A delicious blend of angst, humor, and undeniable chemistry. As a talented screenwriter, Emma faces the daunting task of rewriting a script for her idol, Charlie Yates, whose skepticism towards love adds an extra layer of tension to their dynamic. The enemies-to-lovers trope is executed flawlessly.
I couldn’t put it down. I think this might be my new favorite Katherine Center book!

Thanks so much to netgalley and St Martin’s press for the digital copy!!!!!

Katherine is one of my absolute favorite authors so I went in with high expectations and they were met! 👏🏻 Her newer books are so light-hearted and fun and this one is no exception!

I’m going to start off by saying that I don’t think this book will be for everyone, but I loved it! You have two quirky characters at the center of it, and at times they both frustrated me, but I also dearly loved them. I can see why these two and the choices they make won’t be for everyone, though. So people will dissect them too much, but I just let the book entertain me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

For me this was such a great nod to rom-com movies and I could definitely envision this on the big screen. The banter between these two was hilarious, and I loved the addition of all of the physical comedy, as well. It had me laughing out loud several times. 🤭 Towards the end, Katherine also made me shed a few tears. There were some absolutely beautiful quotes woven throughout this book. She excels at bringing the laughs, butterflies and heartfelt moments that end up being so touching.

⚠️𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴⚠️
🤬There was more language than I anticipated.
🌶️ There is zero spice, but there are mentions of it.
😔 Storyline does talk about loss of a parent and cancer.

ARC REVIEW
The Rom-Commers
BY Katherine Center

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Publishing date: 6/11/24
What you need to know?Emma is given the opportunity to be a ghost writer with her favorite Hollywood writer, Charlie. She travels to LA to spend 6 weeks with him and rewrite the awful rom com he has written. (And he is NOT a willing participant in this...at first)

REVIEW: This was sooo gooooood! This was my 3rd Katherine Center novel and my FAVORITE by far!

Charlie is such a good grump that becomes soft in the best way! 🥹🥹Emma was such a sweetheart that made me LOL numerous times.

I really love celebrity and faux celeb books? And the LA setting was perfect! I went into this one blind and loved every minute!

Emma's family is also a cast of supporting characters. Her father has suffered a traumatic brain injury, her sister is taking over as a caregiver, and giving Emma her first break after 10 years....all while Emma is trying to handle writing with her idol? It's just. SO good.

And let's talk about the ending?!** CHEFS FREAKING KISS!!! ** que the tears!!!

DEFINITELY add this one to your TBR and pick this up next month.

Thank you, @netgalley and @stmartinspress, for this ARC. Always a pleasure!

Loved this book! Sweet, funny, and had wonderful life lessons from Emma’s dad. I loved the characters. Katherine Center is a national treasure.

I really enjoyed the Rom-Commers! This is the second book I’ve read by Katherine Center and she’s now an auto-buy author for me. The Rom-Commers centers around Emma Wheeler, the FMC, who is flown out to LA to help Charlie Yates, a famous screenwriter who doesn’t believe in love, re-write a rom-com script. I really liked Emma—I thought she was such a fun, little quirky, sweet, relatable character who has a positive outlook despite the trauma she’s had in her past. Charlie starts off a bit stand-offish and grumpy and I was a bit unsure of him for some of the book, but ended up liking him by the end. He does have a sweet side for her, and similar to Emma, does have his own trauma he’s working through himself. I liked the banter between Emma and Charlie and the slowburn of a romance. A couple of fun romance tropes in here: grumpy x sunshine and famous x non-famous person. There’s also a little cameo from one of the main characters in Katherine’s other book, The Bodyguard!

While I think the Bodyguard is still my favorite, I really enjoyed The Rom-Commers! If you are looking for a romance that’s lower on the spice this is a great one. The Rom-Commers will be out June 11, 2024. And yes, of course I pre-ordered the physical copy with the neon pink edges haha.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was embarrassingly my first time reading a Katherine Center book. Don’t throw stones please, I beg of you! I promise it will not be the last! The Rom- Commers is so deliciously delivered like the old rom com movies we all fell in love with years ago. It had me laughing so hard with the banter between Emma and Charlie! I could just picture them right there on the imaginary tv in my mind. Katherine does a fantastic job of writing comedy while also hitting on the deep stuff that finds you wiping a tear from your cheek without even realizing it is there. But then bringing you right back into the whit you need to pull a smile back on your face.
I cannot wait to read more by this author. I am absolutely hooked!

Thank you to Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with this arc read!

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Wow! Every time that I read one of this author’s books, I like them more. This book had a love story, but with an unexpected twist that had me wondering how things were going to end. Center had me caring so much about the characters that I was invested in the conclusion. You will want to pick up this rom-com when released in June. ❤️

I was soooo excited to receive this ARC! I coincidentally finished Hello Stranger the same day I received this! I really loved this book and the shared universe with The Bodyguard. Katherine Center never fails to make me laugh out loud with her dialogue while also not making it tooooo cheesy. Her books have the perfect balance of seriousness mixed with the right amount of goofiness that comes with a romantic comedy, and The Rom-Commers was no different. I cannot wait to recommend this to others. Rated 4 stars only because I felt it was a bit too slow of a burn to feel so rushed in the last 30 pages. I would’ve loved more time with Charlie and Emma being on the same page (no pun intended) with their feelings.

My Rating: 4.25 stars!

First and foremost thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC! I was super excited to be able to read Katherine Center’s new book early.

She did not disappoint!

A few little qualms that I’ll point out now before I get to all the good stuff. Charlie and Emma are a grumpy x sunshine couple, but many times Charlie felt too mean to me, especially at the beginning of the book. He was less of a grump and more of a jerk. He did have his arc, but my main issue is that Charlie and Emma never talked about the rude stuff Charlie said for the most part.

Another note, Katherine Center LOVES to put (sometimes obscure) illness and diseases in her books. This time, it felt a little overdone. There were multiple characters who had more than one illness/disease over the course of the book and it just felt like a lot and it did take me out of the book at points!

Now for the good stuff!! I have so many positive thoughts about “The Rom-Commers.” I love how Katherine Center writes, and how easily she can suck you into a book. I had so much genuine fun reading this book and I didn’t want to put it down!

The concept itself is so unique, and so fun. I also loved some cameos from one of Center’s other books! Also that ending??? Absolutely too good. Like I 100% would have been on team Charlie if they discussed his earlier comments simply with how this book ended. CHEFS KISS!!

I genuinely had a great time reading “The Rom-Commers” and I would absolutely recommend it!!

As a reader, I do think we all have a certain inborn directive intuition that leads us to or away from books. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center is one of those books for me. My heart lead me straight to it and I just felt this was a book I would truly enjoy… one that I had to read.

The Rom-Commers is both unlike anything I’ve ever read and at the same time, was simmering with this underlying vein of familiarity that stayed ‘til the very last word. There’s something cosy, warm and moving about this story of a young amateur screenwriter who’s talented but pushed to a corner in life, who then gets something of a break when asked to work with her favourite (and very famous) screenwriter.

The Rom-Commers reads like an interesting and perfect blend between a book and a movie. The author has, somehow, pulled in elements you’d find in a movie and tied those with the aspects you’d find in a book and managed to pull it off. The best kind of books are those that play on the back of your mind until you finish them; so any quick break you need to take from them only further fills your mind about them. The Rom-Commers was one of those books for me and perhaps that’s why I finished this book in nearly one sitting.

I would describe Center’s book as a heavily character driven narrative. Written in single person perspective, The Rom-Commers delves into the psyche, circumstance and life of Emma Wheeler, the FMC of this story. With humour, anxiety, courage, and emotion, Emma draws the reader in with every single thought in her mind, telling her story in a non-linear fashion that works with a charm that I’ve found only in some other romantic comedies I’ve read thus far. Her story is tinged with a note of sadness and pain that you can’t look past, even before you discover the reason for it. However, her voice is coated with grit, smart quips and a strong sense of duty that will touch your heart without doubt.

The MMC, Charlie Yates, was a wonderful character to watch interact with our heroine. The book—almost like a movie here—showcases a bunch of snippets of their interactions; each one building on its predecessor until there’s almost a beautiful canvas of friendship painted before the reader. One of my favourite tropes in a book is watching two strangers becoming friends and then something more and The Rom-Commers truly hit the mark for me on that front. Another aspect of this book that stood out to me was watching the main characters interact with one another with what’s-evident-to-the-reader as an imbalance in power (work experience-wise) and how beautifully that was handled. This encapsulates a large part of the first half of the book.

It took me by surprise that there were quite a few secondary characters in this story. The surprise was because I didn’t realise it; as each and every one of them was so well defined and fit so wonderfully in their roles, it never felt like there were too many. I would say they were definitely props in their own way to the primary characters and their story (I mean, who isn’t?), but they bring their own little something to their scenes that’s hard to miss or forget. There’s lots of interesting relationships that The Rom-Commers has, from siblings to exes, to friends and rivals and the characters working with and around them is an equally important part of their journey in this book.

The plot of this story is as simple as it’s complex. Just like any other book in it’s genre The Rom-Commers is about two very unlikely people finding out just how likely they are to never want to spend another day without the other. This, of course, is an over-simplification of any rom-com. The emotional complexities that make them who they are, the circumstances and fears that pull them apart, the traumas and vulnerabilities that bond them and how all this is written is what makes or breaks any book. There were many of these in The Rom-Commers and the way some of them squeeze your heart…you may not be ready for.

Center did a fantastic job creating, developing and nurturing the many plot threads that make this book what it is. I followed each and every thread with anticipation, sometimes fear and most times excitement and couldn’t wait to see where they would lead us. The pace at which all these threads drag us along is wonderfully even—dare I say, fast—and builds with the promise of a mighty conclusion. However, this is the only place for me that the book felt like a movie in a way that didn’t work 100% for me. Like in a movie, there were some gaps in the way some things were resolved. Big fights or drastic decisions that dredge up a lot of past trauma sometimes fell a little on the side of swift resolution that bordered on not being dealt with, both internally by the character and externally within relationships.

However, what I’m very grateful for is a good parent representation that I will forever hold close to my heart. The Rom-Commers is a sweet clean romance with lots of fluff, however it deals with many difficult topics including, but not limited to, emotional trauma and major health struggles that I hadn’t realised was a part of it. Please read all the trigger warnings before starting this book.

The Rom-Commers is the first Katherine Center book I've read in which I struggled to connect with the protagonists.

I found it difficult to read about Emma constantly listening to Charlie speaking poorly and dismissively about her to others - even if only because he was in denial about his attraction to her - and yet she continued to pine for him; it became frustrating quickly.

The fact that Emma was a big fan of Charlie's work may have explained her initial attraction, but after a while his actions should have been off-putting to her. The reason Charlie turned Emma down (again and again) was not disclosed until literally the second to last chapter and it explained his hesitation to start a relationship with Emma but did not (in my opinion) justify his hot and cold attitude towards her.

Katherine Center books always pack an emotional punch, and I did feel so much for Emma and her complex relationship with her sister, her stress over being her father's caregiver, and her hopes of finally fulfilling her dream of becoming a writer. However, the romance in The Rom-Commers simply did not feel believable to me.

Loved it. I laughed. I cried. An engaging and entertaining story. The tale references "It Happened One Night," which is one of my favorite movies. I have two favorite scenes. Now I am trying to figure out which are my favorites in this book. Many from which to select. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

Emma is hired to help the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates fix his first rom-com. She is obsessed with romantic commedies, and he wants nothing to do with them or love. She’s also obsessed with Charlie as a screenwriter. However, he doesn’t want to work with anyone and doesn’t even care about his script. How is Emma supposed to not only fix his terrible script but change his mind about love?

Katherine Center writes books that just make me happy. I found myself smiling and highlighting so many favorite lines. This might just be my favorite book of hers yet.

This one wasn’t a favorite of mine. Charlie is pretty terrible, and not just like a typical grumpy trope of a man in a romance— like a legitimate asshole. It didn’t matter if you told me he looked like Milo Ventimiglia because I just pictured an old grumpy man and I couldn’t wrap my mind around why Emma would find him attractive. I do think the second half of the book redeemed itself a little, but I almost DNF it so many times.

I’m not saying characters have to be perfectly likeable in books, but it’s hard for me to move past a character I absolutely hate for 50% of a book. It’s actually really rare for me to hate a character in a book at all. It ended up having a semi-redeemable sweet ending, although it felt really rushed compared to the rest of the pace of the book.

As a big fan of Katherine Center's books, I was very excited to cuddle up in my cozy reading chair and listen to her newest release, The Rom-Commers. The delightful cast of characters had me invested from the first couple of pages. The story was fairly realistic in a Hollywood-type way. The plot moved along briskly and kept me entertained. There was a good amount of humor as well as other emotions portrayed. I quite enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to all lovers of the romance genre. I listened to the audio and the narration was lovely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the audio publisher for an advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Having read, and loved, a few of Katherine Center's books, this one might be top tier for me. I loved that both the characters are writers who use writing to escape their real lives. I like how they spend time 'testing' out tropes, and even having some more added in, and try to learn how to write together and get this idea to land. Emma, who has been away from the world for bit because she's been taking care of her dad, is a believable character in the situation she is in. Charlie is afraid to lose anyone else, and even to be someone that Emma might lose. They spend a lot of time trying to sort out their feelings (or not feelings) and see how they might end up coming together. I think both characters are stubborn, but I truly liked how the story played out.

I loved, loved, loved everything about this book. It’s officially one of my favorites of all time. ❤️ Thank you, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, for the ARC!

I have a book hangover after plowing through this in less than 24 hours. Including staying up late because I started it close to bedtime and couldn't put it down until it was half done and I suddenly remembered I'm a high school teacher!

This is so very sweet. Never too sweet. And often bittersweet. It is one of my favorite novels Center has written, and I like all her books. And for once I feel comfortable recommending it to coworkers and students, because there is no funny business. I like funny business! I read everything! But this was just perfect the way it was. Two people overcoming grief and very real issues in ways that felt authentic. And it has the most beautiful things to say about love.

Five stars. No notes. Happy summer reading. I received a digital ARC through NetGalley, for which I am very very grateful, but it didn't affect my review in the slightest. This book warrants lots of joy all on its own.

This is probably my favorite Katherine Center book to date, and I’m a pretty big fan of hers. Hitting the right mix of spunky, funny, emotional and endearing, the Rom-Commers is a book you won’t want to put down. I loved the dialogue in this book, playful quick-witted banter that gave off major Gilmore Girls vibes. These interactions really show off the personalities of Emma and Charlie and highlight the chemistry these two have right off the bat. One of my favorite things about this book is just how easily these two fall for each other without it feeling contrived. There aren’t big trips, or big events that pull them together…they fall for each other because they really enjoy each other’s company in everyday settings.
As with all of her books, there are some tougher topics also discussed, but they are done with great sensitivity and are given their due justice. A perfect beach read if there ever was one, I can’t recommend this book enough if you want a light fun read!

**Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Katherine Center for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.**

I enjoyed Center's latest rom-com despite some flaws and frustrations with the characters and the storyline. Emma has given up her entire life to take care of her father after a serious accident ten years earlier left him needing a permanent caretaker. When she is offered a dream career opportunity - to fix a romantic comedy screenplay by her screenwriter idol Charlie Yates - Emma's younger sister is conveniently newly graduated from college just in time to take over dad duties as Emma goes out to L.A. for her big chance. I loved the banter between Emma and Charlie, but I was never much of a Charlie fan throughout the novel. He was too much of a nonstop asshat, and Emma was a little too selfless of a doormat, for me to champion their HEA. That said, Center did a great job bringing out all the big emotions and I couldn't put this down. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital review copy.