Member Reviews
First I’d like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. I loved this book so much. I loved the characters, the forced proximity trope (which usually isn’t my favorite), the grumpy/sunshine trope (which I do love), the banter between the two main characters (and honestly all the characters) and most of all the ending.
I have read a couple other books by Katherine Center but this by far was my favorite. Emma and Charlie were so great together. I loved how their banter and interactions just started right from the beginning. These two were so great together. There were a couple times where Emma was just a little over the top for me but the rest of it was so great that I almost forgot about it.
And the ending…so good. It might be one of my favorite romance Epilogues ever! This book was fantastic. 5/5 stars for sure. #netgallry #stmartinspress #theromcommers
I could not put this down. Tore through it in one night. I love the chemistry that Katherine center is able to write and the family dynamics that she adds into her rom coms. Truly a favorite author
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC
I usually really enjoy Katherine Center’s books, but this one missed the mark for me. It was a fun read and I liked the premise, but the writing felt immature at times - the fake celebrity references and overall “quirkiness” were a bit too much - and I didn’t love either of the main characters
Katherine Center does it again with her upcoming release, The Rom-Commers.
Emma gets the chance of a lifetime to take a break from full time caretaking and re-write the disaster of a screenplay written by her favorite writer, Charlie.
Upon arriving at Charlie’s house, she realizes he wasn’t expecting her at all and doesn’t want her help. Even worse than feeling rejected, she’s stuck staying at Charlie’s house until she can get a flight home.
She wins Charlie over and begins to teach him all the elements of a quality rom-com, while the two of them race to finish the screenplay before real life catches up.
As always, Katherine Center writes a story with all the pain of real life phobias, loss, & responsibilities artfully crafted into a heartwarming narrative that will have you feeling ALL the feels.
Thank you to Katherine Center & St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy provided to me in exchange for my honest opinion.
Heroes come in unexpected packages!
Emma is her father’s caregiver after a traumatizing accident a decade ago. She’s happily placed her life on hold to help her dad and allow her younger sister to finish school, but now Emma has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime, and she wants to grab on with both hands. After all, it’s only for six weeks. What could go wrong?
World-famous screenwriter Charlie Yates can’t find his words. There’s a gaping maw where his creativity once resided, and he doesn’t know if it will ever return. He has one mafia script on the cusp of production, but there is a caveat: the producer’s girlfriend wants a romance, and the one Charley wrote isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
The only thing I’m proud of is my career. And I will not frigging turn it into aerosol cheese by seriously writing a rom-com.
The Rom-Commers- Katherine Center
Enter the irrepressible pain-in-his-butt ghost-writer his agent tricked him into working with. It doesn’t matter. He plans to make sure this script never sees the light of day. If only he could put the beautiful Emma out of his mind as easily.
This is a fun, poignant read between a grumpy hero and an outspoken heroine who is determined to teach him how to get in touch with his romantic side to fix his script. There are close encounters, awkward moments, swoony looks, and even a guinea pig.
Love everything this author writes!
This book was so good! I really love Katherine center and I was so happy to get to read this book! I would recommend this book to everyone!
I’m late to Katherine Center so, “The Rom-Commers” is the first book of her’s I’ve read. I’m a total sucker for teasing banter so this book definitely tickled my dialogue fancy and made me smile. I was fond of the characters on an individual basis and found them endearing. However, the comfort level Emma and Charlie developed with each other felt like it rushed from 0 to 100 and then oscillated too frequently. The romantic tension was hit and miss, and the hit didn’t totally satisfy when it happened. Ultimately I think it was hard to believe in their feelings because the build-up just wasn’t cutting it for me. The typical romance novel fall-out was even less believable and seemed forced. That being said, I enjoyed the book for what it was: a cute, quick rom-com read.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.
In true Katherine Center style, this one hooked me in from the first chapter & I breezed through it in a few days. It was fun, endearing, funny, emotional and just plain sweet. There are definitely some harder topics sprinkled throughout, but overall this is a light hearted romance that I truly enjoyed.
Reading a Katherine Center novel is guaranteed to make me smile, laugh, and usually cry a little, and The Rom-Commers was no exception!!
Emma, a family oriented aspiring screenwriter, is given the opportunity of a lifetime when she's asked to help rewrite the screenplay of a beloved screenwriter. Charlie, the jaded screenwriter, is in a writing slump but he's not looking for help...
I loved how Emma and Charlie's relationship progressed, and I had to stay up far too late to finish it as the tension was building! I wasn't sure how I felt about the storyline of this book when I read the description, but I can tell you now that I wholeheartedly enjoyed The Rom-Commers!!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
It’s an exciting romance. Check. It’s funny. Check. It’s delightfully entertaining. Check. It deals with some real issues. Check. It’s the next wonderful book by Katherine Center!! Check, check, check!!
Special thanks to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy of “The Rom-Commers” out in stores June 11th, 2024.
This is such an easy review to write. I have loved every Katherine Center book-she is amazing! This latest offering does not disappoint at all!
Emma is an aspiring screenwriter and also a full-time caregiver of her father. Her life is smaller than she imagined, but she has taken on this duty of the last ten years to give her little sister the opportunity to go to school. An offer arrives from an old high school friend in the form of a once in a lifetime screenwriting collaboration. The only problem is the other writer, brilliant, aloof, and atypical Charlie knows nothing about it.
This story is told very well, and it’s so nice to see flawed and complex characters in romance novels. I thoroughly enjoyed “The Rom-Commers” and think you will, too.
Katherine Center did it again! Her newest book is just as amazing and enjoyable as all her other books. Emma is a writer who doesn’t have time to write. Not with caring 24 hours for her dad. When her agent and friend offers the opportunity to go to LA and help to rewrite a Rom-com for her favorite screenwriter she decides to take the chance. With Centers usual ability to combine serious topics (cancer, caring for a parent, etc) with the joy of two characters falling in love she completely had me completely invested in this book. She did a masterful job of looking at the hardships of caring for a loved one and guilt that comes with surviving tragedy. I can’t recommend this book enough and can’t wait to see what Center comes out with next.
Katherine Center is my go-to author when I want a book that will make me giggle uncontrollably, sob occasionally, and renew my faith in humanity. The Rom-Commers takes these expectations of mine and multiplies them by a billion. It was THAT good.
Emma is an as-of-yet unsuccessful but very talented writer who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when her oldest friend introduces her to her screenwriting idol, Charlie. Her job is to make his atrocious attempt at a rom-com more.... romantic. And comedic. Because his forté is everything but love stories.
So Emma lets her sister take over her role of caretaker for their father - who may be one of my favorite characters ever- for six weeks so that she can save Charlie's screenplay. Together they face some hilarious obstacles, some devastating heartbreaks, and some life-changing realizations that will restore your belief in love and the power of a real romantic comedy.
I love that Katherine Center writes in a way that takes you on a ride of emotions even within her romcoms. She has a way of really bringing the reader on a journey to experience the sadness, loss, love, excitement joy, heartbreak, pain, and through it all the lessons they have learned. Those lessons always translate to something that can be applicable to my own life. The spirit of hope, and seeing the positive of life is present in every one of her books which is lovely to read and a testament to her own character helping to teach us.
Read this one for:
- A bit of a celebrity romance since he's a famous writer
- Disability rep
- Forced proximity
- Illness rep
- Roommates
- Workplace
- Optimist vs the Cynic
Emma Wheeler is getting her big break to help ghost write a romcom with her favorite writer Charlie Yates. The only issue, Charlie does not believe in love or romcoms. Emma must also leave her disabled Dad and family for this job and after ten years of caretaking its a big challenge.
Then the fun begins because Emma decides she is going to convert Charlie into a believer. There are movies to watch, kissing clips, and of course activities like line dancing they must do in order to research and have the experience to write on it. As they embark on their research and do their rewrites, the two end up growing closer. The only problem is will life's problems hold them back from their chance to be together, or can they move towards the future with hope, love and one another?
I enjoyed the message that really came through from Emma's father to her about having to be grateful and happy with what you have now and not always looking for the problems and issues. It's a choice that we all have that we can make.
Emma really brought Charlie back to life and in turn he wanted to be the person to take care of her and support her since she did that for everyone else. The sweet moments Charlie did things for her like get her the flowers she kept wanting at the grocery store but thought was too expensive, or kneel to tie her shoes were so tender and lovely.
I loved seeing how they became a family with Emma's family as well as Charlie's friend Jack Stapleton. You will get some fun cameos with Jack from The Bodyguard which is fun to see but not a must read before you read this one.
Leaving this read with more optimism for my day and I love that!
Thank you to the author for providing a traveling ARC and to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Katherine Center’s storytelling in “The Rom-Commers” is pure magic and reminded me why Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors. What I love most about The Rom-Commers is the way she explores the human experience - the messy, complicated, beautiful human experience. Emma and Charlie are so relatable, and their struggles and triumphs feel so real. I also love how she uses internal dialogue to reveal her characters' thoughts and feelings. Emma often has these hilarious and insightful inner monologues that make you feel like you're inside their heads, experiencing their emotions and struggles alongside them. And of course, the romantic plot is swoon-worthy, as always!
✨pub date 6/11/24
bookish things:
- screenwriting authors
- grump + sunshine
- witty banter
- illness/caretaker rep
- hilarious internal dialogue
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for sending me your ARC to review! 💕
Katherine Center does it again! She has been and will continue to be an auto-read author for me. I love a good story with “fame” meets “normal” with lots of drama, heartbreak, and love.. So many good quotes from this one,, too! 4.5 stars
Yes, yes, all the yesses!
A book about writers writing a screenplay about a romantic comedy while researching what it means to fall in love. There’s so much meta-fiction here!
Katherine Center posted a while back about why some readers gravitate toward HEAs. It was spot-on and validating. Katherine Center is a master of feel good stories (always with a side of heavy $h*+, TW- cancer in this book) and this book delivered. I devoured it in one day.
Put this in your TBR, especially if you like rom-coms !
Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an advanced digital copy of this book. Look for this on 6.11.23. And if you don’t follow @katherinecenter , you are missing out on all the good vibes she is throwing out.
"You had to maximize joy when it fluttered into your life. You had to honor it. And savor it. And not stomp it to death by reminding everyone of everything you'd lost."
How is it possible that every new book that Katherine Center writes is my new favorite? Please keep on writing books, Katherine, I promise to keep on reading them and telling others to read them, too!
The Rom-Commers was soooo good.
It's only January 22nd, and I already know that The Rom-Commers will be in my top reads of 2024. I usually wait until closer to a pub date to read advanced copies, but there was no way I could let a new Katherine Center book sit in my inbox, burning a hole for almost 5 months.
The Rom-Commers has exactly what she does best. It's not just a romance story. The characters are all wonderfully messy, and you'll be just as invested in Emma's family as you will be in the romance. It's a tale of two people who had hit rough patches and had put their own needs and dreams aside. I rarely cry reading, but the last 25% of this book just had me. Katherine Center's books are just pure joy, and this was no exception.
P.S. It even includes a cameo from Jack (The Bodyguard) in the most delightful way.
Bottom line: The Rom-Commers will definitely be in everyone's beach bag this summer.
With The Rom-Commers, Katherine Center has officially cemented herself as one of my must-read authors. Am I a sucker for romcoms about writers? Yes. Will I read hundreds upon hundreds of stories about writers falling in love while they're writing? Also yes. (What can I say? I'm predictable like that.)
Even so, there was something so endearing, amusing, and surprisingly moving about this story featuring two screenwriters - one, an amateur named Emma Wheeler who has put her dreams on hold for a decade to be her father's sole caretaker only to now land the writing opportunity of a lifetime with her idol; the other, a Hollywood legend named Charlie Yates who has won multiple literary awards but can't seem to write a good romcom because he doesn't believe in love, because he thinks it's nothing more than a senseless, distracting affectation.
All in all, this was a grumpy-sunshine, opposites attract, workplace DESSERT of a story. Not only were Emma and Charlie stuck together inside the same house for six weeks, but there was witty banter, line dancing, swimming pool antics, kisses for "research," and an adorable but food-resistant guinea pig called Cuthbert. On top of that, there was nuanced sensitivity paid to issues surrounding ailing health, devastating loss, and family, which I felt added significant weight to the story as well as to the characters.
This was so cute, so sweet! Funny in spades, too. It's definitely the sort of book that makes readers believe, with their whole hearts, that love stories matter. So three cheers to that!
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.
I loved this new rom-com novel from the start. The plot that has both highs and lows just like life. The main characters - Charlie and Emma were so likeable and fun - flaws and all. The supporting characters were well written and important to the story. Keep writing them Katherine. I couldn’t put it down once I started. Thanks for the advanced copy NetGalley. Highly recommend this book! #NetGalley #TheRomCommers