I’m still catching up on Katherine Center’s backlist, and this is my 4th book of hers, but I think it’s easily her best yet. The emotional and character depth, the unique plot line, the conclusion. This book is truly beautifully written and deserves way more than 5 stars! I also loved getting to see Jack & Hannah (from the Bodyguard) a couple times!

Katherine Center fans, mark your calendars because she’s done it again. The Rom-Commers is filled with snarky fun, lovable characters and an emotional rollercoaster you’d expect from the queen of romcoms. I loved this story for its pure joy of reading a fun book! Quick, easy, enjoyable!

You’ve got Los Angeles and Texas, Emma, the main star with the snark and wits everyone loves to root for. You have Charlie, the sometimes super unlikable dude that you actually also love. And then the family you want to have dinner with and the friends you hope show up in another book.

Absolutely loved it and wouldn’t expect anything less.
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Holy. Crap. I am not exaggerating when I say this may be the best romance book I have ever read, for me personally!!

The Rom-Commers is about two screenwriters in LA (one sunshine, one grumpy, of course) as they attempt to write a rom-com. There is so much heart and soul in this book. Center writes relatable characters struggling with very real things, like grief and anxiety, while also learning how to be a better person. I also really loved that this is set in LA, where I live, so that made it feel extra special to me! The romance is so sweet and believable, and the main character, Emma, was an absolute joy to read and made me laugh out loud at times.

And I legit could not put it down!! I read 40% of it the first night and only got 5 hours of sleep but it was so worth it. I binged it over the next day whenever I could!! And when I started reading it was like I completely forgot I was reading, it was that good. Thinking about it now I feel my heart lift - it's just that feeling you get when a book sweeps you off your feet!!

🌈Queer rep: secondary MM gay couple

This was a sweet romance between Emma and Charlie. Two screen writers that have to write a rom-com together in just a few weeks. This was a slow burn with lots of fun thrown in.

Did I stay up way too late reading this? Absolutely yes and I have no regrets. Since reading How to Walk Away, Katherine Center has been one of my favorite autobuy authors. If she writes it. I just read it and this was no different.

Despite the fact that this won’t be released until June, a group of friends and I dropped everything to read it. There is just something about Center’s writing that I just adore. Her characters are so relatable and have so much heart.

Emma goes to Hollywood to help her favorite screenwriter completely fix his latest play, a romcom which read nothing like a romcom. They had so many lessons that were sweet and absolutely hilarious. They had several moments that made me feel all the feels.

The caregiver storyline was a little heavier and broke my heart at times. I loved seeing Emma be able to have her own life as her sister found her niche.

This will definitely be a preorder so I have a copy for my shelves!

I am and probably will forever be a huge fan of Kathrine Centers’ work. When I found out I had the opportunity to read her newest as an e-arc I was overjoyed. We follow our FMC Emma who dreams of being a screenwriter but family always comes first for her so she has been focusing on caring for her father. I love how much I related to Emma.

Emma gets the opportunity to meet a writer named Charles and help him get through his writers block and fears as well as him her. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their relationship develop through the entire book. This book gave me all of the feels and all the warm cozy fuzzy emotions. A favorite of 2024. Will be recommending to my book friends and my book club when this releases.

I adore Katherine Center's funny, relatable romantic novels. Her characters have so much heart and work to grow to be better people. In this book, Emma is a struggling screenwriter - struggling because she cannot leave home to pursue her dreams and struggling to overcome a family tragedy with grace. Charlie is a screenwriter with his own demons - and her idol. However, he has been hired to rewrite her favorite movie - and failed. Their common agent convinces Emma to come ghost write it - and sparks fly! "Never meet your heroes" comes true for Emma - but then... Center's brand of hilarious book magic mixed with reality takes these two on quite a journey and I enjoyed every moment of reading it. I love Charlie and Emma equally (and the cameo from Jack was fabulous!). Emma tripping over herself awkwardly as she first enters Hollywood and sees celebrities is so fun - and as usual, Center surrounds the main characters with wonderful side characters as well. Don't miss this lovely story!

With a nod to It Happened One Night with Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert and Walter Connelly, the atmosphere is set in Katherine Center's latest novel. Emma Wheeler has spent the last ten years as the primary caretaker of her father, who has been very much disabled from an accident that cost her mother her life. One of the side effects of his injuries led him to having Ménière's disease so he needs to be closely watched.

Thanks to her manager Logan, who happens to be Charlie Yates manager as well, Emma has a chance at an internship with a screenplay that is designed to be a retelling of It Happened One Night. However, this 91-year-old-movie is far superior to what the writer has written. Emma's favorite writer, Charlie Yates, has done a terrible job rewriting the movie. However, Charlie is a legend, with multiple Oscars and numerous other awards, yet this screenplay could have a chance to end his illustrious career. Thus begins Emma's involvement with Charlie.

Charlie has written award-winning movies. Of that there is no doubt. However, they have been mostly action movies, not rom-coms. If Emma can get her sister Sylvie to care for their father for six weeks, she will have a chance to help Charlie to rewrite the movie...and to spend time with the man she has loved from afar for years...Charlie the writer.

Six weeks could pass in an instant, or be a very long time, especially when Emma wonders if Sylvie is up to the task of properly taking care of their father. Plans are set in place, and Emma heads to Los Angeles to work with Charlie to rewrite his screenplay. Could this internship catapult Emma's career? While this is quite possible, she is just honored for unfettered time with Charlie.

One thing I noticed as I was reading this book is the quick-witted comments often uttered by Emma, especially as this story is written from the first-person perspective. I also loved how Katherine Center inserted other mentions in this book, like comparing the long queue in an airport line to an Escher drawing "fold(ing) endlessly in on itself." Or comparing a movie kiss style to Ji Chang-wook, a Korean actor and singer. Center also included cameo appearances of Jack Stapleton in this book. His story was from her book The Bodyguard.

The Rom-Commers was a beautiful and heartwarming story. This compelling read has an edge of sadness due to factors in Emma's life, or the struggles that Charlie had experienced. However, this is balanced the sweetness of the story as a whole. It was very easy to enjoy both Emma and Charlie as protagonists. The epilogue was just fabulous and really pulled everything together in a satisfying way. Yes, a phenomenal story and one of my favorites for January, and this just might hit my top-ten favorite list for 2024.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

It always feels a bit funny to leave a review for a Katherine Center book, because by the time I get to read it--even when I get an early review copy--hundreds of other people have already gushed about the joy and hope woven into every page, and the characters who have our whole hearts, and the brilliantly balanced combination of wit and warmth. It's all been said. But It feels worth saying again anyway. This wasn't only joyful, it was a celebration of joy. It wasn't only a love story, it was a celebration of love stories. It wasn't only only a book about writers, it was a celebration of the act of writing. And if that sounds like a lot of celebration to pack into a briskly paced, relatively breezy rom-com, pick this one up and see for yourself.
.
Things I especially enjoyed were the flawed, layered characters, as I'm so fatigued with idyllic love interests and heroines who have to be constantly "likeable" in order to garner reader approval. I also loved the way Center used the form of the screenplay for a story about screenwriters. Most of the book is written in rapid fire dialogue with quick beats of action and image, and it feels like it's just waiting to be dropped into Final Draft, edited down to 90 pages, and handed off to eager producers. I also loved the way everything Center introduced in the story had an impact. A drawer. A guinea pig. A high dive. A pocket square. If it was mentioned, it mattered, and that kind of writing craft is really beautiful to spend time with.
.
So, yeah. I enjoyed the heck out of this. It made me grateful my life involves telling stories. It made me smile. It made me tear up. It engaged me from page one. It kept me turning pages, eager to spend time with its central couple. It made me cheer for the ending. Looking for something to brighten your week? Here you go.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for accepting my request for an ARC. The excitement that entered my body when I got the email was too much to contain!

Now for the review, I really enjoyed this book! Trust Katherine Center to make me fall in love with a guinea pig. It's funny how opposite their reactions to their trauma were. Emma went through something that would be hard for anyone, so she latched onto needing to be needed. She wanted to be the replacement for what she lost so that her sister wouldn't be as affected by it. At the same time, Charlie didn't want to burden anyone with anything so he kept everything to himself. Together they work on writing a rom-com and help each other in ways they didn't know they needed. Even something as small as overcoming a fear of water helps unite them.

One thing I wasn't crazy about was how much I felt like I was reading the same thing. Several times Emma overhears something she shouldn't, it gets taken out of context, and she wants to quit or thinks everything is over. I also wasn't crazy about the blow-up near the end of the book. Emma lost a lot of points for me when she picked that fight. If I had been next to her sister I would've grabbed the phone and told her off. Emma deserved what she got and she should've been the one to apologize first. The silent treatment would've lasted a lot longer if I were her sister.

I am a big fan of Katherine Center! I typically enjoy reading her books because they are lighthearted, funny, and pretty fast paced. The Rom-Commers was just this! Emma is a writer who has given up many opportunities in life to care for her sick father, but when she gets a chance to go to LA to work for a screenwriter, things start to change in her life .I will say that I did not enjoy this one as much as her others because it seemed a little cheesy and the narrator, Emma, talking to herself irritated me a bit.

Book: The Rom-Commers
Author: Katherine Center
Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
Release date: June 11, 2024

I absolutely love the feeling of falling in love. This is why I enjoy romance novels so much. Katherine Center is an automatic must read for me and I was so excited to get an ARC for her newest book, The Rom-Commers (out this June) that I jumped into it immediately following my last read. I devoured it! Started yesterday and finished today because I didn’t want to stop.

This is the story of Emma, a woman with so much writing talent and ambition that due to an unfortunate event ends up putting all of her dreams on hold to take care of a family matter. After ten years of doing everything for everyone else she gets a call from her old friend in Los Angeles that a screenwriter, no, THE screenwriter of her dreams wants her to help him with a screenplay. With hesitation she figures out matters at home and flies out to meet her idol. Unfortunately things aren’t exactly as she was told and meeting Charlie was not what she expected.

Reading about the two working through differences and attempting to write a screenplay together, forcing themselves out of their comfort zones and realizing not only things about each other, but about themselves was funny, swoon-worthy and at times sad. Like I said, I love a good love story and this was definitely it. Also loved the crossover from Katherine’s previous book, The Bodyguard.

I’ll finish up with a couple quotes that I loved:

“Happiness is always better with a little bit of sadness.”

“If you wait for other people to light you up, then I guess you’re at the mercy of darkness.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me the pleasure of reading this book early in exchange for my honest review. I will be here anytime!

Katherine Center’s writing is such a refreshing breath of wholesome air!

Don’t get me wrong, I can listen to her reels and the at she talks about her books all day. But, has anyone else noticed how you hear HER come through all her books? I don’t know she does it, but it makes me want to hug her after every book. And I’m not a hugger, so that’s odd. 😂

Anyway, love Emma’s character! And surprisingly her dad, too. The email he sent… 🥹

Thank you to Katherine Center, my favorite Houston author 😉, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my review.

This. Book. Was. Perfect. I knew from the very first page I would adore Emma, and I was 100% right: I fell in love with her voice immediately. She is fresh and funny with such a lovely depth.

I read myself into a corner with this, because I started it on a morning where I knew I had a busy afternoon: I couldn’t put it down! I was reading in the intermissions of my son’s hockey game! I devoured the entire thing in one day, and now I’m off to go find everything Katherine Center has ever written.

The dialogue! The banter! The relationships!! This book was absolutely flawless, and I highly recommend it.

Katherine center does it again! Was so thrilled to have my hand on an early copy as she’s quickly become a favorite author of mine. Not a favorite cover…

One of my favorite parts of Centers books is the story around a different career (teaching, firefighting etc) and now screen writing. Such a fun “Rom-Com” that so definitely going to be a hit when it releases this summer!! The characters are lovable with a strong emotional pull between the main character and her sister at the end.

Aspiring screen writer, Emma Wheeler is obsessed with anything that has to do with rom-coms. She desperately wants to make a break in the industry and have her own romantic comedies on screen one day. When her ex-boyfriend, now manager offers her the opportunity of a lifetime, she is tempted to say yes but also feels like she’s obligated to say no. Over the past 10 years, she’s been the only caregiver for her father who had an accident which left him half-paralyzed and with Ménière’s disease. With her sister newly graduated and available to take over caregiving of their father, Emma realizes this might just be her chance to work on her self and her career. After all, it’s not everyday that you get the opportunity to work on a screenplay with your favourite screen play writer of all times. Only problem is, Charlie Yates screenplay, a romantic comedy screenplay of all things, is absolutely horrible. As he fights back on her suggestions to make it a real rom-com, she is also forced to acknowledge that working in proximity with him has many challenges, including an undeniable attraction between them.

This book was absolute perfection. I loved every bit of it from start to finish. I really enjoyed the narrative, the stubborn MMC who refuses to see love as anything but basic human biology while the FMC lives and breathes romance. I loved how Emma got to meet someone she idealized for so long, just to find out he was just another human navigating life with its many unpredictabilities. There was such a complexity to the relationships in this novel with the daughter/ sister to caregiver and the idol to peer dynamics. Honestly, read it!

✵𝖬𝖺𝗇𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄𝗌 𝗍𝗈 𝖲𝗍. 𝖬𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗂𝗇’𝗌 𝖯𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗌, 𝖪𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗇𝖾 𝖢𝖾𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋 ＆ 𝖭𝖾𝗍𝖦𝖺𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗀𝗂𝖿𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗆𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖠𝖽𝗏𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾𝖽 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋’𝗌 𝖢𝗈𝗉𝗒 𝗂𝗇 𝖾𝗑𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗆𝗒 𝗁𝗈𝗇𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐.✵

Another great book by Katherine Center! I kind of assumed what this book would be about based on the description and the genre that Center usually writes, but what I didn't expect was all the fun details that made this book so good! Emma is someone we can all relate to and when she gets the career opportunity of a lifetime, you will root for her to take it! Despite some early obstacles with her dad and sister, she decides to go for it and from that moment on, her journey is anything but what you'd expect. The characters in this book are well developed and the story reads quick and easy. I highly recommend this book and wish I could read it again for the first time when it comes out later this year!

I absolutely loved this book by Katherine Center!

Synopsis: Emma Wheeler is an unknown, struggling screenwriter of romantic comedies who has put her life and career on hold to care for her sick father. When she gets an offer to work on a screenplay by her most revered screenwriter, Charlie Yates, it’s an opportunity she can’t pass up. The screenplay is so terrible there needs to be another word for terrible to describe it, and she discovers her writing idol not only hates romantic comedies, he doesn’t even believe in true love. Can she fix this truly horrid screenplay and convince Charlie that love does exist?

This is a fun, lighthearted rom com that made me laugh out loud and feel all the feels. There are some fabulous one liners between these two characters, and the character development of Emma truly had me feeling for her and cheering her on. I gave it five stars!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

Such a cute, light-hearted novel. I love that you can always count on Katherine Center to provide a perfect rom-com without a ton of spice, perfect when you need something new and refreshing.

Emma has put aside her dreams for the last decade to help care for her father. Now, with the opportunity of a life time in front of her and her sister on board to take over dad duties for 6 weeks, she agrees
to work with her screenwriter crush, Charlie Yates, and fix his terrible rom-com screen play.

I loved the night and day feel to Emma and Charlie, and even more so that it worked SO well between them, start to finish. This book made me laugh, tear up, sit on the edge of my seat, and hold my breath more times than I can count.

“I think,” he said, surprisingly lucid for a moment, “that you’re my favorite person I’ve ever met.”

My heart is glowing from this book! Katherine Center is the rom-com queen! This book had so much heart. It was such a good reminder to enjoy life and to be grateful for everything you have. It was about joy and hope and never giving up, and of course, it was about love. I absolutely adored it.