Much Ado about You

Immaturity and angst overshadow the joy in this disappointing romance from Young (the On Dublin Street series). When 33-year-old Chicagoan Evangeline Starling is passed over for a promotion and stood up for dinner after a month of online flirtation, she quits her job and radically reevaluates her life, adopting the mantra “No more men who made me doubt myself. No more job that made me feel like a failure.” Conveniently, the owner of quaint English bookshop Much Ado About Books needs someone to mind her store for a month, and Shakespeare-obsessed Anglophile Evie jumps at the chance. She meets local Roane Robson after risking her life to save his beloved Great Dane from being hit by a car, instantly earning his respect. Roane is a charming, earnest suitor, and their meet-cute is lovely, but Evie herself is recycled from rom-com stereotypes. She meddles in local affairs like a modern-day Emma and is rewarded rather than criticized for her interference. Her incoherent resistance to romance, though, is a superficial salve for her insecurities and puts a serious damper on the love story. Though billed as a romantic comedy, there’s more melancholy than humor here, and not enough depth to back up the heavy emotions. This is a let down. [em]Agent: Lauren Abramo, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Feb.) [/em]