Synopsis:
A rival children’s book author and illustrator become reluctant friends over their mutual need to advance in their careers in Drawn Together, a heartwarming, character-driven, slow-burn romcom set in fall NYC.
In a city that never sleeps, Flora is desperate to wake up and finally land her first big break. But if your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Flora’s off to a terrible start. Five months into her move, she’s barely scraping by—her closest companion a silent roommate, and her first major freelance job slipping through her fingers. Her best chance at making it is surviving the one commission no illustrator before her could: a notoriously impossible-to-please author who (quite rudely) rejects every single draft she submits. Flora’s timeline is short—and she’s running out of chances.
To nail this project, she’ll have to lean into the dark, moody themes of his writing—no small task for someone known for illustrating woodland creatures in top hats. When she’s on the brink of giving up, a chance encounter with a surly stranger changes everything. Fletcher Harding, neighbor, a friend of her roommate, and a dark literature connoisseur, needs help writing a column on romance novels to achieve an advance in his career. Flora, a firm believer in happily-ever-after’s, he decides is the perfect tutor.
On a hazy walk home, the two strike a deal: she’ll teach him about love stories, and he’ll teach her how to embrace the shadows in her work. As their creative boundaries blur, so do the ones between their growing friendship and something far more. But with both of them carrying the weight of their pasts—and the futures of their careers hanging in the balance—can they really trust a story where love is the final chapter?
Especially when Flora realizes the author critiquing her work is the very man she’s falling for.
Review:
From chapter one I could tell I was going to love Drawn Together. One of the very first lines you get from Flora is “So, that was that. Magic was real. And it can only be found folded between the pages of books.” Her motivations for warning to become a book illustration are wonderful; her sister is deaf and would mostly pay attention to the drawings in the books. So cute and what lovely disability representation. I loved her sister and not once did you feel any sadness towards her being deaf. She’s one of the best characters, so happy and full of life.
One thing that would have made Drawn Together even better was if we got to see the illustrations Flora was working on. I know this would have made making this book an even longer process, but imagine how incredible that would be. The descriptions were great, so I have no doubt an artist could bring them to life. I loved this book a lot but this would have elevated it to a whole new level.
Our first meeting with Fletcher involves him taking the last muffin in the coffee shop, so Flora calls him a “Two-thousand-twelve Andrew Garfield wannabe”. If I was Fletcher I’d take that as a huge compliment. Who didn’t fancy Andrew Garfield back then? To be fair to Flora, this interaction was a little crazy. She orders the muffin and Fletcher, who was behind her in the queue, reaches around and buys it for himself. I’d lose my mind too. You find out why he does this, but what a way to introduce a character.
I love it when books have fun ways of starting or ending chapters and Drawn Together had both. The word of the day was so fun, this one is my favourite: “Word of the day: droke Definition: to gaze intensely at someone while they are eating, in the hope that they will share their food” I’ve never seen such a perfect word to describe my dog until now. I feel like I’ve learnt so much from the ‘word of the day’ at the start of each chapter. I also loved that you’d get a short section of Fletcher’s thoughts and feelings. Seeing his affections grow for Flora was adorable.
There are so many parts of this book that I loved but this was actually stupid, which I mean in an affectionate way. I have basically nothing negative to say, so I’m nitpicking. “I’ve given up on my eggs and milk staying good by the time we get back to my apartment” They were stuck in the elevator for less than two hours…in New York…in October. I’m fairly certain eggs and milk would not go off that quickly.
“Fletcher looks up from his pappardelle—he has pushed all his mushrooms over to my plate.” Why has something so simple made me smile like an idiot? We learnt many chapters ago that he loves mushrooms so him giving them to Flora is undeniably lovely.
Fletcher already had me convinced he was a great guy (other than the obvious secret we all know he’s keeping) but then goes and does this: “I don’t think you realize that me wanting to be able to communicate with your family is the bare minimum. I don’t know what you’re used to from everyone else, but start expecting more from me, okay?” He learned sign language so he’d be able to talk with Flora’s sister. It’s a classic case of “if he wanted to, he would” and Fletcher did. He says this is the ‘bare minimum’ but I think it’s pretty incredible.
My absolute favourite line from this entire book is: “Flora, I could spend every hour I have left searching for the right letters to draw together to make up some word for how I feel about you, and I’d still never find it.” What a beautiful way to tell a book illustrator that you love them.
Drawn Together is my first five star read of 2026. I wasn’t sure if I was going to give it five stars, but considering the only negative I could think of was tiny nit pick, shows just how much I loved this book.
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