This is one of those books that should be getting ridiculous, viral TikTok-level-hype. To the point, The Roughest Draft is a perfect draft—a 5-star read (which for me means there’s nothing I’d change about it). It’s about jealousy, ambition, insecurity, and estranged writing partners with a past involving an enigmatic inciting incident—former friends who have to hole up in a Florida house to finish a cowritten book.

The story spans their forced book-writing time, which is less writing retreat and more writing war zone. Like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in War of the Roses: the hot Floridian house is the combative battlefield; the dining room with the single laptop, the war room; the tacit words fly from fingertips onto the screen like grenades being launched. In the beginning, it’s a mostly silent war with the constant rat-tat-tat of the keyboard and some occasional direct hits, landing with audible digs. These two—while alienated for four years—know how to target the other, finding their intimate knowledge of one another wasn’t obliterated like the ending of their friendship.

Reading this book was a perfect push-pull balance. It begins with an inquiry. Instantly intrigued, I wanted to know what happened between them while still enjoying all the potential landmines from Kat and Nathan’s forced proximity. I loved all the layers of the plot and characters and the meta-writing where the boundaries between fact and fiction feel blurry at best. I’m a sucker for books about books or writers or stories, and this one is certainly a book that captures the beauty and vulnerability and intimacy and importance of writing: “Fiction comes from truth. It is a wonderful, imaginative, flourishing thing grown from a seed of real feelings, real desires, real fears. No artist ever creates from nothing. We work from what we’ve experienced, inspired by the unique piece of the world we see. It’s why art cannot be replicated” (244-245). ( )

I was torn between 2.5 and 3 stars. I didn't really enjoy this book but there were parts I did get a little into and wanted to see what happened. Honestly, if this was not a Once Upon a Book Club book, I probably would have DNF'd it. I didn't like any of the characters. I think it dragged on their whole history but not really explaining what happened between them. It was completely unsatisfying by the time they did get together, because I honestly could've cared less if they did. I would've been fine if the characters just jumped off a bridge. They made Chris so totally unlikeable that it made Katherine seem like a complete fuckwit for staying with him. I did like how the book they were writing together went along with the story line, the parallels there were kind of fun. Maybe that's the only thing going for it. Now that I've written out this review, I'm definitely going with a 2.5 star rating here. And the whole story with Heidi, the friend. Like she was so mad at her and they didn't talk for four years because she said she loved Nathan back then? I don't know. They made it seem like she had killed her dog or something. Katherine was just overly dramatic. Anyway, I clearly didn't really love this book, so moving on! ( )

I loved this book so much!! I went into this book with high expections and i loved it!! I thought the second chance romance was a fun take on the story!! I also really liked the bookish connection to the story and loved the focus on the anxiety and depression side of creavity and being an autor it was a super quick read!! I am excited to read more of their adult books!! ( )

I loved this book so much!! I went into this book with high expections and i loved it!! I thought the second chance romance was a fun take on the story!! I also really liked the bookish connection to the story and loved the focus on the anxiety and depression side of creavity and being an autor it was a super quick read!! I am excited to read more of their adult books!! ( )

This book is solidly a 3.5.

I loved the back and forth between Nathan and Katrina. How they used fiction to say the words they didn't say with each other. I enjoyed the audience bearing witness to the dance of two authors writing a book--the back and forth, the figuring out their story, the relationship with publishers and reputations. I liked the characters and I wanted to know their story. Why had they lost touch? What had made them stop working together?

And that's in a way why this book is not 4 stars.

Because and it's splitting hairs. It's also my personal worldview coming into play. But I don't care how Katrina and Nathan justified their actions. But he did cheat on his first wife emotionally with Katrina. He wanted her, he fantasized.....and so yeah, that bothered me. Now yes, I totally loved the romance between Nathan and Katrina. Their tension was palpable and because he was divorced before the book, I could support them getting together. Just the justification annoyed me.

This was a fun chick lit, what I'd almost call "new adult" in appeal. I wanted to read the book that was being written. So I would say that would make The Roughest Draft a winner. ( )