The Roommate
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3.9 • 162 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"Warmly funny and gorgeously sexy."—New York Times Book Review
A LibraryReads Pick
House Rules:
Do your own dishes
Knock before entering the bathroom
Never look up your roommate online
The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too tempting to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.
After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet...
Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Rosie Danan’s heartfelt, hilarious, and sex-positive debut is our favorite romance of 2020. It follows uptight socialite Clara Wheaton, who moves to L.A. only to find that her roommate has left town and sublet his space to adult film star Josh Darling. Despite having nothing in common, Clara and Josh soon realize they have insane chemistry, although each is afraid to act on it—Josh because he thinks Clara is out of his league, Clara because she knows her wealthy family would never approve of Josh. This steamy read celebrates a woman embracing her sexuality, and we like how Danan treats Josh’s career with respect. The Roommate is an immensely satisfying read with a tender heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Danan debuts with this wildly original and sexy romance about an uptight East Coast socialite and the stranger she inadvertently shacks up with. When Clara Wheaton's longtime crush invites her to leave her Manhattan apartment and move in to his spare room in Los Angeles, she impulsively agrees. But then his band heads off on tour and he rents out his own room as well to porn star Josh Darling. Clara, who's always been squeamish about porn and has never had a satisfying sexual relationship, googles Josh, and, naturally, Josh walks in on her watching one of his films. He offers to make up for all the boyfriends who've left her cold by demonstrating his talents in person. Their no-strings-attached encounter simultaneously accelerates and complicates their budding friendship and also inspires a new business venture, with Clara financing and Josh producing videos that fall "somewhere between porn and sex-ed" designed to teach women's partners how to better please them in bed. Meanwhile, Josh's nefarious former employer, Black Hat Studios, works to undermine them. Danan makes this novel premise work with a charming, believable heroine; an offbeat hero with a heart of gold; and snappy, laugh-out-loud prose. Romance fans will especially appreciate that the steamy erotic scenes are used to further character development, rather than just for cheap thrills. This delectable rom-com is both red-hot and fiercely feminist.
Customer Reviews
Fun and fresh
What a fantastic debut novel! It covers a lot of great points on relatable societal and personal struggles. And still has extremely steamy scenes, as well as wholesome romance. Supremely impressive!
It wasn’t compelling enough
I found it hard to read through this book. The plot was interesting but it didn’t pull me in like I’d hoped. I loved the chemistry between Clara and Josh but something felt like it was missing.