" She's the sun and I'm a planet in her orbit."
I read that and I thought, this is going to read like a barbie movie ( the animation not the live action) but I couldn't have been more wrong.
The story is told from the point of view of the two main characters: River and Deanne; neighbour's. Quite far from each others orbits ( well sort off ) in the beginning and how they start to sway a little closer. River is in love with her sister and what starts out as a way to save her app turns into something else entirely.

The story is refreshingly, honest about love in the real, but awful for dellu readers like me who are in love with the idealistic love story the way River was.

This digital ARC was obtainable via NetGalley for an honest review!

"The Neighbor Wager" by Crystal Kaswell grew on me. The first 25% was rough as I got tired of hearing how the main character's sister, Lexi, was bright as the sun (or she was the sun). I didn't like how everything revolved around her. River's infatuation with Lexi was a bit unprovoked. Gratefully, the story picked up and I began to like River & Deanna. Their banter was nice, and I could believe the chemistry between them. I will say this is a spicy one!

The Neighbor Wager is the kind of romance book where the characters, writing, and overall execution succeed despite the book having a convoluted premise.

River Beau arrives at his grandmother's house after years of being away from his hometown and almost immediately falls under the charismatic spell of his neighbor - his high school obsession and lifelong fantasy girl - Lexi. He's in luck, because between his tattoos, his leather jacket, and her recent panic over her too-perfect boyfriend, Lexi notices River and decides to seduce him. Except she doesnt get the chance, because Lexi's sister Deanna decides to run interference between them. Deanna is worried that Lexi will put their dating app startup at risk if she splits from her 95% compatible boyfriend, so she sneaks away with River to distract him and ends up engaged in a bet with him about whether love is logic or magic.

Like I said, the premise is a little bit convoluted for me, but I still enjoyed the book. I loved River, Deanna, and Ida, Rivers's erotica writing grandmother. The author does a good job of building emotional intimacy between River and Deanna, and the physically intimate scenes are sensual and well written.

The overall story moves quickly, predominantly taking place over the span of about a week and a half, but the chapters themselves unfold very slowly. There is a lot of dialogue, and the conversations feel longer and more wordy than necessary. I also frequently found myself getting confused about who was speaking and having to re-read sections of dialogue to understand them.

Overall, I recommend this book for readers who enjoy rom-coms and spicy contemporary romances that have main characters with strong family ties.

Not having seen the movie Sabrina, I went into this book a little blind. But I have to say I am a sucker for gender-bending.
The story follows River the typical dorky boy next door who is in love with his neighbour Lexi. He moves away and returns to take care of his ailing grandmother to find he is still very much in love with Lexi. His feelings for Lexi become a problem for Lexi's older sister Deanna, as they have recently started a dating-app business together and Lexi and her boyfriend are required to be the 'poster board' for the company according to their investor. But queue in Lexi's commitment-phobe tendencies and her newly returned and now super hot neighbour- Deanna is worried.
Deanna throws herself in the line of fire and ends up spending lots of time with River to keep him away from Lexi and along the way things get SPICY.
I have to say I really enjoyed that River was the atypical boy next door who goes through a mad glow up. So often it's the woman so this was very refreshing. It was cute, I did find that River seemed to get over his life long love of Lexi relatively quickly which was a bit surprising, but overall a very cute book! The book does mention some darker themes but nothing overly jarring and it stays to true to its rom-com roots!

thank you to netgalley and Entangled for an e-arc of this book. all thoughts are my own and not influenced in any way.

this is a hard one. i am unable to push through because I'm not a fan of the writing. The constant mention and conversation about Lexi, the sister, is throwing me off because I'm about 15% in and most of it has been about Lexi, and how she doesn't date and how she's the kind of person who likes to have sex. i.... genuinely do not care. i am not being introduced to the main female lead enough in this to be invested in her story. the only thing i know about her is everything she knows about her sister. that's not something that appeals to me in a romance book.

the writing could also use some editing. the inner monologues are so repetitive and dry and pull you away from the flow of the writing and story.

sadly, a miss for me because the cover is a winner.

This was a cute read! River has always been a little nerdy and Lexi was the girl next door he crushed on. But when life has River returning back home, he has a chance to see her again, as the man he has become. But circumstances have changed and suddenly he sees Lexi's sister, Deanna in a new light. Both River and Deanna are smart and don't always fit in with others. But I liked how they understood each other.
I enjoyed River's relationships with his family members and how supportive they were of each other. I also liked how Lexi and Deanna were there for each other and watched out for the other. These sisters wanted to make sure the other achieved what they wanted. They worked well together but were very different.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!
This is the first book I’ve read from Crystal Kaswell. It was great! Had a great mix of spice and storyline! It kept a face pace and was a good unexpected romance story. I was invested to see how things worked out in the end and was not disappointed! I would highly recommend this book!

“There’s no one who fights harder to survive than a mom.”

I really loved this one. Something about the cover and the blurb immediately pulled me in. And I honestly couldn’t, and didn’t wait to read it.

While this story is fun, it also touches on some really important topics and real life circumstances.

Deanna is a strong FMC, who is confident, and wants to find someone who loves her for her. River is the former boy next door, turned hottie and has finally caught the attention of Deanna’s sister. River believes in true love and Deanna does not. In an effort to convince her they create a “wager”. And in return end up writing their own HEA together.

This is not one to miss and will definitely be appearing in my wraps for 2023 and 2024!

P.S. There is no cheating 😉😘

I loved this book! The dual POVs were well written and the love story was so perfectly woven. I'd definitely recommend this to other romance lovers.

I'd like to thank the publisher for this Netgalley copy for review.

We love a grumpy/sunshine romance over here! I definitely enjoyed the book, with the wager between Deanna and River. I'm choosing to give this a 3/5, as I liked it but didn't truly LOVE it. If anyone else asked me if they should read this book, I'd say that it was a cute one. There were sometimes during my read where dialogue wouldn't make sense with what directly happened before the conversation, so I found myself going back to see if I missed something; so I'd say that there were times during the book that it didn't feel like it flowed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Enjoyable read overall. Well fleshed out characters, generally believable romance, and good spice. It wasn’t a home run for me but that’s probably just personal preference, as love triangle type set ups aren’t my thing. I also found the dialogue/inner monologue swapping a bit jarring.

This book is almost a cozy read to me. It's a slow read, but not in a boring way. I was engaged the whole time, but it didn't feel rushed which made me love the characters more and really get the time to root for the relationship. The characters were great communicators and actually compatible. All of this made for great tension in the slow burn that made it all that more amazing when they gave in to each other.

I enjoyed this book. while it was a little confusing at first. I liked the dynamic of it with Deanna and River's deal and how they slowly got to know each other through this deal with all the questions and everything.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me this advanced copy to read and review. The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell is a dating app, boy next door, great chemistry along with being a steamy romance novel. Deanna created a dating application with her sister Lexi. Lexi hasn't dated. The neighbor River needs to prove to Deanna that love is more then just a predictable algorithm with collectable data. He needs to prove love can be undeniably magical with no predictability. River also has had a huge crush on Deannas sister. Lexi. This was a 3 star read.

The Neighbor Wager✨
By Crystal Kaswell📊

Review🫶🏻

I read this lovely book on holiday, and it was a great relaxing read. The book questions how to find your perfect match—by logic or love? It’s always great to find powerful and headstrong female main characters, and I’m glad the author gifted us with one in this book. I also loved that the MMC was more into his feelings than the FMC. It’s great to see books shed a different light on gender instead of the typical stereotypes. Good read!

Rom com😂
Boy next door🏡
Charming💕
Steamy🌶️
Dating app📱

4 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What’s not to like about this book?
You get lovable characters with great chemistry, a sweet story, and lots of steamy scenes.
I thinks books are like perfumes, they work for some but not for all. This book, I personally enjoyed it very much. It was entertaining with characters filled with vulnerability that may relate to some of us at some point in our lives.
Plus you get an extra free book at the end which is always lovely.

Thanks NetGalley for giving me a copy of The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell. #TheNeighborWager #NetGalley

I was provided with an ARC of this novel. This review is honest and unbiased.

The Neighbor Wager is a modern take on Sabrina with a gender twist and is told from the POV of the female and male main characters. Deanna is a no-nonsense, logical, powerful woman, and River is the artistic boy-next-door who grew up to be a hottie with a tattoo sleeve. My favorite character was Lexi, sister to Deanna and ideal California girl. I enjoyed the sister dynamic, and thought the characters were very distinct and well-fleshed out.

While I liked the main characters, I had a hard time following the dialogue. For every spoken line, there was 2-3 sentences of internal monologuing, which made the conversations feel halted and unnatural. This style of writing made it especially difficult to follow the conversation concerning the bet of Love being logical vs. magical. This bet sets up the major plot line for the novel, but I felt like I was missing the gist of the conversation because the dialogue was so choppy.

Overall, this book makes for a light, frothy read. I would recommend The Neighbor Wager as a quick summer read. The characters are distinct, and there is a fair bit of spice as well. 3/5 stars.

Thank you Entangled for sending me an E-ARC of this romcom novel!

Summary: Deanna is a realist who is trying to find funding for the dating app so co-created with her sister. Her sister, Lexie is slow to jump into commitment and gets scared when she needs to lock down her current boyfriend for the app's success. This is where River, the neighbor comes in with his long standing crush on Lexie. Deanna makes a bet with River to not pursue Lexie while single for the app's success.

Overall, I felt myself going back and forth about how I felt. I couldn't connect to Lexie, even though I wanted to and tried. The spice was deeper for this book, but at times felt like it came before or without the main character connection. It was mentioned a little often without basis for my taste, but you may feel differently! I did find myself picking up the book to see what happened and it was easy to binge through. Also my one major note is that I will never be okay with the word algorithm being shortened to "algo" for a whole book. Especially with a grandma saying that.
I rated this story 2.5/5 stars! Halfway for my halfway feels..

I picked up this book by solely looking at the cover and the blurb wasn't descriptive enough either. This is the first book that I'm reading by this author and in the beginning, it took me some time to adjust to the writing style. Then I also found out that the MMC, River is pinning after the FMC, Deanna's sister Lexi which was a let down. I loved Deanna, she was smart, independent, kind and caring and I mostly enjoyed reading the book only because of her. While I understand that her sister was a commitment phobe, I still found her to be immature and stupid at times. And I could sympathize with Deanna when she felt like she was living under her sister's shadow. The whole love triangle trope is not really my thing and if I had known, I wouldn't have picked up this book tbh. Though, all the character's feelings were portrayed very well and the slow burn between Deanna & River was good, I still couldn't bring myself to connect with the book.

Thank you Entangled Publisher & NetGalley for providing me this ARC

Life is hard. Romance novels should be an escape of sweet proportions. Crystal writes them exactly that way.

No, I’m won’t say how or what happens.., but this book is a hug that lasts as long as you read/remember it.