I’ve talked a lot on Instagram lately about how I’m in a huge book slump. It’s not the books, it’s me and my brain and this global pandemic. I’ve started reading countless books since this situation started, but I have had a tough time sticking with any of them. Unless they were rereads of my faves.

Until, that is, I picked up You Deserve Each Other. I bought the audiobook on a whim after hearing a friend praise the book. I thought maybe this one would stick. And boy did it ever. I listened to several hours of the audio while working on Monday and didn’t want to stop. Nicholas and Naomi sucked me in. I ultimately ended up switching to the ebook to finish because I was too impatient to wait for the my audiobook time. This was absolutely delightful.

No. Just no.

I feel bad because I think I must have read a different book than everyone else did? I clearly have a different opinion than many people; this was not my cup of tea. I don't even actually say I actively dislike a book often, but I truly did not like this book. At all. So much so that I texted a friend and said, "if you're considering reading this book, don't" This book is not cute. It is not funny. It is definitely not romantic.

Other reviews touch on this, but this is not the quirky, fun, battle of the wits you might be expecting. The relationship (if you can even call it that) is immature and toxic, the story was ridiculously frustrating to read, and miscommunication and an insufferable heroine are at the forefront of this story. I hate leaving bad reviews like this, but this book actually managed to put me in a bad mood. It upset me. It is that bad.

Folks, it is 2020. Get some therapy and get out of relationships you don't want to be in!

One of my favorite adult romances of this past year. I loved the fighting couple moving towards reconciliation. It was too adorable and I loved how the author wrote. I'm a new fan!

You Deserve Each Other is a little bit friends-lovers-enemies-....? To say that Naomi and Nicholas’ relationships is on the rocks is a vast understatement. Naomi is about to lose her job, and feels like Nick is just too fancy and condescending...so they really just go for it and are really terrible and immature to each other. Naomi is furious that Nick bought them a new house without consulting her, but maybe, just maybe this Hail Mary move might be the thing to save their relationship?

I don’t expect protagonists to be flawless, but it was hard to root for these two because they were so petty, selfish and immature? I wanted to laugh, but I really just cringed and shook my head for over a 100 pages? However, if sarcasm and enemistry is your jam, this could definitely be a great book for you!

Ahh i absolutely loved this book! It was superbly written for a debut novel. The characters were well developed and I laughed out loud. A lot!!!!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves romcoms

THIS WAS HILARIOUS!!!! Omg I flew through this so fast and could NOT get enough of Nicholas and Naomi!! I loved how raw this book was but it was also so incredibly FUN. Both of these characters have flaws and by owning up to those flaws and being who they are, they fall in love with each other all over again. It’s a beautiful and fun story filled with hilarious pranks!! I can’t wait to read what’s next from Sarah Hogle!!! I can’t get enough of her writing!!! It’s so addicting!!

I loved everything about You Deserve Each Other. I loved how petty the characters were with each other. I appreciated all the ridiculousness that made me laugh out loud. I loved the fact that the heroine had no clue what she was doing with her life—and was comfortable in not knowing. I enjoyed those heartfelt moments that I bled for at the beginning and how the book healed me with the love the characters fought for and won at the end. You Deserve Each other is simple but complex, and I loved every single moment. The writing is wholly approachable, and I think we need more difficult couples and more snappy women. Hogle surprised me with this one, and I literally cannot wait to read another book by here, flawed characters and all. You Deserve Each Other is one of my favorite romances of the ones I've read ever and this year.

I'm adding this to my new favorites shelf, right next to <i>The Hating Game</i>. This is the opposite of love at first sight: this is love wrestled out of over-familiarity, enemies-to-lovers style. Sex is not the issue--the issue is that these two people have stopped appreciating one another.

Naomi has had it with Nicholas's lack of appreciation for her and his endless doting on his horrible mother, but is unwilling to break it off because she's in it up to her neck with wedding preparations. So she decides to be so obnoxious that he calls it off, leaving her free to hawk the diamond ring for a solo vacation. Her decision also frees to her speak her mind about things she's been keeping to herself, with unexpected results when Nicholas does the same.

The pranks are so petty and hilarious, but the deeper emotions are real, too. It lends weight to the story, giving it that extra star.

Received a free copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve had trouble rating this book, as on one hand this indisputably made me laugh. The antics in this book are hilarious and so is the heroine’s inner monologue. And, generally any book that manages to make me laugh I tend to rate generously. After all, why else am I reading if not to entertain myself? But. And it’s a big but. Those antics and the inner monologue that made me laugh are also part of the problem.

The hero and the heroine are playing a game of relationship chicken. They want to split, but neither one of them want to be held responsible for the logistics of breaking a long term relationship, including a fully planned wedding. Honestly, it’s infuriating. This whole book is based on a lack of communication and the inability of either of the characters to act like a responsible adult. Instead they chose to pursue passive-aggressive, though no doubt very funny, schemes to get the other one to break the relationship first.

At least, that’s what happens in the first half of this book. It has a fairly sudden about turn when they began to have honest conversations with one another. I was a few pages of DNFing when this happened and the tone of the book changed. I then started to enjoy them painstakingly put their relationship back together and fall in love all over again. It still maintained the humour, just without the sabotage.

I’ve seen a lot of 5 star reviews for this book. And I get it. It’s damn funny and even relatable. It’s hard when a long term relationship starts to fall apart and it isn’t always as easy as opening up communication. Although, in this book, it really was that simple. But, there was certainly a kernal of insight and truth in all the madness between the hero and heroine. But, for me the first half of this book was just too frustrating to rate it any higher than I have.

This was a solid debut and I would certainly read Sarah Hogle’s next release. Although I didn’t enjoy this as much as most, I can’t deny it was very funny and there was some genuine nuggets of emotional truth wedged in.

I loved this book- it's a gorgeous story that starts in an apathetic, unhappy relationship, and ends in an HEA. I love how the main character is miserable in her own little world, and yet both her and the guy are in the wrong. Their love is so earned and amazing and I would read anything this author wrote.

Rom-coms are my jam and this one did not disappoint. Naomi and Nicholas are engaged, but are falling out of love with each other. They want to break up and have the other one pay for the upcoming wedding bills. They devise a competition to get the other one to lose, but along they way Naomi realizes that maybe she made a rash decision to break up with Nicholas. Interesting storyline and I needed to finish the book because I was vested in their relationship. Great book.

I liked this book so much more than I thought I would. At first, the pettiness of naomi and nicholas had me rolling my eyes but later I was rolling on the floor laughing. I was enjoy the book as a shallow, romcom when it took a turn and became so so good. I don't want to give any of the twists away but watching Naomi's little moment of self actualization mixed with Nicholas's transformation was really a treat! I can't wait to read more by this author. She has such a refreshing writing style, and I love her view on comedy.

I absolutely adored You Deserve Each Other! An absolutely delicious enemies to lovers with the perfect amount of banter and hijinks. I cannot wait for more from Sarah Hogle.

Talked up this book on FB, Instagram, Twitter, newsletter. Loved this book and how different and clever it was. Well written, fresh, funny, super enjoyable.

DNF at 50% / 2 Stars / 0 Steam Fans

I do not understand why "You Deserve Each Other" was published. Naomi and Nicholas are engaged to be married in three months, but they do not like each other. They pull pranks on each other, there is no communication between the two of them, Nicholas allows his mother carte blanc access to planning the wedding, and Naomi is so demeaning that I just wanted to choke her. By the 50% mark of this book, Naomi and Nicholas have moved to the woods. There is still NO connection between the two, and their actions always felt immature, which cause my loss of interest in either character. On walks, the DNF!

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I loved this book! The writing was so fresh and witty. I also related a lot to the main character which is always a bonus. The idea of the characters starting out engaged, wanting to separate, and falling back in love was really unique. I think what could've perfected this book is the inclusion of flashbacks and/or Nicholas's perspective. I think this would've helped us to understand the relationship more, how it got to where it is at the beginning of the book.

Overall though this was fun and easy to read in one sitting. I loved watching the characters grow throughout the book, fighting and falling in love at the same time, and all the pranks they would pull. Could've been a little steamier, but alas, still would recommend.

You Deserve Each Other is ballsy as hell. Like, for real, I'm pretty shocked that someone dared to do a book this intensely hate to love and actually pulled it off. It was for damn sure a risk.

Seriously, I spent at least half of this book, maybe a little bit more than that, not liking it and wanting to DNF. I kept reading because a friend with very similar taste in romance loved it, and I thought SURELY it will get better. Honestly, that almost never happens for me, because generally I just get more and more resentful of all the time I'm spending on something that I'm not enjoying. But this time it actually worked out. Thanks, Kelly!

This reading experience was a roller coaster, and it was very atypical. In the prologue, I was stuck by the over-the-top banteriness of the prose, and I immediately loved the writing. Some people are not going to be into it, because it's extra and Naomi's voice is incredibly immature and silly and spiteful. Personally, the voice was one of the things I loved the whole way through, even in the parts where I just wanted to shout WHAT ARE YOU DOING or OMG JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER MY GODDDDDDD. I feel like Naomi's voice is sort of what it's like in my head if you took out the filter, though mildly less murdery? Even when I didn't think I liked the book, I was definitely entranced.

Much of this book felt like a car crash I couldn't look away from. Think The Hating Game, only the hating game part comes after they've fallen in love and gotten engaged, and then bam they are toxic as fuck. Like, the things they do to one another are so incredibly not okay, and that's the real reason I wanted to DNF for so long. It felt like there was nothing that could happen to convince me that these two would be a good couple.

But, full props to Hogle and her badass debut, because I actually believe it?!?!?! What kind of alchemy? There's this transition from pranking to open communication where they start going from enemies to using all of that energy they were spending fighting on taking down other toxic influences and defending one another. It's also all about the way they misunderstood one another's love languages too, which again seems like a truly fixable problem, as long as they maintain communication from this point on.

The resolution was really satisfying, and honestly I'm just so impressed that Hogle pulled this off from a craft perspective, because it really feels like it shouldn't have worked. This is going to be a tough one for a lot of readers, I think? The energy is definitely more Bridesmaids than traditional romantic comedy.

To sum up, if you like the voice, this is definitely worth a read, even if you're SUPER CONCERNED much of the way through. It's rare to read a romance novel that feels very original, but this one absolutely does. Damn, that was a ride.

This book was not an easy read. Funny, yes. But the first few chapters were the physical manifestation of a migraine. I love that the author has such a distinct voice, but when that voice all but rants for the first 3 chapters, it kind of wears you out.

The amount of childishness between our two leads felt rather contrived as well. It's hard to justify their actions, no matter how ridiculous the circumstances were.

But all's well that ends well: the story finally gets traction about 50% into the book and we ultimately get our happily-ever-afters.

I just wish the getting there wasn't so tough.

Way too much angst for me. I enjoy enemies to lovers but this one feels like it crosses the line to being a toxic relationship. I don’t care to see how they resolve their relationship. Honestly they should break up. DNF at 30%

I almost DNF'd this one because the "hate" part lasted too long. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of well-written enemies-to-lovers romance, but the bitterness and outright loathing without a glimmer of vulnerability or hope for more than half the story got tiring. If a friend hadn't told me to keep going, I would've missed out on what ended up being a believable, sweet second-chance romance.

The writing and voice, on the other hand, was fantastic from the jump. I laughed out loud several times, and I'm definitely interested in what this author puts out next.

RATING: B/B-