Holland's floundering. Her writing career has never taken
off. She's working for family at a Broadway theater, but
her life has no direction. When her uncle needs a musician
for his play, Holland knows the perfect candidate. She's
been impressed with his playing outside the subway station
for months.
Holland talked to the musician, Calvin, one night after a
few too many drinks. They shared a moment before he
disappeared. Knowing that he could be the answer for her
uncle, she drags him to hear Calvin play. Her uncle hears
it too; together they offer him an audition with the
orchestra and then the position. Unfortunately, he's in the
country illegal and must decline. Jokingly, Holland's boss
comes up with a solution; she could marry him. At first,
Holland thinks it's a crazy idea, but the more
she thinks about it, the more the idea begins to take hold.
So she approaches him. To her surprise, he agrees.
They come up with a set of rules before they marry. Could
this be the shake up Holland's life needs?
Christina Lauren updates the marriage of convenience trope
in the best modern use since Sandra Bullock's "The Proposal."
This new adult title was hard to put down.
I loved the behind-the-scenes look at the theater and how
much work goes into making a Broadway play successful.
Holland is an easy character to like. She's floundering
with her life choices, but she has big dreams. She has a
large heart and likes helping people, I wanted her to
succeed in the worst way.
It's not hard to fall for Calvin -- a musician in love with
his art. He's strong, talented, and Irish.
Their evolving romance kept me quickly turning the pages. I
needed to make sure they ended up together by the end of
ROOMIES.
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 and #1
international bestselling author Christina Lauren’s
(Beautiful Bastard, Dating You / Hating You) new romance.
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?