The Roommate by Rosie Danan
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Rom-Com
Blurb (on back of book): 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 much 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.
MY OPINION: ****
Something about this book was so addicting. It was extremely difficult to put down and I found myself awake at 3AM poring over the pages greedily. The cover is cute but the story is even better.
Clara Wheaton is an East Coast "socialite" who has randomly decided to make her first ever spontaneous decision and move to LA with her childhood best friend and secret crush, Everett. As someone who didn't know anything about the premise of this book, I thought this was gonna be a childhood friends to lovers and was fully ready for that trope, despite the fact that it's not my favorite. However, I was soon in for a surprise.
Everett is in a band and basically ditches Clara as soon as she arrives in LA to go on a tour. He promises her she will be safe in his apartment with a roommate he rented from CRAIGSLIST. You heard me. Now, TBH, if I were a girl in an entirely new city who never does anything crazy and was under the impression I'd be living my Wattpad romance with my best friend, I'd feel far from safe staying with some rando rented from a seedy online website. However, Clara takes it in stride, despite the hurt, and moves in with Josh, a cute guy but still a complete stranger.
Josh has a rather unique career. After some invasion of privacy and private Googling, Clara soon finds out what her roommate really does... At first, I was a little weirded out by the premise, especially since it's not explicitly said in the blurb. However, as I read further, I soon realized that this book was not one of those awful, trashy novels despite what some might think. I loved how this book illustrated the lives of "sex workers" and stars of adult films and helped us to see that they are people just like the rest of us, with feelings, shame, empathy, and humanity. It's a very sex-POSITIVE book, which was refreshing to read in a book that could have taken a completely different turn.
I liked Clara and Josh. They had a lot of chemistry even though there was a lot of miscommunication and overloading of the I'm-not-good-enough-for-you trope. They are two completely opposite people with completely opposite careers but still manage to find their way to each other. They end up creating a company together that I won't go too much into but I loved the company as a way to bring the two together and really see each other and use each other's talents.
Everett, while a side character, could have definitely played a more integral role within this book. Clara often refers to him as the man she's in love with but besides that, we don't get to see a lot of him. While I don't think a love triangle or any of that would have fit well in the context of this book, I would have loved to see more of Everett, especially towards the end. He deserved a personality, at the very least.
Overall, something about this book was intriguing and made you want to keep reading on and on. I don't know if I plan on reading the second book/spin-off anytime soon but I definitely really enjoyed this one. There were points where I think things could have been handled better and times when the writing was a bit too on-the-nose to be "good" but I loved it just the same. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a unique, adorable, funny rom-com, full of tension and witty banter.
Main Character: Clara, Josh
Sidekick(s): Everett, Naomi, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, scandals, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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