So I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought the writing was great which made it easy to read. The character development was spot on. I loved getting to know each character’s personality. Their text chat groups were my favorite. The love between friends was so endearing. I also loved Jack and Sadie. They were a fun couple to root far. They both had past heartbreak and grief to overcome and it only made them better. They were sweet, witty and fun. Sadie was a tad much at times and I feel like we could have learned more about Jack. He was a bit mysterious. The slow burn between them was good. Forced proximity is a great trope. Honestly my biggest issue with this book was the foul language. There was just so much. Seemed unnecessary. It’s also an open door romance which is also not my favorite but that is easier to avoid than language.

Thank you PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the ARC.

Ohhh man I loved this book! I related to Sadie in so many ways - currently also busting my butt in a dead-end finance job and also constantly being way too hard on myself in the same way she is. I loved her getting the crazy chance to follow her dreams and that Jack didn't turn out to be insane haha. Sadie's group of friends and the way they developed throughout this story are so endearing and I truly enjoyed the inclusion of texts in the book as especially the sass in the group texts had me laughing out loud more than once. I love this group's relationship and the easy way Jack gets taken into the fold and wish this book had been ten times longer to give details on everyone else's lives even more than it did.

This book blew me away! The sweet ache of the slow burn was perfect. What a giddy, joyous adventure.

Read this if you:
*have a solid group of bffs
*have ever had a roommate
*like spreadsheets
*swoon over rich, attractive men (I mean, #goals amirite?)
*like a little spice

The description calls this Beach Read meets The Flatshare…. Enough said 😂 but really, I loved everything about this book. It was just what I needed to read!

Thank you NetGalley & GP Putnam for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: Feb 1

Lease on Love is a feel good story. Sadie loses it during a meeting and changes her life that day. She is effusive and very enterprising. I liked her ambition. I loved her group,of friends. I think she would not be my ideal roommate, but her and Jack blended well together. I did tire of her deprecating thoughts and waiting for her friends to boost her self confidence. I also,think,she overreacted toward the end. All in all, it’s a great story about living the life you want and taking chances.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Lease on Love by Falon Ballard is an adorable rom-com debut, perfect for fans of Beth O'Leary or Tessa Bailey. The story revolves around Sadie, who instead of getting a promotion, has just been fired from her job. She logs into a dating app for a chance at love, and hilariously ends up with a new roommate. Now, she's living in a Brooklyn brownstone with video game-playing hipster Jack. But will this unconventional living situation lead to sparks flying?

Here is a humorous excerpt from Chapter 1:

"I PLUG THE FINAL numbers into my Get That Promotion, Bitch spreadsheet. Even though I’ve done enough mental calculations to know the end result will be positive, I still hold my breath, crossing my fingers as I hit enter.
“This could be it. The chance to finally pay off those damn student loans and live comfortably.” There’s no one else actually in my office, but as usual, I hold a one-sided conversation with the air plant sitting on my desk, housed in a concrete planter dipped in bright pink paint. Neither the plant nor its neon home is finance-firm approved, but it’s the only spark of joy in my tiny office."

Overall, Lease on Love is the perfect feel-good, heartwarming read for fans of romance. One highlight of this book is the unconventional setup. I thought that the beginning of this book was very original, and I loved reading about how Sadie and Jack got used to living together. I did take off 1 star, because I thought that the rest of the plot was kind of cliche. I can see many readers enjoying the predictable, straightforward love story though. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of rom-coms in general, I recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in February!

Thank you to Putnam Books via NetGalley for this ARC.

I could NOT put this book down. Sadie loses her job for calling out nepotism at it's finest. I loved her from that point forward. Even when she was drunk using a dating app...and sets up a date. She meets Jack and a Coffee shop. She thinks it is a date. In reality, she swiped right on a roommate app. The meet cute is very fun and it keeps going from there.

Jack is quiet and reserved. He's getting a roommate because his therapist told him to get one. They both have baggage they need to unpack and they seem to need each other to do it. Jack is the biggest sweetheart with an apparently big secret. I love watching Jack fall in love with Sadie. I love how she pulls him out of his shell. How she brings back the old Jack and how he helps her.

I give this book 4.49 stars. It isn't enough to round up to 5. The reason is the ending. It really didn't fit the flow of the whole book for me. There were so many other ways it could have ended and the way chosen seemed out of character for both of them.

Ok this book was amazing!!!
I loved Sadie and her personality. I really liked how she tries really hard to pick herself up from being fired and tries to do something that makes her happy.
I loved Jack. He was so sweet with Sadie and always making sure she was comfortable. I loved that he truly wanted her happy. I liked that he starts out a little like a hermit but comes out of his shell.
I really liked Sadie’s group of friends. They were truly her family. I loved how they were always there for each other and supported one and other.
As you read, you find out that Sadie is a little broken and you truly feel for her. The things she says to herself like how she doesn’t deserve things or how she’s a horrible person was so sad. I absolutely loved Jack when he tries so hard to tell her that she is the opposite of those things and that she is an amazing person. Those scenes melted my heart!
Must read this book!

Read if you like:
POV from the heroine
Steamy open door scenes
Supportive friends
Roommates to lovers

This book was so freaken cute!

I don't know why I thought it was going to be enemies to lovers, but it was actually a really cute friends/roomies to lovers.

I feel like I read multiple POV's all the time, but it was really nice to read just from Sadie's perspective. I related to her so much. She had a lot go negative self talk and has feelings of not being good enough.

But she has awesome friends. I LOVED the friend group in this book. They were so sweet and so supportive. When Sadie would talk bad about herself they would correct it. And when it got out of hand they supported her and told her that maybe therapy can help which is also amazing.

Jack was definitely a dream book boyfriend and I loved the slow burn between him and Sadie when he wanted to make sure he could be all in. You did want to shake him to just open up to her. But we learn more as the book goes on. I loved that he joined the friend group and just become one of the gang. It felt really real!

But seriously, this was such a feel good book! Check it out in February!

This was more a story about friendship than a romance. I just really enjoyed spending time with this group of friends. Add in the bit of mystery about Jack and why he’s basically paralyzed in place since the death of his parents. Sadie was delightful. It was hard to believe that she could move from working in finance to starting a florist business in Brooklyn, but just go along with that and you’ll have a very enjoyable time reading this book.

voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

this book was a big surprise. when i saw on the blurb that it was perfect for fans of the flatshare and beach read, i knew it could be great for me.

i agree with that statement. if you liked the flatshare and beach read, this book is definitely perfect for you. i loved how emotional it was, and i loved jack and sadie’s dynamic as roommates. it’s one of the tropes i enjoy the most, and it was perfect for this book. also, i’m used to read book set in manhattan but never in brooklyn, so it was very refreshing in that aspect!

my absolute favorite part of the book was jack. he’s one of the sweetest heroes ever. still dealing with grief after sever years since his parents’ deaths, he was so honest and loyal. emotional intelligence is a big turn on for me, and jack owned that term. seeing him getting better and finding a new family in sadie’s friends was the best thing. he truly deserves the world 💛.

the only reason why i can’t give 5 stars to this book is because i didn’t like sadie. i understand what she went through, i can actually relate to it, but her personality is a big no from me. i was happy to see her succeeding in her new business, though!

lease on love is out february 1st! thanks to putnam books and penguin group for my ecopy!

rating: 3.5/5
steam: 1.5/5

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this e-arc.

This is SUCH a sweet loveable romance. All the stars.

“New York was where people came to make their own family. And that’s what I wanted more than anything”

This book was so great! Its so refreshing to find a book where you genuinely like *every* character, and this was definitely the case with Lease on Love. I think we’ve all been in Sadie’s shoes at one point or another - passed over and ignored at work despite our hard work- and I think most of us wish we could do what she did. I loved her bravery and willingness to speak up, even when its the scariest to! Also - Jack 🥰 another book boyfriend I’ve fallen for, except this one owns a brownstone in park slope so I’m specially sad he’s not real. I love how their relationship blossomed. This was a true slow burn, and the tension was insane but it was so worth it to read as these two characters fall in love.

I LOVED the group of friends! That’s why the above quote stuck out to me the most. Moving to NYC is definitely a scary experience but one of the most beautiful things about it is finding your people.

Their story made me genuinely smile, from accidentally matching in a roommate app to roommates to friends to lovers, it was so sweet I was rooting for them the whole time.

Thank you to Falon Ballard and Puntam Books for the advanced readers copy.

3.5/5

So here is the thing. I am a woman in a mainly male-dominated industry, so believe me when I say I KNOW the feelings that Sadie is expressing and representing at the beginning of the book. Have there been times I've even almost had a very similar reaction to how she did when she was passed over for something she had been working for? Yes, have I? No. Do I wish that I had, kinda. So right off the bat, I knew I was going to relate to Sadie. That ability to relate to her only grew as the novel went on. And Jack, sweet perfect, oh how I wish you really existed Jack, quite literally the perfect compliment to Sadie. The way their relationship bloomed from roommates to friends, to eventual lovers was perfect for my slow-burn loving heart.

So why did I only give it three and a half stars? I don't have an actual articulate reason as to why only a few reasons as to why this book just didn't wow me to give it four or five stars. I went into this expecting a romance novel, and it really didn't read straight romance to me. I read it more as a journey to self-discovery, of realizing what one really wants and going for it, and not sticking with the "safe" option. It felt like the romance was there but it wasn't, at least to me, the center focus of the story. It was also the almost instant success that Sadie found when she went from her former job to her "dream" job that took away from the story's reliability. The "conflict" between the two main characters at the end felt almost unnecessary and thrown in as an afterthought.

I loved the found family that Sadie had surrounding her, and their support of her throughout the duration of the novel. I love that within that found family there was a space for Jack who seemed to need it as much as Sadie herself did when she first found them. It was a cute and easy read and something I would recommend easily.

Honestly I don’t want to say to much about this book or else I’ll spoil the entire thing so, i’ll just say it was just really good. The romance was really cute and Jack and Sadie are one of my new fav book couples ever. I love slowburn books so this one definitely was a great book to read for me. The tension between the characters and overall the entire story was amazing. This book was definitely a 5/5. Thank you so much to Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. :)

“‘Today’s been perfect, but not gonna lie I’m excited to get home’ [...]’ I’ve been home all day’ […] ‘My home is you.’” 🥺♥️

Sadie has just lost her soul sucking job and has no desire to find another one. She goes out with her friends to get her mind off of it, ends up tipsy, and decides to on a whim pop on her dating app. She finds a match and then makes a coffee date. ☕️ When she shows up at the coffee shop, she sees Jack, her date. Jack starts interviewing her and come to find out this wasn’t a date at all….she by accident swiped right on a roommate match! 😬💖

This is a roommates to lovers romance that was heartwarming with a little spice thrown in along the way. I loved the chemistry between the two. Their friends group texts were the best! At times their “ mental struggles” were a little over the top, but at the same time they had great character depth. Overall this was a beautiful love story and absolutely loved it! 🥰🥰🥰

Read this if you like ⤵️

💐 Roommates To Lovers
💐 Forced Proximity
💐 Slow Burn
💐 Second Chances
💐 Normalizing Therapy
💐 Amazing Friends Group

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Lease On Love by Falon Ballard

Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam for sharing a reviewer copy of this book with me in exchange for my honest opinion. 💖

This was such a fun rom-com that checked all of the boxes for a great read! The main character, Sadie’s, inner dialogue provides a few laughs while her slow-burn attraction to roommate Jack upped the sizzle factor and kept you turning the pages. The supporting characters really tied the book together and in my opinion, contributed SO much to my enjoyment of this story. A great read for a rainy day and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

2.5, DNF'd @ 50%

Hmm, the choice to compare this book to both "Beach Read" and "The Flat Share" was a very bold one, that definitely did not hit the mark. My main issue was the protagonist, whose predominate personality trait seemed to be... being annoying. I had a hard time buying the fact that she exuded professionalism at her old job, when a large part of her personality seemed to be saying inappropriate things without any sort of filter. The story is entirely first person from her perspective, and hers was not a head that I enjoyed living in.

I also took issue with how the romantic tension and entire will they/won't they dynamic came from both of them declaring that they were in some way bad for the other person, without anything else in the text that demonstrated that this was the case. Also, because I'm on a roll apparently, the lack of subtlety in the story was just huge. I felt like I was constantly being told how to feel, or rather, how the book should be making me feel, rather than presenting me with anything to actually make me feel that way. When it comes down to it, I think that's the crux of the issues I was having. I think the concept of "show don't tell" is a thing for a reason, and while it usually feels like a trite phrase, in this case I really needed more of it. While I appreciated the opportunity to read this book, and thought the story had some great potential, it was not the book for me.

I am in love. I've got a new all-time favorite, and I cannot believe this is a debut book, too!

Let's focus in on the best of this romance: THE PINING. The slow burn, sizzling tension that went on and on and on until absolutely boiling over. Please, romance authors, take notes! The readers want to feel the desperate, pining and heavenly hot, slow burn. This book delivers!

It's been a LONG TIME since I've read a book with such colorful and loveable side characters. I love a book with a positive and uplifting friend group. The "found family" vibes of this story are so beautiful. The author gave us so many characters to love and each really added to the main romantic relationship. None of the scenes or conversations felt like fluff to this story-- everything is so meaty and meaningful. I was blown away by this.

I heard a rumor that this romance felt more like women's fiction to some people-- but I would still place this firmly in the romance category. I think what people are noticing is that this is *romance with depth* and its my favorite type. Both of the MCs are recovering from difficult life events or upbringing, but they found the person that makes them want to work through their trauma and fears.

I already cannot wait to read this again!

This book was really entertaining and the epitome of the slow burn trope. I wish I could opt into the friend group. My only critique is the falling apart moment felt like an overreaction to the relationship. I couldn't fully connect with why Sadie was so mad that Jack didn't tell her about where he got his money from since they had just started dating.

Thanks Edelweiss and GP Putnam for the advanced copy of the book!

Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher through Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

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