Katherine Center does it again! This book takes tough situations of life and great chemistry of the main characters and merges them into a perfect rom-com!
Emma has spent ten years of her life taking care of her sick father. She had the opportunity to work for her favorite screenwriter with his newest venture - but there’s a catch. She has to go to LA for six weeks in order to get the job. With much sacrifice, she decides to do it. When she arrives, Charlie (the screenwriter) knows noting of this deal worked between his agent and this girl!
Their banter and chemistry is just perfect through the book! Absolutely loved this book!

Thank you NetGalley, Katherine Center and publisher for allowing me to read an ARC for this wonderful book. I DEVOURED IT. I tried to slow myself down so that I would have it longer, but how could I do that with a Katherine Center book? As a writer (don't worry world, you don't have to worry about reading anything of mine, I'm completely unpublished aside from my book reviews!), a Rom-Com lover and a daughter of a man who had an accident leading to a traumatic brain injury (TBI), this book really struck a chord with me. I still had my mom who was the main caregiver for him, and while she was at work and we were at school, we had nurses who would come in to stay with him and help him as needed so unlike Emma, I did have help. Saying this, I want to state that the most important part of this book is how Katherine is able to describe that fear of leaving a parent with a TBI to an absolute T. It has been a long time since I've been able to connect with a character quite like I did with Emma. I love how balanced Katherine wrote it as not to downplay the TBI/Meinere's, trauma or cancer talked about by the more lighthearted scenes between Charlie and Emma.
I also absolutely adored the connections to The Bodyguard that were thrown in. It made it feel like we got to visit favorite characters again!
I cannot wait to be able to give copies of this out to my friends!
Happy reading y'all!

My oh my I loved Emma and Charlie so much!

Synopsis: Emma Wheeler, a life-long romance reader, self proclaimed rom-com expert, and aspiring screenwriter gets the chance of a lifetime to work with her hero of all heroes on his rom-com screenplay. A chance that is way too good to pass up, until she reads his draft and realizes it is a straight up dud. She has her work cut out for her.
Katherine knows how to write a girl in her lowest, but really trying to scrape by to a better place. Hilarity ensues, some heartbreak, and of course a lot of love and healing. I loved their story so much.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center was yet another of her titles that I just could not put down. The push and pull of the characters was exciting and kept me engaged. I definitely recommend you pick this one up - and not put it down until you have finished (if you don’t prolong to savor the end like I had to).

I loveeeeeeddd looveddddd loved this upcoming novel by @katherinecenter. If you’ve been around here, you know she’s one of my auto-buy authors and this time around is no different.

• I’m going to take a chance and say this is top 2 of her books for me (no one can take Happiness For Beginners from first… but also maybe it was a season when I needed to be reminded to LOOK for the good and to stop waiting on the other shoe to drop. As someone shared lately, “there is no other shoe”)

• I loved the “normal” characters that interact with famous ones. I love that Jack Stapleton makes a couple cameos. I love the risks the characters are willing to make in order to overcome their fears, rejections, and slights in order to become better, wiser, stronger, beautiful people.

• “The whole trick of life; be aggressively, loudly, unapologetically grateful.”

• “Tragedy is a given. There is no version of human life that doesn’t involve realms of it. The question is what we do in the face of it all.”

Emma Wheeler has sacrificed everything for the past ten years to care for her father. When she is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime - to re-write the script of her long-time screenwriter crush, Charlie Yates, she has to take a leap of faith if she wants to make her career dreams come true. Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks to work with one of her idols, but, as it turns out, he has no desire to work with her and he doesn’t believe in love. How can two people who are such opposites work together to write a believable script?

Overall, I really loved this story. Emma and Charlie are complete opposites (hello, grumpy/sunshine), but the dynamic works so well! Both Emma and Charlie had realistic backgrounds (including past trauma) that made them feel like real people and not just characters on a page. The incredibly swoony “research” scenes gave me all the feels. I highly recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Katherine Center, I simply adore you and your love stories. For the last 10 years, Emma has been taking care of her dad, and has had to watch her life pass her by to be by her dad’s side. Finally, leaving the caretaking duties to her younger sister, Emma moves to LA for 6 weeks to work with her idol, screenwriter Charlie Yates.

This story had everything I was looking for: comedic scenes (especially the can opener IYKYK) character growth, growing relationships, and of course some romance. I love how I always become sucked into the world and characters in KC books, and this was no different. I can’t recommend this enough!

This book is about a “failed writer” who comes into the opportunity to rewrite a movie script with a writer whom she has idolized for years. Emma has put her writing dreams on the back burner to be a caregiver for her father, while Charlie has experienced immense success in writing movie scripts. While they both have tragic backstories and a love for writing, their similarities end there. The premise of these two writing a rom-com together and falling in love sounded so fun!

However, I sort of had a love/hate relationship with this one.

What I loved:

I loved Emma’s passion for rom-coms and the art of writing them. I loved how close Emma’s family is, even with their struggles and the tragedies they face. The ending! I really loved the final chapters, but I can’t tell you why without spoilers. ;) The premise, the setting, and the banter were fun in this story.

What I didn’t love:

I wish that this book had been a dual POV, because I feel like Charlie would have been easier to connect with that way. I was really disappointed that this book had so much language and crass humor in it. Katherine Center books are generally “cleaner” than this, in my opinion. All of the inappropriate content just really took away from the book for me. Additionally, there were parts of this story that just really seemed to drag on with some of the scenes feeling a bit unnecessary.

I wouldn’t broadly recommend this one, but I might recommend it to you depending on your reading tastes.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

All the stars, all the hearts…
I mean, do we really even *need* a written review of this book? Katherine Center wrote it-you already know it’s going to be good,

Read it if you enjoy….
-happy endings
-forced proximity
-close knit family
-90s romcoms (this -like all her books- gives me the same goofy smile I get when I watch my Meg Ryan faves)

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.