I absolutely adored this book, the characters, the plot- I loved it all. This was a quick read that also had some depth to it, which I really appreciated. I felt like the serious topics in this book were written in a way that I could relate to how the characters were feeling in those moments.

As someone who has recently been in a caregiving position I can understand Emma’s need to put her Dads care over her own love life, but also her desire to follow her dreams when a job of a lifetime comes along.

She has spent the past ten years caring for her dad and helping raise her sister after a tragic accident left her dad disabled and her mom passed on- when an old boyfriend reaches out to offer her a ghostwriting job with her favorite screenwriter.

I laughed, I cried and enjoyed every second of this book. This was the first I read by this author, but most certainly will not be my last.

Do yourself a favor and pick this book up!

Katherine Center never fails to write an amazing story!

Emma Wheeler has always wanted to be a screenwriter. She has invested a lot of time reading and writing her own romantic comedies and even chose to forego an award that she won for one of her stories because she is the full-time caregiver to her father.

Emma is offered a chance to help her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Hayes, re-write his own romantic comedy that he has butchered beyond all belief. Her sister, Sylvie, agrees to come out and take over for the six weeks that she will be in LA. When she arrives in LA, she quickly learns that Charlie has absolutely no interest in her being there nor does he want her help rewriting his script. Charlies makes it clear that he thinks romantic comedies are stupid and he doesn't really believe in love and happy endings. This is a script he doesn't really care about and is not really interested in making better, he just wants to get it done as a tradeoff for helping one of his scripts take off.

Emma doesn't give up so easily though. Will she be able to convince Charlie love is real and there is such a thing as a happy ending? Could it turn out to be her happy ending too?

loved this book! definitely one you need to make sure is on your TBR!!!

I’ve said before that this author is a hit or miss for me, and unfortunately this one fell on the ‘miss’ side. The beginning felt very disjointed- parts of it just didn’t seem to go together and the inner dialogue of the female lead did not feel like it was coming from a writer with years of experience. The plot had a lot of potential, but I never truly bought the connection between the two leads. Nor did I particularly enjoy either character - they both said and did things to each other that did not feel like a solid stepping stone for ending up together in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Yet another fantastic read by Katherine Center! This book was an absolute delight. The characters were like family members and kept me flipping pages from beginning to end. A great genre switch from psychological thrillers and I’m discovering just how much I adore this author.
Well done!
Thank you NetGalley and Katherine Center for the opportunity to read and review this book

I've worked my way through Katherine Center's entire body of work this year and The Rom-Commers is far and away my favorite. Center is at her best when introducing levity to serious topics. I couldn't get enough and I'm jealous of everyone that gets to read this for the first time.

Katherine Center is one of the only rom-com authors that I will not only repeatedly read but also look forward to new releases. While this was not my favorite of hers (I think Things We Save in a Fire still holds the top spot for me, there), this was still a cute story. At times, it felt a little all over the place and the pacing felt very fast at times and very slow at others. Overall, though, I enjoy her light and fluffy and sweet reads, and while this wasn't my favorite, I still enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc!

I adored The Bodyguard. It was my favorite romance I’ve ever read, so I wanted to love this one more. I thought the love story was cute, but my main problem with this one was the overabundance of medical diagnoses peppered through the novel. It seemed every problem was explained with another medical catastrophe. As a physician myself, it felt forced and unbelievable. Although most of it was medically accurate, it just was over the top. Perhaps others not in the medical field won’t notice or care about this and will enjoy it nonetheless. For me, the ending was just too far fetched and overly convenient.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Center can do no wrong. I love her writing, I am always sucked into her stories and The Rom-Commers is no different. Katherine Center has a gift for writing and she will always be an auto buy/read author for me. Every book she writes is my new favorite by her and I already can't wait for her next one.

Emma wanted so desperately to be a successful screen writing and she was on her way until a tragic accident changed her course of life. Emma put everyone else's needs and wants in front of hers and she is content in doing so. Until her friend/agent calls her with a once in a life-time opportunity, to write a romantic comedy with non other than the famous screen writer Charlie Yates. Emma flies to LA to help him, but their very own romantic comedy unfolds in the process.

I am obsessed with this book. I couldn't put it down when I started reading it and I haven't stopped talking about it since I finished. Katherine Center knows how to pull you into the story and make you laugh, cry, swoon, and be mad at the characters. I cannot wait for her next book.

Writing reviews for romance books, as someone who loves a silly little romance, is difficult. I feel like there isn't all that much to say about them - generally, you either like them or you don't. However, I will say, the interesting thing about Katherine Center's 'The Rom-Commers' were the very real traumas of life.

'The Rom-Commers' stars Emma, a young woman. who longs to be a screenwriter, but is forced to reconcile those dreams with her duties as a care-taker for her father. When Emma is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, she opts to take it and (shocker) she ends up falling in love. While the book is 90% romance, it also touches on sensitive, but important issues like familial responsibilities, guilt, illness, and emotional trauma. Allow me to reiterate that, this is still a classic rom-com in the boy-meets girl, they fall in love, kind of way, but it's refreshing because of Center's extra contextual plot lines. Also, while a small detail, I especially appreciated Center's discussion of requisites for a rom-com, which acknowledged the way this genre can be repetitive - noting that this factor its not important to me, nor is it likely important to other fans of romance.

I would definitely recommend this to lovers of romance, and fans of Katherine Center. I'd like to warn, though, that it touches upon topics like cancer, disability, and death that might be sensitive to some readers. I, for one, lost my father to cancer and the book definitely tugged on my heartstrings a little more than the average romance. 4/5 stars - as someone who reserves 5 stars for books I could 100% read a million times.

Just when I think I've already read Katherine Center's best work yet, she shows up with a new book to prove me wrong yet again. This, friends, is officially my favorite Katherine Center book yet. For real this time. I started crushing on this book when I met its cover (and sprayed edges and end papers - swoony!) but fell all the way in love with the magic that was written inside that bright and cheerful housing. Katherine Center has a true gift for writing flawed, realistic characters that I immediately would like to be friends with.

Once upon a time, Emma dreamed of becoming a successful romantic comedy screenwriter. A tragic accident changed everything, though, and Emma has spent the past 10 years tending to everybody but herself. She's perfectly happy with her life, but finds herself on a plane to LA when her friend calls with the professional opportunity of a lifetime. Her favorite screenwriter, the super-famous Charlie Yates, has written a screenplay for a rom-com and it's something worse than terrible. Emma arrives to help him re-write his screenplay, and their own personal rom-com unfolds.

This book is written in Katherine Center's traditional style that will capture your every emotion. I laughed, I swooned, I tried not to cry. My heart broke for these characters, and then sang as they each grew as a person and blossomed as a pair. Katherine Center remains an auto-buy author for me and I'm already excited for whatever she publishes next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for introducing me to Emma and Charlie in exchange for my honest review.

I've enjoyed Katherine Center books in the past, and I loved the Rom-Commers so much. It really epitomized everything good about any Center books and totally captures the fizzy feeling of the best of the romcom genre. It's about aspiring screenwriter Emma who is starstruck when she lucks into a gig re-writing a romantic comedy script with the renowned Charlie Yates. She's spunky and determined and he's grumpy and withdrawn. There are some sparkling setups right out of old Hollywood screwball comedies. (Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.)

What a treat this book was!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from this gal!
Emma, has always wanted to be a screenwriter. She loves romantic comedies, and writes as much as she can. But she’s also the full-time caretakes of her dad and has had to pass up on many opportunities
Then she’s given the chance to re-write a script for a famous screen writer who is doing a romantic comedy for the first time- and the script is awful!

I loved the nuances of explaining what makes a good rom-com… in a rom-com. It was so cute.
It was a fast and enjoyable read. I loved the banter, I loved the characters. I laughed… I may have shed a tear or two (in a rom-com…what?) What a sweet book.


KThis book is available June 11, 2024. Thank you to St.Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I am always awestruck at how Katherine Center consistently brings fictional characters to life. I will never pass up a read by my favorite author, despite knowing the ache I’ll carry for a few days after. Despite the number of pages, I always want more time with the cast. She animates them to the exact amount of personality and realism that I miss them! I could have read 100 more pages and not lost interest.

If you want a feel good, well rounded book that has real life problems (and a few TW) settle in and read The Rom Commers.

Bravo!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC - in stores in June (just in time for the beach read of 2024)

This book is some of Katherine Center’s best work!

One of the things I love about her books is the way she sprinkles in these quotes just LOADED with wisdom. The characters may be learning some things about themselves, but I end up doing the same. Her books are uplifting, inspiring, and hopeful.

A lot of her books are also entertaining, funny, and swoony. The Bodyguard (which is the companion book to the Rom-Commers) was the most lighthearted of her books so far, but I felt like it was missing the depth I love from Center. But The Rom-Commmers had eeeeeeverything I wanted and needed! I cannot tell you how many quotes I’ve written down (and referred back to!) from this book, or how many times I caught myself laughing out loud.

No review of this book would be complete without mentioning how much I loved Charlie—so thanks, Charlie, that was great. And I’ll end by saying that I could read about Katherine Center defending the value of Rom Coms all day long.

Beautiful!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

This book was very entertaining and fun to read. I did thoroughly enjoy learning about the process of writing a screen play. I enjoyed the banter between Emma and Charlie and would definitely recommend the book. It was however, so very similar to The Bodyguard in plot, even some of the scenes were identical.

<b>4.5 stars, rounded up because only Katherine Center can make me laugh AND cry in the best way possible</b>

While not my absolute favorite of Katherine Center’s books, I wholeheartedly loved this one! I couldn’t put it down. The dialogue was so snappy and witty. I loved Emma and Charlie’s banter so much. There were many humorous scenes between the two of them. But this is so much more than just your average rom-com. I loved the deeper story as well. I definitely teared up a couple of times. Overall it was a beautiful story and I loved it so so so much. I can’t wait to read another book by this author.

3.5/5
This is my second Katherine Center book and she’s becoming my go-to for romance novels that aren’t always about sex and how hot each other is that they can’t keep away. Don’t get me wrong, I love regency bodice rippers and other “spicy” novels, but sometimes I like read about characters learning to trust one another and love each other through action versus lust. That was a long way to say there is no spice in this book, but you shouldn’t discount that.

This book felt a little more dramatic than it had to be compared to her last novel, Hello Stranger, but it was still a quick fun read.

I really enjoyed this book, I loved the characters, I laughed, and I cried with them. I've never thought about how a screenplay is written, so that part of the story was actually interesting to read and learn about. While the ending was a little predictable, it was still engaging and enjoyable. I love Katherine Center and her books, and this one did not disappoint! Thank you to Netgalley.com for this ARC!

I could not put this one down! I don’t feel like the title is very fitting cause while there were comedic moments, this was definitely more heartfelt than I was prepared for.

Emma is a screenwriter who puts her dreams aside to act as a full-time caretaker for her disabled father. When she gets duped into writing a rom-com with her screenwriting idol Charlie, she finally is able to focus on herself and discovering what she wants.

I love the banter as Emma tries to show Charlie the appeal of romance as a genre. They could be characterized as sunshine and grump, but Emma has gone through a lot in her family life and doesn’t quite fit the mold. Seeing Emma’s relationship with her family made her seem like a more well-rounded character and I liked how the romance wasn’t the sole purpose of the book.

Four stars cause the third act breakup is just unnecessarily cruel and over the top. There’s already so much going on that could push them away from each other more organically.

Katherine Center has wowed me, dazzled me, and left me full of happiness yet again! The Rom-Commers was instantly gripping from the very first page! I found it to be endearing, sweet, hard to put down and a wonderful read. Plus, this book had characters who won my heart not to mention characters from The Bodyguard.

I love Katherine Center's writing. She had a knack for creating likeable, realistic, and engaging characters who are dealing with real life issues. This book is no exception. All of the characters in this book, just like all of us in real life, have things that they are coping with, dealing/not dealing with, doubts, insecurities and dreams.

In The Rom-Commers, Emma is approached by her close friend who happens to represent her favorite screenwriter fix a rom-com he has written. This means going to L.A. for 6 weeks to work closely with her idol. It also means asking her sister to look after their father with whom Emma lives and takes care of. Charlie is the screen writer who wrote the screenplay in question.

I enjoyed Emma and Charlie's forced meet cute. They agree to work on writing a rom-com together and along the way, both will have to step outside of their comfort zone. Romance is a journey for me, and I absolutely loved the journey Emma and Charlie went on over the course of this book.

This book touches on guilt, illness, loss, love, relationships, pursuing your dreams, attraction, and sense of duty to name a few.

Gripping, engaging, beautifully written, and hard to put down!

I can't wait to read what Katherine Center writes next!


Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.