This was my first book by Katherine Center, and it won’t be my last! I loved the story of Emma and Charlie. The book does touch on some tough topics that drive the plot. Lots of emotions and love and the importance of family as well as finding yourself. I enjoyed it, and I will be reading more of Katherine Center’s books in the future!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Publishing June 11, 2024

I have not read many Katherine Center books but saw this and decided why not? Well, I can definitely say I made a GREAT decision and was not disappointed with this book. the characters were super likeable, tons of humor throughout and of course romance. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and I like that as it makes the story much more relatable to real life. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more from Katherine Center. Thank you NetGalley.

An absolute joy. This is a book filled with Katherine Center doing what she does best: putting characters through the horrors of life to prepare them to open their hearts to love in unexpected places. This book absolutely lives up to its title, even if she does put your heart through the ringer a bit more and for a bit longer than her other novels I've read. I breezed through the majority of this book in one day, and if you are looking for the perfect summer rom-com to lift you up, this is exactly that. For those who have read The Bodyguard, there's also an absolute treat of a cameo in this book. So much fun, so full of love, this book was everything I had hoped for. A must-read for any rom-com lover.

“The Rom-Commers” is a rom-com book by Katherine Center. Like others, I’ve read a number of Ms. Center’s books, so I had pre-conceived exceptions for this one. To be honest, there were many things I liked about this book — and a number of things I really didn’t like about this book.

What I liked:

The overall idea - I really really liked the idea of Emma working with her most favorite screenwriter in the entire world. I liked how she was pushed into it - I liked how Charlie was reluctant initially but finally admitted he had the “yips” and needed help in a genre he really felt uncomfortable with. I also really liked how the two working styles (Emma being super organized; Charlie being a bit more ‘whatever’) can work and mesh together.

Some of the humor - Ms. Center’s books all seem to have elements that just make me laugh because the scenes could be picked up from my life or something I’d possibly think but not actually say.

That the two characters were older - Neither Emma nor Charlie were mature in the classic sense, but they were in their 30s and had responsibilities and had experienced life, good, bad, and difficult. There’s a maturity both had (not only due to Emma’s family dynamics and Charlie’s marital status) which was refreshing in a romance book.

The meh:

The re-write - I’ll admit it, “It Happened One Night” isn’t my favorite classic movie, but it IS a pretty overall dang well done movie. Unfortunately I really wanted to know more about the potential re-write of this movie - how did Emma improve it, what did she toss, what did she write? Unfortunately that part seemed to be secondary to the story.

The backstory drama (guilt) parts - I won’t get much into it, but there’s a lot of drama in both Emma’s and Charlie’s pasts - and I’m not sure I needed to read all about it. In fact I think a few times the information was repeated. And the fact that Emma still has guilt I get, but it became a bit over-the-top in martyr-ism.

The bad:

The hospital stuff - either Emma was really distracted or something, but someone needed to hit her with a clue-by-four.

The relationship - I get it, Charlie’s reclusive, Emma has shut herself away from the world to care for her father - but at its core, I still don’t know why Charlie fell for Emma … and why Emma (once the fangirling ceased) fell for Charlie.

Minor stuff - “Wah-lah”? It’s voila - and, in fact, later in the book that actual word is used. The pool - guess no one thought about kids sneaking into the back yard and using the diving board/pool?

I wanted to like this more than I did … and I think somewhere there is a great sweet story, but I missed it. Overall, 3.5 stars.

Katherine Center has done it again...and this one may be my favorite. I absolutely adored the FMC and MMC—to the point where I never wanted this book to end. The witty banter is on point and I loved the back-and-forth between the two leads. I highly, highly, highly recommend picking this up when it released in June!

This was my favorite Katherine Center book yet. I have read the majority of her catalog and, with the exception of Hello Stranger, have enjoyed the majority. The Rom-Commers was the funniest and most engaging read yet! It felt like I was dropped onto the set of a 90's rom-com movie and I could not get enough. The characters were likable and slightly flawed, the concept was great, and the tension and humor was fantastic.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

The Rom-Commers is the latest hit romance from Katherine Center. It follows Emma Wheeler, a writer who dreams of writing movies. However, she puts her father’s medical needs and her sister’s dreams ahead of her own. When she gets a huge break in the form of helping her favorite screenwriter fix his take on a romcom, she takes the leap. Charlie Yates may be a genius writer, but his refusal to believe in love makes his romcom script in desperate need of a rewrite. But what happens when Emma and Charlie’s script starts to become a little too real?

I loved this book. It was hilarious and romantic and emotional and poignant. I was glued to the page from the start. Emma and Charlie have excellent banter and the Hollywood backdrop was so fun. Definitely goes on my top reads of 2024 list.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Rom-Commers was a delight to read. A fabulous story with characters that melted my heart. I experienced a kaleidoscope of emotion. I was literally falling down in stitches laughing, crying in sadness and overwhelmed with immense joy. I absolutely loved these characters. The story is deceiving. On one hand it seems so simple but only because if the flawless delivery. Utter perfection.

Katherine Center is usually an author I love. The Rom-Commers was easily one of my most anticipated releases of the year. However, this one did not work for me. The initial plot/storyline was something that really intrigued me. I think where this book lost me was with the character development. The female love interest was very insecure/immature and I didn't love the way she responded to many of the events of the book. I understand she had to grow up quickly and take on a lot of responsibility, but I don't think it excused some of the ways she reacted especially around the idea of intimacy and the things she says to her sister just to name a few examples. Then the male love interest also showed a lot of toxic behavior. There were many events that he either spoke negatively about her, came off abrasive, or just neglected to take her feelings into account, etc. and then continued to not take accountability and it was again excused behavior due to his past. I don't like characters that can't take accountability for their actions and use past trauma as an excuse for bad behavior. I also struggled with some events being used just to cause drama that felt like I was being manipulated into emotions. Overall this one just didn't work for me. I'll continue to read her books, but this one was a miss.

Another winning novel from Katherine Center. Main character Emma is a wannabe screenwriter who put her life on hold to be her father’s caretaker. But when she gets a chance to work with the award-winning screenwriter Charlie to help him fix his atrocious rom com script, she leaves her father in the care of her sister who has just graduated college to go out to LA for six weeks - only to discover that Charlie doesn’t want her there. Of course she ends up staying and teaching him the rules of rom coms just might change both of their lives.

And I just loved every minute of it! I usually save my ARCs til a little closer to pub date, but I just couldn’t wait to read this one, and my beach vacation was the perfect time. I laughed out loud, I cried until the lone tissue in my beach bag was just a wet rag with holes in it, and at one moment I even laughed and cried at the same time.

I consider myself a Katherine Center super fan - I just love her books and I’ve read all ten of her previous ones - so I’m thrilled to report this was one of her best! And I’m just going to leave you with this line from the book, where Emma is explaining rom coms: “A rom com should give you a swoony, hopeful, delicious rising feeling of anticipation as you look forward to the moment when the two leads who are clearly mad for each other finally overcome all of their obstacles, both internal and external, and get together.” And boy does Center know how to do that!

4.5 stars

4.5 stars rounded up.

Loved this one! Katherine Center's writing is so refreshing. It's simple and straight forward which makes it compulsively readable. I did not want to put this book down. It's like you're reading the book-version of a Nora Ephron movie. It has all the quirkiness, hilarity, heart, and romance of a 90s rom-com. This is my favorite Katherine Center book I've read. Emma is oddly relatable sunshine. Charlie is the perfect amount of grump. And together they are "chef's kiss."

The way Emma & Charlie have my heart.

This is THE rom-com book for rom-com lovers. Katherine Center has a way of making you fall in love with these quirky characters and hanging on for every morsel.

I laughed out loud (like literally, laughed out loud) and even had tears streaming down my face.

Back of the book summary:

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!—it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script—it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter—even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules—and comes true?


Personal notes:
Spice: Closed door
Setting: California
Language: none at all or so little I didn't notice

This book will make you laugh and it will make you cry. It's an ode to rom coms and the joy that they bring. Emma's story sucked me in from the beginning and I loved reading her journey. This was an unputdownable book and I'm so glad that Net Galley and St Martin's Press gave me the chance to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the characters, especially the main character. The story had a great pace, and the love scenes weren't cheesy. I really particularly liked the ending. The only thing I wish the story included was more scenes in which the two main characters started developing their relationship. I've read one other book by Katherine Center, "Things you save in a Fire", and thought that one was great as well, but I actually preferred the story and writing in this book more. At the end of the day, I finished this book quite quickly and couldn't put it down when I got to the last third of the book, which is always a great indicator that the book was great.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is an absolute delight! I wish I had filmed a time lapse of me reading because I’d love to show you the goofy grin I had on my face the entire time. I just adored these characters. Their banter, their backstories, their story together - all of it is just so good!

Two screenwriters are forced together to work on a new romcom script. But there’s so much more to the plot - family commitments, illness, death, anxiety. I love that there is always some depth in her books to go along with the squishy love story.

I really credit Katherine Center for helping me love romcoms. Not only are hers fantastic, her note at the end of Hello Beautiful explaining the happily ever after of romcoms was like a lightbulb going off for me. It gave me permission to just enjoy the ride that gets us to the happy ending. I really enjoyed this ride.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC! This is my second Katherine Center book and while I really enjoy her writing, I think this one was a letdown after Happiness for Beginners. It was good but not great.

What we have here is some really great writing and some excellent banter…. Bogged down by tropes and a lot of preaching and inner monologue. I really do love KC’s writing style. It’s personable and refreshing and you feel like your best friend is telling you a cute love story. She comes through with this really EXCELLENT banter between Charlie and Emma. There are moments where I absolutely swooned.

I think where it missed the greatness were in the plot and characters. The plot is super basic. MMC hires FMC to help him write a screenplays and they cohabitate and fall in love. Super basic premise. It does have some fun twists and turns but the plot is not that thrilling. And when you have a blunt, forward FMC and a naive, charming MMC… they’re also pretty basic. Again, KC has a way of elevating them to levels where I do like them - I enjoyed them a lot. But down to the meat….They weren’t really my cup of tea.

And while I get that a lot of the book was turning tropes into jokes, it did kind of feel like we were hitting plot points and moving onto a summary until the next plot point. How is it that this girl accidentally eavesdropped on THREE separate occasions so the reader could hear info from the MMC? If any other author did that, it’d be blasphemous. And the immense amount of internal dialogue and summary was a LOT. You had a lot of moments where the author was kind of giving you a nice little “this is how life goes” talk and you’re like “thanks, I got that from the story, you don’t need to tell me again.”

I do feel like I’m complaining a lot for a four-star book but honestly I really enjoyed reading this book even with all my complaints. This was a good book and a solid one, but I think it pales in comparison to HfB and honestly I’d recommend you read that one instead if you’re a first time KC reader.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite.

Let me elaborate;

As per usual, this was written well, it had depth and characters that felt real and had ever range of emotion and depth one should have. They were funny, charismatic, flawed, troubled, insecure and human - however FOR ME I struggled with a lot of the concepts within this book. Perhaps because I am not in a great space for myself or because maybe there were too many things that I personally fear in these pages, but I was almost just anxious for it to be over so I could feel safe again.

IE much heavier subject matter than I was used to in a rom com. TW: Death of a parent, pet and mentions of cancer. However, beneath and after all of these mentions and topics, the overarching theme for me was hope after despair, healing after loss..and that at the end of it all even when we hurt and are in pain and deal with these traumatic things life hands us, we will be okay. We will find love, happiness, healing and growth because of those things, not in spite of those things.

I hope this book finds who it needs to find and helps them heal.

I LOVED this book. It was everything my romance loving screenwriter heart needed. It's my absolute favorite ever. I'm so happy to have received it. Charlie is so sweet and I love him so so much. It was so fun and a great exploration of screenwriting. I love all of Katherine Center's books but this one really did it for me.

I absolutely adored this one, the banner and relationship that developed between Emma and Charlie was of course amazing, and it was so heartfelt and emotional.

I don’t want to give two much away because it’s such a wonderful journey, but the basics are Emma is a writer who gets the opportunity to write with her favor famous writer. Both have a lot to overcome, and you get to see them help each and themselves.

Bonus my favorite Jack Stapleton (iykyk) makes an appearance and my exact words to the group “screaming, crying, throwing up” 🤪 I have zero chill.

Definitely add this one to your tbr!

As with all Katherine Center books, it's a rom-com with an element of tragedy mixed in. I feel that these stories have more depth than most, and help you to connect better with the characters. I loved the main character Emma, I thought she was downright hilarious at times and also instantly relatable. The ending was what you would expect it to be and that was very satisfying to me. I still think How to Walk Away was my favorite of hers, but this is a close second.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to others.

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