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Love Is The Punch Line by Kathleen Jones Genres: Romance, Comedy
Middle-aged stand-up comedian Josh Steinberg, the “Jewish Comedy King” and formerly the star of his own popular TV series, finds himself struggling to keep his career alive, playing seedier and seedier clubs. Plump, balding, and plain-looking, he has never had much luck with women. That is, until Josh meets Holly Brannigan while performing his stand-up act in a club. Holly, an attractive, intelligent, and divorced 50-year-old businesswoman, becomes instantly smitten with Josh and even finds his unconventional looks wildly sexy.
The lonely and vulnerable Josh soon falls in love with Holly, even though she’s not the statuesque type he usually goes for. But Josh, terrified of being hurt and discarded by yet another woman, hides his feelings for Holly by making fun of her in his stand-up act. And Holly, taking Josh’s words to heart, starts to wonder if she means anything to him at all.
Holly soon sees past Josh’s wisecracks and becomes aware of his true feelings for her, and Josh, slowly and painfully, learns that he can trust Holly. Josh also discovers that Holly has faith in his ability to reinvent himself. With her support and encouragement, Josh writes a screenplay for his “comeback” movie, then tries to bring his vision to life, battling dismissive Hollywood studios, hostile movie directors and paparazzi, and his own ongoing depression and deep insecurities about his looks. Together, Josh and Holly work to rebuild Josh’s faded career—and to build a future with each other.
Love Is The Punch Line; Book Review
Kathleen Jones’ book, Love is the Punch Line, is a about an honest romance between two people who are not gorgeous and not young. They are based on real people, everyday people. They are in their 50’s and have a bit of self esteem and trust issues.
You can clearly see that when Josh gets up on stage for his comedy routine. He’s balding and he’s on the plump side. You can read what Josh is thinking while giving his stand-up routine. Even though it’s suppose to be funny, it felt kinda sad. He was barely getting any laughs from the audience.
Holly, meets Josh at the comedy club. She’s from Toronto, a business woman, kind and smart. Even though they both have self esteem and trust issues, they do have there ups and there downs. It’s not a novel that’s love at first sight, it takes awhile for there HEA ( happily ever after). I do like a slow burn within the pages, and that’s what Kathleen has done here.
I liked the fact that this relationship was about 2 older adults, as I am creeping up to that age in a few years. It was refreshing to read, and you can truly find love at any age.
Kudo’s to you Kathleen. I enjoyed the book a lot.
Oh and I’ll have to let you know when I’m in Toronto, I’d love to grab a cup of coffee with you sometime!
Author Links
About Kathleen Jones
Canadian author Kathleen Jones earned her degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto. She worked as an editor for various Canadian book publishers. Now Kathleen is a full-time author who writes for a number of popular book blogs and contributes monthly book reviews to Goodreads. LOVE IS THE PUNCH LINE is her debut novel. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada