This book focuses on three people. First, there’s River- former nerd turned total hunk that all the ladies love. He grew up next door to Lexi and Deanna. Lexi just so happens to the girl next door/childhood crush/girl of River’s dreams… or so he thinks. River currently lives in New York, but travels home to California to visit his amazing grandmother. He finally catches the attention of Lexi but everyone around him is quite literally begging him to move on. Deanna, Lexi’s sister, decides to prove to River that he and Lexi are not meant to be by using her startup app called MeetCute. Will River decide he’s still in love with Lexi or will he miss the amazing woman that is right in front if him? This book is funny, steamy and an easy read. You’ll instantly love the characters and want to know more and more about them.

This book is difficult to describe, but up front: I loved it!

The Neighbor Wager is a romcom, with an artistic MMC who believes in the magic of love and a cynical FMC who strictly believes in logic and data and who believes that love simply isn't in the cards for her.
It is a romcom, with a boss babe FMC and slight enemies to lovers vibes. They're not strictly enemies to begin with and even though they've known each other since childhood they're quite far from being friends as well. What's clear though is that they're definitely working against each other in the beginning of the story.
The book is not a clean romance and even though it does have explicit scenes, I wouldn't describe it as a spicy romance either. It gives a vibe that I haven't experiences often in books so far. It's almost... sensual.
The way these two characters think about each other, the style in which certain scenes are written. It feels like a tease, definitely a slow burn energy that puts you at the edge of your seat, never tipping over, always wanting more of the chemistry that is between these two characters.
Even though The Neighbor Wager doesn't reinvent the wheel in the romcom world, it is this vibe that made the book special for me.

Can recommend!🥰

I enjoyed the romance between River and Lexi and the characters.
This was an easy and fast read I wasn’t expecting it But this was a spicy one which fine just wanted to let you know.

This is my first time reading something by this author and I really enjoyed it. River was the nerdy kid that grew up living next door to Lexi and Deanna and had a major crush on Lexii. Now, he's all grown up and that nerdy kid is long gone, replaced by a more mature, confident, and handsome man. Deanna is the brains behind the creation of a new dating app, Meetcute, and she wants to use it to prove that what River feels for Lexi is merely a crush, not real love. River, in turn, is poised to convince Deanna that love isn't all about algorithms, and that there's a certain magic that also plays a part. They agree on a wager in which if he wins, Deanna lets him have a shot with Lexi, but if Deanna wins, River will help Deanna in keeping Lexi and her current boyfriend Jake, who were both matched through Meetcute, together. What they don't plan on though, is falling for each other.
A very cute and charming read that kept my interest from start to finish. The story was fast-paced and fun and I had a lovely time reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for providing a complimentary copy. This is my honest review.

I loved Deanna and River!! This was an amazing romance and one that I will not forget! It was so good and I highly enjoyed it. I absolutely love the person next door crush all grown up and is hot and they get together theme. Great banter and just enough spice. It was absolutely perfect.
I just reviewed The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell. #TheNeighborWager #NetGalley
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When I saw this was supposed to be a gender swapped 'Sabrina' I was excited. The original inspiration is one of my favorite movies and I was curious to see how it was adapted. I wanted the 'desirable' sister to be like the brother in the original, genuinely a good guy but isn't a good fit. Instead she feels childish in a way I didn't vibe with. Also the male lead went down his 'rebirth' arc off screen and I found that boring. All the fun from the original source material is seeing the down trodden person bettering themselves so they're in a place to fall in love. Instead it happens off screen. I suspect if you like contemporary fantasy it might work better, but with it not matching the source material as much as I wanted I had to skim through to the end.

I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley from Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3⭐️

Deanna Huntington loves her facts. She finds her peace in buried in spreadsheets and knowledge. With her new dating app, MeetCute, made in partnership with her sister who has never had a serious relationship, Deanna believes she can find people’s perfect match with science and algorithms. But can love really be explained by science or is it more than that?

River Beau grew up basking in the sunlight of Lexi Huntington. His crush inspired many of his illustrations growing up, helping to find his career. River always dreamed of a romantic life with Lexi and the day she’d finally be his. When he comes back from New York, Lexi finally seems to be showing interest. One thing stands in the way though; Deanna. Deanna wants Lexi to stay with Jake, the guy she met on MeetCute, as a proof the app works and because Lexi is so happy with Jake. River wants a shot with Lexi.

What’s two adults to do in this situation? Make a bet of course! River believes he can make Deanna see that love isn’t just about facts. There’s something more magical to it; something algorithms can’t explain. Deanna believes she can prove that the algorithms work. Nothing can go wrong, right?

I did enjoy this book a majority of the time. Some of the dialogue between the characters did not seem to flow as well as it could have. It felt like there were pieces missing at times. Also the love story between River and Deanna was a bit of a struggle for me at first. I still don’t understand how they ended up together or even started dating. It was just a like whoa what just happened? The writing style also took away from the story a bit too. It seemed to be more jumpy, like I mentioned with the dialogue.

What I did enjoy was the spicy scenes. I will say this about this author, they can write some spicy scenes. The angst, the tipping into BDSM and Domme, everything. It was so good! And the character development was believable and the change in both of the characters thoughts on love was so good. Overall I would recommend this book. I would love to see a little bit of editing to make it flow and more flushing out with the beginning of their relationship but otherwise it was good.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted e-copy.

The premise of this book had me excited, but sadly it just didn't work for me. The writing was just okay and I hated all of the characters.

River spent his entire teen years in love with the girl next door, but she barely knew who he was. Years later he's home visiting and *SURPRISE* he's hot now, and guess who notices him? Except Lexi has a boyfriend (who she promptly breaks up with because she wants to bang River), and her sister is like "oh noooo, not a good idea! because my app says you need to be with the boyfriend!" So Deanna (the sister) tries to keep them separated, but somehow River decides now he's into Deanna and they start sleeping together.

How does he go from YEARS of loving Lexi to all of a sudden thinking "oh Deanna is hot, I love her now"?

Also, the book is supposed to be about a wager between River and Deanna, yet it's barely mentioned.

I do think this author has a lot of potential, but the execution needs to be better.

An interesting story that delves into the science of attraction. However, I wanted more depth in the characters, more emotion..Overall the book was lighthearted and engaging.
Many thanks to Entangled and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to Netgally for this ARC, all opinions are my own. This book really let me down. I was so looking forward to it, but it just lacked so much. I just really didn't feel anything for the characters or their relationship. There wasn't really any true connection between them. I'm just so sad about this one.

Love that River enters a wager with Deanna to make her realise love is a real thing. Love their connection and how unique they are. Love can be truly magical.

This was such a fun read! I absolutely enjoyed every second of it, I really enjoyed all the characters and I loved the storyline. It was a great mix of sweet and spicy, however to me the ending felt a little rushed, I really would have loved a few more chapters at the end! I absolutely loved this and rated it four stars.

I've got mixed feelings on this one, I won't lie. I really enjoyed the boss-babe vibes, the real go-getter attitude and honestly just the authority power that Deanna holds but the whole "I don't believe in love" cynical attitude and almost pitty on herself for being a woman just grated on me. I get it, people carry that trauma of heartbreak or whatever. Some people don't believe in a romantic relationship for themselves and that's fine. It just feels wildly out of place for what should be a romantic comedy. It just gets frustrating and almost left me rooting for River to go fall in love with literally anyone else.

With that being said, get past the first 40% or so and it really picks up and turns into something more relatable to what was marketed. I really appreciated some of those awkward bits because that's relatable and real to relationships. Concept was nice, the idea of this app was really fun and interesting, and there were some bits that really hit home.

2.5⭐
2 🌶️

As a teen River was absolutely in love with his next-door neighbor and blonde bombshell, Lexi. The problem is Lexi never gave him the time of day. When they all grew up, Lexi and her sister Deanna created a dating app together that has helped match Lexi with her boyfriend Jake. But when all-grown-up River comes back home to see his grandmother and reconnects with Lexi, she's now completely intrigued by him now that he's tall, dark, tattooed and handsome.

She's not the only one interested in River - Lexi's older sister Deanna is interested. In order to make sure Lexi doesn't make any mistakes and put their joint business in jeopardy, Deanna works to get close to River to keep his attention. Too bad she ends up making a wager with him and falling for him in the process.

This was such a fast, fun read. I enjoyed it, but it was almost all fluff. River and Deanna are so horny for each other. Seriously the first 50% is just them wanting to f*ck. I appreciate a steamy novel, but honestly I needed something else
I didn't feel connected to the romance, their background, any characters or anything really. I'm glad I listened to the audio because I sped that up to 2.5x.


💙 Boy Next Door
💙 Second Chance Romance
💙 Dual POV
💙 Emotional family drama
💙 Hot, charming nerds
💙 STEAMY

CW: Cancer, parents with addiction

Thank you to NetGalley & Entangled: Amara for an eARC of The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell.

I loved this book. It goes to show how your outlook on certain things can change when you grow up. The wager between River and Deanna sparks a story that is beautiful and sweet. I adored River and could relate to Deanna in certain aspects. You should definitely give it a read!

This was definitely not what I was expecting. The romance between River and Lexi was definitely cute, but I wasn’t expecting the book to be this spicy. Several of the characters were pretty open about their sex lives and stuff so I shouldn’t have been that surprised, but I feel like the two main characters thought about sleeping together more than they had feelings for each other. It was still enjoyable and cute, but definitely a lot more focused on spice than I was expecting.

Thank you Entangled for the ARC in exchange for a review. This was an easy, cute as well as a fast read.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC.

I definitely felt the Sabrina vibes flipped in this one! The neighbor who is in love with one sibling until another starts to emerge as the actual love interest. Unfortunately I found myself not actually rooting for the love story and annoyed with the characters. In the end I decided not to finish this one.

Thank you Entangled for the ARC in exchange for a review. I love a romance with a dating app in it, idk. This was an easy, cute read.

This was such a fun and flirty book! I loved the main characters, and I thought they had great chemistry, You could cut the tension with a knife.

River was such a great boy next door, and I liked watching his and Deanna's relationship develop. I do wish the love triangle hadn't involved sisters, but that's my only complaint,