Seeking Critique Partners – Commercial Contemporary Romance / Rom-Com

[Lieze Neven]

Hi everyone,

I’m on the hunt for new critique partners who are serious about writing commercial contemporary romance or romantic comedy with the goal of getting published traditionally.

A bit about me: I’ve been in the trenches before with one manuscript that received strong agent interest, but I didn’t land an offer because the middle sagged. I’ve taken those lessons on board and am now working on a new rom-com, which I plan to query at the start of next year. I don’t yet have an agent, but I’m committed to getting there and would love to connect with others who have similar professional ambitions.

What I’m looking for in a CP:

• Writers of commercial contemporary romance or romantic comedy

• People who are also planning to query or are already querying (let's share the pain haha)

• Honest but constructive feedback (I give the same in return)

• A willingness to swap chapters, partials, or fulls depending on what stage we’re at

If this sounds like you, drop me a message! I’d love to see if we’d be a good fit for each other.

About my current manuscript: 

Maeve is a disgraced food influencer who blew up her career after one viral livestream where she was a little too honest about her industry. After three years on the waiting list, the allotment she’s finally been granted feels like her one shot at redemption: a dirt-under-the-nails comeback to prove she’s more than a ring light and sponsored posts. She can’t tell a trowel from a hoe, films more blisters than vegetables, and mistakes grass for something edible. Awkwardly earnest in her attempts, Maeve is desperate to show the world, and herself, that she belongs here.

Sebastien was once a rising chef in the London culinary scene and is now barely keeping his food truck alive. After three years on the waiting list, he’s finally been granted an allotment. It’s his last chance to cut costs on produce and claw back some stability. But this lifeline comes with a bitter twist: he has to share it with the woman whose viral review cost him his job and left him scrambling to salvage a career he can’t imagine living without.

After a clerical error assigns them both to the same plot, Maeve and Sebastien are stuck side by side, ankle-deep in mud and animosity. Their daily skirmishes over everything from compost heaps to custody of the watering can quickly become the allotment’s favourite spectator sport. When the committee finally delivers an ultimatum - run a joint stall at the Summer Festival or lose the plot - they’re left with an impossible choice: professional ruin, or pretending they can tolerate each other just long enough to sell jam to pensioners. But as they battle slugs and each other, one truth proves harder to ignore: attraction, like bindweed, only grows wilder the more you fight it.