Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ALC of "The Rom-Commers" by Katherine Center.. I really liked this story, but didn't love it as much as Hello, Stranger. The storyline is a good one, but the ways Charlie talks about and to Emma were off=putting for me. It was clear he liked her but he kept treating her less-than-ideal....and she stayed. I know the money is important, but after he lit into her for the day of "the phone call" and then she goes all out with the outfit and the dinner, and then is surprised he doesn't show up -ugh! I expected more from our heroine than to stay where she was treated like that.

Oh, and there were a few straight-up "Pretty Woman" scene/interactions. 1. When Charlie doesn't know what to get her for breakfast so he ordered everything, and then she took a crossiant....exact same. Also, their contractual price negotiationm was a clear duplicate of the scene form the movie. Most people might not notice that, but it stuck out to me.

I really couldn't get into their relationship because it really wasn't one, other than the business of the writing, until the very end.

The narrator was great. It was a good story, just not great.

Emma put her own life on hold to take care of her father. But when the opportunity comes up to go to LA to help her favorite screenwriter with a new project, she can’t help but take a chance. Charlie has been one of the most successful screenwriters, but writing this rom-com is just not in his wheelhouse. After reluctantly accepting Emma’s help, the two of them fall into a routine of writing, researching scenes by experiencing them, and surprisingly enjoying each other’s company.

Katherine Center is quickly becoming a must-read for me. After The Bodyguard and Hello Stranger, I was excited to pick this one up. I mean…it’s a rom-com ABOUT A ROM-COM. What’s not to like? The audiobook in particular had me laughing out loud, and then crying, and back to laughing again. Emma and Charlie are hilarious and charming, and I could listen to narration of their “research” dates over and over…the line dancing in particular!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this book!

This is the first book I've read by Katherine Center, and I really enjoyed it. Emma and Charlie are loveable characters who are delightfully human (in spite of Charlie's fame). I appreciated how, in addition to romance, the book dealt with anxiety, grief and fears of the main characters. I love the setting of L.A. and incorporating some famous people as well as the film industry. The other characters such as Charlie's agent and Emma's family are loveable and well-developed. I particularly enjoyed the role of the guinea pig. The Rom-Commers has a nice dose of humor as well as hope. Love the narration by Patti Murin. Looking forward to reading more by Center. Read thanks to an eARC from NetGalley.

Katherine Center always delivers such great reads and she didn’t stop with The Rom-Commers. I loved the banter between Emma and Charlie. It took me a little while to get over all the “Charlie Yates” but it did paint the picture of how important he was to her.

Emma Wheeler has the chance to go write a screenplay with her favorite writer. As Charlie Yates says “ he doesn’t need some washed up writer.” Charlie is trying to write his first RomCom and it is horrible! Emma leaves her caretaking duties to stay with Charlie for six weeks to write a Romcom with someone that does not believe in love.
I really enjoyed the narrator. She really brought the story come to life.

The story was super cute. Katherine Center always writes sweet romances that aren’t spicy.

Thanks to Macmillan audio and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The ROM-Commers by Katherine Center was a very cute novel. I read this book in less than two days and listened to it just as quickly.

Emma travels to Los Angeles to help a famous screen writer. Charlie, famous for his mafia movies, is trying his hand at romcoms. His current rough draft is abysmal. His only chance for redemption is Emma. However, Charlie is not looking forward to this romcom adventure, and he plans to exert minimal effort on the rewrite.

I enjoyed reading about their relationship as it unfolded. Both characters have complex issues from their past.

I really enjoyed when the characters cooked together and sat at the large writing table collaborating together. I found some of the dialog frustrating (Charlie acting like he’s not in love with Emma when clearly he is), albeit predictable.

this was a fun, quick read. I look forward to listening to the narrated version when it becomes available. The narrated version includes one of my favorite narrators, Therese Plummer….. actually, it was Patti Muran, who is also enjoy. Not sure where I got info regarding Therese Plummer.

3.75 🌟 for the book
4.50 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for audio because narration is AWESOME.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the advanced audio copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook so much! The narrator did a great job. Katherine Center's books always make me FEEL so many emotions. I love the development of her characters, the rawness of their feelings, the tough situations. Life happens in Katherine's books, and it can be messy but she makes it relatable. Emma's love for her family and relationship with her father touched a soft spot in my heart. This audiobook made me chuckle one moment and well up with tears the next. This was a feel good romance that I couldn't put down. Katherine Center has become one of my favorite authors and it was such a pleasure listening to this audiobook. Thank you so much to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Katherine Center for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐦-𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬
𝐁𝐲 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐒𝐭. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧’𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟔.𝟏𝟏.𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑜𝑜𝑛!


Thank you @Macmillan.audio for the gifted audiobook.

Thank you @stmartinspress for a gifted digital arc.


I think Katherine Center has cornered the market on “feel-good romcoms,” or at least, that’s what I’m going with. Her books are always full of bright, bold emotions and characters you’d probably want to be friends with in real life.

What’s the saying? Don’t meet your heroes? Well, Emma Wheeler, a screenwriter, finally has the opportunity to meet and work with the award-winning screenwriter Charlie Yates.

Emma must re-arrange her personal life, what little she has. Besides writing, she’s been the sole caretaker to her ill father, and now she needs her sister to step up - just for six weeks while she is in LA with Charlie.

The story takes some funny turns as Emma and Charlie start working on a romantic comedy together. Charlie is a grumpy love skeptic. But Emma and Charlie have hurts, resentments, and fears that they harbor.

As sweet and humorous as this story of two writers trying to find their way is, it also has some heavy emotions. I wasn’t prepared for some of the intense family scenes, but it added so much depth to the story. And Charlie, oh Charlie, he really blossomed through all of this.

𝐹𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑦, 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

Thank you Macmillion Audio for my copy! All thoughts are my own,

No one is more surprised than me that I loved this book. I really thought this author and I had parted ways after The Bodyguard, but I am back full force and obsessed. This is the kind of book you can read in a day because it’s so easy to fall into step with these characters. I loved getting a peek inside the reality of writing of Hollywood, esepcially as a woman, but also how to find yourself again after years of neglect. Emma spent more of her young adulthood caring for her father and feels like she’s missed her opportunities to further her career. On the flip side, Charlie’s career is the only thing that’s thriving and I sadly think a lot of people will feel seen by his story.

Synopsis:

What I Liked:

The Set Up—I love books about writers, from novels to TV and film. I thought this was a really fun set up because it allowed for a great use of the forced proximity/enemies to lovers/don’t meet your heroes tropes while still being swoony, fun, and a bit different.

The Banter—SO good. I didn’t love this author’s last book so I didn’t have high expectations, but I loved this one. The audio is exceptional for the banter.

The Emotional Development—Each of the main characters had a lot they needed to overcome in order to find a happily ever after. I loved their development together and separately.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

Rushed Ending—I just wanted a bit more, especially due to the news Charlie receives. But I loved getting the bonus POV from Charlie!

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Spice Rating: 0/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

Content Warnings:

cancer, divorce, brain injury, loss of a parent, ill parent

The Rom-Commers is definitely nothing like I have read before and I loved it. I enjoyed getting to see the other side of writing with this book. The Rom-Commers was written by Katherine Center and this was my first book that I have read from her. I started off reading the ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an honest review, but then forgot that I also requested the ALC from MacMillan Audio, so after I was about halfway through, I went back and listened to the story as well. I enjoyed both versions the same, but Patti Murin did a great job bringing this story alive.

In this book you will find a Grump MMC who is a sci-fi screen writer tasked to write a rom-com. Which he has never done before, and he is also in a writing slump. His Agent takes it upon himself to hire an unknown ghost writer to help him write. Enter the sunniest of all sunshines FMC, who puts everyone else before herself.

This was such a sweet story that I will forever recommend to any romance reader.

Tropes:
Grumpy x sunshine
Rich MMC
Forced Proximity
Anxiety Rep

Katherine Center, you've done it again! I have adored Katherine Center for awhile now, the banter is always on point, the romance adorable. This one worked on so many levels for me. It was dark and deep in parts, it was wholesome and wonderful, it was snarky and swoon-worthy. Plus, lets not even get me started on the level of googling and humor it entailed- I won't spoil any amazing jokes for you! This is how you do a modern romcom. So glad to have gotten a copy of this early from NetGalley, the audio narration was phenomenal!

Such a fun audiobook! The Rom-Commers is the story of Emma and Charlie (and their separate underlying traumas causing each to wrap themselves up in their private little cocoons) and how they open up while rewriting a terrible rom-com script. I really enjoyed the way Center wrote Emma and had her on occasion speak directly to the reader and the narrator was phenomenal. My only quibble was how fast it seemed that the two fell in love as the 6 weeks of writing wasn't clearly differentiated and it felt like days in the front end seemingly to make room for what's coming at the back end. I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and will recommend it, though with some sensitivity considering the amount of trauma and medical complications throughout. This is not a super light book. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the early listen in exchange for my honest opinion.

So so so so cute! I really enjoyed this story! It had its heartbreaking moments but ultimately gave us the HEA we were hoping for.

I really loved the characters! Logan was the supportive scheming best friend we all need. Emma was sweet and hopeful but also down to Earth. She KNOWS the world is not full of sunshine and rainbows but chooses (most of the time) to not let it get her down. I may have said "you idiot" to Charlie a few times, but the poor guy just couldn't get out of his own way. And I loved to hate TJ with his awful nickname, dude bro attitude and sadly miscalculated confidence.

Fun story, fun characters, great banter - rom-com gold!

WOW
ok new favorite Katherine Center book of her latest releases!
I have gone into each of these last 3 books totally unaware/without having read the blurb and have loved each one more than the last.
I struggled to pause my audiobook for the night so I could get some sleep - totally would have blown through it in one sitting if I had started it earlier in the day! I was hooked right away and couldn't stop rooting for Emma and Charlie. I did get nervous we wouldn't get a traditional HEA this time and was SOBBING at the end. The way Center tied up loose ends and switched directions was so funny and cute that I was able to let out the breath I had been holding and laugh at myself for thinking it was heading south. Definitely adding to my "10/10 recommend" list!

Fantastic audiobook production. Emma is an aspiring screen writer that has chosen to stay behind and care for her father for 10 years after an accident. Her friend/ex gets her the “gig of a lifetime” to help famous (and her complete idol) Charlie Yates, write his first ever Rom-Com. Problem is… he doesn’t believe in love or understand the genre at all.

This is more than just her chance to become a screen writer, it’s her chance to do something for herself, to teach her idol how to expand his genre, and change both of their lives forever.

I was hooked from the beginning with this novel. I love Katherine’s writing style and the way she always eases into difficult topics and handles grief so well. **The bonus chapter is EPIC

How ingenious for a romantic-comedy writer to write a novel about a writer who writes Rom-Coms!! As with all Katherine Center's novels, you know you will get a happy ending, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. The Rom-Commers is exactly what we expect, and look forward to, from Katherine Center...lots of fun, witty banter between the protagonists and topics from which we learn something new. With each novel, I wonder how the next could possibly be better, and each time, Katherine Center pulls it off. READ the BOOK!!!

This was my 2nd novel by Katherine Center and it didn’t disappoint! After reading Hello Stranger and absolutely loving it, I knew I had to get my hands on Center’s newest romance.

The Rom-Commers focuses on Emma Wheeler, a screen writer who hasn’t had her big breakthrough moment quite yet. She’s had to put her career on hold to be the primary caretaker for her handicapped father. Emma’s agent is her good friend and ex-boyfriend from high school, and has made her an offer she literally cannot refuse- to be a co-writer with famous screenwriter Charlie Yates. Emma is obsessed with Charlie and has been for years- this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! The catch? She has to go to Charlie in LA for 6 weeks. Can Emma trust her younger sister to watch over her father while she’s gone?

Emma takes the chance and shows up with her agent on Charlie’s doorstep. Well, guess what? Charlie didn’t know she was coming. Oops! Her agent thought that springing this on him would make him more willing to take her in. Charlie has wrote a rom-com which is absolutely terrible and needs an expert to help him fix it, Emma. He does eventually agree to accept Emma’s help and as all rom-coms go, there is a 2nd act breakup but of course we get a HEA.

I listened to this one on audio and absolutely devoured it in less than 36 hours! I didn’t want to put it down and listened to it every chance I got! I loved Emma’s quirkiness, her ability to take risks, her sense of self. I loved Charlie’s obliviousness, his relationship with Tugbert the Guinea pig, and his eventual relationship with Emma. Charlie was a tough cookie to crack, but he eventually came around. 5 stars for the Rom-Commers!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

Audio narration was great for this! Love KC’s books - there are some common elements across all of her books, but she writes them so well! This was no exception. I adored Emma and Charlie and Emma’s family as well. I’ve been reading a lot of books with actors and screenwriters recently, but this was a fun and different look into that life. KC always does such a great job with banter and building believable relationships. She can write about tough topics in such a beautiful way as well.

I really wanted to like this one. The dialogue between Charlie & Emma was too much and made me like them less. I didn’t think either of them were intelligent or desirable. It’s a great premise for a story, but it felt like a YA romance, with a couple kisses and a lot of dramatic assumptions. It had some weird, unnecessary moments like the car over the cliff embankment and the drunk diving board incident with the peculiar & gangly blind wet undressing experience. If it had been re-worked into a more enjoyable and cohesive manuscript, this could have been great.

‘The Rom-Commers’ premise is a fun concept by Katherine Center. Emma is a generous, likable, and not always predictable protagonist. She is given a once in a lifetime Hollywood opportunity and takes leave from being the full-time caretaker of her father. Upon arriving in LA, the promised screenplay and script author don’t measure up to Emma’s dreams. Our plucky lead puts her head down and plows forward - right into love. Or unrequited love. Or is it actually mutual?
(I listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed the character voicing the narrator used!)

Unfortunately, the first half of this book was pretty slow going. I did not feel motivation to continue reading day after day. A character primed to be the antagonist just fades away, as though forgotten about. A lot is made of Emma being ill suited for working with legend Charlie Yates, but again, never seems to come to resolution and seems forgotten. In general, lots of slow moving details and backstory that don’t seem to give forward motion to the plot.

The second half of the book was much more what I’ve come to love and expect from Katherine Center. Fast-paced, lively banter, twists and surprises, and a bevy of beautiful and thought-provoking one-liners. Really, we could all stand to read more of Center’s advice. My favorite in this book -
“If you wait for other people to light you up, then I guess you’re at the mercy of darkness.”

Rating: ★★★★½ rounded up

"The Rom-Commers" by Katherine Center is a charming romantic comedy that will leave readers with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Center's writing style, combined with the flawless narration by Patti Murin in the audiobook version, creates a perfect blend of humor, romance, and entertainment.

As a fan of Katherine Center's previous works, I was excited to dive into this book, and it did not disappoint. Center has a knack for crafting light and enjoyable romantic comedies that are easy to read and hard to put down. "The Rom-Commers" is no exception.

One of the standout features of Center's books is the appealing covers, and "The Rom-Commers" is no different. The cover art draws you in and perfectly captures the essence of the story within.

Center's characters are always a highlight, and "The Rom-Commers" is no exception. Emma, the protagonist, is a lovable and relatable character, while Charlie adds a touch of quirkiness to the story. At times, I found myself wishing Emma had someone better suited for her, but Charlie's redemption towards the end of the book made up for it.

The pacing of the story is well-balanced, keeping the reader engaged from start to finish. Center's witty dialogue and humorous situations add to the overall enjoyment of the book. It's the kind of story that will make you laugh out loud and swoon with delight.

Overall, "The Rom-Commers" is a delightful read that will appeal to both romance enthusiasts and those who are not typically drawn to the genre. Katherine Center's writing style, combined with Patti Murin's exceptional narration, creates a truly enjoyable experience. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, fun, and heartwarming romantic comedy.

Thank you to Macmillan audio and NetGalley for my advanced listening copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review!