About 10 years ago, the romantic comedy kind of disappeared no? I remember going to the movie theater with my friends and my then boyfriend (and now husband — hi Danny!) on any given Friday and we would watch Reese Whiterspoon and Cameron Diaz fall in love, then nothing. Super heroes, dystopian trilogies, and a horror renaissance took over and it wasn’t until Netflix revived it (kudos also to Hallie Meyers-Shyer for “Home Again”) than the rom-com is going through a second coming. Thankfully, books never stopped being published about ordinary people falling in love. I don’t know about y’all, but a book that I can disappear into – especially during the high stress of life- is therapeutic. I cannot thank enough authors like Emily Giffin or Jasmine Guillory, for their words helped me relax when I felt like I was drowning in responsibilities (full time job + full time school = disaster). During those high stress times, I don’t think I could have enjoyed something by Tom Clancy per-se. What I am loving now though, is the fact that we are seeing this new rom-com and romance revival through the eyes of diverse characters. “Crazy Rich Asians” “To all the boys I’ve loved before” “The wedding date” those are books that have sold, that have gone into successful and mainstream movies, and that have found an audience regardless of how the characters look like. This is progress! I could go on and on about the importance of the romantic comedy, but most importantly, the importance of representation. Seeing “Crazy Rich Asians” be a super successful movie and reading “The wedding date” gave me the courage to write my own book, and while I haven’t found success like Kevin Kwan or Jasmine Guillory, I am not giving up. Hopefully one day another person trying to write their own story could reference “Royal Revolt” as an example as well!
Til next time,
Odette
Odette Writes 