REVIEW: Romance is My Day Job by Patience Bloom

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviewsautobiography / book editor / Contemporary / family relationships / First-Person / Harlequin / non-fiction8 Comments

Who knows the ins and outs of romance better than a Harlequin editor? A surprising and exhilarating look into Patience Bloom’s unexpected real-life love story.

At some point, we’ve all wished romance could be more like fiction. Patience Bloom certainly did, many times over. As a teen she fell in love with Harlequin novels and imagined her life would turn out just like the heroines’ on the page: That shy guy she had a crush on wouldn’t just take her out—he’d sweep her off her feet with witty banter, quiet charm, and a secret life as a rock star. Not exactly her reality, but Bloom kept reading books that fed her reveries.

Years later she moved to New York and found her dream job, editing romances for Harlequin. Every day, her romantic fantasies came true—on paper. Bloom became an expert when it came to fictional love stories, editing amazing books and learning everything she could about the romance business. But her dating life remained uninspired. She nearly gave up on love.

Then one day a real-life chance at romance made her wonder if what she’d been writing and editing all those years might be true. A Facebook message from a high school friend, Sam, sparked a relationship with more promise than she’d had in years. But Sam lived thousands of miles away—they hadn’t seen each other in more than twenty years. Was it worth the risk?

Finally, Bloom learned: Love and romance can conquer all.

Review

What a charming book. A Harlequin editor – Harlequin and if they don’t know romance then who does? – who looks for romance and her own hero and HEA only to come up short time after time. A woman who had dated for years through set-ups and hook-ups and online matchmaking sites all while loving romance novels and editing that very genre we know and talk about. A forty year old editor who had finally gotten to a point where she was happy with who she was and where she was in her life and satisfied to be on her own.

Then just when she’d given up and was ready to be herself and not worry about putting herself out there anymore, comes a Facebook hello – with exclamation marks – that might just change everything. But who was this man who contacted her from out of the blue? And was Patience willing to take a chance, revisit the opportunity to risk her heart and via Skype at that? I’ve heard so many cases where true love appears right when you least expect it – much like the hilarious Harlequin trope examples she uses in her story – but would this be another or would things fizzle? For the first time Patience decides to just see what will happen and not sweat it.

What happens next is magic – as if it was meant to be all along. Not everything is smooth sailing since we are after all dealing with real people and not Harlequin characters who bypass all the messy details of real life and head straight for the wedding and baby. But in the end, it truly is a romance HEA complete with the perfect dress, great hair, happy families and a one of a kind song to walk down the aisle to. Hey, who says you can’t have a Duran Duran wedding? Yep, after finishing this I had to go on a happy nostalgic 80s song fest.

~Jayne

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Jayne

Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 15 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading very few paranormals.

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