Review: The Roommate

Thank you Berkley Romance and Netgalley for an eARC of The Roommate! Out September 15th!

Here's the short version of my review from right after I finished: "Was very unsure about how I felt during the first half, but the second half got me. I loved it 🥰"

Rating: 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Steam rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥/5

This was easily one of my most anticipated reads of the year. From the second I saw Rosie's promo for it last year I could NOT WAIT to get my hands on an ARC of The Roommate (endless thanks to the Netgalley and Berkley Romance Gods!)

Clara needs a change from her elite East Coast life and well-known family. She moves to LA with the intention of finally convincing her life-long crush and friend of falling in love with her. Her plan is solid, become his roommate and let forced proximity work it's magic. Little does she know that he booked a summer long tour for his band and sublet his room to a stranger he found off Craigslist. 

Going in I knew this was going to be a rom-com about the porn industry, but I know some people were surprised when Josh is introduced as a well-known porn star. I do worry Berkley is doing the book a disservice by NOT making that aspect of his career abundantly clear in the synopsis. There are definitely readers who might go into the book expecting a cute romance and be upset to find that a large part of the plot is around the porn industry. I'll be really curious to see how reviews play out once the book is published. 

I will say that the first half of the book was good, but it wasn't great for me. I went in with really high expectations after early rave reviews. It's a slow burn (to an extent, there's some early steamy bits), and there's a LOT of information about working in the porn industry. I did really enjoy those parts but the first half was still missing something that made me love it immediately. I will always give a book I'm enjoying the second half to convince me that its worthy of five stars and holy wow did The Roommate convince me!

Somewhere around 50-55% I went from "okay this is interesting" to "omg I LOVE this!" I loved the friendship between Clara and Josh, their relationship developed so naturally as they went from roommates to business partners. Once I got into the second half I could not put it down, both because of how the plot evolved and the steam. Good lord the steam *fans self* Josh is swoon city and I loved how he treated Clara through the whole book. 

I love love loved what this story says about female sexuality and the porn industry. This story has some really amazing feminist undertones that I was 1000% here for, both in regards to women not being ashamed of their sensuality and respecting people working in pornography. 

I can't get over how fantastic Rosie Danan's debut was and I highly, highly recommend it! Five steamy, forced proximity, roommates-to-lovers stars!