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.

I adore Katherine Center. I have yet to read a book of hers that I haven't liked. The same is true for The Rom-Commers. The story centers on a screenplay writer whose career has taken a backseat as she became primary caretaker for her father. She is given the opportunity to meet one of her favorite screenwriters, who has tried to change genres and written a horrible draft of a rom-com, which she is on a mission to fix.

It was a delightful, easy read, with some thought-provoking passages:

"I had a theory that we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we're longing for - adventure, excitement, emotion, connection - we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we're struggling with - sometimes ones so deep, we don't even really know we're asking them - we look for answers in stories."

I highlighted even more, but this final one was the kicker for me:

"Tragedy really is a given. There are endless human stories, but they all end the same way. So it can't be where you're going that matters. It has to be how you get there."

I loved the multiple reflections in this narrative about life purpose. The ardent defense of romance as a genre, and of love and hope. The emphasis on kindness and gratitude. The inner turmoil and tension when one feels like they can't pursue their dreams because of the immediate needs of a loved one.

This was 5 stars for me - I highly recommend! (TW: death of a parent, illness of parent)

Many thanks to St. Martin's Publishing Group and NetGalley for this e-arc!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Arc. I’ve read a lot of Katherine Center and while this wasn’t my favorite by her, I found it perfectly enjoyable. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters, and I found it very formulaic, but it was still a nice, fun, fast read. You knew exactly what you were getting from it and I really enjoyed the cameos from the characters in The Bodyguard. 3.5 stars rounded down because I just can’t seem to give it four.

Things I liked about this book: I really loved Emma's sense of humor and her witty comebacks, I loved that it read like a love story to rom-coms, I loved the tension between Emma and Charlie. I devoured the first two thirds of the book so fast. I really wish we had gotten Charlie's POV though because he game off very hot and cold which made him less likeable to me. I do think it was explained in the end but by that point it was a too little too late for me. I also wasn't a fan of how Emma reacted to the third act conflict and my opinion of her changed a little after that. Loved seeing Jack again though, that was a fun addition.

Katherine Center's books are usually an automatic read for me, but this one seemed to have missed the mark. Emma was funny and quirky, but Charlie was so hot and cold that I felt like I had whiplash. I found myself skimming a lot of pages because the scenes just felt long and unnecessary. I really wish the book would've been a dual POV, because hearing things from Charlie's side may have made him seem less of a dick.

Katherine Center does it again! "It" being making me feel allllll the feels. I couldn't put this book down. It was a sweet, clean, closed door romance that incorporated real life scenarios with the characters. Emma and Charlie are loveable and such a fun couple! I would love to see their story on the big screen. I have already pre-ordered my own copy of this!

Thanks so Net Galley and SMP for this ARC!

This was absolutely wonderful. Katherine’s writing is (and always has been) just so heartwarming. I love the stories she creates. This one is a top favorite now. The humor and banter between the two main characters was phenomenal. As always, the characters are so relatable. They make you both laugh and cry. They feel real with how well she writes to create them.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Rom-Commers. This book was perfect.

Katherine Center has done it again! The Rom-Commers is a delightful romantic comedy.... about romantic comedies! Emma Wheeler is a writer who put her own professional dreams and aspirations on hold to care for her father until one day she is pushed into an opportunity to work with the very famous and successful screenwriter of her dreams, Charlie. Despite being one of the most successful screenwriters of his time, he has written an absolutely horrific re-write of a beloved romantic comedy and Emma has been tapped to help save there day. There are a few problems though (as every romantic comedy should have). Charlie does not know he is going to work with Emma, he has a knack for saying hurtful things that she overhears, and worst of all, he doesn't believe love or romantic comedies. Emma sets out to show him the beauty of a romantic comedy, and help her learn the essential rules of a true rom-com, of which their own relationship starts to follow.

This book made my cheeks hurt from smiling at times, and even got me to laugh out loud a few times. Again, this is what a good rom-com should do, right? The defense of the rom-com was a fun angle to read, and the story hit all the rights spots with following the rules.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine, Center and St, Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend this book to unashamed lovers of romantic comedies and to people who pretend to be above reading romantic comedies alike because it is an enjoyable book. I also want to thank Katherine Center for writing books that make me smile and laugh, and spread some cheer in a world that can use it!

This was just really slow and predictable. It's the first time I have NOT liked a Katherine Center book and I;m really disappointed. It felt like a giant RomCom cliche.

this was a solid read in that trademark katherine center style. light on the romance but heavy on the characters. the ending felt rushed but i was hooked by the 3rd chapter. i'm not a big fan of down-on-their-luck FMCs but i really enjoyed Emma as a character and as a writer.


4 stars.

This book. This book! I laughed, I cried, I loved every single character…except for TJ but also even TJ…. This is a story about the stories we tell ourselves about our own lives. It’s about grief and joy and our inability to avoid them both despite our best efforts. It’s a delicious love story and wonderful family story and a smile-inducing friendship story. It’s about two Hollywood screen-writers so it shouldn’t have been surprising how cinematic many of the scenes were. As with every Katherine Center book I’ve read and loved (and I’ve loved each one I’ve read) she shares her characters weaknesses with us in ways that help us see our own. She forms them for us in wholeness and with dignity. Thank you Ms. Center for another uplifting, entertaining, swoon-worthy read.

Katherine Center has done it again! There aren't enough stars to express my appreciation for this book that I stayed up late to finish. I think this may be my favorite book of hers yet.

The plot follows the story of Emma, an aspiring screenwriter who gets the once in a lifetime chance to work on a rewrite of an absolutely terrible script with her favorite beloved screenwriter, Charlie. There are some complications along the way though. Emma is the sole caretaker of her father and will need to temporarily relocate for the project and Charlie doesn't believe in love, which makes it hard to write a rom-com.

What follows is a story that took me on a whole emotional ride. There were moments I laughed so loudly; I was worried I would wake up my sleeping child. There were moments my eyes stung with tears. There was joy; there was tension. It was a book I couldn't put down and am sad that I won't be able to read for the first time again. I would love to see this one turned into a movie. I can picture it on the screen!

Thank you to Katherine Center, her publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my honest feedback.