Huge thanks for the chance to read this ARC!

I loved The Bodyguard by Katherine Center so I was super excited to get my hands on this one.

This story follows Emma who gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with her screenwriting idol, Charlie. Emma has spent the last ten years caring about everyone but herself (taking care of her dad and little sister) and taking this opportunity was a big jump out of her comfort zone. She went to LA to work with Charlie on a rom-com script because Charlie has no clue when it comes to romantic comedies (or love for that matter). Eventually Emma charms her way into Charlie's life and the rest is history.

I'll start off by saying the first half of this book was a bit slow. It was your typical bubbly sunshine FMC and grumpy MMC but there was a charm to both of these characters that wasn't your typical grumpy x sunshine trope. This book did a great job of not being nothing but sunshine and rainbows but really did have a depth to it that each character was affected by. Once I hit the second half of the book, I could NOT put it down. I don't want to spoil anything but there were moments my heart was wrenching and moments my heart was soaring and this book was just overall such a great experience and an easy 4 stars.

One last thing is that the way Katherine Center narrates this novel is amazing. Emma is basically talking to you and telling you this story and you really feel like she's just having a chat with you (there are even little side comments and rhetorical questions directed at the reader) which is such a fun way of reading in first person.

Thank you Netgalley and st Martin's press to allow me to read for my honest review..

The background and growth with the characters had me cheering them on from the beginning. Who knew when she took on a partner it would lead to something so wonderful. 5/5 KC can do no wrong. I loved it.

Katherine Center has done it again. As always she can build a story of characters who are relatable and have depth. Depth for a rom com rather than a literary novel, if you know what I mean. The Rom-Commers captivated me from the start and held my attention and heart until the end. There are humorous and emotional moments that kept me going. I appreciate the opportunity to be allowed to read the advance copy and listen to the audiobook. Both were well done and Katherine Center has continued to be one of my favorite authors.

Thank you NetGalley and McMillan Audio for this ARC.

Who does Katherine Center thinks she is, making me cry over fictional characters? Spoiler, I bawled like a baby the last couple of chapters of this novel.

We all need to believe in love - no matter what that may look like. Love does not necessarily need to be romantic love, but takes its form in many different ways. The Rom-Commers, is just about that concept - we need love. Our lives would be, for lack of a better word, sad, without any form of love in it. We need people to care for, and to care for us. We are social beings and “socializing” is a basic need that must be met. The Rom-Com, Katherine Center, and The Rom-Commers reminds us of this. It gives us images of what love can look like, it reminds us how we can love better, and frankly maybe what does not work.

Was it cheesy? Would it be a rom-com if it was not? Were the characters perfect? No, they were perfectly imperfect, like we are. The story was so very engaging. I did not want it to end, but wanted it to, because I just had to know if Emma and Charlie would indeed, fall for each other, and have their “happy ending”. Center’s novel is witty, insightful, and yes, cute. It reminds us how we need our emotions, all of them, and how every happy story is riddled with events and memories that are hard to deal with. It reminds you to appreciate your own love story.

I loved it.

The Rom-Commers lives true to it's title, delivering a deep and complicated love story. Katherine Center is back with a story of two writers at odds, agreeing to work together on a rom-com, except one compares these stories to the integrity of Velveeta cheese. Some rom-coms fall victim to a formula, delivering a surface level love story - but not this one. With complicated back stories, health scares and deep-rooted trauma, the characters have a lot to overcome before getting to their happy ending.

Perfectly sweet story ready for the Summer beach season, highly recommend.

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.