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

4.5 stars rounded up.

Loved this one! Katherine Center's writing is so refreshing. It's simple and straight forward which makes it compulsively readable. I did not want to put this book down. It's like you're reading the book-version of a Nora Ephron movie. It has all the quirkiness, hilarity, heart, and romance of a 90s rom-com. This is my favorite Katherine Center book I've read. Emma is oddly relatable sunshine. Charlie is the perfect amount of grump. And together they are "chef's kiss."

The way Emma & Charlie have my heart.

This is THE rom-com book for rom-com lovers. Katherine Center has a way of making you fall in love with these quirky characters and hanging on for every morsel.

I laughed out loud (like literally, laughed out loud) and even had tears streaming down my face.

Back of the book summary:

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!—it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script—it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter—even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules—and comes true?


Personal notes:
Spice: Closed door
Setting: California
Language: none at all or so little I didn't notice

This book will make you laugh and it will make you cry. It's an ode to rom coms and the joy that they bring. Emma's story sucked me in from the beginning and I loved reading her journey. This was an unputdownable book and I'm so glad that Net Galley and St Martin's Press gave me the chance to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the characters, especially the main character. The story had a great pace, and the love scenes weren't cheesy. I really particularly liked the ending. The only thing I wish the story included was more scenes in which the two main characters started developing their relationship. I've read one other book by Katherine Center, "Things you save in a Fire", and thought that one was great as well, but I actually preferred the story and writing in this book more. At the end of the day, I finished this book quite quickly and couldn't put it down when I got to the last third of the book, which is always a great indicator that the book was great.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is an absolute delight! I wish I had filmed a time lapse of me reading because I’d love to show you the goofy grin I had on my face the entire time. I just adored these characters. Their banter, their backstories, their story together - all of it is just so good!

Two screenwriters are forced together to work on a new romcom script. But there’s so much more to the plot - family commitments, illness, death, anxiety. I love that there is always some depth in her books to go along with the squishy love story.

I really credit Katherine Center for helping me love romcoms. Not only are hers fantastic, her note at the end of Hello Beautiful explaining the happily ever after of romcoms was like a lightbulb going off for me. It gave me permission to just enjoy the ride that gets us to the happy ending. I really enjoyed this ride.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC! This is my second Katherine Center book and while I really enjoy her writing, I think this one was a letdown after Happiness for Beginners. It was good but not great.

What we have here is some really great writing and some excellent banter…. Bogged down by tropes and a lot of preaching and inner monologue. I really do love KC’s writing style. It’s personable and refreshing and you feel like your best friend is telling you a cute love story. She comes through with this really EXCELLENT banter between Charlie and Emma. There are moments where I absolutely swooned.

I think where it missed the greatness were in the plot and characters. The plot is super basic. MMC hires FMC to help him write a screenplays and they cohabitate and fall in love. Super basic premise. It does have some fun twists and turns but the plot is not that thrilling. And when you have a blunt, forward FMC and a naive, charming MMC… they’re also pretty basic. Again, KC has a way of elevating them to levels where I do like them - I enjoyed them a lot. But down to the meat….They weren’t really my cup of tea.

And while I get that a lot of the book was turning tropes into jokes, it did kind of feel like we were hitting plot points and moving onto a summary until the next plot point. How is it that this girl accidentally eavesdropped on THREE separate occasions so the reader could hear info from the MMC? If any other author did that, it’d be blasphemous. And the immense amount of internal dialogue and summary was a LOT. You had a lot of moments where the author was kind of giving you a nice little “this is how life goes” talk and you’re like “thanks, I got that from the story, you don’t need to tell me again.”

I do feel like I’m complaining a lot for a four-star book but honestly I really enjoyed reading this book even with all my complaints. This was a good book and a solid one, but I think it pales in comparison to HfB and honestly I’d recommend you read that one instead if you’re a first time KC reader.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite.

Let me elaborate;

As per usual, this was written well, it had depth and characters that felt real and had ever range of emotion and depth one should have. They were funny, charismatic, flawed, troubled, insecure and human - however FOR ME I struggled with a lot of the concepts within this book. Perhaps because I am not in a great space for myself or because maybe there were too many things that I personally fear in these pages, but I was almost just anxious for it to be over so I could feel safe again.

IE much heavier subject matter than I was used to in a rom com. TW: Death of a parent, pet and mentions of cancer. However, beneath and after all of these mentions and topics, the overarching theme for me was hope after despair, healing after loss..and that at the end of it all even when we hurt and are in pain and deal with these traumatic things life hands us, we will be okay. We will find love, happiness, healing and growth because of those things, not in spite of those things.

I hope this book finds who it needs to find and helps them heal.

I LOVED this book. It was everything my romance loving screenwriter heart needed. It's my absolute favorite ever. I'm so happy to have received it. Charlie is so sweet and I love him so so much. It was so fun and a great exploration of screenwriting. I love all of Katherine Center's books but this one really did it for me.

I absolutely adored this one, the banner and relationship that developed between Emma and Charlie was of course amazing, and it was so heartfelt and emotional.

I don’t want to give two much away because it’s such a wonderful journey, but the basics are Emma is a writer who gets the opportunity to write with her favor famous writer. Both have a lot to overcome, and you get to see them help each and themselves.

Bonus my favorite Jack Stapleton (iykyk) makes an appearance and my exact words to the group “screaming, crying, throwing up” 🤪 I have zero chill.

Definitely add this one to your tbr!

As with all Katherine Center books, it's a rom-com with an element of tragedy mixed in. I feel that these stories have more depth than most, and help you to connect better with the characters. I loved the main character Emma, I thought she was downright hilarious at times and also instantly relatable. The ending was what you would expect it to be and that was very satisfying to me. I still think How to Walk Away was my favorite of hers, but this is a close second.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC!

The Rom-Commers By Katherine Center is another intriguing sweet story featuring Emma and Charlie. Emma has been working her whole career to make her break working on romcom‘s, and is given an almost too good to be true opportunity to write with her favorite screenwriter, Charlie.

I thoroughly enjoyed the slow burn of this book, and as always the depth of Katherine’s romcom, leave you hooked and rooting for both characters.

Highly recommend for any rom com lovers, it’s very easy to relate to Emma’s love for the genre.

Katherine Center does it again! I absolutely loved Emma, the main character. Her upbeat and spunky personality and her loyalty to her family had me rooting for her the entire time. Emma’s ability to overcome adversity and fight for her dreams was encouraging to read. The love interest is different than what we have seen in the past from Centers other books. I wasn’t entirely sure how it was going to work out!

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry's Book Lovers!
This novel follows Emma Wheeler, a talented screenwriter whose career stalled when her father's injury and subsequent care takes precedent. Knowing that Emma is a time lover of the romantic comedy genre, Emma's agent hires her to be the ghost writer for the wildly successful Charlie Yates. Charlie doesn't believe in love, and is being forced into writing a romantic comedy in order to get his real passion project onto the screen. His disdain for the genre as a whole is reflected in the disastrous current version of his script. In an effort to convince Charlie of the power of the rom-com, the two go on a journey of recreating the script's storyline to prove whether or not they contribute to the storyline. Fraught with romantic tension, past trauma, and challenging their unhealthy coping mechanisms, this novel is a beautiful story that reminds us that the romantic comedy is no joke, and that love should always be taken seriously.

Date reviewed: Jan 21

Wow. I LOVED this book. Five stars. So many laugh out loud moments. Moments where my heart was full. Moments where I wanted to cry. New favorite Katherine Center book. I need more!!! ❤️😭

To Katherine: UM. New favorite. FIVE STARS. I just finished the ARC and it was amazing. I loved that so much. I laughed at so many moments and wanted to cry at parts. My heart was so full reading that. Thank you for writing such an amazing book. ❤️😭

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC! And sorry for me forgetting to post it ACTUALLY ON Netgalley and not just Goodreads. 😂

This is only my second Katherine Center book but I think she may become a go to comfort author. Her latest books is sunshine with a little bit of rain in the best way, some may call it a sun shower. This book is funny, relatable, enchanting, heartbreaking, and perfect in the best way.

Emma is getting her start as a writer with none other than her idol Charlie Yates. She has to help him rewrite his rom-com because honestly it is a dumpster fire. But when she leaves her sick father behind for a chance at fame and shows up to his door, he doesn’t want her there.

Finally after much yelling with her friend Logan who is Charlie’s agent and a storm off through the streets of LA, Charlie gives in and says he’ll write with her. Writing the rom-com of the century is no easy feat especially when you just might fall in love with your cowriter.

Center does everything right with this book and I truly believe it is her best yet. She plays with the emotions of the readers effortlessly through Emma’s sick father and Charlie’s swoon worthy behavior. This is truly the perfect summer read for everyone!

Katherine Center is the queen of banter! The page long dialogue made my heart so happy!! I just love how her characters communicate. They ask questions, they say the hard things, they say what they are thinking. I just love that!

I think people are going to love this story. Anyone that loves a Hollywood themed book, a BTS look at the Hollywood world is going to enjoy this story.

It’s so fun and the perfect summer read!

This was a literal rom com, full stop. It was almost breaking the fourth wall in the way it addressed the common rom com tropes and incorporated each of them in the story. I feel like I say this often, but I love the way that these characters felt relatable because they weren't perfect, often disappointed their counterpart, and had ~big feelings~ the whole way through the story.

My tastes lately have been stemming a bit away from the really syrupy sweet rom coms and I felt like this struck a good balance between that and something erring a bit more towards women's fiction.