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How to Find Love in the Cereal Aisle: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 4 Aug 26From Cosmopolitan's Cosmo Reads imprint and the author of the smash hit Call It What You Want comes a fresh, charming romcom about the chaos of dating in your twenties, the ache of a brutal breakup, and the hilarious lengths one romance writer will go to get her spark back—including staging her own meet-cutes. Perfect for fans of Katherine Center and Emily Henry’s Beach Read.
If you can’t write a good meet-cute, maybe you need to live one first…
Ainsley Green writes happily-ever-afters for a rabid fanbase of hopeless romantics. In real life? Her boyfriend just broke up with her, her editor wanted a new book yesterday and she’s starting to wonder if love actually exists beyond the pages of her favorite novels.
So when Lucas, Ainsley’s best friend and biggest cheerleader, insists the best cure for writer’s block is real-life inspiration, she’s ready to try anything. Enter: the meet-cute plan, a mission to take her head out of her heartbreak and force meet-cutes IRL to spark some new ideas. But as failed missions bumping into strangers at the airport and spilling coffee on men at the cafe result in nothing but embarrassment and stained clothing, Ainsley begins to wonder if maybe the romance she’s been chasing already has a leading man.
Because the truth about falling in love? It never goes according to plan.
Equal parts heartbreak, humor, and hope, How to Find Love in the Cereal Aisle is a fresh, flirty send up of dating in the modern age and a reminder that love finds us when we stop performing and start living.
If you can’t write a good meet-cute, maybe you need to live one first…
Ainsley Green writes happily-ever-afters for a rabid fanbase of hopeless romantics. In real life? Her boyfriend just broke up with her, her editor wanted a new book yesterday and she’s starting to wonder if love actually exists beyond the pages of her favorite novels.
So when Lucas, Ainsley’s best friend and biggest cheerleader, insists the best cure for writer’s block is real-life inspiration, she’s ready to try anything. Enter: the meet-cute plan, a mission to take her head out of her heartbreak and force meet-cutes IRL to spark some new ideas. But as failed missions bumping into strangers at the airport and spilling coffee on men at the cafe result in nothing but embarrassment and stained clothing, Ainsley begins to wonder if maybe the romance she’s been chasing already has a leading man.
Because the truth about falling in love? It never goes according to plan.
Equal parts heartbreak, humor, and hope, How to Find Love in the Cereal Aisle is a fresh, flirty send up of dating in the modern age and a reminder that love finds us when we stop performing and start living.
- GenresRomanceContemporary
304 pages, Paperback
Expected publication August 4, 2026
6784 people want to read
About the author
Alissa DeRogatis
5 books533 followersAlissa DeRogatis is an author based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Call It What You Want is her debut novel and is a love letter to anyone who has had a hard time getting over someone they never dated.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I’m in between Frankenstein and Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin and I found this book aged worse than both of those.
And it isn’t even out yet.
Despite both of them being classics—or in Lavinia’s case, a Roman mythology retelling, they are 100x more timeless and relatable and of-this-era than How to Find Love in a Cereal Aisle.
I’m trying to not be too sassy. I didn’t hate, hate this book and I give Alissa marks for her improved writing. I very much didn’t enjoy her first book and large part was due to the very juvenile writing. I thought this book was much more readable and had a better flow to it.
I will say, though, there was one very distinct issue I had with it. I’m not sure if Alissa works in marketing or writes articles, but something about the style of this felt like it was originally a blog/article on a women’s online magazine and then got reworked into a novel. Maybe that’s me, since I work in content marketing and I’m more attuned to that type of writing, but it really felt more Substack blog than novel.
I did think that the emotional weight to relationships and finding yourself post-breakup were better in this than her debut.
Unfortunately, this is where I get into what I didn’t like about this book. Like I said, even though this book isn’t released yet, it’s already so dated. In 10 years, it will be borderline unreadable. There are so many social media, pop culture, and trendy location references, it felt like, instead of reading a book to escape my phone, I may as well have been on social media.
The vernacular and slang and almost TikTok’s Gen Z vocal stims took me so far out of the page and onto another planet.
The beauty of romance and love is that disregarding external factors, it exists pretty much identically in every time period. The greatest romances and love stories are those that you can read in any time period because they’re about character first, culture and setting second.
This was written (I’m assuming) by a chronically online girl for chronically online girls who want to read about other chronically online girls. Is that necessarily a horrible thing? No. But if you’re spending a year or two writing a romance book, digging deep into the connective tissue that is self-identification and love and yearning and little moments, don’t you want it to have legs and be able to be read 50 years from now?
It seems like new romance writers want to capitalize on “current.” Current moments, current trends, current songs (Taylor Swift was mentioned 5 times in here and no, just no) current outfits, yada yada yada.
To me, romance books that add in too much “current” will always, most certainly be forgotten when the inevitable next “current” comes out.
Another issue I had was with the overall plot of the book. By the synopsis, you think it’s going to be about a woman post-breakup doing fun, new adventures in dating to find her spark again. While that was kind of true, it’s honestly more about her ex and that relationship. So much of this book was spent on the old relationship, it felt almost too similar to her first book, begging the question, can this author write anything else?
The dialogue was also a glaring issue. I won’t quote the exact line as this is an arc and might be changed, but there’s a point in this where the fmc’s guy best friend tells her that women are going to eat her up because vulnerability is “trending” and she’s basically a Taylor Swift bridge in a book.
I just have to ask if the author has ever spoken to a man before. Like ever.
Anyways, as you can see, This clearly wasn’t for me, but that’s okay.
Thank you to Edelweiss for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.
And it isn’t even out yet.
Despite both of them being classics—or in Lavinia’s case, a Roman mythology retelling, they are 100x more timeless and relatable and of-this-era than How to Find Love in a Cereal Aisle.
I’m trying to not be too sassy. I didn’t hate, hate this book and I give Alissa marks for her improved writing. I very much didn’t enjoy her first book and large part was due to the very juvenile writing. I thought this book was much more readable and had a better flow to it.
I will say, though, there was one very distinct issue I had with it. I’m not sure if Alissa works in marketing or writes articles, but something about the style of this felt like it was originally a blog/article on a women’s online magazine and then got reworked into a novel. Maybe that’s me, since I work in content marketing and I’m more attuned to that type of writing, but it really felt more Substack blog than novel.
I did think that the emotional weight to relationships and finding yourself post-breakup were better in this than her debut.
Unfortunately, this is where I get into what I didn’t like about this book. Like I said, even though this book isn’t released yet, it’s already so dated. In 10 years, it will be borderline unreadable. There are so many social media, pop culture, and trendy location references, it felt like, instead of reading a book to escape my phone, I may as well have been on social media.
The vernacular and slang and almost TikTok’s Gen Z vocal stims took me so far out of the page and onto another planet.
The beauty of romance and love is that disregarding external factors, it exists pretty much identically in every time period. The greatest romances and love stories are those that you can read in any time period because they’re about character first, culture and setting second.
This was written (I’m assuming) by a chronically online girl for chronically online girls who want to read about other chronically online girls. Is that necessarily a horrible thing? No. But if you’re spending a year or two writing a romance book, digging deep into the connective tissue that is self-identification and love and yearning and little moments, don’t you want it to have legs and be able to be read 50 years from now?
It seems like new romance writers want to capitalize on “current.” Current moments, current trends, current songs (Taylor Swift was mentioned 5 times in here and no, just no) current outfits, yada yada yada.
To me, romance books that add in too much “current” will always, most certainly be forgotten when the inevitable next “current” comes out.
Another issue I had was with the overall plot of the book. By the synopsis, you think it’s going to be about a woman post-breakup doing fun, new adventures in dating to find her spark again. While that was kind of true, it’s honestly more about her ex and that relationship. So much of this book was spent on the old relationship, it felt almost too similar to her first book, begging the question, can this author write anything else?
The dialogue was also a glaring issue. I won’t quote the exact line as this is an arc and might be changed, but there’s a point in this where the fmc’s guy best friend tells her that women are going to eat her up because vulnerability is “trending” and she’s basically a Taylor Swift bridge in a book.
I just have to ask if the author has ever spoken to a man before. Like ever.
Anyways, as you can see, This clearly wasn’t for me, but that’s okay.
Thank you to Edelweiss for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Thank you Alissa for an early read of this beauty! The amount of times I found myself grinning while reading is an indicator of what a treat it was to read Ainsley and Lucas's story. (The BANTER? The relatability of today's social media era? And the glimpse behind the curtain on what it's like to be a full time author!)
I'm most impressed by the fact that this book felt so deeply personal, yet at the same time overwhelmingly universal, which I think is one of the strengths of Alissa's writing. She writes from her own heart and is able to touch so many others simultaneously. Ainsley's story is one of overcoming heartbreak, finding your own identity, and embracing a vulnerability that lets down guards and welcomes the chance at real love. 10/10 for the side characters, too. I couldn't read the book fast enough... Book 3 please?
I'm most impressed by the fact that this book felt so deeply personal, yet at the same time overwhelmingly universal, which I think is one of the strengths of Alissa's writing. She writes from her own heart and is able to touch so many others simultaneously. Ainsley's story is one of overcoming heartbreak, finding your own identity, and embracing a vulnerability that lets down guards and welcomes the chance at real love. 10/10 for the side characters, too. I couldn't read the book fast enough... Book 3 please?
January 20, 2026
Alissa does it again! How to Find Love in the Cereal Aisle is poppy and fun while also handling messy heartbreak, insecurity, and a friend breakup that isn't often discussed in the romance space.
Our protagonist, Ainsley, is externally wildly successful, an accidental marketing genius, and a lover with a tinge of fire. Chapter 11 may be my favorite chapter of any book ever. Also, Ainsley’s a single dog mom, and people don't talk about how that custody works in a breakup.
I laughed, I screenshotted lines and sent them to my friends and said ‘so me!,’ and I left believing in all types of love.
Thank you for an ARC review of my honest thoughts, and I already know women will love their journey down Cereal Aisle.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Will always shamelessly rate my own books five stars
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I could not put this book down! Ainsley is such a real and honest character. You root for her, you laugh with her and you cry with her too. I thought I couldn’t love Alissas writing more after her debut but this book blew me away! Cheers to all the meet cutes we never knew we needed 👏🏼❤️
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews