The Rom-Commers By Katherine Center is another intriguing sweet story featuring Emma and Charlie. Emma has been working her whole career to make her break working on romcom‘s, and is given an almost too good to be true opportunity to write with her favorite screenwriter, Charlie.

I thoroughly enjoyed the slow burn of this book, and as always the depth of Katherine’s romcom, leave you hooked and rooting for both characters.

Highly recommend for any rom com lovers, it’s very easy to relate to Emma’s love for the genre.

Katherine Center does it again! I absolutely loved Emma, the main character. Her upbeat and spunky personality and her loyalty to her family had me rooting for her the entire time. Emma’s ability to overcome adversity and fight for her dreams was encouraging to read. The love interest is different than what we have seen in the past from Centers other books. I wasn’t entirely sure how it was going to work out!

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry's Book Lovers!
This novel follows Emma Wheeler, a talented screenwriter whose career stalled when her father's injury and subsequent care takes precedent. Knowing that Emma is a time lover of the romantic comedy genre, Emma's agent hires her to be the ghost writer for the wildly successful Charlie Yates. Charlie doesn't believe in love, and is being forced into writing a romantic comedy in order to get his real passion project onto the screen. His disdain for the genre as a whole is reflected in the disastrous current version of his script. In an effort to convince Charlie of the power of the rom-com, the two go on a journey of recreating the script's storyline to prove whether or not they contribute to the storyline. Fraught with romantic tension, past trauma, and challenging their unhealthy coping mechanisms, this novel is a beautiful story that reminds us that the romantic comedy is no joke, and that love should always be taken seriously.

Date reviewed: Jan 21

Wow. I LOVED this book. Five stars. So many laugh out loud moments. Moments where my heart was full. Moments where I wanted to cry. New favorite Katherine Center book. I need more!!! ❤️😭

To Katherine: UM. New favorite. FIVE STARS. I just finished the ARC and it was amazing. I loved that so much. I laughed at so many moments and wanted to cry at parts. My heart was so full reading that. Thank you for writing such an amazing book. ❤️😭

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC! And sorry for me forgetting to post it ACTUALLY ON Netgalley and not just Goodreads. 😂

This is only my second Katherine Center book but I think she may become a go to comfort author. Her latest books is sunshine with a little bit of rain in the best way, some may call it a sun shower. This book is funny, relatable, enchanting, heartbreaking, and perfect in the best way.

Emma is getting her start as a writer with none other than her idol Charlie Yates. She has to help him rewrite his rom-com because honestly it is a dumpster fire. But when she leaves her sick father behind for a chance at fame and shows up to his door, he doesn’t want her there.

Finally after much yelling with her friend Logan who is Charlie’s agent and a storm off through the streets of LA, Charlie gives in and says he’ll write with her. Writing the rom-com of the century is no easy feat especially when you just might fall in love with your cowriter.

Center does everything right with this book and I truly believe it is her best yet. She plays with the emotions of the readers effortlessly through Emma’s sick father and Charlie’s swoon worthy behavior. This is truly the perfect summer read for everyone!

Katherine Center is the queen of banter! The page long dialogue made my heart so happy!! I just love how her characters communicate. They ask questions, they say the hard things, they say what they are thinking. I just love that!

I think people are going to love this story. Anyone that loves a Hollywood themed book, a BTS look at the Hollywood world is going to enjoy this story.

It’s so fun and the perfect summer read!

This was a literal rom com, full stop. It was almost breaking the fourth wall in the way it addressed the common rom com tropes and incorporated each of them in the story. I feel like I say this often, but I love the way that these characters felt relatable because they weren't perfect, often disappointed their counterpart, and had ~big feelings~ the whole way through the story.

My tastes lately have been stemming a bit away from the really syrupy sweet rom coms and I felt like this struck a good balance between that and something erring a bit more towards women's fiction.

Katherine Center's books always jump to the top of my TBR! To be 100% honest, I didn't even know about this book before I got the email with the ARC, but I am so grateful I did because this book was amazing.
I LOVED Charlie so much. He was so sweet and naive. Charlie is a famous screenwriter who is tasked with writing a rom-com, which ends up being terrible because he doesn't believe in love. Enter Emma, a sweet, love loving woman who is romcom obsessed and loves Charlie's work. She's been her dad's caregiver for a decade, which has stunted her rom com screenwriting career. Emma gets paired up with Charlie to fix his terrible rom-com script, and in the process, Emma wants to teach his all about love.

This book is written like a friend telling you the story over facetime, which makes you feel like family. Katherine's love stories are all sweet and no spice in the best way possible. Also, loved the surprise cameos from Jack and Hannah from "The Bodyguard."

*Thank you to the St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review! *

This was a really adorable slow burn romance. I loved following Emma and Charlie as they collaborated on their writing. There is so much tension and banter between them! The secondary story dealing with Emma's family was also very touching. Her dad was so cute. This would have been a 5 star read for me if it didn't lean so heavily on miscommunication for the sake of drama.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars ♾️

" Whatever story you tell yourself about your life, that's the one that will be true."

Omg! This book made me bawl. I was crying through almost every interaction between Emma and Charlie. Emma was just so vulnerable and snarky. I love her. Emma's dad spouted so many amazing insightful quotes. *Swoon They all just hit you right in the heart. I can't wait to get my copy so I can do a re-read and tab and highlight it. I adore Katherine Center and everything that she writes.

My favorite Katherine Center book so far! Loved the witty banter and the pace. It was laugh out loud funny. Really enjoyed it!

I loved this book. I was assuming that it would be like most other romance books that I have read. I love romances but usually only rate them 3-4 stars. They are pretty typical and predictable, but that is what I come for. The Rom-Commers however was amazing. Yes, it was predictable, it is a romance after all. But the interaction between Charlie and Emma was amazing. It felt like an arranged marriage in the best possible ways. They start living together and getting to know each other and then the feelings come. I feel that love is a choice that we make. We can choose to love someone and that is the feeling that I get from Charlie and Emma. That they are choosing to love each other in small but meaningful ways. It also helps that it made me cry but I'm not saying how or why it did. Read the book to find out.

Katherine Center keeps me reading past my bedtime, and that’s a gift. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- I will read anything she writes. I was wiping real-life tears off my face at the end. Love.

The Rom-Commers was another 5 star read by Katherine Center!
Emma and Charlie are such relatable characters- we see their strengths and their flaws and it makes them so lovable.
It’s a love story, but also a story about courage and strength and never giving up.
Definitely one of the top romances I’ll read this year for sure. Highly recommend!

My second Katherine Center and I really enjoyed it!

The Rom-Commers centers around Emma, a screenwriter who was on the path to success when her life suddenly changed drastically and she ended up having to become a caretaker for her father. When she is suddenly presented with the opportunity to work with one of her writing idols, she takes it. But to her dismay, this writer doesn’t believe in love and it will take a lot more work than she bargained for to convince him otherwise.

One of the things I really love about Katherine Center’s work is that she has such a good sense of voice. I knew exactly who Emma was and it never faltered throughout the book. I feel like I understood her intentions, her guilt, her hopes, and her beliefs. It really gave the book a sense of ease in believability, despite this being a somewhat unique plot.

I also loved Charlie as he was so believable as a character as well. The dynamic between Charlie and Emma was so much fun at times and I rooted for them most of the entire book. I loved the little details that made him fleshed out, especially the chapters with Powerwash Simulator (such a relaxing game!!!) and the biscuit cans. The only reason why I dinged this a star is that the conflict/3rd act breakup could have essentially been avoided if they just had talked to each other! The drama of it all and the way that Charlie had acted during it frustrated me at times.

This was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend picking it up this summer. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy, all thoughts are my own.

2,5 ⭐️

The Rom Commers follows Emma, a writer who spends more time caring for her father than writing, and Charlie, a famous screenplay writer who has many accolades but a bad attitude towards love. Emma ends up being hired to help Charlie re-write an awful rom com screenplay and in the process, they end up living a rom com-esque story themselves.

This was really just… fine? I think the first half was better than the second, but it started to drag on and became so boring I completely lost interested. I like the idea of the parallel between Charlie and Emma living a rom com while writing a rom com, but I think this needed to be more. The connection between Charlie and Emma was so lacking, I barely felt anything between them. Charlie isn’t a likeable character at all- I absolutely hated how their romantic connection played out, it was all just lies and miscommunication and I didn’t think his actions and words could be forgiven so easily. I didn’t love Emma either, but I’m happy with the realizations she had at the end, and I’m happy with how everything came together in the end.
The writing style for this, in my opinion, as someone who’s read all of the authors recent works, is very different. It’s definitely “quirky” and written in a very specific way. It’s fine and sometimes funny, but I think I prefer the authors previous story, the last one I loved being The Bodyguard. I found this story repetitive and Emma and Charlie very immature in many ways, but especially emotionally, I felt as though the romance between them really took the back burner, so I’m disappointed in this overall. I’m on the fence on recommending!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks @netgalley @stmartinspress and @katherinecenter for the chance to read an early copy of her upcoming rom-com, the appropriately named, "The Rom-Commers." It releases on June 11, 2024.

Emma is a talented rom-com screenwriter whose never had a chance to realize her dreams--not when she's been taking care of her Dad for the past decade. So, when the opportunity of a lifetime comes--writing a rom-com with her FAVE screenwriter, Charlie--her sister agrees to help with her dad so she can get her big break. Small problem...Charlie has written a rom-com so bad that we need a better word for terrible. It's clear he has no concept of the tenets of rom-coms (the meet-cute, etc.) and it's so bafflingly awful maybe he doesn't even know what love is. Emma decides that she will make the script sparkle and convince Charlie that true love and hope are possible. When you combine a hopeless romantic and a cynical screenwriter, sparks fly!

This story was so much fun! I think it might be Katherine's most voicey book yet, with plenty of fourth wall-breaking asides that made me laugh. It has charm and heart to spare. And if you read The Bodyguard, you'll enjoy some cameos 😍

Steam: 🔥 (closed door)
Tropes: story-within-a-story, grumpy/sunshine, Hollywood, caregiving, acting out tropes so you can write them

I oftentimes struggle rating romance novels, but I had no struggle with this one! This was my first Katherine Center novel, and I get it now. This hooked me from the first chapter, and this book really had it all - humor, lovable characters, storyline depth, and romance. Definitely recommend picking this up! 5 stars all around for The Rom-Commers.

Loved, loved, loved.

After not having enjoyed Hello Stranger last year, I was hopeful that The Rom-Commers would be better and I was very far from disappointed. This is now my favorite Katherine Center. It’s probably currently in my top 5 favorite contemporary romances along with Nora Goes Off Script and Beach Read, both of which are decent read-alikes. The banter is genuinely funny, the family members and side characters are very enjoyable and the deeper themes were poignant and gave me food for thought. I will definitely be purchasing a copy when it comes out in June to reread in the future.

Reading a Katherine Center book is like wrapping yourself in a warm and soft blanket on a cold rainy day. They are comforting and warm up your insides.

The Rom- Commers is a cute romance that covers some serious issues that make you understand and like the characters more.
Center’s writing style pulls you in and then you realize you’re done with the book and you’re crying reading the epilogue.