Reviewed by Abby Cope
I checked out The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center from Gorgas Library not thinking I would love it as much as I did. I am a very big horror/ suspense novel person, so I was surprised when I loved a romance novel as much as I did Center’s The Rom-Commers. The book is about a young woman who once hoped to be a screenwriter, but after a tragic family accident, skipped out on attending a once-in-a-lifetime internship to stay at home and take care of her father so that her younger sister could live out her own dreams. Within the first twenty pages, we see that the main protagonist, Emma, is a selfless woman who puts her family first. Emma lives in Texas, while her ex-boyfriend who she remains close with is a successful agent in Hollywood. Her ex-boyfriend connects her with a famous playwright that Emma is obsessed with named Charlie and sets her up to help him rewrite a script for an upcoming movie. This book focuses on an enemies-to-lovers trope and embodies the saying “don’t meet your heroes,” as Charlie is nothing like the magazine cut-outs on Emma’s dream board back at home. The tone of the book is very casual, like a friend retelling a story of good gossip to the reader, while also giving a clear storyline.
The Rom-Commers falls under the literary genre of a novel. The author, Katherine Center, is a well-known novelist, with The Rom-Commers being her 11th book, and she now has 12 published as of this year. All of Center’s books are novels that center around romantic themes, such as enemies-to-lovers, strong family ties and finding love through heartache and loss. Center is a well-awarded novelist, receiving accolades such as Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year, Goodreads Best Book of the Year, Goodreads Readers Choice Award for Best Romance Novel and more. Center wrote and published her first novel in 2006. The Rom-Commers was published through St. Martin’s Press on June 11, 2024. Although this novel was published by a smaller press, Center has had some of her previous works published by Penguin Random House and Macmillan Publishers. With a total of 12 novels and several short stories under her belt, Center has her newest publication coming out on May 20, 2025 titled The Love Haters.
The Rom-Commers is a typical genre choice for Center, as this novel and several of her other works fall under the fiction genre, specifically romantic comedies — though she does have other works that deal with more serious themes. To me, this particular novel wants to be read like a diary. Reading it, I found myself eager to turn to the next page before I could even finish the page I was currently reading. I wanted to know what happened next as soon as possible. It felt like a friend telling my juicy gossip, but making sure not to skip a single detail. The detail that goes into Center’s work makes me forget that I am reading a book and that the events described did not happen. It feels all the more real through her more casual tone and vivid descriptions. Center has an eloquent way of describing points and events in her novel that aren’t too important to the overall plot, but give more background information and round out the story more in a way that hard-hitting plot points cannot.
The overall plot is Charlie, the famous screenwriter, who is known for his grit and rather independent nature, is posed to work with Emma, an aspiring playwright with good connections in the industry. Emma moves in with Charlie to work together. Charlie is recently divorced and wants nothing to do with her. While Emma is crushed by her idol being less than what she’d expected, she decides to go into the endeavor with a “work-only” mindset and is rather cold at first. Especially since she left everything she’s known and her ill father behind in Houston. After weeks of working together and living in close quarters, Charlie and Emma open up to one another and develop feelings for one another. But with Charlie’s ex-wife still semi in the picture, is Emma going to get her heart broken, or finally find the love she’s always written about? Only time will tell.
The book is in first person point of view, switching back and forth between Charlie and Emma’s perspective from each chapter and going through scenes from both characters’ perspectives to provide insight into what each was thinking during each scene. The setting starts out in Emma’s hometown of Houston, Texas and then switches to Los Angeles, California. Some interesting secondary characters in the novel are Emma’s father, who is disabled after a family rock climbing accident, and her sister Sylvie, who Emma hands off care of after Emma moves to Los Angeles.
The Rom-Commers is a heartfelt and upbeat book with more serious undertones and the plot progresses. It explores themes of balancing caretaking and self-care as well as pushing aside past hurts to find love. Though it can be corny at times, The Rom-Commers will leave readers feeling hopeful and happy for Emma and Charlie’s futures.