New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center writes thoughtful, touching, clever romcoms and her newest novel, “The Rom-Commers,” just might be one of her best yet. It’s a romcom about two screenwriters writing a romcom, and you will fall in love with the two main characters.

Emma Wheeler has spent the last ten years being her father’s caretaker. It’s a full-time job, and it’s unpaid. She’s given up prestigious Los Angeles internships she’s won for screenwriting because her father needs her, and her younger sister has a life to lead. But now her sister graduated from college and it’s Emma’s turn. At least that was the deal. Emma’s high school boyfriend has become a Hollywood agent. And right now Emma has been given an opportunity to go to Los Angeles to write a script for a romcom with the golden boy of Hollywood, Charlie Yates. Actually, he’s already written the script, and it’s terrible. Horrible, awful, embarrassing. Garbage.

Charlie Yates is only the writer who Emma worships. She’s watched every movie made from his scripts, watched his every interview, and it’s possible that she knows more about him than he knows himself. When she sees the romcom script that he’s written, and she realizes that it’s awful, she really wants to make it work. Writing a script with him would be her dream job. But when she arrives in LA to work with Charlie, he not only is unaware that he is getting a cowriter, he explains to Emma that he doesn’t believe in love. How can you write a romcom if you don’t believe in love?

There are reasons for his refusal to believe in true love. And there are reasons that Emma feels guilty leaving her father to do this job. Center writes the backstory and presents it to us in a narrative that has us feeling like we are hearing Emma tell us the story. Her narrative is completely charming and almost intimate as we learn about Emma and the tragedy her family endured. The manner in which Emma seized the opportunity offered to her, her charm and determination to show Charlie Yates why romance is so important, her honesty in ripping apart his romance script in spite of her admiration for Yates and his body of work, and their growing romance, all serves to keep our attention as well as our admiration.

Of course, this being a romance, there is a “happy ever after,” that’s a must, a given. Just ask Emma! I really loved the speech that Emma’s father gives at a wedding at the end in which he says, “Choose a good, imperfect person who leaves the cap off the toothpaste, and puts the toilet paper roll on upside down, and loads the dishwasher like a ferret on steroids—and then appreciate the hell out of that person. Train yourself to see their best, most delightful, most charming qualities. Focus on everything they’re getting right. Be grateful—all the time—and laugh the rest off.” What a wonderful wedding speech, what a wonderful thought, what an inspiration. Happy ever after, indeed.

i would be remiss if I didn’t mention the absolutely stunning physical, hardcover book. I wrote the review from the advance copy, and when I received the finished book, in all its glory, I was astonished. It’s truly a work of art from the bright neon pink and orange on the front cover to the orange inside cover, the neon pink sprayed page edges, and the custom endpapers which match the pattern of Emma’s dress in a very important scene in the novel. Not only do the endpapers carry the green leafy print, but the following page does as well. Each page feels both silky and thick, like expensive stationery. If you usually listen to books, this might be one you want to get a physical copy of. I plan to treasure this book. You will, too.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.