Okay, so I did enjoy How to Write a Love Story by Catherine Walsh. I thought the characters were well developed, and I really liked the plot. Who doesn’t love a good forced proximity trope? That said, at the beginning, I genuinely felt like Ciara and Sam had no chemistry. I was thinking, what the fuck is this?
But I appreciated that Walsh took the time to develop both characters individually before bringing them together. And she really made me eat my words, because by the end, they had incredible chemistry. What made this a mediocre book for me, though, was the ending.
The premise has so much potential. Ciara is trying to finish her father’s fantasy series after he dies before completing the final book. She is struggling under the weight of his legacy, and Sam, her editor, is sent to help her because he's a huge fan of Frank Sheridan and his books. There is so much here that could have been explored more deeply. Walsh could have delved a lot more into grief and into what it means for Ciara to choose herself rather than continue carrying the burden of her father’s legacy. She is constantly compared to him and pressured to finish the series. That is an enormous weight to bear.
I think the most powerful ending would have been for Ciara to decide not to finish the tenth book. She could have accepted that this incomplete ending is all readers are going to get, and that they have to make peace with that. Sometimes authors need to choose themselves, and they are not obligated to satisfy readers at the expense of their own well-being, especially in circumstances like this. Instead, she and Sam fall in love, there's a borderline miscommunication trope, a dramatic incident at the house in which Ciara loses all of her father’s papers, after which she's able to write and manages to finish the book on time.
That ending felt too safe to me.
It also seemed to contradict one of the book’s own ideas. At one point, Sam encourages Ciara to take the story to darker places because she is capable of it. I think Catherine Walsh was capable of that as well. It could have been taken into a direction where it is okay for authors to walk away from a story, even one that means so much to so many people.
Yes, I understand that this is a romance. But I actually think it would have been more romantic if Ciara had chosen not to complete the series. The most meaningful love story, in my opinion, would have been one where Sam, a devoted fan of the books, comes to terms with her decision and supports her anyway. That would have shown a deeper kind of love: accepting someone’s choice to prioritize their own emotional well-being, even when it means letting go of something deeply cherished.
So overall, I did enjoy the book. It had strong characters, a compelling setup, and a satisfying romantic arc. But I think it had the potential to be truly great, and it ultimately played things too safe to reach that level.
