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.* 

Review: Love Next Door

I'm always excited when a new Helena Hunting novel is released. The Canadian romance author has a knack for creating really enjoyable (and often steamy) reads that are lots of fun. Love Next Door is her latest, which just published at the end of July, and I was really looking forward to it. Ultimately, it was good but there was something about it that I felt was lacking.

Here's the book's description:

When Dillion Stitch left her hometown, she had no intention of going back. But when her brother gets into trouble, Dillion reluctantly agrees to return home to take her place at the family business.
Being back in Pearl Lake after all these years feels familiar, but also brings a few surprises. She’s quick to notice that someone new has shown up at the cottage next door. Dillion gets more than an eyeful when she goes to check out the newcomer and meets Donovan “Van” Firestone—her beloved neighbor’s grandson—in all his unclothed glory.
Having gotten off to a rocky start, it’s not long before they begin bickering with each other all over town. All that back and forth inevitably sparks an undeniable attraction. But Dillion’s family has issues, Van’s family resents him, and neither Dillion nor Van feels truly at ease in the small town. For these Pearl Lake exiles, home isn’t just where the heart is—it’s where things get complicated. 

Just like Dillion and Van got off to a rocky start, I think their story was rocky for me at the beginning. I thought Dillion was an idiot for wearing high heels while driving a moving van to a super small lakeside town. Does any woman really love high heels that much? It was like she had something to prove, like just because she was leaving the city didn't mean the city was leaving her. And who decided that high heels were a city thing? It did not endear me to her right away and it was really hard for her to win back my affection. And how on earth did they never spend time together when they were teens if Dillion was as important to Van's grandmother as we're led to believe? At the very least Van would know who Dillion was when he was emailing with her and wouldn't assume it was a dude. There were just too many boneheaded moves right at the start and it was hard to come back from that.

In addition, the issues with Dillion's brother seemed to come out of left field. I think it is extremely important to normalize discussions around mental health and getting the help one needs with no stigma but...the actual way this all came about? Left me scratching my head. It's really hard to explain but it was just like I couldn't believe that Dillion was the only one to pick up on the issues and I also didn't really think that she had. It was really strange.

All that being said, the relationship between Dillion and Van, once they realized that they were not mortal enemies, was super hot. Their (annoying) bickering at the start turned into something that was real and I was rooting for them. I knew they'd have to have a Happily Ever After (duh, this is a romance novel) but I really wasn't sure what that was going to look like. I was really happy with the way things all turned out. 

I also loved the setting. Technically this is set in a small town outside Chicago but during a recent Zoom chat with Hunting and my bookstagram friends, she mentioned that it was totally inspired by the small town in Muskoka (cottage country in Ontario - though some people will say there are other cottage locations in the province, I grew up just south of "true" Muskoka so it totally has my heart). It definitely made me want to drive north to find a cottage near my hometown (curse you, COVID!) but it was a testament to how talented Hunting is in setting the scene so you could really feel like you were there (and really wish that you were in front of a lake while reading it!)

I didn't love Love Next Door - I don't even know if I particularly liked it - but I'll still read Helena Hunting's next novels. Her stories are never the exact same and I like that she writes all sorts of different romances. This is the start of a new series and I think I'll still check out book two.

*A copy of this novel was provided by Thomas Allen & Son, the Canadian distributor, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*