What do you think?
Rate this book
Transatlantic Romantic #1
Only in America
How does a film script by an unknown writer get to be read by a Hollywood studio boss? What happens if he loves it? And what do his people do, if they have no idea who wrote it? Stuck in workaday London, rejected by the literary elite, wannabe screenwriter Milly has no idea of the pandemonium her script is causing Stateside. And so it falls to LA movie executive Mitch to cut through the Hollywood madness, save his own job, and rescue Milly from obscurity. All he has to do is find her. So begins a breathless romantic hunt, and a hilarious modern day fairytale from a sensational new voice in contemporary comic fiction.
256 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2002
224 people are currently reading
558 people want to read
About the author
Dominic Holland
20 books165 followersDominic Holland has been a professional stand-up comedian for over 20 years and has become one of the most regarded and respected comedians of his generation.
‘The UK’s master of observational comedy ’ The Sunday Times‘A top notch stand-up who everyone should see’ The Daily Telegraph
But Dominic’s favourite quote comes from the late Bob Monkhouse – ‘Dominic Holland is the UK’s funniest not-yet-famous comedian.’ Rest assured Bob, Dominic is still working hard on the becoming properly famous bit.
He has just published his third novel, ‘A Man's Life’ as an ebook and his first non-fiction ebook – ‘How Tom Holland Eclipsed his Dad.'
Dominic has made countless TV appearances including The Royal Variety Performance, recorded an award winning radio series for BBC R4. Twice honoured at the Edinburgh Festival by the Perrier panel. Won a comic heritage award and published two comic novels and a raft of short stories.
His first ever downloaded stand-up show is available shortly – ‘dominic holland is alive in tring’
‘The UK’s master of observational comedy ’ The Sunday Times‘A top notch stand-up who everyone should see’ The Daily Telegraph
But Dominic’s favourite quote comes from the late Bob Monkhouse – ‘Dominic Holland is the UK’s funniest not-yet-famous comedian.’ Rest assured Bob, Dominic is still working hard on the becoming properly famous bit.
He has just published his third novel, ‘A Man's Life’ as an ebook and his first non-fiction ebook – ‘How Tom Holland Eclipsed his Dad.'
Dominic has made countless TV appearances including The Royal Variety Performance, recorded an award winning radio series for BBC R4. Twice honoured at the Edinburgh Festival by the Perrier panel. Won a comic heritage award and published two comic novels and a raft of short stories.
His first ever downloaded stand-up show is available shortly – ‘dominic holland is alive in tring’
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
November 20, 2015
This is a very good book, very readable, but it’s in desperate need of an edit.
For starters it jumps around all over the place with no break in the prose to indicate a change of situation. So you might have for instance a scene with a couple of blokes on a plane over the Atlantic which without warning carries on into a dinner party 5000 miles away or a hotel scene in Central London. You have to kind of shake your head about, gather yourself and realise where exactly in the story you are.
Why not place a little starred line to indicate to the reader that the scene has changed? Is that too much to ask?
*********
The other strange anomaly is the author’s habit of reversing the direct speech mark (the inverted quotation marks) before speech and then preceding this with a kind of mid-height full stop. I know I’m not describing this very well, so allow me to demonstrate;
•’If we get nothing out of all this ….’
Or just this one-word sentence;
•’Accepted.’ •
Is that a bit kooky or what?
**********
You’ll also have two people holding a conversation in the same paragraph, so you’re fooled into thinking it’s just one guy, and then a paragraph will stop mid-sentence, and carry on as a new paragraph. For example;
‘There’s nothing
Wrong with wanting to be liked. ’ •
So combining all these weird ways of writing makes for very eccentric reading indeed. Check out this one paragraph;
‘So why send it in?’•To make a point?’ Josie suggested.•Mitch thought about this for a moment. ‘Nah, that’s bullsh*t.’•’But Josie might be right,’ …..
How mad is that? And it happens ALL THE TIME and makes for a very frustrating read. I can’t imagine what Dominic Holland is trying to do here except perhaps take a dig at all the Grammar Nazis out there …. like me, I suppose.
Some grammar rules are made to be broken, but this is just annoying. And Holland clearly knows he’s doing it because it’s all underlined in red. It would jump out at him like a tea-total sober person in a kebab house. The book has been reviewed by Angus Deayton, Graham Norton, Harry Hill, Barry Cryer and a whole bunch of others, and not one of them, it seems, has said, “Dude, what are you playing at? Get this thing edited. Find an eight-year-old to edit it for you. At least make it readable!”
So why the 5 Star? Why the 5 Star when there’s so many outlandish grammatical errors? I’ll tell you. Because this book made me laugh and it made me cry. Alright, I wasn’t really crying, just in case you spotted me on the tube and thought I was welling up, because I wasn’t. Okay?
But apart from all that, this is an excellent storyline with a novel twist to it. The characters are really well developed and you can’t help liking them. Jonson was my favourite. An extremely likeable black guy who starts the book with an afro that would put Erykah Badu to shame. It’s doesn’t last – the afro, that is - but that’s another story.
I think there’s a lot more to come from Dominic Holland. The ability to write from both the male and female POV is quite a talent, not to mention the capability to force the reader to say, “Oh no! Mitch, get a grip! How can you not …..” is quite riveting
All in all an excellent read, and I book I would heartedly recommend.
For starters it jumps around all over the place with no break in the prose to indicate a change of situation. So you might have for instance a scene with a couple of blokes on a plane over the Atlantic which without warning carries on into a dinner party 5000 miles away or a hotel scene in Central London. You have to kind of shake your head about, gather yourself and realise where exactly in the story you are.
Why not place a little starred line to indicate to the reader that the scene has changed? Is that too much to ask?
*********
The other strange anomaly is the author’s habit of reversing the direct speech mark (the inverted quotation marks) before speech and then preceding this with a kind of mid-height full stop. I know I’m not describing this very well, so allow me to demonstrate;
•’If we get nothing out of all this ….’
Or just this one-word sentence;
•’Accepted.’ •
Is that a bit kooky or what?
**********
You’ll also have two people holding a conversation in the same paragraph, so you’re fooled into thinking it’s just one guy, and then a paragraph will stop mid-sentence, and carry on as a new paragraph. For example;
‘There’s nothing
Wrong with wanting to be liked. ’ •
So combining all these weird ways of writing makes for very eccentric reading indeed. Check out this one paragraph;
‘So why send it in?’•To make a point?’ Josie suggested.•Mitch thought about this for a moment. ‘Nah, that’s bullsh*t.’•’But Josie might be right,’ …..
How mad is that? And it happens ALL THE TIME and makes for a very frustrating read. I can’t imagine what Dominic Holland is trying to do here except perhaps take a dig at all the Grammar Nazis out there …. like me, I suppose.
Some grammar rules are made to be broken, but this is just annoying. And Holland clearly knows he’s doing it because it’s all underlined in red. It would jump out at him like a tea-total sober person in a kebab house. The book has been reviewed by Angus Deayton, Graham Norton, Harry Hill, Barry Cryer and a whole bunch of others, and not one of them, it seems, has said, “Dude, what are you playing at? Get this thing edited. Find an eight-year-old to edit it for you. At least make it readable!”
So why the 5 Star? Why the 5 Star when there’s so many outlandish grammatical errors? I’ll tell you. Because this book made me laugh and it made me cry. Alright, I wasn’t really crying, just in case you spotted me on the tube and thought I was welling up, because I wasn’t. Okay?
But apart from all that, this is an excellent storyline with a novel twist to it. The characters are really well developed and you can’t help liking them. Jonson was my favourite. An extremely likeable black guy who starts the book with an afro that would put Erykah Badu to shame. It’s doesn’t last – the afro, that is - but that’s another story.
I think there’s a lot more to come from Dominic Holland. The ability to write from both the male and female POV is quite a talent, not to mention the capability to force the reader to say, “Oh no! Mitch, get a grip! How can you not …..” is quite riveting
All in all an excellent read, and I book I would heartedly recommend.
September 16, 2022
What a hoot! Yes, that's the whole review lol
April 8, 2020
I really enjoyed the story. It's very funny, I literally laughed out loud reading this.
May 11, 2022
I just finished reading this book and even if it was a little complicated to understand at first (because English is not my first language) i loved it ! It's a good and funny story.
March 7, 2022
I only read this because it was free on Kindle UK and Tom Holland was promoting it for his dad. This is a self published romance novel.
After reading a fair bit of romance written by women this is so clunky and definitely from a male gaze perspective. The ‘romance’ part between the two characters happens in the last section of the book and is over in a quick minute with absolutely no chemistry. There is a lot of men gawping at women in this and the token black man in it is a stereotype. The only interesting thing was the plot about the script and even that was overshadowed by the writer spelling out the obvious at times.
After reading a fair bit of romance written by women this is so clunky and definitely from a male gaze perspective. The ‘romance’ part between the two characters happens in the last section of the book and is over in a quick minute with absolutely no chemistry. There is a lot of men gawping at women in this and the token black man in it is a stereotype. The only interesting thing was the plot about the script and even that was overshadowed by the writer spelling out the obvious at times.
March 22, 2019
Only in America by Dominic Holland
This one is hilarious! It is well plotted with amusing, and amazing, characters. Mystery and angst hold hands with humor and skip to a wonderful HEA. Oh, and a romance too...all in one! I loved it!
*The formatting on this one was a bit confusing. I read a kindle copy and there were issues with the breaks. This story is told in many different POVs, but they are not clearly separated. In one paragraph Milly is telling her story, the next paragraph is Mitch, or whomever, but not even an extra space between the switches.
This one is hilarious! It is well plotted with amusing, and amazing, characters. Mystery and angst hold hands with humor and skip to a wonderful HEA. Oh, and a romance too...all in one! I loved it!
*The formatting on this one was a bit confusing. I read a kindle copy and there were issues with the breaks. This story is told in many different POVs, but they are not clearly separated. In one paragraph Milly is telling her story, the next paragraph is Mitch, or whomever, but not even an extra space between the switches.
August 11, 2023
Letto il: 11/08/2023
Lingua: Inglese
Tempo di lettura: 5h24'
Commento:
La prima parte del libro non era molto convincente, nemmeno a livello della trama. Milly sembrava un po' strano come personaggio e gli eventi che accadevano erano abbastanza divertenti ma non molto d'effetto. Non so perché ma mi ero convinta che Mitch Carmichael fosse un uomo vecchio, quindi poi mi ha scombussolata leggere che aveva quarant'anni.
Lo stile di scrittura nella prima parte del libro risulta un po' acerbo. Non mi piace l'utilizzo dello stampatello maiuscolo per indicare che un personaggio sta gridando e ho trovato di difficile comprensione (in quanto non madrelingua inglese) i dialoghi scritti cercando di imitare gli accenti stranieri.
Mi ha confusa un po' come nei momenti più strani saltassero fuori dei brevi riferimenti sessuali che non avevano nulla a che fare con la scena né con le emozioni dei personaggi.
Nel libro ci sono tantissime menzioni a persone, marche e prodotti realmente esistenti. Ho trovato divertente il modo in cui venivano menzionati a caso nella storia, ma forse chi leggerà il testo tra cinquant'anni dovrà avere delle note a piè di pagina per capire la metà di quello che sta leggendo.
Il testo presenta alcuni errori di punteggiatura e di formattazione, ma non è nulla che non si possa risolvere. La cosa che mi ha messa più in difficoltà sono stati i paragrafi tutti appiccicati assieme. Almeno quando la scena o il punto di vista cambiano si sarebbe potuti andare a capo.
Una volta abituatami al modo in cui vengono raccontate queste assurde vicende ed essere entrata nel vivo della narrazione (la trama diventa più appassionante dopo la metà del libro), ho letto il resto tutto in una volta. La trama mi è piaciuta molto, soprattutto perché era prevedibile nel complesso ma i singoli eventi della storia erano tutti inaspettati.
Questo è un romanzo d'amore e comico/esagerato/assurdo ma, forse perché è un po' più vecchio (2002, non così vecchio in verità) o forse perché è stato scritto da un uomo, è abbastanza differente dai libri d'amore a cui sono abituata.
Secondo me sarebbe carino vedere un film basato su questo libro. Di sicuro le scene divertenti avrebbero un effetto comico immediato (rispetto alla lentezza della scrittura), ma forse si perderebbe la narrazione ironica.
Lingua: Inglese
Tempo di lettura: 5h24'
Commento:
La prima parte del libro non era molto convincente, nemmeno a livello della trama. Milly sembrava un po' strano come personaggio e gli eventi che accadevano erano abbastanza divertenti ma non molto d'effetto. Non so perché ma mi ero convinta che Mitch Carmichael fosse un uomo vecchio, quindi poi mi ha scombussolata leggere che aveva quarant'anni.
Lo stile di scrittura nella prima parte del libro risulta un po' acerbo. Non mi piace l'utilizzo dello stampatello maiuscolo per indicare che un personaggio sta gridando e ho trovato di difficile comprensione (in quanto non madrelingua inglese) i dialoghi scritti cercando di imitare gli accenti stranieri.
Mi ha confusa un po' come nei momenti più strani saltassero fuori dei brevi riferimenti sessuali che non avevano nulla a che fare con la scena né con le emozioni dei personaggi.
Nel libro ci sono tantissime menzioni a persone, marche e prodotti realmente esistenti. Ho trovato divertente il modo in cui venivano menzionati a caso nella storia, ma forse chi leggerà il testo tra cinquant'anni dovrà avere delle note a piè di pagina per capire la metà di quello che sta leggendo.
Il testo presenta alcuni errori di punteggiatura e di formattazione, ma non è nulla che non si possa risolvere. La cosa che mi ha messa più in difficoltà sono stati i paragrafi tutti appiccicati assieme. Almeno quando la scena o il punto di vista cambiano si sarebbe potuti andare a capo.
Una volta abituatami al modo in cui vengono raccontate queste assurde vicende ed essere entrata nel vivo della narrazione (la trama diventa più appassionante dopo la metà del libro), ho letto il resto tutto in una volta. La trama mi è piaciuta molto, soprattutto perché era prevedibile nel complesso ma i singoli eventi della storia erano tutti inaspettati.
Questo è un romanzo d'amore e comico/esagerato/assurdo ma, forse perché è un po' più vecchio (2002, non così vecchio in verità) o forse perché è stato scritto da un uomo, è abbastanza differente dai libri d'amore a cui sono abituata.
Secondo me sarebbe carino vedere un film basato su questo libro. Di sicuro le scene divertenti avrebbero un effetto comico immediato (rispetto alla lentezza della scrittura), ma forse si perderebbe la narrazione ironica.
March 5, 2022
It was so bad I want to give it a zero... but that's not possible, so-
A story with a very promising idea which, if executed well, I think I would have really enjoyed it, however, the "romance comedy" gets a bit lost, unless-
- The "romance" is supposed to mean constant sexualisation and harassment of the female characters and a "relationship" that had no build-up or chemistry, while not even adding any kind of value to the plot.
- The "comedy" in the meantime, was more like a string of uncomfortable comments ranging between xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny and any kind of body shaming you could think of, complimented by remarks regarding actual issues that were not there for commentary or discussion sake, but thrown in awkwardly as "funny" anecdotes.
It is evident what kind of person this book is written by, with a very unclear audience or purpose. All I can say is that I'm glad it only wasted half of my day and that I feel sorry for people affiliated with this author who felt the need to use their influence to share this book.
Shame.
A story with a very promising idea which, if executed well, I think I would have really enjoyed it, however, the "romance comedy" gets a bit lost, unless-
- The "romance" is supposed to mean constant sexualisation and harassment of the female characters and a "relationship" that had no build-up or chemistry, while not even adding any kind of value to the plot.
- The "comedy" in the meantime, was more like a string of uncomfortable comments ranging between xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny and any kind of body shaming you could think of, complimented by remarks regarding actual issues that were not there for commentary or discussion sake, but thrown in awkwardly as "funny" anecdotes.
It is evident what kind of person this book is written by, with a very unclear audience or purpose. All I can say is that I'm glad it only wasted half of my day and that I feel sorry for people affiliated with this author who felt the need to use their influence to share this book.
Shame.
September 2, 2021
Milly has written a film script and wants to leave her lacklustre job in a hotel to pursue screenwriting as a career. Through a string of coincidences, Milly’s script ends up in the lap of a Hollywood studio boss and he loves it. But it’s written under a pseudonym and finding the author turns into a hilarious, cross-Atlantic fiasco.
I loved this book from start to finish except for one thing – formatting. There seem to be some odd additional punctuation marks and the lack of breaks between different characters’ points of view got confusing at times, making me have to back-track on several occasions to work out what was going on (and the odd typo has been missed too). Having said the negative thing, I’ve still given it five stars because the story is an absolute gem. Great characters, great concept, great ending. I just loved it.
I loved this book from start to finish except for one thing – formatting. There seem to be some odd additional punctuation marks and the lack of breaks between different characters’ points of view got confusing at times, making me have to back-track on several occasions to work out what was going on (and the odd typo has been missed too). Having said the negative thing, I’ve still given it five stars because the story is an absolute gem. Great characters, great concept, great ending. I just loved it.
January 20, 2021
This started off so well and I was really loving it and laughing out loud but the final third badly let it down.It all went a bit slapstick and bonkers and the characters that had made me laugh the night before began to really irritate me.If this part could be re written it would be an entertaining,easy to read book that I would highly recommend.....and I had a very strange experience with the cover where a couple of the letters kept moving around!!...go figure!
February 28, 2020
An excellently thought out plot if only the author had bothered to have his manuscript proofread, then it would deserve a full 5-star rating.
This was originally published years ago and is still unedited. Clearly Dominic Holland is indifferent to his readers, considers their enjoyment unimportant and is unconcerned about producing a professionally completed book.
This was originally published years ago and is still unedited. Clearly Dominic Holland is indifferent to his readers, considers their enjoyment unimportant and is unconcerned about producing a professionally completed book.
March 16, 2022
3.5/4 stars. Read on Kindle Unlimited. Truthfully only started reading this thanks to Tom Holland… but actually really enjoyed the story. VERY predictable and felt a bit all over the place at times - jumping from person to person and place to place. However, an easy feel good read with a happy ending. Wasn’t sure whether to give 3.5 or 4 stars.
March 17, 2022
It was really funny! The comedy came in unexpected ways so it was very entertaining. I burst out laughing everytime Jonson appears, he's just a great character. Thank you Mr. Holland for such a nice story to forget all about the world and just enjoy life.
.
.
.
I gave it 4 stars because I didn't like the porn jokes, for me they're unnecessary. But I did enjoy the story a lot.
.
.
.
I gave it 4 stars because I didn't like the porn jokes, for me they're unnecessary. But I did enjoy the story a lot.
March 22, 2022
Easy and funny read, I liked the characters and the plot was quite predictable yet still enjoyable.
The story jumps around between characters a bit too much though, sometimes it takes a while to figure out which plot strand you are following.
Would recommend to fans of slightly messy Rom-Coms, if that's not your thing you most probably won't like the book.
The story jumps around between characters a bit too much though, sometimes it takes a while to figure out which plot strand you are following.
Would recommend to fans of slightly messy Rom-Coms, if that's not your thing you most probably won't like the book.
May 13, 2022
I have to admit to reading this purely due to cute little Tom Holland promoting his Dad's book. Fair enough, family has to support family. This isn't my preferred genre, but it was decent enough. I read this a few weeks before I wrote this review and the plot has largely disappeared from my memory, but I have no strong feelings one way or the other, so it probably deserves a 3 star.
February 12, 2019
I enjoyed this book so much I read it in one day. It's laugh out loud funny (so much so that I had to leave Starbucks because I looked like a crazy person)
It was my first book from Dominic Holland but it definitely won't be my last.
It was my first book from Dominic Holland but it definitely won't be my last.
August 13, 2019
Delightful
Absolutely delightful romantic comedy with well-defined, funny characters. It made me laugh out loud many times, and I enjoyed it so much that I really hated to reach the end.
Absolutely delightful romantic comedy with well-defined, funny characters. It made me laugh out loud many times, and I enjoyed it so much that I really hated to reach the end.
June 6, 2021
Fun and breezy romcom with a clever plot and endearing characters. Some good gags, and some well-written farce (as you'd expect from this writer) that makes an enjoyable story. However, the formatting leads much to be desired, with some changes of subject and setting happening within sentences.
February 18, 2022
This is a delightful, easy to read, comedy of errors. Unique situations plus terrible timing and the characters reactions to it kept the story going along smoothly. Recommend this for a little bit of an escape to relax with.
March 4, 2022
Wow :)
Great read. I really enjoyed the characters the author brought to life. Milly is an easily relatable character, and I found myself enjoying tagging along on the ups and downs of her story.
Great read. I really enjoyed the characters the author brought to life. Milly is an easily relatable character, and I found myself enjoying tagging along on the ups and downs of her story.
March 6, 2022
comedic and romantic
This was such a fun quick read. So many near misses in the story that make you keep reading to see when the resolution gets met! I loved every second. The characters are all so lovable. Highly recommend
This was such a fun quick read. So many near misses in the story that make you keep reading to see when the resolution gets met! I loved every second. The characters are all so lovable. Highly recommend
March 20, 2022
Not my cup of tea
Good story, good characters, well written, just not my thing. The build up of tension and all the near misses just wound me up. If you like rom-coms though you'll probably enjoy this.
Good story, good characters, well written, just not my thing. The build up of tension and all the near misses just wound me up. If you like rom-coms though you'll probably enjoy this.
April 12, 2022
Thankful I caught it when it was free on Amazon. I read in the acknowledgements at the end that the author is self-published and it shows. The way he wrote from the female perspective was very telling. Not sure what all the other reviewers were laughing at, I spent most of the book cringing. Formatting was also confusing, couldn't tell who was supposed to be speaking at points.
April 19, 2022
The most interesting and funny story I have read in a long while! Especially in English (I am Italian) 😉
I can’t say much about the story or it will spoil your reading, so go read it! I couldn’t put my kindle down!
Very light reading, if this is what you need 😉
I can’t say much about the story or it will spoil your reading, so go read it! I couldn’t put my kindle down!
Very light reading, if this is what you need 😉
June 30, 2022
this book has a good plot line the only part i didn’t like was how the perspectives would change between characters in the middle of the chapters without tell you who is the one that is now talking and thinking. kinda slow but over all it was okay!
January 10, 2023
I bought this as a holiday read, planning to read on my sun lounger…..read it before I left home and bought sequel. It’s an easy read with a lovely story. It’s not a masterpiece, but it is definitely worth a read!
December 30, 2024
nemám rada contemporary romance žáner, vzala som ju do rúk len preto, že to napísal tatko toma hollanda. ale bolo to náhodou veľmi milé a kus aj originálne aj napriek prvotnému cringe pocitu na základe anotácie! taká chutná sladká, ale aj napínavá, jednohubka.
February 19, 2020
Fun
Dominic Holland wrote this charming, fun book that kept me glued to it! Although the ending seemed to be quite abrupt.
Dominic Holland wrote this charming, fun book that kept me glued to it! Although the ending seemed to be quite abrupt.
July 19, 2020
This is absolutely hilarious, I laugh so much! Thank you!
February 19, 2022
quick enjoyable read
Entertaining- quick afternoon read. Nothing new or spectacular but it made me smile which was exactly what I wanted on a cold February day.
Entertaining- quick afternoon read. Nothing new or spectacular but it made me smile which was exactly what I wanted on a cold February day.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews