Pub Day: How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan

How to Hate Love Your Neighbor 
by Sophie Sullivan

Pub Date Jan 18, 2022


The setting and premise were enough to hook me on this one. I loved seeing two characters with interesting professions working on home renovation and design projects - it was like watching my favorite HGTV home reno show. And I thought the rivals/enemies-to-lovers aspect was done well. (I hate when they are needlessly vicious to one another and that wasn’t the case here.) I would call them more rivals than enemies though.

Noah is a real estate developer (sweet but with overprivileged douchebag vibes because of course) who is looking to buy the home next door - the home Grace inherits and moves into. Grace is a soon-to-be design school grad and ends up renovating her new neighbor Noah’s home, and romcom shenanigans ensue. There's plenty to like about the book including Noah’s friend Josh; I thought he was a good side character. I liked, too, that Noah and Grace were in constant close proximity and worked together a lot on their projects so we got to see them spend a lot of time together.

Noah and Grace definitely got their HEA, and everything got wrapped up in a neat bow at the end but the way it came about was... odd. Honestly, so much about the interactions, behaviors, thoughts, and dialogue in this book just felt so odd to me. And the meet-cute happened at the beach - the beach they both live RIGHT NEXT TO. The beach that never actually appeared again in the rest of the book. Who doesn’t take a long romantic walk on the shore at sunset when your backyard is THE OCEAN? I mean. Felt like a waste. 🤷🏻‍♀️ The meet-cute was a wonderful and very memorable scene that I would like to have seen revisited at some point in the book. And hey, I live in the Midwest, so I appreciate beach settings and exotic locales. JUST GIVE ME ALL THE BEACH AND SUN AND WARM WEATHER PLEASE OKAY? 🏖🌴 she says, staring out the window into the snowy, white winter bleakness of January...

Anyway, with all that said, it just fell a little flat for me. But the overall story was good. Wasn't my favorite read of the year but I still think a lot of people will be enjoying this delightful escapist slow-burn romcom very much. Definitely check it out for yourself and see if it's something you'd enjoy!


3.5 stars out of 5
⭐⭐⭐✨

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for providing the digital ARC.


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