The Roommate is a uniquely complex, steamy rom-com with a delightfully fun premise. Buttoned-up Clara Wheaton upends her life and moves across the country for the opportunity to finally win over her unrequited childhood love, only to end up rooming with a dangerously sexy male porn actor. What follows is incredibly fun, sexy, and surprisingly complex. Even among all of the sexual tension on every page, the book manages to make smart and poignant statements about the stigmatization of sex work, the importance of consent, and the corruption in the adult film industry. I was pleasantly surprised by the book's ability to effectively weave complicated plot points (legal battles, controversial creative projects, family dynamics, societal expectations) into a book that felt so light and easy to read all the way through. The world of romance needs more frank discussions of sex, intimacy, and equal-opportunity pleasure--and so does the rest of the world. The Roommate is a good place to start those discussions and is an all-in-one-sitting kind of read to boot.

I adored this story..Josh and Clara were super angsty and cute! The rom com romance and witty banter made this book hard to put down! Tons of laugh out loud and swoon.... great read

A sweet and steamy romance. The writing is excellent, the main characters are a delight, it's humorous and sex work positive! I wish Clara's relationship with her family had been fleshed out/dealt with a little more, and that the ending was a little slower paced. It felt like everything wrapped up a little too quickly. But this was a truly enjoyable romance full of banter and excellent characters and sex.

4.5 ⭐️

If your choice to move across the country to pursue a 14 year-long unrequited love for your best friend, but really are subconsciously just escaping your pompous family and their scandals, what’s the last thing you’d ever expect? Your crush ditches you for a band tour, leaving you stranded alone in LA with a fear of driving. But, what about The Roommate? Well, whatever you do, don’t Google him.

This was a fun and refreshing, super sex-positive raunch-com that had me hooked by the second chapter! Danan conveyed a story about love, romance, and pleasure, as well as the stigma and lack of respect among adult entertainment workers. The mutual attraction and the denial of feelings between Josh and Clara were so evident that what appeared to be casual ended up being more. The two couldn’t be any more opposite—Josh the college dropout who had sex for a living and Clara the Connecticut socialite with a hefty trust fund. But, studies have shown, opposites do attract, right?

Perfect for fans of The Kiss Quotient, this debut is one you’re going to not want to miss this fall!

The Roommate is a cute and sexy love story between two people as they navigate through life and have to unlearn their stigmas and stereotypes about adult entertainment. though it was a fun way to tackle serious issues, and a story that i slowly fell in love with, it left me unsatisfied with the ending and "the fight" that is usually part of romance books.

what i enjoyed:

- the story was a fun ride. it was hot at times and cute at others. at times, i even found myself laughing out loud at the characters’ interactions from time to time. it didn’t feel forced at all, at least not to me.
- the smut? top notch. amazing, wonderful.
- the writing was simple, to the point, exactly how i like it. it didn’t recquire much attention to get through the book. i loved the fact that i could just pick it up when i’m tired and get a little escape from life.

what i didn’t enjoy:

- i felt like there wasn’t enough time where the two characters were together? we don’t see them as a "couple" much, and it left me unsatisfied.
- another thing i was unsatisfied with is how the Big Fight got resolved. every romance has one, and i expected it, but the way the characters made up? i needed more. they didn’t even sit down and have a proper conversation about the biases and thoughts that led them to the fight, how to unlearn and solve things. they didn’t come close to an agreement. instead, i felt like it was just brushed upon and we moved on. and let’s not talk about how it got a teeny-bit overdramatic.

do i recommend The Roommate? yes, i do (i mean, 3 stars is a good rating for me). though the ending ennerved me, i still hold on to the 80% of the book i loved. if you’re looking for a funny with a bit of smut, definitely pick it up!

The Roommate was one of my favorite books this year. The premise seems a bit scandalous, though by reading the back one wouldn't necessarily get that. I devoured this book in one sitting; the characters were so relatable and easy to like. I will definitely be hand selling my heart out! I laughed too much to not pass this book onto another person.

3.5 stars

I love so much about this book and what it set out to do, but it stumbled at the 80% mark and kept stumbling for too long after that, making the HEA seem a little paper thin. After all that build up, it was a disappointing ending lacking proper pay off — perhaps a case of trying to set too much right at once, thus watering down the significance of each of those victories when they were all crammed in the last chapter or two. It’s also a pet peeve of mine when characters make the same mistake over and over again, which we saw a bit too much in Clara’s behavior towards the end. Ultimately, while I enjoyed this book, it didn’t live up to my (perhaps exceedingly) high hopes. That being said, I am very much looking forward to what this author writes next — the humor and heart in the early portion of this book really charmed me. (Personally, I’m crossing my fingers that we get Naomi’s story next — even as a secondary character, she was a scene stealer).

4.5/ 5 stars

** I was provided an E-ARC ( advanced copy) of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review**

Let me start by saying that I had such a great time while reading this book. The first thing that pulled me in was the cover, It's just so eye-catching that I want to know more. Then came the synopsis and I was even more excited. I enjoyed the romance a lot, I was able to connect to the characters enough that I became invested with the story and plot. I will say I didn't expect it to be as steamy as it was....... Like SUPER STEAMY. You'll know exactly what I mean when you read it. This book had me laughing, it gave me the feels, had me swoon and had me fanning myself. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because I wanted just a little more outside of the general plot because sometimes it just felt like a lot. Overall I loved it, if you're a romance reader I HIGHLY recommend picking this up. It was everything I wanted it to be and surpassed any expectations I had for it. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for other books by this author.

CWs: Recovering from unhealthy relationships, allusions to vehicular trauma, some descriptions of car accidents and related injuries, some ableist comments, and graphic scenes containing sex

I knew I had to request this book when readers from all across Romancelandia kept raving about it, but somehow I still wasn't ready for how steamy and delightful this book truly was.

On the one hand, this is a super fun adult rom-com that really makes a meal out of sweet domestic moments and all the delicious tension of a close-quarters romance, but it's also about two people uplifting each other and teaching the other person that they matter. It's about Clara and Josh coming from legacies of misunderstanding and being limited, and choosing to instead build something positive together, which I love.

The physical chemistry, the sexual attraction, is of course delicious and really fun to read about. I found that element of the story to be well-balanced, because you definitely get some great moments of pay-off, so to speak, but there's also moments where the characters pull back. There are times where either Josh or Clara realize they're feeling attracted to the other person but recognize that maybe now is not the appropriate time to be making physical advances. It's very rare in adult romance to see characters draw that boundary for themselves and to recognize that attraction doesn't always need to be acted on, and that other people don't just exist to be part of their sexual fantasies.

The banter between Josh and Clara was top notch as well, and it was nice to see them growing as friends while also growing into a romantic relationship. There's a lot of intimacy and trust between them, even before they become a couple, which is really refreshing to see. The story also really celebrates sex positivity, sexual agency, and being comfortable with your own body and your own desires. Discovering those things about yourself, if you want those things, requires a feeling of safety and empowerment that a lot of people don't often get growing up, so it was really rewarding to see that happening for Clara throughout the book.

There's such great emotional connection between the characters because they're both used to people only seeing them as what they can do rather than who they are. So for them to share space, in more than one sense, and come into contact with someone who's genuinely good and thoughtful really impacts both of them. Overall, I think it's a really hopeful story about taking stock of your life, building something for yourself, and moving away from the limitations other people have put on you.

My one note is that the story sets up a need for Clara and Josh to both reconcile with their families, and you don't quite get that at the end. There's a sense that there's been a reckoning of some kind, but we never get to see it, and I don't think there's enough evidence in the story to make me believe that Clara, specifically, could really come to a healthy place with her family. But that was just one small thing, and at the end of the day I still had such a great time reading this book! Highly recommend for all the rom-com lovers out there.

The keyword for Rosie Danan’s debut contemporary THE ROOMMATE (Jove, 315 pp., paper, $16) is capacity. The scandal-shy socialite Clara Wheaton insists it wasn’t bravery that led her to impulsively follow a childhood crush to the far side of the country: “Everyone had entirely the wrong idea about the capacity of Clara’s courage.”

Clara’s crush vanishes and leaves her with a strange roommate scrounged from the depths of Craigslist. Josh Conners is a popular performer in the adult entertainment industry; he’s playful and charming and has coasted through his career. As he and his strait-laced new roommate slowly fall for each other, Josh offers up what may be the most quintessentially romance-hero line I’ve ever seen: “His capacity for longing terrified him.”

It would have been so easy for a book with this premise to tip into tawdry titillation or shame. It never does. And I keep coming back to capacity, a term we use to describe the amount of space something has to grow into. “The Roommate” is a book about people expanding into their best possible selves — about embracing pleasure, loving unabashedly and fighting exploitation and small-mindedness. Warmly funny and gorgeously sexy, this porn-star romance is the most wholesome thing I’ve read in ages.

This was an easy, entertaining read. The first half of the book was strong - I felt the spark between the characters. Unfortunately the second half relied too heavily on their sexual attraction that some of that chemistry between the two characters was lost. This was a unique storyline and it kept me engaged most of the book, I just missed the spark the first half had.

"The Roommate" is a fun, sexy romance that stands out for being partly set in the adult film world. Clara and Josh end up as accidental roommates after she moves to LA to live with her longtime crush and is surprised to find that instead she'll be living with his subletter. Clara is hoping to break away from her rich East Coast family, and her strait-laced personality clashes with Josh, who is an easygoing adult film star. The romance is similar to other roommate/opposites-attract stories, but this book felt unique in how Clara learns more about Josh's profession and becomes inspired to start a business that empowers women to explore their sexualities. The main characters could have been a little stronger; much is made of how they have each disappointed their families, but their backstories didn't feel very convincing or well developed. Overall, however, this is an engaging, fun read.

4.5 stars

The Roommate was made for me: nerdy uptight girl with a cocky sex performer roommate who was a secret cinnamon roll. After being left high-and-dry by a childhood crush, Clara found herself sharing a house with well-known sex performer, Josh Darling.

Josh and Clara's chemistry was electric from their first encounter and the two expertly avoided their feelings and attraction to each other until I was up late at night silently begging them to find their happy ending. The sexual tension is expertly done with conversations that had me stop reading just so I could laugh out loud.

Along with navigating messy feelings, Danan included important conversations on the sex industry and the stigma surrounding it. With steamy sex scenes that will remind you of The Kiss Quotient, The Roommate hooks you with a charming love story and perfectly placed comedy. I can easily see myself rereading this.

Predictable Clara makes the rare impulsive decision to move from the East Coast to California in the hopes of upgrading a long-time friendship to a romance. However, quickly after arriving Clara learns that instead sharing close quarters with her crush, she will be roommates with Josh, a stranger, who helps her out of her comfort zone in ways she never saw coming.

"The Rooommate" is insanely sexy, wonderfully sex-positive, and turns the dated "crazy ex-girlfriend trope" completely on it's head in the form of the gloriously fierce Naomi. By turns achingly tender and laugh out loud funny, this one is not to be missed.

The Roommate is Rosie Danan’s debut novel and once I saw the cover and read the blurb, I knew I had to read it. I love those forced proximity books and the fact that the roommates were strangers, gimmie!

Clara Wheaton is a socialite that just finished grad school. She’s decided to move cross country (totally not like her) for a man. One of her best friends, Emmett, who she’s had it bad for for the longest time. As soon as she gets there she realized this was a huge mistake. Emmett sublets his room out to Josh and has Clara living with a stranger temporarily while he travels with his band. What a warm welcome.

Clara and Josh are complete strangers but they get along well enough at first. Then Clara finds out what Josh does for a living. It doesn’t change what she thinks about him necessarily, but she sees him in a different light. And after finding out things going on with his career, she decides to help him with a cause she believes in.

I honestly expected to love this one, but unfortunately it was just okay for me. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it. My only real problem with this one was I never felt the connection between Clara and Josh. I can find characters unrelatable and still love a book, but I have to feel their connection, the romance has to be real for me and unfortunately I never felt much between these two. I liked them both well enough, but I didn’t feel the spark.

Overall, this was a nice debut novel that I think a lot of people will love. It had some humor and steam and was enjoyable for me.

The Roommate is about an uptight socialite and her adult entertainer roommate. But it's about a lot more than that.

This is a romance about acceptance and bravery. It's about being true to yourself even under the most difficult of circumstances. It's also just super sweet and hot.

So, going into this one, I expected a cute and sweet book about reluctant roommates getting to know each other and falling in love. It was that, don’t get me wrong. Clara and Josh had a great development, I loved the progress of their relationship. But this book also had quite a lot of surprises and ended up not being what I expected when I started at all! But honestly, the more I think about it, the more I’m glad it was such a surprise.


For starters, this book was 100x dirtier than I expected, lol. But I loved how sex positive it was. Josh is in the very beginning revealed as a very well known porn star, which was quite an interesting profession to read about and something I had never read in a romance novel before. And although he works in the adult film industry, the book never glorifies it, in the sense that a big portion of the plot was about taking down an industry that treats their workers poorly, objectifies women, and so on. But at the same that the author made sure to bring awareness to all the terrible things about this industry, she also makes sure to never shame Josh for his work choice. He is proud of what he does, he loves what he does. And I loved that as well about the book so much!

Talking about the characters, they were so great, and a big thing I loved about it was the characters development they go through as the story progresses, which was well done. Clara, for example, grew up sheltered, wanting to prevent getting into a scandal to make her family proud of her, and so as the story arc moves forward, she tries her hardest to hide her involvement in something that could be a upsetting not just to her family but to the people she works for, but as she gets more involved and falls in love with Josh and the project, she starts to see that she shouldn’t care what other people think. I really loved her growth. Josh did a lot of growing throughout the book as well, a loved the moment with his family, but Clara was the growth that really stood out to me.

I loved Josh and Clara’s relationship. I loved that they bond and become friends before anything serious starts to happen. I love how sweet Josh is towards Clara all the time, and how Clara loosens up a lot when she is with Josh. Their bonding and development really made me connect with these two even more than I expected to because it was just so well done. Their scenes were sweet, funny, cute, and very very hot as the book and their relationship progressed. The conflict didn’t feel forced either, which I appreciated. I felt like it was inevitable and it helped in their personal growth, so it ended up adding to the story. Without it, it would’ve been harder for them to get to the epilogue.


I felt like there were a few things that were said throughout the book, but that were never shown. Naomi’s threat to Josh, for example... When she found out he didn’t do what she told him to, she didn’t even seem to care. I would’ve loved to see Clara talking to her family after everything got out, I would’ve loved to see Josh talk to his family about Clara, or Clara meeting his family, and then Josh meeting her family. There was so much internal monologue about Clara having to marry someone her parents felt was a proper match, and that they would throw a fit if she dated a porn star, but I would’ve loved to SEE their reactions to Josh and Clara’s relationship. At the end, the way the epilogue goes, it just felt like there was not issue whatsoever. I would’ve liked to see more than just being told.


But all in all, this was a solid 4 star book that made me smile, swoon, and really really happy. There were so many positive aspects of this story that I absolutely loved, and I would 100% recommend it. So good!

I REALLY wanted to love love love this story and there were some aspects that I really did! The banter between the characters was fun, the hero is definitely charismatic and pulls you end but I don't think I really ever bonded with the heroine and that made me not really believe the chemistry between these two.

I definitely liked the concept and the back drop of the story but I never quite connected. Mainly though, it was my lack of emotion for the heroine and her personality that stopped me from falling in love with the book.

It sizzled, it sparkled, it flirted... The Roommate is a quality romcom!

Clara is Type A to the extreme, while Josh is... not. The two of them get thrown into a roommate situation and it doesn't take long for sparks to fly. But Clara soon finds out that Josh is no ordinary roommate. He's an adult entertainer. And he's moderately famous because of it.

Clara decides to partner with Josh and his ex Naomi, and uses some of her trust fund to finance Shameless. A website that blends art, porn, and instruction with the focus on female pleasure. But things are always more complicated when feelings are involved.

This book is steamy. More explicit than Fifty Shades of Grey, and also more literary. The writing is crisp and creative. The voices are strong and surprising. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, sexy read featuring two characters with depth.

The Roommate was so much fun to read. It was steamy, but also sweet. Raunchy, but also romantic. It was such a perfect blend for a romance book. I also loved the destigmatization of the porn industry, especially of sex workers. It was empowering and just a whole lot of fun.