I'm a fairly voracious reader (I read a book a week last year), but the one popular genre I don't usually turn to is romance/romantic comedies. I have a very small handful that I've enjoyed, but on the whole, they make up a small percentage of the books I read. However, sometimes one will come along and surprise me, and that's what happened when I got my hands on Rioghnach Robinson's Bad Words, a novel that rom-com doyenne Emily Henry called "a once-in-a-lifetime read about truth, art, vulnerability and all the sticky places they intersect." With that in mind, I dove in—and, spoiler, it's one of three books I gave five stars this year.
I Hate Rom-Com Novels, But This 'Once-in-a-Lifetime Read' Gets 5 Stars From Me
One of my three 5-star reads for the year
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Published Sep 11, 2026
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The plot follows novelist Parker Navarro, whose worst nightmare has come to pass. Selina Chan, the feared critic at City Magazine (a verisimilitude of something akin to The New Yorker), has read—and completely torpedoed—his second novel, four years after panning his debut and cratering his career. By chance, they attend the same book party and, overcome with emotion, Parker heatedly confronts Selina. A video of the confrontation ends up leaked and viral; what follows is an online feud that plays out on social media, in legacy news outlets and in person as both discover, slowly and begrudgingly, that neither is who they have been portrayed as on the Internet and by their enemies. The attention, however, is also tantalizing in its unexpected effects. After a fantastic fall from his seven-figure advance the first go-round, Parker sees his second novel quickly earn out the paltry $15,000 paid by his publisher as it skyrockets to the top of the bestseller lists. Selina sees a bump in subscriptions to City that the magazine desperately needs to prevent from folding.
St. Martin's Press
Bad Words doesn't fall neatly into the rom-com genre, and that's what I love about it. Robinson manages to tickle my love for a literary, intellectual read that asks big questions about a society or system, with lovely, lively prose—all while still being laugh-out-loud hilarious. I rarely laugh out loud for any form of media, be it TV or books. (The last time I actually almost fell off a chair with giggles was Henry's Beach Read.) Banter like, "That's a shame, I need help assembling this Trojan Horse I bought from IKEA. They sent me 200 pounds of raw pinewood and a hex wrench the size of a toothpick" and observations like "...criticism could be beautiful, not just a collection of reactions but a way to organize and illuminate the world" balanced thoughtfulness and deadpan humor.
I told one friend that this book was a bit literary and she backed away immediately, so let me clarify for anyone else who might be wary: Bad Words is not cerebral if you don't want it to be, but that extra layer is what earned it five whole stars from me. The banter is funny! It's witty! It's got the will-they-won't-they dance essential to any rom-com. And yet, if you wanted to read between the lines, it's also got so much depth. Bad Words asks the reader to consider who gets the right and privilege of being an artist; to contemplate the power of words, good and bad; to challenge the idea of cancel culture, feuds, and political correctness and to examine who has the right to have art imitate life and vice versa. It examines the role of literature and the powerful act of writing in our lives, and how art must compromise itself when money is on the line.
I blew through this book in a couple days, and, strangely, it was the first time I've ever felt sad that a novel was coming to an end. If you pick up a copy, I think you'll see what I mean, and why Henry was right.
Bad Words publishes October 6.
