Weather Girl, by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Goodreads ¦ Amazon
Series?: No
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: January 11, 2022
Length: 352 pages
Source: ARC
Format: Paperback
Times Read: Once
Rating: 37 lightning bolt necklaces/5

A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this charming romantic comedy from the author of The Ex Talk.

Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies? 

I loved this so much that I forgot to take any notes while I was reading so WHOO HOO let’s wing this thing, shall we?

♥ If you read Rachel’s adult debut last January and thought “hmm, this is nice, but it could use more open-door sex. And it would be cool if the love interest was both Jewish and fat and super sexy.” Well, wow, you are in luck. Because Rachel has served up a hero I’ve not seen before (AND I AM NOT EVEN TELLING YOU THE BEST PART ABOUT HIM BECAUSE YOU GET TO FIND OUT WHEN YOU’RE READING LIKE I DID), and a heroine who is both in therapy and on medication for depression.

♥ Ari has struggled with depression since she was a teenager, and when I say her recollections from sessions with a therapist in high school stopped me in my tracks, I mean they stopped me in my tracks and I quite literally had to put the book down for awhile. I was sent to a therapist in high school myself, and one of the things to come out of our first meeting was the phrase “I think that you might be depressed.” I completely blew her off after that, never went back, and never even considered her diagnosis. At this time in my life, I didn’t know a lot about mental health because my family was so deeply religious and the mentality was usually that if you felt bad it was because you were guilty and needed to confess to god and blahdy blah blah. I had been taught that depression was something you could claim only if you had had suicidal ideation at some point, and since that had never been me, I could never have been depressed.

So I skipped through life believing that my mental health was way healthy and that never feeling awesome was just how I was, because who really felt good all the time? No one I knew.

And then I turned 30 and got to Maine. In Maine, I had a new doctor who said again, “I think you might be depressed.” Only this time, I listened. I started taking medication and seeing a therapist.

But it took me until my late 30s and almost an entire book review to get here. And so, when I read about Ari’s high school therapy and diagnosis, it really made me stop. Because what if I had gotten help twenty years ago? (Don’t do the math, pretend I am still young) If I had accepted a diagnosis of depression at 17, what might my life have been like? It was a sobering but ultimately not unpleasant rumination, and this book is the only thing that has ever connected it for me.

♥ I’ve been so into The Morning Show on Apple TV, and I loved that Ari and Russell work at a news station too. It’s a really fun setting that I haven’t ever seen in a book before. Getting to watch the couple flirt and fall for each other while at work was fun, but it’s the accidental forced proximity that comes when the two try to Parent Trap their bosses where this story really shines. There are group dates, dance lessons, even a weekend trip that ends with Ari in the ER and Russell having to help her change into pajamas…not a thing happens but it’s still super hot and heavy.

♥ Both the depression and Jewish rep are written from an Own Voices POV, something Rachel does exceptionally well in all of her work.

And I have to thank Rachel for personally sending me a review copy ALL THE WAY from Amsterdam!

In conclusion did this make any sense? I have to assume no since I basically just stream-of-consciousness typed a bunch of stuff and didn’t at all try to make sure that everything connected well and flowed nicely. Basically, I love Rachel always, she has never disappointed me, and Weather GIrl is no exception. It is a wonderful contemporary romance complete with a HEA and if you haven’t preordered already I beg of you, please go order it now!

P.S. RIGHT THIS SECOND there are still sets of Weather Girl pencils over with my BFF Kasee at Longhand Pencils, but there are only a few and when they’re gone, they’re gone forever so HURRY!