52 pages • 1-hour read
A Not So Meet Cute
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Background
Authorial Context: Meghan Quinn
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of sexual content.
Meghan Quinn is a New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Amazon best-selling author known for romantic comedies and contemporary romance novels. She often engages readers with relatable characters and witty dialogue. Many of her novels are standalone, but she has also written series of books centered on telling the stories of every member of a friend group, family, or sports team, some of which have been reprinted as illustrated editions. For example, her popular series following the Vancouver Agitators is one of several sports-based series and consists of five novels, each from the perspective of a different member of a hockey team: Those Three Little Words, Right Man, Right Time, Kiss and Don’t Tell, He’s Not My Type, and So This Is War. A Not So Meet Cute is the first title in a trio of novels recounting the love stories of the Cane brothers, followed by So Not Meant to Be and A Long Time Coming. Quinn also sometimes takes inspiration from well-known romantic films, with the first Cane book taking cues from Pretty Woman (1990) and the second from When Harry Met Sally (1989).
Quinn’s website categorizes her novels by elements such as the book’s setting or by the archetype or defining quality of the male leads, such as “small town romances,” “billionaire rom coms,” and “office romance.” This shows Quinn to be an author aware of the common subgenres of contemporary romance, within which she utilizes popular tropes like “enemies-to-lovers” or “forced proximity” to develop romantic or sexual tension between her characters. A Not So Meet Cute contains elements of both plotlines but most clearly employs the “fake dating” trope in the business arrangement that kickstarts Huxley and Lottie’s romance.
Being a prolific author, Quinn has expressed that she has a strict method for writing books and an in-depth understanding of what she does and doesn’t prefer to write. She compares writing to her time as a Division I athlete to convey the skill and speed with which she writes, telling an interviewer that it takes her “6 weeks to write a book, about 5,000 words a day” (Costa, Kailey. “Exclusive Interview with Meghan Quinn.” SheReads, 2024). As her protagonists often draw on similar genre archetypes, she must frequently refer to her backlist of titles to ensure that she keeps her plotlines unique and her “steamy,” or sexual, scenes fresh. She notes that she’s always enjoyed creating funny or quirky scenes, finding it akin to writing sketch shows, which acts as a reliable starting point for consistently coming up with new characters and conflicts. One avenue her novels do not explore is parenthood; her protagonists never have children, as Quinn finds that they limit the spontaneity of her plotlines and characters’ actions.
Geographical Context: Beverly Hills
A Not So Meet Cute is set primarily in a wealthy neighborhood in Beverly Hills, California, providing a glamorous backdrop that contrasts with Lottie’s personal struggles and aspirations. The setting plays a significant role in the development of the plot and the characters’ interactions. The two main characters, Lottie and Huxley, come from starkly different socioeconomic backgrounds, and the conflicts driven by their opposing financial circumstances furnish the characters’ primary motivations. Huxley is trying and failing to close an important business deal for his large company, whereas Lottie is freshly unemployed and struggling to pay off her student loans. Like in the famous play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, the story upon which the film Pretty Woman was based, the novel frequently touches on Lottie’s experience as a working-class woman suddenly navigating the social circles of the wealthy elite.
This brings attention to misconceptions about the Beverly Hills area, which is often presented as a ubiquitously wealthy location. Such stereotypes are not without factual basis. The city, which exists as an enclave within Los Angeles, borders the Hollywood Hills and has historically been home to many celebrities. Moreover, the median household income was $127,979 in 2023, with the average house worth more than $2 million (“QuickFacts: Beverly Hills city, California.” US Census Bureau, 2024). By contrast, the median income in the US that same year was $80,610, putting Beverly Hills well above the national average (“Median Household Income.” US Census Bureau, 2024).
However, such data does not tell the whole story. In reality, there is a wide gap between socioeconomic demographics in the area, where “the richest fifth of Beverly Hills households make an average of nearly $661,000 a year, [and] the poorest bring in less than $14,500” (“Beverly Hills’ Poorest Residents Live Above Whole Foods Market.” Los Angeles Times, 2014). By creating different class backgrounds for her characters, Quinn draws attention to the diverse and underacknowledged aspects of the area. She also adds more realism to her protagonist and fleshes out the tension between the two leads, who react to different things and have unique insecurities in line with their respective backgrounds.
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