I loved the concept of this book. The competition between Noah and Grace for home renovations was a cute and quirky thing to read about, and seeing the two fall for each over paint chips is adorable. The two bonded over their shared trauma and expectations from life, though those expectations change during the course of the book.

However, I felt like we missed a lot with Noah and his dad as the author leaves out what happens between those two when he goes to New York and whenever Noah talks to his father. I also felt like Grace was too in her head a lot of the time and wouldn't give Noah a chance to help at all, always jumping to conclusions without giving Noah a second to explain. Though, she does grow at the end of the book.

It was a fun summer read overall!

How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan is a romantic comedy that gave me some LOL moments and I enjoyed it from cover to cover. This pleasant, engaging story is just the kind of book to escape your troubles and make you smile. There is plenty of sexual tension, but they keep the bedroom door closed.

Grace Travis is just about to graduate from design school and is working odd jobs until she can graduate and finally get her dream job designing spaces. She has just inherited a small beachfront home from a grandfather she never knew and can’t wait to fix it up and finally have a home of her own.

Noah Jansen is usually busy making deals and making money. He’s never met a deal he can’t win. He finally found a house on the beach to call his own, all he needs is to make a deal with the neighbor so he can expand his property to have room for the pool of his dreams. The problem is the neighbor, Grace, will not sell her home no matter what. She finally has a connection with family and refuses to let it go. Noah is not used to being told no, and can’t figure out why he can’t make her move, even when the deal is way above market value.

How to Love Your Neighbor is just a cute romantic comedy. If you’re a fan of HGTV and DIY shows, you’ll love this book. Both Grace and Noah are working to improve their homes and they eventually end up working together on both homes. There is a cute nod to the old show Trading Spaces as they and their friends both fix up a room in each home.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romantic comedy. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a really cute story. It's my first book by the author, and while I enjoyed it, I'm not sure I'll reach for another one due to the fade to black scenes. I need a little payoff after all that tension. Grace and Noah had lots of chemistry and I love the grumpy/sunshine story. This one worked really well. It was well written with solid story telling.

Sophie Sullivan does it again. How to Love Your Neighbor is a delightful, easy-going read that will appeal to the HGTV fan in all of us. And, of course, it is filled with splashes of romance and comedy along the way.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I absolutely loved this book and would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Job very well done by the author.

I wanted to love this book so much but I struggled to connect with the characters. The characters were a little too juvenile for me and the story felt a little all over the place. It was a good way to spend an afternoon, but unfortunately not a book I’ll reach for in the future.

I absolutely LOVE this book. I hate that there's a rift between the neighbors, but a good enemies to lovers is good for the soul.

This book immediately pulled me in: enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine MCs, dysfunctional parents? Literally all the tropes I love!

How to Love Your Neighbor follows Grace, an interior design student just trying to get by and not be anything like her mother, as she inherits her mother's childhood home from the grandparents she never met. She meets Noah, her new next door neighbor, who never backs down from a deal and wants to buy Grace's home to extend his property. Of course he goes about it all the wrong ways, but in the end, these two succumb to their chemistry and the story builds from there.

At times both Grace and Noah's pride and stubbornness was frustrating, but they were able to overcome those obstacles and find a balance between what they want. I also really enjoyed the design/home renovation aspect of it.

Side characters make it or break it for me, and I absolutely adored all of the characters in the novel (with the exception of Grace's mom and Noah's dad). Morty is probably one of my favorites - I'm a sucker for grumpy old man who is all bark and no bite and loves his surrogate daughter. I didn't realize this at first, but this book has some characters from Sophie Sullivan's first novel, Ten Rules for Faking It, which is the love story between Noah's brother Chris and his now-girlfriend Everly. You don't need to read that one first to understand what's going on in this novel, but I definitely plan on reading that one next.

What I wanted more from this novel, though, was seeing Noah deal with his father. I feel like it was built up throughout the book, but then we don't even see him confront his dad. I could see Sullivan writing at least two more books in this universe, so maybe we will see more of that from those?

Overall, this is a fun and completely adorable read (with just about no steam) and I look forward to reading Sullivan's future works.

How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan is a heartwarming, humorous, and appealing contemporary romance set in Harlow Beach, California. However it is more than your typical enemies to friends to lovers story. This novel is about all types of relationships.

Grace Travis has a few months left before she graduates with her interior design degree. To make ends meet, she has student loans and works multiple jobs. She’s inherited a bungalow on the beach from grandparents she never met and plans to move into it and renovate it. It turns out the next door neighbor is a real estate developer who plans to renovate his large house and wants to buy Grace’s home so he can expand.

Grace and Noah are great characters that felt authentic. They each have their virtues and flaws, and this adds to both the realism and the humor that is contained in this book. Their determination, family issues, desire to be successful on their own, and much more made them feel real. While there is an attraction, they also challenge each other and frustrate each other resulting in some humorous moments as well as some introspection by each. The secondary characters add conflict or support. I especially liked Morty, Josh, and Rosie who contributed something extra to the story without detracting from the main theme.

This isn’t an instant love story or a steamy book. It touches on some deeper subjects such as toxic relationships with a parent, friendship of multiple types, social anxiety, giving back to the community, asking for help, learning about yourself through relationships with others, and much more. While there were a couple of slower spots, I liked the up and down dynamic between Noah and Grace. Additionally, the deeper subjects pulled the story together for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this highly entertaining and heartfelt book. It was a refreshing change from what I typically read, but it won’t be the last one that I read by this author. Those that enjoy contemporary romances, chick lit, or romantic comedies will likely enjoy this novel. I don’t read a lot of romances except for romantic suspense and paranormal romance, but I connected with this one.

St. Martin’s Press – St. Martin’s Griffin and Sophie Sullivan provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for January 18, 2022.

This book is so cute! I needed a light hearted read, and this was absolutely perfect. My favorite thing about the story is definitely the characters. Grace is such a strong woman, and so so smart and sassy - I loved her! Noah is strong, supportive, and so sweet. I really liked the author’s writing style as well. I hope to read more books by them in the future!

DNF at 60%

This was such a disappointment. I was not invested at al in the characters or the romance, mainly because there was no chemistry, tension, or build up between the main characters. They moved so quickly from enemies (for a poorly developed reason) to flirty friends (for a few pages) to madly in love. That happened around the 60% mark and by then, I was too uninterested to keep reading.

3.5 stars

‘How to Love Your Neighbor’ is a rom com in its truest form. It’s light, airy, with minimal angst. It’s definitely more of a slow burn type of novel, and all of the romantic… “action” is fade-to-black. So, if you’re looking for something with a little more bite and a little more steam, this is probably not the book for you. If you’re looking for a fun escape with some banter and low stakes, this is totally going to tick all those boxes.

Aspiring interior designer Gracie Travis has dreamed of establishing roots ever since she was a little girl. And inheriting her grandparents’ house allows her to do just that. It’s a fixer upper, to be sure, but there’s no way that Gracie will ever move. Not even when her extremely grumpy, distractingly handsome neighbor offers her double its value. Real estate developer Noah Jansen isn’t used to not getting his way. He believes everyone has a price. What he didn’t account for was a stubborn, beautiful, caring neighbor who is determined to stay.

The ideas in this book carried so much potential, but I’ll be honest when I say that it all fell a little flat for me. When I think of enemies-to-lovers as a trope, I want a little more banter, angst, and a lot more steam. Not that the dynamic between Gracie and Noah didn’t have its moments… I was just left wanting more. However, I think that this is mostly because of my personal preferences. I tend to prefer romances that have more on-page steaminess, especially when they’re this particular trope.

That being said, it was kind of nice to just one-hand this read and enjoy the ride. It’s kind of like wrapping into a nice warm blanket and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. There’s never any gut-wrenching conflict, and there are a lot of fun, humorous moments that happen. So, if rom com is your thing, and you don’t mind fade-to-black, I think you’ll find this novel delightful.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

“How to Love Your Neighbor” by Sophie Sullivan is a meet-cute enemies-to-friends romance book. This wasn’t quite the “light fluffy romantic escape” type of book I was expecting. I didn’t really connect with either main character (Grace and Noah), though I must say that they are, for the most part, presented as mature young adults. Grace is an interior design student and Noah is a business guy. They meet cute while Grace is dog walking (they notice each other and think the other one is quite attractive!). Grace inherited a house that is next to Noah’s - and Noah really wants Grace’s house for his own. There’s a little tiff over fixing a fence (and, yes, in my opinion one neighbor not consulting with the other but expecting said neighbor to pay half is rude), but if that was the “enemies” part, it didn’t seem like enemies to me as the story quickly moved onto them being friendly neighbors and then dating. I did like that intimate parts quickly faded to black (in other words, if you’re looking for “sexy time” romance, this is not the book for you). However, there’s a nice supporting cast - er, um, friends - that are themselves interesting - Morty and Tilly I found both amusingly annoying and complete characters. This was a fine book, but, as I stated above, it was not what I expected from the description. If you’re interested in interior design (at a pretty basic level), this might be up your alley (yes, a grey couch with teal pillows can be a centerpiece in a room). All the above being said, however, I’d read another book by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy for an honest review, all thoughts are my own. Grace a twenty something hard worker who suddenly find that she has inherited a home from her Grandmother. Grace has big plans to renovate the home and turn in into her own. Her neighbor Noah wants to buy her house so he can expand his house and sparks fly. Noah is wealthy but miserable and in search of something that he doesn't what. This is fun book with likeable characters - didn't want this book to end.

I liked the premise of this book but not the execution. There really wasn't much hate between the two. I liked the heroine a lot more than I liked the hero. Their relationship wasn't that interesting to develop. It was a pleasant read to pass the time but nothing I would read again

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by St. Martin’s Press and #NetGalley for my honest opinion.

A quirky, cute, fun romantic little read. If you want to settle in with something light and fun this one is perfect.

3.5 STARS

Grace Travis hopes finishing her interior design degree and moving into a house, inherited from grandparents she never met, will set a new life on the right track. She has been working tirelessly while going to school in order to realize her long held dreams. Grace’s poor relationship with her less than charming, user of a mother pushes her to be a super achiever.

Grace’s simple house is nothing like the mansion next door. Her new neighbor, Noah Jansen, does everything he can to offend and annoy Grace so she will sell her house to him. After all, Noah wants to put in a pool and needs more space. As an entitled, poor little rich boy, Noah is trying to reinvent his life after moving away from his unpleasant father who runs the family business. Noah makes a lot of missteps initially, but once he learns Grace is someone to contend with, they begin to work together on a mutual project that will be a big help to both of their careers.

Grace and Noah each have a lot of family baggage to overcome and since all that time spent together makes a relationship very likely, it is not surprising Grace’s issues and Noah’s big learning curve causes the course of love to run less than smooth. Grace’s skills and hardworking ethic teaches Noah a lot about not letting one’s past rule the future.

Noah and Grace have a fair amount of work to do to overcome personal issues to not only have a professional relationship, but have a chance at a personal one. Grace’s odious mother who sponges off her daughter as well as Noah’s bully of a father cause some problems not surprisingly. Noah is the brother of Chris from the previous book, Ten Rules for Faking it, although this story can be read as a standalone.

This was a highly entertaining, cute romantic comedy. Boy, a wealthy property developer, meets girl, a new homeowner and interior design student. Boy wants girl's property. Girl wants nothing to do with boy. A love/hate relationship develops and the fun begins. If you like a fun romantic comedy with a happy eding, this should suit you just fine.

This was an absolutely adorable and precious enemies-to-lovers romance novel that's hard not to fall in love with. Told in dual perspectives, the two love interests are equally vulnerable and authentic characters, though I wish it didn't take nearly 100 pages to get somewhere after a super slow start. That being said, their romance and eventual HEA were very precious and I can't take that away from this read because it was very very cute. Maybe even a bit too sweet and idyllic?

I'm a huge fan of romcoms recently and I knew that this one was going to be a fun one the moment I read the synopsis. Enemies/rivals to lovers is one of my absolute favorite tropes of all time, and I love a good interior design/fixer upper show so I was really excited to give this book a go. I was pulled in right from the start and found it so fun and heartfelt throughout the entire book. I absolutely cannot wait for this book to release so that I can get a copy for my shelves!