Today we have a guest in at the LoveCats: Claire Baxter. Claire writes gorgeous romances with a good dollop of humour, so she's here talking about her love of romantic comedies. Welcome, Claire!
I love romantic comedies – both books and movies. However, when I’m asked which movies I would recommend, my mind often goes completely blank and so I decided to make a list of my favorite romantic comedies. How does it compare with yours?
12. The African Queen
Straight-laced missionary Rose Sayer (Katherine Hepburn) persuades crass riverboat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) to use his boat to attack an enemy warship.
11. Notting Hill
A world-famous American actress (Julia Roberts) and an adorable, British independent bookstore owner (Hugh Grant) with a group of quirky friends.
10. Serendipity
A couple (John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale) reunite years after the night they first met, fell in love, and separated, convinced that one day they'd end up together.
9. Four Weddings and a Funeral
A bumbling Englishman (Hugh Grant) repeatedly runs into the love of his life (Angie MacDowell) at—you guessed it—four weddings and a funeral.
8. While You Were Sleeping
Ticket collecting romantic (Sandra Bullock) pretends to be engaged to an unconscious man but can't fool his brother (Bill Pullman).
7. One Fine day
Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer), an architect and mother of Sammy, and Jack Taylor (George Clooney), a newspaper columnist and father of Maggie.
6. The Proposal
A pushy boss (Sandra Bullock) forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada.
5. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
A young Greek woman (Nia Vardalos) falls in love with a non-Greek (Michael Constantine) and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her.
4. Love Actually
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.
3. Bridget Jones’s DiaryBridget
Jones (Renée Zellweger) is the British singleton who falls for Daniel
Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and eventually, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
2. Lars and the Real Girl
Socially-inept Lars (Ryan Gosling) dates a life-size sex doll, and the entire town goes to great lengths to accept her. His relationship with ‘Bianca’ allows him to talk to co-worker Margo (Kelli Garner).
1. Amélie
A quirky waitress (Audrey Tatou) sends her secret crush (Matthieu Kassovitz) photos and riddles masking her identity in order to make their first encounter the most romantic moment of her life.
Nearly made it:
The following movies could easily have been in my Top 12, but they were just edged out by those above.
When Harry Met Sally
Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
Return to Me
A man (David Duchovny) who falls in love with the woman (Minnie Driver) who received his wife's heart must decide which woman it is who holds his heart.
Must Love Dogs
Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane), a forty-something preschool teacher, looks to the personals for a relationship where she meets Jake Anderson (John Cusack) who makes handcrafted boats.
About a Boy
Cynical, immature Will Lightman (Hugh Grant) is taught how to act like a grown-up by a little boy, the son of a depressed single mother (Toni Collette).
Now, these four romantic comedies below have been recommended to me, but I haven’t seen them yet.
(500) days of summer
Silver Linings Playbook
Truly Madly Deeply
Roman Holiday
Will any of them bump off one of my Top 12, do you think? And are there any others that would make your Top 12?
Today I'm thrilled to introduce our special guest, Claire Baxter. Claire has written for Random Romance and Mills & Boon, is self-publishing a series of novellas, and has a book with Entangled coming out in September. She's busy as well as lovely!
Welcome, Claire!
Your first book for Random Romance, Anybody But Him, has been getting lots of buzz. Can you tell us a bit about it?
It’s an enemies to lovers story with some laughs along the way. I’d always wanted to write comedy, but I’d had to rein it in while writing earlier books. Nicola had been living in my head for a long time, as had her eccentric parents and her mum’s rich buttery shortbread (excuse me while I drool over rich buttery shortbread...), and Blair, of course. He was her high-school crush and he’s the last person she wants to run into. I can’t tell you what a relief it was to let them all out.
Sounds sizzling! Regular blog readers will know that I love romantic comedy, so I'm really looking forward to reading this one. Is it your first rom-com?
Yes, it is. I admit that I was surprised when someone other than me found it funny. Humour is so subjective, isn’t it? I’ll be happy if it raises a smile when you read it. :)
It's set in Redgum Valley, a country town in New South Wales. Did you base Redgum Valley on a particular town?
Originally I based it on Coonamble, a small town north of Dubbo, for no reason other than it felt right when I came across it in my research. Redgum Valley took on a life of its own in my imagination, though, so I doubt that any of Coonamble remains.
You're incredibly busy! You have this release with Random Romance, you have another book coming soon with Entangled, and another self-published novella. Plus you're vice president of the Romance Writers of Australia. How do you fit it all in?
Um...next question? Seriously, I don’t know, but we’re all busy, aren’t we? Look at some of the Lovecats! There are some amazing people amongst this group.
I’ve recently discovered the program Freedom which helps me to focus on the task at hand. I really needed it, so I was thrilled to see how well it worked. It blocks my access to the internet for the period of time I specify. But I once selected 300 minutes instead of 30 minutes which was very frustrating because once you’ve switched it on, you can’t switch it off again! I’m more careful with my numbers now. :)
I still need more hours in the day, though. Don’t we all?
I loved your novella, More Than Just One Night, and I see that you've just released your next novella and it's the next Selwood sister's story. Can you give us a hint about what will happen for her?
Gwen is the middle sister. In More Than Just Pretend she’s been through a bitter divorce and desperately wants to create a stable home for her teenage daughter Becky who’s in the final, difficult years of school. Returning to live near her sisters in their parents’ old house, Gwen finds that the house needs fixing up, and Spencer the sexy builder is just the man to do it. He wears a tool belt...need I say more?
We here at the LoveCats are always looking for book recommendations. What's the last great category romance you read, and the last great non-category book?
The last great category...Sarah Morgan’s A Night of Scandal. First book I’d read by Sarah Morgan and I enjoyed it very much.
The last great non-category...Jill Mansell’s Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. I’m a big fan of Jill Mansell and read every book as soon as it comes out.
And finally, since you're visiting the LoveCats we need to know: are you a cat person or a dog person?
I’m a dog person. Categorically.
Thanks for visiting us, Claire! And for those who'd like to know a little more about Anybody But Him, here's the blurb:
A deliciously funny rom com from Random Romance. What happens when you fall in love with the man you hate?
Nicola Doyle's dating record is a disaster, and it doesn't improve when she returns to Redgum Valley, after an absence of twelve years, to look after her increasingly eccentric parents. There, she's thrown into regular contact with Blair Morrissey – the very reason she couldn't wait to leave town in the first place.
The decade-old scars are still raw from that humiliating day in high school – when Blair went from the boy she loved to the boy she hated.
Except Blair doesn't seem to be a ‘bad boy' any more – in fact, he's charming, infuriatingly helpful and extremely attractive.
If only Nicola could forgive and forget . . .
You can pick up a copy of Anybody But Him from iTunes, Amazon or Kobo.
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When Harry Met Sally
