Love at First Spite starts with a scene where Dani, our FMC, goes paintballing in her wedding dress to assuage the fact that her ex-fiance cheated on her before the wedding - and with that I was hooked on this book. Dani is an interior designer and decides to buy the space next to her ex-fiance's house and build a Spite House for Airbnb to impinge on the view of his house. Wyatt is a coworker who agrees to work on the project as the architect, and he is constantly getting on Dani's nerves before she starts to see another side to him while they work together...

I love these tropes: workplace romance, enemies to lovers, and a bit of grumpy/sunshine and it's almost like this book was perfectly created for me. The tension and angst between these two characters was prime and there was a good level of steam. I wish we had gotten Wyatt's POV which is always my wish with romance novels - but I didn't fault the book for that lack. I really appreciated the disability rep with Wyatt as well.

**Thank you to Graydon House and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

Love At First Spite follows Dani who recently went through a tough break up. Dani decided to build a spite house across the street from her ex.

I initially was interested in this because of the title and cover. I love a good revenge plot! This felt a little messy though. I don’t quite understand how you spending thousands on building a house hurts someone else.

I liked most of the characters except for our MC. She was extremely selfish at times and I was over her pretty early on.

The romance between Dani and Wyatt I really enjoyed. The steamy scenes were perfect!

I feel like this book was missing something. Maybe I just needed the revenge plot to be something else.

Overall it was a short read, if you like light romcoms I recommend it.

Initial Thoughts
I actually was approved for this book a day after it came out so it wasn’t on my radar but it sounded super cute.

Some Things I Liked
Workplace romance. I loved that this had The Hating Game vibes and that our main characters got to spend a lot of time together at work.
Found family vibes. I loved the cast of characters in this book.

One Thing I Wasn’t Crazy About
The plot was a bit far fetched even for a rom-com. Especially the resolution in the end with the house. I felt like there’s no way these characters would have confronted the issue like this because there are way more rational ways to go about fixing it. Basically, they frustrated me with how irrational the decisions were.

Series Value
There’s not much series potential here as the other characters we meet either met someone or had someone already. I did like the writing so I’d read more from this author.

Final Thoughts
This was a cute workplace rom-com and I really liked it. It was a fast read and I finished it all in one sitting.

I love this enemies to lovers troupe! I love that she gave the project a name. I think I just love Dani!

But, I think I love Wyatt even more. He's handsome and handy. I really felt for Dani and wanted her to finally have her Happy Ever After. I think she is the right person for Wyatt and I loved how they work together!

Enemies to lovers while also getting back at her Ex, what an adorable story of Dani who buys the lot next to her ex fiancé and starts building a house she knows he would hate. She gets help from her coworker architect that she does not like. I love that you get to see theirs walls start to come down, and see them go from enemies to lovers.

Dani Porter is out for revenge. She just caught her fiancé with the realtor who sold them their house (although it’s a house technically only he bought in his name) and called off their wedding. What can a girl do but buy a piece of land next to his house and build a spite house on it? As an interior decorator, she has access to the best architects and builders. Her new roommate and her best friend/cousin have the money to build it. What could possibly go wrong?

Wyatt is a top architect at her firm who takes on the project. Initially, Dani thinks he is an aloof jerk, but quickly discovers that underneath the facade he’s a great guy. I liked their scenes together but also felt things were rushed - he claimed he had noticed her at work for a long time but she was engaged?

There was a point in the story where the all consuming obsession of revenge was too much, too. I can appreciate some well timed pettiness, but Dani was trying to move on while firmly stuck in the past. I was glad that she realized this as a character in the story.

The ending was absolutely out of character and ridiculous, in my opinion. Very out of character for the one character who did something.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

If I find myself with a good enemies to lovers, you better believe I will be reading that in a day or two, and I sure did! It was so hard to put this book down, if I didn't have to work, I would have continued to read through the night.

This was a fun read.

A quick summary, Dani was engaged to be maried but her intended was a bit of a narcisstic jerk who ignored her wishes anddddd cheated with the real estate agent who sold him the house he and Dani were supposed to live in. Dani wanted the plot of land behind the house too but he didn’t get it. So Dani gets it with her cousin and her landlany and they start to build an Airbnb just to be petty and to ruin his view from the house. Dani gets an archetect from her job to help but he has the reputation and personality of a prickly cactus in the office.

Characters: I enjoyed the characters in this story. Dani has a good support system. Her cousin comes through for her and supports her pettiness. Dani has the best landlady ever. Shes witty and smart. She also encourages Dani and helps her. Wyatt has layers. He has a disease with vertigo and uses a hearing aid. I loved the representation there. I’m sure hearing aids can cause self esteem problems, especially when you need them at a young adult age. I loved the positive reinforement shown from Dani to Wyatt that express that it doesn’t have to be a burden if he doesn’t make it one.

I did not see that ending coming. I really thought the book was going to go in another direction but it ended up being fun and we learned a lesson. It is okay to depend on others. It is okay to ask for help. Plus you should always be truthful with people, especially the people you are looking to form relationships with, platonic or romantic.

Recommended for: people who like office romances, petty schemes and, of course, happily ever afters.

Awww this was cute. Not necessarily my favorite romance I've ever read, but it was fun and entertaining.

I finished this book in one sitting - I was so drawn in by the characters. Is it a little zany to build a spite house? Completely - but it didn't seem like too wild of an idea that the whole plot seemed laughable.

I loved the little girl gang of support that we were given; while the heroine was going through her own struggles, the side characters were there for some humor and to keep it real with her. And the hero? Yum. We have an attractive, workaholic, who can also be vulnerable and supportive. We love that. And there is also some disability rep with our leading guy.

Overall, I so enjoyed this book; while I wish Sam got a little more of what was coming to him in the end, I enjoy the story, the romance, and would be eager to read something by this author again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for this ARC!

If you took The Hating Game and the Love Hypothesis and put them together, I think it would resemble this story.

With an idea born from revenge, Dani decided to build an Airbnb house with her new roommate and her cousin. After discovering her fiancé cheating, this seems like the most logical solution. With her coworker on board to help with the design plans, what could go wrong.

I’m a simple girl, I get a slight enemies to lovers, grumpy and sunshine, and a little pining and I am sold!

Thank you NetGalley for this copy of Love at First Spite.

A book following work place romance, and enemies to lovers, I felt that this book was you stereotypical romance book. It was a quick read, but I found it slow at points and pretty predictable as well.

Needless to say, I liked this book, but I wouldn’t say it was a favorite.

This was a nice change of pace for me. A true rom-com.
I loved the dynamic of the two mc’s And I enjoyed where the story went. Revenge plot and HEA? Yeah a must read!

Calling all Sophie Kinsella fans! This book is a perfect pallet cleanser after reading thrillers. It has everything you expect from a romcom. It will make you LOL and will leave you with a great feeling.

Love at First Spite was definitely not what I was expecting! The revenge trope is not one I see often but Anna E. Collins nailed it. It is the perfect romantic comedy with the wit, banter, and sexiness but also friendships. A little bit of drama just to keep you on your toes for a few minutes then that beautiful HEA. Loved it!

Thanks to Harlequin Trade, Graydon House and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Architect/interior designer romance is what I want!!

I've always wanted the two MCs of a book to be an architect and interior designer (because I'm studying that field) and I got one! The story started off great, Dani found her fiancé cheating on her with their Real Estate Agent (why it's always a real estate agent, I'll never know) and calls the wedding off, and for revenge, buys a house right beside where they were supposed to live together, just to spite him, hence the name Spite House. Cute right??

It had so much potential!! I was so excited to see the growth between Dani and Wyatt. Their relationship started with full Hating game vibes and I was super here for it, but once they got together in the second half of the book, the book lost it's glow. It just felt like the story was forced at that point and became predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the earc in return for an honest review.

This wasn't what I expected, but it was a cute fun read and I was rooting for Dani and Wyatt to work things out. Sometimes things aren't what they seem! This was a fun meet cute and what I need after all the thrillers I had been reading!

I admit, I wasn't all that into the description of this book, but I am so glad I gave it a shot. The Idea of building a spite house made much more sense once I realized Dani wasn't going to be living next to her ex, and the relationship with Wyatt was a great slow build that totally sucked me in. By the halfway point I was hardcore rooting for Dani and Wyatt to make it work even though it was obvious they both had some stuff to work through.
There were a couple twists at the end that I didn't see coming and the ending was so much more satisfying than I was anticipating because of them.
This was a really fun and satisfying read.

Love at First Spite was a super soft contemporary romance about two coworkers working together to build a "Spite house", basically a revenge house with a less harsh sounding name. Dani is building the house to spite her ex and Wyatt is helping build it because he wants to get to know Dani better. A very cute book with some good side characters -shoutout to Iris and her dogs. I quite liked this read and look forward to reading more by Anna Collins in the future.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

This was exactly the book that I needed to start my year off right! Love At First Spite is an adorable story, with so much heart. It’s the type of romance that I love, because all of the characters are just so vivid and wonderful. If you, like me, are a reader who needs character growth you’ll be so pleased with this story. It’s so hard to truly explain how happy reading this made me. It was everything that I wanted!

First off, kudos to Collins to creating such stellar characters. Every person in this story feels like someone that could be your best friend, your family member, or you coworker. All of them are so well fleshed out, and the thing that really makes this book shine is how much attention it pays to real emotions. Dani isn’t a perfect MC. She’s frustrating at times, she makes poor decisions, and her inability to let others help her doesn’t do her any favors. However she’s also kind, funny, loving, and full of that kind of sunshine energy that just makes you want to scoop her up and hug her. She felt like a real friend, going through a break up.

Then there’s Wyatt. Our resident grump on the outside, and utter teddy bear on the inside. It was so refreshing to see a male character who had just as much emotional baggage as his female counterpart. Wyatt’s work and home personas were like night and day. One moment a confident and charismatic man, and the next a tired and lost man who is just looking for some acceptance. I loved how Collins wasn’t afraid to make Wyatt vulnerable. It made all of his decisions, all the sweet things he said, so much more wonderful to read about.

Truly I could gush about characters for entire paragraphs, because even the supporting characters are absolutely lovely! However I think you’d like to hear about the romance aspect of this book, am I correct? Rest assured that is adorable! Just the right amount of steamy heat, mixed with the kind of giggle worthy banter that is guaranteed to put a blush into your cheeks. I adored the slow burn of their budding relationship. Again, and I know I’m saying this a lot, it was so refreshing to see a romance that felt realistic. Two people, thrown together under unexpected circumstances, learning that they compliment one another more than they expected. It was so very sweet, and I ate it up.

A solid four star read for me! I highly recommend this book. If it’s not already on your list, get it on there!