Lease on Love was one of my NetGalley picks that I requested on a bit of a whim. It follows Sadie, who gets quite drunk after being fired from her job of 6 years, and ends up confusing a dating app with a roommate finding app. Much to her luck, however, she ends up meeting Jack, who is renting space in his Brooklyn brownstone for an extremely generous price, and now that she’s no longer making enough to stay in her old apartment, she gladly takes him up on his offer. What follows is a story about friendship, love, grief, and starting over.

Now, normally I review books that have a much bigger emphasis on the romance in their synopses. However, this book has so many elements going for it, that the romance almost takes a back seat for me in terms of what I loved. So that begs the question, if the romance wasn’t what kept me reading, what captured my attention and kept me reading?

Sadie herself was what kept me reading. She’s genuinely one of the best main characters that I’ve read in a long time. She’s funny, smart, and self aware. Reading from her perspective kept a smile on my face, and kept me invested in the story from beginning to end. She has a lot of snark and spirit, and I love how she ended up using the fact that she was jobless to try to follow her dreams of starting a floral arrangement company.

Besides for Sadie her friends kept me reading as well. Gemma, Harley, and Nick are such fabulous distinct characters that support one another through thick and thin. I adore how they easily folded Jack into their group, and I love how we got to see them interact not just in person, but over their various grout chats as well.

While this book does have a slow burn romance throughout, I feel like I would have appreciated this book even more without it. since I enjoyed the slice of life aspect even more than the budding romance. While I liked Sadie and Jack together, I think Sadie hit it a bit on the nose when she described Jack as the perfect boyfriend. Out of all the characters he was the least fleshed out and nuanced and that made it hard for me to root for the two of them getting together. I wanted to see him messing up more, like all the other characters did at times, but that just never happened until the very end. And speaking of the ending, I felt like the argument that ensued came out of nowhere. This was partially because Jack wasn’t fleshed out, but it was also a relatively minor thing to cause such a big fight in my opinion. Because of this, the ending was probably the weakest part of the book for me.

If this book didn’t have a romance, it may have received a full 5 stars. However, despite my lackluster feelings over the romantic aspect, that somehow didn’t take away from my enjoyment while reading. This book kept me engaged and kept me smiling and fully deserves the 4 stars I ended up giving it! I would recommend reading this book more for the character growth and slice of life story rather than the romance, but I do recommend it nonetheless!

🌼ARC Review: Lease on Love by Falon Ballard

Thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks for this ARC! @allinwitha raved about this one, and I got lucky when I requested! This one is out next week on February 1st

🌼Synopsis: Sadie is blindsided when a promotion she deserves is handed over to her boss’s future son-in-law. After an outburst at the meeting, she is fired and now cannot afford her rent in her New York apartment. While out drinking with her friends that evening (in what should have been a celebration) she swipes right on a dating app and sets a coffee date. Turns out it was a roommate app, NOT a dating app. Jack has been a recluse for a long time and is looking for a roommate. He is offering dirt cheap rent at his beautiful brownstone that Sadie immediately adores. She takes his offer and decides now is the perfect time explore her dream job of owning a sustainable floral design business. Sadie is not attracted to her roommate, but over time she starts to warm up to him. Maybe there’s something more here than just amicable roommates?

☺️I really liked this one! What a beautiful debut! It was nice change reading a book where all the characters were inherently good. My last book being In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and everyone was just bad bad bad. Here are a few quick hits:

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨Roommates to lovers
☯️ Opposites attract
🔥Slooow burn
🥰Cinnamon roll hero
👩🏼Heroine POV
🧠Prioritizing mental health and therapy
🫂Awesome group of supportive friends
😂“Followed your account. But if you get a TikTok, I’m out.”
🗣CW: off page loss of parent and emotional/verbal abuse

💼I enjoyed reading Sadie changing her career path to something she dreamed of and succeeding. One of her friends also does something similar! I’ve had friends and family, not fulfilled by their career path, switch Jobs’s. Millennials get a bad rap for being bored/lazy in the workplace. We just aren’t afraid to look for something that gives us purpose and engages us to grow!

🍹One scene in Lease on Love all the girls are together, supporting each other over margaritas, chips &salsa (marg pictured here!. What more could you want from a girls night out?

When Sadie Green is passed over for a promotion and fired in the same day she’s not sure what to do...after a drunken mistake she lands not only a perfect place to live but a lovely new friend, Jack aka Jack-O-Lantern

I absolutely adored this book Sadie’s inner thoughts had me laughing out loud every few minutes and her chemistry with Jack had me blushing and my heart racing for the rest of the time. Also her friends are incredible, Gemma, Harley, and Nick are the best friends anyone could ask for and the text threads were some of the best parts of the book, their dynamic is so light and lovely it makes me smile and laugh.

“I would wreck you” that is what Jack says. Both of them have issues, loss of parents for both but different circumstances. Jack lost his parents almost seven years prior in a car accident and Sadie lost hers ever since she left them behind in California leaving the toxic, abusive atmosphere behind.

I found myself connecting so much with Sadie’s immense self-doubt and insecurity and I understood just how difficult it is to love yourself and admit how great you are, shes not a selfish asshole and I love that she has a group of supportive, loving friends who remind her everyday that she is an incredible human who deserves happiness.


“My home is you” is the quote that had me gushing and I fell in love with Jack every single second of the book. Thank you Fallon Ballard for adding to my list of book men I’ll never have...but moving on I just love the development of their love and how slowly it was crafted into the beautiful piece of art it became, I would also pay good money to see illustrations of Jacks paintings and also a drawing of the house and the space for Bridge and Blooms.

Thank you so much to Putnam Penguin Group, NetGalley, of course a big thank you to Fallon Ballard for writing this lovely book! I cannot wait to purchase a copy and read more of your work!

This was such a cute romcom. Definitely recommend if you like slow burn,roommates to lovers, or close proximity tropes. Jack has been added to my list of book boyfriends- what a gem. I loved Sadie’s friend group and their banter - they felt so real and I wish I was part of their group. Amazing debut novel by Falon!

Instant connection. Slowburn. Spice. Lease on Love is the perfect romcom - and the fact that it's coming out just in time for Valentine's Day is absolutely perfect.

Sadie and Jack couldn't be more different - but they both need a place to live and become roommates. Soon they both start to rub off on each other. This book is also a lovely story about following your dreams. For anyone that's ever had a side hustle, you'll relate to Sadie. Would absolutely recommend!

TW: death of a parent, abuse,

I've seen some comparisons to Emily Henry's Beach Read, and I can see it. If you're looking for your next slowburn romcom, look no further. This comes out 2/1 and I can't wait to buy a physical copy to add to my colelciton.

Thank you Netgalley and Publishers for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning for death of parents and abusive parents.

Jack and Sadie were a fun duo to read about. I visibly noticed the relation to the Flatshare and Beach Read (which isn't a negative as I enjoyed both).

My biggest con with this novel is that I felt it leaned more into Women's Fiction than Romance. I, as a reader, don't like when books don't show life outside of the romance but I think this book had the romance as an add-on to Sadie's self-discovery story.

Another negative in a similar vain, was Jack's development. Since we saw so much of Sadie building up her career and her life, we learned little of Jack. The moments between Jack and Sadie were cute but I think we-the readers-could've benefitted from more of those "couple" scenes?! Also using Jack's secretive background as the main conflict felt a little awkward since we knew next to nothing about him until that point.

For Pros, I love the cover, all the texts messages, and for the first half being more focused on Jack and Sadie getting to know each other.

-strong females
-instant love yet still SLOWBURN
-found family
-following your dreams
-self sabotage
-grief
-trauma
-spice

Lease On Love has it all.

Sadie loses her job, that she is amazing at but doesn't really love. She goes home to her tiny plant filled apartment and realizes she needs a change, starting with her love life. She is going to give dating a shot, so on a night out with her best friends she drunkenly pops on a dating app and agrees to a date that will flip her life upside down. Or maybe it is right side up.
Sadie has a potty mouth, is sarcastic and self-depreciating, but so loveable. I would definitely be friends with her.

Jack is a sweet, introverted, hermit looking for a roommate. Let's face it he is a total cinnamon roll. He is in a dark place and Sadie just may be the sunshine he needs in his life. I couldn't even keep track of the number of times my breath hitched and my heart skipped a beat due to Jack's earnestness. "Honestly? You seems like the kind of person who likes to laugh. And I need some laughter in my life." *swoon*

This story is full of extremely loveable characters. Gemma, Harley and Nick are honestly the best friends /found family anyone could ever have. There is a lot of love.

Speaking of love, the slowburn is so good, you will get butterflies. It does get a bit spicy as well.

There are heavy themes as well, Sadie and Jack both come from traumatic pasts. One grew up in a home where they were told they were not and would never be good enough. One lost their parents and are still grieving over the immense loss.

There is one part near the end that caught me off guard and seemed extremely out of character. There was also a lack of conflict for the most part. Those were the only reasons I didn't give this a 5/5. It is STILL an amazing story though and I highly recommend giving it a read. Your heart will thank you.

All in all it is a fantastic debut from Falon Ballard. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Thank you to Penguin Group/ Putnam Books and NetGalley for this eARC.

If I could give more stars for this read, I would in a heartbeat. After reading this book, I am so excited to tell all my fellow readers about it, as well as check out more books by the author. Lease on Love had everything – found family, friends to lovers, forced proximity, banter, real-world issues, and a few unexpectedly steamy scenes. I devoured this book.
The main character – Sadie Green – is likeable because at times she’s UNlikeable. A main character with flaws, insecurities, trust issues – all things easy to relate to as well as root for. The slow building tension between Sadie and her roommate, turned best friend, turned soulmate Jack, was so sweet and had me smiling at my Kindle. I really felt for Jack and all he’d been through, as well as Sadie and some family issues of her own. They made a pair you really wanted to see last. It wasn’t about getting to see their first kiss, it was about getting to see them open up and allow themselves to be truly happy which is all the more rewarding.
There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in this book. When Sadie loses out on a promotion due to nepotism and she asks her boss “his major qualification being that he f***s your daughter?” I knew I was in for a wild ride with this read.
I never wanted this book to end. It had such a feel-good, homey feel to it while also making my heart hurt in the best way. I can’t wait to reread this one in the future, definitely a new favorite of mine. Thank you to Falon Ballard, Penguin Group Putnam, and Goodreads for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review.

When Sadie gets passed over for a promotion at her financial firm for the boss' new son-in-law, and is informed she'll have to train him for the position, she gets understandably upset. When she lets fly a few f-bombs to the boss about how she feels about it, she gets fired. While she drinks away her woes, she goes on a dating site and starts finding guys to swipe right on. What she actually has done though, is swiped right on a roommate app, and there is some confusion when she meets up with the guy. Jack is our guy looking for a roommate, He is a hipster/geek and has a gorgeous place that with very low rent. Sadie takes him up on the offer, and decides to try and follow her dreams of opening up her own flower boutique.

Sadie and Jack are total opposites. Jack is grieving the loss of his parents, and leads a very isolated life filled with video games in his basement. Sadie talks all the time, and is an exuberant personality with a great group of tight knit friends. Together, they could be just what the other needs.

This was such a fun book! It's a slow burn romance, but at the same time, both characters know from early on that it is coming. Sadie's friend group is an amazing bunch of people, and their text threads throughout the book are some of my favorite parts! The growth of both characters throughout the book is great to watch, and seeing each character make changes to their lives so that they are doing what they've always dreamed is inspiring. I loved everything about it!

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book starts with Sadie imploding her career in a major way after not getting a well-deserve promotion. It turns out getting fired is one of the best things that ever happens to her - and gives her the push she needs to move her life in a direction to achieve her real dreams. As part of that - she drunkenly mistakes a roommates app for a dating app. That leads her to a meetup with Jack. Jack has been very much alone for the last seven years - after his parents were killed in a car crash.

I loved how the characters work through their emotional baggage and trauma - and find their way together. Sadie is a force of nature - beautiful smart, and very, very driven. All of that comes with some very significant baggage from her early life. Jack's loss in life profoundly impacted him as well - so while money isn't something he needs to worry about - his emotional connection to others has suffered. Meeting Sadie brings Jack back to life in a lot of ways. And Jack gives Sadie the solid emotional support she needs to go after her dreams.

This book is definitely about finding a path to achieve your dreams - and taking risks. I highly recommend it as as both a romance and an inspiration to follow yourdreams!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I really loved the story of this book. The slow burn was excellent, but the main character's personal growth was really lacking. It happened way too late in the book and it felt like it was a "tada, I'm doing better" type of reveal. It was still a great book! I just wish that it would have come earlier and shown more of her actual growth other than just in her professional life.

Thanks NetGalley for this Arc !



Lease in love was such a cute romcom with some spice ! Definitely a slowburn. But worth it !



Sadie needs to find a roommate and she’s sarcastic and hilarious. She finds herself a roommate whose nerdy and an introvert. I love how they become roommates. It’s so good . I recommend this book

Lease On Love was your very average rom-com. Which would be fine if the synopsis didn't imply Beach Read levels of depth and emotion.

What this book got right:

-The banter was fun in this one. Every character had some sort of personality and Sadie's wit played off of all her friends and Jack very well.
-Ballard took her time developing the slow-burn and it was so worth it. I liked Sadie and Jack as friends almost more then them as a couple.

What this book got wrong:
-Ballard tries to give our main couple these real-life emotional struggles, but lost all the nuance. Every emotional hardship was very heavy-handed. I could have used some more subtly or at least a flashback or two to solidify why Sadie had such negative feelings about herself.
-Jack's journey got the short end of the stick. Narrative-wise, this story is about Sadie, that's fine. Typical even, but I think Jack's journey of overcoming his grief gets skipped over in a way that robs him of true character growth. We're told that he moves on, but we don't really get to see it.

DNF at 25%. I’m trying to only read books I enjoy this year, and this was not one.

Jack was too much of a perfect on paper, flat, doormat of a guy for me to find any interest in. If you’re looking for pure escapism you might enjoy this, but I found it boring and irritating.

Roommates to lovers AND second chance love!!!! SIGN ME UP! This was so witty and fun to read. There were issues and sadly it was the last few chapters of the book. I did really love Sadie and Jack's will they wont they even though it was a little bit fast. I lot of people will enjoy Sadie's quick wit and sarcastic nature will be very entertaining. Overall, Lease on love was a solid read. I would consider this a palette cleanser rom com.

Lease on Love was such a refreshing read! Ballard managed to take the classic rom-com formula, and turn it into a book I still couldn't put down. Some of my favorite parts of this book included: the heartwarming found-family trope, Jack's adorable acts of kindness for Sadie, the mystery of Jack's past, and of course- the romance. While I didn't find it to be a problem at all, there is frequent use of swearing in the dialogue as a warning to anyone that may be opposed to that. Overall, this is definitely my favorite romance that I've read this year!

I'm shocked that this is debut novel, Falon Ballard's writing is fantastic! I read this book in one-sitting and it's safe to say I loved it. This novel offered friends-to-lovers and close proximity romance tropes and it was just so well done. Sadie was such a lovable main character and I would love to be friends with her IRL. Jack was such a sweetheart and the ultimate roommate and book boyfriend. The tension was so good and the build up with the close-proximity was palpable. The characters both touched on some tragic past events that occurred and I wish there would have been more about this incorporated throughout the story to get a better understanding of how these events shaped them both. This aspect in the story did allow for a great found family situation and I loved how they all had each other's backs. I'm a big gardener and house plant mom, so reading about the flowers and shop were really fun for me. Also, I'm thinking I may need to start binging some Real Housewives to see what all the hype is about! Overall, this story had everything I want in a romance and I highly recommend it!

Giving this a 4.5 stars

I was really pulled into this contemporary romance with the relatable millennial struggles and easy dialogue between our heroine, Sadie, and her found-family. I especially liked the use of text messages to transition the story and show the passage of time. This is a little tricky to pull off without halting the plot too much or coming of as trite, but Ballard crushes it.

Our main love interests, Sadie and Jack, are each struggling with their own past traumas - Sadie’s leading to some serious imposter syndrome - and maneuvering how to transition from roommates to lovers (I hate the term “lovers” but what ya gonna do).

I really enjoyed this funny, slow-burn read and the only thing that was off for me was that the final conflict felt a bit forced and out of step with the rest of the story.

The day Sadie Green gets fired from her stable (and miserable!) finance job, she's desperate for a good time. After mistakenly swiping on a roommate-finding app instead of the intended dating app, she finds herself meeting up with Jack Thomas. Despite the mix-up, Jack graciously offers Sadie a room in his beautiful Brooklyn brownstone for such a low price that Sadie can't help but accept. What ensues is a sweet story about friends who find something more while living together.

I appreciated the fact that Sadie and Jack were complete opposites - he was the nerdy introvert while she was the outgoing opinionated loud mouth. I see where others might see their blossoming relationship as endearing. However, I found it frustrating. Buried deep in their own insecurities - Jack still grieving the loss of parents and Sadie still dealing with her own issues after growing up in an emotionally abusive environment - the pair should've stayed friends if they weren't ready for a relationship, which Jack mentioned multiple times. Although it is said that the two are dealing with their problems, we don't really see it. Jack has stayed inside not interacting with others for years and Sadie is just convinced she's a bad person. Yet, they don't deal with their problems and we don't see where the problems stemmed from in flashback scenes or anything.

Another problem I had was the unrealistic situation Sadie finds herself in. New York isn't cheap and yet she's able to quit her job, bartend a couple days, start and run her own business for the remainder of her time, and she found a generous man to let her stay in his expensive home for cheap. I understand this is fiction, but it's hard to feel anything for the main character who is struggling because her predicament seems decent. That's to say there was little to no conflict in the book, except in the very last chapters.

Overall, it was an underwhelming story but still cute. There were definitely one too many "millennial" references for my liking.

Sadie is a potty-mouth, energetic, flower-loving twenty-something who just lost her job. She accidentally finds herself meeting Jack Thomas after she mixes up a dating app and roommate-finding app. Jack is a quiet guy who lost his parents and pretty much keeps to himself. He lives in a gorgeous brownstone in Brooklyn and agrees to let Sadie be his roommate for an amazing price while she gets back on her feet. Sadie decides to pursue her lifelong dream of being a florist with the help of her friends and Jack. These total opposites soon find that they may have made the deal of a lifetime by agreeing to live together when they realize their sudden attraction to one another.

My thoughts:
I went back and forth a lot between 3 and 3.5 stars. While I appreciated Sadie’s enthusiasm for pursuing her dreams, I did not love the character. I honestly almost DNF after the first chapter because Sadie’s outburst at work was a bit much for me. I understand that Sadie is supposed to have a potty-mouth, but it was just too much. The language in the book sort of overtook everything. That’s at least my opinion. I was right at 3.5 stars for rating until the last 10% of the book when the author introduced a conflict that was definitely not needed and really out of place. It was bizarre.

The one thing I did love, however, was Sadie’s relationship with her friends. They definitely treated each other as family and I loved their group text threads. Friendship was a big theme in the book.