The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: Never Meet Your Heros
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center is a perfect reminder of why we adore romantic comedies and, more importantly, why we desperately need more good ones like this.
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
Category: Contemporary Romance
Tags: Screenwriters working together, Opposites Attract, Grumpy x Sunshine, Angst, Forced Proximity, Closed Door Romance (no spice on the page), He Falls First
CONTENT WARNINGS: death of a parent, cancer, traumatic brain injury, and divorce
Published June 11, 2024
Rating: ★★★★
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center Publisher Description
She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?
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?
The Rom-Commers Review
Emma is a very talented amateur screenwriter. Her father needs 24/7 care, so Emma cares for him. To do that, she missed many opportunities that came her way. On the other hand, Charlie Yates is a Hollywood legend. He is also Emma’s hero. So, when contacted to help him rewrite the script, she reluctantly decides to go.
The deal is to travel to California and write the script while living with her role model. Unfortunately, when something is too good to be true, it usually is. Although Charlie can’t dispute her writing talent, he doesn’t like the rom-com genre.
However, they find some common ground, and Charlie is a more complex character than it seems at first. Even side characters are very developed.
The writing style is simple, easy, and fast to read. Katherine Center has a unique writing style, almost like a movie narration in a book form.
The story is very emotional. Witty banter, with complex characters and their incredible chemistry, truly makes this a must-read. Dialogues between Charlie and Emma are a delight to read. They will make you laugh and cry. And the book ends with such a big life lesson that I spend several days thinking about it.
The Rom-Commers truly captures the nostalgia of those classic Nora Ephron romantic comedies.
Read if you like:
- Witty and funny banter
- Healing storylines
- Quirky and impulsive heroines
- Cozy and moving stories
- Character-driven, single person
Books like The Rom-Commers
About Katherine Center
BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She’s the New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and her newest, Hello Stranger. Her summer 2024 book is The Rom-Commers—a connected story to her blockbuster hit, The Bodyguard. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books: deep romantic comedies about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up.
She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” The Netflix movie adaptation of her novel Happiness for Beginners—starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes—just hit the Global Top Ten in 81 countries, and the movie of her novel The Lost Husband was a suprise Netflix sensation in 2020, hitting number one and landing in their top 25 movies for the year.
Her books have made countless Best-Of lists—at Audible, BookBub, and Book of the Month, as well as Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, and Amazon’s yearly Top 100 books. Emily Henry calls The Bodyguard “my perfect 10 of a book,” and Jodi Picoult says of Things You Save in a Fire, “Just read it, and thank me later.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two almost-grown teenagers, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.
