4.5

Officially my new favorite Katherine Center book! I was nervous because I don’t usually like Hollywood based books, but this definitely changed that for me. I love how she made her main characters, Emma and Charlie, spend time together doing normal things like grocery shopping, swimming cooking dinners together. The daily tasks made me envision how compatible they were in the lives they could live together. she built a wonderful tension between two characters. They hate each other but then they love each other. the entire time throughout that tension, I wanted to shake Charlie and tell him to get his head out of his ass and finally just admit his feelings to Emma. When an author can make me audibly talk to the characters loud as I read, I know it’s a good book. Finally, how strong Emma was. She spoke her mind and didn’t change who she was for her dream job.


Emma Wheeler is a screen writer who is living with her sick father. She gets a call from Logan (her agent) with the job of a lifetime. To work with the infamous CHARLIE YATES (the screenwriter of all screenwriters and her icon). Only catch is….she has to move to Hollywood rewrite his entire screen play. Emma hops on a plane (nervously as she has never left her father before) to arrive at Charlie’s house to realize he has no idea she is coming. He hates her. He wants nothing to do with the novice screen writer in his presence. Emma decides she is going to leave but not without telling Charlie how bad his screenplay is. Charlie finally folds and decides that he will work with her. They spend day in and day out rewriting their screenplay immersing themselves in experiences that their characters will do like line dancing, watching compilations of romantic kisses, and swimming. Throughout this, Emma has to convince Charlie that love does exist and Charlie is not easily convinced. But their time together, he slowly begins to see how Emma will finally make him believe in the concept of love.

Tropes: grumpy sunshine, workplace lovers, enemies to lovers, close proximity, Hollywood

A must read for summer! Thank you St. Martins press for the ARC!

This made me laugh and cry and I pretty much devoured it in one sitting. Emma was a wonderful lead character. A loving daughter and sister (🥰 her dad and Sylvie) and an excellent narrator. I loved her voice, she was funny, engaging, warm , full of heart in some very difficult circumstances and I got sucked into to her story straight away. Charlie was my favourite type of male character, incredibly frustrating at times but also wonderfully adorkable, vulnerable and relatable. I adored Emma and Charlie together. They had excellent chemistry, really good banter and I loved every moment we got to spend with them. A well deserved 5 ⭐️.

My new favorite Katherine Center! I just adored this book - it was so sweet, charming and funny while still having KC’s signature heart wrenching and family elements. I loved the characters, the premise, the wit and banter - everything!

This is my first Katherine Center book, however it will not be my last.

From the opening scene I was hooked on the characters and the story. So much so that I devoured this book in one day.

I chuckled. I gasped. I cried. Lots of feels in this romantic comedy about writing a romantic comedy.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was another great entry into the Katherine Center library. I loved listening to this and I loved the characters. It was great how Emma set up how a romcom should work & then it played out in the story, Charlie’s awful screenplay got Emma out of her rut to get her to her best life. I loved that Jack & Hannah from The Bodyguard made appearances in this book. This book is light & fun yet has some serious & deep issues going on. ‘There it is. The whole trick to life. Be aggressively, loudly, unapologetically grateful.”

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Katherine Center for a copy of this book.

A cute, as you might expect, rom-com with often very charming dialogue. Katherine Center has some fun, meta inclusions - discussing the process of writing rom-coms, their purpose, and the reading experience - that could come off as gimicky, but I think she navigates rather well.

There were two things that didn't feel quite as neatly developed. First, I never really got a handle on Charlie Yates's character; the way he describes himself is different from how Emma describes him is different from how he behaves. I also felt like the epilogue really dragged, just to pack in those plot points that should have been part of the main narrative.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Holy wow times one thousand. By no exaggeration, I took an eight minute video explaining the plot to this story because just about everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown at you in the last 20% and I was laughing, crying, rolling my eyes, trying to do basic math. It was intense.

The basics: Emma is a screenwriter and full-time caretaker for her disabled father - disabled, shall I add, by an incident that traumatized the entire family. She gets an opportunity to work with Charlie, her all-time-fav screenwriter, which means setting up her younger sister to step in as caretaker while she's gone.

Except nothing goes right, starting with quite intense beef between Charlie and Emma from the beginning. And then, of course, things get a bit easier, and romantic tension ensues, and you know the rest.

But somewhere at the 80% mark, I was gripping the couch like my life depended on it. What was going on?? Why were there so many phone calls? How much news can a person receive in the span of like four weeks?

I'll say this: the rom-com part is good. The tension is good (although, he was a little mean for me. Kudos to Emma, I would've cried about 20 pages in). The conversations about the grief we carry, the grief we hide, the ways we pretend to be okay and deal with our trauma on our own when our family and friends are right around the corner, carrying the same grief - stellar. Almost cried at that part.

Maaaybe we lost the plot somewhere in the third act. There are worse things that could've happened. I enjoyed it and I am certain everyone's gonna love this one. June 11th!!!

I didn't want this one to end! I loved getting to know Charlie and Emma. I loved getting glimpses of Jake and Hannah and other characters from past books. I loved the writing and learning about the process of making a screenplay. The only issue that I had was that Emma received information several times by overhearing other's conversations. By the 3rd time it became a little unbelievable. Other than that, it was a beautiful love story and I laughed out loud many times.

Get ready to celebrate rom-coms, cry, laugh, and swoon. This was an absolute joyride of a story. The banter is top notch and the emotions striking. I loved Emma from the first page, and her quest to make Charlie believe in love stories was beyond fantastic. This might be my favorite Center book yet.

Everything Katherine Center writes is gold. Her characters are so beautiful and her stories are so heartwarming. This was no exception. Katherine Center had easily become an auto-buy author for me!

Katherine Center has easily become one of my must read authors over the past two years. I absolutely loved The Bodyguard and Hello Stranger, and The Rom-Commers did not top either of those for me.

The Rom-Commers is still a good book, but perhaps I just didn't love Charlie Yates, one of our MCs, especially in contrast to Emma, who is so easy to love! Our story follows Emma, who is a great romantic comedy writer that has missed her big break due to staying home and taking care of her disabled father. Her friend calls her and tells her she has the opportunity to write with Charlie Yates (a very big writer), after making arrangements for dad she shows up on Charlie's door step ready to work....except he wants nothing to do with her.

Common tropes include forced proximity and enemies to lovers (although it's more like they don't get along instead of straight enemies). I do think this book could have been made better if it had a little more substance to them actually building a relationship, instead of it just seeming like their time together flew by.

Thank you to NetGalley and McMillan for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

I AM OBSESSED. This was so surprisingly good and I was not expecting it whatsoever. Dare I even say I have found a new favorite author? Because I am that obsessed with this story, and these characters.

The Rom-Commers is about a very unlikely pair who work together to re-write a Romantic Comedy Screenplay & I loved every minute of it. I felt like I was actually watching the most adorable rom-com to ever rom-com.

I loved both Emma and Charlie. I even love the Guinea Pig. I found their struggles extremely believable and didn’t find that I was annoyed by any misunderstandings or miscommunications - which usually I hate to my core. But it really just works in this story.

If you like a cliche Romantic Comedy, read this. I found myself laughing out loud MULTIPLE times, and I love the overall message of the story that no matter your circumstances, you should always be grateful and look for the good in your life, while never discrediting the hard times or forgetting them.

This is going to be the book of the summer and I cannot wait to own my own copy. I see lots more Katherine Center reads in my future.

Thank you SOOO much SMP Romance and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

🎬 Book Review 🎬

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publication: June 11, 2024

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (I loved it)

This is my second book by Center and I was a little worried since I was mixed on “Hello Stranger”. I was sucked into this and the book did not let me go until I finished.

I think the biggest thing that I resonated with, on both Emma and Charlie, is the feeling of losing your identity. I loved how they both balanced each other out plus this story wasn’t just about the romance but rather working through issues together.

Perfect for fans of:
🎬 First person POV
🖊️ Single POV (Emma)
🎬 Disability rep (parent)
🖊️ Screenwriters
🎬 Forced proximity
🖊️ Loss of identity FMC
🎬 Grumpy x sunshine
🖊️ Egotistical MMC
🎬 Anxiety rep
🖊️ Kissing only


🛑 Triggers
⚠️ Death of a parent (past)
⚠️ Grief

Emma is the sole caretaker for her dad who needs round the clock care after he was in an accident. The accident happened after her graduation and she changed her whole life, making her dreams of being a screenwriter much more difficult. When her friend calls her with the opportunity of a lifetime - to work with her favorite screenwriter, she would have to leave her father in the care of her sister to go to LA for six weeks. But this is her dream so her family urges her to go. Unfortunately when she gets there, not only did Charlie write a HORRIBLE rom-com, he's really only trying to get the story passable so the project he really wants done gets green-lit. To make matters worse, he doesn't believe in love or understand what's romantic!

I LOVED Emma and Charlie! Katherine Center's books always pull at my heartstrings with her characters, who usually have major flaws but are living their lives the best they can. Emma's focus on caring for her father has left her emotionally stunted in relationships as she really hasn't had time for them. Yet, she believes in rom-com love and does her best to see the bright side of bad situations. Charlie has the yips after an illness and is a bit of a grouch. He is quite rude to Emma several times, but she is determined to see the best in him. Even when he rejects her. I really enjoyed their process of making a screenplay and the progression of their relationship. I was very invested in them getting a HEA and seeing them bring out the best in each other.

I’ll admit it: I didn’t think I was a fan of Katherine Center.

I’ve only read one book, The Bodyguard which seems to be the spiritual predecessor to The Rom-Commers, but after a truly scathing review that made question just what it is that everyone was raving about, I made a bet to myself: if I got accepted to read this book from NetGalley, I’d give Center another shot.

Much like Charlie in this book, maybe I don’t always know what’s good for me.

Charlie, the main LI and Emma the MC, were characters that leaped off the page. Something I’ve long complained about (in reviews but mostly to friends) is how much romance books refuse to let characters have dark and troubling pasts (that don’t feel like a Dickensian attempt for angst). Imagine my delightful surprise when both Charlie and Emma have these conflicting, expansive histories that not only provide depth to their characterization but help inform each of their decisions every step of the way. Call me a sucker for how much I love a story about Hollywood, writing, or two people being forced to work together but the Rom-Commers had each of these things in spades. It was revitalizing, like coming up for air, to read a romance that didn’t feel trite or forced.

The banter was still a little quippy for my taste (at least at first) and the only POC in the entire novel being a quickly introduced (and then shuttled off) side character is something I can’t ignore. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this; enough that if and when there’s ever a chance to read another Center book, I’ll make it a point of seeing that I can.

Really loved The Rom-Commers! Katherine Center really knows how to write characters you really care about. Couldn't put this one down!

Loved every about this book. Starting with Emma Wheeler, a talented screenwriter, who shelved her big dreams to take care of her father after a rock climbing accident and head trauma left him partially paralyzed on one side and with an intense case of Menieres Disease that necessitates full-time caregiving. After high school friend called with an incredible opportunity to rewrite a rom-com script with a Hollywood icon, she initially turns it down. Then her father and sister, who just returned home after college, gang up on her to accept the offer. Packing up and heading to Hollywood for a six-week period, she finds the job isn't quite as described. On top of that, she keeps overhearing people discussing her and comments break her heart, and confidence. Resilient, courageous with just enough sass to hold her own, she is captivating. The story has heart and some of the best written banter that you'll ever read.

Id like to give a huge, HUGE thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC of The Rom-Commers!

I don’t think I’ve ever read a Katherine Center book I didn’t love. Her stories take you on a heartwarming journey every single time - I laugh, I cry, my heart smiles. The Rom-Commers delivers on all the feels. If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would!

Emma lands a dream writing job with Charlie, a screen writer she has admired for years. She can’t believe her lucky starts only to find out he didn’t even know she was going to be working with him. In true Katherine Center fashion, they work out their little predicament and come out on top, making you laugh, cry, and smile along the way.

I adored this. It started out a bit slower for me than most of Center's other stories, but it more than made up for it in the end. It packed an emotional punch while remaining true to Center's beautiful yet somewhat simplistic writing style that I always love.

Emma Wheeler is a talented screenwriter who never had the chance to accomplish her dreams. She has been the sole caretaker for her father after a tragic accident. Now she has an amazing opportunity to help the famous Charlie Yates rewrite his failure of a rom-com script. This book is sweet. I liked the characters and felt invested in their story even though it was predictable. The spice levels are mild in this romance. I enjoyed it and would recommend for an easy and quick summer read!