Member Reviews
Katherine center does it again! Her books never fail to make me feel warm and Cozy and happy 🥰 I adored Emma and Charlie !
THE BEST! I have been a huge Katherine Center fan for yearssssss. They are the best summer books. They make you feel all the emotions! The Rom-Commers was AMAZING! I love Charlie and Emma. I felt like a middle school student, all giddy, listening to this audiobook! I think this is Katherine Center's BEST book. If you loved Happiness for Beginners, than buy this one! I will now be dreaming of the days that this becomes a movie.
This was a cute read, though not quite as engaging as other Katherine Center titles. Loved the characters, loved the banter, can’t wait to read more from Center!
WOW. This was an easy five star, from someone who gives them away pretty normally anyway… but this should be like a million stars.
The writing is at once hopeful and morose and fun and lovely. I cried and I laughed… I longed for the friendship to turn to more, but was so cozy in the friendship as it developed.
I was fluttery with swoon and there were hearts in my eyes at the funny romcom moments. I can’t wait to reread it. It’s going to live in my head until I do.
Another sweet story from one of my favorite rom-com authors! 🩵
This book follows Emma (rom-com expert/ aspiring screenwriter who dreams of making it in Hollywood) and Charlie (a legendary screenwriter who doesn’t believe in love). Charlie has written his first rom-com script (it’s awful) and Emma is tasked to live in his mansion in the Hollywood hills while she helps him re-write it into something swoon-worthy.
While this book has many fun/ joyful/ silly moments and plenty of classic rom-com tropes (grumpy/ sunshine, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, celeb/ regular person, etc), it was still much heavier than I expected. A lot of the story was about Emma dealing with the death of her mother and having to be her father’s full-time caretaker after a traumatic accident as well as other heavy topics that I won’t mention in case of spoilers. Also I wasn’t the biggest fan of either Emma or Charlie. Charlie treated Emma TERRIBLY for the majority of the book which kind of killed the chemistry for me. Also Emma acting desperate and whiny when Charlie didn’t reciprocate her advances was painfully cringe to read and definitely made me feel weird towards her.
All that being said, I did giggle and have a good time with this book! So it was a like, not a love for me. Also I think my expectations may have been a little too high going into this since Hello Stranger was one of my favorite books of last year. Anyway, I remain a Katherine Center stan and will continue to immediately read everything she writes!
✨ PUB DAY: June 11th! ✨
<i> Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review. </i>
If you’re looking for a feel good book to make your soul happy, then this is the one for you! I’m personally such a sucker for a good old
love story. To me it never gets old!
👉🏼 “Because love is something you can learn. Love is something you can practice. It’s something you can choose to be good at.”
•Because he doesn’t believe in love•
Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this ARC. This is my first time reading this author and unfortunately this book did not work out for me. I know friends have spoken very highly of her other works, so I am not discouraged from seeking out her other books. In this case, I did not feel the romance between the characters at all. I feel like I didn't get to know the characters well enough and found the chemistry between them to be lacking. While the writing is quite polished and easy to follow, I just needed more romance. More passion.
Katherine Center's 'The Rom-Commers' is an absolute delight from start to finish. With its witty dialogue, charming characters, and heartwarming storyline, Center once again proves herself as a master of the rom-com genre. The chemistry between the protagonists leaps off the page, pulling readers into a whirlwind of laughter, love, and self-discovery. Center's writing is both poignant and hilarious, making this a must-read for anyone in need of a feel-good escape. 'The Rom-Commers' is a refreshing and uplifting novel that reminds us of the power of love and the beauty of second chances. Highly recommend!
I adored this book. The characters were fantastic and I love the depth they have. Their personalities really came through and book were lovable in their own ways. I also loved the guinea pig. Having little things like that in books brings me so much joy. Highly recommend this one.
When wannabe screenwriter Emma is hired to help rewrite her hero's unbelievably bad screenplay, it sounds like a dream come true. Leaving her recovering Dad in the care of her sister, she heads to California for the chance of a lifetime.
She soon finds out that her hero has no interest in fixing the script. He only wrote it to get his pet project greenlit. He also doesn't believe in rom-coms or even in love and romance. Emma has her work cut out for her!
Katherine Center's novels are always a treat, filled with humor and humanity. The Rom-Commers is sure to cement her rightful place on the bestseller lists, and in the hearts of her readers. Highly recommended. #TheRom-Commers #NetGalley #Salt MarshAuthorSeries
I LOVE Katherine Center. She always delivers and this one is no exception. It’s so close to The Bodyguard as my favorite of her books. Can’t recommend the audio version enough; I think the narrator makes the story even better.
Katherine Center is a one-click author for me. I don't care if she is writing an analysis of the yellow pages (remember those?), I will read it. And I will probably find something to love about it. Her newest book, The Rom-Commers, although not among my favorite from her, is no exception.
I enjoy the single female POV we get from Center and her contemporary Emily Henry. This, to me, amps up the anticipation and the angst because we don't know quite what the male MC is thinking all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dual POV as well, but it's nice to have this choice in our reading lives.
In The Rom-Commers, we follow Emma, a freelance writer with dreams of writing screenplays in Hollywood. These dreams are put on hold when her father suffers a catastrophic injury and she becomes his full-time carer. Her childhood BFF Logan, a manager of Hollywood types, gets her a gig helping a struggling but formerly super successful screenwriter rewrite a terrible rom-com script. She upends her life to go help this grumpy guy struggling with writers block, leaving her father in the hands of her younger sister. Can she convince this I-Don't-Believe-in-Love curmudgeon that rom-coms do have a place in cinematic history and convince him that love does exist?
This is full of tropes that most romance readers, including this one, loves. Like I said before, though, of Center's books, this one rates low on the list for me. While I enjoyed their witty banter throughout, neither of the characters were very likable. At one point Emma basically guilt-trips Charlie because he isn't returning her sexual advances. If this were reversed, that would be a red flag for sure. We also have Charlie continuing to dismiss Emma through practically the entire story whenever possible. He treats her like crap so often I found it hard to believe their romantic chemistry and the "love" at the end. Lust, yes. Love, not so much. The themes in this story are also more heavy than we've seen from Center in the past - lots of grief, loss, loneliness, traumatic brain injury, being a full-time carer, cancer... it's like she wanted to throw everything in. So, despite the name of the book, this was the least comedic of Centers' books (for me).
But this was still a 4 star read for me. Center's writing never disappoints; I'm a sucker for witty, fun banter; and in the end, I was rooting for the couple to get together despite the miscommunication trope thrown in at the end. Luckily it isn't drawn out indefinitely and resolves fairly quickly.
Fans of Center's other books will no doubt enjoy this novel as well. I listened on audio and read it as well. Patti Murin does another amazing job bringing Center's characters to life. I recommend either consumption option.
This book was addicting. From characters to plot I fell in love. A rom-com about writing a rom-com was so cute.
At first, I wasn't sure that I would love a story about screenwriters but I love Katherine Center so I trusted the process. I love the real-life tough situations her characters face and how they come out of it on the other side. She has written some amazingly strong women that inspire me.
I really connected with Emma's character. I loved how much she loved her family. I loved how she really stepped up when it was needed. And it broke my heart that she gave up her dreams to do it. She really deserved a chance to shine. I wasn't Charlie's biggest fan in the beginning because he was seriously doing my girl Emma wrong. Especially when he berated her for being a failed writer. I was about to throw some hands. I don't really excuse his actions, but in the end Charlie had his own issues to work out about love. And I do believe he redeemed himself in the end.
I personally think Emma's father stole the show. In the face of such grief he managed to continue to be strong for his children and eventually find his own happiness. I love when I love the side characters just as much as the main ones. One of my favorite quotes from her father: "Whatever story you tell yourself about your life, that's the one that'll be true."
I enjoyed this book so much and absolutely recommend it. Katherine Center has done it again! She has given me another book to fall in love with.
Thank you NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for my advanced reader copy of The Rom-Commers.
THE. ROM. COMMERS. Book of the summer!!! Katherine Center is a genius! Such a funny, beautiful book.
I'm such a sucker for books where a character is passionate about romance and teaches other people to love and respect the genre, and this did this wonderfully. I felt so wrapped up in all the emotions of this story, and I actually can't wait for it to come out so I can buy a copy for myself.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and Katherine Center for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. Katherine Center’s newest (and I’m going to argue best work yet) is a joy to behold, a love letter to love and romcoms, but more importantly a book full of heart and tenderness. I was genuinely giddy while I read this book. With shades of Beach Read by Emily Henry and Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld, Center manages to take Hollywood’s writing room and the romantic banter between two wildly different writers (one, the mega popular Charlie Yates who hasn’t penned anything in four years after decades of award-winning material, the other, Emma, a no-name writer who has spent a decade catering to her ill father while putting her writing career on hold) and electrifies it. This book is a gem, and I can’t wait for everyone to fall in love with The Rom-Commers.
I enjoyed this book so very much -- one of the best modern romance books I have read in a while. It made me feel all the right things in all the right places. I'll definitely be recommending this one.
Katherine Center consistently puts out sweet romances and The Rom-Commers is no exception. We follow Emma (an aspiring screenwriter) and Charlie (a screenwriting legend in a bit of a slump) as they work together to fix up Charlie’s terrible script. Banter, hijinks, and classic tropes abound in this predictable, but delightful, romcom.
Pretty good pacing throughout, although the ending felt rushed to me and I’m not sure all the characters *really* made amends for some *really* horrible things said in the final act. I would’ve appreciated more development on the periphery relationships with the family/friends, but I enjoyed the tension between our two leads.
Katherine Center writes beautiful rom-coms and this certainly fits in that category. Emma is wonderfully complex; she is incredibly giving while still knowing who she is as a person. Charlie is hot-shot Hollywood and he knows it. Emma does not back down from the challenge of writing with him and the chemistry is absolutely palpable. There is such wit, humor, and genuine feelings that build between the two of them. I love that it’s so incredibly rom-com-y that the concept of romance and love spills from every page. A book that is a rom-com about writing a screenplay for a rom-com with a writer who needs to be conceived that love is real. Emma and Charlie go through some classic romance maneuvers to determine if they are possible for actually falling in love and all the real awkward moments are included. It’s refreshingly honest with the characters without having them feel like characters - all of this feels like it could really happen outside a book or movie. I was happy with the overall ending, but one giant plot point pissed me off - when you read this - which anyone should - you’ll understand what I mean. This book was a delight to read and as always, Katherine Center is the queen of rom-coms. 4.75⭐️, 0.5🌶
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!
This is my favorite of Katherine Center's books to date. I've read each one, starting with The Bodyguard which I didn't seem to love as much as the hype, then Hello Stranger, which I loved more than popular opinion because I just found the face blindness so charming. And here we are with Rom-Commers, her best book yet. I don't usually like a celebrity romance, as someone who grew up around Hollywood and just find it to be so fantastical that it takes me out of the story. Not here. I love that Center has not just written another book about a writer. She's given us details, about lucky charms and habits and black and blue ink that bring a writer to reality, rather than endlessly hammering in her "action" of writing. Charlie is endlessly charming and I found myself laughing out loud multiple times and their quips, and just found each and every chapter both satisfying and bingeable. Full five stars for me for this charming, loveable romance about two screenwriters trying to understand love again through fiction. How relatable.