Thank you to netgalley for the ALC!

Oh my goodness. This book. Look, if you love 2000s romcoms, then this is the book for you. When I say this book could be a movie, I’m not exaggerating. I could see the scenes unfurling in front of me and imagine the sweetest love story playing out on the big screen. It would obviously have a fantastic soundtrack, like How to lose a guy in ten days good.

If you’ve liked Katherine Center’s previous work, this book will be right up your alley. It’s a bit of women’s fiction with plenty of romantic tension. You will love the quirky, bold Emma. And the sweet, thoughtful Charlie Yates? He’s the romcom lead of your dreams.

Listen. You might be saying, “Hannah. I’ve read plenty of romcoms. Why this one?” And I’ll be telling you that people don’t make these books like this one anymore. This is classic. This is sweet. This is Center witty. This is what every romance movie of the 2010s and 2020s have been missing.

Just do yourself a favor and preorder it. Not just because it has adorable pink sprayed edges, but because it’s a story you need in your heart.

P.s. absolutely loved the narrator. She was the perfect voice for Emma and I didn’t want to put it down once. Some narrators make me cringe, this one was great!

I'm excited to read this book, but couldn't listen to more than a few minutes of the audiobook due to the narrator grating on me. She seemed so much older than the character and I couldn't reconcile the two.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review, The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center. This review is purely my thoughts and opinions based on this audiobook.

Emma wants to be a screenwriter, and she’s an outstanding author writing of rom-coms. She’s gets the opportunity of a lifetime to write for Charlie Yates, but she’s still providing full-time care to her loving father. But Emma’s sister steps in and it frees Emma of her responsibilities to go and travel to L.A. What an opportunity! Her most favorite writer of all time!

Charlie Yates is not thrilled with writing with anyone, let alone Emma. He’s willing to try, but she’s putting up a fight for love and rom-coms in general.

I loved the banter between Emma and Charlie, and even Emma and her sister. Great story and even better ending to tie the entire story together. Also, I enjoyed the humor and some LOL parts throughout the audiobook too. And what happens if the love story Emma has envisioned, comes true?

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫(3.5)

Emma Wheeler, aspiring screenwriter, gets a chance to rewrite a script for her idol, Charlie Yates. Leaving her caregiving duties to her sister, she heads to L.A. But Yates, cynical and dismissive, presents a challenge. As they clash over love's authenticity, Emma realizes her own story might just be the ultimate romantic comedy.

There were some fun moments and I definitely wanted to finish this book, but overall I wanted to like it more than I actually did. It was a slow start to the plot and a slow build to the romance. The premise of this book is fantastic! I mean a rom-com about a rom-com lover writing and rom-com with a rom-com sync? So fun! But the writing style didn’t live up to my expectations. It is fully “tell not show,” and maybe that’s on purpose? All the dialogue and minimal scene blocking definitely felt like a screenplay. If you like micro-tropes like birthday traditions, family caregiver, niche rom-com/writing references, you’ll smile throughout many scenes in this book ☺️ I’m glad I read this, it just didn’t fully hit the spot.

Thank you @stmartinspress @macmillan.audio @NetGalley for the eARC and ALC 💙 #netgalley

Perfect for you if you like:
Grumpy dialogue
References to writing rom-coms
Caregiver/family health obstacles

Similar to:
How to Plot a Payback by Melissa Ferguson
Beach Read by Emily Henry (open-door)
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (YA, fade-to-black)

⛔️closed door romance (mild innuendo)
⚠️explicit language, previous loss of a parent, sick family member, talk of cancer

The Rom-Commers may be my favorite audio book of the year!! And that is coming from someone who is constantly listening to an audio book. This is by far my favorite book by
Katherine Center & it is exactly what a well written, beautifully narrated rom-com should be. I was so excited to receive this ARC & it surpassed even my 5 star expectations. I’m reading this as well - you can’t go wrong with either format. Put this one on pre-order - you will be so glad you did!!

Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for an ARC copy. .

This latest by Katherine Center was delightful. It gave me all the warm, fuzzy rom com feelings and I devoured it in two days. I absolutely ADORED Emma and all of her selfless, anxious quirkiness. I wanted a tiny bit more from Charlie's character-- he felt a little too one-dimensional to me, but he did find some redemption towards the ending. I love a good close proximity trope, and adore the whole average-girl-meets-celebrity-fangirl-romance vibe! This novel is the must-have feel good summer beach read for 2024!

This was my first novel narrated by Patti Murin and she did a fantastic job evoking the emotion and delivering this wonderful story.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Netgalley, and Katherine Center for an Advance copy of The Rom-Commers in exchange for an honest review. Emma (our MC) desperately dreams of being a screenwriter but her ultimate dream is to write Rom Coms. Luckily for her, a friend from her past calls her up to ask her to write a fantastic, award-winning rom com with Charlie Yates. As she heads out to LA, we find out that Charlie didnt know she was coming... chaos ensues but in the best way possible. It was so fun to watch these two work together, explore rom com topics, and just learn how to work together. The narrators do an amazing job telling this story and really captivating the listener. As always, Center weaves a beautiful story that goes deeper then just a love story. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. If you're a rom com lover, this one needs to be on your summer reading list. You can pick up your own copy of June 25th, 2024!

Great narration. As a fan of lighthearted love stories I enjoyed this title. While you assume the main characters will end up together, I found the male lead to be very unlikable in the beginning, and I'm not sure he ever fully redeemed himself. All in all I enjoyed this title and looked forward to listening to it every day. The story includes cameos of Jack Stapleton.
I enjoyed the author's essay about love stories at the end of the book.

I really enjoyed this grumpy/sunshine romance between two screenwriters who have had wildly different careers. Even though both characters have quite heavy backstories, this felt like a light and funny read. I loved the Hollywood setting, the banter between the main characters, and the wholehearted defense of the power of happy endings (mostly of the fictional variety).

Unfortunately, I'm not sure this worked as well on audio for me. This wasn't my favorite narration in terms of the tone that it set for the character of Emma, and I was so confused as to why she was voicing one of the characters with an accent in the beginning (the backstory was not explained until chapters later). That being said, much of this is up to personal taste, and it was still a well-produced audiobook of a great book that I really enjoyed.

This was my first book by Katerine Center and I look forward to diving into her back catalog. Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

So. Very. Beautiful. I listened to The Rom-Commers in audio, so I do not yet have a physical copy of the book to hold, lovingly reread, and pull quotations from, but there is a section when Emma (realistic romantic) tells Charlie (cynic) just what a romance is and means, and the words to-a-t describe what we readers want and receive from a romance. And in that perfectly meta-way, Katherine Center delivers on her promise. Rom-Commers is a romance to make your toes curl, your heart weep with shared pain, and your soul sigh in deep satisfaction. Life has held plenty of suck for both Emma and Charlie, and when circumstances throw them unexpectedly together and force them to write a romantic screenplay together, success seems unlikely either on the page or in real life. I have read many of Katherine Center's books, and I can attest that while always a terrific writer, she is getting stronger with every book she writes. The Rom-Commers is a keeper that I know I will eagerly return to in years to come.

The audio version of this book maybe, better than the real book. Is that even a thing? Katherine Center is a laugh out loud kind of author. If you are reading this in public, people are definitely going to hear you laugh. The banter between the characters is outstanding. I read the book first, but also requested the audio because I knew it was going to be greatness. I am not giving away any spoilers, but Emma and Charlie OMG! 5 stars!!!!

Alright , this was cute, really cute, loved the book. Enjoy Emma and Charlie immensely. The whole i dont want to write with you to be actually grow into the story is so nice. I like how it developed, and how she had to find her way, the almost ending got me worried and cry a bit , but thanfully everything got resolved 🥳.
Overall very cute rom com

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ARC audio book, and provide my un biased opinion.

The book is set to publish June 11th.

Another amazing book from Katherine Center. She always delivers truly captivating stories, and had me in tears a few times. Katherine has had me in a chokehold since I first came across "Things you save in a fire" on the Libby App. 😍

This book is set in the same universe as "The Bodyguard", as you'll see some familiar characters!

Emma is just so fantastically imperfect and selfless. I love all her "flaws". I really enjoyed hearing her families heartbreaking story unfold. Her dedication to her father and sister were admirable, while also naive.

Charlie is (also fantastically imperfect)the best love hating grump, turned romantic. He's riddled with "faults", and as you learn more about his past, its impossible to not love him. Even though Katherine gives us plenty of opportunity to despise him. His dedication to his guinea pig was so entertaining.

Ultimately Katherine builds a wonderful story, rips your heart out, then puts it back together. When I finished this, the first thing that came to mind was "two weddings, and a funeral(off page)".

Macmillan thank you for giving me early access to this audiobook.

The beginning grabbed me. I really liked the idea. I enjoyed the ending as well. The narrator was perfect.

For me, the majority of this book gave me that growing uncomfortable/cringe feeling of watching two people that were not right for one another having trouble recognizing it. The MMC felt unlikable for too long for me to get wrapped up in any romance.

The older sister was even toxic to the younger sister at one point. I think these characters and this story wasn’t for me.

Aspiring screenwriter Emma Wheeler gladly gave up some of her dreams to take care of her father after he is never quite the same after a traumatic brain injury. He survived the rock-climbing fall during a family vacation; her mother didn’t. Emma’s guilt (the camping vacation was her idea) has put her life on hold for the past 10 years, raising her younger sister, teaching English at a community college, living at home, not dating, not living. Logan, her high school ex who happens to be a screenwriter’s manager, has been feeding her writing gigs out of his own guilt for breaking up with her in college, but it’s a bit of a shock when he asks her to help ghost-rewrite a terrible draft that Hollywood legend Charlie Yates—THE CHARLIE YATES!—needs to produce so the award-winner can move on to his next pet project. Emma’s newly graduated sister Sylvie agrees to cancel her internship so Emma can have this six-week opportunity of a lifetime, but Charlie is less than enthused when Logan drops off Emma at Charlie’s mansion, with “I’ve brought you a writer.” In spite of his reservations, they click, and manage to work well together. Emma is willing to overlook his threat to Logan that he’s playing along but has no intention to actually take this project seriously. She cooks for him, helps him overcome his fear of water, and gives him crash-course in romance.

I love when novels really have fun with a trope; The Rom-Commers goes brilliantly meta, with Charlie claiming that people literally crashing into one another isn’t fun or sexy—until it happens naturally to them, more than once, and arguing while Emma explains that in a rom-com, the main characters eventually have to stop fighting and fall in love. The insider view of the process of writing is akin to another favorite of mine, The Roughest Draft. For this creative writing major, the writing scenes, obsession over words, passion for and defense of the romance genre, and the breaking of the fourth wall are icing on the proverbial cake, and I didn’t even mind the occasional predictability. Of course when Charlie’s stage directions are a simple “He storms in. They kiss,” Emma has to make him watch hours of best kisses and then offer to kiss him… for science. It turns out their wonderful chemistry isn’t limited to writing. When Emma gets called home for an emergency, is this the end of a beautiful partnership?

As with other Katherine Center novels, medical issues–not just Emma’s dad’s–play a significant role, but it’s the character development that is central to the story. Tiny details like Emma’s dad Etsy shop and Logan’s license plate add to who they are. Charlie’s behavior is mercurial with dash of Kevin Smith and a smattering of warm-cinnamon roll. He tends to tell people what they want to hear, and Emma is disappointed every time she accidently eavesdrops and hears Charlie’s truth, but he is also genuinely kind and kind of quirky himself, (co-parenting a sad guinea pig with his famous ex!) as well as skeptical, bitter, and when it matters, a romantic with the understanding of a grand gesture, after all.

The brisk narrative reminds me a bit of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy; it’s almost documentarian, moves the narrative at a fast and fluid pace, lends an immediacy to the series of events. Murin resists the urge to be too clipped, and her narration is a pitch-perfect fit for caring, awkward, romantic, conflicted Emma, delivering inflection, heart, and emotion. She moves expertly and effortlessly from Logan’s posh British accent to Emma’s perky/angsty mid-western accent to Charlie’s husky rumble. Her voice squeaks when Sylvie’s childhood voice is described as like a chipmunk, and adopts a warmer, richer tone when another character’s voice is described like butterscotch. I listened to this after reading it, and discovered a few details I’d missed the first time around, brought to life by the excellent narration.

I received a free advance reader’s review copies of both the audio and print editions of #TheRom-Commers via #NetGalley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio.

I was excited to read the most recent book from Katherine Center, as I have enjoyed her last two books. I enjoyed this book. It was very heartfelt, and brought in elements of mental health struggles. I enjoyed the banter between the two main characters. There is no spice, so I do wish that it had some to emphasize the connection. I do wish there was more emphasis on the initial connection development vs. time skip to doing research.

I related to this book because I have been a caretaker of someone with terminal illness, and have gone through the transition of living life again. I also have survived illness myself. I appreciate the delving into this, and felt that this was portrayed accurately.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it if you have enjoyed the author's other books.

I absolutely loved reading this physically and then the audiobook just added a whole new level . I deeply loved everything about this book! There is just something about Katherine Center’s characters. They are never flat or one dimensional and they are so well rounded. This was a very kicking your feet while smiling and giggling kind of book sure to make a bad day good!


Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ALC review copy of this book

5.0⭐️

THE ROM-COMMERS
Katherine Center

Emma and Charlie set out to write a great romantic comedy and end up writing their own love story.

Emma dreams of being a Hollywood screenwriter. It would be her one wish come true. Logan, her manager, knows this and has the most exciting opportunity for her. She would co-write a rom-com with the famous screenwriter, Charlie Yates. She says yes to the offer before knowing all the details. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

There’s just one problem…

Emma is coming in a little late. Charlie has already written a manuscript and Logan says it’s not his best work, it's terrible, he says. Although he is a famous screenwriter, he has never written a rom-com. Emma takes it upon herself to teach him all about the rules of writing an exceptional romantic comedy and ends up teaching him all about the rules of love.

I never let a year go by without spending time with one of my favorite authors. Katherine Center is known more for her sweet emotional connections and less for her sizzling love-making scenes. When I read her books my sarcasm and pessimism take a back seat to lightheartedness and optimism. We all deserve to have a little pocket of joy and Katherine Center is that for me.

She takes me back to a more innocent time of my life when love was all there was and the only thing you lose in a relationship is time. She reminds me that sometimes it is that simple; all there is is LOVE!

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies! It was my pleasure to read.

THE ROM-COMMERS…⭐⭐⭐⭐

I listened to the audiobook of this title and really enjoyed it! It had Center’s trademark combination of romance and heavier plot points, her heroines are never just a love interest and the romance is rarely the crux of their story.

Katherine Center's The Rom-Commers was a delightful and easy read. I didn't mind the predictability of the ending - as the author states near the beginning of the book, it's how we get to that ending that makes for an good story. I didn't particularly enjoy Charlie Yates as a character nor the sheer number of times his full name is used in the book; I did find that annoying. Overall, If you enjoy a book in which flawed characters fall in love with a bit of unrealistic fluff and without sex, this is a fun, good read/listen with a satisfying ending. Patti Murin did a phenomenal job narrating this book.. even having to say 'Charlie Yates' way too many times.

I'm giving this book 4 stars because while I didn't find it absolutely amazing, I did find it better than the average rom-com.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, and Katherine Center for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.