Patience Bloom, a successful
editor for Harlequin Books, chronicles her search for love in Romance Is My
Day Job. The memoir commences in 1984 at a high school dance, when
bookish wallflower, Patience,
a sophomore, is ditched by Ken, her good-looking, 'Harlequin-hero'-like date.
Sam, a popular, fun-loving senior rescued Patience,
the two of them taking to the dance floor and even posing as a couple for the
event photographer.
The picture is all that remained
from the thrill of that night. For the next 25 years, Patience endured a series of bad
relationships as she moved around the U.S., lived in Paris and finally landed
in New York at Harlequin. By the time she turned 40, Patience—professionally
successful, but still single—concluded, "My life is nothing like these
books, not even a little bit."
References to popular romance books
and movies infuse Bloom's honest, witty narrative as she offers a clever,
humorous take on hero archetypes and compares lessons learned, often the hard
way, from her own romantic entanglements. When Sam contacts Patience
via Facebook shortly after her 41st birthday, the two, living on different
continents, court each other via Skype for four months. They share an intimacy
that affirms Patience's
faith in love, encouraging her to reflect upon her life and open her heart. But
is Sam too good to be true? Once they finally meet again, face to face, will
they be compatible? Suspense deepens as Bloom's beautifully rendered love story
illustrates how real life can often be as engrossing as romance novels.
Publication
Date: February 6, 2014
Note: This
review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the
permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf
Awareness: Reader's Edition (2/14/14), click HERE