TOO GOOD TO BE REAL

A reporter falls in love at a resort designed to provide guests with the full rom-com experience.

Julia Carpenter writes listicles and pop-culture puff pieces for a Chicago-based website, but she worries about rumors of a new round of layoffs. Determined to prove she’s an integral part of the team, she pitches a story for the site’s booming travel section. A few hours north in Wisconsin, the newly opened Notting Hill Resort promises guests a full role-playing experience based on rom-com movies. Luke O’Neal is the head game developer, in charge of creating characters, activities, and experiences for guests, allowing them to choose everything from paintball to karaoke. If the resort’s opening week is a success, Luke will receive a bonus large enough to fund his own startup. After a chance meeting with Julia on the hotel grounds, Luke decides to pretend to be a guest and experience the game from the inside; meanwhile, Julia keeps her status as a reporter secret in order to avoid special treatment that might influence her review. Johnson’s homage to rom-coms focuses on developing the hallmarks of the genre—quirky secondary characters, outdoors shenanigans, and complicated misunderstandings—at the expense of the romantic relationship between Luke and Julia, which falls flat. The lack of communication between the protagonists and the rushed ending make for an emotionally unsatisfying resolution. The 20-something characters all have extensive knowledge of 1980s and '90s rom-coms but never reference pop culture from their own generation, which gives the novel the feeling of a stale time capsule.

A cute premise meant to honor the rom-com genre fails to deliver.