This books started out slow but ended up picking up. In the end. I really enjoyed the book. I will now read more from Sarah Hogle. This book tells such true stories of relationships and makes you really think about things you have been through.

I’m on the fence about this book. I hated the characters at first. And hated what they did to each other. I really think there should be a TW about domestic violence too. But the book DOES turn around and they find the right way to communicate/ love each other, and I start to like the characters. But the domestic violence really made me upset to read about and I don’t like to read that.

The author was really great with imagery, character development, plots, etc. Its just the subject matter for me.

So I don’t think I will review this on Amazon/ Goodreads then, to bring your ratings down.

Just not my cup of tea. I thought it was well written, and engaging, but just did not like the characters at all.

This book was so much fun! There were times when I hated both Nicholas and Naomi. At times, I wanted to shake or scream at one or the other of them. But when they worked together, they really worked. I loved watching them kick and scream their way back to each other.

This was such a cute and different story! I really try to avoid knowing the plot line of a story before I begin reading it, and this was really threw me for a loop! Such a cute story about a couple who is engaged and has some issues they need to try to work out. I loved the main characters, I thought they were expertly drawn as really dynamic people who had pluses and minuses. Everyone has things they can work on, and I though Hogle did a great job of creating people who were both fun, and funny, and yet still realistic and had faults. I really didn't know what to expect, and ended up devouring this book - such a fun, funny read!

The cute cover and the reference to The Hating Game definitely drew me to You Deserve Each Other. Unfortunately, it was just not for me.

Naomi has to be one of the most unlikable characters I have ever read. For about the first 60% of the book I really thought she’d be better suited as the narcissistic villain in a psychological thriller rather than the heroine in a Romance. She is just so, so awful and self-centered. She spent the early days of her relationship with Nicholas lying to him and then got mad when he thought that’s who she was. She refused to communicate and every time Nicholas tried to be honest, she would not take any responsibility for the things she’s done wrong, but would turn it back around on him. She was so mean and vindictive. I really couldn’t stand her. Nicholas also didn’t hep matters by often retaliating her bad behavior. However, he wasn’t trying to get her to break up with him like the sick game Naomi thought they were playing, but wanted to get an actual reaction out of her and get their relationship back on solid ground.

Even though I was not enjoying the book at all, for some reason I kept reading it and a little over halfway through it began to get better. Naomi and Nicholas finally have real conversations and start to make positive changes. There were even several cute and humorous moments. It made me sad that the first half of the book was so frustrating because it had the potential to be such a sweet, fun story, but the second half was not enough to make up for the first.

Overall, You Deserve Each Other ended up disappointing me. It did have some funny and cute moments, but Naomi was just so unlikable for the first half of the book (and still not great in the second half). She really came across as a sociopath to me and I felt bad for Nicholas. While I wouldn’t personally recommend it, I’m sure that there will be many people that find it funny and enjoy it much more than I did.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 2 Stars

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This novel was ridiculously funny and heartwarming! Naomi and Nicholas fall out of love with each other after they move in and find hilarious ways to get on the other's nerve. Unfortunately we only have Naomi's point of view so we don't really know if Nicholas really wanted to break their engagement.
I was laughing out loud at some of their antics. I loved that the author shows us how they slowly earn each other trust and rebuild their relationship based on friendship and having each other's back. Well done.

Naomi and Nicholas have a picture perfect love story...or do they? Look beyond their Instagram photos and you'll find that almost as soon as they were engaged, things started to fall apart. Now they are locked in a battle of wills...who will be the first to give up and break off the engagement? This hilarious and heart-wrenching title is like reading "Kristan Higgins meets the The Hating Game". A refreshing and reflective look on relationships, this atypical romance shows the work required for two people do to fall in love with each other again. Hogle does a great job bringing to life Nicholas' motivations through the eyes of Naomi. Readers will root for this couple while also wondering exactly how things are going to turn out. This was a very enjoyable, captivating read full of characters both quirky and realistic. Here's hoping we see a movie version of this sooner than later! (Advanced copy read courtesy of NetGalley. Opinions are my own.)

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and Netgalley for my free copy!

YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER by Sarah Hogle won’t be published until April 2020, but I advise you all to mark your calendars now because this book is hilariously charming. The story follows Naomi and Nicholas, a couple who’s about to get married but have fallen out of love, yet are trying to find their way back to one another before the big day. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a contemporary romance that follows this trope, but I enjoyed it a lot! Not only is the writing full of wit and humor, but I think at its core this novel is about the importance of communication in relationships. I predict this will definitely be a hyped romance come next April.

Review: Okay, so I don't want to be one of those snobs who starts their review for a romance book by saying "I don't normally read romances, but... " BUT, I really don't normally read straight-up romances, and let me delve into why, here. I hate reading about people who are cruel to each other and wind up getting together. I hate reading the same tired tropes of fake relationships, bickering Darcys and Lizzies, childhood friends who secretly harbor unrequited feelings, and genetically perfect humans who take one look at each other and know: they're destined to be. I hate all the stock unhealthy behaviors that show up in these books over and over again, the lying and the passive aggression and the utter lack of boundaries and good communication. I like romance, I really do, but I don't want to feel depressed about the human condition while reading what most people consider to be a feel-good genre.
With that out of the way, let's talk about this book. I had some definite misgivings - see above paragraph on unhealthy behaviors in romance books, and from the synopsis, it absolutely could have gone in a horrific direction. But, wonderfully, it didn't. What I love about the shenanigans Naomi and Nicholas pull on each other is that every one of them requires intimate knowledge of the other person. These aren't just your garden variety pranks that make you cringe in secondhand mortification as you read, unsure if you can go on. These are two people who have loved each other well enough to know just what strings to pull, and you can feel it in every sentence they utter, every description of body language. Furthermore, Naomi and Nicholas are on equal footing - the reader never has the sense that one party is being abused or is truly afraid of the other. And when we dive deeper into their underlying issues as a couple? I said it on Goodreads and I'll say it again here: I'm convinced this is the greatest couple since Harry met Sally. These two rediscovering their tenderness for each other and learning to meet each others' needs is one of the most beautiful yet hilarious love stories I've ever experienced. It felt novel, it felt healthy, it felt human and full of heart. In short, the perfect romance.

This was such a great debut for Sarah Hogle!!! I went into this with equal parts intrigued and wary. I am not a fan of a lot of angst or the snippy back and forth. It gives me real anxiety. I am so glad I gave this a chance. Naomi's crazy was so funny and real. And with ALL the interaction between her and Nicholas you could feel the love under al the antics. We get to see them discover each other again and become so much stronger for it. Loved it!!

So I have to say, I almost put this down after the first chapter. Naomi did nothing but pick at her fiance Nicholas (mentally), his endless flaws, things that drove her nuts about him, and why they would never work. But I am so insanely glad that I stuck with it because this turned out to be such a super fun read.

Naomi and Nicholas are engaged to be married, yet there is so much distance in their relationship there doesn't seem to be much point in going through with the wedding. He's an absolute momma's boy and when Deborah calls, he comes running. Heck, his mother is planning their wedding and making all the decisions without Naomi. She is the definition of a mother-in-law from hell.

Neither of them is happy in their lives or with each other and doubts about the upcoming nuptials start to creep in. So our duo starts a silent war, torture the other until they scream uncle and call off the wedding. The only problem? As each of them ups the ante, they discover so much more about the other they never even realized.

Eek! So as I stated in the beginning, I loved You Deserve Each Other. I thought the creative ways in which Naomi and Nicholas pranked each other was so much fun (panties stapled to the ceiling? brilliant!). I really loved Nicholas and his quiet, unassuming way to show love. His dedication to his family was obvious in so many of his actions and I'm a bit disappointed that Naomi found him first. Hogle did a great job with the characters and she made Deborah perfectly unlikable. I loved watching Naomi and Nicholas learn more about each other. Excellent writing and super fun, I think You Deserve Each Other will be a sure hit!

Somehow an uncanny combination of both “The Hating Game” And “99% Mine” by Sally Thorne. While I enjoyed both of those books (definitely the former more than the latter), Hogle’s debut didn’t quite measure up thought it wasn’t a total bust.

I feel like this story is about Nicholas’s shitty mother Deborah just as much as it is about his relationship with Naomi. While I definitely expected to have to wade through Deborah’s toxicity and abusive nature, especially toward Naomi, I felt like the story dragged on to the point that I just wanted Naomi and Nicholas to completely break up just so they could [maybe] start over.

I don’t totally understand why Naomi’s and Nicholas’ relationship went completely sour, but I will say that the literal transition from enemies-to-friends-back-to-lovers was so subtle I hardly noticed it.

Four let’s make a party to congratulate we have a new evil-genius, sarcastic writer in the town who knows how to write a great mean romantic comedy stars!!!

I think promoting this book as a great choice for the fans of “Hating Games” might be wrong. Only thing there is similar with Sally Thorne’s book is “HATING”part. The characters are not colleagues. This is not slow burn enemies to lovers story. They’re already engaged. This could be best defined as friends-lovers-enemies-friends-again lovers story. Because the chronology of the couple’s relationship developed as I summarized.

At first the book a little irritated me. Because both characters acted like spoiled toddlers, immature brats who were evil minds trying so hard to sabotage each other or they were mostly each other’s throats! Sometimes I wanted to put duct tapes on their mouths and scold them to learn act like real grown-ups.

Let me introduce you Naomi who is about to lose her job, has limited connection with her family. She is making A,B,C,D plans for her life but she doesn’t get any action. And her fiancée, our hero, Nicholas, charming, successful but also a little arrogant, snob, annoying and truly mother’s boy. Yessss, we had a MOTHER-IN LAW-ZILLA OR MOMAZILLA ALERT! Deborah, the evil queens of mother-in laws is quiet mash-up of Miranda Presley( Meryl Streep’s Devil Wears Prada character), Mary Louise Wright ( Meryl Streep’s Big Little Lies character), Eleanor Shaw ( Meryl Streep’s Manchurian Candidate character)! Okay she’s definitely evil version of Meryl Streep!

SO I was about to give two stars to this book! Because first 100 pages I hate the guts of the characters. Both of them were definition of shining, rising “DOUCHEBAGS” I found it ridiculous their decision to stay together. If they hated each other so much and said so many things to ruin what they had before, they should take time off or begin to communicate about what’s happening to them.

Playing games, working on multiple creative pranks might look like fun but they didn’t do anything about the elephant in their living room that not only broke all the valuable, fragile things but also is about to destroy their relationship.

Naomi seemed like too much coward to get an important decision about her life and Nicholas seemed like too stubborn to end things with her. But I have to admit, the pranks they’ve orchestrated were so entertaining.

Few pages later you began to root for Nicholas who was really trying to save their relationship. Without asking Naomi, buying a new house and making decisions about their lives seemed like a wrong move. But later we realized he did the right thing. Because he didn’t only buy a house, he also bought a place they could become a couple who still love each other and make things work.

FOUR THINGS MADE ME RAISE MY STAR POINTS:
- The second half of the book the couple made peace and realized the reasons why they fell in love with each other and they learned from their mistakes and turned into PARTNERS IN CRIME.
- Nicholas’ fake letters to his mother’s gazetta about criticizing her attitude around her daughter-in law.
- Nicholas’ reasoning not to send the wedding invitations and his new solution about the ceremony.
- The part how they met made me smile too much!

So yes, I had a little bad start but the witty, entertaining writing mesmerized me. I laughed so much especially the part Naomi and Nicholas’ hiding behind the closed door not to invite Deborah inside their house and telling their excuses from alien abduction to Nicholas’ real identity as Shia LaBeouf!

I had great time with this debut novel. So happy I lately meet with fantastic new writers.

Special thanks to Putnam and NetGalley for sharing this amazing ARC COPY with me as exchange my honest
review.

I need an epilogue, STAT! Oh my heart. This book and these characters brought out so many emotions within me. The heartache, hilarity and happiness was just everything. There was a lot of those never feeling like a priority feelings that surfaced and I’m sure many others could relate. And that’s another thing. It felt relatable. I could see all of this happening. The window and yelling down scene.. oh man... I laughed so hard during that. You’ll just have to read it and found out all the charming and ridiculousness that ensued. And read it you should! I didn’t realize how far away the Release Day was and I feel sorry that others have to wait so long to enjoy Naomi and Nicholas. But when it does come out, snatch it up. Well worth the wait!

I love this book. It's exactly what a romance should be (in my opinion) — great character development so you actually understand why the couple falls in love, witty banter (I laughed out loud many times), good writing, and chemistry.

In less than two years, Naomi has come to despise her fiancé Nicholas — he doesn't pay attention to her while he pays a lot of attention to his demanding mother (including regularly buying her flowers) and he's left all of the wedding planning to Naomi and said overbearing matriarch. But, rather than admit defeat and give him back the ring, Naomi tries to push every last one of Nicholas's buttons, hoping her seemingly content khaki-wearing dentist fiancé will give up and call the whole thing off... then she realizes that her machinations haven't gone unnoticed and Nicholas sees right through her. So, Naomi declares war, determined to win. However, once the gloves are off she begins to wonder whether it's a battle she still wants to win, and whether she even truly knows her opponent.

Naomi and Nicholas get up to totally childish Jim Halpert/Dwight Schrute-level antics that will annoy some readers, but I found them hilarious because they were all too aware how low and hateful they'd each become to the other, even as Nicholas slowly begins to open up to Naomi and Naomi begins to realize how she's as much a part of their relationship problem as Nicholas. The best part, to me, was how they begin to finally voice the pain, disappointments, and insecurities that lead them to this point and to speak up about what they need from the other person...an actual relationship not based solely on attraction! I need more stories like this one.

Other great things about this book:
- The humor is right up my alley: For example, Naomi names a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in their yard Jason. Plus, there are so many funny descriptions: "I don't bother to dab concealer under my eyes. As a matter of act, I dab some faint purple eyeshadow there. I look like a pilgrim with cholera."

- Great side characters, though I would have liked more of Naomi's BFF Brandy.

- The setting is in a small Wisconsin town (not NYC or Paris or whatever) and the characters have normal jobs (not one of them is a writer either!)

- The author wrote a wonderfully encouraging acknowledgement section in the back, about how it took her 10 years to get a book published (and this wasn't the first one she wrote).

Sarah Hogle, this goes without saying, but I'm here for whatever you write next.

THIS BOOK IS GOOD! I loved the things the characters did to each other. I wish I could get away with stuff like that. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been wronged, wants to get under someone's skin or just plain wants to be irritating. This is also a good book for those who like love stories.

AAAAAH!! The Hating Game has finally met its match, and it’s in Naomi Westfield and Nicholas Rose of You Deserve Each Other.

Naomi and Nicholas have been engaged for almost a year, and their wedding date is fast approaching. Naomi tunes out rather than deal with how unhappy she is, and she has no clue Nicholas has been suffering the same – until they trip over this realization and end up in a battle of who can hang on the longest? Winner doesn’t have to deal with the pushback from friends, gets their pick of their shared stuff, and doesn’t have to pay back the hundreds of dollars Nicholas’ overbearing mother has spent on the wedding they didn’t want (TRUST ME, SHE’S THE WORST!! A necessary evil to tell this story, but boy is Mrs. Rose cringe-y!).

But in their effort to push one another away, they discover the parts of themselves they never brought to the relationship to begin with: a fire and a passion, even if it’s for messing with each other. With each new hilarious stunt, the lines blur and neither knows what the game is anymore…though their wedding date still approaches.

I tend to read a lot in this genre, but I haven’t discovered a title with this much wit and character depth since I read The Hating Game! I actually laughed out loud, at approximately two a.m. when I should’ve put the book down hours ago. I read it all in one sitting. That was not the plan, it just sort of happened…Hogle’s writing was just superb and original! It was difficult to put down while laughing like a maniac (a bit about a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, in particular, had me absolutely in stitches… you will see…). The character depth and development really sprouted from the humor of it: their jokes were revealing of their true selves, but also of their true feelings. I loved this approach, and that it felt like legitimate humor Sarah herself was sitting somewhere laughing about while she wrote it – rather than forced for the sake of “giving characters a humorous personality”.

Nicholas and Naomi’s real battle was getting stuck in this rut of not being friends anymore. They have routines, they avoid each other, and they both know it. They forgot the joy of connecting, and Hogle infused plenty of humor and adorable, smile-like-an-idiot at the pages moments to get them back there. The story itself takes on a unique element when you consider that Naomi and Nicholas are already together – so it lacks the meet-cute that tends to shape and guide this genre, replacing it with a fresh situation that revives the story and the characters. The circumstances of their love story allow you to replace awkward dates with ruthless pranks, and the stories rings out more authentic for it, heartwarming in a new way. Sometimes, I feel like the authors that write the popular contemporary romance books have never actually been in love… but Sarah Hogle gets it. Hogle does not underestimate the value of whole days spent playing video games together, cooking disgusting meals together, or teaming up against the parents. It didn’t feel like a recycled version of every book I’ve ever read that falls under “contemporary romance”, and I loved that.

I cannot stress it enough: if The Hating Game was your thing, You Deserve Each Other is also, 100%, totally, exactly your thing. You won’t regret checking it out, unless you also went to bed at four in the morning after staying up all night reading it…then having to go to work the next morning. 🙂

99% loved this book and 1% was annoyed; I loved everything about this story except for how clueless she was in the beginning. But I loved the battles and I loved the transformation and I loved the ending and, I mostly just loved it! The story was funny, it was engaging, it was charming, it had a happy ending, and it was such an easy read; I couldn’t stop reading and had to finish the book in one go. I literally had my iPhone reading it to me while I was in the shower so I didn’t have to stop!

This might have been my first hate trope book to read. At first as I read all I could think was there was so much hate. And I didn’t fully understand why the two were still together when they didn’t like each other. But the writing compelled me forward in addition to a few hints that this couple was meant to be. As I turned the pages I became more and more hooked and by the end I was swooning! Such a fantastic story and fabulous writing! I would read this author again.