Top Shelf: The Roughest Draft

The Roughest Draft, by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka is the story of a writing duo, Katrina "Kat" Freeling and Nathan Van Heisen.

Kat is an author living in LA with her fiance and agent, Chris. Nathan is residing in Chicago and just published a new book, but it's receiving mediocre reviews and he is struggling to find his solo writing groove. She's recently engaged, and he's recently divorced.

Together, they are bestselling writing partners whose relationship went south at some point in history (to which the reader is not privy). The chapters alternate between the characters' voices, so readers experience the internal thoughts of both.

When the story starts, it's been four years since they last saw each other, around the time their worldwide bestseller was released. They are quickly brought together to write one final joint book to satisfy their contract and personal obligations, but this experience starts to pull at the threads of their past.

From this point, the story goes back and forth between incidents from four years earlier and the present. As they write their final book about a couple's divorce, they find that love is its main theme.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ups and downs of the characters' feelings and the rhythmic feel of the story. I listened to this one via audiobook, so that may have been even more pronounced. Also, the Florida Keys setting makes this a great end-of-summer read!

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