From the moment Grace and Noah met, I knew I was in for a fun and exciting ride. Grace is super focused on getting her degree and becoming an interior designer. Growing up with a mom who kept looking for the next guy to make her world perfect, Grace knew she would forge her own path and not rely on anyone. When her grandparents left her their house, she was shocked but also incredibly grateful. She now had a place to call her own. When the sexy guy she ran into on the beach ends up as her neighbor, she is surprise and excited until he offers to buy her house, constantly. Noah has moved to the west coast to make a name for himself in real estate and investments away from his father. But he’s realizing that he doesn’t know what makes him happy until he riles up Grace. Suddenly, working on his own home renovation sounds like fun as he hires Grace to lead the project. As they both deal with personal and work pressures, will they find a new path that allows them to include love? I enjoyed this story from the moment I started as I was pulled into their crazy and intense world, never knowing what they were going to do next. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

Thank you @smpromance for a copy of How to Love Your Neighbor. I read Ten Rules of Faking it and enjoyed it so I was happy to hear this is book was part of the series involving one of the Jensen brothers. This book is a stand alone and it was nice to see Everly and Chris appear.

If you are looking for a fun forced proximity, grumpy and sunshine characters and closed door dormancy - this one’s for you. Noah and Grace was great together and I love the things they did together. I appreciate that Noah was discovering himself and figuring out what he wants in life.

I thought Morty stole the show in this book. He was just so grump and sweet. I want a neighbor like him.

I adored Ten Rules for Faking It. I thought it endearing, a fantastic portrayal of social anxiety, and romantic. So when the opportunity came to read the next book in the series, I jumped at the chance. This too is a heartwarming and charming read even if it did not quite live up to the first for me. The characters are endearing (a big Morty fan here) and I was excited to see everyone's journeys. It made me smile and if you are looking for a comfort read I think this one will fulfill that order.

I think where it fell a bit flat for me was in its length. Some parts of the plot and character development felt a bit like a rinse and repeat. I had a few moments were I was like, "Didn't we already establish this?... Also Grace had a kind of 'not like other girls' vibe that lowkey bothered me. Despite this bit of character repetition and critique, it was still a pretty adorable read overall so I am not mad about it.

I think this is a charming closed-door romance. It is not a perfect read, but it is definitely a 3 1/2 star read rounded up to 4 based upon how it feels like a warm cup of tea and a blanket. The tea maybe has a bit too much sugar, but it is still comforting overall. I definitely recommend to romance readers looking for a cozy vibe to their romance.

DNF. I couldn’t get into this. This has a promising, if a bit odd start, but it draaags from there. There’s not even any fun banter between these tepid characters!

A charming romantic comedy! To preface, I didn't realize that it was meant to be a sequel until I was halfway in but that definitely didn't hinder me in any way. The book stands well on its own. Noah and Grace are enemies to friends to lovers and very much embody the sunshine/grump trope which I adore. Their romance is engaging and a little cheesy at times but even the cheesy parts are very sweet. I can't say there was anything in this story that truly blew me away but it was a light and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me this ARC!

3.5 STARS

I’m just not sure what to make of this?

The premise of this book — “Enemies-to-lovers meets HGTV” — is my catnip, and I did enjoy it for the most part. But for some reason, I couldn’t get into the romance bit. I don’t know if I just didn’t connect with the characters, or I just didn’t buy into their chemistry, but it didn’t really work. It was a bit too long for me, and the pacing felt off in parts, (plus, it took me a least halfway into the book to feel invested in the story), but I felt like overall, it was still worth reading. Fun with charming side characters and setting.

Thank you to St. Martin's and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

Such a refreshing romance! This book combines two of my very favorite things: reading and home improvements!!! I absolutely adored this sweet hate to love story about new neighbors! Both characters were so determined and hard working in their own ways - I was really rooting for them!

💜Read this if you love:
Enemies to lovers
Forced proximity
HGTV
Great SoCal setting
Fun supportive friendships
Grumpy old men

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for an advanced copy of How To Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan.

I love home reno and watching HGTV so How to Love Your Neighbor is a romance right up my alley. Enemies to lovers as neighbors when one is a real estate developer and the other just inherited a house and is finishing up a design degree, how can you go wrong?

Grace and Noah had such great chemistry and witty bickering. I loved the side characters and while overall this was a fun and upbeat book, there was a little with strained relationships with parents. This is a closed door romance, so is perfect if you're looking for a fun and sweet romance!

I'm so glad I discovered this happy story on netgalley, and discovered a new (to me) author as well! Grace is a hard working student. She has almost graduated in interior design, and recently inherited a house from her grandparents. New neighbor Noah wants to buy that house so he can build a pool.

I loved how their relationship developed, and I liked that there wasn't too much hate at first. Noah and Grace both have family baggage to deal with, but they have a solid group of friends who become family. Those side characters made me really enjoy the story - I loved how everyone worked together and the humor in the relationships.

Grace Travis has a plan. After she finishes interior design school, she can quit her million odd jobs and finally achieve her degree and dream job. When Grace gets the opportunity to live in and fix up a beach cottage, she jumps at the chance to make a house into a home. Then she meets her next door neighbor, gorgeous real estate developer Noah Jansen. Noah has a vision for his home and he’s convinced that Grace’s home is the key. Before long, Grace and Noah find themselves in a neighborhood feud. Is it true when they say home is where the heart is?

Are you a fan of HGTV or DIY? Then you have to read this book! Grace and Noah were so fun. I love the enemies to lovers trope! Everything I’ve read lately has had the most realistic characters. This book was no different! The romance between Grace and Noah was slow to develop but I loved it because it made it feel more natural. One of my favorite parts was the Trading Spaces challenge they roped their friends into! It was easy to see how much they cared for one another as they kept the other’s preferences and style in mind. If you’re looking for a heartfelt, humorous read then make this book your best read!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Sophie Sullivan, and NetGalley for my E-ARC!

I read this one right before Christmas & honestly, I don’t remember much from it, so take from that what you will. Overall, though, I felt similarly to other Sophie Sullivan books I’ve read — it’s repetitive, somewhat cute and not particularly steamy as far as romance novels go.

There are some scenes concerning mental health and childhood trauma, particularly emotional abuse, so warning for those. I wanted them to be a bit more powerful than I felt they ultimately ended up being — but romance does have to be tied up with a bow and that’s certainly what happened here.

It also features the main characters from the first part of the interconnected series, Ten Rules For Faking It — which is a trend I love, by the way. Between the two, I probably liked the first one better. I’d recommend How To Love Your Neighbor to those looking for something short, sweet and slightly off-kilter to read that requires very little brain power. It’s out on January 18th!

Synopsis: Grace Travis has worked hard for everything in her life, from moving out when she was just 18 to her current degree in interior design Now, she’s finally managed the courage to move into her grandparent’s run-down house — only to find a very annoying, very handsome, very rich neighbor who is determined to run her right off the property. Noah Jansen wants her house and her land to expand his own real estate holdings - but will he end up wanting Grace more?

I enjoyed this warm book! I loved the next door neighbors arguing-to attraction-to falling in love story.

The scenery of building aesthetically beautiful houses with a backyard on a beach sounds so romantic and sweet and I loved reading about this premise. I also liked that it was insta-love for Grace’s best friend Rosie and Noah’s assistant Josh. That was a cute sub-plot.

I also thought it was realistic and added to the story that neither MC had a great relationship with their parents and it wasn’t solved in the premises of the book.

Grace Travis has her priorities in order. Finish college, quit her many part time jobs as coffee barista, dog walker and Morty’s house helper and begin a brand new career as an interior designer. Having been on her own for as long as she can remember Grace is shocked to learn she has inherited the small beach home of her grandparents - whom she never met. Having broken ties with her conniving, manipulative mother long ago, Grace considers grumpy old Morty and his girlfriend Tillie her family now. Bumping into new next door neighbor Noah Jansen changes everything. Breathtakingly handsome, wealthy and completely full of himself, Grace refuses to fall for his tricks. She will not sell him her property so he can build a pool. She will not fall for those sexy biceps and beach wavy hair. She is an independent woman who refuses to fall in love on a whim. When the hottest home magazine wants to feature Grace redesigning Noah’s property it is 100% renovation romance and her heart doesn’t stand a chance. Adorable hate-to-love romcom to start off the new year.

HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR by Sophie Sullivan

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the e-arc! HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR is out 1/18!

SUMMARY:
Grace grew up earlier than most kids, but now she's about to graduate from design school, inherited her grandparents house, and she's ready to start fresh without her selfish, money-seeking mother in the picture. She has big plans to renovate her new beach cottage, but the rich guy next door wants to buy her house, knock it down to build a pool, and won't take no for an answer.

MY THOUGHTS:
🏡 I loved this cute little book! It reminded me a lot of BEACH READ, but better.
🏡 I loved the natural competitiveness and banter between Noah and Grace. Their relationship felt evenly paced and quick, but not rushed.
🏡 This book mentioned how Grace built a patio and was waiting for approval from her home owners association / planning board and that hit home as a new home owner! Just a neat little detail.
🏡 This book was sort of enemies to lovers, a tad bit of forbidden love, and lots of fun banter!

This was a cute enemies to lovers/forced proximity romance. When Grace inherits a beachside cottage from her grandparents, she’s determined to put her design skills and DIY skills to use fixing it into the home she never had. Her neighbor, Noah, is even more determined to turn her lot into a pool house. Noah is starting fresh in CA after leaving NYC to get out from under his father’s thumb.

Grace and Noah ended up having sweet chemistry. The book was slow to start and the story dragged at places. There was a lot of family dysfunction to work through but I liked that all the conflict was external to the couple. The characters from the author’s first book show up in this story, but it reads well as a standalone.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Griffin for the early copy. All opinions are my own.

3* I Wanted More Stars

This enemy to lover’s romance had some funny laugh out loud moments to it, however, I did find it longwinded in parts and the pace rather slow.

The romance between Grace and Noah was very slow burn and there was no steam to their relationship.

Overall, I was hoping for some more angst, tension and fiery exchanges between them given that it is an enemy to lover’s romance. Whilst it has been a popular read unfortunately it fell short for me.

3.5/5 stars
This was a great read. This book is about an interior designer who designs to move into her inherited house only to find out that her enemy next door wants to buy her house but the problem is that he's very hot and there is a connection between them. This was a greatly written novel which I think takes place in the same world as Sullivan's first novel. I enjoyed the storyline of the book as it had many conflicts with great pacing. I love how detailed the author made the character's job to be because it sounds so fun to decorate a house as a job. There is also a great amount of comedy in this book so be read. This book is written in dual povs which I was really grateful for.

This book is written in both Grace and Noah povs. Grace is the interior designer who inherited the house and Noah is the real estate agent who buys houses. Both characters had great character developments in this book as they both deal with family troubles. There were also many side characters in this book and I especially loved Grace's guardian who is so caring of Grace. This book has enemies to lovers romance but to be honest I wasn't wowed by the character's relationship. It felt a little forced and rushed to me rather than a slow burn enemies to lovers romance. Like I didn't feel my heart warm up for the character and not much steam in this adult book.

The ending was greatly done though with a happily ever after. For this rom com, the author nailed it with the com instead of the rom. Overall I still enjoyed the storyline of this book and will be reading the author's debut book as I heard great things about it. I recommend this book if you love Helena Hunting and Baraba Dunlop.

After growing up with a disinterested mother, Grace made her own way in the world and is about to graduate from college with a degree in interior design. The grandparents that she never met left her their little house on the beach south of LA and she is excited to finally move in. Noah has moved to CA to get away from his father and make a new life for himself in the big house next door. They meet the day she moves in and he asks to buy her house so that he can put in a pool for his house. Of course she says no.

This is a sweet, well written story about two people fighting falling in love because of their goals and not wanting to be like their parents. I also enjoyed the other characters in the book who added depth to the story. I look forward to reading more books by Sophie Sullivan.

I received a free copy of this book to review through NetGalley and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is a cute sequel to the author's "Ten Rules for Faking It". Like with the first book there are things I like and others that don't work for me. This is meant to be an enemies to lovers or opposites attract. Grace Travis inherits a beach house from her grandparents she never met. When she moves into her fixer-upper she meets the handsome, wealthy, privileged next door neighbor Noah Jansen. He literally offers her twice the value of her house on day one because he wants to tear it down to have space for a yard and pool. He is the epitome of obnoxious rich privilege and when she fixes a shared fence, he doesn't trust that a woman could do acceptable work.

Grace is finishing design school and for publicity in a national magazine he hires her for the interior design of his home. (The magazine oddly changes between two different names, 'Hearty Homes' and Home and Heart' in my ARC.) Both MC's have the commonality of a terrible parent to deal with. They quickly give into their feelings of friendship and attraction which takes away any tension or build up between them. And Grace is so easy to forgive his stupid missteps that it takes away his chance to grow and change as a character. The dark moment is brief and Grace still takes some of the blame when it was just him. Sadly the more I am writing the more I can think of that bugged me about Noah.

Grace is lovely. And I did like her trying to teach him about friends helping out each other. Their date night of a room decorating challenge was cute although not totally believable that you could paint and put up wall shelving all in three hours. I like the idea of embracing family of your choice instead of blood relations too. Noah does have good brothers. One was the main character in the first novel and it was nice to catch up with that couple. But I complained in my review of the first book that side characters take up too much time in the story and that is true here as well. I was almost more interested in her BFF who takes up with Noah's assistant.

On the whole this is a quick, breezy read. I almost stopped at the fifteen percent mark because I so disliked Noah. But I'm glad that I continued on and finished. Intimacy is off the page which is usually a fine choice for me but here it was just another way that I couldn't see the connection between the MC's. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. Do you want a romance with a hero make you think, "this man is a Republican," and not in a small town values sort of way, but in a sunk his daddy's boat during a boat parade and does coke in a shady night club with Don Jr. while whining about how no women love him sort of way? If so, this book is for you. If not, stay far far away from the it. I don't remember the last time I read a book where the hero was so horrible.

I made it 15% of the way into this book and had to stop. In 15% he has:
- mocked the heroine for being working class and having multiple jobs
- egregiously flaunted his daddy's money
- whined about his ex girlfriend
- tried to throw his money at the heroine in hopes of buying her house
- admitted he wants the heroine's house so he can expand his yard so his ex will see him as a stable, responsible adult
- demanded the heroine pay half for new fence on his property
- demanded that the heroine pay to fix part of a broken fence
- when the heroine fixed the fence on her own, he didn't believe she was the one to do it because women have no handy skills and can't use tools.
- he physically cannot speak a sentence without it being condescending

There is no coming back from this for me. He has absolutely no redeeming qualities. There is nothing compelling to me about him and I do not want to watch the heroine fall for this jerk. On top of this there is absolutely no humor and the heroine is a flat so I'm not even compelled to continue so I can see where she ends up. I'm done with this book.

When we eat the rich, I call dibs on this man's arm.