A romance book that is unafraid to tackle some big topics! This is not your perfect escapism book, but wow did I appreciate it!! Our main character struggles with expenses and student loan debt. She explores our capitalistic and individualistic culture and struggles to find where she wants to fit in. Overall, it has a feel good ending and a great political message. The one weakness was the epilogue— it felt a little bit too neat for a book that’s charm was in its mess.

RENT TO BE is another charming and hilarious book full of swoons and sex appeal by Sonia Hartl! I really enjoyed the whacky premise of this one, along with the characters and their dynamics with each other.

This was SO CUTE even when it was so infuriating I wanted to grab them both by the shoulders and shake them.

First of all, Isla’s brand of chaos is so funny - whenever she panics in any way she makes an immediate and usually bad choice, but also an understandable one given her history. Cade on the other hand has never not overthought every single thing that’s ever crossed his mind in his entire life, so he is continuously bewildered and fascinated by everything Isla does (same, Cade). When he starts to also make rash decisions because she is apparently contagious, it’s to the absolute delight of me specifically because we love a man who is so obviously head over heels that he cannot form a rational thought. 10/10. Would read again.

Also I’m gonna kick her parents in the shins super hard but that’s a side quest so we can deal with it at a later date.

I enjoyed this book. I thought that the characters were fun and relatable. The best chapters were the first chapters and I did feel the pace slowed in the middle, however I still enjoyed it, the characters carried this for me.
I will be recommending to my romance lovers.

YES YES YES

I’ve never been one for mushy rom com books but somethings flipped in me lately and it’s all I seem to want to read. Thankfully Netgally came in trumps with approving this gem for me.

Isla has finished college and simply doesn’t know what she wants to do. She’s in a dead end job, temporarily homeless and in love with her brothers best friend. This triage of problems follows her as she tries he hardest to navigate life and her early twenties. Narrated in a way that feels as though you are one of her friends this was possibly one of my favourite reads of the year… How easy is it to set up a house sitting business in the south of England??

OKAY! Wow, where do I even start? Other than saying just please, please read this book when it comes out in August. I love this book so, so much. I fell in love with Cade & Isla and their story. I was hooked immediately and could not put this down once I started. It's such a beautiful, sweet story. I was in tears by the end. Now if they were happy tears or some other tears you will have to read to find out ;) Highly, HIGHLY recommend this book!!!

The book started off on a bad note! The writing felt lazy and as if the book was just explaining itself over and over. The characters chemistry was confusing, changed every time they met but added some sort of back story to try to make up for the weird dynamic. It was just not gripping.

3 stars!

A cute premise with some of my favorite tropes! Unfortunately, I had a bit of a hard time connecting to the two leads. I wanted to find Isla relatable (and she still was for the most part), but she was also a bit too much for me. I know it’s hard to work a dead-end job that doesn’t pay enough AND have a degree that nobody cares about, we’ve all been there, but I can’t help empathizing more with her roommates and imagining I were living with someone who isn’t paying their share of the rent for several months. I know, I know, the real villain is capitalism, but the opening was really rocky for me in terms of connecting with Isla. Caleb as well, was fine, just nothing really stood out to me or made me care too much about him, but I did like that Isla and Caleb’s relationship already had a foundation. They were childhood friends first, which is cute, and makes sense because Caleb is Isla’s brother’s best friend. The issue of the brother of course complicates things, but it doesn’t stop the two of them from embarking on a fake relationship of sorts when Caleb needs a pretend girlfriend at work. There’s humor, there’s drama, there are a few heavy subjects (emotionally abusive parents, debt, and more).

All in all, I still had fun reading it, if you’re looking for a quick read, a few laughs, and a happily-ever-after, this might be worth your time!

Things I liked about this book:

Friends to lovers
Brothers best friend
Fake dating
Cade

Things I didn't like:

Isla at times was unlikeable but I liked the person she became at the end

A solid romcom!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this, the characters were likable and easy to root for that by the end I was upset we didn't get more of them. Isla has made every decision in life based on expectations of others, but when she realizes all that it's given her is student debt, friends she can't depend on and secrets she realizes she needs to make some changes. With her brother out of the country she decides to utilize his apartment as her starting point to getting back on her feet, only to find his best friend is already crashing there. Needing Cade to keep her secret she agrees attend work events with him to help him get his match makers of coworkers off his back. I couldn't tell if the author was setting up the side characters for a sequel but they added a fun layer to the story and were very entertaining. I didn't love the epilogue and wrap up it felt a little disjointed from the rest of the story but overall enjoyed the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

This was a quick and fairly fun book to read yet I found that this lacked a certain spark that would have made me enjoy it even more. I still recommend this book though as I know that a lot of people will enjoy this especially with the fake dating between Cade and Isla.

Quick cute read with Brother's Best Friend & pretend dating tropes. I loved the "can't be honest with your family because you're the disappointment" and how that was terribly handled (because if you have that kind of family, you never can) but it wasn't too "poor poor me" and I loved that too, even if it was hard.

A sweet, quick read with he-falls-first and brother’s-best-friend tropes. The chemistry was sweet and i appreciated the nods to real life challenges like debt and complicated family relationships. However i struggle with stories like this where the two characters clearly like each other from the get go. Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out in August.

Considering ‘brother’s best friend’ and ‘fake dating’ are two of my favorite tropes, I should’ve loved this book. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I did.

It started out promising, and I liked the initial flirty banter between Isla and Cade, but it didn’t hold up the further I got into the book. Isla was struggling with postgrad life, and having graduated college in the middle of a recession I could relate to that. However, it felt like she constantly blamed every single external factor and other person she could for her problems, rather than owning the fact that she was making terrible, occasionally irresponsible decisions and choices time and time again that made her situation worse. I get that she didn’t feel like she could go to her parents for help and the attitudes and comments she was exposed to growing up made asking for any help difficult, but at some point those excuses run out.

The relationship between Isla and Cade eventually started giving me whiplash with all its back and forth. At first it seemed like they’d just always had a flirty relationship growing up, but then sometimes it seemed like they’d actually disliked each other, but then also were almost confidants at times and the way that was all explained was chaotic. Even when they finally gave into their chemistry, one of them would shift lanes so quick it was hard to keep up with the why of it all.

One character and role in the story I did love was Neeta. She was a great friend and not afraid to be blunt with Isla, which Isla definitely needed in her life.

The story was fine. The cover is cute. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the arc copy, all opinions are my own.

Is it me! Or the universe don't give us good romance anymore!!
Or i read too many romance book that everything seems cliche or toooo theatrical to me!
I am sorry, but i really wanted to like this book. I mean the name, the cover and blurb sounded soooo good!What went wrong!

Thank you, Alcove Press and NetGalley, for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Rent To Be is about Isla, our millennial fmc who has a horrible entry-level job after getting her MBA. She can't afford her rent and goes to her brother's house to crash in his spare room. She doesn't realize that her brother's best friend, Cade, is also staying in her brother's house, and to keep him from telling her parents and brother, she poses as his girlfriend for some of his work events. Throughout the book, we see Isla navigating, trying to find a stable job with her degree, and managing her parents, who have always put lots of focus on their kids having a job and being able to support themselves.

I thought this story was very relatable, considering that I'm in grad school and tuition is crazy, but Isla annoyed me so much. I know her situation was not great, but omg her complaining grated me, especially anytime she mentioned her MBA. I did understand her motivations because of how her parents behaved and how overbearing they were. The romance was okay, but I wanted more. There wasn't much fake dating, and Isla and Cade living together made the predictable thing that would tear them apart more annoying. I wished we had gotten more of Isla's relationship with her brother, but by the end, I was satisfied with her development.

This was a related and cute book, there were annoying actions by the characters, but it was a quick and okay read.

This was a quick read with some of my favourite tropes but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I didn’t particularly like or connect with either of the main characters. This book had a lot of tell rather than show and that made the leads feel pretty one dimensional.

What did work for me was the childhood friends to lovers element. I enjoyed the flashbacks from Isla and Cade’s childhood and the mutual pining from both characters. Add in the brothers best friend element and that added a few more points for me.

Thank you to Alcove Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

I would give this book a 3 star. I think I was expecting more from this book but it came up short. The cover was great and I thought going into this book it would have had all the feels for me but it didn't. i just wanted more. I do look forward to reading again from Sonia Hart in the future.

Rent to be follows the story of Isla as she navigates life after college, realising that a fancy degree does not necessarily mean success. Having fallen behind on rent, her roommates throw her out, leaving her with no option but to stay at her brother, Seb's condo. However, once she gets there, she realises their childhood friend, Cade, is also staying at the house.

Not wanting to bruise her ego, Isla decides to stay elsewhere. She sets up a house sitting business to make ends meet and keep her way from any temptation around Cabe. However, when Cabe needs Isla to pretend to be his girlfriend for work events, the temptation gets harder to say no to.

This was a friends to lovers trope. However, I don't feel like this lasted too long. The inevitable happened very quickly. There was nothing I found engaging or endearing about either of the characters and felt that the over all story was just lacking. I really wanted to like Isla and feel some sympathy for her but I just couldn't. I love rom-com reads but this one, unfortunately just didn't hit the mark for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Algove Press for the ARC!