I liked this, but it just didn't feel like Talia Hibbert. I found myself wanting to skip ahead and just overall wanting more from the story. I love Talia Hibbert, but this one just wasn't my speed.

It took me a bit to get the back and forth of time with this book but the way the friendship and relationship unraveled made wading through the beginning worth it. It wasn't as light as other Hibbert but the characters and her development followed her usual deft ability.

#arc
#netgalley
#theroommaterisk

This is my first ever Talia Hibbert book and I am delighted to say I have a new author to gush over! Her writing is both complex, but feels effortless. Her romance is cosy, but also has stakes that feel high. I am so excited to go back and read all her previous stories and dive into future releases!

✨ Review ✨ The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert; Narrated by Rooke Kingston; Keval Shah

Thanks to Dreamscape Media and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Jasmine is forced out of her cheap apartment after her room floods, and she moves in with her best friend Rahul while it's repaired. The problem is Rahul has been in love with her for 7 years. The story alternates between the present and to key moments in the past -- when they met, when Rahul met Jasmine's dad, when Rahul's dad died, etc. Will Jasmine consider breaking her rules about not sleeping with friends?

Jasmine carried a lot of baggage from her childhood with a mother that caused her a lot of pain. And she deals with it by drinking a lot and struggling to get close to people. Her anxiety rings out throughout these pages. Rahul too is suffering from anxiety and grief from his father's death. The emotions on these pages can get messy.

There were so many adorable and 🔥 moments however -- their gambling, their date at the adult game place, etc. These carried the book.

Overall, I felt it was a little long in places and dragged a bit for me, but I definitely enjoyed it and will be back for more!

🎧 The audio I think wasn't my favorite. It was okay to listen to but I might have preferred to just read this one with my eyes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/m contemporary romance
Setting: London(?)
Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
Pub Date: May 21 2024 (released as ebook several years ago)

Read this if you like:
⭕️ forced proximity / roommates
⭕️ friends to lovers
⭕️ mental health rep

I enjoyed this one! I was initially leaning towards 3 stars, but I thought it had a really satisfying ending, so I bumped it up to 4 stars.

Basically, this book is best friends to lovers, which isn't usually one of my favourite tropes. But this one worked well for me. I liked both of the characters, I liked that they both had their own baggage that they were bringing to the story, and how it was resolved.

What I liked so much about the ending was that Jasmine realizes that she's in love with Rahul, and probably has been for a long time, but that she is also a hot mess and that she needs to get herself to a better place before she can be with him. She talks to her dad about her mom and how her leaving affected her, she seeks out a therapist, she comes to understand the reasons for some of her behaviours. Also, Rahul comes to understand that the way he has been loving Jasmine secretly FOR YEARS is really unhealthy for him, and her. I love that when they reunite they both bring these new understandings to their relationship and work on a way to make it something that is good for both of them.

Despite enjoying this book, I do have to say that I really did not like the narrators. SORRY! They both so far off in terms of how they narrated each character, and I really disliked how the male narrator narrated Jasmine when she was speaking. It just wasn't good.

I'm feeling a bit twitchy because I'm reading this series backwards, so I'll probably get to the first in the series soon!

I'd like to start by saying this is the first audiobook I've ever listened to, so I'm not entirely used to it. Nonetheless, I felt like the narraration didn't fit the characters very well. It was a bit cringey to listen to and I simply couldn't get through it all. It's a cute story, but not my favorite overall.

Thank you to netgalley for providing this free audiobook for my unbiased review!

Adorable forced proximity romance!
I read the digital version first and was thrilled to listen to the audio. Perfect intro to Hibbert’s style of writing.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: contemporary romance📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A fun and enjoyable romance

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Best friends to lovers
Opposite attract
Steamy reads
Character development
Some heavy topics
Forced proximity (roommates)
Witty banter

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Diverse characters- all the rep

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
I just think I’m not a fan of those with commitment issues
I wish there was a little more character depth

I liked the narration but for some reason I just didn’t love it

All hail Talia Hibbert, queen of contemporary romance! I absolutely loved her Brown Sisters series, and was so delighted to realize she had other works. The Roommate Risk was another slam dunk in my opinion. Her characters are so well developed, the chemistry is amazing, and I adore the plots. This is a new favourite of mine, and I can't wait to recommend it to friends!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did not love this one, unfortunately. I received the ALC from NetGalley (thank you!) and was very excited to listen, as I've enjoyed Talia Hibbert's work before.

This one just hit all the wrong notes for me. I am a hard sell on friends to lovers, but really appreciate when it's done well - but that wasn't the case here. I very much disliked the FMC Jasmine. I felt like she was self-centered, flighty, and completely took advantage of Rahul and his love of her. I did like Rahul as a character (he was caring, thoughtful, and funny) but I couldn't stand him being a doormat any longer!

Nothing else could have saved this book for me after Jasmine. I did enjoy the narrators and the audio production was well done.

Friends to lovers is hard for me to read even on the best of days, but I think The Roommate Risk is the most well written story with the trope I have read yet. Both Jasmine and Rahul are complicated characters with realistic and relatable issues. Honestly, it was refreshing to read a female character who’s as emotionally constipated as a historical romance hero. It’s typically always a man who is the most complicated and tortured character, but it’s refreshing to read a wonderfully complicated female character and to see her tortuously work on herself throughout the story. The narrators were wonderful and added a lot of depth to already deep characters. This was my first Talia Hibbert book and made me all the more excited to read her other books!

The roomate risk started slow and a little muddy. Jasmine presented herself as a free spirit, and Rahul was her best friend that lived her ass a friend or anything she wanted to be to him She had quite a journey to find herself and love.

This wasn't bad but it is certainly not my favorite Talia Hibbert book. I'm not going to lie I don't think I have too many thoughts about this one. It has a queer fat Black woman MC and an Indian man MC. Friends to lovers trope.

The updated cover for this drives me nuts because the man is clearly described as having dark skin yet the cover has him basically white. I'm not sure how that is an appropriate updated cover but whatever.

I'm kinda ambivalent about the whole thing.

1.5/5 stars (audiobook),

I hate to give a book one star but there wasn't anything I enjoyed about this book. A miscommunication friends-to-lovers trope with an annoying female main character. Maybe the audiobook format made it worse but it seemed cliche and nothing exciting to me. A lot of smut in this book and not a lot of plot.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for the advance reader copy. This is my honest review.

I have read and loved a number of Talia Hibbert's books in the past, but this audiobook just did not land for me. I wonder if I might have liked it more had I read it as a physical copy. Unfortunately, the FMC felt really noncommittal to the point of frustrating me as a listener.

This has some of Talia's core strengths - it's funny, bright, and the incorporation of character identities is done well.

Unfortunately this just didn't work for me. I'm still grateful to NetGalley for access to the audio ARC!

Jasmine has avoided any romantic relationships for her whole life. In fact, she has only remained friends with one man that she slept with, Rahul.

Jasmine and Rahul met in college and immediately hit it off, resulting in a one night stand… only Rahul refused to through with Jasmine, and agreeing to a friendship only relationship.

As her best friend, Rahul is the person she always turns to in need- so when her apartment is flooded, she ends up living in Rahuls guest room.

Forced proximity brings out their unresolved feelings and makes them look deeper into the fears that are keeping Jasmine’s heart locked up!

The dual narration by Rooke Kingston and Keval Shah brings this story to life! Their British accents kept me in England, when my mind wanted to place place the story in big city America- even with the location references. Roome and Keval do an excellent job giving voice to the tension and spark between these characters!

Though this story deals with some darker themes and is less whimsical than her other stories, Talia Hibbert creates a real life romance with Jasmine and Rahul that readers can relate to and appreciate.

The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert is available now. Thanks to the publisher for my ALC.

I received a copy of this audiobook from netGalley for a honest review.

I enjoy Talia Hibbert's books. This one was more angsty then what I've read of her before but it was well written and I believe both main characters had to go through what they did to ultimately end up together in a healthy relationship. I will continue to search out Hibbert's books for their diverse characters and emotional stories.

Jasmine and Rahul are best friends. Jasmine is a free spirit and Rahul has been in love with her since the beginning. If you love the friends to lovers trope, you’ll love this. This was a cute audiobook! I didn’t read the first one, but you don’t need to read it to love this one!

Thanks Net Galley, Dreamscape Media, and Talia Hibbert for the ARC! Audiobook out tomorrow 5/21/24!

Narrators were phenomenal.

This book melted my heart into a puddle of mush. I loved every minute of that.
It's best friends to lovers slash lets give this a second chance after a failed (or two attempt at being FWB)

I will always champion romance books where the guy falls first, falls hard, and is a simp. I don't know how much more I can say. I am happy with the conflict added and how it was addressed. I like the steam, and I loveeeeeeee their story.

Romance perfection.

This one was okay for me. I love Talia Hibbert books, and while I enjoyed this, it lacked the depth that I wanted.

I really enjoyed the flashback chapters with Rahul and Jasmine to give us the backstory on their friendship. They had a great friendship with fun banter, but I just wanted to know more about the characters themselves.