Tag: Katherine Center

Contemporary Romance Review: Katherine Center’s THE ROM-COMMERS

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The_Rom-CommersCenter’s latest, The Rom-Commers, surprised me, delightfully, because I was expecting a reading experience akin to my previous Center, Hello Stranger. Which I liked, but had reservations, (my review explains all) and yet, to this day, I think about it and like it better and better. On the other hand, The Rom-Commers captured mind and heart from page one; it made me laugh, it made me think, and it moved me.

Recounted solely from the heroine’s point of view, I was immediately immersed because I liked her so very much. In Emma Wheeler, Center created a funny, kind, whip-smart heroine; moreover, she is humble, self-effacing, and doesn’t take herself too seriously. We meet her in the midst of what, for most, would be a depressing circumstance: as house-bound care-giver to a disabled father. On the other hand, when she receives a call from her friend and sort-of manager Logan Scott (she’s his “pro bono” case in a sea of monied Hollywood clients) setting off the romance narrative’s action, she’s making dinner for her sister’s return from college and singing along with her dad to ABBA’s greatest hits. Even in difficult situations, Center’s Emma knows how to make people happy because she puts love about all else and why she writes rom-com scripts (and teaches English at a community college to help the family financially). Scott’s offer, to help salvage a rom-com script, comes with TWO provisos: one has Emma over the moon, to work with Charlie Yates (her script-writing idol of multiple-award fame) and ‘tother, well, to a devoted daughter and sister, is a problem: to travel to LA and work on the script in-person for the next six weeks.      (more…)

Review: Katherine Center’s HELLO STRANGER

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Hello_StrangerCenter is a new-to-me author and, as with any new author, I wasn’t sure what her book would be like. Though I enjoyed Hello Stranger, I had a hard time figuring out what I was reading. Yes, there was a romance, but without much by way of on-page interaction. Was it women’s fiction? Not really, the only sister involved was an epically evil one and there were no troubled marriages, messed-up children, divorces, or mid-life blues. Our heroine was single, young, career-focused and carried childhood issues. Was it coming-of-age then? Not quite, though our heroine did have to come to terms with her mother’s early death and a new way of living. Was it rom-com-ish funny? In places, yes, and certainly the heroine’s first-person narration was, but it wasn’t slapstick, self-insulting chicklit either. So I had to read Center’s novel on its own terms, which is okay, to leave me wondering and questioning. Its premise is somethin’ else; here are the blurbish details: 

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life―placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition―the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into―love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?―with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing. (more…)