Title: WAITING FOR TOM HANKS
Author: KERRY WINFREY
Released: 11TH JUNE 2019 by BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Genre: ROMANCE
I don’t know if you’ve all noticed, but I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump these last few weeks. Between being so busy with my business and just life, reading some really wonderful books in the last few months, and feeling generally overwhelmed, I just haven’t been interested in much I’ve picked up. Enter Waiting for Tom Hanks, stage left…and I immediately felt pulled into this story!
Annie is a college graduate who thought she’d be further in life, love, and her career at this stage than she has gotten; however, her life hasn’t gone to plan. I must say, I didn’t love her as much as I expected I would, but she was necessary to the story. I wish she’d been a little bit of a stronger character, but I still enjoyed her. I loved her best friend Chloe, though! She was hilarious, down to earth, and totally not afraid of calling Annie on her bullshit when needed! Annie has some very high standards – her ideal man owns a houseboat, after all – and will settle for nothing less! Meaning she is waiting for her own Tom Hanks to show up in her life. I guess she’s lucky a romcom is being filmed in her hometown!
Drew is a very famous movie star who is cast in previously mentioned romcom, and Annie hates this idea of this jokester ruining this movie. So, obviously, she pre-judges him. There’s more to him than she knows, though. Turns out he’s a way better man than the gossip sites portray *shock*. She views their interactions way differently than himself and they take a little while to sort things out. But once they do, it’s magic! I loved them together and felt they were a really great match. AND THAT GRAND GESTURE – BE STILL MY HEART!
There are several minor characters I loved throughout -Uncle Don, Nick, and Tommy, to name just a few. They really gave the story added depth. I truly loved Kerry Winfrey’s storytelling and world-building. She’s a massively talented author, and I cannot wait to see what she gives us next!
This was a cute, fun story that kept me highly entertained start to finish! I just want to read Annie’s screenplay, now!
Definitely a FOUR STAR read for me. Keep reading for an excerpt!
A rom-com-obsessed romantic waiting for her perfect leading man learns that life doesn’t always go according to a script in this delightfully charming and funny novel.
Annie Cassidy dreams of being the next Nora Ephron. She spends her days writing screenplays, rewatching Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she could just find her own Tom Hanks—a man who’s sweet, sensitive, and possibly owns a houseboat—her problems would disappear and her life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks is nowhere in sight.When a movie starts filming in her neighborhood and Annie gets a job on set, it seems like a sign. Then Annie meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky prankster who couldn’t be less like Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet-cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon Annie finds herself sharing some classic rom-com moments with Drew. Her Tom Hanks can’t be an actor who’s leaving town in a matter of days…can he?
EXCERPT (Chapter 4)
I blink a few times, staring straight into Drew Danforth’s face. It’s like when you’re a kid and there’s a solar eclipse, and all the teachers are like, “Don’t look directly into the sun! You’ll destroy your retinas!” but there’s always that one kid (Johnny Berger, in our class) who can’t stop staring.
In this situation, I’m Johnny Berger. And I guess Drew Danforth is the sun.
“Are you okay?” he asks again, enunciating his words even more as if me understanding him is the problem. His brown eyes, I notice, are flecked with tiny bits of gold, which is something you can’t see when you watch him on TV. His hair is just as voluminous as it seems in pictures, but in person, I have the almost overwhelming urge to touch it, to reach out and pull on that one lock of hair that hangs over his forehead.
“She’s not responding.” He turns to Chloe. “Is something wrong?”
“She’s French,” Chloe says without missing a beat. “She only speaks French.”
“I’m not French,” I say, breaking my silence. Chloe and Drew’s heads swivel to look at me.
“I’m sorry about your coat,” I whisper, then I run toward Nick’s.
Chloe bursts in the door behind me, the bell jingling in her wake. “I’m not French?” she screeches. “Those are the first words you spoke to Drew Danforth? Really?”
“Well then, why did you tell him I was French?” I shout, ignoring the curious stares of everyone working on their laptops and the calming melody of whatever Nick put on to replace the Doobies.
“I don’t know!” She throws her hands in the air. “You weren’t talking, so I thought I’d give you an interesting backstory!”
I put my hands over my face. “This is ridiculous.”
“No,” Chloe says, grabbing me by the shoulders. “This is your meet-cute, and now you need to go back out there and find him and say something that isn’t a negation of your Frenchness or an apology for destroying his probably very expensive coat.”
“Meet what?”
Nick stares at us from behind the counter, a dishtowel in his hand.
“A meet-cute,” Chloe stands up straight, shoulders back, as if she’s delivering a Romantic Comedy 101 lecture to Nick and his patrons, “is the quirky, adorable, cute way the hero and heroine of a romantic comedy meet.”
Everyone stares at her blankly.
“Or hero and hero. Or heroine and heroine. Not to be heteronormative,” she clarifies.
“Like how me and Martha met at her wedding,” Gary says.
Chloe thinks about it. “I don’t know that I would necessarily call that one a meet-cute, but sure, Gary.”
“Did you just make that up?” Nick asks, arms crossed.
I shake my head. “No. It’s a thing.”
“Watch a romantic comedy, dude,” Tobin says.
Nick rolls his eyes.
“Anyway,” Chloe continues, “Annie straight up ran into Drew Danforth and spilled a cup of coffee all over his coat, which is, like, the cutest of meets.”
“That doesn’t sound very cute,” Nick says skeptically, rubbing the scruff on his chin. “Was it still hot?”
“Scalding,” I say, sinking into my chair and resting my head on the table.
“Sounds like a meet painful,” says Gary, and a few people laugh.
“Thanks,” I mutter. “I’m so glad you all find my embarrassment entertaining.”
“Annie!” Chloe sits down across from me as a customer walks in and the rest of the shop stops paying attention to us. “This isn’t embarrassing. This is merely a story I’ll tell in my toast at your wedding to Drew.”
I lift my head to look at her. “I hate to break this to you, but I don’t think he’s my Tom Hanks. I think he’s just a famous guy with a possible third-degree burn on his chest. And now my first day on set is going to be super awkward because I accidentally assaulted the lead actor with a beverage.”
Chloe’s about to say something, but then a song starts and she closes her mouth, looking up toward the speakers. “I swear to God, I told Nick not to play any more Bon Iver. It makes people look up their exes on Instagram, not buy coffee. I’m gonna go put on some Hall and Oates.”
As she walks away, I rest my head on the table again. As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough to have my uncle get me a job on set, now I have to deal with this.
Thank you so much to Kerry Winfrey + Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.
The Wayfaring Bibliomaniac 
Cute love story sounds great. I am off romance at the moment. Lovely review 😍
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