The Rom-Commers is a delightful, fun romp into the world of writers of romantic comedies. Two writers come together—actually they clash with each other—as they try to salvage a screenplay. They each have their own agenda for getting the job done and its obvious they are not on the same page.

In true Katherine Center fashion, this story is full of conflict, humor, chemistry, and awkward situations. And oh, what a fun ride it was to witness it all. I loved everything about it. As with all of her other books, once I started reading, I didn't want to stop, the story and the characters were that entertaining.

I highly recommend The Rom-Commers. It's a wonderful beach read for the summer. Be sure to add it to your reading list.

Gah.
These two had me so damn emotional.

Emma gets the opportunity to work with her FAVORITE writer, unfortunately she doesn't know that he doesn't she's coming.
Charlie is a sweet guy, but doesn't like being vulnerable. Emma is the last thing he needs right now.

These two finally agree upon terms to rewrite Charlie's romantic comedy screenplay.
But Charlie doesn't believe in love and Emma doesn't want to half ass it.
She gets in his face, makes his face his fears. See the life he's missing out on.

I was so invested in the rewrite.
The heartbreak they've both dealt with in life, coming to the surface and each seeing that.

To see the layers peel back on each of these characters was so good.

I laughed. I cried. I yelled. I gasped.

This is the Katherine center I know and love!

4.5 ⭐

3.5. I was torn on if it should be a 3 or a 4 because of some things that happen in the story, but I decided to round up. My last read from Katherine was really disappointing, so I was desperately hoping that this would make me fall in love with her writing again AND I DID. I blazed through this in one day and reminded me so much of what I love about my fave reads from Katherine. I absolutely loved The Bodyguard and this is such a cute sort-ofcompanion novel to that. Seeing the Jack cameos were delightful. The Rom-Commers made me tear up, it made me smile. It touched upon tropes and had fun, silly moments that I love in both rom com books and rom com movies. Just truly a cute and endearing love letter to the genre. The main leads were both really strong here, and I enjoyed the banter. There were times when I wanted to hit Charlie in the head, but he more than made up for it in the end. And honestly, my emotional journey through this read meant to me that I connected with Emma because I felt everything she felt. The family drama, while in other stories, may have been too much for me, was done pretty well here. I absolutely adore Emma's dad.

I truly can't wait to see what Katherine gives us next.

I binged this book in two days and loved every second of it. Katherine Center writes such real characters and stories. I found myself relating to both Charlie and Emma, even with the very niche circumstances of this book. A must read!

I have such mixed thoughts about this one.

Both MCs have an incredible about of trauma they are working through and, as a result, their protective mechanisms cause them to keep others at a distance. For Emma it manifested as catastrophizing and a need to control everything about her life and her father's care. Things started to improve half-way through, but then at 80% Emma became a jerk again. The way she treated her sister was unwarranted. It was like all of the self-reflection and improvements she made didn't even occur.

For Charlie, his coping mechanism was the need to keep everyone around him at arms length. I enjoyed reading along as he discovered what romance was and there were some super cute moments where he really tried with Emma. But then he got THAT phone call and it all went down the drain.

Overall, I really wanted to love it, but it just didn't get there for me in the end. The last 10% was so emotional and so good but I think it took too long to get there and show us a more likable side to Emma and Charlie.

I have liked other releases from Katherine and I think I'll try her again with another release. The Rom-Commers just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Katherine Center for an early review copy. These are my honest thoughts.

Another Katherine Center book that fell flat, I wanted to like this book and hoped for it's redemption from Hello Stranger (which I had to DNF). But unfortunately for how the plot read out in the synopsis, I found both main characters incredibly insufferable and their 'relationship' even more so, Charlie was a bad person if we really want to get into it and constantly talked down and condescending to Emma (and not in a hot way).

4.5 ⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it, and I went in with medium expectations. This one's about a screenplay writer who hasn't gotten her big break yet who ends up working with her writer hero and they obviously fall in love. It was funny and touching. I got a little teary frequently around the MC's grief. It just was really well done and Center kept the cheese factor in check with the ending. It was a great time with great banter and I'll be looking forward to her next!

I do wish the MC would have apologized to her sister too, but I will let it go. ;)

Perfect little summer romance read!

Emma Wheeler has been tasked with rewriting a rom-com written by none other than Charlie Yates, her favorite screen writer of all time. The problem is, his rom-com is terrible and he has no desire to make it good, just passable so he can get his dream project going. Emma is determined to make this great though and show the pessimistic Charlie that love stories matter.

This book! I absolutely loved every second of it! I received a digital arc awhile back but had the opportunity to listen to it instead, and the audio for this book is fantastic.

Emma was such a great character. She believes in love and has a real affinity for romantic stories. The way she convinces Charlie that love is real and that love stories matter makes me believe it even more than I already did. Charlie is a broody MMC with a great arc from being the arrogant pessimist to believing in love right alongside Emma.

In a not-so-traditional meet-cute, Emma and Charlie are tricked into working together and the tirade she goes on when she learns of it was such a great way for them to meet! This was one of my favorite scenes in the story and you just know it's going to (and it did!) lead to some great banter, angst, and ultimately triumph because what is a romance if it doesn't provide an HEA? Not a romance, that's for sure!

I found myself laughing out loud as well as emotional as the characters dealt with some very real-life issues (check content warnings or DM me if you'd like). This is the perfect summer read and my favorite book from @katherinecenter yet!

Thank you Macmillan Audio and St. Martins Press for the early review copies.

I love a book about books. I found that I didn't fully buy the male main character which took me out a bit, but in general still a fun read.

Always love this author. Very witty and keeps you wanting more. This book was a really easy to read and flowed nicely. Getting to rewrite history can be hard but I kept wanting more.

Charlie is kind of a jerk, but Emma finds a way to make him loveable, or maybe palatable. lol. This was such a quick, fun read for me which is typical for a Center novel. She just writes characters that you care about.

Emma has always put herself second and for once she is doing something in pursuit of her own dreams. I love how she doesn’t let anything stop her once she and Charlie get started. I did enjoy the “meta-ness” of this as Emma explains all the attributes of a romcom to Charlie. And I really liked how she broke through is grumpy exterior and helped him understand both the genre and himself.

Totally recommend this one.

In true Katherine Center fashion, this book definitely delivers on balance between light rom-com as well as tackling heavy topics. I loved the family story as well as the journey of self-discovery our protagonist, Emma, takes. I loved seeing the personal growth in her character.

I enjoyed parts of the romantic story, but (I hate that there’s a “but”) unfortunately there were parts of Charlie’s character that kept me from fully getting on board with him and the romance. We have a classic enemies-to-lovers trope here as Emma and Charlie don’t get along when they start working together, but some of the things he said and the way he treated her was just too hard for me to get over. We of course saw some redemption in his character toward the end but to me it felt like a switch flipped and suddenly he’s a great guy and we’re supposed to just forget how mean he was to Emma in the beginning.

I’ve seen a lot of praise for this book, and overall I did enjoy it, so maybe I’m alone in this feeling. I definitely would still recommend it as I think Center is always a solid choice for a summer romance. I just didn’t quite love it as much as I loved her last two. I’ll definitely keep reading whatever she puts out though!

The Rom-Commers was a terrific read, I enjoyed it from start to finish. Katherine Centers books normally are full of wit, emotions and are never a disappointment. I definitely would recommend this book to everyone.

I received an ARC from NetGalley an St. Martin's Press, and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

******Now Available!!!!!!******

First of all just want to start with how much I enjoy and appreciate when ROM/Com is written without trashy language and vivid sexual scenes!!!

Emma has been asked to help her favorite legendary screen writer Charlie to rewrite his rom/com but many surprises along the way! Such a heart warming story with twists and disasters along the way.

Solid writing.
All the emotional feels roller coaster.
Loveable/relatable characters that have understandable flaws.

Bit descriptive wordy but really can’t say much negative about the book!! Definitely had me thinking about the story/characters when i wasn’t reading and had me looking forward to when i could be reading it again!!

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martins Press for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Rom-Commers is my third read by Katherine Center. I enjoyed her other two novels, so I greatly looked forward to this one and I am glad it did not disappoint. This story follows aspiring screenwriter Emma Wheeler who has been the primary caregiver of her ailing father for the past ten years. When her sister comes home after graduation and can help, Emma seizes an opportunity to work with her idol, screenwriter, Charlie Yates. The two end up working together on Charlie’s latest rom-com screenwriting project. As the story moves through its pages, the reader follows the two characters getting to know each other through the screenwriting process. There is also the fact that Emma has her life waiting for her still with her father after the process is complete, so there is some tension added to the story.

The two characters are the classic sunshine/grumpy trope where Charlie is the grumpy one and Emma is the sunshine. She loves rom-coms and is excited for the project while Charlie is dreading it. I can see the appeal of the opposites attract as I greatly enjoy this trope, but I do think it went a little far in the beginning with how mean Charlie was to Emma. While I expected him to be standoffish, it came off a little meaner than I prefer. There was also the power imbalance to consider while reading as Emma was a superfan to Charlie. While it was present, the relationship that does form between them was believable enough to counteract this idea. The two characters had a nice amount of growth, and I enjoyed the reading experience. I am still not sure about the “com” part of the rom-com, but the “rom” was there and it was well-done. I enjoyed that there was some inclusion of characters from her other novel, The Bodyguard, so it was great for readers like me who have read her other novels. These moments were nicely incorporated as those who have read the other novel and those that haven’t could enjoy the scenarios. Overall, this was a nicely done novel and I look forward to reading the next novel by Center in the future.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Katherine Center writes fabulous fiction that is perfect for someone who wants that touch of romance. Her books are kind of like if you dipped your toe into the ocean that is the romance book world. Perfect if you like the relationship building aspect of a story, but are uncomfortable or don’t want to read about physical intimacy.

Emma is a (failing?) small-time screenwriter who does an old friend a favour by reading an Oscar-winning screenwriter’s rom-com screenplay. The work itself is as far from romance as it can be and is generally accepted as being downright terrible. Emma reluctantly leaves her father, for whom she is the sole caretaker, and heads to Hollywood to work alongside Charlie Yates and help him rewrite his miserable work, much to Charlie’s dismay. While she teaches him the workings of how to write real romance, sparks fly between them.

The Rom-Commers delves heavily into the idea of what makes a good romance, but doesn’t execute it quite perfectly itself…but I’m not sure it’s supposed to. So much is said within the pages of what makes a good romance book/screenplay/movie- tropes, tension building, miscommunications, steamy kisses…and yet with Emma and Charlie it shows that romance is weird and messy and people often get it wrong. I kind of liked that. We’re almost hit over the head with classic romance moments throughout the book, but at the same time the author gently pokes fun at them. It was sweet.

While clunky at times, and so HEAVY on dialogue, the last 40% of the book relied largely on family drama and relationships and was quite emotional and beautiful. While Charlie was a bit of an enigma (mostly due to the story being only from Emma’s POV), I thought Emma was charming and lovely. Her work ethic and outlook on life was made up of tragic life circumstances and yet she seemed happy(ish). I could definitely see this as a cutesy rom-com Hallmark-style or Netflix romance-lite movie.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Katherine Center, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

💭 MY THOUGHTS: Another Katherine Center book that I absolutely loved! I love how all her stories build fun worlds and characters that explore the dynamics of relationships.

Emma is a writer and her favorite Hollywood writer is Charlie. Imagine her surprise when she gets a chance to write with him but it’s totally not what she expects. Charlie is a bit of an eccentric grump with Emma being a level-headed optimist. I loved the two of them.

As only Katherine can, the book deals with hard topics like cancer, death of a parent (past) and relational trauma but somehow interjects tough topics with sweet sparks of light and hope.

Read for:
⛅️ Grump + Sunshine
🏡 Forced Proximity
🚪 Closed Door Romance
🎥 2 Writers
👄 Single POV
❤️‍🩹 Healing from Relational Trauma
📍 Hollywood, CA

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
Spice Level: 🧼 Squeaky Clean

4.25 stars!!!!

Once again, Katherine brings us a witty, heartwarming, journey of a book! I loved the character arc in this and how both Emma and Charlie learned and grew. I highlighted so many lines that made me laugh, and made me cry!
"...All I can figure it this: it hurts to be disappointed. It hurts so much, we'd rather never get our hopes up. And it's humiliating too- right? How foolish are you to hope for the best?...." GAAHHHH.. How does Katherine know the thoughts I've had about love and life and becoming so cynical and skeptical.
The only con's I had was there were a couple of cheesy parts that made me cringe a little BUT stuff like that happens in a RomCom so I get why she included that. The middle of the book stalled for me just a teeny bit, and I think it was just due to a lot of dialogue between the Emma and Charlie, and not a ton of action.

My rating for Katherine's books from favorite to not quite favorite-
Hello Stranger - i am still obsessed with this book
The Bodyguard
How to Walk Away
Happiness for Beginners -read this last year by the pool and LOVED the book and movie
The Rom-Commers
Things You Save in a Fire

MANY Thanks to St. Martin's Press and netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest opinion.

This fun read is proof that good writing can make even rom-com cynics smile and nod in approval. This was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish...as the characters explored and researched, then embodied the typical tropes. It's all about how the love story unfolds. You're rooting for somewhat messy Chloe and Charlie, waiting to see if they can smooth out each others' rough edges as they get to know each other. It was refreshing to me that this didn't have to happen with all the language and spice. We just get to see the chemistry play out in their everyday lives, as is much more realistic.
I hope Center continues with more stories about these characters, or at least pursues more rom-com-like books in the future!
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

We’re big fans of Katherine Center’s books. They always have a great balance of emotional and lighthearted moments with fun banter mixed in.

The Rom-Commers follows Emma, an aspiring screenwriter who gets the chance to work with her writing hero, Charlie. He’s writing a romcom, something outside his wheelhouse, and it’s terrible so Emma is hired to help. This is her second chance at her dream career after a family tragedy changed her life plan.

Emma was an endearing and cute FMC. The way she loved her family fiercely and sacrificed so much was special but also heartbreaking. On the other side, Charlie was a little too hot/cold in the way he treated Emma for our liking. It sometimes leaned towards him being mean and he fell a bit short as an MMC for us.

Our favourite parts involved Emma and Charlie trying out romcom scenes while writing the screenplay. It added some much needed fun into the story. We love a good cameo and since this book is set in LA, keep a lookout on some fun ones!

Read if you like:
▪️Romcom about writing romcoms
▪️Forced Proximity
▪️Grumpy/Sunshine
▪️Celebrity romance
▪️Closed door