Book Review: "Waiting for Tom Hanks" by Kerry Winfrey

"...I'm starting to think that the movies I've dedicated my life to may have lied to me. Nora Ephron herself may have indirectly lied to me. Tom Hanks, as much as I've trusted him, may have lied to me. Because I have it all: the sympathetic backstory, the montage of humiliations minor and major, unrealized career aspirations, the untamed pre-makeover hair. But still, I wait. Single, lonely, Hanks-less."

Annie Cassidy believes in love. Or more accurately, she believes in the love she has seen in the romantic comedies she grew up watching. She and her mother used to watch all those movies, from the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s to the holy grail, the movies written by Nora Ephron which starred Tom Hanks—Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail.

Annie knows that her parents, who are both deceased, had a storybook romance, and she believes one is waiting out there for her, too. All she needs to do is to find her Tom Hanks, the steadfast, kind, romantic man from the movies, maybe one who even owns a houseboat. She's even ready for their meet-cute.

When Annie gets a job on a movie being filmed in her town, as an aspiring screenwriter of rom-coms, she feels like this may be the break she needs. She meets the film's handsome leading man, Drew Danforth, but isn't impressed by his prankster ways, or that he always seems to be around to witness her most embarrassing moments. She discovers that he's a far more sensitive, complex man than she imagined, but no matter how much she may be attracted to him, he is not her Tom Hanks, especially since he'll be leaving town as soon as filming is complete.

Are Annie's expectations unrealistic, or can she find the man she's been waiting her whole life for? Have the movies she loves so much given her false hope, and caused her to pass over the right person? Annie makes some surprising and painful discoveries, and she wonders whether it's even worth wanting romance, or whether she should just give up waiting for it.

Waiting for Tom Hanks is absolutely adorable and it reads just like a romantic comedy. You can pretty much tell what's going to happen from the very start, but the characters are goofy and charming (including several of the supporting characters) that you may find yourself completely hooked, like I did. Kerry Winfrey knows her rom-coms, and honestly, this book would make the perfect movie.

Sure, the book is a little hokey, but it was such a fun read that I devoured it in the course of a plane ride. I'm definitely looking forward to Winfrey's next book, because I just enjoyed this so much! If you're a rom-com fan, or just a fan of romance, Waiting for Tom Hanks may be for you!