What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks have we gotten ourselves into?
• He smells of ocean breezes. Of sunshine and hope.
• She continues to talk, but her words blend into an indecipherable womp womp womp as I unpack what I think she is suggesting.
• Now, every time I eat a strawberry, I subconsciously think about her, and now I wonder what else she’ll ruin for me once I taste her.
• There is a mold to this place. Young. Attractive. Flawed only in a way that still makes you likable. If you don’t fit into it, you’re assigned another role. Outsider. Trouble. Mean girl.
• “Spencer is perfect.” The words hit hard. Her gaze drops to her hands. “But I don’t know if I want perfect anymore.”
• My brain is trying to list the reasons why I need to keep pursuing Spencer for Sloan, but my eyes keep wandering back to Josh. Josh and his abs. Josh and his kindness. Josh and the ability he has to make me feel safe. Josh and his low-slung sweatpants that expose his stupidly sexy hip dips.
• “Don’t worry about me,” I tell him. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you.” | He tightens his arms again. “We take care of each other.”
• I tilt my head up, kissing Josh’s jawbone softly, savoring the way his stubble scratches my lips. I try to memorize how good it feels to lie here in his arms. How he smells. How safe I feel. How happy.
• “Sloan Edwards has run a sundress empire for the last fifteen years. She doesn’t need a crown to tell her she’s smart, driven, talented, or worthy of anything.”
• “I’m tight with the bartender. We crossed a space- time continuum together. It’s bonded us in weird and wonderful ways.”
• All of the things I wanted to say are forgotten as I lock eyes with a man I’d cross a hundred dimensions to find.

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Kate Robb, Penguin, and NetGalley for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“The Reno” is out September 3rd