A review by booksbytheglass
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

katherine center can DO NO WRONG!!! 🥳 I love everything she writes between her fluffy banter to her sweet grand gesture moments!! 

the biggest red flag (and elephant?) in the room for me was the attitude of the main characters… both charlie and emma were … not nice? I love a good enemies to lovers don’t get me wrong, but there’s a difference between banter and straight up slaughter of character 😅😕 if someone said the things to me that charlie said to emma or emma said to her sister, I would simply not stick around for the explanation…

that being said, I did enjoy the exploration of grief and trauma through the stage of grief that is anger. as someone who has experienced all five stages, anger is definitely the one where people alienate themselves from you, and I can definitely appreciate how charlie and emma both took that in a different direction

this was a surface light book and dare I say, I wanted more! I wanted more about emma’s caretaker moments with her father, more with charlie’s ex-wife and their guinea pig babies, more with emma and sylvie’s strained sisterhood due to their childhood trauma… but I am also a 100% contemporary emo romance girlie so that just might be a personal preference 

TLDR: I liked it a lot, but it didn’t hit as hard as katherine center’s other books tend to do…

thank you to netgalley and st martins press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! 

rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: brut champagne