There are three things that I always appreciate in every book I read (especially romcoms): heartwarming characters, sarcastic quips, and, most importantly, hilarious chapter titles. Rachel Lynn Solomon accomplishes all three in her new novel Weather Girl. The romantic comedy follows a weather (Ari Abrahams) and a sports (Russell Barringer) reporter who, frustrated with the toxic work environment their former married bosses create, scheme to get the couple back together. In the midst of their matchmaking plans, they find themselves also falling in love with each other. But it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows—despite their immediate chemistry, they still have to trudge through quite a few dark clouds.
That’s probably my favorite part of Solomon’s novels—she finds the perfect balance between butterfly-inducing excitement and heartfelt sadness. Similar to her book The Ex-Talk, in which x happens, Solomon complicates our idea of what a romantic comedy can and should look like. With the female lead suffering from clinical depression and a male lead with body insecurities and a daughter of his own, Ari and Russell are not the predictable leads of a rom-com. In her introduction to the novel, Solomon talks about her decisions to make Ari clinically depressed, “I wanted to show the messy, heavy parts of [Ari’s] life alongside the moments that sweep her off her feet. And I wanted a hero who’d love her through her dark days, not despite them.” Even the secondary leads, Torrance and Seth, although insanely attractive, are expecting grandparents in their fifties.
Yet, despite the unexpected nature of the main leads, the actual plot of the book is quite predictable. Solomon builds up the tensions beautifully, but we know from the get-go that Ari and Russell are going to get together. Torrance and Seth's reconciliation was a bit more difficult to predict since Ari, the narrator, only had an outsider’s perspective on their relationship, but even theirs was a relationship that Solomon brought more sunshine to. But what’s so wrong with being predictable? What’s so wrong with wanting a happy ending? In a world filled with unexpected horrors and unimaginable tragedies, there exists a simple joy in opening up a book knowing that these characters, despite all hurdles, will end up happy in the end. Romantic novels are the peak of escapist fiction; they are the books I read when I want to smile. Despite the contrived nature of the plot, Weather Girl delivers in making you feel so warm and fuzzy throughout the entirety of the novel; even at its darkest, there’s always a peek of sun behind the clouds.
Although the main focus of this novel is on the romance between Ari and Russell, this novel is also very much about family and all the complexity and imperfections it entails. The most paramount focus of Ari’s journey was coming to terms with her relationship with her mother and the ways it has impacted every facet of her life. Like her, Ari’s mother also suffered from depression throughout Ari’s childhood, which destroyed Amelia’s marriage and all her subsequent relationships, negatively impacting Ari’s own understanding of what a healthy romantic relationship looks like. As far as the journey went for Ari, she first had to come to terms with her mother to be able to start a relationship with Russell that had any chance of surviving.
I deeply connected with Ari’s complicated relationship with her mother. She wanted her mother in her life but was also terrified about what her mother could do to her own stability. So much of Ari’s anxiety in her past relationships stemmed from her deep, abiding fear that she would one day become her mother. Isn’t that something we all fear, to one degree or another—this sense that we are slowly transforming into the parents we could not relate to or understand in our youth? All of us have to let go of the notion that either our parents are perfect, flawless beings or utter monsters. They are humans, who, just like us, can make some pretty terrible mistakes. I am not excusing or defending parental abuse—and neither do I think Solomon is, since Ari always has the choice to cut her mother out of her life—instead, Weather Girl shows us what a parent-child relationship can look like when you go in with your armor lowered.
Ari was not the only one with family struggles in the book. One of the main hurdles standing in the way of Ari and Russell’s budding relationship at the beginning was Russell’s twelve-year-old daughter, who he had when he was seventeen. Elodie, who had for the past five years been the center of his world, complicated Ari’s desire to jump into a relationship with Russell. Ari wasn’t just starting a relationship with Russell—he and Elodie were a package deal. Russell needed Ari to bond with Elodie, as well as his ex, Liz, to be able to trust in the longevity of their relationship. They both needed to embrace all of each other’s imperfections, not just the superficial ones or the deep-seated ones. The best part of Ari and Russell’s relationship was that they both had to do a little bit more growing up and moving forward to be able to come together and find their happy ending.
That’s the beauty of a happy ending: instead of being all keyed up about the end, the focus can be on the journey. All the little details about Ari and Russell’s relationship—her weather-oriented jewelry, his colorful coats, their mutual love of storytelling—all have the ability to shine because of both Solomon’s impeccable writing and the reader’s ability to savor the story being told. Weather Girl is the book you read to feel good about yourself and to escape from a world that does not offer enough happy endings. It’s perfect for a casual read in the park under the sun or to cozy up with when it's raining.
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