Roomies by Christina Lauren

Title: Roomies
Author: Christina Lauren
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Genre: Romance
Where I got it: Public library

Goodreads Summary

Marriages of convenience are so…inconvenient.

Rescued by Calvin McLoughlin from a would-be subway attacker, Holland Bakker pays the brilliant musician back by pulling some of her errand-girl strings and getting him an audition with a big-time musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until he admits his student visa has expired and he’s in the country illegally.

Holland impulsively offers to wed the Irishman to keep him in New York, her growing infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves from awkward roommates to besotted lovers, Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway. In the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting, what will it take for Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?

Review

Have you ever started a book and wondered “is this book ever going to end?” That is how I felt reading Roomies.

Holland Bakker works at a theater were her Uncle Jeff’s husband, Robert, works. For months, she has been obsessed with a street musician she’s dubbed Jack. Turns out Jack’s name is actually Calvin.

The synopsis pretty much tells what this story is about. While this story had potential to be really good, the main character, Holland, really prevented that from happening. She was a very insecure person, and quite frankly the most lost 25-year old person I’ve read in a while. The entire story is told from Holland’s POV, which was a bummer.  It honestly would have been better to hear from Calvin, especially when he got his big break on Broadway.

I didn’t really understand Calvin’s rise to fame as a guitarist in musical theater (I will admit I don’t know much about musical theater). He also wasn’t developed as a character. I liked him, but it would have been better had we heard from his POV.

The best characters in this story were Holland’s uncles, and they were secondary. I didn’t feel much of a connection to either main character, and the events with Calvin’s family at the end of the book didn’t make much sense. I hated Holland’s best friend, Lulu. She was a truly awful character. Very mean and spiteful. Not your typical book bff. And Holland’s boss Brian was a pretty idiotic character.

This book was about 150 pages too long and IT DID NOT HAVE AN EPILOGUE.  There were some issues brought up at the end that were not resolved as well; that was incredibly frustrating.

Overall, this book was just blah. I skipped so much because I was bored and just wanted it to be over.

I would skip.