Review: Roomies by Christina Lauren

Roomies by Christina Lauren
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Roomies is an incredibly easy book to get into. The writing is good, it's engaging and very modern. You almost feel like this book is an on going conversation you are having with a friend about events in your life. It is relatable and realistic.

The main character, Holland, is a struggling writer who develops a crush on a busker. She grows a lot within the book, it takes her a lot to realize what she needs to do in life and whom she loves but she slowly gets there. The male lead in this book, Calvin, is a busker/musician, struggling to hit it big in NYC despite having immense talent.

This book is basically a story of a marriage of convenience where the main characters go from strangers, to friends, to lovers. There's a lot of highs and lows in their journey but they manage to fall in love.

The aspects of this book that I loved the most is that it was an NA contemporary romance where the female lead had a strong presence of family in her life. She wasn't isolated and figuring things out alone, her uncle and his husband were strong and supportive figures in her life with a lot of dimension to them.

I also liked that there wasn't Insta love in this book where the main characters just had this irresistible pull to each other out of the blue. Because Insta love is a cheap way to write a romance and a bit unrealistic.

I felt that this book ran on the theme of having to learn to be brutally honest with yourself in order to find your happiness. Also to not let anyone put you second place in your life and to be the protagonist of your own life journey and not let others influence you.

And last but not least, I liked that this book touched on having toxic friendships. Where you think the person is nice, but you realize that they're not, that they're envious and not truly as supportiveas they should be. And the need to cut that off.

The only reason this book doesn't get a perfect rating is that there were times where instead of being endeared to Holland's struggle to find her identity, you get annoyed because shes pushing it in the naiveté department. Also, at times where the language between both characters should have been more romantic, they chose to make it more crass for the sake of making the book realistic and modern.

The other thing that I didn't like were some dream sequences that were awkwardly written in to add steam to the story but actually felt like they were happening and like the tension between the characters was broken into before it needed to be broken into. not a fan.

but overall, this is a good book. I liked it.

I give it a 3.5/5 rating.





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