Roomies
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4.3 • 822 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From subway to Broadway to happily ever after. Love in all its thrill, hilarity, and uncertainty has never been so compulsively readable as in this “fresh, modern” (Entertainment Weekly) romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners and Love and Other Words.
Marriages of convenience are so...inconvenient.
For months Holland Bakker 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?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It starts as a marriage of convenience, but Roomies’ central relationship grows into something deliciously special and real. Christina Lauren’s contemporary romance is a New York City story through and through—a subway misadventure and Broadway musicals play key roles in its plot. But setting is nothing without engaging characters, and it’s here that the novel by this bestselling writing duo really shines. Narrator Holland Bakker is profoundly relatable in her self-doubt and openhearted sincerity, while roguish Irishman Calvin McLoughlin is exactly the kind of man you’d want to help stay in the country.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lauren's delightful urban contemporary brings together two New York artists in a modern marriage of convenience. Holland Bakker, an aspiring writer who works as an archivist for her uncles, is looking for her purpose in life but instead finds herself with a husband. Calvin McLoughlin, a handsome and talented Irish musician who plays in the 50th Street subway station, is about to make it big on Broadway, but his student visa has expired; after he helps Holland get away from a violent stranger in the subway station, she offers to marry him so he can stay in the country. Holland, a beautifully flawed and likable protagonist, humorously does her best to manage her growing fondness for Calvin while keeping low expectations for them as a couple. Her interaction with her uncles and brother reveals her fierce affection for them, and her quiet hopes that Calvin will come to love her create sweet romantic tension. In addition to Holland's running stream of consciousness, the natural dialogue brings out the awkwardness and tenderness in the relationships between the characters. The descriptions and imagery, especially of New York City and Calvin's music, are fresh and sensual, and the lyrical language creates atmosphere that sets this novel apart from others of the genre. Lauren's standalone brims with authentic characters and a captivating plot.
Customer Reviews
I needed more
This book was good… not great. I wanted to love it but I just needed more. It felt almost rushed, like half the story was just skimmed over.
Adorable!
Pinnacle of a rom com via a marriage of convenience (Visa!) trope. I highly recommend the Audible version, too! Wonderful narration.
Meh…their love never seemed real
Meh… there were some great points and quotes that really had me thinking…but they had lackluster chemistry. SPOILERS!!!!!! Stop reading if you don’t want to know…last warning…ok. Once they slept together for the first time, they lost me. It was so unromantic and depressing and all the “real” love scenes after seemed cheap. There was chemistry on some pages, but how they finally came together as a real couple seemed pathetic. Both were too immature to handle a relationship…let alone a marriage. And they not grew from their immaturity. They kept making silly mistakes and saying and doing the wrong thing. Them having blackout drunk sex ruined the entire story for me—it could have been redeemed, but the authors dropped the ball on this one. Great idea, but the 2nd half of the book didn’t do it for me at all.