The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center is a wonderful book about love stories and why they matter. Emma wants to be a screenwriter but has been her father’s caretaker for the last few years. She gets the opportunity to travel and help fix her favorite screenwriter’s rom com manuscript. However, when she meets Charlie, he’s not what she expected, and the script is horrible! He doesn’t care to fix it as it’s just way to get his passion project made. However, Emma puts her foot down and decides to teach Charlie the importance of love. As these two confront their differences while arguing over the importance of love and fixing the script, they’ll learn a lot about each other and see how real life can be even better than fiction.

I loved this book! I loved the characters of Emma and Charlie and thought they were really well written. I thought the plot moved along well. I loved how it took on the messiness of life and still have a happy ending. Five stars!

Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is one swoon worthy read! Centre absolutely did it again! But much like centre’s normal books there is heavy content. But if you love an enemies to lovers that turns friends to lovers with forced proximity with a message that even though life gives you those dark moments there is always a way to happiness through it all

In my opinion Katherine Center can do no wrong!! This book was incredible and such a hug in a book. 100% recommend

This is one of my favorite books of the year. It is so adorable, upbeat, and no toxic men. I have loved her other books, but I think this is my favorite.

Tropes/Themes:
✨M/F contemporary romance
✨hate to love
✨grump x sunshine
✨workplace
✨class difference
✨forced proximity
✨slow burn
✨singular pov
✨standalone

I’ve loved all of the previous Katherine Center books I’ve read, so I’m sad to say that this didn’t work for me at all. I'm going to mark this as a spoiler review so I can share my unfiltered thoughts.

I initially super intrigued by the plot, as it's about two screenwriters (one prolific and one nobody) coming together to write a romantic comedy. While I still enjoyed the plot by the end, it paled in comparison to the issues I had with this. First and foremost, Charlie Yates was actually the WORST. Like, are there actually women out here swooning over this man?! He was just a straight up misogynist and a condensing jerk. He was such a stereotype of a stereotypical dude bro (like how he only has beer and lunch meat in his fridge and thinks romantic comedies are "lady movies"). A woman with even the slightest self-respect would never have put up with him with his world views and the way he treated other people. And sure, he made some behavioral changes by the end of the book and groveled his little heart out, but thought patterns like that don’t just change overnight.

Now Emma Wheeler…what to say about her. I was absolutely loving her until about 80% of the way through. She ended up having that big argument with her sister following her father’s fall and her character did a massive switch up on me. I can totally respect that everyone responds to trauma/grief in different ways, but she was such a bitch to her sister!!! She completely berates her and throws her 10 years of (voluntary!) caregiving back in her face...which is doubly unfair considering that Sylvie was a minor for majority of that time). And then she has the audacity to get upset when her sister has a reaction in response to her mistreatment? Her “compassion” started sounding a little too much like martyrdom for my liking. And why was Sylvie the only who ended up having to grovel at the end?! It just didn’t sit well with me. I know caregiving for a loved one is incredibly difficult, but it felt like she was infantilizing her father at times and that way of thinking/treatment never really went away by the end of the book.

And that 3rd act conflict between her and Charlie? I can’t believe I’m about to defend that jerk, but her reaction to his confession was so frustrating. Charlie Yates, a man completely adverse to feelings and has the emotional maturity of a brick wall, finally takes the leap and expresses his feelings toward her…for her to immediately reject him and throw his words back in her face. And then she has the audacity to tell her dad “I liked him but he didn’t like me back”. No girl, he just didn’t like you back on your timeline. And how naïve/ungrateful for you to assume that the good monetary things happening to you afterwards are completely by chance. What hospital would upgrade someone's services because they're the 1000th surgery? Someone reportedly so involved in the caregiving/medical world would immediately call bullshit on that.

Lastly, there were elements of this that were a little too cheesy/cringey for my liking. It's one thing to include real life actors as background characters, but to go as far to give them dialogue and screen time? I couldn't take it seriously. Also, there were these random moments where the heroine would break the 4th wall and it would completely take me out of the story. And don't get me started on the fact that Charlie was miraculously “cured” of cancer because he really only had bronchitis and not metastasized lung cancer? Give me a break.

Ugh. Apparently I disliked this book even more than I initially thought! Take this raging review with a grain of salt though, because clearly I was not the target audience for this.

CWs for traumatic death of a parent, life altering medical condition, cancer

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley (thanks again!), but didn’t get around to reading it until after it was released.

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the #gifted copy of this book.

“I had a theory that we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we are looking for- adventure, excitement, emotion, connection-we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we’re struggling with- sometimes ones so deep, we don’t even really know we’re asking them- we look for answers in stories.”

Thoughts: Katherine Center is hands down one of my absolute favorite authors. I loved this book because it gave me all the feels. The banter between Emma and Charlie was spot on having me both laugh and swoon. I loved Emma's chance to completely change her routine to help with Charlie's script, especially when he wasn't exactly excited about it. These two were opposites in every way, Charlie being the grumpiest grump and Emma trying to find the best in all situations. This book had me laughing and in tears in all the best ways possible. The grand gesture and the epilogue were two of my most favorite parts of this book!!

This was certainly a MUST READ for me... Check it out for a guaranteed HEA.

My first book by Katherine center and I loved it! I can't wait to read others. I read it within a day, I was hooked since page one. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read!

Perfect perfect perfect

I laughed, I cried, I swooned. This was one of my favorites of Center’s books!

Nothing else needs to be said

Katherine Center’s writing is perfection!! This is definitely my favorite book by her so far! I absolutely loved Charlie and Emma. Charlie is a famous screenwriter who doesn’t write romance. Emma gets the chance of a lifetime to re-write his rom-com script. I loved this grumpy sunshine story. Emma’s family backstory definitely had me emotional at times. I loved the banter between Emma and Charlie. I also loved Emma’s passion for writing romance!! I could not put this book down….it was so so good!!!
Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress and @katherinecenter for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review..

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center is a rom-com and the story of Emma and Charlie.
 
Emma is a romantic at heart and waiting for her big breakthrough as a screenwriter. I loved how Emma is pursuing her dreams and she doesn’t give up and tries to make it her reality. She is a very kind and vivid person and that was a great contrast to Charlie.
 
Charlie is a well-established and successful screenwriter whose career recently has gone downhill. In order to make his dream project happen, he is forced to work on a mafia romance movie, and he isn’t fond of it and ready to give up because it turned out very lackluster. And that’s when Emma is assigned to this project in order to spice up the screenplay. Charlie is oftentimes very focused only on himself and acts as a complete ass to the people around him and that made him very unlikeable at times.
 
Emma idolized Charlie and the minute she meets him in real life her picture of him shatters because he acts like such an idiot. That wasn’t a good start to their work relationship, and it doesn’t get much better until Charlie one day has a change of heart and he sees that romance stories maybe aren’t that bad. But this felt very constructed to me, and I couldn’t really believe their relationship.
 
Overall, The Rom-Commers had a great concept and I just expect a little bit more from the romance. 3 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

The Rom-Commers follows Emma, a failing writer, who gets hired to help Charlie, an award-winning screenplay writer, fix his atrocious rom-com screenplay. The catch? She has to live in his house while they write it and spend every waking moment with him. Shenanigans ensue, and romance blooms on the page and in real life 🤓

Full of Katherine Center’s typical heart, with the sprinkle of real life problems, trauma, and raw honesty from our main characters. So, obviously, I loved it. It didn’t replace the bodyguard or Things We Lose in a Fire as my favorite Katherine Center book, but it did delight me and keep me rooting for these two to overcome their issues!

Read this one for a great beach read this summer!

I really loved The Rom Commers- it might be my favorite Katherine Center book yet. Her characters, the setting- immaculate.

I don’t know if it’s possible to read a novel by Katherine Center without giving her 5 stars! Her romcoms have it all - delightful and dynamic characters; playful banter; engaging plot and engrossing storyline; and happily ever afters. For me, that’s the perfect recipe for a romcom!

Charlie Yates is an award winning screenwriter who is experiencing the “yips” (avoiding the word writers block!) after his recent hiatus. Wanting to get back into the game, he’s anxious for his mafia movie to make it to the big screen. Before that can happen, he’s forced to write a romcom. Known for his testosterone fueled, action packed movies, it’s not surprising his romcom script is not good. It’s terrible. Or as the novel implies, it gives the word “terrible” a bad name!

Enter Emma Wheeler, romcom lover who frequently ghost writers romcoms for very little money and absolutely no recognition. When she’s offered the opportunity to help Charlie Yates rewrite his screen play in LA, she can’t believe it. Charlie Yates is one of her writing hero’s! She has a picture of him above her desk as inspiration. But she lives in Texas and is responsible for taking care of her father who was injured 10 years ago on a family vacation, suffering a TBI and other ailments. She can’t possibly leave him especially since her younger sister is about to start a highly sought after internship. When her sister insisted it’s Emma’s time to pursue her dreams, she finds herself on a plane to LA!

Once there, Charlie makes it obvious he’s not interest in working with Emma or doing anything to the romcom than making it “passable” so his mafia movie can get the green light. Can Emma change his mind or will her dream be over before it even begins?


This was such a charming read and I absolutely loved it! Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and the publishers for providing me with both the novel and audiobook to read in exchange for honest feedback. Both were a delight!

Absolute perfection. Chef's kiss. Katherine Center never disappoints me! I adored the premise of this—a fledgling writer and one who was "washed up"—and their struggle to work together to set his career back on track and get hers started. Watching them help one another overcome their fears and the lies they believed about themselves was entertaining and heartwarming.

I would like to thank St Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Read if you like:
😠 ☀️ Grumpy/sunshine pairs
🖋️ Books about writers
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Family connection
🐹 Guinea pigs

Emma loves love, she’s a screenwriter of romantic comedies, and she’s really good. But, she’s the caretaker for her dad so her career has taken a backseat. The opportunity of a lifetime comes her way when Charlie Yates, famous Oscar winning screenwriter, writes a horrendous rom-com script. His agent, also Emma’s agent, convinces Emma to help fix this disaster. Emma’s sister takes on the caregiving duties so Emma can move to LA for six weeks to write this movie with her idol. A couple problems: Charlie doesn’t want to write a good rom-com (he doesn’t even believe in love), and he doesn’t work with anyone, ever.

Katherine Center does it again! This was a really fun book, also emotional at times. I’ve read three other books from her and this is the first one that made me cry. I loved seeing Emma be brave and come into her own and Charlie open up. I wish we could have gotten a bit from Charlie’s pov, but the great banter and Emma’s sense of humor was great. If you’re looking for a summer read, pick this one up!

I loved this book so much!! It was such a fun, beach read, and the characters were lovable from the beginning!

I tried to read this one for several weeks. I just couldn't get into it. DNF at 40 % . Both of the main characters were annoying. They were both so annoying. This is unfortunate because I really like this author

This is probably the most enjoyable book I’ve read in a while. It’s the sixth of Katherine Center’s I’ve read and they’ve all been great, but this has to be one of my favorites of hers. I just enjoy her writing style so much. Before reading this book I’d DNF’d a book that wasn’t terrible, but was just a slog to try to read. It was almost a relief to start this book afterward, it was just so markedly better. I felt like I was immediately into right from the beginning. The characters are interesting and flawed and are going through a lot (or are dealing with having gone through a lot) and you can’t help but root for them. Typically, I’m not really interested in any rom-com that has to do with Hollywood or celebrities, but this was fun enough I didn’t mind at all. I think anyone who likes rom-coms or has enjoyed previous books by this author will love this book as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the copies to review.

I can always count on Katherine Center for a good time. What I did NOT expect was to finish this one and have shed some tears, but I did, and Center has found a way to melt this thriller loving black heart JUST a smidge. This is probably my favorite of hers to date, and I could not get enough! I loved Emma and Charlie, I loved the plot, and the ending was chef’s kiss. The audio for this was fantastic, the narrator did such a wonderful job with this one. I don’t know who I am reading more romance this year but when they are books like these, I am not mad at it one bit.

A wonderful story! Center's work has quickly become some of my favorites. The stories grip your heart, the reality shocks you and the endings - oh the endings!

This one is no different. If you are familiar with the author's work you will know the story without having read the book, but I strongly suggest reading it! It just makes you feel good!

Can't wait for the next one!