It is really rare that a romance surprises me with a 5 star rating. I thought The Roommate would be your typical enemies to lovers trope and boy was I wrong! The story line was fresh and exciting and the language was far from cringe. Aside from the romance aspect the commentary on the adult entertainment industry was so intriguing. You can tell Rosie Danan did her research and cares about the people often overlooked in that industry.
What I enjoyed most was how the story took the tired concepts of the boy next door, the uptight prude, and the ex-girlfriend and completely changed how we usually view them in a romance novel. I can't wait to read the spin-off featuring my favorite side-character Naomi!

I loved this funny, adorable, and super steamy romance! Clara is a socialite from a proper, well-to-do family who gets stuck with a stranger as a roommate after her childhood crush leaves her high and dry. Josh is a porn star who knows he shouldn't fall for a girl like Clara. Their romance was compelling and full of chemistry. This is definitely a steamy book with the right amount of sex scenes!

I loved that The Roommate touches on the stigma around pornography as well as some of the issues within the industry. Josh fights back against unfair treatment and unsafe conditions in the porn world, and a chunk of the novel centers around Clara and Josh working together to create a healthy, sex-positive resource called 'Shameless' that is described as porn meets sex ed. So much of the book is centered around keeping sex workers safe and prioritizing women's bodies--I'm so here for this!

The only reason this isn't a five star read is the lack of diversity. The two main characters are cis, straight, and white, with most of the supporting characters also of the same identities. There is a side character who is bisexual, and during a casting scene, there is a brief mention of "people of all body types," but there were otherwise no mentions of BIPOC, queer & trans, or disabled folks. I would have really loved to see intersectionality touched upon with 'Shameless.' I still loved this book, but when recommending it to readers at my library, I'll be combining it authors like Talia Hibbert or Alisha Rai. I'll definitely read this author's next novel and hope that it is more intersectionally diverse.

I need a cold shower...a VERY cold shower to get my head on straight after reading The Roommate!!

An unlikely lease on love, yup that’s for dam sure. This is a story about two total strangers who end up having to live together. Total opposites now forced to live under the same roof and slowly leave their comfort zones. Right there I was pretty intrigued but based off of that description I wasn’t expecting the main character Josh to be a porn star! After that I was totally hooked, I almost fell off the couch I was so excited. The story took such a fun and unique turn and was something I’ve never read before but am so glad it exists!

My favorite take away from this book was the theme of breaking people’s expectations and doing what makes YOU happy even if it means risking everything and doing something that scares you. So many of us build our lives around other people’s expectations (or lake of them), but expectations are an illusion. By trying to please everyone, we end up pleasing no one — ourselves included. That’s why most people don’t live the life they want. Everyone feels frustrated and disappointed and that’s what are our main characters struggle with throughout the book. I absolutely love the line, “more often than not, the scary things, the ones you spend the most time and energy talking yourself out of, are the ones that make life worth living.”

Bravo Rosie Danan on your brilliant debut I am seriously OBSESSED with it! It’s sexy, funny, smart, all in a totally feminist way. Its become an instant favorite of mine. I can’t stop talking about this book!! Pre-order The Roommate NOW because it’s officially available on 9/15/20.

THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR THE ARC!

I love the premise of this book. I really love Josh and Naomi. I can't stand Clara. The book was great.

I will be interviewing Rosie for the What to Read Next Podcast. Her episode will go live on publication week.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC of The Roommate by Rosie Danan.

Publishing Date: September 15, 2020.

OH. MY. GOD. This book was amazing, truly like nothing I have read before. The Roommate was a forced roommate romance. A major porn star meets your uptight socialite. The tension in this book could kill someone.
This book is all about female orgasms and sexual pleasure, but it includes a lot of sex descriptions that might make some people uncomfortable.
The two main characters are absolutely hilarious right from the start with the flirty banter and EXTREME tension. I mean sometimes it made me legit want to scream at them.
I thought Naomi, the ex-girlfriend, was going to be problematic but turns out she’s her own badass bitch, and now Rosies writing a second book about her called The Intimacy Project.

A fun, cute, and sex-positive romance! I've read other books with sex worker characters before but they're usually of the dark and super angsty variety. The Roommate, refreshingly, was not that. Josh loves and is good at his job, but recognizes that there are some serious problems in the porn industry so he uses his privilege to do something about it. Clara has some hangups and prejudices about sex and sex workers, but opens her mind and also uses her privilege to make a difference and learns how to love and respect herself along the way. A really great summer read!

I've been wanting to get my hands on this book ever since I learned of its existence. And when I did snag an advanced copy? I devoured it.

All this time there was a raunch-com hole in my heart and I didn't even know it until now.

This book is EVERYTHING. It's sexy, funny, sweet...and I couldn't put it down. I love Josh and Clara forever. I need Rosie Danan's next book immediately, please.

4.5 ⭐️

Thank you to Berkeley Romance via NetGalley for proving me an arc of The Roommate to review!

The gorgeous bubblegum pink cover drew me in but the rich narration, amazing characters and fantastic concept is what kept me reading. This book is perfect in so many ways, and is a huge must for any romance lover (and let’s be real, romance novice too).

I was shocked when I found out this was a debut novel, mainly because the concept is so unique and uncommon for a romance story, but completely refreshing and original. It felt as though this was a book written by a long time author. The dialogue between characters was smart and sexy, and the dual POV was executed flawlessly.

This book follows Clara, a sheltered socialite and Josh, a renowned performer in the adult entertainment industry. They are forced together as roommates when Clara’s longtime friend (and crush) Everett ditches her to tour with his band. The forced proximity makes for Clara and Josh to spend a lot of time together, and the two of the navigate the waters of being roommates.

I love how sex-positive this book was, and how the author respectfully acknowledges sex workers and their jobs. It was also very steamy without taking away from the actual plot.

In my opinion, this book is completely deserving of all the praise it’s received so far. This is a knock out debut novel, and I can’t WAIT for the sequel that’ll be coming next year!

The Roommate by Rosie Danan was super sweet a lot of fun.

We have the shy, academic, socialite woman, Clara, who has never stepped a toe out of line in her life. In a turn of events that she wasn't expecting, Clara ends up being roommates with a really sexy.... porn-star! We get to watch these two strangers learn about each other and about themselves, as well.

A sweet, cute, light-hearted romp of a romance.

I really enjoyed this book! I found the relationship development between Josh and Clara to be done so well. I loved that they didn't immediately fall in love with one another but instead became friends before entering into a relationship. The banter between the characters was also my FAVORITE thing ever. I found the relationship to be so natural and realistic. The steamy scenes were also done very well. The only gripe that I have with this book was how quick the conflict was resolved, I felt as though it should not have happened at all or taken longer to resolve.

T his book induced insomnia I haven’t felt since the summer The Deathly Hallows dropped. I’d wake up and crave it. Toss and turn in my sleep anticipating reading it. Have you ever had it bad for a book?!

I have never read a character quite like Josh Darling. He’s wholesome without being cheesy and horny without being gross. His charm radiates off the page almost immediately. He’s so casually respectful and self-correcting that it’s just in his nature. There is something so indescribably ... sexy about how Josh Darling approaches consent and respects boundaries. With everyone, not just with Clara.

Scenes I would think I’d cringe at actually had me fanning myself. I’d catch myself sweating and think “yeah, this is it”. I’ve read MUCH raunchier material, this book is not necessarily tame though, but so much of this book made even me blush.

I’ve never read a romance novel that presents sex work/ers with such care and respect. Even some of the kinkiest romance novels demonize sex work and villainize sex workers. The Roommate is so much the opposite in the sweetest way. I really loved it

Reviewed for Shelf Awareness. This review will be published around release date.
***

The Roommate, Rosie Danan's debut romance is sexy, funny and absolutely charming. When Clara leaves her wealthy Connecticut family behind to move in with her childhood crush in California, she's shocked to find that he's taken off on tour with his band and in his place is Josh, a complete stranger who turns out to be a performer in the adult entertainment industry. As outgoing as Clara is reserved, Josh is easy to like and to live with. If only they could shake this pesky chemistry between them.
Danan treats her subject matter with a great deal of respect. The Roommate is feminist and sex-positive and Danan makes sure to center both the good and the bad within the adult entertainment industry. When Josh is threatened by the unethical production company holding his contract, he and Clara, along with Josh's performer ex, develop a project aimed at educating viewers on female pleasure. Moreover, while the book is high on steam and humor, it's not sexy because of the fact that the male lead is a sex-worker. While both characters are initially attracted to each other, their physical relationship builds in time with their emotional connection. Both have their own hang-ups to work through and their self-conscious pining is a nearly palpable thing.
Incredibly sweet and romantic, The Roommate serves up a passionate but buoyant love story between two slightly lost people who figure out they have more to offer the world than they ever thought.
***
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.

This book was not what I expected, and I loved it! It feels strange to say that a book with a sub plot about positively portraying the adult film industry was quite refreshing. But it was, and for me this added plot line was completely unexpected and very well navigated (if a little too conveniently resolved in the end, but still, I'll forgive that because this isn't a legal drama).

Josh and Clara had amazing tension from the get go, and Danan did a wonderful job of building realistic tension while actually allowing the characters to be friends first, before ultimately declaring their love. Nothing felt too rushed, the characters were flawed, Clara and Josh's ex Naomi weren't enemies (finally, women can be friends!), and I'm so beyond happy that Danan wrote a male protagonist who cries to his mother when his heart gets broken- because that's exactly what would happen.

The only point in which the book fell a tiny bit short was the ending - I wish it hadn't wrapped up so fast and that we got to hear about Clara's family's reactions to Josh and Clara's business. And what happened to Everett? Did he ever return from his tour? Do Josh and Clara still live in his house? These questions aside however, this book was a delightful addition to the rom-com genre.

* ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A woman who's never felt desirable moves in with "the hottest man in the world" who finds her irresistible and centers his world around her. It's a powerful fantasy and one readers will flock to. Add in the sex positivity and a few subplots about empowerment through a new business venture, a successful lawsuit, a fear overcome, and a family estrangement that gets tied up, and it has all the makings of an insanely popular read. While my personal tastes run more toward a focus on an emotional connection between characters, this one is already finding its readers and will no doubt continue to do so. I always appreciate books that celebrate female sexuality rather than burying it or treating it as a problem, and this book celebrates in spades.

Clara is uptight and inflexible because she’s the only person in her family who hasn’t inspired scandal in the WASP-y community she grew up in. But she decides to take a risk and move across the country to pursue the man she always thought she’d end up with but who has never made a move. Once she gets there, she finds out that she’s still unwanted and ends up living with a stranger instead of the guy she thought cared about her.

This story isn’t overly complicated or dark, and there’s little mystery in how the story will evolve, but the characters were awesome. Clara and Josh are polar opposites, but they get along and rely on each other in ways that seem to be foreign to both of them. The plotting was perfectly paced and I totally loved watching Clara grow throughout the story. This is a sweet and uncomplicated story about a woman who grows and changes and a man who figures out what he wants in life while also learning how to demand what he’s worth.

3.5/ 5 stars

The Roommate is a sexy contemporary romance. Even though the cover is cutesy this book is super sexy. And the topics in this book were much more adult than I was expecting.

The narrators are Clara and Josh (3rd person POVs).

Clara moves to Los Angeles to stay with her friend Everett. But things do not go as expected. Clara is a pampered socialite who has her doctorate in art history. She is very prim and proper.

There were definitely parts of this story that I was extremely fascinated by. Everything to do with her Aunt Jill and the job that Jill was working on were very interesting to me. Also the stuff with Black Hat held my interest.

I didn't read the book blurb before starting this book. But I did read it afterwards. And to me I feel like it did not accurately portray the type of book that The Roommate is. There are a lot of romance readers who like racy topics and very sexy books. But I would prefer to know that is what the book is in advance.

Overall, I enjoyed the book while reading it. It was a quick read. But it was not really what I was expecting.

The premise and the first half of the book were really great, but my enjoyment dwindled as the book went on because the plot got a little convoluted. Nonetheless, it had great characters with AMAZING chemistry & tension, and also some really important topics dealing with sex work and sex positivity.

Cara comes from the upper class Connecticut elite. When she moves across the country to follow her long time love, she is shocked when she arrives and he immediately leaves her at his house with a random roommate he found off craigslist. Then she finds out Josh is not just her roommate, but a porn star. This is NOT what Cara signed up for…but could it turn out to be for the best?

So it’s no secret that I can be a prude. My mom calls me a nun! While I am not a nun, I am also very much like Cara in the beginning of this book! I have never been super comfortable talking about all that jazz. So needless to say, this book was a bit too much for me. I love a good sex scene in a book, but this one was just a little too off for my taste. Maybe it was a little bit to textbook about it? I guess I expected it to be a bit on the funnier/sexy side. I felt like Cara’s character didn’t live up to everything should could have been. Overall, I still enjoyed this one, just not as much as I expected to.

𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩. 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙃𝙊𝙏 🔥🔥⁣
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Anyways, I love a good roommate trope and this one was executed with perfection.⁣
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When you throw Clara an east cost socialite and super hot porn star Josh into one house for the summer you already know what’s going to happen. Predictable? Yes. Did this make me love it any less? Nope. ⁣
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Throughout the book I fell inlove with both of them and the connection that blossomed. I loved how Josh helped Clara grow from this timid girl into a full blown badass. And how Clara made Josh believe in himself.⁣
The ending was easily my favorite part. What can I say I’m a sucker for HEA 🙃💘⁣
I also loved how Rosie brought attention to the not so pretty parts of the porn industry.⁣
I can’t wait to read more from her 🥰.⁣
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I don’t know what else to say besides pick this up when it’s released on (9-15-2020) 💕⁣
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Thank you @NetGalley and @berkleyromance for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.⁣
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My preference is for romances that lean a little more into the story rather than the sex, and I did sort of feel that some of the plot elements were a bit perfunctory (the DA election storyline seemed especially forced in) and the world seemed to sort of stop where the characters did: the two leads have families, for example, but they don't feel overly real, more like ideas with some effect on the plot. Still, it's a fun little read, especially in the scenes of friendship/falling in love. And I have a patron who, during my first week of work, called up and said, "Honey, I was married to an Italian stallion for 35 years. I need you to recommend some of your raunchiest, filthiest books for me." I'll mention this one to her when we have it in.