The Rom Commers is such a pleasure to read! This witty banter makes the story that much more engaging. This was my first Katherine Center book and it will not be my last. The approach she takes with these characters are amazing and I absolutely love it.

I LOVE Katherine Center and anything she writes. The Rom-Commers did not disappoint. Highly recommended to any and everyone.

As you are likely aware, there is an active boycott of your publishing house due to the failure of St. Martin’s Press to ensure the safety of their Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian influencers. Over 7,500 influencers to date have signed the petition demanding that St. Martin’s Press meet the incredibly reasonable demands below.

- Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.
- Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
- Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

Readers for Accountability recently brought to your attention the threatening behaviors displayed by friends of your employee towards multiple members of their team. This not only includes online harassment with threats of lawsuits and reporting but has extended to tracking the whereabouts of a prominent Black creator whom you chose to unfollow.

Your refusal to engage with the influencers who provide you with free labor is both disheartening and offensive. As such, I will no longer be reviewing ARCS from this publishing house until steps are taken to meet the demands Readers for Accountability have laid out for you.

The Rom-Commers was my first Katherine Center book and I immediately binged her others upon finishing. I love an ooey-gooey cheesy romcom with some added depth. This was every bit as charming as I hoped it would be. I was fortunate enough to also snagged an advanced copy of the audio, which was wonderfully done by Patti Murin.

LOVE!! Love, love, love. I loved this book so much. I flew through it and couldn’t get enough of it! I loved the enemies to lovers, the grumpy meets sunshine, the forced proximity, everything! It was everything I hoped for and more. The effortless banner between the two of them, the slow burning heat, the side characters being perfectly perfect, the humor. Katherine Center has hit it out of the park again and I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to read another one of her amazing novels! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Katherine Center for the eARC!

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

I have really enjoyed Katherine Center's books in the past, and I was very excited about reading this book. However, this book seemed very disjointed and unfinished to the point where I didn't actually know the story that was being told anymore. This book was seemingly a character- read, which I am usually fine with, but Center's characters just seemed all over the place that it was hard to keep their feelings and motivations straight throughout the book. I feel like the book suffered a lot from only being single POV, and a lot of it likely could have been cleared up if she had opened it up to dual POV. Mostly, I felt myself being frustrated at Charlie and not knowing why, and him being mean to the point where being around him was not doing himself, Emma, or me any favors.

Everything just seemed very wishy washy and not well put together. Emma's characterization was inconsistent at best, and honestly, hard to swallow. The situation with her dad was not nearly built up enough so that I could genuinely feel the tensions she felt in leaving him after being his caretaker for 10 years. I couldn't tell if she actually liked Charlie, even when she was actively saying that she did on the page. There was just no spark or "shimmer" as she called it, and it felt about as unromantic as all of those situations she said to Charlie.

Not a bad book, per se, but not my favorite.

Thank you for giving me a copy of this book. I was obsessed with it and it was so stinking cute. I didn’t much like The Bodyguard but I really enjoyed this book- it was wholesome and makes me rethink my life a bit. I loved it and I loved Charlie even more.

I had so much fun reading the Rom-Commers! I always love a book with a Hollywood/celebrity adjacent story line. I laughed out loud several times and the swoony moments delivered. I felt like the ending gave me whiplash but I still had fun

This was my first KC romance! All in all I really liked it and may check out some of her backlist

There were some parts that weren’t quite my cup of tea and I think I’m realizing I like a little more spice in my romances than KC offers

However, the first chunk I read super fast, I liked the banter and things falling into place and seeing the relationship develop between the main characters, it reads quick and I like how it was written and the FMC breaks the 4th wall sometimes so to speak.

I did see what may have been a “twist” coming but all in all I really liked reading it and definitely liked a lot of messaging that came through in the end!

I also really liked seeing into the world of writing a screen play.

I do like this author but her books are just not for me. I find them too depressing and I read to escape real life and to enjoy a good story. I don’t think the cover and brightness match this book. I will read this author again as I do enjoy some of her books.

Emma was a promising screenwriter who sacrificed probable success and ten years of her life to take care of her younger sister and her father who suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was a teen. She’s earned a living writing freelance movie reviews, but her former high school boyfriend-turned-talent manager continues to send her job prospects. When the opportunity to work as a ghostwriter for her favorite screenwriter Charlie Yates is offered, it’s a chance she is loath to pass up. He’s famous for “guy” films but is being forced to write a romantic comedy in order to get the green light for his next gangster film. He, like so many other “serious” writers, disdains the genre and, not surprisingly, is no good at writing them. Lucky for him, Emma’s an expert and she refuses to let him ruin “his career, the romantic comedy genre as a whole, and all our lives with this nuclear-waste-fueled dumpster fire of a screenplay.” If she can just get past his curmudgeonly appearance and grumpy demeanor (that makes him seem 20 years older than he is) and break down the walls he has built after being abandoned by both his mother and ex-wife, then she might be able to teach him a thing or two about what makes for a successful romance, that love is real (and not just in the movies), and that sacrifice and risk are worth it if you find the right person.

There’s so much to love about this story: the witty banter and snark (especially the frozen veggies on the bruised tailbone scene); the way Emma challenges Charlie, first by being brutally honest about how bad his first rom-com screenplay is and then by forcing him into immersion research on romance (something he’s committed to in his previous movies but resists for what he considers not worth the effort); the fact that she has a virtual museum of movies kisses on her laptop for Charlie to view with her, but still thinks real-life experience is better; how Emma and Charlie’s relationship is so obviously classic rom-com material, including everything from line dancing to literally falling into each other (which Emma insisted wasn’t the least bit romantic until it happened to her); and, finally, Emma’s take on happily-ever-after: “We act like ‘and they lived happily ever after’ is trying to con us into thinking that nothing bad ever happened to anyone ever again. But that’s never the way I read those words. I read them as ‘and they built a life together, and looked after each other, and made the absolute best of their lives.’” For fans of Center’s The Bodyguard, there is even a cameo from Jack Stapleton who is slated to star in the film. This is rom-com gold for fans of Christina Lauren and Abby Jimenez. Highly recommended!

This might be a record for me, but DNF @9%.

I had an absolute hatred for Emma almost immediately and I knew I couldn't go on. The way she was immediately portrayed as a martyr for taking care of her disabled dad and then immediately declined help when her sister stepped up to help like had previously been promised that rubbed me the wrong way.

I never actually made it to meeting Charlie, but a quick kindle search showed that his full name, first and Last, had already been mentioned 33 times by 9% into the book and I already hate him.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC to me!

Why do Katherine Center books always make me cry? Because somehow in someway they always hit something I needed. I adored the depth of this read. Emma and her struggles reminded and resonated with me on a whole new level. I also felt for Charlie even though his decisions annoyed me. My only thing I didn’t love was how LONG it took to get to the romance. The reason why I get, but I still wanted some butterflies 🦋. All in all, I adored the topics this one covered and KC will forever be an auto-buy for me.

I read Hello Stranger several months ago and fell in love with the story, but even more with @katherinecenter's author's note describing what makes romance so special: We romance readers aren't fluffy. We read romance to anticipate hope and bliss. In a world that has a lot of terrible things going on, this is powerful. (It's really hard to sum it up so just go read it)

The Rom Commers is Center's author's note turned into a novel in the best way. It was sweet, funny, emotional, and a joy to read. I loved the way it was written almost in the style of shows like "The Office," with occasional asides/"fourth-wall breaks" to keep the reader engaged and interested.

I don’t think Katherine Center knows how not to write a book that’s beloved. In true fashion, her latest romcom hit, is full of amazing characters & a sweet love story you root for!


Thank you so much, Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press.& NetGalley, for my copy to read & give my honest review!

This book did not disappoint.

Emma is a ghost screenwriter. She wanted to be a screenwriter, but then her dad had an injury and she had to become his caretaker. When she gets an offer to co-write with her favorite screenwriter (think, picture posted to her wall level of favorite), she can’t turn it down. But when she shows up, he turns out to be a little less than willing to work with somebody, let alone an unknown. His rom-com script is also the worst thing Emma has ever read, and she realizes it’s because he doesn’t believe in rom-coms or in love. So she decides it’s her job to prove him wrong on all accounts.

What I loved most about this book was how transparent it was. A lot of romance novels hinge on silly miscommunications that don’t get resolved or people believing that someone else thinks a certain way about them. Rom-Commers doesn’t stand on this trope. There are some miscommunications or overheard conversations, but Emma immediately confronts them. It still lends itself to conflict, but felt more realistic and complex which I greatly enjoyed.

Emma is a wonderfully written character as well. She is multidimensional with her history and strength, balanced by her passion and her weaknesses. Charlie, the screenwriter, is also a fun character. A lot of the time, Center will save the exposure of a trauma until the end of the story. In this book, she drops it all on you pretty quickly. It shows why Charlie is the way he is and why he might be hesitant, as opposed to Emma just being like “why is this guy being so difficult?!”

It was also fun getting some characters from previous novels in this one. I always enjoy when characters come back. This book made me smile and want to watch a ton of rom-coms, so I think it did its job.

Katherine Center does not miss. I will forever read her novels. If you like romance but sometimes feel they’re either too spicy or a little too fluffy for you, Center’s book might be more up your ally. There aren’t any spicy scenes and there is always a serious note to her stories. I can’t wait to read more of her books!

This was my first time reading Katherine Center and I really enjoyed her writing style. I tend to gravitate toward writers that use less adjectives and more nouns and verbs (aka fun dialogue and constant plot). I will definitely read more of her stuff!!

That being said, I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would because I didn't enjoy the main characters. They were bold and concrete in who they were but I didn't enjoy them together. These two very different individuals were constantly (purposefully) recreating romantic situations so of course they were going to be together. It felt forced and predictable.

I found myself wanting to know what was going on at Emma's dad's house with her sister and boyfriend.

This is a great beach/pool read if you are wanting some fun cheesy romance to spice up your summer!!

4 ⭐️

- grumpy x sunshine
- one of us is famous
- workplace romance
- forced proximity
- 🌶: none

tw/cw: death of a parent, paralysis, meniere’s disease, cancer, hypochondria, panic attacks, anxiety


This one was a classic Katherine Center romcom (borderline women's fiction) with no spice, deeper messages and meanings, and real life events and struggles. I adored Charlie and his growth throughout the story. I saw him open up his shell and heart to Emma and could truly see his feelings for her. However, with Emma, I felt like all I had to rely on was that she has been such a huge fan of Charlie, and the bit at the start where she describes that she finds him attractive. Sadly, I didn't feel Emma's love for Charlie as I did Charlie for Emma (and I was waiting for that moment to hit the whole book).

things I liked:
- Charlie (after he opened his shell & heart)
- the rep for meniere's disease
- THE GUINEA PIG!!!! (more books with them pls lol)
- overall messages & lessons always included in Katherine Center books

things I didn't like:
- I couldn't feel Emma's love for Charlie
- the storyline of Emma & her sister (no spoilers of course!! but I feel like Emma needed to apologize & she never did. It truly angered me)
- the continuous negative talk about her curly hair (as someone with curly hair at first it was relatable & whatever. but it continues as the book goes on. might as well say curly hair will always make you look messy & gross and sleek straight hair is better 🙄)
- moments/messages in the epilogue felt a little out of place and random

overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it if it interests you! But, I also see how it didn't work for others and the issues they had with it!


thank you NetGalley for the arc 💓

Another cute, romantic comedy from Katherine. The more of her books I read, the more I want to keep working on her backlist.

Emma is a screenwriter. Her friend sets her up to work with big name Charlie Yates, basically against Charlie’s will. In the beginning she didn’t even want to take the job, it meant leaving her disabled father behind and traveling to LA. Even though Charlie doesn’t really want her there, he allows her to stay. He needs her help fixing his rom-com screenplay that is just terrible. She’s a romantic at heart and is determined to teach him what true romance is.

There were moments when I wanted to strangle both characters, but I guess that was kind of the point. The story is about showing them grow, as individuals and as a couple.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted copies of this book.

Romantic comedy is not my preferred genre but I am glad I read this one. Besides being an entertaining novel, I learned what a rom-com actually is and how it is plotted. There were also some interesting discussions about fiction. Emma notes that one can learn more about love from screenplays and movies than real life. She also notes we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. We look for answers to our questions in stories.

While I am not a fan of romantic comedy, I recommend this one. The development of the romance is fun and the novel itself is informative and thought provoking. Center is a good writer and I enjoyed this novel.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.