{Release Day Review} The Roommate by Rosie Danan (@RosieDanan @BerkleyRomance)

House Rules:
Do your own dishes
Knock before entering the bathroom
Never look up your roommate online

The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too much to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.

After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet...

Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.

​Clara Wheaton can’t believe that she left her privileged East Coast life for a shot at love in California. She should have run back home when everything started to fall apart the minute that she arrived.  But pride is a painful thing to swallow.
 
Then there’s the problem of her new roommate.  If she looked up the definition of sin, she’d find a picture of Josh.  He’s sex on legs with the face of an angel.  And she has no idea how they are going to survive the entire summer living under the same roof. 

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but frankly, Everett didn’t tell me he had to go out of town until right now and, no offense, I’m sure you’re probably nice, but this” – she gestured to the space between them – “falls a little outside my comfort zone.”

​“Hey, me too.” He put his hand to his heart. “I’ve seen a lot of made-for-TV movies, you know. You’re exactly the kind of pint-sized, tightly wound socialite who goes crazy and paints the walls with chicken blood. How do I know I’m safe from you?”

​Josh Conners doesn’t exactly make his living the conventional way. He doesn’t feel the need to apologize for it either. After all, in Hollywood, there are worse ways to make ends meet.  He’s worked hard, has a loyal following and even earned a stellar write up in Cosmo.  The last thing he needs is to be stuck rooming with the prim and proper Clara.
 
Until he discovers that they can make each other burn hotter than the California sun.  
 
Now that they are working together to demystify female sexual pleasure for the masses, Clara works her way under his skin and into his heart. But can their searing summer romance turn into the love of a lifetime? 

“Jesus, Clara.” He ran his hand through his hair. “You’ve dated a bunch of lazy assholes if they let you get away with that shit. Sex isn’t about efficiency.”

“Maybe not for you,” she said under her breath.  

Josh’s gaze bore through her for a moment, so deep she wondered for a ridiculous instant if he could see through not only her clothes but her skin as well, to the yawning chasm of insecurity underneath.  

He got to his feet. “You know what? No.”

She followed the movement of his arms as they crossed in a show of defiance. 

“No?” Clara liked her bone-dry lips.

“No,” he said again as if even more convinced of what needed to be done. “This is unacceptable.”

“It is?”

Josh shook out his neck and shoulders, like a swimmer preparing to dive before a race.

“Take off your underwear,” he said, his voice calm and deadly serious.

Clara’s eyes went heavy-lidded at the conviction in his words, but then her mind caught up with her body. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I’m going to rectify this situation,” Josh stated simply. “Right now.”

​“You can’t be serious.” She tried to laugh but couldn’t in the face of his stoic determination. “This is insane.”

​The Roommate is a sublime combination of sexy and smart!  Not only is Rosie’s Denan’s debut surprisingly soulful, her characters are sweetly awkward in ways that only fan the flames of their feverish chemistry. 
 
But it’s not just about sex.  Not to say that Clara and Josh don’t burn up the pages - because, oh my!! It’s also about being brave enough to live life on your own terms.  And I simply adored every second of their journey…