A  fun romantic comedy about a woman writing under a male pseudonym and the man she hires to play the role in public.

Daphne McFadden is tired of rejection. After submitting her manuscript to dozens of agents, she’s gotten rejection after rejection, and now it’s time for something drastic. And so, Daphne submits her manuscript again… under a man’s name.

Imagine her surprise when it sells for big money at an auction and soon becomes a publicity darling. Only she needs a man to play her super macho alter ego Zane Remington. Enter Chris Stanton, who absolutely looks the part of a survivalist and has a talent for pressing her piss‑me‑off‑I‑dare‑you buttons while somehow being endearing at the same time. But Chris has a few secrets of his own, including the fact that he’s really an accountant who has no idea how to chop wood or paddle a canoe. When Daphne’s book becomes a bestselling sensation and they’re forced to go on tour together, Daphne finds herself wondering if this city‑boy geek is exactly what she needs to push her to claim her dreams.

Author Kelley Armstrong writes books I’ve recently become practically obsessed with, including two amazing timeslip series: A Stitch in Time (romantic timeslip with supernatural elements) and A Rip Through Time (timeslip focused on Victorian police procedurals — with a smidge of romance too). Finding Mr. Write is quite a departure — this is the author’s first rom-com… but have no fear! In the hands of this talented author, it’s fun and sassy and just a wee bit outside the norm for the genre.

In Finding Mr. Write, Daphne is a trained architect with the heart of a novelist. She’s been writing stories all her life, but is beyond frustrated. Her novel gets rejection after rejection, leading her to declare to her best friend, in one of the more memorable opening lines of the year:

After reading about a woman author who got five times the response when she submitted her manuscript with a man’s name, Daphne tweaks her book synopsis (“more survivalism, more zombies, less romance”), sticks on a fake man’s name (Zane Remington… hilarious), and sends it off. Lo and behold, she (Zane) gets a book deal, and a big one at that.

The problem is, the publisher wants an author bio and photo. Daphne enlists her best friend Nia (conveniently, a lawyer) to help her find an actor to play Zane, and to ensure that the legal documents are on the up-and-up in terms of her pseudonym. Nia finds a seemingly perfect guy for the role of the swaggering, outdoorsy author — Chris is gorgeous, hard-bodied, and has plenty of game and attitude.

He’s also a fake. Yes, he did a bit of acting way back when, but he’s actually an accountant who’s a client of Nia’s, and nothing warms his heart more than a well-structured spreadsheet. He sprouted from nerdy mathlete to hottie over the years thanks to determination and gym hours, but in his heart of hearts, he’s no more a Zane than Daphne herself is.

All goes well, until Daphne’s book is released (complete with sexy Zane photo on the back cover). When it becomes an instant bestseller, the publisher insists on TV interviews and a full tour schedule, not something Daphne and Chris planned for. A camera crew is scheduled to profile Zane at his Yukon home (i.e., Daphne’s Yukon home), and the unlikely duo have to do a crash-course on learning about each other… and teaching Chris some basics like paddling a canoe, splitting firewood (just don’t!), and what to do when confronted by a grizzly.

Daphne and Chris start with playful banter via text and email. At first, he fully embraces the Zane persona (no, he hasn’t read her book and no, he doesn’t actually read books), but bit by bit, he lets the real Chris come out (who does, in fact, read — and loved her book). They develop a lovely chemistry, but Chris is clear that a fling isn’t what he’s looking for, and Daphne is wary of relationships. Not to mention, he lives and works in Vancouver and she’s loving her solitary life in the Yukon — any sort of lasting connection seems highly unlikely.

Without going much further into the plot, it’s clear that there are two central conflicts looming: First, can Daphne and Chris work through their differences and allow themselves to explore their feelings and mutual attraction? And second, what will happen when, inevitably, the truth about Zane/Chris/Daphne and the authorship of Daphne’s book gets exposed?

Both elements are handled extraordinarily well. We get plenty of goofy scenes of Chris learning to get along in Daphne’s world, and get to see both of them learn that their first impressions and surface-level expectations aren’t the true picture of who they each are underneath. Their time together is flirty, sexy, steamy (some explicit scenes await), and sensitive.

The publishing drama feels realistic, although I had a bit of a hard time buying into the initial setup. Daphne’s book is about a teen girl surviving in the wilderness after a zombie apocalypse. She knows in her heart that it’s YA, and she thinks lovingly of all the YA books she read growing up that inspired her to become a writer. Yet with Zane’s name on the cover, it’s branded as a survival/zombie/action story and placed on the general fiction shelves — but no one seems to question too deeply how this “man’s man” author managed to create such a compelling teen girl protagonist. I’d think someone would have twigged to this anomaly along the way.

In any case, Daphne and Chris have woven a complicated web that starts to unravel once fans start trying to track down Zane’s true identity, and then the race is on: Can Daphne reveal the truth before she’s outed, and how can she step forward without destroying her own reputation and losing all credibility?

One thing I really loved is that the point of view bounces back and forth throughout, with “Chris” and “Daphne” sections alternating frequently, even within the same chapter. When Chris jumps in to try to fix things for Daphne, we understand why he does what he does, and pretty much immediately also get Daphne’s take, letting us know just how badly he’s misinterpreted what she needs. It’s fun and smart — and very clear that despite her public shyness, Daphne is capable of making her own decisions and speaking up when it’s right for her, without needing to be pushed or rescued.

Finding Mr. Write is a total treat. The writing is spirited and clever, the romance zings, but there’s real content here too about women’s treatment in the publishing industry and beyond. Daphne and Chris are both great characters, and I loved seeing how they challenge and complement one another.

Also, kudos to Finding Mr. Write for a totally awesome use of a PowerPoint presentation — something I never expected to mention in a review of a rom-com!