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

2.0

 After finally reading and loving my first Emily Henry, Book Lovers, I wanted something similar before I go on and eventually read Beach Read next. The Roughest Draft had moments I liked but unfortunately never really hooked me. I don’t mind an angsty read, a romance where it’s obvious they’re in love but other factors (other partners, doubt, fear, past rejection) cause them to sit and stew in angsty pining. With the book being about two authors, there’s a lot of meta text: they’re currently writing a duel timeline book about the same relationship years apart, which is exactly what The Roughest Draft is. The characters writing in the book was probably the best part: I did love the troupe of them falling for each other in swapping chapters back and forth, filling margins with comments and underlining and crossing out words. However, other parts of the plot is weak and the book pacing can drag. It took me quite a few sessions to read it and I was never really that excited to pick it up. 

During the two timelines, the past and the present, at all times one of the main duo, Kat and Nathan has a partner. When they first meet, Nathan is married and Kat is single. After the time jump, Kat is engaged while Nathan has gotten divorced and is single. Kat’s current partner Chris just straight up sucks and he is supposed to, Kat settling for him represents her choosing a safe but passionless choice because she is afraid of having love and happiness and losing it, which can be relatable except the way Chris treats her at times is awful and I just want her to leave him. She does go to therapy at the end which is good, but I really wish she would’ve seen Chris for what he was, left him, and went to therapy on her own. While Nathan doesn’t “save” her, it’s still the situation with him that causes her to finally do what she has to do. Chris also plays into the romance trend of “it’s okay to cheat on your partner if they suck anyway!” which I don’t appreciate. On the other hand, Nathan’s wife who he divorced during the time skip is slightly better but his relationship with her and her character still wasn’t fully fleshed out. Ultimately Nathan loved Melissa, he just loved Kat more and she made him feel more passion. I’m glad she wasn’t a cartoon villain like Melissa, but it swings hard in the other way. I can’t help but feel if Nathan did the work in their marriage and put Melissa first instead of falling for Kat and offering to leave his wife for her (!), and if he also went to therapy, they could’ve had a chance staying together. Romance books are often about characters getting together and starting a relationship, not the hard work that it takes to maintain one. Most romance books end with an “I love you,” the characters finally realising they have feelings for each other after initially falling out after the third act conflict. Then, there is an epilogue anywhere from a new months to years later showing how happy they are. It’s the same here. Through Melissa, this is emphasises. Nathan and Melissa’s marriage ends because Nathan and Kat just have “sparks” and “passion” and a “magnetic pull,” and that all the work is in them finally realising they should be together and everything will be perfect after that. If the authors were going to have both the main characters have partners during the story, they needed to do it with more depth and nuance. 
 
This issue with having characters that are clearly moreso plot tools than fleshed out characters is also obvious in their mutual friend Harriett. She’s a blunt personality and often will force them to face problems they’ve been avoiding. I do like that when Chris arrives, she looks at the unfolding tension and nopes the fuck out of there. Good for her! I just couldn’t help but feel like all of her scenes where to (slowly) advance the main couple without enough work being put into her otherwise. 

Ultimately it was the slow pace and lack of chemistry that made it unexciting to read through. The summer, seaside town setting also was barely used, which is understandable since they are there for work and writing most of the day, but it could’ve helped make the book more memorable if the authors utilised the setting. Especially at the end when Kat returns to New York after living in Los Angeles and we get brief (and cliché) musings that she missed dressing for the cooler weather. Setting is important but it was barely used other than the continuous emphasis on how hot it is (couldn’t they have picked a house with air con the first time around?). 

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