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A review by thebiglittlelibrary
The Roughest Draft by Austin Siegemund-Broka, Emily Wibberley
4.0
4 ⭐️ A story about a missed connection and second chances between two co-authors.
The romance was unexpectedly beautiful. I don’t like cheating (emotional or physical) stories, but this was different. You could tell how much Katrina and Nathan loved and respected each other on some fundamental level. But unfortunately, Nathan was married and loved his wife, albeit in a different way. Both Katrina and Nathan struggled to come to terms with their feelings for each other while trying to be respectful of Nathan's marriage. There was some unintentional emotional cheating but nothing physical really happened until the relationship was over. These characters were so conflicted that I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. It's just so obvious that they are soulmates who meet each other at the wrong time. But I loved how they finally find their way back to one another.
Also, I just adored the way Nathan describes Katrina. It truly gave me butterflies during his POV chapters. ❤️
FYI, the spice is very PG13, so non-existent. There's a paragraph or two where we see the characters get frisky, but it's not graphic. Instead of sex, the story has a lot of moments of sexual tension and smoldering.
The writing was brilliant - a lovely combination of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Emily Henry. The metaphors and extended symbolism used throughout this story were beautiful. And the author's prose offered amazing insight into the characters, descriptive settings, and overall amazing attention to detail. I will admit though, there were some moments when the writing was stiff and the flow wasn’t quite right so it took some effort to read. This is intelligent writing so if so you actually have to read each and every single word to follow the story. If you’re a skim reader, you’ll need to slow down.
And how cool that this story written about two authors in love is actually written by a husband and wife author team! Apparently, they came up with this book idea on their honeymoon.
I've seen other reviewers saying the issues between Nathan and Katrina are simple and obvious, but I thought it makes sense why these two couldn’t just talk their problems out. Writing is how Nathan communicates and that wasn’t going to change until he grew as a character. Katrina is a sweetheart but seemed too afraid to live the life she truly wanted. They both had their own subtle issues that are slowly worked through throughout this story.
Overall, The Roughest Draft was a well-written story that I found captivating from start to finish. I felt so many things - angst, anger, love, and heartache - but the ending is HEA and left me satisfied.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! As always, all opinions are my own.
The romance was unexpectedly beautiful. I don’t like cheating (emotional or physical) stories, but this was different. You could tell how much Katrina and Nathan loved and respected each other on some fundamental level. But unfortunately, Nathan was married and loved his wife, albeit in a different way. Both Katrina and Nathan struggled to come to terms with their feelings for each other while trying to be respectful of Nathan's marriage. There was some unintentional emotional cheating but nothing physical really happened until the relationship was over. These characters were so conflicted that I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. It's just so obvious that they are soulmates who meet each other at the wrong time. But I loved how they finally find their way back to one another.
Also, I just adored the way Nathan describes Katrina. It truly gave me butterflies during his POV chapters. ❤️
FYI, the spice is very PG13, so non-existent. There's a paragraph or two where we see the characters get frisky, but it's not graphic. Instead of sex, the story has a lot of moments of sexual tension and smoldering.
The writing was brilliant - a lovely combination of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Emily Henry. The metaphors and extended symbolism used throughout this story were beautiful. And the author's prose offered amazing insight into the characters, descriptive settings, and overall amazing attention to detail. I will admit though, there were some moments when the writing was stiff and the flow wasn’t quite right so it took some effort to read. This is intelligent writing so if so you actually have to read each and every single word to follow the story. If you’re a skim reader, you’ll need to slow down.
And how cool that this story written about two authors in love is actually written by a husband and wife author team! Apparently, they came up with this book idea on their honeymoon.
I've seen other reviewers saying the issues between Nathan and Katrina are simple and obvious, but I thought it makes sense why these two couldn’t just talk their problems out. Writing is how Nathan communicates and that wasn’t going to change until he grew as a character. Katrina is a sweetheart but seemed too afraid to live the life she truly wanted. They both had their own subtle issues that are slowly worked through throughout this story.
Overall, The Roughest Draft was a well-written story that I found captivating from start to finish. I felt so many things - angst, anger, love, and heartache - but the ending is HEA and left me satisfied.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! As always, all opinions are my own.