Review: How to Love Your Neighbor

I had unintentionally missed reading How to Love Your Neighbor back when it was first released in January (can I blame a new school semester?). But once I got into Sophie Sullivan’s novel, I didn’t want to stop reading! It was a super fun read.

Here’s the book’s description:

Interior Design School? Check. Cute house to fix up? Check.
Sexy, grumpy neighbor who is going to get in the way of your plans? Check. Unfortunately.
Grace Travis has it all figured out. In between finishing school and working a million odd jobs, she’ll get her degree and her dream job. Most importantly, she’ll have a place to belong, something her harsh mother could never make. When an opportunity to fix up—and live in—a little house on the beach comes along, Grace is all in. Until her biggest roadblock moves in next door.
Noah Jansen knows how to make a deal. As a real estate developer, he knows when he's found something special. Something he could even call home. Provided he can expand by taking over the house next door--the house with the combative and beautiful woman living in it.
With the rules for being neighborly going out the window, Grace and Noah are in an all-out feud. But sometimes, your nemesis can show you that home is always where the heart is.

This wasn’t a perfect read, though, so I’ll get some of that out of the way first. Grace and Noah both had some serious parental issues. Grace’s mom wasn’t very maternal so Grace left home at 18. Her mom is toxic and continues to reach out for money. Noah, on the other hand, has an overbearing father who clearly wants to control all his children. Those are some deep problems to deal with but it sometimes seemed like it was just a plot point to check off. Like – how terrible can these parents be and how much drama can they cause for the couple before they’re able to rise above their upbringing and rule the day together forever for the rest of their lives? I just didn’t think it added enough to the overall story and every time their parents were mentioned, it kind of pulled me out of the book.

Noah was a bit of an ass when he and Grace first met but he was self-aware enough to (eventually) realize how his actions were affecting her. The book’s description paints this as more of an enemies-to-lovers kind of story. And they were, technically, enemies but simply because of logistics. Noah wanted the house. Grace owned the house. It was completely business, not personal. (But that wasn’t something Grace could wrap her head around, which I get.) So, I was able to get behind the enemies-to-lovers, a trope that’s usually not my cup of tea.

Noah and Grace were lovely humans, once you got to know them. They each have a certain, hard exterior they put up to keep themselves from getting hurt but they don’t realize the full extent of those walls until they start spending more time together. I was totally rooting for them and found their banter too adorable.

I hadn’t realized that this book is part of a series about Noah and his brothers so I’m definitely going to go back to read Ten Rules for Faking It and I’m really looking forward to A Guide to Being Just Friends as well.

And I just loved the design part of this story! It gave me all the best HGTV vibes and it was too fun to read as Grace designed Noah’s house.

How to Love Your Neighbor was a lot of fun to read. Sophie Sullivan’s novel is a great choice for a summer weekend (or evening…or anytime, really!) if you’re looking for a sweet and entertaining romance.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*