A big thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House for the eARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This was a quick, fast paced book. I loved the opening scenes. Dani is surprisingly revengeful She didn't seem the type, but that made it more fun. Of course, Sam also shocked me. Wyatt was the quiet surprise. I laughed and enjoyed this. It didn't seem very believable but who cares. Fun. laughter and love along with a great best friend. 4 stars

DNF @ 58%

I was expecting something more like The Hating Game, but this was just cookie cutter romance. Dani’s plan to make this Spite House was so expensive and weird? I just couldn’t buy into it. More importantly though, I was disappointed by how quickly Wyatt warmed up to Dani. This felt less enemies to lovers and moreso just two people who didn’t know each other very well becoming friends and falling in love. I was just not invested enough to finish.

This was an enjoyable book. It was funny and made me LOL several times. I didn’t love the male love interest. I thought he was kind of dull and could be a jerk. I didn’t find his reasons to be acceptable for how he acted. It was an enjoyable read nonetheless. I loved the supporting characters the best!

Revenge/break up novels have become a big trend recently and add in the home building or remodeling aspect and it is very on trend, with this one being one of the better ones. I sometimes struggle with revenge books because they can feel so petty, but this one was mixed with enough funny banter and was just wacky enough to entertaining.

Another popular trope in traditional publishing lately is the grumpy/sunshine trope and Waytt is a grump. But he's also misunderstood, smart, and funny. Dani doesn't want to ask Wyatt for help, but she needs an architect and this man has the skills, so they enter into a tentative coworker relationship. Adding the coworker element to the enemies to lovers storyline about revenge on an ex seems messy, but it also forces Dani to really take stock of what is important to her. How much does she want to hurt her ex and how much does she want to move on?

If you're looking for other home renovation romcoms I would suggest grabbing How to Love Your Neighbor and Built to Last.

4.5 stars. This book was a fresh and exactly what I needed to read in this moment in time. I liked the characters, the dialogue, the chemistry. Was it predictable? Extremely. Did that stop me from enjoying it? Nope. It had the perfect pacing and drew me in so much I ended up reading it in a day.

I really love this book! It was a great enemies to friends to lovers book and I would definitely read it again!

This book apealed to me being a "book lover" plot and focus. I thought this would be similar to Emily Henry's beach read (which it was but not as developed). Romantic plot with writing and enemies to lovers. I wish the characters were more developed throughout the novel. I had a hard time buying into the romance it happened so fast after being enemies.

This was a fun story. I really loved Dani. She was relatable and I would definitely want to be her friend! Wyatt was a great hero and I loved their relationship.

This book was so good! I loved the concept of the spite house and doing every little thing to bug Sam. Wyatt was so sweet and I loved the discussion about Ménière’s disease.

I’ve always been a sucker for a good workplace romance. This book was very fresh and fun with good writing from the author. Both characters were both smart and driven characters. It was fun reading the growth that both characters went through and seeing their love develop from friendship to more. Overall, this was a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone that likes a good workplace romance.

I loved the full development of this story. The premise was great with the revenge on the ex for not listening to her. But I also loved the full development of these two characters, both had flaws that they had to realize and work on. Also hooray normalizing hearing aids! Not only were the main characters great but there was a full cast of people that were developed and fun to get to know. This was a fun and fast read!

This was such a fun enemies to lovers and workplace romance. I thought the plot of this book was so unique, as I haven’t read anything like it before. It was such an easy read, and it flowed so well. I thought the characters were great, and I loved the steamy romance between them. I thought Dani’s friends really added to the story as well. They were quirky, fun, and added to the drama. This book has witty banter, revenge, sizzling chemistry, and so much more. If you’re looking for a fun romance read, I highly recommend this one!

Once you suspend disbelief over the outlandish idea of someone building an entire house just to spite an ex, this sweet romance offers fun banter and a healthy heaping of steamy scenes.

Dani buying the lot next to her ex fiance is the perfect idea to make his life miserable. But, is it really? This book is filled with girl power, love, suspense, and disaster. Highly recommend as a fun, easy read to live curiously through someone else that has drama, to keep the drama from your own life.

I absolutely loved this book! I found it hard to put down. I highly recommend reading it! You won’t be disappointed.

I think I liked this one while reading, but when I look back I’m far less impressed. Not to mention, the second half just grated on my nerves. Let’s jump into it!

After her fiance of three years cheats on her with their realtor, Dani finally snaps. She calls off the wedding and swears off guys altogether – but it really feels like her ex, Sam, got off scott-free. So, together with her cousin and her new landlady, she conspires to buy the lot next door to his house and build a girls retreat – a “spite house”.

As an interior designer, Dani takes the lead on the project, but she needs an architect. The grumpy and off-putting Wyatt volunteers himself, much to Dani’s chagrin – as the time they’ve worked together at their company has not left warm and fuzzy feelings – but once they start working together, sparks seem to be flying in spite of Dani’s no-man rule. If only her revenge wasn’t getting in the way…

I was really digging this romance through the first half, with lots of tension and quips with the “hate” start to their romance, but then they totally lost me through the second half. It started strong, but then I really saw Dani get needy, and Wyatt get truly horrible at communicating. Neither are terribly attractive features, and as a functioning adult, I couldn’t fall into a romance where these two clearly had some growing up still to do. It (spoiler alert) destroyed their good chemistry, and made me disinterested in their success as a couple. As a whole, I quite enjoyed the novel, but the romance does not carry it start to finish.

In fact, the drama of the house build carries the second half. I rooted for Dani in all aspects except her needy romantic self. Mia and Iris were my favorites, because their sass and wisdom make them great supporting characters, but Dani is pretty solid, too. Wyatt, however, was a no from me. I always want the grumpy ones to be Mr. Darcy types, but he falls flat. I just don’t want the chiseled asshole archetype anymore. No soft and squishy insides here.

The “spite house” itself is an interesting concept…but the antics became a little much for me. It overtakes so much of the novel, but I can’t tell if it’s *supposed* to make me uncomfortable or not. It did. It was too much. Too try-hard. Just a build a gorgeous house, block his view, and be done with it all – why do we have to make your ex so mad?? I’m the queen of boundaries, the queen of let it go – this was very much the opposite of establishing a boundary and letting it go.

I can’t decide if I want to recommend this or not. I think I do. I would read Anna Collins again, but this definitely doesn’t top my favorites. I’m curious to see how a second novel pans out.

A copy of Love at First Spite was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

That’ll about do it. Big “meh” vibes from me as of late. Enjoy the weekend!

3.5 Stars

It’s love at first spite when Danielle Porter sets out to get revenge on her ex, only to find love and support where she least expected it.

When Dani caught her fiancé cheating on her with their realtor, it turned her life upside down. So Dani does what any sane person would do when their life is spiralling out of control: she decides to get revenge on her ex. And not just any revenge. Property revenge. As an interior designer, Dani knows just the right people to help her build a spite house on the empty plot right next to her ex and block his gorgeous view of the ocean. Unfortunately, one of those people is architect Wyatt Montego, a tall, dark, and stoic man known for assuming his ideas and opinions are always right. Dani thought she was done with men when her ex-fiancé cheated on her, but the closer she works with Wyatt, the more Dani starts to think she isn’t done with all men. Dani might have started off building a spite house, but ended up building a future for herself instead.

Love at First Spite was a revengeful, yet cute, opposites attract romance. I honestly can’t recall a recent read that had a more memorable opening scene than this book; Collins immediately pulled me in with her introduction to Dani and I ended up reading Love at First Spite in just two sittings. I was intrigued by both main characters, but for their flaws more than anything else. I personally found their chemistry together and the overall spice level of the book to be a solid three out of five, but it was who they were as people that I found the most interesting.

Dani was a bit insane at times with the lengths she would go to in order to get revenge on her ex. I understand wanting to get revenge when you’re hurting, but Dani really went all out; she not only built a house right next to her ex in order to block his view, but she also decorated the whole place with all the things he hates in mind. Dani was quite obsessed with her ex, and at times it was concerning. But in her obsession, Dani ended up being a realistic character; spite houses are a very real thing and I loved Collins’ fictional portrayal of such a house.

Overall, I ended up loving the characters in this book but I didn’t like Dani as a person. Dani spent a lot of her time with Wyatt lying and deceiving him about the house, and I actually would have been completely fine if this book didn’t have a happily ever after. Wyatt deserved all of Dani, and their relationship started off with her keeping some pretty big secrets from him. Wyatt as a character was enjoyable. He started off as quiet and a bit grumpy, but he was really just misunderstood and I loved him more as Collins pulled back his layers. Collins gave Wyatt his own backstory and problems, and I did like how both Dani and Wyatt’s histories shaped who they were with each other. Both main characters were human and flawed, but I ended up loving Wyatt for his and being wary of Dani for hers.

Love at First Spite was a unique love story, one that showcased two very different ways of dealing with rejection and moving on after a breakup. I loved that Collins wrote a romance around the lesser-known, but still very real, concept of a spite house. The story was fun and had a great plot and dialogue. I very much loved the characters more for how they worked through their past issues rather than their time together, but overall I found Love at First Spite to be an enjoyable read.

This was a mixed bag for me. I did love the beginning where we meet Dani and her cousin Mia as they’re playing paintball on what was supposed to be Dani’s wedding day, the idea of playing paintball in a wedding dress intrigued the hell out of me and I thought it would be hella fun. The girl gang with her cousin and her spunky elderly landlady was amazing, I'm all for a feisty girl gang. I really wasn’t a huge fan of how extreme Dani’s revenge “spite house” scheme became. She got really focused on making her ex’s life miserable, whereas I just wanted her to move on and pay attention to the hot architect that clearly had a crush on her. I'm not exactly all for revenge, but, I did find the concept of the novel intriguing. Speaking of that hot architect, Wyatt, I really wanted to get in his head. This was a single perspective romance with not a lot of steam. I found the overall chemistry between the two MCs rather disappointing. Overall a fast read that I did enjoy more than not but it won’t be one of my favourites this year.

3.5 rounded up

This book was messy but also enjoyable. I think romance books can often be unrealistic because you would never really go out and spend money on a house to get revenge on a cheating ex BUT I also think the chaos of it was what made it fun!

I really enjoyed this rom com! Good characters, set up, plot development, writing, etc. Not a standout in the genre, but still a really fun read.