THE ROOMMATE by ROSIE DANAN

‘If the world were fair, Josh would have been able to get into a ring and fight for what he wanted. If the world were fair, he would have a chance.’

As far as debut novels go, Rosie Danan’s, The Roommate delivered with some flirty, sweet, sexy and fun banter in a story about how opposites attract. Plus, there’s some swoony moments and a bit of unrequited love thrown into the mix! Not to mention the gorgeous witty Josh.

‘Wanting him, she could handle. But anything deeper…anything more with Josh was impossible. Unacceptable.’

You couldn’t get more opposite than the pearl-clutching somewhat naïve Clara Wheaton and the uninhibited and outgoing Joshua Conners, and yet, somehow, they worked! We loved the banter and revelled in seeing Clara, who had no life experience outside of her academia world, flounder and flourish in her new surroundings.

‘He’d give Clara everything he had, even if it killed him.’

At 27, Clara plucks up the courage to leave her home and well to do family, to stand on her own two feet and finally confront Everett Bloom, the man she’s held a torch for since childhood. Everett invites her to room with him in LA and it’s the perfect opportunity for Clara to kill two birds with one stone.

Only problem, Everett’s band has had its big break and he needs to head off, leaving Clara pretty much standing at the door to his house. Not only that, but he’s managed to find her a roommate off Craigslist. What could go wrong? Plenty if you know Clara!

Well, nothing much if you think blue blood and a porn star would have anything in common. That’s right, her new gorgeous flatmate is an unapologetic porn star who loves his work and refuses to be shamed over his chosen profession.

‘When she smiled or laughed, he felt powerful; and good. If something hurt her, he wanted to Hulk smash.’

The banter between Josh and Clara was as witty as hell. Josh especially, with his forthrightness gave us quite the giggles, and as Josh succumbs to the quirky charms of Clara, the story becomes quite sweet and swoony with some sexy times to be had by all!

Josh stared up at her. “I can’t believe you said clitoris at full volume. I can’t tell if I’m afraid of you right now or turned on. Possibly both.”

Josh Conners and Clara Wheaton didn’t make sense on paper, but what if somehow, impossibly, two wrongs made a right? We revelled in finding out and whilst a lot of The Roommate worked for us, there were a couple of aspects that left us wanting. We didn’t really experience the conflict between Clara and her family – we were told, not shown, so that aspect fell a bit flat. Clara was sweet but she didn’t wow us. In fact, we really loved the dynamics between Josh and his ‘co-star’ Naomi. Her sarky biting humour more than matched Josh’s openness. Clara’s personality was a little bland in comparison, but she was a real sweetheart.

Now, in saying that, we did enjoy this story, the romance was sweet and sexy, and it’s a wonderful debut that has us excited for what’s to come from Rosie Danan. Oh and message to this author…we’d LOVE a book about Naomi!