Roomies

By Christina Lauren

Synopsis

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?

Review

Roomies is a standalone romance about two people with different passions. Calvin who only wants to make music and Holland who wants to find her muse again.

Calvin, who is here on an expired visa, is given the opportunity of his lifetime. He has to turn it down because of his immigration status. But Holland believes Calvin is the best for her uncle’s show and will do anything to make sure he will join it.

I found that the story started a little slow but I realized quickly that the pace of the story reflected the pace of Holland’s life at the moment. She was not moving through life very quickly. She earned her degree in writing but after graduating the words didn’t come to her very easily so she started working for her uncle selling merchandise for his show.

Holland keep herself busy stalking Calvin until she was attacked on the subway where he was busking. But it wasn’t until this crazy idea of how to get Calvin a legal status to work in this country did this story really start moving for me. And it is at that point that Holland’s life started to move. Her creative side started to come to the surface.

I really liked the way the story went. Strangers that needed something from each other to two people who were passionate about each other. It was obvious that Calvin was unique and cared very deeply for Holland. And Holland obsession turned into a relationship. Both had to get over hurdles to finally get to a good place in their lives.

This story was very touching and fun to see how these two found their way through this crazy arrangement.

My Rating: