Since I haven’t read any of the author’s books before, I decided that this going to be a very light-hearted romance. Little did I realize that some of the themes were deep, and was so pleasantly surprised to discover that.

When always-on-the-job Lucy, is forced to attend a wellness programme by her best friend, she meets ever-so-laid-back Zack. He’s always running late and just irritates Lucy with his attitude. Imagine her surprise when Zack has also thrown his hat in the ring to buy the house that she has always dreamed of owning. When both of them come up short with a regular income and a deposit, Lucy agrees, most reluctantly to buy the house jointly with Zach.

She is really stuck with him!

Co-ownership of the house means co-habitation and their different attitudes to life, result in some hilarious episodes and lots of misunderstanding! Both of them have secrets and wounds that they try to hide from each other. But they start to influence each other. As Lucy starts to slow down her crazy pace, Zach begins to get more organized and slowly they do begin to enjoy some time together.

They also had more in common than they realized. Lucy and Zach, though deeply hurt by choices of their families, were also fiercely protective of some of their family members.

While romance and falling in love is a part of this story, it’s also about how family can influence us, and how we need to find ourselves and reassess our priorities.

I enjoyed the author’s easy style of writing and the humour and surprises she weaved into this enjoyable story.

Stuck With Him by Danielle Owen-Jones

Lucy really needs a win after being caught working during her best friends hen party and drunkenly sending out a email to her entire client list. While wallowing in her sorrows, she receives an alert that her grandmothers old house, the one Lucy grew up in, has just come on the market. Desperate to purchase the home, Lucy applies for a loan, but is denied due to her unsteady business revenue.

Zack has temporarily taken over as yoga instructor for Lucy’s class and she is unimpressed with his snarky attitude. Coincidently, he has also just put in a bid on the same house but can’t come up with the downpayment required.

Each of them is determined not to lose the fixer-upper, so they devise a plan to purchase the home together under the pretense of lovers. Will things go splendidly well or terribly wrong?

If I’m being honest, I really didn’t like Katie, Lucy’s best friend. There was just something about her that didn’t sit right with me. She just seemed demanding and entitled, almost borderline selfish with expectations knowing her friend was going through a rough time in her life.

Q: What do you do to relax and unwind?

Overall rating: ️ ️4/5

Read this if you enjoy:
-hot yoga instructors
-interior design
-cute dog sidekicks
-plot twist
-secret meetings
-forced proximity
-enemies to lovers

This was my first novel by Danielle Owen-Jones and I do intend on reading more from this author!

Thank you to @netgalley and @Bookouture for this digital ARC!

3.5 Stars

This book was a light-hearted Rom-com centred on upright, workaholic Lucy and calm, meditative Zack. This is a force proximity, enemies to lovers story that will keep you turning the page.

After a series of bad luck involving her business and friendships, Lucy joins a yoga class where she is anything but relaxed. Here she mets Ziggy (Zack), everything she hates in people: unpunctual and unserious- among other things. However, he looks a bit like a hippy Harry Styles so…

After her childhood, and dream, home comes back in the market she needs the help of Zack. This forces them to be housemates despite their irritation of one one another. But as time passes, feelings grow.

I really enjoyed the story but I wish that we could have had more details on Lucy and Zacks life together as a couple.

An enemies to lovers premise with humor and spice thrown in the mix. As much as I enjoyed this title, the idea of buying a home with a complete stranger is very far fetched. I do think you'll either love or hate Lucy, her personality is 100% workaholic based and the author does a great job of highlighting that. Other readers who may have never encountered a workaholic may think it's a little over the top, but I believe it was right on the nose. She does make it hard to like her given her many screw ups, but somehow she kept winning me over. When Zack enters the story line, you are introduced to someone who seems a complete 180 of her, but ultimately they both have self growth issues they want to work on and the story takes you through their journey in life and love.

Lucy and Zack do not get off to the best of starts, but when forced to buy a house with him as the only way to get back her childhood home, she reluctantly gives him a chance. Will it be a case of opposites attract, or will they drive each other mad?
A great, fun read

Well the blurb said this was hilarious but I'm sorry I didn't find it very funny. I also hated Lucy so much at the beginning it was hard to read on but I was sat poolside with nothing much else to do so I persevered and I have to say, it paid off.
This was an enjoyable read with an original twist to it,that was very well written and I will keep a look out for future works by Danielle Owen-Jones.
My thanks to Netgalley for my opportunity to read Stuck With Him.

Wow, so many negative reviews for this book...why?

I really enjoyed reading this, who doesn't love an enemies to lovers trope? The storyline was well written and although it may seem a little far fetched I'm sure it's happened for real out there somewhere!

I loved Zack and Lucy, they were realistic, and their characters worked so well together.

It was fun, lighthearted and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I’ve got this book on NetGalley in exchange for a honest review and I would like to start by thanking everyone involved in allowing me early access.

This was a fun and entertainment read and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for some light read - it’s ideal for the beach season, if you ask me!

Although I liked it, some things were too irrealistic and maybe could have been handled differently. Two strangers that hate each other decide to buy a house together. I can overlook the irrealism of this, for the sake of fiction, but I felt the book loose some credibility in the small details. For instance, Katie’s honeymoon is way too long. And let’s not discuss Josh and Zack’s relationship.

In the beginning, I had some trouble getting into the story, as I felt the chapters lacked some connection between each other. It gets better as the story develops, so it’s not a major issue. The romance is a slow burn, which made perfect sense and I highly appreciated, however I lacked sensing the chemistry between the main characters, which was a bummer.

The male character isn’t as deeply described as the female character. I felt the book could have gained dimension if it had a dual POV. I saved the best for last, as I always like to end on a positive note. The female main character is a workaholic, which was very interesting. I feel fiction doesn’t go that much deep in the “work-life balance struggle” 20 somethings feel nowadays. I still felt the theme could have been deeper developed, but I liked seeing the representation in here. The female character is far from perfect (she is too self centered for the majority of the first half of the book), which I have been (overall) appreciating in fiction (instead of too perfect characters). I think she could have grown earlier in the story, as the grow occurs only in the final chapters, but I liked it still!

This review will also be available on my Goodreads and, later on, on my Instagram - @cat.literary.world

This was such a cute romcom! We have Lucy who is a mess, she has always been a workaholic and lives life on 5 speed. Intill something happens that forces her to slow down and she sings up for a yoga/mediation classes.That’s where she meets zack “ziggy” the yoga instructor and they do not not get Along where Lucy is high strung and alway on 5. Zack is a 1.5 and a very laid back hippie guy, and they couldn’t clash more!
Than when Lucy’s family home she grew up in goes up on the market she wants nothing more to buy it to get back that feeling she had when it was her and her grandmother in that house growing up. When life wasn’t so fast. But there is a problem and when she goes the view the house someone else is looking at it to, zack. And at first they both fight to get it alone but other things come up and they are both denied. When zack comes up with a good plan that they buy it together. At first Lucy says no than she gives in and they move into together and this is where the book gets really fun! Them living together is so funny! But they both have a lot of character developed and growth and has such a sweet opposites attract and forced proximity with kind of enemies to lovers! There is also a sweet dog and I loved that parts! This book also had a good climax and I really felt for the characters! I really enjoyed this book thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book for review!

What a nice feel good book. This is Danielle Owen-Jones second book and I really enjoyed it. Was it as good as the first? No. Is it a great book that you should read? Yes!

The Characters: I loved the characters in this one – Lucy is someone I could personally identify with in many ways. Her annoyance at time keeping at the start, her tendency to go at a million miles per hour and the way she likes things just so! I also dislike yoga. All the things that annoy her about Zach would also annoy me. I didn’t like Katie (Lucy’s) best friend. She annoyed me – what happened on her hen do destroyed Lucy’s business, and yes Lucy needed to make changes, but it was partly Katies fault and then she just kept making Lucy jump through hoops.

The story was a nice rom com and ticked all the boxes. The settings sound lovely and have made me want to go visit the Lake District! Though its about 7 hours from me!

A quick easy read that I recommend!

This book started out really boring because the first three chapters were really slow and uninteresting. After that it just doesn't got exciting for me anymore. I did not connect with our main characters and I didn't buy their connection. I feel like we didn't get the build-up in their relationship and connection, and so the entire book is just meh for me.

Enemies to lovers is a favorite trope of mine, so this seemed super up my alley. However, this was not interesting, fun, or exciting. With so many fun romances on the market, this just isn't worth picking up rn imo.

This book didn’t do it for me.

Lucy was insufferable. How does she not think to follow a vegan-specific recipe? How does she not know how to change a Zoom background in this day and age? She was unnecessarily mean to Zack. The “enemies”-to-lovers trope here felt forced. They had bad first impressions and suddenly, he was her “nemesis.” The author was trying too hard to write like The Hating Game.

Even the transition from enemies to “lovers” was unconvincing. The love interests had no chemistry. Their first kiss happened nearly at the 80% mark… I was also disappointed that this was a closed-door romance when this was compared to The Hating Game and The Spanish Love Deception.

This read more like women’s fiction/contemporary fiction with a sprinkle of very tame, PG-rated romance.

Unfortunately, this book didn't really do it for me. Maybe I've started reading it during a difficult time. I was kind of in a reading slump and I blamed this one for most of it. Wrongly so? I'm not sure. I couldn't connect with the characters, thought it took ages until the heroine met her match and was kind of bored throughout the novel. The idea of it was nice, I'm absolutely in love with this cover and want it for my shelf, but couldn't get into it. Also, I thought the best friend was pretty annoying, although most readers disliked the heroine herself for being such a workaholic - I could relate to that. A bit at least.

I'm sad to see this has low ratings on Goodreads as well, even though my opinion is sort of the same.

I enjoyed this book and really liked the characters Lucy and Zack. I enjoyed seeing Lucy’s character growth throughout and how her perspective changes. This is a polar opposites, enemies to lovers romance with big feelings and funny uplifting moments. As they are forced into close proximity by living together, it’s not long before moments and sparks begin to happen between them!

First, thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.
Now here's the sad part. I wouldn't say I liked it. It was cute maybe too cute (if such a thing exists).
I found the book to not have a natural flow, too many time jumps and too many plots that started conveniently closing off.
CONTAINS SPOILERS*********



I swear I thought Lucy said her Nana died, obviously she didn't as we find out at the end she was in a care home. For this to be the twist in the book I thought it didn't make much sense. The whole friendship thing with her best friend didn't seem natural. Nothing really seemed natural in this book.

Stuck with him is an enemy to lovers’ book with some laughs thrown in to lighten the mood.

Lucy has impossibly high standards for herself, and has an instant dislike for Yoga instructor, Zack who she views as being too laid back. To make matters worse, he puts an offer in on her childhood home and she is determined to have it all for herself. Zack's solution is to purchase the home together! Lucy agrees but has a plan to drive him out.

Lucy is an interesting character. She has high standards yet takes a phone call during her best friend's wedding. A call she could have returned later. Then thinks she can drive him away with her impossible lists of rules. Naturally, there will be some miscommunication along the way to stir the pot.

I knew this was going to be a bumpy journey. Lucy is willing to do whatever it takes to get her childhood home back and antics ensue. Zack takes it in stride which further adds heat to the fire. These two are an odd couple and as they say, opposites attract. There is tension, humor, and antics.

The romance in this book was more of a slow burn as the two characters circle each other and get to know each other. I enjoy witty banter in books and this one had it. I also enjoyed watching Lucy come to the realization that work is not more important than her personal life.

This book has the opposites attract, forced proximity, and grumpy x sunshine tropes.

Our main characters, Lucy and Zack, couldn’t be more different. Lucy is a workaholic who is trying to get her interior design business up and running after a setback. In an effort to prove to her friend that she’s changing her workaholic ways, she begins attending yoga classes where she immediately clashes with Zack, the carefree new instructor. Cut to a few weeks later, Zack becomes Lucy’s only hope in securing her beloved childhood home and the two agree to be roommates.

While I enjoyed this book, I found the constant miscommunication to be a bit much. Lucy was always assuming things about Zack that I simply couldn’t believe. I mean, you assume he’s engaged to be married to someone despite the fact that you’re roommates and you’ve never seen him with someone else? On the plus side, I absolutely adored the banter between Zack and Lucy and witnessing them be parents to their dog was adorable.

Overall, while the authors writing was solid and the premise of this book is right up my alley, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars

I’m very sorry, but I have had to DNF on this one. Life’s too short!

I really liked the premise, it sounded just up my street and I generally love the ‘enemies to lovers’ trope. However I just couldn’t get on board with this one, I didn’t find any of the characters likeable or believable (who would even consider choosing a work call over their best friend’s wedding?!), and I got bored of the references to Liverpool. I appreciated them at first because it’s local but it got a bit much.

I stuck with it to about 20%, but after the unrealistic exchange with an estate agent I had to admit defeat. Not for me.

Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via NetGalley and for letting me take part in this tour. I read Danielle’s first book in March. I liked Danielle’s style so I was excited to read this book.

Lucy was a bit annoying to start with but she did make me laugh quite a bit. As she became more relaxed and less of a workaholic she became much more likeable. Zack could be infuriating as he is the complete opposite of Lucy. He is too laid back. He is regularly late and is one of those people that you want to kick up the backside a bit.

I loved Danielle’s writing style. The book is easy to follow. It’s very easy to become immersed in the book and the characters. There are some good laugh-out-loud moments throughout the book.

This book is about more than falling in love, it's about what is really important in life. The little things, spending time with the people you love and enjoying the moment.

Perfect if you need a good laugh.