This romance was enjoyable enough, but I just think the pacing was so off. The first 80-ish percent of the book is buildup which is a little too late in the game for me. And yet they still squeeze in a super unnecessary third act breakup that feels sort of cheap. I also, admittedly, am not a huge fan of second-chance romances (which this one is...in a way) so that didn't help my enjoyment. Overall, the pitch is cute, but the execution was not my favorite. I'm not sure if I will continue following this author duo after my disappointment with their last couple books.

At first glance THE ROUGHEST DRAFT appears to be a fun, light romance but alas it's not - it's much deeper than that. There's a lot of depth to this book - yes, it's still a romance but there's a lot to unpack. The book deals with a multitude of topics - from dealing with the fame and pressures of being a best-selling author (and the fallout) - to infidelity and cheating.

Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen were young literacy darlings that co-authored a best-selling romance book several years ago. Despite all their success, they ended up parting ways for reasons undivulged to the public. The reasons were bad enough that they hadn't spoken in three years and Katrina quit writing completely. Fast forward three years, Katrina's ambitious book agent fiancé pressures her to write again and reminds her that she and Nathan are still under contract to write one more book. Katrina, wanting to please her fiancé and to save their relationship, reluctantly agrees. Nathan, agrees after the lackluster sales of his most recent book. They end up flying down to Key Largo and stay at the same beach cottage where they wrote their first book. Being there conjures up old feelings and unresolved issues.

Written in two different POVs and two different timelines (five years ago while writing the first book and present day), the story of why they stopped talking and why Katrina stopped writing unravels chapter by chapter until it intersects with present day. This enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity and second chance romance gave me major Beach Read vibes - minus the fun and the steamy bits. THE ROUGHEST DRAFT is much more serious and emotional. I felt that the book was kind of flat and dragged a bit in the middle. I found Katrina to be unlikable even though I did sympathize with her. I found her frustrating much of the time and Nathan was frustrating at times, too.

The book was really well-written and I thought the plot was interesting. I love that the book touched upon mental health and I loved learning about the writing / co-authoring process. One thing I need to mention is the topic of cheating / infidelity - some people think that emotional cheating is not cheating, but I'm here to tell you that, yes, emotional cheating is still cheating. Period. While this topic is not a deal-breaker for me, I know it can be triggering for some.

Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4).

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley Pub for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a well written romance. I haven't read anything by this author duo yet but I have heard great things so I went in with pretty high expectations and I was not let down.

I have always loved a good slow burn and the way they mingled the tension into the story was great. Being an avid reader/writer made the setting of this book both personable and fun. The characters were believable and I found myself really caring about their success.

If you are looking for an emotional romance with a hint of humor I would highly recommend this.

Initially, I adored this story. I was obsessed with the writing style of both of the authors but I was so enamored with the prose that it took me a lot longer to realize that the plot was full of holes. The characters felt incomplete as well with the plot focusing more on the characters mutual drama than who they were as individuals. The big conflict that the majority of the book eludes to was obvious and I only finished in hopes that there was a surprise twist. There wasn't.

The Roughest Draft is a second chance romance with loveable but flawed characters. Katrina and Nathan are coauthors who had a huge falling out and now must write one more book together. Forced to live together to get the novel done these two must put aside their hatred to work together. But soon they find that maybe hate and love aren't so far apart as they thought. You'll laugh, you'll scream at the characters but mostly you'll root for them to find each other.

I don't give out 2 stars typically, but this book just rubbed me the wrong way. First, the cover is misleading. It looks like it's going to be some cute, fun beach read (probably trying to bank off of Beach Read) but it is anything but. Second, I absolutely ended up despising these characters. Katrina is so overly weak and pathetic. But there's little to no back story to her to explain why she's this way. The fact that it seems she just fell into a relationship with Chris, who then never treats her right and then tells her it would be ok if she cheated on him in order to finish another book to, in turn, make him money to pay his debts, was just gross and an obvious point where she should have just walked away. Nathan came across as stuck up and full of himself. Also, how many times doe we need to read that he rented a Porsche to drive around small-town Florida?
The ultimate negative sticking point for me in this book is that it basically makes emotional cheating an ok thing. Both characters were just emotionally immature and chose to communicate/not communicate just through their writing. Which it sounded like was Nicolas Sparks style novels? And why do they need to be a writing team for these?
Add in how overly written the entire thing was on top of an obscene amount of flashback scenes and that about sums up my feelings. Unfortunate, but this was just not for me and a was a fairly unsuccessful storyline for me.

The Roughest Draft was my first read of 2022, and it ended up being a book I loved. But it has taken me some time to put together my thoughts about this one. Thank you @berkleyromance for the advance copy.

Things I loved about this book:
💖I'm a sucker for books about writing and writer, especially if it is a romance. Give me all the bookish romances!!
💖The writing and prose in this book was so beautiful. This isn't something I necessarily always notice, but there were several sections I re-read while reading, because the crafting of the words was so gorgeous.
💖It reminded me a lot of of Beach Read, but with more angst. The Roughest Draft is definitely an emotional read.

Which brings me to what I didn't love about this book or what others might not love:
💙The angst. There were so many times I wanted to tell these characters to get it together. And though there wasn't cheating, per se, there was definitely emotional cheating. Which can be off putting.
💙Katrina and Nathan are not always likeable characters. They are real and flawed, but I didn't always love their choices and actions.

Three years ago, Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen were the brightest literary stars on the horizon, their cowritten book topping bestseller lists. But on the heels of their greatest success, they ended their partnership on bad terms, for reasons neither would divulge to the public. They haven't spoken since, and never planned to, except they have one final book due on contract.

Facing crossroads in their personal and professional lives, they're forced to reunite. The last thing they ever thought they'd do again is hole up in the tiny Florida town where they wrote their previous book, trying to finish a new manuscript quickly and painlessly. Working through the reasons they've hated each other for the past three years isn't easy, especially not while writing a romantic novel.

While passion and prose push them closer together in the Florida heat, Katrina and Nathan will learn that relationships, like writing, sometimes take a few rough drafts before they get it right.

DNF at 25%. I was really intrigued by the premise but unfortunately this one isn’t working for me. I am definitely in a reading slump and struggling to find what does work for me - so this is probably me and not the book. But after reading it for a week and only making it to 25% and realizing I don’t care about the characters or what happens to them - I’m stopping here. Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

A book about writing a book- this book lover was all for that! I loved the guessing about what actually happened and then the way they played it all out, shifting between past and present. Really an enjoyable book.

2⭐️
Before I start this review, I want to emphasize that even if a book was not for me, you could absolutely love it. Writing a book is not something I could ever do, and I applaud the authors for their hard work. That being said, this book was not for me.

I usually love a book about book lovers and writers… but I think the only parts I liked of this book were the few scenes in a book store. Other than that… I just was not interested.

The book had promise. It sounded good, I’ve seen great reviews, the beginning was alright… but then I quickly got bored.

Didn’t love:
- There were a lot of unknowns about the past and uncovering them dragged on. And I mean draggggged. Then the reveal? Nothing dramatic enough for that wait.
- Didn’t love the main characters and wasn’t feeling any tension & chemistry that I want in a slow burn romance.
- The Miami scene was so random. Like why??
- Repetitive! They write. Nathan goes for a run. Mention of the last book. Write some more. Mention of the last book. Nathan runs. They read each other’s writing. Write more. Run. Write. run. Write. Edit.
- The dual timeline didn’t work for me. The “4 years ago” sections bored me. Their purpose was to create suspense about their past and what happened to make them so angsty towards each other, but I just didn’t care.

Usually when I read a romance, I’m flipping pages as fast I can for when they finally come together!😍 Nope. This one I was flipping pages for it to be over.

There was beautiful writing throughout the story… but the story itself just didn’t capture my interest.

Thank you Berkley for the early copy for an honest review.

I was t sure how I would feel about this book at first, but I got drawn in to Nathan and Katrina’s story pretty quickly and had a hard time putting the book down! I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy switching storylines between past and present, but they happened pretty seamlessly. Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was a delight to read. I was pleasantly surprised because I expecting something a bit different. Breaking up and moving on is hard to do and we follow Katrina and Nathan, once successful writing partners who mysteriously split up and haven’t spoken since, only to reunite a few years later to write one novel left on their contract. There is so much resentment that they need to overcome between the two that makes it difficult to come together and create the same level of success of their previous books.

There’s a lot of angst and tension and hope in this story, just the way I like it.

It has taken me some time to write this review for The Roughest Draft. As I mulled it over in my head, I realized that it wasn’t really what I had expected going in, and while the unexpected aspects might be problematic for some romance readers, I absolutely loved this book.

The Roughest Draft is about Kat and Nathan, who had a writing partnership and friendship which ended suddenly after publishing a bestselling book four years prior to the events of the story for unexplained reasons. However, they have one book left on their contract, and their publisher is pushing for it to get done, so they plan to stay together in the Florida house where they had written their last super successful book, and write their final book over the course of two months. The book is dual timeline: their friendship in the past, and the story of them getting together in the present.

While I was reading, one of the most frequent thoughts I had was “this book is so meta!” This is because The Roughest Draft is about a woman and man writing duo, written by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka, a woman and man writing duo. And on top of that, Kat and Nathan are writing a book about a divorce while trying to come to terms with their feelings about each other. Was this a little distracting because it caused my brain to wonder how much Wibberly and Siegemund-Broka were writing from experience? Am I human? (The answer to both is yes, obviously.)

The Roughest Draft has some major plot points that might not work for a traditional romance reader. In both timelines, one of the main characters, Kat or Nathan, are in a relationship (Nathan is married in the past but divorced in the present, and Kat is single in the past, but engaged in the present). This means that as Kat and Nathan’s relationship develops, both are technically with another person. There is no physical cheating, but I do know having main characters being with others for large parts of the book might be a stretch for some romance readers. Additionally, The Roughest Draft is a fairly slow burn – Kat and Nathan don’t get together romantically and the reasoning behind why their original writing partnership broke up isn’t revealed until about 80% of the way through the book. Overall, I feel like this may seem very slow to some readers (though I understand that might be a selling point for others).

What I loved about The Roughest Draft were the feelings, the tension, the slow rebuilding of Nathan and Kat’s relationship in the current timeline, and did I mention the feelings? When I started this book, I could not put it down. For me, it was really compelling to try to understand the complex relationship between Nathan and Kat and how they had ended up in an emotional place where they hated each other. The feeling between the characters, like they were walking on eggshells with each other at the beginning of the book, felt so realistic to me. And watching them come back from that to a place where they repaired their friendship, and then built on that, was really satisfying.

There were a number of other aspects I enjoyed about The Roughest Draft. One, in particular, is that Nathan gets a divorce (between the past and present time period), and his ex-wife is never made out to be a villain. I think this is a rare thing in any kind of romantic storyline. Usually, if there’s an ex, (and especially if she’s a woman) she has to be evil to have pushed away the male main character into the arms of the female main character. But Nathan acknowledges that getting a divorce is going to hurt his then wife, but that his reasoning isn’t about anything she did, but about him and how he has changed. I also believe that Katrina’s depression and anxiety are handled well. The way her feelings were described made sense to me, she was clearly handling it by getting therapy, and I appreciate seeing characters on the page who have mental illness as a clearly described part of their personality, and the impact of that on their life.

Overall, I liked The Roughest Draft. It worked well for me, because it was an engrossing story that I was able to get lost in. Despite the cutesy cover, this book gave me a dose of angsty romantic tension straight to my veins, and apparently, reading about fictional characters’ super complicated feelings was just what I needed.

Bookish romance novels are seriously becoming my favorite, and this one sits right at the top! I loved watching the relationship between Katrina and Nathan unfold, both in the present and the past, as they made another attempt to write together. The pain, longing, and need they both felt was incredibly well written. A must purchase!

The Roughest Draft takes a bit of a different spin on a book about a book and is a book about co-authors who severed their relationship in a dramatic fashion but, despite their falling out, they come back together to write another book. To say it is a slow burn romance is an understatement. It is really more a book about communication, forgiveness and second chances, all while giving us a little insight into the writing process. It definitely gave off Beach Read vibes but instead of the witty banter, it had more drama and conflict to sort through. There were flashbacks to give insight as to what happened and which drew out the explanation as to why these two people were at odds. I enjoyed seeing it all unfold, particularly as their feelings came to light through their writing. It was a heavy character driven, quick read that totally drew me in and hooked me until the end. And now I am curious about all co-authors and how they write.

The Roughest Draft follows two authors, Katrina and Nathan, who were formerly friends + coauthors. At the opening of the novel we find out that something happened after their second book was finished and they haven’t spoken in two years. Forced together again to write one more book to finish out their contract, the reasoning behind their two years of silence starts to unfold.

This book was just okay for me. I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters and felt like the time spent with them arguing and clashing was too much. That said, it was a quick read that I somewhat enjoyed.

After meeting in a writing class six years ago, Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen felt an instant connection. Pairing up as a co writing duo, their novels achieved a level of success most writers only dream of. (Think the Lennon and McCartney of the literary world.) Then something mysteriously happens between the two, causing them to go their separate ways, closing the chapter on ever working together again.

As the world speculates as to what caused them to break up, time moves on. Nathan tries writing solo, seeing a fraction of the success he saw with Katrina. Katrina, meanwhile, has sworn off writing for good, choosing to channel her focus on her relationship with her fiancé, Chris, a man who just happens to be their agent.

Then Chris remembers they have one more novel on contract to write. Hoping to redeem himself professionally, Nathan is game. Katrina begrudgingly agrees to participate to please her Chris. But getting the band back together, so to speak is easier said than done- especially when the wordsmiths in question still aren’t speaking to one another.

The Roughest Draft was a heartbreaking book that highlights not only the writing process, but the process of falling in love. It serves as a reminder that in love, just like in writing, there’s often many revisions needed to get things right. A novel full of angst, tension, and promise, The Roughest Draft is a book for people who love books. It’s the first novel I’ve read by real life writing couple @austins_b and @wibbs_ink, but it won’t be my last.

One final thought. Anyone else wish Only Once was a real novel?

Unfortunately, I didn't love this. I LOVED the premise and the writing was lovely, but the romance was entirely off for me. The chemistry was there, and the relationship itself was icky to me. With the emotional cheating involved, I couldn't get into it, and that made a big difference for the vibe of the whole novel.

Big kudos to Emily and Austin for this beautifully written book. I love the concept and that it holds a lot of truth from their real-life relationship. But without a convincing romance, I couldn't rate this one higher.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

Rating 5

This book is full of emotion, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The beginning of this book is depressing. We see characters struggle with everyday problems such as financial issues, failing careers, and feeling alone. Within the first few chapters there was no humor or light heartedness like most romance novels I’ve been reading lately. I honestly wanted to give both characters a hug and tell them don’t worry soon you will both be happy, I hope.

This story is written in dual perspectives switching from Nathan and Katrina. It also includes flashbacks from when they wrote a previous book together four years earlier. Oh my gosh, when Nathan and Katrina started to write together! Ahhh, I loved it so much. I could literally feel the pain and tension between them. I thought it was so clever how they weave their own thoughts and feelings into the book they are writing. They are too scared to fully commit to their feelings so they hint about how they feel for one another through the characters they are writing.

This book is so much more than your typical love story. It’s about the journey you take finding yourself and those that help you on the way. Katrina lost who she once was and Nathan helped her find those pieces and put her back together. No matter how much she fought him on the way Nathan never gave up on her. This story is about taking risks and leaving behind what seems safe and taking a chance on the unknown. Just because you're used to something doesn’t mean that’s what you ultimately need. It really makes you want to take a closer look at your life and question are you really happy? Or are you just settling?

*Recieved an ARC on #Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much to @berkleyromance for the gifted copy.*

When Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen met at a writer’s retreat, they immediately felt a synergy they turned into a successful writing partnership. Three years ago, their book topped bestseller lists, was translated into multiple languages, and was courted for film rights. But, by the time they finished the book, they’d had a falling out so severe, they haven’t spoken since. Though many have speculated on the reasons behind their professional breakup, neither have ever revealed details.

Now, both are facing personal dilemmas that would be solved if they fulfilled their contract for one final manuscript. They agree to spend two months together writing in the same Florida beach house where they crafted their bestseller. Three years of hatred, though, isn’t easy to overcome, and if they don’t work out their relationship, they might not be able to achieve writing magic.

Authored by a husband-wife writing team, the book provides interesting insight into the process of co-writing and the demands following a literary success. It also asks how much writers can separate life and fiction—Nathan and Katrina have opposing opinions. The book also has a great cast of secondary and tertiary characters I’d have liked to have seen even more of: Harriet, a sarcastic writer who lives nearby; Jen, Nathan’s blunt agent; and Liz, the pair’s eclectic editor. Chris, Katrina’s cutthroat agent, is more one-dimensional, and I wish he’d had greater depth of characterization.

As Katrina and Nathan argue plot points, they confront their personal demons, and at times Katrina frustrated me with her long-standing and extreme self-sabotage which at times seemed to conflict with how she was described (confident, direct, flirtatious). Nathan explains, that book conclusions are “the culmination and subversion of everything preceding, the satisfaction of expectations and the joy of the unexpected.” I did feel this way by the end of the book!

The fabulous cover, I think deliberately evokes Emily Henry’s book. I think readers who like her books would enjoy THE ROUGHEST DRAFT as well as those who like frenemies to lovers!