Emma Wheeler has always dreamed of being a screenwriter, but as the full-time caretaker for her dad, her opportunities have been limited. Now, she has a chance to work with her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Yates. Emma’s sister takes over caretaking duties for the summer, and Emma flies to L.A. to help Charlie rewrite a romantic comedy script he made. However, the job is not what she expected: Charlie doesn’t want to write with anyone; his script is worse than terrible, and he doesn’t even believe in love. Emma is determined to change his mind.

I devoured this book in a day! Katherine Center has done it again. This book is brimming with heart and humor while not shying away from difficult topics. I loved Emma’s determination and her passion for love. Don’t miss this book when it comes out June 11, 2024!

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

The Rom-Commers is a delightful romance that feels reminiscent of movies like My Gal Friday. Aspiring writer Emma Yates gets the chance of a lifetime - rewrite a romantic comedy script with the writer she idolizes, Charlie Yates. The only problem? It’s hard to write about love when your cowriter isn’t convinced it exists.

So cute! Exactly what you would expect to read in a book called The Rom-Commers. Lots of typical Rom-com tropes as we follow 2 screenwriters falling in love.

Emma and Charlie are adorable as they navigate co-writing a screenplay together. I especially liked our heroine finding her main character energy and the caretaker representation.

Do yourself a favor and preorder this one if you love a good light romance.

Thank you to Net Galley and St Martin’s Press for the advanced e copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Rom-Commers tells a story of a struggling writer turned caregiver to her father, who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to California to work with her idol screenwriting a romcom. Things definitely aren't smooth sailing when she arrives though.

I have now read the last three books from this author, and I can say with certainty that she writes unique stories. Her storytelling is always so easy to read and typically has some enjoyable humour. But there was just something missing for me with this story. Not quite fully a women's fiction, not quite a romance- both of which I was anticipating. This story was basically two somewhat unlikable MC's, who don't like each other for most of the book, don't communicate well, but somehow magically fall in love. I just didn't feel it.

While I enjoyed The Bodyguard, I didn't love Hello Stranger and feel similar here with this one. Not sure this is the author for me. But there's something for everyone, so I would recommend giving it a chance for yourself!

2.5 Stars ⭐️

* I received an arc from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and given freely.

"I think that you're my favorite person I've ever met."

-Hollywood setting, forced proximity, angst
-aspiring screenwriter Emma Wheeler meets famous screenwriter Charlie Yates
-I enjoyed Emma and Charlie’s relationship & Charlie is such a sweetie 🥹 tying her shoes and buying her flowers ah 🩷
-kissing!! for!! research!! I am here for it 🙌🏻
-do not let the title fool you that this will be a rom com all the way, the way this book had me tearing up 🥲
-thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

4.0⭐️

Another winner from Katherine Center! From the fun cameos, to the sweet romance, to the just this could be real life heartbreak, and safe enough to read at work, this was a solid read for me.

This was a really beautiful story. I love Katherine center’s writing and how the main character is basically telling you a story. I loved all the life lessons in this and that life is beautiful and amazing even in tragedy.
The first bit of the book Charlie frustrated me because he came off rude, but I did understand and come to really like him by the end. I also really liked Emma and her view on love.
I also loved seeing Jack from The Bodyguard! Overall I really enjoyed this and it was a quick bingeable read that taught me something which I love!

Hear me out, friends: I'm not saying this is a P&P adaptation, at all. I'm not implying any sort of derivative or non-original content in any way. I am saying, somehow, this reached across the void, to me, for me, in a very specific way that made me think, if only for a moment, that all is right with the world - at least sometimes.

I know when I pick up a Katherine Center book, I am going to be entertained. This book does not disappoint. While dealing with some heavy topics, it is still light, fun, and hopeful. I feel like it was a little bit of sunshine in my day. I loved getting to know Emma and Charlie. I loved that we saw glimpses of Jack Stapleton from The Bodyguard. I loved how Emma schooled Charlie on love. I thought their working together on the screen play was wonderful. They found their rhythm writing with each other. Emma forced Charlie to deal some traumas and Charlie helped Emma to see that she didn't have to give up her life to take care of her dad.

There is so much goodness in this book. There is some very serious and real topics and I think that how the characters dealt with these things were very real. I could relate to the heartbreak and guilt that Emma dealt with over her parents' accident. I felt her pain when her sister had to call and relay about more tragedy.

If you haven't read a book by Katherine Center do yourself a favor and pick one up...anyone of them. This is a good one to start with and you will ask yourself why you haven't started her books sooner.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I thought this one was so fun and delightful.
Behind the scenes look on the writer/screenwriter life.
Characters that are easy to root for.
Good banter.
And a solid lesson on why predictability with romance is a joy.
Another winner from Katherine Center for me!

This was my first book by Katherine Center, and it won’t be my last! I loved the story of Emma and Charlie. The book does touch on some tough topics that drive the plot. Lots of emotions and love and the importance of family as well as finding yourself. I enjoyed it, and I will be reading more of Katherine Center’s books in the future!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Publishing June 11, 2024

I have not read many Katherine Center books but saw this and decided why not? Well, I can definitely say I made a GREAT decision and was not disappointed with this book. the characters were super likeable, tons of humor throughout and of course romance. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and I like that as it makes the story much more relatable to real life. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more from Katherine Center. Thank you NetGalley.

An absolute joy. This is a book filled with Katherine Center doing what she does best: putting characters through the horrors of life to prepare them to open their hearts to love in unexpected places. This book absolutely lives up to its title, even if she does put your heart through the ringer a bit more and for a bit longer than her other novels I've read. I breezed through the majority of this book in one day, and if you are looking for the perfect summer rom-com to lift you up, this is exactly that. For those who have read The Bodyguard, there's also an absolute treat of a cameo in this book. So much fun, so full of love, this book was everything I had hoped for. A must-read for any rom-com lover.

“The Rom-Commers” is a rom-com book by Katherine Center. Like others, I’ve read a number of Ms. Center’s books, so I had pre-conceived exceptions for this one. To be honest, there were many things I liked about this book — and a number of things I really didn’t like about this book.

What I liked:

The overall idea - I really really liked the idea of Emma working with her most favorite screenwriter in the entire world. I liked how she was pushed into it - I liked how Charlie was reluctant initially but finally admitted he had the “yips” and needed help in a genre he really felt uncomfortable with. I also really liked how the two working styles (Emma being super organized; Charlie being a bit more ‘whatever’) can work and mesh together.

Some of the humor - Ms. Center’s books all seem to have elements that just make me laugh because the scenes could be picked up from my life or something I’d possibly think but not actually say.

That the two characters were older - Neither Emma nor Charlie were mature in the classic sense, but they were in their 30s and had responsibilities and had experienced life, good, bad, and difficult. There’s a maturity both had (not only due to Emma’s family dynamics and Charlie’s marital status) which was refreshing in a romance book.

The meh:

The re-write - I’ll admit it, “It Happened One Night” isn’t my favorite classic movie, but it IS a pretty overall dang well done movie. Unfortunately I really wanted to know more about the potential re-write of this movie - how did Emma improve it, what did she toss, what did she write? Unfortunately that part seemed to be secondary to the story.

The backstory drama (guilt) parts - I won’t get much into it, but there’s a lot of drama in both Emma’s and Charlie’s pasts - and I’m not sure I needed to read all about it. In fact I think a few times the information was repeated. And the fact that Emma still has guilt I get, but it became a bit over-the-top in martyr-ism.

The bad:

The hospital stuff - either Emma was really distracted or something, but someone needed to hit her with a clue-by-four.

The relationship - I get it, Charlie’s reclusive, Emma has shut herself away from the world to care for her father - but at its core, I still don’t know why Charlie fell for Emma … and why Emma (once the fangirling ceased) fell for Charlie.

Minor stuff - “Wah-lah”? It’s voila - and, in fact, later in the book that actual word is used. The pool - guess no one thought about kids sneaking into the back yard and using the diving board/pool?

I wanted to like this more than I did … and I think somewhere there is a great sweet story, but I missed it. Overall, 3.5 stars.

Katherine Center has done it again...and this one may be my favorite. I absolutely adored the FMC and MMC—to the point where I never wanted this book to end. The witty banter is on point and I loved the back-and-forth between the two leads. I highly, highly, highly recommend picking this up when it released in June!

This was my favorite Katherine Center book yet. I have read the majority of her catalog and, with the exception of Hello Stranger, have enjoyed the majority. The Rom-Commers was the funniest and most engaging read yet! It felt like I was dropped onto the set of a 90's rom-com movie and I could not get enough. The characters were likable and slightly flawed, the concept was great, and the tension and humor was fantastic.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

The Rom-Commers is the latest hit romance from Katherine Center. It follows Emma Wheeler, a writer who dreams of writing movies. However, she puts her father’s medical needs and her sister’s dreams ahead of her own. When she gets a huge break in the form of helping her favorite screenwriter fix his take on a romcom, she takes the leap. Charlie Yates may be a genius writer, but his refusal to believe in love makes his romcom script in desperate need of a rewrite. But what happens when Emma and Charlie’s script starts to become a little too real?

I loved this book. It was hilarious and romantic and emotional and poignant. I was glued to the page from the start. Emma and Charlie have excellent banter and the Hollywood backdrop was so fun. Definitely goes on my top reads of 2024 list.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Rom-Commers was a delight to read. A fabulous story with characters that melted my heart. I experienced a kaleidoscope of emotion. I was literally falling down in stitches laughing, crying in sadness and overwhelmed with immense joy. I absolutely loved these characters. The story is deceiving. On one hand it seems so simple but only because if the flawless delivery. Utter perfection.

Katherine Center is usually an author I love. The Rom-Commers was easily one of my most anticipated releases of the year. However, this one did not work for me. The initial plot/storyline was something that really intrigued me. I think where this book lost me was with the character development. The female love interest was very insecure/immature and I didn't love the way she responded to many of the events of the book. I understand she had to grow up quickly and take on a lot of responsibility, but I don't think it excused some of the ways she reacted especially around the idea of intimacy and the things she says to her sister just to name a few examples. Then the male love interest also showed a lot of toxic behavior. There were many events that he either spoke negatively about her, came off abrasive, or just neglected to take her feelings into account, etc. and then continued to not take accountability and it was again excused behavior due to his past. I don't like characters that can't take accountability for their actions and use past trauma as an excuse for bad behavior. I also struggled with some events being used just to cause drama that felt like I was being manipulated into emotions. Overall this one just didn't work for me. I'll continue to read her books, but this one was a miss.

Another winning novel from Katherine Center. Main character Emma is a wannabe screenwriter who put her life on hold to be her father’s caretaker. But when she gets a chance to work with the award-winning screenwriter Charlie to help him fix his atrocious rom com script, she leaves her father in the care of her sister who has just graduated college to go out to LA for six weeks - only to discover that Charlie doesn’t want her there. Of course she ends up staying and teaching him the rules of rom coms just might change both of their lives.

And I just loved every minute of it! I usually save my ARCs til a little closer to pub date, but I just couldn’t wait to read this one, and my beach vacation was the perfect time. I laughed out loud, I cried until the lone tissue in my beach bag was just a wet rag with holes in it, and at one moment I even laughed and cried at the same time.

I consider myself a Katherine Center super fan - I just love her books and I’ve read all ten of her previous ones - so I’m thrilled to report this was one of her best! And I’m just going to leave you with this line from the book, where Emma is explaining rom coms: “A rom com should give you a swoony, hopeful, delicious rising feeling of anticipation as you look forward to the moment when the two leads who are clearly mad for each other finally overcome all of their obstacles, both internal and external, and get together.” And boy does Center know how to do that!

4.5 stars