The Roughest Draft

By: Emily Wibberley, Austin Siegemund-Broka

Narrated by: Dan Bittner, Imani Jade Powers

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

One of...
Amazon's Best Romances of January
Popsugar's Best New Romances of 2022
Cosmopolitan's Best Romance Novels of 2022
Buzzfeed, GMA.com, Shondaland, and Bustle's Best of January
Oprah Daily’s Most Anticipated Romances of 2022
E! News' Books to Add To Your Reading List in January
Bookbub's Most Anticipated Romances of Winter
The Nerd Daily’s Swoonworthy 2022 Releases

They were cowriting literary darlings until they hit a plot hole that turned their lives upside down.

Three years ago, Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen were the brightest literary stars on the horizon, their cowritten book topping bestseller lists. But on the heels of their greatest success, they ended their partnership on bad terms, for reasons neither would divulge to the public. They haven't spoken since, and never planned to, except they have one final book due on contract. 

Facing crossroads in their personal and professional lives, they're forced to reunite. The last thing they ever thought they'd do again is hole up in the tiny Florida town where they wrote their previous book, trying to finish a new manuscript quickly and painlessly. Working through the reasons they've hated each other for the past three years isn't easy, especially not while writing a romantic novel. 

While passion and prose push them closer together in the Florida heat, Katrina and Nathan will learn that relationships, like writing, sometimes take a few rough drafts before they get it right.

©2022 Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Real, raw, and heartfelt."—USA Today

"The Roughest Draft is a book about books, and a breathtaking meditation on the ways in which fiction can be a space to expose and write large our must vulnerable truths...Complex and achingly romantic, The Roughest Draft feels as if it's a palimpsest for Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka's most deeply held beliefs about writing and each other—a profound collective story inked out for all of us to find ourselves on its pages."—Entertainment Weekly 

“The Roughest Draft has it all: Romance, rumor, and intrigue, and you won’t want to put it down.”—Shondaland 

Gorgeous. Moving. Hopeful.

There is so much in this book that speaks directly to me. First of all, the characters starting out being so desperately angry at somebody who used to be such an integral part of their lives. The desire and aching to avoid that wound and yet the magnetic pull to make it right. Particularly powerful to me is Katrina's anxiety about not being enough, about not being significant. Her anxiety and fear echo so many of my own, and they are painted honestly and starkly on the page. But at its heart, this book is about mending love: mending our love for ourselves; for the work we're destined to do; for the friends we've hurt without meaning to; for the people we've loved dearly and cruelly wounded to protect ourselves. The prose is gorgeous, obviously. The characters are rich and real and beautiful and flawed. After all, this is a #wibbroka novel.

LOVE! Love. Love.

Even though I’m a long, long time Audible listener, this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write a review because this book is worth it. It’s hard to put a finger on why I loved it so much ... besides the great writing and narration. It has similar themes as other books but there is something special about the characters and their absolute adoration and respect for each other ... about the love that exists even when they’re not conscious of it. I found myself wanting to slow down the narration just so the book would last longer. I want the authors to continue the characters’ stories. Too many romance novels are one-offs. Let us see what’s next for them.

Roughest Draft, Indeed

DNF. I don’t feel like the male narrator fit the character at all. As far as the book is concerned, talk about a snooze fest. I listened to half of it, at 2.8x and it was still too slow of a story. I felt like nothing happened.

Horrible story

Do not read this. There’s no story, no conflict, nothing interesting. This book is about nothing and not in a Seinfeld funny kind of way. Probably worst book I’ve ever read/listened.

Nothing New

I loved the narrators but found myself struggling to get through this book. I think the reason I never wanted to pick it up was due in part to the plot being alike so many other books I've read and there was nothing tying me to these characters, especially because I could not form a connection with either one of them. I am really sad because I wanted to love these as I've had lots of people recommend this to me :(

Disappointed

At first, I loved this book. Couldn't put it down. Then as I got further into it, I became more impatient for the story to unfold. When it finally did, it was extremely anticlimactic. I'm so disappointed with how the authors wrapped up this book.

Wanted to like it

This book seemed right up my alley- I love Emily Henry, Julia Whelan, etc. But the character development was too slow, there was too much description of their internal dialogue, the plot didn’t really move… the narrators were OK, although the inflections of the male narrators voice were distracting. I just found it frustrating to listen to, couldn’t finish with only 30 minutes left.

Loved the narrators!

Chris sucks! He’s so selfish and inconsiderate! He doesn’t love Katerina and he never did! He only wanted her because of the money she could bring him as an agent/author relationship!

In the first part of this book Katrina is being so naive about Chris’s feelings toward her, he only wants her to write the book. He wants nothing more, his comment about “what about a new wife” is just such a strong thing to say! It’s a slap in the face, just because she doesn’t want to write anymore he wants to leave her? Wow! And she is feeding into this now, saying yes to writing the book with Nathan!

Chris is a tool, I hate him!

Nathan’s douchebag character Dean is spot on for Chris! He really is an asshat.

This is very hard to read, not in the sense that it’s not enjoyable, but that their tension is so strained! It’s just very palpable and cringy right now. And we still know nothing of what’s happened in the past! I’m feeling very much like I want to read ahead and see what happened, but I’m not going to do that, choosing to stay dumb to the meat of the story!

I like Harriet!

Okay, so no cheating happened between the mains! That’s good… but I’m definitely feeling that Nathan was probably falling in real, actual love with Katrina and maybe that is why his marriage ended? I just don’t understand why Kat wouldn’t reciprocate?!? They seemed to have good chemistry… I’ll keep reading it.

I hate Chris!

I’m now about 75-80% done with the book, and I’m at the cross roads! The 4 years earlier chapter of where the decision lies to change their lives forever, and it’s heart breaking the way Nathan is talking about his wife, nothing has happened between him and Kat, but the future of wanting it to happen is in the forefront of his thoughts! He’s breaking on the beach and I’m beaming along side him. I love this book. Working along side someone who really gets you in every possible way and feeling that chemistry with them is just an undeniable truth. It has to be hard when you’ve made commitments to someone else!

Wow, Kat’s 4 years ago was so sad, Nathan confessed his love but as characters, and Kat is scared of everything she could have and lose and so she chooses to end her relationship with her best friend.

Oh man, I hate the way she let him down! That’s kinda crappy and very immature I feel. Just have the conversation with this man that you love so much, I know it’s scary and your scared for the future, of it maybe not working out the way that you planned, but if you don’t take risks you can never move forward… and now it makes sense as to why she settled for Chris all those years ago!

We’re back in the presence and I’m so happy Chris had been kicked to the curb and they can now explore their feelings for each other! And I love these scenes, they are beautifully written, it’s spicy yet tame and I’m in to it! I don’t need dirty filthy talk in every single book I read, sometimes it’s nice to really be in the moment of what is really happening. And what is actually happening is two people finally acting on their feelings. I’m loving this.

So sad, but they needed to hash out the past and really talk out their feelings! I was scared when she was at the beach thinking she was going to just give up her craft and the man she loves for fear. But she prevailed and it was wonderful.



This book was super great, the only thing I have a problem with is it just a little pretentious. It’s filled with complicated rhetorics and fancy language that sometimes the story is lost to all the words! Also……. IF I HAVE TO READ THE WORD PROSE ONE MORE TIME!!!!!

Gah, I really enjoyed this book.

If You Love Emily Henry, You'll Love This One!

More of this review and others at my IG account: @Whimsically_Bookish

If you love books that give off Emily Henry vibes, duel narrators, and a good slow burn this book is for you! I absolutely loved it!

💙 What I Liked:

✍️ This book was written for book lovers. It read like a love letter to all writers and readers. So engaging and beautiful!

✍️ The chemistry and relationship between our characters. It was 🔥🔥🔥

✍️ The slowburn!!!

✍️ The plot. So intriguing and I kept wondering what happened between these two people that was so explosive.

✍️ The narrators. If you love audiobooks do yourself a favor and spend your credit on this one.

💙 What I Didn't Like:

✍️ Honestly, our heroine Kat got on my nerves some. But when the story was finished I did find myself on her side.

✍️ There's a spoiler for my second reason (it's also the reason why I gave it four stars instead of five), so I won't be posting it. You can DM if you want to know. Basically there was a (sort of) trope I didn't care for and some serious lack of common sense on our characters parts.. but it was handled well and I can forgive it.

Overall I would definitely hype this book up and recommend it!

Great storyline, a little slow to start

I loved the story of this book but the start was a little slow. I love reading about writers and this storyline was super interesting!