I have mixed feelings about this book.

I loved the dialogue and witty dynamic throughout. I was fascinated from the start and stayed engaged until the acknowledgments. The FMC was adorable and hilarious. The MMC was just the perfect ratio of hard shell/squishy center. There was tension, steam and boundless humor! I also highlighted at least a dozen lines of solid wisdom. It was just a beautifully well-rounded story!

So why the mixed review? The characters were wildly immature in how they handled their attraction to each other. So much so, it kept pulling me out of the story. And the FMC repeated the MMC name at least 50 times. I am not normally picky about things like this, so it had to be a LOT to get my attention.

Overall. I’d call this a tender, endearing summer read that will take your heart from aching to bursting throughout!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced ebook.

Katherine Center does it again with her newest book “The Rom-Commers.” This book sucks you in from the first page and makes you want to keep reading. The banter between the characters makes you want to cheer them on and hope they get the happy ending they deserve.
Emma is a writer who has taken time off to help out her family. Charlie is a writer who is going through a tough time. When a friend helps to put them together to rewrite a script they each have something to teach the other.
Highly recommend to all. This will be a great summer read!

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Katherine Center has quickly become my go-to romance writer. I love her story arcs, characters, and unique (and often emotional!) plots and The Rom-Commers totally hit the mark for me.

The tension between Charlie and Emma was palpable and I loved that Center kept us waiting with bated breath until what felt like the final page to give us all what we wanted and needed! I usually like a little steam with my romance and this book didn't have that, but what it lacked in steam, it made up for in emotion. There was more than one occasion this novel brought me to tears!!

I was so invested in these characters and I particularly loved Emma's dad. He was so optimistic and positive and wise. I loved that his disability didn't set him back and that he was so supportive of his daughters.

I also really enjoyed the writer aspect of this novel. While I have read many books about novel writers, I appreciated that Emma and Charlie were working on a screenplay and that Center showed us the work and research that went into developing it.

While Emma and Charlie were so different and unique, they were still very relatable and I loved how well-developed each character was.

I listened to this novel on audio and enjoyed the narrator, Patti Murin. She has a good voice for audio and it didn't feel overacted but her inflection and added drama had me totally hooked.

Overall, I really loved this book and I highly recommend. Thank you St. Martin's Press, MacmIllan Audio, and NetGalley for the copy.

Thank you so much to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Emma is a screenwriter who had to give up her dreams to take care of her dad. Charlie is a famous screenwriter who is trying to write a rom com but he is having a hard time. When Emma is hired to help him write it, they quickly learn what love is and how to write the perfect rom com.

I adored this book! This book was funny, it was sad, it was romantic, and it was infuriating at times. This book handled a lot of tough topics but in a way that was sensitive and shows the goodness of people.

I loved all of the characters and their relationships. We had some family relationships, some friendships, and some romance. Charlie and Emma are both complicated characters and I really loved that about them. All of the characters seemed real and it was a delight to read.

I loved the tension and the conflicts in this book. I read this one in one sitting because I was sucked in. I really enjoyed all of the rom com references as well. I loved Emma as a narrator as well, she had a bit of spunk and was overall a great character to follow. While she had a bit of spunk, she was also very caring and loving, especially toward her family. She was also very funny and I just loved that. Charlie was a bit of a jerk at times but it was nice to see him grow. I think they really worked as a couple.

I also really liked how there was no spice in this one. That may deter some but for me it was perfect because I don't like spice in my books.

I need to read more Katherine Center because I might have just found a new favorite author!! I really don't have anything bad to say about this one, it was an easy five star and I adored it!

Emma Wheeler wants to be a writer but has spent the last 10 years taking round the clock care of her dad after an accident. When she gets an offer to help rewrite a screenplay with her hero, Charlie Yates!, she can’t turn it down. When she arrives to LA she finds she living in his mansion with him and things are complicated. Can she show Charlie what a rom-com is suppose to be like if he doesn’t believe in love?

I like Katherine Center books and this is what you would expect from her:) A fun, cute rom-com with some deeper topics and meaning. I didn’t always love the characters is the one complaint I have. Charlie was pretty mean at some points in the story. I enjoyed seeing Emma’s dream come true and how she was out of place in the Hollywood environment. There were some funny moments and some moments that made me tear up.

I adored this book! I found the characters of Emma and Charlie to be so relatable that I did not want to put it down. This is a laugh-out-loud, charming, and heartfelt romance for the ages. Perfect for fans of the genre.

PROPER REVIEW TO COME... but this might be my favorite Katherine to date. She is MY romance queen forever and ever.

F you, Katherine Center for making me cry as much as you did!

The Rom-Commers is everything I wanted it to be and MORE. The build up, the arguments, the anxiety, the grief, all incredibly written.
I saw myself in Emma, and also Charlie. I loved the friendship they had, and the rom com things spread throughout the book.

Sometimes I feel rom com books can be SO cheesy so I was a little nervous, but all of the cheese was perfect. Nothing too much, just the right amount. I will be recommending this book to literally anyone and everyone, even my husband who is wonderful and amazing...but doesn't read rom coms.

Oh, my heart! This has to be a top favorite Katherine Center novel for me. I laughed and cried and inhaled this book. It is so good! This one features a super grumpy, reclusive screenwriter who has written the worse rom-com. He needs help but doesn't want help. Unfortunately for Charlie, Emma has arrived to do just that....help Charlie improve his screenplay. This is the dream job for Emma with the dream writer. She has been such a fan....until she meets him. They decidedly do not hit it off. Emma has left her ailing father for the first time to travel to LA to work with Charlie for six weeks only to learn that he didn't ask for her and doesn't want her. They do end up working together but it is fraught from the start.

I think what is so fantastic about Charlie and Emma is how fully formed they are. There is wit, banter, and laughs but there are also real discussions and there is true depth to these two. It was a delight to see their relationship develop through their vulnerabilities. Emma is a lover of the rom-com and Charlie is very much not. Watching these two work through their very different feelings about the work they are doing was so much fun. I smiled throughout this whole book and became a bit annoying telling all of my friends that they had to read this book right now! I will continue this trend by telling you....read it. Right now. You will not be sorry.

Another amazing book from Katherine Center! This is going to be a great addition to your summer reading pile! Emma is a delightful character. Selfless, funny, hopeful romantic. Charlie is a big time Hollywood writer and is totally grumpy sunshine. I loved the banter and small moments between Emma and Charlie. And can we talk about Cuthbert? So freaking adorable!!
Just like all of her books, there are heavy moments but they are meaningful and balanced perfectly with humor and happiness.
We even got a surprise cameo from a character in one of her prior novels! Just a perfect rom-com! This one publishes on June 11 so get your pre-orders in now!

Thank you St Martins Press and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Rom-Commers delivers on its title — a delightful blend of romance and comedy, with pathos and sorrow and day-to-day challenges that keep it grounded and real. Katherine Center once again provides a book with terrific lead characters, great chemistry, a plot that makes you feel all the feelings, and a promise of a happy ending to cheer for. Don’t miss it!

This has been such a banner season for swoony rom coms, so how could I resist a book literally called The Rom Commers? My favorite subcategory of this genre is the kind with hilarious banter, real emotional stakes, and zany side plots, so if you like that too, be sure to pick this one up. I really loved Katherine Center’s last book, Hello Stranger, which fits this description, and The Rom-Commers was just as charming, funny & satisfying.

Our protagonist Emma is on her way to be the next Nora Ephron before family obligations hinder her writing career, and Charlie is an amazingly successful Hollywood writer who needs to write an amazing rom com despite the fact that he doesn’t believe in love and just wants to be left alone to moulder in his mansion like a grouchy vampire wearing wrinkled corduroy pants. This is their one shot to get it right, but you know how it is—first they need hundreds of pages of witty banter and sexual tension. This was such a fun read—I would recommend!

Also, never before has a guinea pig been used to persuade me that a man might have a heart of gold. A genre first!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this sneak peek at one of this summer’s dreamiest romances.

Loved this book!! I haves loved every book I’ve read of Katherine centers. I expect them to be easy fun reads. A great beach read!

3.75⭐️
The premise of this book sounded fun and I really liked Emma’s characters and overall I do think this book was fun and it had its good moments. Even though I really wanted to love this book there was something missing… I can appreciate a grumpy sunshine situation but Charlie was so rude and insulting (even 45% into the book) and I just needed him to redeemed himself more for me to truly fall for him and the relationship. I appreciated the fact that Emma was so insistent with her passion for telling love stories and their importance. The “plot twists” at the end did have me scared but thankfully the magic of romances is a HEA.

Katherine Center is a treasure. There’s not one book she’s written where I haven’t been charmed by the witty banter or impressed by her writing talent. She’s so good at hitting that sweet spot in the emotional tone of her stories, never letting the romance become too cloying or the more serious aspects of the story too depressing. She writes characters that are believable and not always at their best, but you’d still want to know them.

Having said and meant EVERY word of that, I will say that just a tiny bit of the shine was missing for me with this latest book, and I can’t tell if it’s the book, a touch of genre burnout with rom-coms/romance lately or both. The writing was still as stellar, ALL the characters still as complicated and charming, the plot was unique and the humor was pitch-perfect. Honestly, it’s a rom-com lover’s dream! I did enjoy it - especially the humor. Even if I didn't LOVE it as much as her other books I've read, it's still a very good story!

If I had to pick the one thing that kept me from falling completely head over heels for this book, it would boil down to chemistry. Emma and Charlie were both great characters with a healthy mix of good and less desirable traits, and I laughed frequently at their sarcastic and funny banter, but for reasons that utterly elude me, I just didn’t feel that magical spark between them quite as much as with Center’s other literary couples. They made me smile and feel good in that “Aww, that was nice way”, rather than the “I’ll love this couple until the end of time!!” way. Emma’s story with her family was so touching and sweet, and I loved her dad and sister, Sylvie. If that was the story, this would be an easy 5 stars.

I recommend this to those who love a clean romance, fun, snappy banter, complicated characters, and a great family story!

Oh my gosh, this book had me smiling like an absolut weirdo the entire time I was reading it. I don’t think there’s a book by Katherine Center that I haven’t absolutely loved. She is just an exceptional writer who always hits you in the feels.

Emma was the most perfectly imperfect FMC, quirky and kind and waiting in the wings for her big break as a screenplay writer. MMC Charlie was an absolute curmudgeon, negative and cranky but still somehow managed to be endearing. Their banter was seriously, to die for- I mean I was straight up cackling for a good portion of this book. From their first interaction, to the very last page I was all in on them. I could just feel Charlie’s love for Emma coming off the pages. I also don’t usually love when the narrator talks off page to the reader but for some reason it really worked here and just added to the overall humor.

There are of course so very difficult topics covered, like loss of a parent and being a caregiver to a sick parent, cancer, and divorce. But these are all written with such grace that it makes you just appreciate what the character is going through. The ending had me majorly tearing up.
This is a truly enjoyable romcom and will definitely be recommended it for summer beach reads!

Emma has spent the last 10 years as primary caregiver for her father. Now she has a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to California and work with a famous screen writer. ARC from NetGalley.

So I don’t usually find myself tearing up at the end of a ‘rom-com’ but guess what everybody, this book made me do it. Maybe it’s my fragile emotional state today but it could also be that this Katherine Center book has me feeling all the feels and re-evaluating life choices and TBR picks like not every book or author can do.

Emma is an absolutely perfect (yet of course imperfect) main character, except that she’s living the life of a supporting actor, maybe she’s even hiding in the wings - until she’s thrust into a role she could have never imagined, the unwilling co-lead in with an equally unwilling co-lead who just happens to be her absolute favourite yet in real life unattainable person. And he also happens to be absolutely perfect for her - but they need to be grumpy and stand-offish for the first half of the book or so to get the point across - can’t make it too easy, right?

This book ticks EVERY box for this avid romance reader and it may or may not be my new favourite Katherine Center book and my recc of the summer if someone asks me what to read next.

💞ARC Review💞

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Oh my God, Katherine Center, you’ve done it again! I have enjoyed every single one of your books that I’ve read and I’ve been incredibly lucky to receive the last two as digital ARCs from Netgalley. I looooved this!

First of all, a story about two writers writing a rom com and falling in love while doing so? Brilliant. Without giving any spoilers, there was so much in this book that I adored. The fact that I just knew Charlie was in awe of Emma and was going to love her the moment she launched into her evening of ripping his script to shreds, the fact that she was his adoring fan and got a reality check when she met him in person but then went back to adoring him in another way, the fact that he took care of her from afar even when she didn’t want it but really did need it, the fact that he threw these random compliments out there to her every so often that made me swoon, the fact that he braved the water to jump in after her even though he was deathly afraid, the fact that she got him over his writer’s block and made it her mission to change his opinions of rom coms…. I could keep going.

I adored this book, adored the ending, and would love to see this changed into an actual rom com in the screen because oh lord would this be a perfect movie.

Read this! You won’t regret it.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center releases on June 11, 2024.

📚 The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ~ 5 stars