Center’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…)