The Roommate Arrangement

Markum (Love, Off the Record) plays into various entertaining romance tropes in this conventional enemies-to-lovers tale. After being unceremoniously kicked out of her off-campus housing by her former besties, incoming computer science freshman Blair scrambles to find a new place to live as she starts her intensive pre-college summer semester. Too scared to ask her overbearing mother and austere stepfather for help, Blair searches online personal ads for people seeking housemates and agrees to move into an off-campus abode with a group of sophomores. Just when she thinks her luck can’t get any worse, however, she learns that one of her new roommates is her older brother’s irritating best friend Jamie. Worried Jamie will spill her predicament to her family, Blair proposes an exchange: she’ll help him code his app, which he needs to win a scholarship, if he keeps their living situation to himself. As they grow closer, though, Blair realizes that Jamie isn’t as annoying as she once thought. The white-cued protagonists’ budding romance provides frothy, carefree fun, while earnest prose depicts Blair’s struggle to balance her secret passion for art with her parents’ expectations. Ages 14–up. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Folio Literary. (Jan.)