Review: The Roommate Risk

I’m so glad I found Talia Hibbert’s Brown Sisters books way back in 2019. The series was an absolute delight and I’ve since purchased a couple more of her books. So, when I had the chance to review the audiobook of The Roommate Risk, I took it!

Here’s the book’s description:

Jasmine Allen believes in bad luck, great wine, and the seductive power of a stiletto heel. What she doesn’t believe in is love. Her life is perfect without all that romance rubbish—until a plumbing disaster screws everything up and leaves Jas homeless. Luckily, she has someone to turn to: her best friend Rahul.
For seven years, Rahul Khan has followed three simple rules.

• Don’t touch Jasmine if you can help it.
• Don’t look at her arse in that skirt.
• And don’t ever—ever—tell her you love her.

He should’ve added another rule: Do not, under any circumstances, let Jas move into your house.
Now Rahul is living with the friend he can’t have, and it’s decimating his control. He knows their shared dinners aren’t dates, their late-night kisses are a mistake, and the tenderness in Jasmine’s gaze is only temporary. One wrong word could send his skittish best friend running.
So why is he tempted to risk it all?

The audiobook was narrated by Rooke Kingston and Keval Shah. I do love when a romance with dual perspectives is a dual narration. It adds so much more to the story. That said…I think both Kingston (who narrated Jasmine) and Shah (who narrated Rahul) are talented. I just don’t know if I enjoyed listening to them tell me this story. One of the issues I had - and a really, really hard one to get over - was that Jasmine was 28 but Kingston sounded so much older. Is it a weird thing to fixate on? I’m honestly not sure. But I do know it didn’t help me really get into the story.

While I didn’t love the narration, I did really like the actual story. I liked Jasmine and Rahul and their relationship. The book was mostly told from the present day but there were flashbacks to important moments during their friendship. I really liked that Hibbert did this because it allowed the reader to really get to know the couple and how their relationship started and changed over the years.

Hibbert mentions in the author’s note that this is the angstiest novel she’s written. That she tried to pull back on it but the story just wasn’t having it. And honestly? The angst is a huge part of what makes it so great. Jasmine so clearly has issues to work through but Hibbert portrayed her in such a way that the reader knows that, eventually, she’s going to figure her shit out. And she’s doing it for herself, not for a man. Even if (not) being with Rahul is the catalyst. Rahul isn’t perfect either but he has less obvious work to be done. He has some honest conversations with those he needed to but…I think there’s more he needs to do, to heal himself, to become healthier, that wasn’t really addressed as much as the efforts Jasmine was putting in.

This book was exceptionally steamy. *fans self* It’s NSFW and make sure your headphones stay paired otherwise you might be in for some awkward moments! For the most part, I felt the sex scenes made sense in the book - they weren’t overly gratuitous. That kind of changed near the end of the novel but I think that’s because I was over the narration and ready for the official HEA.

The Roommate Risk wasn’t the winner I was hoping it would be but I’m still glad I read it. Talia Hibbert is always going to be an author I search out because she’s so talented. Her books are steamy, funny, and full of heart and characters you don’t often get to see in romance novels. All things that I think are really important in my romance reads!

*An ALC was provided by the publisher, Dreamscape Audio, via NetGalley, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*