The Rom-Commers
Katherine Center
336 pages/11 hours 21 minutes
St. Martins Press/Macmillan Audio
published June 18, 2024
I have to thank Bookstagram and NetGalley for helping me discover Katherine Center. Her early books’ covers didn’t grab my attention and What You Wish for was my first read of hers. I like how she meshes together life and romance. All with a little humor.
Now fast forward to this book which would have grabbed my attention. I love color and this screams color. Of course the book is good too. And if you read and loved The Bodyguard there is a nice easter egg in this one for you. It really made me smile.
I’ll admit it took me a little while to connect with Emma and Charlie. She was a little too woe is me and he was a little too all over the place, but eventually they clicked with me and I found I really liked and rooted for them. And I just didn’t think they had as much chemistry as other of her characters and other romcoms I have recently read. Now my thoughts could be me and a situation was a little too close to home for me, but I don’t know. (Check trigger warnings if life circumstances trigger you.)
But putting that aside, this one does represent what the author does best. Each character has emotional situations that pulled at my heart but didn’t overshadow this is a romance (that author’s note makes sure you know that is her intention). The characters are charming and have tons of witty quips and some whip smart banter. I like watching them grow together as they discover what they can be. And the romance never gets too sweet. it always remembers it is a romcom.
While this one wasn’t my favorite of hers (read The Bodyguard if you haven’t. It is my favorite. I gave it six out of five stars.), I did enjoy it and will definitely grab her next book the minute I can.
Patti Murin narrates this one and she does an excellent job bringing Emma’s insecurities and Charlie’s eccentricities to life. She captured the ups and downs and all the emotions perfectly.
And if you were trying to decide between audio and eyeball reading, the audiobook has a few bonuses: an author’s note and a bonus scene. Could you live without them? Yes, but they were fun to hear.
About the book
She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?
Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! 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.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.
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―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?
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