The Rom-Commers is another great story by the talented Katherine Center. I've been a huge fan of Katherine Center's writing for a while & this book does not disappoint. The Rom-Commers is a good balance between light hearted romance & some drama from health issues as well as dealing with unforseen tragedies. Charlie & Emma both have such head strong personalities so the witty banter between them is addictive to want & read more. I would have liked a little more passion in this book, but Katherine Center does an excellent job on focusing more on the love & romance aspect, rather then the passion in this story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book on #NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own, but please do yourself a favor & read this fun book or really any book written by Katherine Center.

This was an adorable romcom, these characters were well developed and underwent their own trials and journey and both overcame their issue. I loved the romance trials and experiments to see if something was romantic. I was laughing out loud. I really hope this gets made into a movie cause I want to devour it again. I might have to listen to the audiobook also.

In my mind, Katherine Center can do no wrong. She continues this trend with The Rom-Commers. Emma and Charlie were perfectly adorable, enough sniping to keep the tension, definite attraction. All around loved this book.

I’m a huge Katherine Center fan and thankfully she is so generous with her ARCs because I could not wait until release day to read The Rom-Commers. It’s basically a love letter to rom-coms with all the fun, quirky, tear-jerking moments we expect from them. It is also sprinkled with KC’s usual warm optimism amidst the heartache and angst. This is one of my favorites from her.

Thank you@stmartinspress and @netgalley for the e-ARC!

Emma is a screenwriter with loads of talent but her full-time caretaking duties for her disabled father have eclipsed her potential.

When her former boyfriend turned best friend Logan presents her with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in LA for six weeks and co-write a romantic comedy screenplay with her all-time favorite, the celebrated screenwriter Charlie Yates, Emma seizes the moment.

Emma quickly realizes that Charlie is not the hero she has put on a pedestal. He's difficult. He's grumpy. He's less than thrilled about having a writing partner and he's only doing this romantic comedy script as a means of getting his pet project, a Mafia film, made.

Emma however, is not going to let Charlie ruin the romantic comedy genre with his clumsy dialogue and questionable character motivations. She's putting her heart and soul into this script. As Emma and Charlie begin to grow closer through the writing process, a true friendship blossoms. But will either of them find the courage to explore the possibility of something romantic between them?

Katherine Center creates a flawless romantic comedy with well-developed characters, an intricate plot, and all the feels. Emma and Charlie are both so relatable and fun. As readers, we can't help root for them to kiss at the closing credits.

However, the novel also explores grief that the characters experience in such a beautiful, impactful way. This sub-plot further elevates this novel into both a love story and a meditation on hope and healing from loss.

Katherine Center has created something truly special here. Don’t miss it!

Title: The Rom-Comers
By: Kathrine Center
Genre: Women’s, Contemporary, Chick-lit, Romance

Red Flags:
Closed door with innuendo, some sexual discussions, crude humor, mild profanity, loss of a parent, guilt, paralysis, cancer, hypochondria, panic attacks,

Favorite Quotes:
"He's not a kid, Sylvie. He's a full-grown adult. I can't just Jedi-mind-trick him into doing whatever I want.”
“Everybody's a kid deep down," Sylvie said. "Use your teacher voice. I bet you'll be surprised.”

“Love is something you can learn. Love is something you can practice. It's something you can choose to get good at. And here's how you do it. Appreciate your person. That's it.”

“There are endless human stories, but they all end the same way.
So it can't be where you're going that matters. It has to be how you get there…It's all about the details you notice. And the joys you savor. And the hope you refuse to give up on.”

Summary:
Emma Wheeler is an aspiring screenwriter, who was forced to put her dreams on hold for the last ten years to care for her injured father. Enters Charlie Yates, an infamous author who has a strong desire to try something new. However, when Charlie submits his script, it’s awful! Logan is both Charlie and Emma’s agent. Emma is a long time friend of Charlie’s and he knows Emma is an expert in the Rom-Com genre. Logan reaches out to Emma and offers her a job based on her knowledge in Rom-Com perfection. Emma is hired to help Charlie rewrite his screenplay. Charlie is extremely reluctant to let Emma work with him, and Emma quickly learns her job may be more difficult than anticipated. Charlie is only going through the motions for this script, and truthfully doesn’t believe in love himself. Can Emma teach Charlie what love is and how to write it? This is a tall order!

Review:
The banter and chemistry between Charlie and Emma was beautifully crafted, with Center weaving in the love/hate relationship between the main characters, drawing the reader into the novel and quickly becoming fully engaged in the writing. These main characters are relatable to readers, as they experience, enemy to lovers, loss, and heartache, guilt and pain. Katherine Center is very talented in approaching deeply emotional, and tender subjects! I love all Katherine Center novels! She will continue to be a go to me, and at the top of my TBR shelf!

Thank you Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#KatherineCenter
#Stmartinspress
#netgalley
#theromcommers
#reluectantreaderreads

If Katherine Center was already an auto-buy author for me, should would be after this book!!!

The Rom-Commers follows Emma Wheeler, a struggling screenplay writer as she collaborates with Charlie, a renowned screenwriter who doesn’t believe in love and has butchered a rom-com screenplay in the process. This is a phenomenal take on the grumpy vs sunshine trope with plenty of banter while still addressing heavier topics like grief and illness. This is one of those magical books that make you entirely forget that you’re reading and I loved every second of it! This is the perfect beach read for summer 2024!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this fantastic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Center can write a bingeable story, that’s for sure! Propulsive dialogue, unique premise, deep themes. I didn’t love the MMC; I thought he was genuinely mean to the FMC, and he didn’t grovel nearly enough for what he did in my opinion.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

Katherine Center is an auto buy author for me. She writes books that simultaneously make you laugh and make you feel. The Rom-Commers is the perfect example of this and may be her best work yet. Our leading lady Emma Wheeler - romance lover and dutiful daughter - has spent the last nine years putting her screenwriting career on hold to provide around the clock care for her father. When the opportunity to write a romcom with THE Charlie Yates is presented to her and coincides with her sister being available to takeover the caregiving, she flies to LA with the goal to make her dream a reality. What happens next is a chain of events that neither of them expected and poses the question of what a romantic comedy really is, do love stories even matter, and are big romantic gestures the peak of all romcoms?

Read this book if you like:
-grumpy x sunshine
-one liners
-LOL funny
-pet guinea pig
-forced proximity

The Rom-Commers will be released June 11th and if it is not already on your tbr, it should be!

Thank you Netgalley & St Martin's Press for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! I absolutely LOVED this. I had a big cheesy smile on my face, especially for the last 15%. Every character is so likeable, which was really refreshing & a joy to read.

Emma is a wannabe screenwriter, but she's had to take care of her dad for the last 10 years, so she hasn't had much of a chance to try. An incredible opportunity lands in her lap - to rewrite a rom-com script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates (her personal writing god). Once she reads the script, she realizes it's awful. And one thing she knows is rom-coms. What happens between the two is nothing less than heartfelt, awkward, & funny.

Emma & Charlie are so clearly both super nerds, & it shows in their banter together. I loved it so much! The chemistry between them really shines through & even though it starts out rocky at first, even then you can feel something between them. I love a forced proximity trope - so if you love this, & you love rom-coms, don't hesitate to snag this one.

The Rom-Commers releases June 11th! 😍

Honestly, I would LOVE to see this book made into a movie. It was just so. much. FUN!

This is a book about two writers writing a Romcom script based on a fictional cult classic Romcom while simultaneously living a Romcom.

It has forced proximity. It has reluctant allies to reluctant lovers. It has Meryl Streep. It has cuteness and grumpiness overload. It has so much heart and healing together. It's just a beautiful story.

The FMC is HILARIOUS. Well, they both are, but I love her first person PoV. It cracks me up 😆


Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review is voluntarily written and the thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own.

Katherine Center can do no wrong. Her writing is exquisite; the love and the trauma feel real.

Personally, I could have used a soft-tissue sarcoma trigger warning as that was what killed my father after it spread to his lungs. Other than that, there is not a single fault with this storyline.

Girl gets amazing opportunity to work with her hero but they say you shouldn't meet your heroes.

Boy behaves badly, redeems himself, and does it again.

Both characters are haunted by their personal trauma.

Can they end up together in spite of their pasts?

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

Anytime Katherine Center releases a new book, I immediately need to read it, and the Rom-Commers did not disappoint! The story follows Emma, a screenwriter who is currently failing in her career, and Charlie, a renowned screenwriter. When Charlie is forced to write a romantic comedy, Emma is hired to move in with Charlie for six weeks to help him write the movie. When she gets there, she finds out that Charlie hates romantic comedies. Luckily, she has a plan to rehabilitate Charlie's rom-com and his view of romantic comedies and love in general. During the next six weeks, Charlie and Emma grow closer as Emma works tirelessly to change Charlie's view on life (and romance) until they both realize they've jump into the deep end (and not of Charlie's giant swimming pool).

This book's dialogue really shines. You can imagine clearly Charlie and Emma's dynamic through Center's dialogue. The book is laugh-out-loud funny while also emotionally poignant. Emma comes from sickness and tragedy in her family while Charlie has recovered from cancer and a painful divorce. They meet each other and make each other better--what more can you ask for? This book is an exceptional rom-com.

Emma Wheeler has always wanted to be a screenwriter. She fangirls over award-winning writers whose work she idolizes. After college she was offered a writing opportunity but had to turn it down because she needed to care for her father. That lead to Emma staying with her widowed, disabled dad and becoming his caregiver.

Now Emma is being given a chance to help her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Yates, fix an abysmal script. Charlie is a renowned writer who has won many awards. However, he is not a romance or rom-com writer and his attempt to create one is a monumental failure. He has been forced to write in a genre he clearly doesn’t understand and his agent (a friend of Emma’s) thinks Emma is the perfect partner to rescue the script.

As expected, Emma is not welcome as a co-writer. She’s a nobody, a college instructor who failed at pursuing her dream. But maybe there is something she can teach him and she is determined to prove that romance writing has value and is worth getting right.

Emma is adorable. Charlie is pompous and condescending. They are both smart and appreciate the value of good writing. To begin their collaboration, Emma must first be brutally honest with the famous writer and he must listen as his work gets trashed. Things start off rather rocky and yet the focus is on fixing the script. Center uses the plot to put forward a defense of romance writing. It’s clever and fun, a delightful read.
3.5*

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martins publishing for the ARC of The Rom-Commers.

As a hopeless romantic myself but someone who is not a fan of watching RomComs - the whole time I read this book all I could think of was “this would make such a great movie, one I would watch over and over again.”

I see so much of myself in Emma and fell in love with her character instantly. The chemistry between Emma and Charlie was relatable and I was rooting for them from the moment Emma arrived in LA.

This was my first book by Katherine Center and I am really looking forward to reading more from her.

Emma is a writer who has sacrificed her dreams so that she can be her father's caretaker. She receives a phone call from an old friend and agrees to go to LA to assist her favorite writer in re-writing a screen play. Charlie is a writer who has had his own struggles in the 5 years prior to meeting Emma and has been unable to write anything for 5 years. Charlie and Emma work alongside each other for the re-write. The closer Emma gets to Charlie and tries to prove him wrong, the more she ends up proving him right about the nature of romantic moments. Will they be able to find a way to be together despite all of their circumstances that are working to keep them apart?

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I love the way that Katherine Center was able to accurately portray the emotional and physical stressors that come with being a caretaker and how that can affect your life. It was fulfilling to read about Emma finding her happily ever after despite the tragic events she had experienced in her life and that she still hoped for happiness. The banter between Emma and Charlie was fast paced and so genuine, I felt like I was witnessing the tension between the two of them. Charlie was an interesting character. His past and present issues are revealed slowly and it made getting to know him more fulfilling. He is complex and his feelings for Emma are sometimes more obvious to the reader than to her. The connection to Jack Stapleton and The Bodyguard was the cherry on top! Already looking forward to starting from the beginning and reading again!

I was disappointed in this one. As a fan of Center’s other novels this one was lacking in romance. I didn’t feel Emma and Charlie had any chemistry. Emma seemed immature and annoyed me for most of the book. There were some over the top almost death scenarios like the car and diving board incidents that I feel were unnecessary. I enjoyed the screen writing aspects and thought they were interesting as well as the medical struggles of Emma’s dad and Charlie. I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a light rom-com with no spice.

I ended up listening to this on audio and honestly, I binged it. Yes it’s all tropes and cheese and yet I loved this love story! The characters were charming and their backstories were great backdrops for learning about grieving, sickness and living life to the fullest. How can you not love love???

This was very funny, but balanced by some truly touching moments. A bit preposterous — but the rom-com-writing-room setting was incredibly fun and it made me laugh out loud a few times. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Also I learned that corduroy pants are measured in “wales” (the thickness of the lines), which I had to google after the MMC’s wide-waled pants were mentioned multiple times.

Heres the thing. Would I read Katherine Center's grocery list? Yes. I absolutely would. I loved this book. It absolutely lived up to my hopes and dreams. I loved the characters, I loved the plot, the banter, the love. It was funny, heart warming and made my heart happy. Highly recommend this one for any Katherine Center fans