Roomies by Christina Lauren Published by Gallery Books on December 5, 2017
Genres: contemporary, New Adult
Pages: 368
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Goodreads
From subway to Broadway to happily ever after. Modern love in all its thrill, hilarity, and uncertainty has never been so compulsively readable as in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s romantic novel.
Marriages of convenience are so...inconvenient.
For months Holland Bakker has invented excuses to descend into the subway station near her apartment, drawn to the captivating music performed by her street musician crush. Lacking the nerve to actually talk to the gorgeous stranger, fate steps in one night in the form of a drunken attacker. Calvin Mcloughlin rescues her, but quickly disappears when the police start asking questions.
Using the only resource she has to pay the brilliant musician back, Holland gets Calvin an audition with her uncle, Broadway’s hottest musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until his reason for disappearing earlier becomes clear: he’s in the country illegally, his student visa having expired years ago.
Seeing that her uncle needs Calvin as much as Calvin needs him, a wild idea takes hold of her. Impulsively, she marries the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves and Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway—in the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting—will Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?
Bookish Thoughts
There is nothing that tugs my heartstrings more than a meet-cute! All the teen shows I consumed made me desperate to recreate my own meet-cute since the fifth grade. I remember distinctly walking around school with my Beverly Hills 90210 bookbag, strategically dropping all my books in front of my biggest crush and watching him walk right past me while I sadly picked up all the books myself.
Once Upon a Time…
Roomies is one of my favorite meet-cutes because I love romances that have that infatuated love at first sight feeling. Holland Bakker falls in love with Calvin from afar while watching him play guitar in a New York subway. She has admired the guitar-playing Calvin McLoughlin for months until they literally collide in a New York City subway. Holland has always been a girl that never takes chances until she spontaneously marries the swoon-worthy Calvin to save him from deportation and giving him the opportunity of a lifetime to play music for Broadway.
Pixie Pop Culture…
While You Were Sleeping is the movie that cemented my obsession with the falling in love from a person from afar trope! Even though, this movie has quite a twist it has all the swooniness, sexiness, quirkiness, and cuteness you can ever ask for!
Good vs. Evil…
Holland Bakker’s supposed best friend Lulu would play an evil role in this story. Lulu is someone that is completely unsupportive of Holland, manipulative, holds her back, and is completely selfish. She is the kind of best friend that says she wants you to be happy but then tries to sabotage you at the same time.
Luckily good wins in this novel! Holland Bakker is someone that commits an incredible act of kindness by helping Calvin McLoughlin with his immigration papers and marrying him which results in him continuing to inspire people with his music and achieving his dreams. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that he is heart-stoppingly hot!
Happily Ever After…
Falling in love with a person before you met them is one of the other tropes I live for. There is nothing like falling in love with someone before even meeting them because it’s very rare we come across people that make us feel this way in our lifetime. The chemistry between Holland and Calvin was undeniable and it was the kind of romance that kept us asking for more. There were certain parts of the book that was a complete tease and some steamy scenes that made me feel like I needed to puff on a cigarette if you know what I mean! Unfortunately, I did have to bump this book from five stars to four stars because the middle end of the book got incredibly dramatic when I wasn’t prepared for it and because of it the pacing was a bit off. Even though, I had some issues with the pacing this book was still unputdownable! This is the perfect HEA for me because the girl finally gets the guy she always wanted!