There are times when I am in the mood to read something harder, more literary or historical fiction or gritty or sad or what have you. When I am on vacation is not one of those times. Or most of the summer. Those are both times when I just want to breeze through some fun, frothy, probably romantic books. Vacations AND summer AND summer vacations are times when we are even more on the go and my reading time is maybe increased but also maybe a little harder to find. I want something easy to pick up and hard to put down. (This is not a great plan in terms of my sleep.)
When we were headed to Chicago for spring break I was having ZERO luck finding any books set in Chicago (other than Hello Beautiful which I found out was Chicago set about 3 days before we left and I am 67 in the library hold line. And then The Comeback Summer which isn't out yet). So then I went for my next vacation go-to which is those easy, fun, romance books. If I am going to NYC it is easy to find books that cover both of those - NYC set romances. Or London usually works too (although I am still appalled at the number of non-travel guide books I took to London (1)). Or anywhere with a beachy setting works when going to the beach. Anyways, I was having no luck with Chicago and my holds lists were MAXED out with nothing moving. That left me with what I could find on the shelf at our local library branch.
One of the 4 books I took (only 3 of which I cracked open on the trip and I am still a bit sad about that over packing, especially given the ¾ mile we walked from the train station to our hotel) was Roomies by Christina Lauren. I have read many books by this best friend writing duo and have enjoyed nearly all of them, some more than others. I figured a back list title of theirs would be great a great vacation read. Plus, I could actually get my hands on it.
The premise is a bit far fetched but not too much that I couldn't suspend my belief of it. Holland is crushing hard on a subway musician and when her Broadway producer uncle needs a very talented musician STAT...Holland works up the courage to talk to the subway musician, Calvin, and gets him an audition. Broadway uncle wants to hire Calvin but there is the problem of him being in the country illegally from Ireland. He can't take an actual job. So Holland gets the bright idea to marry Calvin so he can get a green card, thus work legally in the US and take this dream job. Helping both Calvin and her uncle out. WELL...this could go wrong AND right. And that's what happens. Good and bad things happen. I learned a bit about the immigration system! And Broadway! And green card marriages. I stayed up too late one night reading this and was cramming it in on our last morning at the hotel (where I couldn't finish before checkout and had to finish on the train home).
I loved the behind the scenes look at Broadway and the NYC living struggle and being a musician and finding your path. Christina Lauren is generally on the steamier end of what I am comfortable reading but skimming is always an option! It was just one I was eager to pickup and was very hard to put down (even to sleep). I really enjoyed this one. It was a great read in a big city, even if I want' in NYC or it wasn't set in Chicago.
Reading Roomies brought to mind a number of different books I have read previously which is always fun. I read a lot and details often don't stick in my mind so I am always pleased when they do!
First, for the struggling to successful musician story line there is Grace Grows by Shelle Sumners. I book I believe I read because I was struck by the Central Park cover picture at Target, I put it on hold, and then read most of it in the backseat of our Mazda 3, next to a baby Luke, on our drive home from the Smoky Mountains. I've read this one, according to Goodreads, FIVE times since that trip 10 years ago and get sucked into the love story of Grace (the put together one) and Ty (the struggling musician) every. single. time. I now own it.
Also with the struggling musician turned successful there is Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger, about married couple where the husband turns into a successful musicians and his wife feels a bit left out and left behind. There is the struggle of life on the road and what that does to their relationship. I also have read this a few times and I'm pretty sure I bought the paperback on a whim at Kroger after liking the library copy so much. It might be the only book I've bought at Kroger...
Of all the Christina Lauren books I've read (which isn't all), this one most reminded me of Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating solely in that it takes a friends to more path although that one had childhood friends and this one was the fake marriage trope (I dislike the word trope). They are fairly prolific authors so they've covered a variety of tropes and situations, bound to have similar ones at some point! And this was a very different story line, just similar vibes I would say!
And, finally, in the "fake marriage that may turn into something more" story line, Roomies reminded me of Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson, which got it's own post about 2 years ago here. That had a VERY different story line where the fake marriage there was to save a Jewish woman from the horrors of the Holocaust by her pretending to be Catholic and pretend marrying a Catholic farmer. BUT...they reminded me of each other solely because they both had a marriage to someone they barely knew, whom they had to convince outsiders was a real marriage, and then they slowly developed feelings for each other. To be sure, the risk of being deported to current day Ireland is VERY DIFFERENT stakes than the risk of being sent to a concentration camp. But, also, I don't know that anyone is comparing those two books besides me!
I had a delightful reading experience with Roomies in Chicago and it brought up fond memories of a variety of other good books I've read over the years. There might be something worth checking out there for you!
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