*Grabby Hands* Release & Review - Roomies by Christina Lauren

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Roomies
Author: Christina Lauren
Category/Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: December 5th, 2017

Publisher: Gallery Books

Marriages of convenience are so…inconvenient.

Rescued by Calvin McLoughlin from a would-be subway attacker, Holland Bakker pays the brilliant musician back by pulling some of her errand-girl strings and getting him an audition with a big-time musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until he admits his student visa has expired and he’s in the country illegally.

Holland impulsively offers to wed the Irishman to keep him in New York, her growing infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves from awkward roommates to besotted lovers, Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway. In the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting, what will it take for Holland and Calvin to realise that they both stopped pretending a long time ago? 

Goodreads

Buy Link: Amazon

4 “Shipping the fake married couple” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Gallery Books!!!

Dude, this was SOOOOOO good! Roomies is hands down my favorite Christina Lauren’s book, and one of my favorite contemporary romance reads of the year.

I’m a sucker for a good fake relationship/marry for a visa trope, and this is probably one of the best stories about that trope I’ve read in a long time. I loved so many things about Holland and Calvin’s love story.

First, I loved Calvin. The whole sexy musician/cute Irish accent thing was doing it for me. Big time. I think I pretty much swooned every time he said something Holland perceived as Irish-y, which was almost all the time and that was fine with me. The fact that Calvin played his guitar as if he was making love to his music didn’t hurt his case, either. I think I had a crush on him as big as the one Holland did even before I got to know him well. And then he turned out to be respectful, adorable and funny, and I was a goner. Come play for me, Calvin!

I also really, really liked Holland. I was more than pleased with the single POV here and that’s because Holland was such an entertaining character to follow. She had a great sense of humor without being over the top, and her struggles felt authentic. Like Holland, I’ve looked at my life and wondered what I was doing, felt disappointed in myself for my lack of focus and/or motivation, wondered if I was ever going to achieve my dreams. Holland’s going through that phase, and I liked how her struggle was portrayed in realistic, non-overdramatic way.

The fact that I like both Holland and Calvin made it only easier to ship them as a couple. And I shipped them hard.

“My phone lights up with a single text: And I despite every night I go to sleep without you.”

The whole let’s going to get fake married so you can get a visa and do what you love while I help the people I loved worked really well here because: 1) Calvin and Holland had good chemistry from the start; 2) Like Holland, the pretending to be flirting and in love got my feelings all mixed up in a great way; 3) they both had great motivations to get into this deal.

Holland’s relationship with her uncles was one of my favorite things about this book. I LOVED so many of their scenes together, and they were not only adorable and cute, but also funny AF. The table/birthday scene was hilarious. In fact, this book made me laugh quite a lot.

Calvin and Holland’s passion for music, writing and Broadway also played a huge part in this story, and it all felt cohesive. I don’t know as much about Broadway as I wish I did, but I always seem to enjoy books centered in this world. Roomies was no exception.

As you can see, this book truly worked for me. Having said that, there were a few things I wished had been different, mainly the Lulu subplot (felt a little like girl on girl hate with the jealousy thing), the breakup (I couldn’t fully get behind Holland there, because I thought she overreacted a bit) and the “almost fade to black” sexy scenes (with all that tension building, I expected more).

Those things aside, I’m super, super thankful I got my hands on an early copy of this book and I can’t wait for everyone to read it and love it as well.

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.