The Book:
Roomies by Christina Lauren, 2017
The Characters:
Holland
Calvin
Plot (from Goodreads):
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?
The Review:
These authors are the masters of cute, light-hearted love stories! I’ve been reading them for years and always look forward to their new books.
I’m usually not the biggest fan of convenience-marriage stories, mostly just because they seem way too far-fetched to be true to me. It’s just generally not my favorite romance trope. However, if I put aside my thoughts of “jeez girl you don’t know this dude and you’re letting him marry you??” and how unsafe that would be in the real world, this book ended up being pretty good.
Belief suspended, I enjoyed the love story and how Holland and Calvin came to know and care for each other. It was a comfortable and heartwarming read. I like to intersperse light romances in between my more heavy thriller reads in order to keep myself from getting bored with my favorite genre, and this certainly did the trick.
