From subway to Broadway to happily ever after. Modern love in all its thrill, hilarity, and uncertainty has never been so compulsively readable as in New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren’s (Beautiful Bastard, Dating You / Hating You) new romance. Marriages of convenience are so…inconvenient. For months Holland Bakker has invented excuses to descend into the … has invented excuses to descend into the subway station near her apartment, drawn to the captivating music performed by her street musician crush. Lacking the nerve to actually talk to the gorgeous stranger, fate steps in one night in the form of a drunken attacker. Calvin Mcloughlin rescues her, but quickly disappears when the police start asking questions.
Using the only resource she has to pay the brilliant musician back, Holland gets Calvin an audition with her uncle, Broadway’s hottest musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway–until his reason for disappearing earlier becomes clear: he’s in the country illegally, his student visa having expired years ago.
Seeing that her uncle needs Calvin as much as Calvin needs him, a wild idea takes hold of her. Impulsively, she marries the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves and Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway–in the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting–will Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?more
Christina Lauren are amongst my favourite authors and I really don’t think they are capable of giving us a bad book, Roomies is a sweet romantic read with great lovable characters. How far would you go to help your roommate out ? If you love modern day love stories full of romance and laughter this is the book for you and I’m sure it will be a book you won’t be able to put down. A marriage of convenience has been done many times before but once this writing due puts their stamp on it the whole story jumps to another level, the chemistry is is sizzling and the banter was perfect. Great book that I couldn’t put down.
This book is a great introduction to new-to-me authors and I will be adding their books to my TBR mountain ASAP. What’s admirable is that they are two writers but Roomies has one unified “voice”. You cannot tell who wrote which part. It was so seamless.
I normally don’t read NA books, I feel that they’re too young for me. I also don’t usually read first person singular POV. I broke both of those rules for Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game. I’m glad I did it again for Roomies. I love New York and I adore musical theater, so we’re already starting at a high note here.
When I say I can relate, I mean it. Holland’s background is so different from mine but I took to her right away. Being mid-20s and still not knowing who you are, who you want to be? Having a crush on a musician not because of their looks but because of their artistry? Being snarky about someone’s grammar? Going through USCIS interviews to validate/defend marriage with someone from another country? Been there, done them.
Calvin might share in the title, but Roomies is 100% Holland’s book. The development of her character from the beginning until the end is tremendous. She grew up. She found herself. She wasn’t just a niece, a wife of convenience, a friend who’s always there. She became her own person, independent and strong. I love that.
I also love that everyone in the book feels real. Holland, Calvin, the uncles Robert and Jeff, Brian, Lulu, Davis, Calvin’s family, Dougherty, and others are people you know, people you can imagine existing in New York, in LA, in Des Moines, in Galway.
Calvin is a heartthrob but he is oh so human. As someone who followed all the rules before legally being able to remain here in the US, I thought I would resent how easy things were for him, how lucky to have been the object of Holland’s crush. But, as I kept reading, I realized that I couldn’t be resentful of how fast the process was going for him. Because it wasn’t truly fast and it wasn’t very easy. He had to go through four years of being an overstaying illegal, having to tell lies to his family, having to swallow his pride and busk on the subway, being fearful of the authorities. These were communicated beautifully in the book. I thought it was well done by the authors how he came about his legal status in the end. Very convenient, but acceptable.
The conversations flowed. The situations and the characters’ actions and reactions were all plausible. There was no suspension of disbelief. I laughed, I cried, I gushed with the romance, I blushed during the love scenes, I got angry, I sympathized. I felt everything Holland went through. That’s why I am giving Roomies all the five stars. Books that engaged all my emotions usually get the top score. Roomies deserves nothing less.