I read The Dating Charade, the debut novel by this author, earlier this year and I loved it. I knew the Cul-de-Sac war was a must read of 2020 for me and I was not disappointed. This story follows Bree, the best friend of the main character from The Dating Charade. Bree has moved and is working at a theater in Abingdon, VA while living in her grandmother's house who recently passed away. The fun begins when Chip moves in next door in order to renovate it. Saying they don't exactly hit it off might be putting it mildly. Let the prank wars begin!! Some readers might feel like some of the pranks got a bit extreme, but as a reader I got lost in the story and the pranks kept me in stitches. The romance is a bit light in this book, but is the appropriate level due to the development of the relationship between Bree and Chip. One thing I really appreciate about this author is her ability to write banter and antics that make me laugh out loud while also delving into heavy issues such as sickness, loss, grief, job uncertainties, and family expectations. I am looking forward to many more books by this author in the future!

I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

In this second release from new author, Melissa Ferguson, readers will get a rom-com book at its best! The book description, “All’s fair in love and prank wars” vividly explains the hilarious story between the two main characters of this book. This book focuses on Bree who is a wonderful person, but she just doesn’t want to commit to many things. She has generally gone from one thing to another, never settling down. However, the previous year has shaken her some due to a couple of things. She is currently living in her grandmother’s house with a friend, but trying to decide what she wants to do with herself. After some persuasion from her parents to commit and follow through, she has to discover if she can make some changes to stay in one place for a year. Around the time she learns of new information regarding her job and the conversation with her parents, she gains a new neighbor in her cul-de-sac. Chip has left the family business to venture out on his own, because he has set out to prove himself to his family. Currently over his head, he has bought a house to fix up. Unbeknownst to him, he will be living next door to Bree, a woman he met in a chance encounter. Once they meet again, each has their own agenda of wanting to get rid of the other person. This leads to an all-out cul-de-sac war! This book was absolutely hilarious at times! I highly recommend this book! If you like rom-com’s, then this book is for you! I know you will not be disappointed!
***I was given a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher. This is my honest opinion. Even though I received this copy free, this is my own opinion.

Author Melissa Ferguson’s rom-com kept me laughing. With the plot being neighbors who just can’t get along (or can they?) I felt like I had to choose a side to root for and after going back and forth I went with Team Chip. Bree really needed to grow up and I sometimes found her irritating.

The story moved quickly, although the relationship didn’t, which was nice for a change. Each of the main characters had an interesting sense of humor, were very unsure of what to do with life, and had good hearts. Once they both got a clue and started to grow up they became much more true to life and likeable.

If you are looking for a fun story with quirky characters then I recommend The Cul de Sac Wars!

I received a complimentary copy of this book but was not required to leave a review.

🧐So I truly wanted to love this one but I, unfortunately, have got some tea to spill on this one. ⠀
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☝️Note: There will be spoilers if you happen to have this on your TBR. ⠀
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Let me start off with what I did like: ⠀
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📖The premise ⠀
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Who wouldn't love a Cameron Diaz-Ashton Kutcher enemies-to-lovers type romance. Yes sign me up! ⠀
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👷‍♂️The hero, Chip McBride ⠀
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I enjoyed his character and was likeable enough to stick through to the end...barely.⠀
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🍵All right, here comes the tea: ⠀
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✍️The writing style⠀
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There was so much telling and not enough showing. A lot of the times the reader is only made aware of situations or happenings after the fact. ⠀
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I want to read the story so that I vicariously experience the chatatcers mishaps, woes, ups and downs. I don't want to read about it after it happened. For example, I wanted to experience Evie going off the grid or how Bree's frisbee throwing attempt failed. But no, we just read about it as an afterthought. ⠀
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😤 The main character, Bree⠀
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She has officially kicked the character from The Friendzone out of first place for the WORST character I have EVER read about. ⠀
She is selfish, self-absorbed, immature and plain mean. Her initial distaste for Chip was completely unwarranted. What, because he drove like a semi-douche. Really? She barely talks to him, either giving him the silent treatment or backhanded comments. I would have like some verbal back and forth between these two. ⠀
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Her so-called pranks endangered Chip's career, residence and well-being. Her "pranks" did not at all balance out with his, it was plain SABOTAGE! And of course, no consequences for Bree. ⠀
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Also, girl, you are 34!!!! Stop huffing and puffing around like a teenager. ⠀
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💔The lack of romance and lack of progress in the relationship⠀
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I definitely felt the romance took a backseat in this story. The only time these two had a significant conversation, other than their meet cute right at the beginning of the story, was at the 74% mark of the book. ⠀
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These two never conversed! So I was not able to connect with them and did not feel any fuzzies when they finally ended up together in the end. ⠀
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Ugh just no. These two stars are for their meet cute. ⠀

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Knocked down - dragged out fun! The Cul-de-sac War by Melissa Ferguson was one of the cutest, funniest books I've read in a while. This book was lighthearted and just what I needed right now. Maybe you're looking for something like that right now too. This year has been pretty serious but, this book will make you forget all of that for a while.

There is not only humor, a lot of warmth oozes out of the families. They truly care for each other. The war is between a woman named Bree and her neighbor whose name is Chip. They play some pretty good pranks on each other. When push comes to shove, they pull through for each other. I loved these two.

The writing flows and I found myself flipping pages to find out what happened next. Then, all of a sudden I found myself at The End! I was sad to come to the conclusion and wanted the book to continue. I wanted more of a good thing!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a fair and honest review.

I've been eyeing this book for a while since it seemed like such a cute and light-hearted read, and it was. There weren't any big shockers for me which is normally how contemporary books work. It was an easy strangers-to-enemies-to-lovers read.

In "The Cul-De-Sac War" we meet Bree Leake, who is known for jumping from job to job and into new hobbies. She doesn't stay in one place very long and doesn't really have a reason to. That is until she inherits her grandmother's house. She needs to prove to her parents that she actually wants it and will stay long enough to keep it. This shouldn't be a problem, except for Chip McBride.

Chip is just trying to make a name for himself outside of his family's contracting company. Trying to do things on his own to prove himself to his family, especially his dad, lands him in a neighborly war with Bree.

While it was a really cute standard romance movie, that reminded me of a Hallmark movie, there wasn't anything that drew me in and devoured me. It was a good romance novel, no disappointments there.

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Cul-de-Sac War by Melissa Ferguson is a Hallmark romance waiting to be filmed. This month I have been reading a lot of romantic comedies and it has helped keep me sane.

Bree is ready to move on from her theater acting job, her home and her town. She feels stalled in life and a need to stir things up. Her parents have other plans when they make her an offer too good to turn down. If she stays in her job, her home and their town for one year they will sign over her grandmother's house to her.

A hiccup to this plan is Bree's next door neighbor Chip who grates on her every nerve to the point that she decides to force him out of her cul-de-sac so she can live there for another year in peace. What she does not anticipate is that Chip has her same stubbornness and competitive streak. Let the pranks begin.

The surprise for me in this book was the very heartwarming moment Bree and Chip share personal heartache and their surprising need to comfort one another.

There is much to enjoy in this story including Chip's giant dog Russell who loves to knock down Bree and slob all over her. Bree is terrified at first but, really, how awful is a dog loving you?! Also Bree's mom and stepfather are just delightful. If I had one complaint it is that I never got why Bree was so annoyed with Chip. He seemed like a sweet guy to me from beginning to end. I realized that Bree needed to find her own joy before she could find joy with someone else.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was unable to finish this one. Bree was too immature and insanely selfish. It was hard to, if not impossible to root for. I made it 50% of the way with her continuing to not realize the common denominator in all these "terrible" situations was always her.

I wanted to love this book but it unfortunately fell flat for me. It was way too slow of a burn for me and I didn't feel invested in either character or their relationship.

I've really struggled with writing this review. I honestly cannot believe that the same author who wrote the hysterically funny and adorable The Dating Charade, which was one of my favorite reads last year, is behind this mess of a book. This book should have only taken me a couple of hours to get through, but instead it took me days. I couldn't handle reading more than a couple of chapters at a time, and even that felt like a chore to get through.

To start with, the plot makes absolutely no sense, and the writing is choppy and never blends from one part to the next. Many times I thought pages must be missing as it didn't make sense why the story jumped from one point to a completely different point without telling the reader why. The reader is never really given a true reason to what starts off the intense hatred between Chip and Bree in the first place, unless we're maybe reading a book about twelve year olds instead of grown adults. Bree and Chip are both so immature, and a lot of the pranks go way beyond funny and honestly had me disgusted that anyone could try and do the horrible things they were doing to each other.

Furthermore, we spend the entire first three quarters of the book hearing about their hatred for each other, and yet all of a sudden this turns into a romance? What exactly prompted those feelings and why was it never revealed to the reader? I would have been disappointed enough with the writing, the lack of a believable plot, the obnoxious characters, and the romance that made no sense, but it got even worse for me. This was another example of a book being published by a Christian publisher that was really anything but Christian fiction. There is one reference made to Chip going to church and owning a bible. That's basically it for faith content for the entire book, and there were so many opportunities to have had Jesus included that would have made the story so much better. Also, I've been noticing a trend lately to include edgier content in Christian fiction titles, and I have to say that the fact that both of the main characters were in other relationships while falling for each other left a very bad taste in my mouth. There's enough dark content in secular titles, as Christians we need to do better than this.

Final Rating: 1/5.

I would personally recommend skipping this one, and picking up Melissa's debut novel instead. I'll still be picking up her next book, but I'm hoping it's going to be a vast improvement over this one.

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I haven't read this author before and was looking forward to some romantic comedy. However, I just couldn't get into this book. I guess that's why it took me several days to read it. I usually read a book in 2 days max. I just couldn't get very excited to go back and read it each day. I never connected with the main character, Bree. She seemed immature even though she was older. She could never decide what to do with her life and just kept skipping along from job to job, never really deciding what interested her until her parents put a "condition" on her in order to keep her grandmother's house. Her inner thoughts were all over the place. Then she starts a "war" with her neighbor, Chip, which was very adolescent (he was a willing participant though) and on her side, she was a little more mean, I felt. I just didn't like her. I liked Chip, the other main character better, although he did some childish things too, to get back at Bree. For one thing, he didn't keep his out-of-control dog in check! I've been bitten by a neighbor's dog before so I know how scared Bree was by Chip's overly enthusiastic dog! Both Bree & Chip did things that were a little unrealistic so it was hard for me to find this story even partially believable (Bree be in a drama production that she wasn't qualified for and get a part that she only practiced for a handful of times and Chip think he could compete for a huge remodeling project of a large drama theater when he had a small construction company). Also, how does a small town have this lavish theater and drama production with wealthy donations? The whole book just didn't add up to me and the romance was very rushed at the end so that even wasn't believable!

I absolutely devoured and snort-laughed my way through Melissa Ferguson's first book, The Dating Charade. So, of course, I snatched this one up too. It took me a while to figure out that this book actually follows on from Cassie's story, but this time with Bree being the main character.

There were laugh out loud moments and tender moments. Hang in there though, the last third of the book is totally worth it when Bree and Chip finally have their real connection moments. I would have liked the romance to kick in sooner, but that is a personal preference. Like, "Kiss her already!"

This book was a delightful escape from reality for me and I enjoyed it. I read it in one sitting.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for an advanced reader copy of this book. My opinion is my own.

They first met briefly outside the theatre where Bree works, when Chip helped her with a wardrobe malfunction. But their second encounter, when she discovered that they were neighbours, wiped away all Bree's good feelings towards him and started an all-out war. But somehow, even amid their war, moments hinting at their initial attraction emerge. When the chips are down and they're each fighting to make their troubled work lives work, will they be drawn together, or is war all that can ever be between them?

This book is at once hilarious and deeply satisfying. I'm not really into pranks, but this was well done and made me laugh through them rather than just get annoyed at adults acting childishly. Even better, though, were the moments where Bree and Chip actually shared their problems and tried to help each other. It's a good mix of humour and more serious content. I particularly loved the scene that followed Chip's bid on the theatre job. I look forward to reading more by the author in future - I think this is the second of her books I've read, and it was even better than the first - but no pressure... Highly recommended!

Note that I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review and this is my considered opinion of the book.

This book was not for me at all. I had a hard time getting into it, honestly I don't feel like I ever got into it. It felt very chaotic and way too much going on, making it hard to keeping up. Over all this book was not for me.

I was lucky to get a free eARC of this book to review. This is a perfect rom-com story, with crazy shenanigans and the cheesy adorable moments. This story is about a prank war between neighbors that takes a turn, and just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

I think my favorite part of my reading experience was my attachment to the setting. This story is set at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, which is around where I went to college. This story was comforting and lovely to read about a place that I love. All the hints to the area are amazing and accurate. Now this would not take away from a reader who doesn’t know the area. The author describes the setting so well that the reader is not confused at all. It was just something I loved reading about because it meant a little extra to me.

As far as the actual plot goes, this was so much fun to read. I devoured this book in one sitting, and still wanted more. This book is pure romantic chaos, and I loved every second of it. I cared about the wellbeing of these characters, and the hard situations they were in in their personal life. And I didn’t even realize it until about halfway through the book. All of a sudden I was stressed for the tough situations our main characters are in, and I only wanted what was best for them. This is a romance, so you do have your cheesy ending, that I personally felt like it wrapped up a little quick. But honestly, I didn’t mind because I was there for every second of the cuteness.

Overall, this was not the most amazing thing I have ever read. But I had the best experience with this book and I will for sure be looking into other works by this author.

The Cul-de-Sac War by Melissa Ferguson is a great romantic comedy that had me laughing out loud and reminded me of how we often tend to find opposites to love. The main characters Chip McBride and Brea Leake are fun loving and passionate people who are in over their head before they know it. They battle each other by their one upping antics and the story gets funnier and funnier. The secondary characters were quirky and delightful and honestly just fun to get to know.

I recommend The Cul-de-Sac War by Melissa Furguson for its wonderful characters, laugh out loud humor, and sweet romance that will make you smile. I would grab a copy for some laugh therapy.

I was given a copy by the publisher and not required to write a positive review.

DISCLAIMER : Thank you, Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me with an ARC copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Cul-de-sac War by Melissa Ferguson is a fun, lighthearted, and the slowest-burn romance. It's a clean romance with my favorite rom-com trope - hate-to-love. When I saw this title, I just couldn't resist requesting it. So I initially started reading this book long back, but never finished it because I had already planned it for November. I am sad that I didn't start over, but I simply continued from where I stopped because of my crappy scheduling. And it was over before I was ready for it to be.

The story is told from the two perspectives of our main characters. Bree is a struggling stage artist and is hopping from one career to another without any success. Chip is running a construction company in his hometown, struggling to keep his business stay afloat. The fact that his family runs one of the most successful and well-known construction company makes his journey even harder. Chip and Bree meet at The Barter where Bree has a wardrobe malfunction before her scene, and Chip helps her out. They have an instant connection, and their meet-cute was just cute. It feels a bit insta-lovey where the characters are infatuated or crushing on the other after their first meeting. But it was not an issue for me. Bree later finds out that he has a girlfriend and she is disappointed. She then is followed home by a guy who she assumes is loud and rude, who also happens to be her next-door neighbor. It turns out that the new neighbor is Chip, and she takes an instant dislike to him. From then on, they start these pranks and other games to get under each other's skin leading them on the path to falling in love.

I loved the pranks and the messages on the windows. It was sweet and cute. I wished, we had more time to get used to them pranking and building their relationship. The two of them, the other side characters, and the dog brought a lot of hilarity to the situation. I loved the funny and sweet clean romance. But man! The wait for them to come together was so slow. It was the slowest burn that I have ever read. I felt like I would have loved to see more of their cute banter and messages and also see some great scenes after the two of them got together. The epilogue was confusing, and I felt like I missed something.

Overall, it was a fun and entertaining read. It's a quick read with a good set of characters and a simple and clean romance. If you are a fan of hate-to-love romances, then definitely check this one out. I gave it 4 stars. I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend checking out this lighthearted and engaging rom-com.

Well I really wanted to love this book. It had everything I love going for it. Neighbors who don't like each other, pull pranks on each other, then fall madly in love and live happily every after with a couple kids and a dog, yet it fell a bit flat for me. And then I find out it is Christian Romance, I must have missed that bit in the story. There was very little religion mentioned at all or maybe it has been a long time since I have read any Christian Romance. The bleep bleep instead of cuss words was a bit much.

Bree and Chip have a wonderful little meet cute that leads the reader to think that this will be a romantic comedy, that will have you rolling in the floor laughing while swooning over the romance. Oh how I wish it was that simple. Bree works for the local theater as a minor bit character and Chip owns a construction business. They also happen to be neighbors who haven't met each other. After the meet cute, Chip cuts Bree off in traffic and she immediately hates him. Thus the war is started. It devolves from some junk mail to an ad placed on Craiglist to trade livestock for a home. How will Bree and Chip learn to live next door to each other and not kill the other one?

So I had some big problems with this. First, Bree and Chip both had significant others for most of the book. Yuck. I am not a huge fan of those kind of situations. Next, this was less about their relationship growing in a positive way and more about their jobs. Third, by the end I just didn't care if they got together. Bree was overly dramatic and I feel as if a lot of her story was very unrealistic. Chip was a bit more likeable but his family situation was really off and his girlfriend was way too kind to him. Last, I feel as though there were so many holes in this book. We get part of the story of the niece. We get none of Evie's story really. I don't understand the animosity with Chip's family. How in the world can Bree be a minor part in a play in a small town Virginia ( I can say this since I am from small town Virginia) and pay her bills? There is no way she learned enough tap to get a lead in Singing in the Rain in 2 weeks. Tap is hard.

I digress. This just wasn't the book for me. 2.5 stars that I rounded to 3 because I did finish the book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the chance to read and review.

Chip is a bad neighbor. He delights in torturing Bree, but she can give as good as she gets. Both of them are just trying to keep their heads above water in their careers, but their prank war may end up costing them both.

I enjoyed reading The Cul-de-Sac War, even though it's pretty far from my normal romance novels. There are no explicit scenes in this book - in fact, the characters don't even kiss until the last chapter. The epilogue was mildly confusing, but it did seem to wrap things up neatly. If you're looking for a romance book that a little bit light on the romance, this is the perfect option. I was intrigued enough that I may check out The Dating Charade.

The beginning was promising. It was an okay read, but it had so much more potential to be better with the ploy of enemies to lovers. Missed the mark.