Listen, is it really a 5 Star read for me? Not quite, but it just worked too well for me to round it down to 4 stars. The spicy bits were spicing, the friendship was friending, and the story was solid. I liked the fact that this was a guy who understands that the "friendzone" is not a real thing, but voluntarily put himself there anyway because he knew the value of a lifetime friend is better than just getting laid for a couple weeks. The relationship felt real and solid. The trauma was realistic, as was the way it got dealt with. The third act break didn't make me scream or throw my phone. The dual narration of the audio is excellently done. All in all, it's a solid, sexy, fun story.

This one was steamyyyy….whew!! I love a good friends to lovers trope and this one was *chef’s kiss.* I love that he waited until she was ready. He truly held back all his feelings and his dominance until she finally opened up to it. Then he unleashed this inner dominance that was so sexy plus you could tell she was soaking but all up too. I’m glad it didn’t take her long to come around to his way of thinking, too.

I received an ALC (Advanced Listener Copy) of this audiobook from NetGalley & Dreamscape Media.

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧

If I could describe this book in one word. I would use emotional.
Jasmine runs the gamut of emotions in this book, and you feel them right along with her. I loved that she is herself—she isn't insecure. She goes after what she wants, and what she wants is not to be in a relationship.

The fact that she is so attracted to her best friend, Rahul, makes it even harder for her when she needs a place to stay, and he offers his spare room to her.

Rahul has been in love with Jasmine from the very beginning, but he knows that if he wants to keep her in his life, friendship is all it can ever be, right? All the emotions, but he never resents her for her choices.

But close proximity and those pesky feelings won't stay dormant, and things are about to get spicy.

Can they still be friends after?

This book was fabulous. It was a first for me by this author and these narrators, but it was a perfect storm, and I want and need more from them all.

The Roommate Risk had everything I have come to love about a Talia Hibbert book: a great hero, perfect spice, angst, and banter. Yet, it wasn't quite the level of perfection that the Brown Sisters had.

So, what was missing? My overall issue was two-fold. Firstly, I didn't love the heroine. I don't typically care for the "I can't love him for reasons" trope. Here, it irritated me. I wanted to slap her. Secondly, I listened to the re-release of the audio, which, according to reviews I read, had a lot of issues originally. I am shocked that I didn't enjoy the audio. The narrators were fine, but I didn't think either fit their characters. The female narrator seemed to read the heroine in a way that made her seem old. For a re-release, I just expected more. This was dying for duet narration.

Despite these issues, I still really enjoyed this. I swooned and smiled a ton, which is what I want in a contemporary romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story is about Jaz and Rahul. Two friends who have known each other for years. Rahul is completely and utterly in love with Jaz and while we can tell that she is too, she definitely takes forever to come to that understanding. I generally really like romance, specifically with lots of will they, wont they? but this book didn't really have a lot of that. It was more about the exploration of their friendship and how they got to where they are and where do they go from here.
Audio: The narrator had a perfect English accent, which always makes listening more enjoyable for me. However, she sometimes would say Rahul as Raul and it caught me off guard a few times.

I have mixed feelings about this book but overall enjoyed it.

Rahul and Jasmine bring out the best in each other and I think that they are good for each other as well! However, characters like Jasmine have always annoyed me a little. She unnecessarily closes herself off, swears off romance, avoids commitment, and convinces herself that she only wants Rahul for sex when there is clearly more there. Both of them had a sweet chemistry, though, and they clearly valued the important friendship they formed.

This book was a little slow-paced for me, and I found the audiobook extremely slow and had to speed it up so I could listen to the story at a good pace.

first time reading Talia Hibbert and this book couldn’t have left a better impression. the writing. i liked how the book wasn’t just linear, yet it kept flashing back in a “then vs now” type of pattern. it helped to explain why things were the way they were. love love love that it featured some of my fave tropes like forced proximity & second chance. in the end, Rahul deserved better.

as for the audiobook itself, the narrators were great! my only minus is that the male narrator’s “Jasmine” voice did not fit her character so it was a bit confusing at times to hear snide remarks in such a “sweet” voice.

I love Talia Hibbert’s “Brown Sisters” series, but this book isn’t for me. It’s more contemporary romance than rom com, and it didn’t hold my interested. I’m sure fans of steamy contemporary romance will enjoy it. The audiobook narration was fine.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the ALC!
- The first time I read this, I struggled with Jasmine as MC. This time, I liked her a lot more! She's so prickly and tricky, but Hibbert does a great job of developing her character to show why she does certain things.
- The spice in this one is so good! The tension that she can build with a friends to lovers character arc, and she 100% takes advantage of that.
- The narrators did an excellent job with making this book easy to sink in to, and I especially loved Jasmine's narrations!
- I loved how much growth both MCs go through in this book. It felt so realistic, but also so impressive.

This was my first book by Talia Hibbert and I enjoyed it! Some of my favorite tropes are friends to lovers and forced proximity and it was executed well!

It was pretty much love at first sight for Rahul when he met Jasmine in college but after becoming friends which lead to a hook up Jasmine soon crushes his hopes when she tells him she doesn’t hook up with friends, so he decides he rather have her in his life as a best friend. Fast forward a few years when Jas room floods leaving her homeless until Rahul offers her to stay with him. It was fun watching how they navigated this situation.

- Friends to lovers
- He falls first and hard
- Forced proximity
- Mutual secret pining
- Opposites attract
- HEA

I did not enjoy the third act drama and at times Jasmine annoyed me. I also think I would have enjoyed it more if I read it I was not really a fan of the narrators.

But overall I thought this was a great story and the spice was on point! I have such a soft spot for Rahul!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ALC.

This one was just ok for me. I love the tropes of roommates, forced proximity and friends to lovers a lot, but this one isn’t going to be a favourite for me. Part of my issue might be that it was told in third person, and I’m finding I much prefer first person perspective.

The narration also didn’t really work for me. The female narrator felt more suited(in my opinion) to voicing an older woman, so I had to age them up in my head to make it work. Sadly this made the fmc more annoying. Jasmine was not my favourite character. She had commitment and communication issues and was giving mixed signals to her best friend Rahul who’s been pining for her for years. I did appreciate that she eventually went through some personal growth, but it felt abrupt when it did happen. I didn’t feel the chemistry between them, even their friendship felt like something I was being told more than something I felt. Lust, sure, but I wanted more from both the romance, and the friendship.

I’m giving it a 3⭐️ because it was okay, but forgettable, and the narration wasn’t my favourite.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for the ALC!

DNF @ 45%. I am not sure if it was the narrators, the plot that went absolutely nowhere, or a mixture of the two but I REALLY tried with this one. The idea of friends to lovers mixed in with a temporary roommate situation? Count me in. I love both of those tropes. However, I was left wanting more. The spice was okay. I was hoping I’d actually be interested in this point though.

Thank you, Netgalley, the author, and Dreamscape for the gifted audiobook! ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

This was very sexy, but it needed more to it. It lacked depth. It was too angsty at times. I liked the characters.

Somehow this is my first Talia Hibbert book and now I completely understand the hype around this author.
Roommates-to-lovers is one of my favourite (and in my opinions, totally underrated) tropes, and The Roommate Risk with its forced proximity, pining, and angst brewed the perfect blend of palpable tension resulting in some seriously steamy scenes.
Although Rahul thinking his surname suited Jasmine from the moment they met saw him labeled as simp from the very start, I was obsessed with both him and the no-nonsense Jas—who is allergic to spreadsheets (honestly, same)—as their friendship blossomed into romance.
I loved the duel narration of this one. Both narrators were incredibly and made it so easy to visualise their characters.

The Roommate Risk was much more angsty than Talia Hibbert’s usual work but I enjoyed it greatly. Friends-to-lovers, mutual pining, plus size and bi rep and delightfully spicy. Jasmine and Rahul were both wonderful and I loved to see Jasmine’s growth! A heartwarming read.

Thank you to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with this ARC audiobook. All opinions are my own!

Like everyone else in the book world, I absolutely devoured Talia Hibbert's series on the Brown sisters -- and fully enjoyed the representation of wealthy POC. Not going to lie, I found Jasmine to be a bit frustrating at times, to the point where I was like c'mon, I need Rahul to step up his jealousy game -- and I'm usually rooting for the FMC to be doing that, not the MMC. I'm fully behind a sweet groveling MMC, but with Rahul's POV I almost just felt sad at some point, seeing Jasmine from his perspective as this perfect angel who he's pining for. So, great book for the pining and groveling!!

As far as the audiobook, both of our narrators had strong (posh?) English accents that were nice enough to listen to. Audiobooks aren't really my thing, but I decided to give this one a chance. Got about halfway through before deciding to switch to the written word, but I don't know if that's just because of who I am or if there was something bugging me about the acting. I wish all audiobooks just had the male narrators read for their parts, even in the female POV and vice versa though...it just feels so much more natural.

Well. I was expecting something along the lines of The Brown Sisters and was a little disappointed. This is not bad by any means but it's just deeply okay.

Same goes for the narration (I listened to this on audio), it wasn't terrible but I've heard better. I honestly don't think the narration helped to elevate the story.

Like I said, the story was just okay, there wasn't anything original going on plot-wise. Regarding the characters, they're both flawed in their own way, which is generally a good thing, but in this case it just made up for an incredibly toxic situation, which I wasn't really a fan of.

Talia never disappoints. She has the perfect amount of spice, romance, and plot. I loved the narrating duo and thought they complimented each other well.

I’m quite picky when it comes to romance books. One aspect that is very important to me is that it feels romantic, and not just steamy. This is something that I just didn’t get in this book. I felt like the characters felt lust rather than actual deep emotion and pining for each other. This is surprising since it is a friends to lovers romance, and thus normally the deep care for each other is already established and easily transformed into romantic care. There was never a moment for me where I was convinced about their feelings for one another without it being an explicit scene.

Jasmine really needed therapy, and even after her character growth I feel like they weren’t very compatible. As for Rahul, I really liked him, but his only personality trait was that he had loved Jasmine for years. In the end I just felt like they might have been better apart, which isn’t great at the end of a romance novel. Of course, a lot of this is personal preference.
I did enjoy reading a romance book where both characters are POC and our female main character was plus sized. Diversity and representation in all storytelling is important.


Thank you NetGalley for this audiobook ARC

This was such an enjoyable listen. I can’t wait to get a physical copy of this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted copy.