Words cannot express how FANTASTIC this book is. I read a lot - and I mean a LOT - of romance novels, and I’m having difficulty thinking of a book I enjoyed more than this one. If this is the author’s debut novel, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. The writing style is absolutely unique and dynamic, flowing easily and drawing you into the story. It took me a little bit to get in the right headspace for it, but once I got deeper into Nicholas and Naomi’s story, I could not put it down. This is like The Hating Game on steroids, with a couple who have lost sight of what they once loved about each other, with so much humor that I found myself bursting out in shocked laughter more than once.

The story follows Naomi, a woman whose engagement marked the beginning of the end for her relationship. Nicholas and Naomi both shared the best sides of themselves while they were dating, and it wasn’t until they moved in together immediately following their engagement that things started to shift. You can’t be your best self 24/7, and when you add in the stress of planning a wedding and a completely overbearing future mother-in-law, things can spiral out of control quickly. Now Naomi has to force her smiles and go over the list of why she should love her fiancé just to get through the day. When Nicholas shows signs of being unhappy too, Naomi realizes they might just be playing chicken to see who will get the other to break first and call the whole thing off.

Told completely from Naomi’s perspective, this definitely takes the reader through a rollercoaster of emotions. When you see a relationship through one person’s eyes - and that person hasn’t been happy in a long time - you can’t be 100% sure that you’re getting the whole picture. It certainly made things interesting, and made me wonder more than once if I was getting things right. Both Naomi and Nicholas have some unflattering moments, but underneath it all is undeniable love. While the first half leans into the comedy, with some truly hilarious moments, the second half is all about the love. Things get deep and so profound that it had me thinking about my own relationship. It’s not until later in the book that we see how perfect these two really are for each other, and it is quite a ride getting there. A big thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. I am voluntarily leaving a review of this hysterical and heartwarming book.

I enjoyed this one. The characters are well drawn and the dialog is very funny. It sheds some light on a real topic that doesn't get covered in romantic fiction, much. Although she may be suffering from some type of depression, I want to be best friends with the main character. She's a hoot and so relatable. The male lead is also well drawn and very dreamy. This isn't quite "Hating Game" good, but it's up there and much better than most of the other romances I read.

Want a big, heavy dose of Characters Behaving Badly?  Sarah Hogel serves it on up in You Deserve Each Other, a highly flawed story about two highly flawed people who figure out that they’re better together when they act like normal human beings.

Store clerk Naomi Westfield and doctor Nicholas Rose have a perfect relationship.  Everyone envies their perfect, adorable, Instagram-ready lifestyle.  Nicholas is gentlemanly; Naomi is ambitious and classy.  They’re going to be getting married in a lavish, big-budget wedding.  Everything is perfect.

There’s only one problem. In the year since their first date, Nicholas and Naomi have come to loathe each other.

Naomi can’t stand Nicholas’ perfectionist family and Nicolas’ mamma’s boy attitude.  Naomi is no peach herself – nasty and selfish sometimes, she wants the city life while Nicholas thirsts for the country.  They both want out of their engagement, of their plastic, envied lives - but neither of them has the courage to admit that’s what they want. Worse, whoever admits they want out of the wedding will end up footing the cancellation bills.

So - mutually annoyed, mutually wanting out - they try to trick, pressure and subtly worm the other person into breaking the engagement first.  But dropping the layers of pretense puts a brand-new spark into the relationship.  Suddenly Nicholas and Naomi are feeling more than loathing for one another…maybe their wedding might (gulp!) take place after all!

You Deserve Each Other is one of those books that’s going to be a lot for certain readers to take.  Naomi and Nicholas are complicated creatures who absolutely are Out There, and their battles are not very mature at all – at least at first.  It’s War of the Roses wrung through a cheesecloth romcom filter.

We’re anchored in Naomi’s PoV, and it’s a funny, funny ride, even when she’s being incredibly annoying, but she’s relatable enough, her anxiety understandable.  Nicholas, too, is ridiculous in his rigid practicality, in his need to escape to the outdoors.  She’s a hashtag-heavy LMAO-er.  He smiles and grins during a pirate birthday party she ‘accidentally’ schedules for him.  If you’re looking for people who are easily defined as ‘lovable’ then you’re not going to have a good time reading this book.

But the humor works quite well, to be honest.  It’s easy to enjoy You Deserve Each Other at its most credulity-straining because of how breezy it is – at least for the first half.

But then it takes a wide left-turn into Serious Feelings and Actual Romance and Emotions, and doesn’t quite make the turn into seriousland.  After investing in Nicholas and Naomi’s ‘isn’t-our-mutual-war-kinda-charming?’ battle for the first half of the book, asking us to take them seriously is a tough sell.  I just watched these two argue over a canoe for pages; watching them cry and angst doesn’t feel fully earned by the lightweight nature of the narrative.  The generally smooth writing style tries to help, but doesn’t quite pass the test.

You Deserve Each Other will be fun for anyone who likes love-to-hate-you romances like The Hating Game or The Proposal, but taking it seriously is a little hard.  Oh well.  The first half is fun enough to earn a low-level recommendation.

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Looks to me that I will be one of the few dissenters on this book as I just didn’t care for it. It didn’t feel like the Hating Game (which I LOVED) and was excited that this book was said to be similar, oh how wronged I was. There are to many things that I just didn’t like about this book so I’m just going to say I know I’m outlier here as it seems others just think its fabulous but I was not one of them. 2 stars for me.

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book does not release in the US until April 2020 so I’m not going to write an in-depth review quite yet. But I devoured it in one day and I hope other reviewers give it a shot. It’s a relationship-in-trouble romance with two people who rush headfirst into a relationship and an engagement and then find themselves drifting further and further apart the closer they get to walking down the aisle.

Things get mean and petty but there were no lines crossed that I couldn’t believe they could walk back from. Just when I was worried they they wouldn’t be able to dig themselves out, they started to bond again and I loved every second of it. I also loved that the reconnecting doesn’t wait until the very last act to happen. It’s a slow burn of sorts but by the time they get their shit together, I was completely on board with team Naomi and Nicholas.

This is a debut book from an author that I really hope we see more of in the future. I highlighed so many passages that just utterly delighted me. So many.

I loved this unconventional romance. It was both hysterical and heartwarming. The things these two do to each other had me laughing. They got pretty creative. It reminded me of War of the Roses and I loved when it was actually mentioned in the story. I had to feel sorry for both of them dealing with Deborah. This one will stick with you. The ending was perfect. I will definitely read this author again.

Main characters have the typical cute life, cute names (Naomi and Nicholas, ugh), and cute future. Or maybe not? Hogle describes a fear we might all have - about feeling stuck in a relationship and not knowing what to do. So what do you do? Make your significant other hate you, of course! You'll heart will ache with sadness but laughter heals everything. And there's plenty of that in 'You Deserve Each Other'. Funny, cute, and uniquely romantic.

DNF. Whoever wrote the book description on Amazon should edit this book. I hate the whole "basic bitch" description too. Just watch Friends, drink your pumpkin spice, etc. and be ok with it already.

I really enjoyed this book. Naomi and Nicholas were both so crazy and emotional I felt like I was right there in their minds. Reading about them trying to destroy each other made me kind of sad, because it was so obvious how much they cared about each other, but the end was so satisfying. Quite a page turner and really funny!

This was a great read! I was pleasantly surprised by the twits in the story. I would never have guessed they'd be so perfect for each other. But it was cute. I liked the ending a lot!

I finished this book almost in one sitting. This book had me in all the enemies to lovers / hate to love feels.

But it’s really love to hate to love isn’t it? Ughhh this book.

TO START. THE PETTINESS OF NAOMI AND NICHOLAS GAVE ME LIFE.
Oh my god. I burst out laughing multiple times because it was just so ridiculous and real.
I connect so much with Naomi and she was a fabulously flawed and wonderful human being. I get her feels and seeing them in her made me feel validated.
And Nicholas. Ahh. I loved him soo.

10/10 would recommend!!!!

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me all the hallmark vibes, it was such a cute book! You are going to want to add this to your TBR list when it releases!

The book is from Naomi’s point of view. From the outside it may seem like Naomi and Nicholas have the perfect relationship, but that is all a front. In reality, their relationship is suffering and they may have to call off their wedding. Naomi and Nicholas are hilarious, as they battle to see who will call of the wedding first.

Naomi and Nicholas are both relatable characters, and so is their relationship. Naomi is such a fun and hilarious character, you will end up loving her. It also goes to show how important it is to be honest with one another about your feelings.

I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this book. I only wish the ending had a little more to it, or that there was an epilogue. I would highly recommend this book, it’s a quick and easy read!!

This book was odd for me. I was originally intrigued because it was compared to The Hating Game but I think that advertising is misleading. The hating aspect was similar but the rest not so much. I just didnt connect with the characters and the story fell flat for me. I also really struggled to like Naomi at all. 2.5 stars.

I loved this. It was such a nice departure from the usual story of girl gets swept of her feet after a fleeing a mistake.

I was excited about this one because of The Hating Game comps & who doesn't love that book?!?

After reading, I understand why it was labelled as similar, but it just fell short for me. Not to say I didn't enjoy it! I couldn't put it down & flew through it in a matter of days. But something about the characters were flat & I couldn't connect with Naomi at all. It's hard to master the balance between "light & fun" and "deep & thoughtful" and for me the balance wasn't there.

You Deserve Each Other is rom-com that could be anybody's relationship. It's rare to find in this genre a book about falling back into love and how it can be just as wonderful, if not more so, than falling in love for the first time. Funny, heart wrenching, and thoroughly enjoyable.

A great new take on romance! I loved it so much, I couldn't put it down!! Great characters, great dialogue, totally believable while also whimsical and fun!! Highly recommend it!!

At first, I wasn't sure if the heroine was meant to be as psychopathic as she comes across in the first half. Nicolas being portrayed as awfully as he was was off-putting, but I needed to finish just to make sure he didn't murder her.

"His eyes are so black, I think I can see hell in them."

This book is officially my child. I want to hold this book, squeeze all of the contents in this book, and read it over and over. I had no idea of such a concept, but this is definitely one of my favorite books that I've ever read. I took my time reading every word, and yes, it made it a longer read for me, but I really grasped everything that Sarah Hogle was writing.

This story starts out with an engaged couple, Naomi and Nicholas. They try to show that their relationship is picture perfect around their friends, but when they get behind closed doors, all bets are off. It's really a game of who will end the engagement first. The problem is, whoever ends up ending the engagement, has to pay for the wedding items they already purchased (which was an enormous bill). With only three months until the wedding, Naomi and Nicholas do whatever they can to get each other to call off the wedding. By these childish games and showing their real selves to each other, they start to see who is actually who and how much fun they have together. A true lovers to enemies to lovers. Absolutely amazing.

"I tried to keep him at a safe distance where he could only see the decent parts of me, and it made us both miserable."

In the beginning of this novel, it just seemed relentless. The almost childish games that Naomi plays with Nicholas. I didn't know what was going to happen, as most of the mental problems were with Naomi. It seemed almost as she was picking on him, which I didn't think I would approve of and like this novel for it. HOWEVER, when Nicholas starts going back at her, phew this novel became hilarious. Some of the stuff that they would do was laugh-out-loud funny. You could feel the annoyance and stress through every page. I think that this definitely is one of my favorites because of all of the different emotions you feel yourself as the reader. Comedy, Romance, Cringe-worthy moments, ARE YOU KIDDING ME moments, both happy & sad moments. It was just an amazing ride from start to finish.

I don't care if you aren't a fan of romances, you need to read this book. I literally could not put it down. I kept reading and reading and when it was over, I was actually sad. It's been a long time where a novel has made me feel sad because it was over so I knew that this was one of my favorites ever. A great story and a great debut by Sarah Hogle!

holy cow! Amazing book showing how relationships require communication, how parents should keep their noses out of their children's relationships, and how to rebuild when all seems lost.