Wake Up, Wanda Wiley

Diamond (Gate 76) turns the romance genre on its head with this quirky, meta–rom-com about a damsel in distress, a misogynistic hero, and a writer too stoned to get either of their stories right. Wanda Wiley’s career as a romance novelist has recently hit a bumpy patch, so she agrees to ghostwrite The President Has Been Stolen, the sixth thriller in Ed Parsippany’s bestselling Trevor Dunwoody series. Unfortunately, both her tumultuous relationship with her macho, egocentric boyfriend, Dirk Jaworski, and her insatiable marijuana habit interfere with her writing. Hannah Sharpe has been stuck in the recesses of Wanda’s mind for Wanda’s past 18 romance novels; each time Wanda considers her as a heroine, Hannah ends up written out in favor of more cooperative characters. Now, thanks to Wanda’s writer’s block, Trevor Dunwoody—an action hero whose alpha male arrogance is so exaggerated as to cross from comical to distasteful—is trapped with her. When Wanda’s neighbor, Austin Reed, sweetly confesses his interest in her, Hannah and Trevor begrudgingly team up to snap Wanda from her funk by influencing her thoughts and setting her up with Austin. Diamond pointedly sends up both romance and thriller conventions, but leaves little room for genuine feeling within the parody. There are plenty of laughs, but not enough heart. (Self-published)