This kind of genre fascinates me, I love to enjoy a good love story and this one was really pleasant.
It reminds me so much of my older sister's relationships, that most of them are really similar to this book, and I know, are they going to tell me what am I thinking about this book taste? Well, I love clichés where love begins with hate, and most of the time it happens, in the whole story I was integrated into what would end this war of jokes, and who would end up paying all the expenses of the wedding, that's why I couldn't drop this book.
If you really like love stories that is not pure cotton candy and butterflies, you will enjoy it very much.
Thank you NetGalley and PRHInternational for giving me the opportunity to enjoy this reading.

Chapters 2-3 almost made me put this book down bc the character was so wildly unhappy with her engagement that I wanted to rip her from the pages and say GIRL END IT NOW. But I started to understand the character by chapter 4, which is that she’s a big exaggerator/dreamer, and I ended up finding her hilarious and cackled quite a few times. This is a lovers to enemies to lovers story, and I really did enjoy it. But the beginning really made me think her fiancé was a jerk Basically I’m still unsure and felt conflicted with the whiplash of the character growth, but I also was tremendously entertained. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The more I read this book, the more I liked it!

At first glance Naomi comes across like a spoiled, immature teenager (preschooler?) but at the same time her story is hilarious and original. The characters in this book are well thought out and endearing. The amount of imagination that I'm sure was poured into this work is unreal. The happily ever after ending is magical and is the best part of the book. I won't forget about Nicholas and Naomi in a hurry and I hope their story continues. I wasn't able to put this one down. Highly recommended!

(Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this digital arc.
Naomi and Nicholas are unhappily engaged. They haven't really talked to each other in months and they seem to despise each other. Except she can't call off the wedding because her future mother-in-law will make her pay them back for anything lost. So they push each other's buttons to see which one will break first.
I have to say right off the bat that I absolutely hated the first half of this book. The author pushed things too far and there was absolutely nobody to root for. It's clear Naomi and Nicholas are in a toxic relationship and should have broken up immediately. Instead, they are completely vile and mean-spirited towards each other. Some of the things they say to each other are atrocious and awful. I really spent the first half of the book hoping they would break up. They were physical with each other, they pulled terrible pranks, and they made big decisions without talking to the other one. Anybody who thinks it's cute to buy A HOUSE without asking your partner is crazy, just like Nicholas. His mother is also completely terrible and it takes him SO long to stand up to her. She makes changes to the wedding without asking Naomi and even orders the smallest size wedding dress without telling her.
The only saving grace of this book is the last 40 percent. They actually begin communicating and thawing out. They begin doing things together and hanging out with each other and <i>sleeping in the same room</i>. He stands up to his mother and defends his fiance. They have inside jokes and grow closer like they used to be. Honestly, I think it's too little too late because of how terrible they were in the beginning but there's potential. I can see that the author has the talent but she started out in the worst way for this book. If you can make it through the first 60 percent of this book then it's actually not half bad. I just can't believe two people with so much vitriol towards each other stayed together so long. I don't know that I would read anything else by this author.

I'm pretty sure I have found a new favorite author this year! Hogle has a distinctive voice and style that sets her apart from the pack. As is generally the case, it's probably worth mentioning that her at times snarky writing won't be to everyone's taste, though I adored this book, even the tough parts.

At the heart of the book are important lessons about the health of any committed relationship. Why do some people give up on each other when things get tough while others forge ahead and work through issues? Naomi and Nicholas are fantastically in love in the courtship stage, as we see in a poignant opening chapter. Flashforward a year and a half later in the second chapter, changes have occurred in their lives that puts their relationship in jeopardy. In-laws from hell plague many relationships and represent an external threat to the health of Naomi's and Nicholas's relationship. But, learning how to fight fairly and how to communicate in healthy ways is also crucial and perhaps more important than any other factor.

I think some readers won't like Naomi because she's prickly at times and at times terribly insecure. I sympathize so much though with her self-esteem issues as a young working class woman trying to enter into an upper-middle class family with long-standing social standing in a small town. At times I felt frustrated right along with Naomi at Nicholas's seeming indifference and lack of awareness over what she is experiencing. While both have their share of blame for their problems, this is also a very funny book that spends considerable time mocking the petty ways in which Naomi and Nicholas strike out at each other because they are hurting. In the midst of heartache are laugh out loud scenes that I went back and reread to see if they were as funny a second time around. They were.

The sequence of events and the author's use of time in this novel works so well to allow readers to reconstruct a case study for what happens to Naomi and Nicholas to create such an achingly romantic love affair, followed by a snarky cold war that had me reading at times with one eye only, followed by a poignant clawing of their way back, and finally to a love even stronger than first love. Each stage of their relationship is smoothly transitioned into the next that it's difficult to pinpoint one specific catalyst. In fact, the transitions in this book are so smooth that one minute I was laughing at silly pranks and jokes and the next sniffling over halting confessions and regrets.

Just a lovely debut novel from an author from whom I cannot wait to read more.

Wowza I love this book so much!!

You Deserve Each Other is everything I love about contemporary romance- aaaaaaand I out-loud giggled throughout it! I definitely see it staying a 2020 favorite.

It’s recommended for fans of The Hating Game, which I haven’t read yet but immediately added to my TBR list. This debut lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy centers on two unhappily engaged people each trying to force the other to end the relationship, a quirky back and forth in the hopes that whoever breaks first bears the brunt of the financial burden. The catch? They fall back in love in the process, HOW CUTE IS THAT? I love it!!

I have read enemies to lover romance books before, but never one where these enemies are a modern day engaged couple. This book surprised me by how much I laughed! While our main character is by no means perfect, she is hilarious and had such a great voice. While I felt like things wrapped up a bit too fast at the end, it probably is just that I didn’t want the story to end!

Thank you so freaking much G. P. Putman’s Sons for the advance readers copy because this book is GOOD!

The story follows Nicholas and Naomi, a couple who have been engaged for a year, close to be married, and can’t stand each other.

Chaos ensues when Naomi, who had been through a depression due to the emotional separation in their relationship, can’t take it anymore and snaps. Their wedding is approaching and she wants out, but that means she’ll have to pay all by herself for the wedding expenses so she decided to drive Nicholas into break up the engagement by finally being honest about her feelings and turn his mother against him.

How do they get their happily ever after?

This new honesty between them brings them closer as they finally get to really know each other rather and stop pretending.

This is slow, slow, slow, slow burn and I’M HERE FOR IT. They tear each other apart in a way that makes you wonder how this can possibly take a positive turn. But the line between hate and love can easily flip and all the drama, pranks, revenge and make up takes you on a wild roller-coaster ride you will take a while to recover from.

I hated their parents so so much. The way Nicholas’ mum manipulated him and took advantage of him disgusted me. His father not standing up to her, got on my nerves.

I was so happy when they both finally stood up for themselves and each other, it melted my heart.

This is a perfect lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers story and I freaking recommend this to anyone who loves books like The Hating Game or even The Cruel Prince if you wish you could have read more about the relationship between Jude and Cardan.

This is my favourite NA rom-com in 2020 and I don’t think any other will compare this year! Like I bloody loved this so much it’s a new favourite book for me. It’s in my top 5 NA romances ever. I just can’t wrap my head around how perfect this is for me.

So needless to say that I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone and anyone!

This is one of the best books I have read this year. I was skeptical at first but once I got into the book I loved it.

The set-up is both wonderful and wonderfully executed. Enemies to lovers is a common trope as is lovers to enemies to lovers but seldom is it done with so much emotion and such excellent execution.

The book works for four main reasons:

The sense of home and community that Hogle creates radiates through the book and really grounds it.

Naomi is a wonderful character. She is wounded and scared and so so human.

Many romance writers whiff on writing the male protagonist but Nicholas is wonderful. He doesn't have any POV chapters but as the novel progresses we see how he is wounded and scared, too. It's beautiful (and sad) storytelling.

Finally, the book is paced so well. They don't fall back in love over the course of a weekend. They did a lot of damage to their relationship and it takes them time to repair that damage. The book isn't hurries but it isn't rushed either.

Verdict: Buy this amazing, wonderful and heartfelt romance. You won't be sorry.

First of all, thank you so much @Netgalley and @PutnamBooks for providing me with an e-ARC of this book.
Second, I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH! It’s been a long time since I have read a romance novel that has made me feel so emotional and soft!

We follow Naomi and her fiancé Nicholas and their seemingly “perfect” relationship. On the surface, Naomi takes great effort to be the perfect fiancé to Nicholas who comes from a very prestigious and wealthy family in this small town they live in. Many believe Naomi to be an underachiever, as she never went to college, including her future mother-in-law, who becomes one of the main antagonists with how demanding and clingy she is towards her son. Naomi finds herself resenting Nicholas for many reasons, and in an odd turn of events, realizes that they are both experiencing the same thing: absolute hatred for the other. This story takes us through the war that commences between the couple and the sabotages they face from one another, as well as the looming date of their wedding. It is the one of the best enemies-to-lovers and second chance romance stories that I have read in a long time.

The animosity that our main characters, Naomi and Nicholas, have towards each other is palpable, and makes for fantastic interactions between them. It underlines the fact that there really is a fine line between love and hate, and when that line is crossed, it brings forth the hilarity that occurs from hurt prides and suffocated truths. The premise of a couple who have fallen out of love, who become mortal enemies, to building their relationship all over again is such a breath of fresh air in the romance genre. It’s a slow burn re-romance as Naomi and Nicholas rebuild the foundation of their relationship, all the while, dealing with the variable that is the over attentive and controlling future mother-in-law and the event of the year: their wedding.

As much as I love the plot and the events that happen, my critique is that the first half of the book was incredibly preachy. Naomi prides herself in being a feminist, which is wonderful, however the first half of the novel felt like the author was trying to beat you over the head with the feminist message by saying “men are terrible” or “men are trash” and having the male character say things like “I let you”. It portrayed Nicholas as a two-dimensional cartoon villain by saying these things which would further the feminist plot. I understood the message and would’ve appreciated it more if it hadn’t been pushed so hard.

However, the second half of the book was what I was looking for. The way that the author broke down their relationship and rebuilt it so Naomi and Nicholas loved each other as friends again was incredibly done. I was so invested in these characters and their lives in this house in the woods and their new (again) relationship and the complexities that come with rebuilding that trust with each other that I couldn’t help but feel my heart soften for them both. I also loved the character arc for Naomi, as she started off as such an unlikeable character: selfish, self-absorbed, vain, and whiny. Throughout the book we see her character grow and open her eyes to the world around her, and it endeared her to me. Except for her sarcastic sassy personality, that she kept and I’m glad because it made for some loud guffaws and laughter to come out of me.

The humor was great, the romance was fantastic, and the pacing was perfect. Once I started this book, I did not want to put it down, and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good enemies-to-lovers and redemption love story.

DNF at 13%
I can't.
I have been trying to read more of this book for days, and I think it's put me into a bit of a slump.
I love a good enemies to lovers, even though this is billed as a former lovers to enemies to lovers, but the main character of Naomi is someone I cannot read from anymore.
She is a horrible person, and has been so mean to the love interest. She has constantly lied to him and then gets offended if he questions the lie. There have even been a couple lies that she has defended as feminism and I can't with her. She is apparently 28, but she feels so much younger and immature.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this is difficult to rate because almost exactly halfway through, my feelings changed. The opening of this was arduous, and I had so many negative feelings because the main characters are too immature and their behavior to each other is terrible. I was hoping for more romantic tension, but all of their actions are fueled with so much dislike and anger I never felt a spark between them. Their “pranks” on one another felt like a series of misguided or cruel choices.

I had a hard time sympathizing with either one of them because we are introduced to them after their relationship is strained and they are so distant from each other. At one point, Naomi references how the transition from boyfriend to fiancé made Nick into a different person, and how it felt like a “bait-and-switch”, which would be interesting if this was explored afterwards; however, there are no flashbacks or references to aid me in agreeing with her.

It might have helped to have sections from Nick’s point of view, because he starts to try (sort of) repairing their relationship long before Naomi is willing to give him a chance. Her responses made her appear petulant and her unwillingness to open up to Nick when he was trying to communicate was frustrating.

Some of the sections towards the end were also very immature, which pulled me out of their relationship and the book itself. I found myself unable to sink back into their world.

All of their positive connection was too little too late. There were some really funny lines and some sad lines that would have had a deeper impact if I were invested.

I’d certainly try another book by Hogle (maybe this was an off book for me). If you’re into the miscommunication trope, give You Deserve Each Other a shot because it’s there to an extreme degree.

***I received a copy through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.***

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that made me feel as much as this one did. It’s a new take on the “hate to love” story and instead goes from “love to hate to love”. The reader initially gets the rush of falling in love and the excitement that it all brings. But then we are transported to the present where Nicholas and Naomi are struggling to keep their relationship alive. The characters were easy to relate to and even though the story is told from Naomi's perspective, Nicholas is easily likable. I would have loved to have the story told from both perspectives but the story is still great either way! While this book had its humorous parts, I think the best parts were when Nicholas and Naomi were being vulnerable and falling back into love.

The publisher and Netgalley provided me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This book was utter perfection. Naomi has decided to wage a war on her wedding. Even though she and Nick live together they just coexist. They stick to the rigid boundaries of their prescribed lives, trading carefully crafted insults and barbed words.

Naomi's bridesmaids are wearing the exact shade of cream she wanted for her own dress. She wasn't allowed to have a lemon wedding cake. Dreadful Deborah, the tenacious and annoying D, is the potential mother-in-law that makes Jane Fonda look like the Mother Theresa. She controls every aspect of her beloved son's wedding to the future vessel of her grandchildren.

So Naomi has decided that she is only forty percent in love with her fiancé. She is determined to sabotage the wedding because she's convinced she's not enough. Not polished enough. Not patient enough. Not complacent enough. Maybe she'll get to keep the ring so she can pawn it later or wax prosaic over what might have been.

But then Nick buys a house in the middle of the woods. Naomi falls in love with a Charlie Brown tree in the yard. An oar is lost and a canoe is abandoned in the middle of a pond. A nutcracker finds a home on a mantel. Bonding happens over the most disgusting dinner ever. And then they defend each other against D-Money.

Gradually, Naomi realizes that Nick is her best friend. She misses him when he's gone. His eyes sparkle when they look at her and when he's wearing his lumber jack inspired hat with the flaps. And she wants to get married to this man she has re-learned and fallen in love with again.

This lovers to enemies to lovers story has snark that leaps off the page, cunning that will make you laugh aloud, and a magical exploration of all of the facets that tie couples together.

I had some pretty big doubts going into this book. I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope, they tend to be witty and funny mixed with tension and longing that make up for the bitterness in the beginning. But there are a lot of times where there is so much “hate” that it can lead to moments that are cringe worthy. This story, for me, had a lot of it and ended up making it hard for me to enjoy.

I really didn’t like Naomi. She came off as selfish and self centered. She failed to see time and time again the good in her relationship and focus on the bad. She had her sassy moments that made the story entertaining, but a lot of the time I wish she would stop being so far in her head she couldn’t see what was literally in front of her. The saving part of this book was Nicholas. I just adored him. He poured his heart out and put everything on the line in this story. Though you didn’t see this story through his point of view, you were able to feel his emotions. He was funny, loving, and incredibly patient.

I feel like this story needed a dual POV. I felt like it hurt the story only being told from Naomi’s POV. This was a story about how a relationship was crumbling and being built back up and in order to get the full affect, it would have been amazing to see both sides. There was so much of Naomi and her side of the story that Nicholas didn’t have a fair shot. I will say, for it not being a dual POV, the author was able to give a voice to Nicholas and allow the reader to see parts of him throughout the story.

Honestly I didn’t believe that the author could turn this book around for me. There was just so much hate in the beginning. They were in the worst relationship and I have no idea how I was ever going to be on team Nicholas and Naomi. The author described it perfectly by comparing their relationship to Voldemort and Harry Potter, “neither can live while the other survives.” I have never read a story or characters that were so wrong for each other. They were seeing each other at their worst and they’re at the point where no one has anything left to lose.

For as much as I didn’t enjoy parts of this book, there were enjoyable parts that kept me hanging on. Once the playful pranks replaced the hurtful ones and you saw more partnership than opposition, there was a fun story after the first half of the book. The writing was good, even at its more unpleasant beginnings. And I was surprised that the author was able to get me rooting for them as a couple. This was a good read for me and with this being a debut novel, I am curious to see what she comes up with. Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for a copy of this eARC

I received an ARC for an honest review. I honestly don't know exactly how I feel about this book. I finished it-I thought the characters were very well drawn out. However, I couldn't tell if it wanted to be a romantic comedy or not. It's certainly not an enemies to lover story the way it's being marketed. Had Naomi, the main female character, at any point talked to her fiancee Nicholas instead of always assuming the worst, this book would have no plot, which I guess is the point but it was irritating after a while to keep reading about someone sabotaging everything about their life because she is so completely self absorbed.

Nicholas and Naomi are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their once amazing relationship has fizzled out, and now they're stuck living together and planning a wedding that neither of them want. Unfortunately, whoever calls it quits first is stuck paying off the deposits for all the wedding stuff, and neither of them wants that bill, so they've resorted to mentally and emotionally torturing eachother in the hopes that the other will throw in the towel first.

I wasn't really sure if I was going to like this book at first. Naomi has a nasty habit of dissociating into her Instagram account rather than confront Nicholas about anything having to do with their relationship, while Nicholas refuses to stand up to his overbearing mother who has highjacked the wedding planning and made it all about herself instead of the couple. Instead of sympathizing with their plight, I found myself yelling at the characters to either break up already, figure out how to communicate, or at least see a frigging therapist. Luckily, there was some major character development that happens over the course of the book, and by the end, I was rooting for both Nicholas and Naomi.

Overall, a delightful debut novel with lots of heart and humor.

I loved this book! It was exactly what I need while trying to get pulled out of a major reading slump. Wickedly hilarious and surprising, Nicholas and Naomi’s chemistry was so hot and their “war of the roses” relationship had me belly-laughing, cringing, feeling the phantom pain, and rooting for them the entire time. So great!

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did, and though it wasn’t as funny as I anticipated, this packed such a wonderfully powerful emotional punch.

Nicholas is the only son of an overbearing, controlling mother and a dentist in a small town. He’s engaged to Naomi, who works at a local curiosities shop, but she thinks they’ve started falling out of love and no longer like each other, and she starts thinking they’re both trying to make the other person miserable so they won’t be the one the break the engagement.

Naomi is honestly an unlikeable character at times because she’s selfish and has trouble seeing outside her own feelings, but she does love Nicholas and it was wonderful watching them find their way back to each other. They both say mean and hurtful things to each other and there’s a lot of miscommunication, but when they do start to communicate and try…

I kinda enjoyed that this is a messy romance and it really packs an emotional punch (which is what I want out of a romance!) that had me crying at times and swooning at others. Nicholas and Naomi are so sweet when they start trying and the different ways they express their love is a great portrayal of different love languages and how not speaking same love language can leave you feeling unappreciated or unloved.

REVIEW | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Naomi and Nicholas are engaged. Unfortunately, both of them were entirely sick of each other, unhappy, and purposely trying to piss each other off. When Nicholas buys them a new home in an attempt to save their relationship, Naomi will have to dig deep to determine whether their love is worth saving.

As melancholy as that synopsis is, this book is a total rom-com. It’s hilarious (laugh out loud funny), witty, and so well written. Seriously. Each line is gold.

I’ll admit, I started it without reading the synopsis and didn’t understand where it was going in the first 20%. Naomi seemed sociopathic and crazy, and Nicholas seemed like a total ass-wipe. But trust, it is a romance! An adorable and unique one. And both Naomi and Nicholas both completely redeem themselves as the story unfolds and you begin to understand and sympathize with them.

All in all, I loved this debut! I think it would make a hilarious movie. While the stakes are high for both characters, it remains light. Highly recommend if you need a good belly laugh. 🙌🏼💗

Massive thank you to Putnam, Sarah Hogle, and Netgalley for this ARC.🤗