Katherine Center (2024)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
This book was a Pandemic Book Club selection.
This has to be a trope in itself: a rom com about two writers writing a rom com. Not that I would know because I don't typically read the genre unless I'm forced to, such as by a book club. It had the right length because my problem with books or movies of this type is that everything has to build to that last moment, and sometimes that last moment takes an agonizing amount of time to get to, and not in a good way. Yes, there were still points where I made've said, oh cmon already, but the groundwork for the excuses and delays were there, so as long as those excusde had a payoff (that is, a reasonable explanation, and I mean reasonable in their own universe), I was good with that.
Two side notes: I recall one Harry Potter book were quite a few people I knew were saying, "why doesn't he just talk to Dumblebdore already???!!!". And more recently, I was covering the topic of "The Hero's Journey" for my graphic novel class, both the 17-point and 12-point versions. It did show me what I was missing in my own writing. Also, it's said that Lucas used this theory to plot out the original Star Wars. If I checked, I bet Raiders of the Lost Ark would fit as well ... except for the opening scene.
Continuing...
Emma Wheeler gets a call for a dream job to ghost write a screenplay for a screenwriting legend Charlie Yates. Charlie's manager, Logan, was Emma's boyfriend in high school but then went away to college and then came out as gay. This confused me at first, until I realized that he wasn't supposed to be the other half of the rom com couple. As I said, I don't read these things. The love interest hadn't been introduced yet.
Emma puts her life on hold, as does her younger sister and ill father, and flies to California only to find that there's no job. Charlie Yates isn't interested in a ghost writer. One thing leads to another and Emma ends up staying one night. While she's there, Charlie inquires why she thought his screenplay (for a updated remake of It Happened One Night) was "apolyptically" bad. (They use a worse word.) He agrees to hire her for a consulation. To her surprise, he takes a lot of notes. And then he spends the night reading her scripts.
By the morning, when she's calling an Uber, Charlie's trying to convince Emma to stay. However, Emma knows what Charlie really thinks about her and has no interest in staying, especially if it's just to make the screenplay "passable" instead of doing it right. Charlie knows that the screenplay won't get made, but he needs to write it for a big wig producer's mistress (who wants to star in it), so the big wig will produce his Mafia movie.
Charlie gives in and says he'll do it right.
Antics ensue, especially after Emma overhears Charlie telling Logan that he'll go back on the deal once he get the script passable and be done with it. Emma stays because she needs the money and because she thinks she can change Charlie's mnd about rom-coms.
Through it alll, he hear about everyone's tradegies and traumas, which left Emma yearning for more and Charlie cynical as hell.
In the end, it all comes together ... until it all falls apart ... but then there's a chance ... but, no, not gonna happen ... okay, fine! Fine! Have it your way! ... oops gotta go ... okay, I'll follow ...
And then it comes to the prescribed happy ending that we've been assured that all good rom-coms have because their viewers (and by extension their readers) have expectations that must be fulfilled or else it isn't a rom com.
I enjoyed the book and was happy that it read fast. It wasn't "spicy" or "sexy", which are buzzwords that I've seen, because everything is delayed until the end.
If there was any problem, it was the extended epilogue that even my kindle suggested skipping, but I kept with it. I skipped the preview of the next book, which is about a cruise ship wedding and being stuck onboard.
I started the book on audio until the ebook became available. About two-thirds of the way through, the ebook overtook the audio. But I kept listening to the audio in case I missed anything.
As of this writing, the book club hasn't met yet. It meets on Friday.
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