Book Review: The Roommate

The Roommate by Rosie Danan is another one of those books that I saw some posts and reels about over a year ago and immediately added to my tbr. I read it this week after pushing it down by tbr for way too long.

The novel follows Clara Wheaton and Josh Connors. Clara just got her doctorate and comes from a wealthy, high society, political Connecticut family. But instead of starting her career or becoming a woman who lunches, she decides to pick up and move to California. Los Angeles to be exact. Everett, her friend since childhood, lives out there and tells her she should move out there and she can live with him. Clara isn’t one to usually do anything spontaneous, but since she’s had a massive crush on Everett for years she thinks this could finally be her chance. Except as soon as Everett picks her up from the airport he tells her his band got a touring gig and he’s leaving immediately for the whole summer. He also rented out his room in the house so she’ll be living with a stranger and not the guy she was hoping would fall in love with her.

Josh is Clara’s new roommate and is actually really nice, friendly, helpful, and accommodating. He’s also very attractive. And a famous adult film star.

Josh is trying to figure out what’s next in his career when the production company he has a contract with controls the whole industry. Clara is also trying to figure out what she wants to do career-wise with her newfound freedom on the west coast. The two come up with an idea and team up on a new endeavor. Can they succeed before Josh’s bosses blacklist him from the entertainment industry? Can Clara do something she’s excited and passionate about and not care about what her high society family will think? How long can Clara and Josh work and live together without giving in to their feelings and attraction for one another?

I really liked this book and loved Clara and Josh. I thought they were both really likable and relatable characters. It was definitely less romcom-y than I was expecting and touched on more serious topics like the exploitation of sex workers and how they are often not treated with the respect they deserve etc.

Finishing this book ticks off the 2nd book done from my romcom tbr for the summer.

Read this if you want a spicy, roommate, forced proximity romance.

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