Let’s be real here. We owe a lot to Nora Ephron, the brilliant screenwriter, director, and producer behind classic movies like You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally. Who can ever forget Meg Ryan’s outstanding comedic timing and chemistry with two other major comedy performers of the late 1980s and 1990s? We’ve compiled a fast list of romantic comedies that are both inspired by and endowed with the same zest and zing of Nora Ephron’s classic films and screenplays to honour her birthday on May 19. Look at this!
People We Meet on Vacation
Emily Henry
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Release Date: May 11, 2021
Read Between the Lines
Rachel Lacey
Books are Rosie Taft’s life. And ever since she took over her mother’s beloved Manhattan bookstore, they’ve become her home too. The only thing missing is her own real-life romance like the ones she loves to read about, and Rosie has an idea of who she might like to sweep her off her feet. She’s struck up a flirty online friendship with lesbian romance author Brie, and what could be more romantic than falling in love with her favorite author?
Release Date: December 1, 2021
How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days
K.M. Jackson
Bethany Lu Carlisle is devastated when the tabloids report actor Keanu Reeves is about to tie the knot. What?! How could the world’s perfect boyfriend and forever bachelor, Keanu not realize that making a move like this could potentially be devastating to the equilibrium of…well…everything! Not to mention, he’s never come face to face with the person who could potentially be his true soulmate—her.
Release Date: November 2, 2021
To Sir, with Love
Lauren Layne
Perpetually cheerful and eager to please, Gracie Cooper strives to make the best out of every situation. So when her father dies just months after a lung cancer diagnosis, she sets aside her dreams of pursuing her passion for art to take over his Midtown Manhattan champagne shop. She soon finds out that the store’s profit margins are being squeezed perilously tight, and complicating matters further, a giant corporation headed by the impossibly handsome, but irritatingly arrogant Sebastian Andrews is proposing a buyout.
Release Date: June 29, 2021
The Hating Game
Sally Thorne
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.
Release Date: August 9, 2016
Hana Khan Carries On
Uzma Jalaluddin
Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighborhood of Toronto. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners.
Release Date: April 13, 2021
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake
Amy E. Reichert
In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lou works tirelessly to build her beloved yet struggling French restaurant, Luella’s, into a success. She cheerfully balances her demanding business and even more demanding fiancé…until the morning she discovers him in the buff—with an intern.
Witty yet gruff British transplant Al is keeping himself employed and entertained by writing scathing reviews of local restaurants in the Milwaukee newspaper under a pseudonym.
Release Date: July 21, 2015
Work Song
Danielle Allen
When society tries to put you in a box, knock the walls down. –Tati Green“You have a pretty face” is such a back-handed compliment. It’s like telling me that my face is beautiful, but the rest of me is not.Despite what society says, my curves are hot.My love life, on the other hand, is not.My mom says I’ll never find love because of my weight.My sister says I’ll never find love because of my personality.My almost-fiancé says I’ll never find love because I’m incapable of loving anyone.My mom and sister are full of it, but my ex kind of has a point.At twenty-seven years old, I’ve never been in love. I date a lot, yet sparks never fly.
Release Date: September 27, 2015