A review by yvo_about_books
The Roughest Draft by Austin Siegemund-Broka, Emily Wibberley

2.0

 Finished reading: March 4th 2023


“It can be both. Fiction is fiction, and it's real. They're not opposites. They live within each other.”

WARNING: yet another unpopular opinion ahead!!

I've seen this book being compared to Beach Read (which I loved), so when I was browsing the list for a book about divorce for the POPSUGAR challenge I decided to give in and read The Roughest Draft. I always love a story with a bookish angle, so having two writers as main characters was a bonus... And I liked the sound of the blurb itself. I was fully expecting to have an excellent time reading this story, but unfortunately this wasn't the case. Instead, it made me so SO angry! I'm keeping this short because I don't want to turn this shorties review into a full blown rant, but there is no denying that The Roughest Draft was able to provoke some strong emotions, and none of them good. Things started out promising enough, but this changed rather quickly once I realized just how big of a gaslighting and self-absorbed piece of trash Katrina's fiancé Chris really is... Just ugh. Basically as soon as he forced her to co-write another book, told her it was ok to cheat if she needed to, and if she didn't do it he was going to look for another wife I was ready to throw my kindle against the wall and DNF. Katrina is just such a doormat! I couldn't stand Nathan either, and I felt neither character was fleshed out properly beyond a few basic descriptions thrown in and put on repeat. Yes, I get that Nathan drives a Porsche, and yes, I get that Katrina has bee-stung lips!! Now leave me alone and stop tormenting me with it. To make things worse, there is a lot of emotional cheating going on, and this made me like the characters even less (if possible). The fact that both are cheating at some point in time makes it even worse; maybe if Katrina had dumped Chris there and then when I said those things in the beginning and wrote the book for herself instead, things would have been different. As it is, I couldn't care less about what happened to them or if they would resolve their issues, and I started skimreading long before the halfway mark. And oh joy! There is even some active cheating and cringeworthy SMUT involved, driving another nail in the coffin of The Roughest Draft. All in all this turned out to be a rough read for me indeed... 
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