Katherine Center offers a writing-focused story in which forced proximity, past secrets, complicated life circumstances, and a fear of vulnerability complicate the professional and personal lives of an unlikely writing duo.
Emma Wheeler writes romantic comedies, and she longs to be a screenwriter. But her life in Texas is complicated: her father requires a full-time caregiver, and Emma is it.
When, due to her promising talent and her best friend from high school (who's now a high-powered agent), Emma gets the chance to rework a script by the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates (whose works and quotes are posted all over her room), she bends over backward to make it happen. Her sister steps in to help with their dad at home, and Emma moves to Los Angeles for six weeks of inspiring, career-building, lucrative, and life-changing work.
Only, the last thing Charlie Yates wants is someone changing his (terrible) script. He doesn't even believe in love, and he's quite certain that Emma is not a solution to any of his problems. In fact, he seems determined to undermine any potential progress on the script, which puts Emma in a terrible position.
Oh, and because of several (ahem, rom-com-type) issues, Emma is living in Charles's house for the duration of the project. And Charles's documentary-filmmaker ex-wife is showing up unannounced, seemingly protective of Charles.
Can Emma make Charles believe in true love long enough for them to create something wonderful? Or will the growing obstacles in their path keep them not only from building a great script, but from each other?
As in all good rom-coms, there's a conflict keeping the potential couple apart, and I appreciated the nuances of this one. Center doesn't rely on a miscommunication trope (my very least favorite), and I could see where both sides were coming from emotionally within their prolonged heartbreak of having to be apart.
There's a romantic gesture centering around a script, and it didn't quite sit right with me (regarding who wrote it, who is credited, etc.). But I loved the book's focus on writing, the peek at L.A. life and the movie industry, and that Emma and Charles are both fish out of water who only find peace and success both professionally and personally when they are true to themselves.
I listened to The Rom-Commers as an audiobook courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.
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Katherine Center is also the author of Hello Stranger, What You Wish For, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, How to Walk Away, Happiness for Beginners, and other books.