I really enjoyed Ten Rules for Faking It, and from the moment I read the synopsis I couldn’t wait to read this one. I can never resist an enemies-to-lovers story especially when it's also forced proximity—plus there is home renovation thrown in!

Grace inherits her grandparents’ house near the beach, and plans to do a bit of live-in renovation. Unfortunately, her next-door neighbor would like nothing more than to buy her property to extend his own backyard.

All the talk of ocean views and sunshine definitely had me daydreaming of warm evenings on the porch, and wishing I wasn’t actually gazing out at the Seattle rain and grey skies.

Grace is really good at fixing things, and super self-sufficient, so she starts showing Noah up when it comes to various renovation projects. But Noah is determined to prove to his family, and himself, that he’s capable of getting personally invested in a project and rolling up his sleeves to get things done.

I will say that while this book is marketed as enemies-to-lovers, and the main characters do have opposing goals in the beginning, there’s no point in the story where they are really enemies. In fact, they hit it off the first time they meet, and there’s always an attraction and regard there, even when they’re fighting.

There's character growth throughout the book, and Grace has experienced some pretty toxic relationships in her life, particularly with her mother so there's a lot to unpack and deal with there. Noah's relationships haven't exactly been roses either.

While this is a closed-door romance it’s not chaste—there is some definite tension and heat between these two.

A huge thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this book! I am voluntarily leaving a review, all opinions are my own.

This was cute. I did enjoy the story, but overall it felt a little underdeveloped for my taste. I feel like we really didn’t get enough background or fleshing out of characters or back stories; things just kinda… were.

Honestly, this book never clicked for me and I would have DNF'd it had I not wanted to be able to provide a complete review. I wish I was able to explain more clearly why this book didn't work for me, but I think it was a combination of the simplistic and flat writing style, a love interest that I did not find compelling, and a plot that felt unorganized. I wanted to enjoy this but unfortunately I did not.

I enjoyed this book. In the beginning, I wasn't the biggest fan of Noah. I didn't care for many of his thoughts initially, especially when he was "battling" whether to help the contractors clean up. Also, Grace annoyed me when she blew up at Noah about the land surveyor. It seems like a pretty standard part of homeowning, but she handled the situation terribly. Despite those issues, I had a great time reading. The book was fast-paced, funny, and entertaining. I can see myself picking up another book from this author. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a romantic comedy.

This enemies-to-lovers romance is like a Hallmark movie! Sweet, but not a lot of depth and no sex scenes. Noah and Grace’s chemistry was very tepid. I didn’t feel like I got to know either of them very well. The focus was more on the home renovation project than it was the building of their relationship. I also couldn’t understand where Noah got the notion that he couldn’t commit. From all that was said, he worked hard but was stymied by his malicious father. It was also never explained why his father was so different than his grandfather. It also would have been nice to meet Noah’s mother since she (and their paternal grandfather) were responsible for how well her sons turned out. Overall, it was pleasant but entirely forgettable.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Grace is a budding designer with multiple jobs and college to finish. She's getting ready to move into the house that her grandparents left to her and to make it the home that she's never had. Her mother wasn't very supportive and Grace has always had to fend for herself. Noah has finally broken away from his father's business and is looking to create the home of his dreams. The only problem is that he needs Grace's property to really do that. These two start out butting heads but a magazine offer, plus their chemistry entices them work together.
I didn't like this story as well as the earlier one by this author. The characters from that book make appearances in this book which is nice. This story moved a little slow in the middle and I felt like Grace did a lot of flouncing off when she and Noah didn't see eye to eye. That being said, I liked the minor characters and the plot did pick up.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Design student Grace Travis is determined to make the small beach cottage her grandparents left her a comfortable home, and after one of her many part-time jobs as a caregiver for a senior citizen ended, she moved her things into the cottage and began planning the renovation. Her next door neighbor had his own plans for the space, and offered to buy it from her, planning to tear it down and put in a pool. Grace’s flat refusal angered her neighbor, and started a turf war that ranged from the annoying to the ridiculous. Grace has the solid support of her friends, and the antagonistic antics of her mother Tammy, who insisted the cottage should belong to her since she was raised there.

Noah Jansen is not used to being told no. Not in his business dealings, and certainly not by the beautiful woman who has moved in next door. A recent move to California from New York to start a business with his brother Chris, after his father’s heavy handed business tactics began to wear on him. Deciding to change his life, Noah began helping a friend coach youth basketball, and found giving back to be rewarding, and helped him see he was more like his grandfather, an honorable man, than he originally thought. Because of Noah’s name recognition, he was offered a spread in a design magazine, and hired Grace to be his designer as he refurbished his home.

I liked Grace, and could identify with her determination to succeed on her own, without anyone’s assistance. However, she learned, as did I, that sometimes things flow more smoothly when you let other people in. Noah’s transformation, from a self-centered person who lived for the deal to reliable friend who cared about others, was believable and I really liked the effort he put in, from working with the basketball players to helping Grace with painting and repairs. How to Love Your Neighbor is a fun read, with realistic characters and the expected and appreciated HEA.

I typically love a cocky hero, but Noah came off as more of a spoiled brat.

It was still a super cute book but his character kind of ruined it for me.

I also kept waiting for the sexual tension to peak but did not know that it was a fade to black book.

I am sure there are lots of people who will like this book though!

I really loved all the HGTV vibes and interior design talk. That is something I would love to do myself so it was so interesting to me! This is an enemies to lovers story which I love but the romance was too fast. I enjoyed their relationship and all the witty banter but everything moved too quickly and then it kinda just stayed flat. It became repetitive and a bit too long. There could have been numerous cuts made that would have made it the perfect length.

I absolutely loved Tilly and Morty. They were hilarious and a great addition to the story. I loved all the sarcasm and back and forth between all the characters. It made It fun to read. There was a bit too much family drama mixed it that also felt unresolved at the end which bothered me a bit. Overall, I enjoyed it but I really wish it was shorter!

I very much enjoyed reading this enemies to friends to lovers RomCom. This might be the second book in the series, but I read it as a stand alone. The main characters are both likable, hard working people with parental issues, who first clash, because Noah Jansen grew up in a wealthy NY family and has been very successful in the family real estate business, until too many conflicts with his father's way of doing business have brought him to California where his younger brother has relocated to. Grace Travis, on the other hand was raised (using the term loosely), by an indifferent mother, who would not allow her to know her grandparents. She has worked very hard to be the opposite of her mother and is about to finish design school, when she unexpectedly inherits her grandparents house. Of course, her mother wants it. And so does her new next door neighbor, Noah. But as Noah and Grace dispute, they also have a hard time fighting the attraction. Lots of lively banter, interesting descriptions about the design process and a well written and engaging story.

I read an ARC provided by NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

How was this book both too slow and too fast? It's a mystery. And yet, here we are.

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗡𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗕𝗢𝗥 is an enemies-to-lovers with not quite enough bite and not quite enough sweetness for me. It landed in the middle.

This book really takes its time and sets up the characters and the stories well, however when it comes to the shifting of the romantic relationship from enemies to lovers it sped through that shift and I didn't quite get it.

It felt like these two characters spent three or four small chunks of time together (in which they were mostly enemies) and then all the sudden he confessed that she was his best friend. I had no idea where that came from.

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗡𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗕𝗢𝗥 had well-written and complex family relationships, good friendships, and a great heroine. It was a good read, just not a great read.

It's closed door so there is no steam, but it was good on chemistry and did end up liking these two together. I just wish I felt more emotional connection between them during the space of time when their relationship began to turn romantic.

A huge thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Genres: romance, contemporary romance, heterosexual romance
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, neighbors, millionaire/ceo hero
Triggers: nothing really...broken parent-child relationships/emotionally abusive parents

Let me start by saying, I wish I could rate this higher, but in the interest of being fully honest, I have to say this one was just *alright* for me. Overall, I found it a bit basic & vanilla - an okay read, well-written enough, but not too interesting or different. I can, however, see a lot of readers enjoying this book, with descriptive words like "cute" and "sweet". I guess I just wasn't all that invested in either the main characters or plot line. Nice enough light filler read, and fans of "sweeter" romance books should check this one out.

The premise & reviews:
"Enemies-to-lovers meets HGTV in this frothy, effervescent romantic comedy..." - Book description
“This is a novel you'll want to read over and over again.” - USA Today
^^^Upon seeing the descriptions from this book, I was really excited because, YES, this sounds so up my alley! I just wish it lived up to the review hype better than it did in reality (in my personal opinion). However, it's getting great reviews from other readers on NetGalley, so I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone to read it, as it seems to be a hit for a lot of people.

The writing & the length:
Overall, I think this book was well-written. It's light and easy, but I wasn't a big fan of the pacing after the first half of the book. According to the product info, this book is 352 pages – I really feel that it should have been edited down to maybe 250. Something about this seemed to drag on to me and it made me struggle a bit to get as into it and finish it as quickly as I normally would.

Standalone?
Yes, this can definitely be read as a standalone. While it has cameos from Ten Rules for Faking It, I personally preferred this book and you don't need background from that book.

The Hero - Noah:
Noah is okay for the most part. He's a pretty stereotypical alpha billionaire – hot, rich, always getting his way (leading to some arrogance), has walls up, secretly a good guy, etc. The immediate assumption that he could buy out the property next to him no matter what was annoying, but I see that the author was establishing some arrogance & showing his background where he's usually able to get his way. But dude, get over it faster.

"Noah was the fun one. The fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, carefree one. Supposedly."

I didn't see this at all in his character. Perhaps it was our "behind the scenes" look into his psyche, where he's constantly complaining no one takes him seriously enough and talking about planning & how hard he works, but it would have been nice to see more of the fun, likable guy he's supposedly presenting to the world. It could have made him more interesting.

He has a lot of insecurities for everything he has and has done in his life. Many readers probably find this balancing for his character and it's clear the author wanted to give him depth and layers. For me, I found being in his brain a bit tiresome with some of the same issues over-exaggerated. Overall, he's a fine hero, but nothing exceptional.

The Heroine - Grace:
Grace falls into a typical main character issue that seems to happen with a LOT of romance heroines – that of being kind of annoying in the way that we all know we are supposed to like her, but somehow....don't completely? She has a lot of great traits – hardworking, a good friend, caring, somewhat sassy, handy, creative, loyal, quick to bond with job site workers. And yet, there's still something about her that makes her hard to sympathize with at times. She tends to overreact and can be pretty grumpy, yet still naive.

The relationship progression / the romance:
I'm a big fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope, so of course I liked the initial setup here with warring neighbors. Something about the way they interact isn't as great as other enemies-to-lovers that I've read – maybe a lack of good banter? – but the setup works for me overall.

"Noah took stock of his emotions. Definitely some pissed off. Intrigued–was that an emotion? He couldn't hide the impressed. Grace had a temper and going toe-to-toe with her made him feel almost energized." That's the kind of tension I want in an enemies-to-lovers beginning. My issue is that somehow it didn't seem entirely supported by their interactions.

I like their struggle not to like each other, typical of any enemies-to-lovers storyline. "In truth, he didn't entirely know what to make of the woman...Last night, he'd been overwhelmingly attracted to her, and it scared the fuck out of him."

I'm on board with the pacing for the first half of the novel. I think where the book loses me a bit is at their turning point from friends to lovers. It's very clean and gets "romance novel" sappy & unbelievable quickly. Maybe I wasn't invested enough in these characters to feel all the *aw*heart melts, but there wasn't a lot of the passion-tension present in most enemies-to-lovers stories. They jump into a honeymoon-like relationship stage with him pulling out all the stops on a first date in a way that doesn't seem congruent with his character (supposedly a flighty fun guy who never dates).

With them getting together halfway through the book, I'm less interested in the second half, which mostly consists of them navigating a new relationship until the expected break-up/mistake/big fight that happens in (almost) all romance novels to the inevitable grand gesture reunion. This is where the pacing feels off to me. I also found their break-up/mistake/big fight to be really dumb, which usually makes me feel like the plot of a book is off when the climax of the book is an eye roll moment for me.

Heat factor:
Quite low...sweet, borderline sappy, with exchanges like "You're all I see" the first time they're ever hooking up, "...he was drowning. For the first time in his life, he was okay with losing himself if it meant finding them," and a cut scene from kissing to waking up & discussing where this is going.

Now to the overall pros & cons...

PROS:
• Grace's cute relationship with her psuedo-grandfathers and the way she builds her own network of friends & family around herself
• Rosie - she's a great best friend and makes for a good supporting character
• Josh - he's another likable side character
• The house redecorating showdown...this is a fun concept & made for a cute scene of melding friendship groups & friendly competition. I do think the actual designs here could have been better explained (they were supposed to be themed - didn't see that, really with "productive serenity" in an office with yellow & grey paint and shelving...), but maybe that's the designer in me. Maybe the surface descriptions are good enough for regular readers.

CONS:
• I didn't get the *feeling all the feels* during this book as much as I felt like it was an overly sweet candy that lasted longer than necessary. Certainly didn't hate it, but didn't really like it particularly enough for 4 or 5 stars, either.
• While many books in the romance genre involve the need to suspend belief, there were some eye-roll moments here for sure...a designer getting a major break in a major publication on a millionaire's house while she's still in school? Maybe it hit me wrong as a struggling designer with a master's degree who is still looking for my break, but this was very *oooookay sure*
• Grace's mother was so awful. I understand the author is giving her a rough upbringing backstory to show her perseverance & overcoming difficulties, but it was so obvious how soul-sucking her mother was all along that it made it really hard to understand Grace giving her so many choices. It felt like Grace was letting her walk all over her and it was unappealing, even in an attempt to show character growth.


Overall ratings:
Heroine (Grace) 3/5
Hero (Noah) 3.5/5
Side characters 4/5
Plot 3/5
Pacing 2/5
Heat factor 2/5
Romantic connection 3.5/5
Comedy 1.5/5
Diversity & representation 1/5
Writing & grammar 4.5/5

How to Love Your Neighbor is Sophie Sullivan’s third book and has some common characters with her earlier Love Is On Air, which is apparently only published in German.

Grace Travis has worked hard to make sure she does not follow in her mother’s footsteps. She works several jobs (dog walker, barista, live in companion) and is putting herself slowly through college, set to graduate in a few months with her degree in design. She recently inherited a home on the beach from grandparents she never knew but hasn’t yet moved in because she feels Morty, who she has been helping since his hip surgery several years ago, still needs her. However, when his lady friend decides to move in with him it sets Grace free to take over her own home. It will be a slow renovation process, but what an opportunity for the young designer!

As Grace moves in to her home her wealthy neighbor, Noah Jansen, makes an offer to buy it. It seems Noah wants to add a pool to his home and sees Grace’s home as disposable. For her, the house she inherited from her grandparents is her prized possession, even if it needs a lot of work!

A contentious relationship develops, but it is this back and forth that leads the editor from a major home magazine to offer Noah a three part magazine spread for the remodeling of his home. But the catch is that Grace will be his designer!

This is a humorous story told with heart as it also relays the pain each of the main characters has experienced as a result of their parents. As they find their common ground, they find so much more! With well drawn characters, a great setting, a heartfelt story, and much humor, I very much enjoyed this book and I do recommend it!

When Grace Travis moves into the house she inherited from her grandparents, she does not expect a gorgeous and equally aggravating neighbor to offer to buy her house repeatedly. Nor does she expect him to get under her skin quite so much.
When she is offered a chance to decorate his house and be featured in a magazine, it's a chance she cannot pass up. But will these two be able to work together without everything coming crashing down?
This book was a cute and light romance that is an enemy to lovers scenario. It was such a fun read and is a perfect pick for the Valentine season.

If HGTV and Hallmark had a baby, it would be How to Love Your Neighbor. The fun of design and transforming a space mixed with a rich big city dude falling in love with his neighbor who's struggling and about to graduate design school, yes, please. The tension is palpable, the flirting and chemistry are so so good. I loved Morty, he reminds me of my husband's grandpa. And Josh and Rosie, I need that whole story, please. This is a sweet and fun read that makes me want to paint some rooms.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press and #NetGalley for providing me with advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars!

When Grace, a soon-to-be interior designer who has juggled multiple jobs while putting herself through design school, inherits a bungalow on the beach from grandparents she has never met - she is ready to dig into renovations and make it her home. Then she meets Noah, the big-shot real estate developer who lives next door, with his sights set on expanding his property and buying her out... but Grace isn't budging.

A classic "will-they-won't-they" love story, I loved the banter between Grace and Noah. I thought that the dual pov's brought a lot more depth and perspective to the book, and really showed how people with different life experiences would interpret a situation or conversation differently. This book has much more than romance to offer, unpacking deeper subjects like toxic parental relationships, community, friendship, and learning how to ask for help. I thought that the side characters relationships with the MC's was well developed and added to the plot. This book balanced the heavier subjects with heartfelt and authentic romance really well!

Noah and Rosie were the cutest couple ever!

I loved that the story started with a enemies to lovers situation and in the middle it because more of a friends to lovers. I loved it!

It was hilarious and heartwarming.

Definitely would recommend if you want a cute book with a little of banter.

This was such a cute read!! I loved the storyline and the “trading places” feel of the setting. The main characters had great chemistry, but I think Morty took the cake for me in this one!! He was just so dang precious! Definitely recommend this one!!

100% Bingeable.

An HGTV inspired, slow burn/enemies to lovers romance. I wish I could've watched this play out on TV because it was so fun to read Grace and Noah spar and spark a romance.

This was such a fun book! When I read this book I actually didn’t know that it was part of a series. I was able to read it as a standalone book and still enjoy it but now I am going to read 10 rules for faking it which is the first book in this series! I love grace: she’s funny, smart, and I loved her backstory. now Noah: he’s incredibly sweet, funny, and just SO swoon worthy. I loved seeing the relationship develop between grace and Noah. I also loved how the story not only focuses on their relationship but on family, friends, and having a career. I also loved all the side characters. They had me laughing out loud and I thought they added so much to the story! while there is no steam in this book the chemistry between grace and Noah was SO good that it didn’t need which makes this the perfect option for a beginner reader! There were laugh out loud moments, sweet moments, and I really loved this book!