Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies. But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!—it’s a break too big to pass up. Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter. What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules—and comes true?

5⭐ (audio) I listen to tons of audiobooks, and as long as the narrator doesn't pull me out of the story, I'm happy. Patti Muran, however, stands out with these characters and their personalities, and Center's fabulous humor! Fantastic narration!

4⭐ (story) I really enjoyed this new novel by one of my favorite authors. I've had one or two misses with this author, but this one is a gem. The characters are well-developed and feel real. The chemistry and interactions between these two is hilarious and heartwarming. This is a definite winner for me!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced audio copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

Katherine Center has done it again. She is the queen of the rom com! You got me ugly crying on my commute home! I had all the feels, the twist ending was delightful, and I have hope in humanity again! You even made line dancing seem cool! 🙌🏼.

Emma Wheeler has been writing rom coms her whole like. She chose to take care of her ailing father instead of taking that internship that would have put her on the path to success. Charlie Yates is her favorite screen writer and some how Emma is ghost writing a rom com with him.

It’s everything you are going to want in your next rom com, feel good read! It’s brain candy! And this story is SWEET! Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio

This book was so good! I loved everything about it. The romance was so sweet, the humor was great. It had rom and com, so it did its job perfectly.

4.5 rounded up to 5!

My summary:
Girl admires boy's work from afar before landing the dream opportunity to work with him on his romcom screen play! Turns out boy is a total grump, doesn't actually care about his screenplay, and doesn't believe in romcoms or love. Girl is convinced that she can make him appreciate the genre and turn the script into something amazing along the way because of her deep love and adoration for it (... and maybe him!!?).

This book is a love letter to romcoms and a dissertation-level defense of why we all love and need these books! The FMC, Emma, speaks with so much adoration for romcoms and explains to our MMC why these stories are important. Every reason she gave is one that fans of this genre have also given when asked, 'why do we bother with this garbage?'. WELP, one mans trash is another mans treasure and I'll garbage dive for the rest of my days if it means more books like this.

In typical Katherine Center fashion, she writes about heavy topics and makes them lighter somehow without negating their importance and impact. She expertly navigates tricky subjects and gives the MCs so much depth as individuals as we learn their back stories. I especially loved Emma's story and the intricate nature of her relationship with her family. I loved how it unfolded throughout the book and the way that Katherine Center revealed it slowly to us as readers. It made me enjoy reading about her past as much as I enjoyed reading about the present relationship with her and Charlie.

Now Charlie... he's the reason for the .5 star hit. TBH, he was kind of rude. He had a few moments where I thought to myself, "Surely we're going to meet another love interest because it CANNOT be this guy!?" I'm all for a grumpy MMC, but he had moments that were simply rude and he wasn't my favorite. BUT, he did have incredibly redeeming moments.

Overall, this book was fantastic! I received the audio as an ARC and I'll be re-reading the physical copy when published because of how special some of the writing was. I absolutely recommend this to romcom fans everywhere. Thank you for writing such a beautiful representation of this genre, Katherine!!

I like Katherine Center’s books. And I love her love for love stories. In her authors notes she talks about love stories letting us get to witness the best in people and I really appreciated the perspective. If you are someone who likes to read love stories, I think you will enjoy rom-commers. Emma is a a talented screen-writer but is unable to pursue any opportunities due to being a caretaker for her father. When she gets the chance to work with a screen-writer she admires everything falls into place for her to seize the opportunity she is given, but the two of them have different levels of enthusiasm and motivation for the project. This book gives forced-proximity and grumpy(ish)-sunshine. As I said, if you like romance (especially ones without a bunch of spiciness) you will probably like this book.

If you are someone who reads A LOT of romance, this is one that I think you’ll enjoy, but I don’t think it’s one you need to run to get your hands on ASAP. There isn’t anything here that is especially exciting or stand-out about this, and I personally didn’t love the main character and didn’t get a ton of chemistry between them.

This was a cute read. I don’t know how I feel about Emma, however. She could be a drama queen and sometimes a bit too verbose. Sometimes I found myself wondering in how many different ways she could say the same thing over and over again to drive her point home. It was annoying at times— I think her paraphrasing was meant to be comedic but it had the opposite effect on me.

Charlie, on the other hand, was likeable until he exaggerated things. The guinea pig OMG. That was meant to be funny but it was a bit overboard.

Sylvie, was too childish for my liking. Some of the stuff she did and said made me roll my eyes. Sometimes I felt like Emma used Sylvie and her dad as an excuse for her not working harder at becoming the screenwriter she’d dreamt of being. So her excuses and trying to put blame calling out all the sacrifices she made didn’t even make me feel sorry for her.

Charlie’s love confession almost made me cry. That was heartfelt. It’s the one thing that made this story worth reading.

3.5 ⭐️

I’m not much of a romcom reader, but I have heard good things about this author’s other books so I thought I would give this one a chance.

Overall I’m surprised by how much I liked this story, even with its cheesiness, it was cute and entertaining. I think what would have made it better is if I liked the main character more. I loved her backstory and how she was a caretaker for her father, but then she turned too much into the ‘quirky’ girl with the unruly hair and who didn’t event notice her flip flops were on the wrong feet.

The audiobook narrator did a great job. Very easy to listen to and she had the right voice for the part.

I would definitely give other books by this author a read, maybe I will become a romcom fan!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the copy of this ALC!

Emma Wheeler loves rom-coms and hopes to be a screenwriter one day. She finally gets a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with her idol, Charlie Yates - but she's hesitant to leave her sick father in the hands of her younger sister. She decides to take a chance and head to LA to see if she can get her big break.

In true Katherine Center spirit, THE ROM-COMMERS is a delightful, fun rom com read with lots of heart. Emma and Charlie are on two opposite ends of the spectrum, but it's so fun (and humerous) to see them come together. Per usual, I also loved all of the side characters and subplots and thought they added to the story so well. This is a fun read, and perfectly narrated by Patti Murin!

I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

I adore Katherine Center. My favorite thing about this book was Emma's inner monologue. She reads like she is talking to you, dishing like you are her best friend. Emma is a bit of a hot mess and I'm here for that. As always with Center's books, the writing is solid and moves quickly. It's not awkward or repetitive. My main problem is the plot seemed weak, but whatever, I suspend reality all the time while reading. I didn't love the main male character very much. Charlie Yates is kind of a jerk most of the time. Even with my complaints, the narrators were great and I really liked it.

Received an eArc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Emma is a screenwriter who has put her career on hold for years to take care of her father after a traumatic brain injury. However, when the chance to work with her screenwriting hero/crush Charlie comes up, her sister takes over her father’s care so Emma can go to LA and ghostwrite for Charlie’s rom-com screenplay. However it turns out Charlie does not want help fixing his screenplay, and in fact doesn’t want to be writing a rom-com at all. But it just may turn out that what they need is something only the other can give.

I listened to the audiobook for this book and greatly enjoyed it until the last 25%. Minor hints to final conflicts, so don’t read if you want to go in blind, but Charlie made some choices at the end that, though I can understand, I did not like and more specifically did not like how they moved forward past the choices he made. Also Emma crossed a line with her sister that she did not apologize for (while insisting her sister apologize to her for a similar transgression). Both of these events left a bad taste in my mouth, which was sad because I was greatly enjoying the story up until that point. However with the ending, this story comes down to a 3 star (honestly probably closer to a 2.5, but I’m hoping the bad taste in my mouth will reduce with a little distance). I look forward to reading future Katherine Center books and hope this one is just a blip in my enjoyment of her books.

Thank you NetGalley for this Arc. I love Katherine Center. That is to say I loved Hello Stranger and liked The Bodyguard. The Rom-Commers did not disappoint. Charlie and Emma were cute and fun. I loved the premise and am a "forced proximity" fan. Two screen writers coming together to write a rom com? Fun. I enjoyed Emma and her growth through the book. I always love a grouchy lead as well so Charlie was just my cup of tea. Highly recommended!

Katherine Center never disappoints!! Her newest novel, The Rom-Commers has just the right amount of sweet, sass and LOL moments. Emma has been hired to rewrite the rom com that THE Charlie Yates. Although she has to leave her father, whom she has been the caregiver for the past 10 years, to move to LA to tackle the assignment Emma rises to the challenge. There are many heavier themes in this book, but just like all of Center's novels, I left feeling so very happy! I would highly recommend this book! Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a digital review copy of this wonderful book in exchange for my honest opinions.

✨Review - The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

I really enjoyed Katherine Center’s ‘Hello Stranger’ last year, so I was pleased when I was approved for the audiobook of her soon-to-be-released ‘The Rom-Commers.’ A rom-com about the writing of a rom-com. How delightful, right?

Except it relied way too much on the miscommunication trope, both overt withholding of information and covert misunderstandings. Ugh!

I did manage to finish it, and it did have some good notes of grief and healing, but overall this wasn’t my favourite read.

⁉️What’s a trope or story element you really don’t care for?

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinpress for the complimentary advanced listening copy.

“And it’s the tragic Charlie Brown Christmas tree of movie kisses.” - Emma

This was my first audiobook (mama’s not a virgin anymore!) and I enjoyed the convenience of it. I loved @judgingbookscovers advice about finding a cast read (vs. single narrator) book, so I’m on the lookout for one.

But my favorite part of this book by far was Katherine Center reading her own author’s note at the conclusion. Her no holds barred, no apologies, no excuses love letter to romance books. It’s beautiful and funny and honestly, worth buying the book for. Kudos, Ms. Center. Brilliant.

Emma Wheeler has spent the last ten years taking care of her father after a tragic accident that, deep down, she feels was her fault. She’s given up all the trappings of youth: college, boyfriends, travel, and even a prestigious screenwriting opportunity. But to ask Emma, she’d do it all over again for her dad, her younger sister, Sylvie, and her mom.

Charlie Yates writes Movies with a capital M: aliens, battles, explosions, zombies — blockbuster movies with beloved catchphrases AND Oscar bait. But his latest attempt, a romcom, is terrible. A disaster. An unmitigated failure.

Enter Emma. She’s hired to ghostwrite this mess and turn it into something passable, despite Charlie admitting that he just doesn’t care.

But Emma has taken a leap — of faith, of hope, of desperation — and she will not go down without a fight. And that tenacity? Charlie just might not be immune to it.

As with all Katherine Center books, this one doesn’t disappoint. I loved the banter and laughed out loud so many times. I found the chemistry between Charlie and Emma palpable and honestly, I swooned a little bit at the ending, when Charlie takes the phone call during his speech and Emma is there to hear it. The supporting cast is used perfectly and the family dynamic is real.

Thanks to Netgalley and McMillan audio books for the audiobook ARC to listen to and review. Available June 11, 2024.

This was such a fun, quick read. Katherine Center has a way with words that captivates you and leaves you wanting more and more. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I cannot wait to read more by this author.

3.5 ⭐️

The Rom-Commers is another lovely novel by Katherine Center following Emma. She is a screenwriter who hasn't been able to break into the field due to being the full-time caretaker for her father and his life-long health issues to ensure she is there to support her family. When her agent offers her an opportunity to work with her all-time favorite writer, Charlie Yates, her resolve breaks down (after some coercing from her family). She leaves across the country while her little sister takes on the job of caring for her father. Things didn't go to plan when she gets to LA and realized that Charlie had no clue about this plan to work on fixing the (shitty) rom-com script together.

Let me be honest: Charlie is an ass in the beginning. I kind of hate how much of a pedestal Emma had him on during their first few interactions, however, the two of them grew on me as they started to open up. Emma purposely pushed Charlie's buttons more than once and I love that. His reactions made him more bearable to me, but I never fully connected with them.

If Emma said his whole name 1 more fuckin time I will riot. I cannot.

As much as I grew to like the two main characters, I did not really care about the story. It was fun and interesting in concept, but the side characters were beyond annoying and I didn't care for really any of them. The more I think about this, the more I dislike aspects of the story. (3rd act breakup for literally no reason?????) It was a good ride, but if I wasn't listening to the audiobook I think it would've probably been a very possible DNF. (2.25X audio speed baby!!)

💝 forced proximity
💝 grumpy x sunshine
💝 celebrity x fan
💝 fast-paced, fun audiobook
💝 love and loss

cw: cancer, grief, past death of a parent

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center.

𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙢-𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Y’all… Read. This. Book!

I just adore Katherine Center! She could literally write a book on astrophysics and I would drop everything I’m doing to read it.

I loooved her book 𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧. It was easily one of my top reads of 2023. Am I still raving about it? Yep! Annnd here Center goes, yet again, making her way to the top of my 2024 favorites.

How do you become a favorite book of mine? Easy. Give me topics and characters that evoke all the emotions. If you can make me shed a tear, or quite literally laugh out loud, well, that’s just an extra star! And 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙢-𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨 will give you alllll the feels!

Don’t even bother reading the blurb for this one… just grab a blanket, cup of warm (insert your beverage of choice) and cozy up with this read. You’re gonna love it! (If you enjoy audiobooks, Patti Murin did a fantastic job narrating! I highly recommend.)

One caveat: I’d suggest reading 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙙𝙮𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙 first. It’ll make the cameo appearance of a character from this novel just a little more fun!

Bravo Mrs. Center on another masterpiece!

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center follows the story of Emma and Charlie, two polar opposites whose lives intertwine. It was such a cute read, the romance aspect was there — the comedy aspect not as much. Which is what I think this novel was missing for me, as my expectations were “we’ll get some LOL, funny moments.” Overall I recommend this novel to all romance lovers, the story is unique, is a bit of a book within a book, and I loved the growth for Charlie and even Emma coming out of her shell, 3.5⭐️

Thank you to St. Martins Press for an advanced reader’s copy of this title via NetGalley.

Quick synopsis: Emma Wheeler has always dreamed of being a rom-com screenwriter, but her life circumstances have kept her from that dream. Charlie Yates, on the other hand, is one of Hollywood’s most prolific screenwriters - but his rom-com script is the actual worst. Emma gets called in to help him rewrite the script, and the result will make or break both of their careers.

Thoughts: If you want a book that will make you both laugh out loud and reach for a box of tissues, Katherine Center is your girl. I don’t want to go into too much detail about this book because I feel like there is a lot that is best to uncover while you’re reading. The premise is a fantastic rom-com set up, and the follow through honestly went so much deeper than I anticipated. Katherine deals with a lot of difficult and emotional themes, but as always she does so in such an honest and realistic way with glimmers of hope throughout. This book should be on everyone’s summer reading list. A note on the audio: I did a little of both formats for this one, and I definitely loved it either way! If you’re an audiobook person, you’ll love Patti Murin’s narration - highly recommend!

Read this if you like:
🎞️ rom-coms
🎞️ Hollywood
🎞️ family & found family
🎞️ grumpy/sunshine
🎞️ forced proximity

I’m a sucker for HEA’s and for rom-com’s so I knew I was going to love this book before I even started it. I received an ARC of both the ebook and audio so I listened & followed along. I finished both in a day because I just couldn’t put it down and thankfully I didn’t have to work early the next day.

This book is exactly what you’re expecting from the description. There’s no really huge twists or hidden Easter eggs. Which I appreciate, but also I do love a good twist. There was humor, memorable characters, and a sweet & charming romance with a solid layer of depth. This story is also about two people getting to a level self-discovery & realizing that they can “live their lives” & be happy. The author had me laughing, crying, and swearing at the characters (mainly Charlie Yate’s because, c’mon man..did you really have to be such a jerk?). There’s no spicy/steamy scenes in this, but to be honest I didn’t really miss them. I appreciated the flow of the story & the dual POV’s. As for the audiobook on its own, I enjoyed narration. Overall a solid 4 star read/listen that I will definitely be recommending to others.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, MacMillan Audio, and Katherine Center for the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.