I fell off my chair in the first episode of this one. Like legitimately fell out of my chair. I’ve been around romance authors for the last decade or so and I, for a hot second, had some second hand embarrassment. Yet, I get what I was watching and I pulled myself off the floor and told myself to embrace what it was. After all, The Bookworm & The Billionaire is a title that practically cliches itself into existence.
Anna DeRusso, Dorothy Mannine, and Tim Stein star in the latest vertical from Shorts. 52 episodes of chaos and drama. Sign me up. There is just something fun about Mannine in all the verticals, DeRusso is underrated, and judging by the 100’s of Tim Stein bots that follow me on social media, well, he’s very, very popular. Well it is the bots and the fact that I love all the verticals of his.
A lot of this vertical – the first 24 episodes if we want to be exact – I watched through my fingers. Mostly because I was like omg, I would do some embarrassing s*** like this. Lisa, girl, I relate. But you and Max definitely sullied the romance aisle at the library for me. Good job verticals, good job.
Lisa and Max are both writers. Her publisher is trying to “woo” him over to her publishing house and into her bed. She thinks that the way to Max’s heart is having Lisa as her love coach. There is no shade here, because some of us need help in relationships. I have seen Hitch – I know that people are awkward.
Well that and I am a human being, so I do know that people are awkward. That all being said, I really want to talk to the costuming department in these vertical dramas. I need to understand the cliches that they choose to portray in their choices. Max’s scarf and linen jacket had me laughing. Lisa’s matronly looking outfits had me going – ya no. I do understand that these things are kinda small, but for me it takes me out of what I am watching. I am not fashionista, but I do know a good cliche when I see one.
So, Lisa writes romantasy but her ability to be a love coach? Limited. She’s got cobwebs at this point, but still a libido. No one can really blame her for her drooling over Max. However, she’s gotta be careful because her publisher wants to be with him. However sometimes when you meet your idols – a girl has got to do what she was to do.
And that is to get hers.
Lisa agrees to do this whole love coach thing because of a bonus that she is offered. Fifty thousand will allow her to help her Mama and she’d do anything for her. What she doesn’t get is that this isn’t going to be easy. Especially because all the time that she spends with Max she realizes she likes him and he likes her. This is especially evident when he asks if she’ll read his latest manuscript. He’s having trouble with the ending.
I love Tim Stein and Anna DeRusso, and they make the cringe worthy moments in this series worth watching. They both are always make a series worth watching. Sometimes it was just a lot to expect the viewer to not want to look away, because what their character does is over dramatize moments. What we’re left with is a story that could have been great, but it’s only good.
For instance, when the two kiss for the first time I legitimately laughed. I laughed because I thought that they were going to suck each others face off. It was like two school kids getting their first kiss. There are a lot of moments where there is overacting, but it is justified, because it’s a soapy drama.
And who doesn’t like soaps?
When we get to the point of them having feelings and a conflict, I wondered why he was so mad. It made me stop for a second because he read her journal and jumped to conclusions as to why she was writing about him. She has the right to write whatever she wants in her journal. It’s not like she put it out on the internet.
But here we are and I am wondering what the writer of this drama thinks that romance writers do. They’re not – at least the ones that I know – don’t sit and get turned on by what they write. Yet, here were are and it’s soapy AF.
Of course there is a lot that can and does go wrong. After he reads her journal – Max kicks Lisa out. He doesn’t want to listen to why she’s doing it. She would have given him the truth. I believe that. Instead he acts like she contacted Deux Moi and gave them a blind item.
There’s loosing any respect for Max, because he kicks Lisa out and falls into bed with the publisher? And then is going to marry her?
Come on now Max. You know better. I get that your publisher said she was pregnant, but why does no one ask to see the tests in these things? I need people to stop faking pregnancies in these. It doesn’t have to be the story every time. Let a man think he had a vasectomy and turns out his testi’s were farmed for the swimmers and put on ice.
Luckily Lisa gathers the courage to go back to LA and stop the wedding. She’s able to show Max that she loves him. that she didn’t want to hurt him, and that they are meant to be. Sure there’s a lot more drama I haven’t mentioned, but the tea is good and so is the craziness.
The Bookworm & The Billionaire isn’t bad and it isn’t great. It just is. It takes tropes and preconceived notions about what romance writers and readers would be like. Is it worth watching? Well, Anna DeRusso and Tim Stein star in it, so yes.
And besides who doesn’t love a story where the nerdy girl wins?
