Stephanie Sullivan: Review - The Rom-Commers

TITLE: The Rom-Commers (audiobook)

RATING: ★★★★

Summary (from Goodreads): 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?

REVIEW: I've always been a huge fan of Katherine Center, and I've read about 80% of everything she's written. Her books are usually big hits for me, but I have to say this one was just "okay". I believe the main thing that turned me off to this book is the dialogue repetition. There was a ton of repeat questioning between the characters, which drove me bonkers. Also, the hero, Charlie, grated on my nerves a bit in the beginning. I enjoyed the second half of the book much more than the first half, and Charlie finally redeemed himself toward the end of the story. The narrator was good and very entertaining, but listening to the repeat dialogue almost made me DNF this audiobook. I actually read the last few chapters of the eBook, and it wasn't nearly as annoying. Unless you're just a HUGE fan of audiobooks, I would recommend reading the print or eBook version instead.

(DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this title from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.)