In a New York Minute

In the middle of the worst day Franny Doyle has ever had, a stranger on the subway saves her from an embarrassing situation by giving her his suit jacket. Despite seeming like complete opposites, as Franny and Hayes keep running into each other, they find themselves enjoying each other's company.

The characterizations in this book were great. Franny is struggling to find herself as she tries to decide where she wants to go in her life now that she's forced to change her current situation. Meanwhile, Hayes is still dealing with his emotions from his past relationship. I found myself really feeling for Hayes as he tried to process his insecurities - I found some of the Hayes chapters to be some of the standouts of this book. Hayes as an awkward love interest was so good and I loved him so much. I also really enjoyed reading about all these people who were in Franny and Hayes' circles. Cleo, Lola, Eleanor, and Perrine all seem like the really solid, ride-or-die friends that you'd want to have by your side as you try to navigate through your life.

I found all the ways that Hayes and Franny ran into each other after the initial debacles around the Subway were over to be very cute, building up their relationship slowly with witty banter and slowly opening up to each other. Setting their love story up in New York City is a classic rom-com move, and I enjoyed exploring the city as they introduced each other to things they loved in the City that Never Sleeps.

However, I had an issue with this big conflict in that it felt a bit like it came out of the left field. It just felt so uncharacteristic and forced a wedge between the two characters that did not feel natural in the direction the storytelling was going to go - it felt like we had to have this conflict just because that's what a story like this expects at this point in the story, rather than a conflict that happens at this moment because of other points that were building to this moment. Even how they resolved the big conflict seemed to be a mess of lack of understanding of how the other communicates and proceeds to then be a few misses in communication even for a romance novel that ties things together neatly. I know that the way each of them tried to resolve their conflict was painted as a grand romantic gesture the way you'd seen in a Hallmark movie, but I couldn't help but feel as I read the ending that I wasn't convinced their relationship could work out in the long term - a weird feeling that I don't often get from reading romance, and a big shame since I'm really rooting for Franny and Hayes.

I also wasn't really sure what to make of Franny's attitude toward her financial situation - she seemed to oscillate between panicking about her lack of money to make rent and pay bills and talking about how she'd splurge/had splurged in the past toward something that's a luxury item, and it kept happening to the point where it became hard for me to feel sympathetic about her money struggles.

Overall, a light-hearted rom-com that I enjoyed reading.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the ARC!