Book ~ "The Rom-Commers" (2024) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over and writing romantic comedies - good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates - The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god! - it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone - much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script - it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself and for rom-coms and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter - even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But ... what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much ... more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules - and comes true?

Emma has is a writer. She would like to be a screenwriter but because of an accident ten years ago, her father needs constant care. She gives up her dreams to take care of her father and so her younger sister can have the life she wants. Her high school friend, Logan, presents her with the opportunity to rewrite a terrible movie script with her idol, Charlie Yates. That means spending six weeks in LA and her sister agrees to take care of their father. 

When Emma arrives in LA, she discovers that Charlie has no idea what's going on and begrudgingly takes her on. Charlie isn't serious about the movie script and is only working on it so he can get another movie made so Emma pushes him to make it a better script. As she starts breaking him down, they become friends and Emma starts having feelings for him but Charlie keeps pushing her away and saying nasty things behind her back.

I thought this story was okay and predictable. It is written in first person perspective in Emma's voice as if she is talking to you and telling you what's going on. I wasn't seeing a lot of spark between Emma and Charlie so I don't know how they ended up together.

Book ~ "Things You Save in a Fire" (2019) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she's seen her fair share of them and she's excellent at dealing with other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it's an emergency of a kind Cassie never anticipated. 

The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie's old job as it could possibly be. Hazing, a lack of funding and poor facilities mean that the firemen aren't exactly thrilled to have a "lady" on the crew, even one as competent and smart as Cassie. Except for the handsome rookie, who doesn't seem to mind having Cassie around. But she can't think about that. Because she doesn't fall in love. And because of the advice her old captain gave her: don't date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping ... but will she jeopardize her place in a career where she's worked so hard to be taken seriously?

Cassie's family broke up on her sixteenth birthday when her mother left to be with another man. Also on that birthday, a older boy did something bad to her. These two things hardened her and she swore off love. Ten years later, she is working as a firefighter in Texas and is considered one of the best. 

On the night she is getting an hero's award (yes, that's how good she is!), she does something that jeopardizes her career. She's given a choice to either resign or transfer to another fire station and work her way back. I don't know why she would throw away her career by not telling why she had reacted the way she had at the awards dinner. The #MeToo movement had already started by the time the book was written. If Cassie was as tough a firefighter as she was made out to be, she should have been jumping all over it.

Diana, her estranged mother, isn't well and asks Cassie to move back home to the Boston area for a year to take care of her while she gets better. Cassie doesn't have a choice and gets a job at a local fire station. Her captain in Texas, who is also female, warns her that the captain in Boston doesn't want her because she's a girl and gives her advice on how to mix in with her new colleagues. On her first day reporting to work, there is a rookie who has also been recently hired and it's apparently love at first sight for them, though they try to fight it.

I thought this story was bearable until the big fire ... then it became more farfetched and went downhill. Then a stalker and violence was introduced which made this story even more crazy. It's hard to believe that this story was written in 2019 (so is "present day") and that Cassie's Texas captain, for example, had to prep her on what to expect with her new captain who didn't believe in "lady firefighters. It would have been more believable if the story took place in 1959. This is not a book I would want a young woman to read ... I'd hate for her to think this is how women should act and how they are treated by men.

It is written in first person perspective in Cassie's voice. The ending wrapped up rather quickly and unrealistically ... all is forgiven by everyone (really?) and there's a happy ending. As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

Book ~ "The Lost Husband" (2013) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ "Dear Libby, It occurs to me that you and your two children have been living with your mother for -- Dear Lord! -- two whole years, and I'm writing to see if you'd like to be rescued." 

The letter comes out of the blue and just in time for Libby Moran, who, after the sudden death of her husband, Danny, went to stay with her hypercritical mother. Now her crazy Aunt Jean has offered Libby an escape, a job and a place to live on her farm in the Texas Hill Country. Before she can talk herself out of it, Libby is packing the minivan, grabbing the kids and hitting the road. 

Life on Aunt Jean's goat farm is both more wonderful and more mysterious than Libby could have imagined. Beyond the animals and the strenuous work, there is quiet, deep, country quiet. But there is also a shaggy, gruff (though purportedly handsome, under all that hair) farm manager with a tragic home life, a formerly famous feed-store clerk who claims she can contact Danny "on the other side" and the eccentric aunt Libby never really knew but who turns out to be exactly what she's been looking for. And despite everything she's lost, Libby soon realizes how much more she's found. Libby hasn't just traded one kind of crazy for another; she may actually have found the place to bring her little family, and herself, back to life.

Libby was widowed a couple years ago when her husband, Danny, was killed in a car accident. He left her with a surprising amount of debt so she and their two young children, Abby and Tank, had to move in with her mother. Her mother is not a nice person ... she's critical and self-absorbed. But Libby had no other options until she receives a letter from Aunt Jean, her mother's estranged sister, inviting her to move to her farm. Room and board would be provided in exchange for helping out on the farm. Looking for a change, Libby jumps at the chance. 

At the farm, Libby discovers life is much different than living in the city but it's soothing once she got used to it. She gets to know Aunt Jean, who is still a hippy in some ways, and makes friends with Sunshine, who wants to help Libby get "in touch" with Danny, and O'Connor, who shows her the ropes on the farm and she develops a crush on.

I thought this story was predictable but okay. It is written in first person perspective in Libby's voice. I'm not usually a fan of children in stories but Abby and Tank were entertaining and not annoying. The ending wraps up rather quickly. I found it odd that this story takes place about ten years ago but there is no mention of cell phones or the Internet (Aunt Jean doesn't even have a TV). As a head's up, there is some swearing.

Book ~ "Everyone is Beautiful" (2009) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ Lanie Coates’s life is spinning out of control. She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends and a comfortable life - all so her husband can realize his dream of becoming a professional musician. But somewhere in the eye of her personal hurricane, it hits Lanie that she once had dreams too. If only she could remember what they were.

These days, Lanie always seems to rank herself dead last - and when another mom accidentally criticizes her appearance, it’s the final straw. Fifteen years, three babies and more pounds than she’s willing to count since the day she said “I do,” Lanie longs desperately to feel like her old self again. It’s time to rise up, fish her moxie out of the diaper pail and find the woman she was before motherhood capsized her entire existence.

Lanie sets change in motion - joining a gym, signing up for photography classes and finding a new best friend. But she also creates waves that come to threaten her whole life. In the end, Lanie must figure out once and for all how to find herself without losing everything else in the process.

Lanie's husband, Peter, is a musician and when they started having children, they decided it made sense financially for her to stay home and take care of them instead of continuing to work. They now have three sons with the oldest being three and it's a full-time job for her. The boys are constantly on the go so she's busy busy busy with no time for herself.

When Peter gets a job in Cambridge, MA, they make the long move from Texas. Lanie doesn't know anyone and she's lost the support of her parents who are still in Texas. She assumes she'll make friends with other young mothers but that doesn't happen ... she does reconnect with someone she went to high school with who seems to have the perfect young daughter. Lanie realizes she has lost herself and starts working on that ... she joins a gym and takes a photography course.

I've read a few books by this author and I wasn't crazy about this one. There was far too much minute-by-minute detail about her rambunctious undisciplined sons. I've never had children but their behaviour seemed exaggerated, especially considering she's a stay-at-home mom. 

I didn't find any of the characters likeable. Peter is the dad but because he works he expects Lanie to be responsible for their sons 100% of the time ... I thought he was a bad dad. But Lanie allows it so I was glad when she eventually takes a stand and joins the gym and takes the photography course (she had to fight with Peter to be able to). It got tiring hearing about how little money they had all the time, though. I thought Lanie's response to her mom's news that they were selling their house to move was childish ... Lanie and her brothers hadn't lived there in years. It's written in third person perspective in Lainie's voice.

Book ~ "The Bright Side of Disaster" (2021) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ Very pregnant and not quite married Jenny Harris doesn't mind that she and her live-in fiancé, Dean, accidentally started their family a little earlier than planned. But Dean is acting distant and the night he runs out for cigarettes and doesn't come back, he demotes himself from future husband to sperm donor. And the very next day, Jenny goes into labor. 

In the months that follow, Jenny plunges into a life she never single motherhood. At least with the sleep deprivation, sore boobs, and fits of crying (both hers and the baby's), there's not much time to dwell on her broken heart. And things are looking Jenny learns how to do everything one-handed, makes friends in a mommy group and even gets to know a handsome, helpful neighbor. But Dean is never far from Jenny's thoughts or, it turns out, her doorstep, and in the end she must choose between the old life she thought she wanted and the new life she's been lucky to find.

Jenny and Dean have been together for a couple years. They are living together and engaged and their wedding is scheduled in a month's time. Jenny is also pregnant and ready to give birth at any time. Dean has started acting cold and one night heads out for cigarettes and doesn't come back. He's left a note saying he's not feeling it anymore and is outta there for good. Jenny goes into labour the next day and so begins her life as a single parent.

Luckily Jenny has the support of her parents and a mommy group and she gets to know Gardner, her handy man next door neighbour. When her baby is eight months old, Dean reappears in their lives wanting her to take him back.

I've read a few books by this author and I wasn't crazy about this story. There was far too much detail about giving birth, breastfeeding and the hour by hour routine of having a baby who is hungry and cries all the time. The story really went downhill for me when Dean came back and she let him move in with her. He was a loser when they met, he was a loser when they were together and he continued to be a loser when he came back ... and she allowed it. It's written in third person perspective in Jenny's voice. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Book ~ "What You Wish For" (2020) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids and her school family with passion and joy for living. But she wasn’t always that way.

Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen. But he wasn’t always that way.

And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before - at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him - but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. But when Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there, it feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to the school - and the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sam. Until the opposite turns out to be true. The lovable Duncan she’d known is now a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it.

As the school community spirals into chaos and danger from all corners looms large, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love - which is the riskiest move of all.

Four years ago Sam was working with Duncan, a fun loving teacher, who she had a crush on but he didn't know she existed. When rumours fly that he is going to propose to someone else, she knows it's time to quit and start her life over. 

She heads to Texas and settles into a cute town. She gets a job as a librarian at a private school and moves into the owners' carriage house and they treat her like family. When the school hires a new principal, Sam is shocked to discover that it's Duncan but even more shocked to discover that he is no longer the goofy teacher ... he is now strict and security conscious and wants to change the way the school operates. Sam, along with the rest of the staff, are determined to fight so they can keep the school as it is.

This was a cute story. I liked the writing style (it's a quick read) and it's written in first person perspective in Sam's voice. A thing that bugged me was there was a lot of nose flaring! And I can't imagine giving up my life and moving across the country to start over because my crush is supposedly getting married. As a head's up, there is a bit of swearing.

Book ~ "Happiness for Beginners" (2015) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls. 

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

Helen is 32 and a school teacher. She's been divorced for a year and is looking for something to shake up her life. So she signs up for an extreme three week wilderness survival course, which is way out of her comfort level. Then she discovers that Jake, her younger brother's friend, has also signed up and begrudgingly gives him a drive. 

Once on the trail, she does indeed discover that she is out of her element because everyone is much younger than she is and she has nothing in common with them, the leader, who is barely out of his teens, seems to dislike her and the terrain and camp life is a lot rougher than she thought. But as the days progress, Helen discovers she is tougher than she thought she was, both physically and emotionally.

This was a cute story. I liked the writing style (it's a quick read) and it's written in first person perspective in Helen's voice. You'll never find me on this kind of a survival course! I'd seen the Netflix movie they'd made based on the book last year and was curious to see how close they would be to each other ... they are kind of are but aren't. There is a bit of swearing.

Book ~ "The Bodyguard" (2022) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ She’s got his back. Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart. Jack Stapleton’s a household name - captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret. When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah - against her will and her better judgment - finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong??? Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

Hannah is an executive protection agent (aka bodyguard) and is good at what she does. Her mother recently passed away and her boyfriend, who is a colleague, breaks up with her the day after her mother's funeral. Needless to say, she's going through a bad time but is looking forward to an assignment overseas. Her boss doesn't think she's mentally and emotionally ready so assigns her to guard Jake, a famous actor. He doesn't want a bodyguard but doesn't have a choice because he's is being stalked and is receiving threatening letters.

Jake's mother is sick and he heads home to their ranch while she recovers. He doesn't want to worry his family so tells them that Hannah is his girlfriend so they have to act the part. As Hannah gets close to him and his family, she doesn't know whether Jake really cares about her or is he pretending for his family.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I thought it was cute. It is written in first person perspective in Hannah's voice ... it's as if she is speaking to you and telling you what's going on. I liked the writing style. I liked the interaction between Hannah and Jake ... they seemed to enjoy each other's company even though they knew it was just a job. As a head's up, there is some swearing.