We follow Randi, a college student trying to finish her senior year She finds affordable housing out of town, listed as a quiet place filled with studious women. To her surprise, it's actually a party house filled with intoxicated people. Amongst them, she meets Buck, her new roommate's friend.

This book was toilet paper. I only managed to finish it because I'm stubborn and I didn't need brain cells to focus on it. I'm giving it a 1.5☆ because, as my rating system goes, it's a really bad book, but not the worst.

God, where to even start?

The romance between Buck and Randi was almost as interesting as staring at the blank ceiling at the dentist. There was no substance to it and I just did not care about them and where their relationship went. The sex scenes between them also lacked something that I can't really put my finger on. By the end of the book, the two of them are engaged when they barely know each other. I just...no. Oh, and the plot of Buck wanting to fake date/crush went absolutely nowhere.

Also, there were 2 other, albeit barely present, love interests for absolutely no reason. Luke was a gross character and Carter, although kind of sweet, from the get-go, felt insignificant.

Buck is the personification of a lollipop that fell on the floor and now has hair and dirt on it. He had potential but is, at the end of the day, just gross. He was constantly drunk, is constantly possessive over Randi (and not in a good way), and wears a cowboy hat which obviously means he is a cowboy. I didn't trust that man at all. He seems toxic and insincere. The book, at times, even made it seem like he isn't trustworthy. I feel like he would cheat on her. There were several occasions when he was partying and surrounded by girls, and even though he assured Randi he put the girls in their places, I felt like he was gaslighting her. And out of nowhere he's a millionaire? No sense. Also, Buck's ex starts as Vicki in the beginning but then at the end, it's Tiff.

Randi isn't that bad of a character. She's just bland. Her 3 personality traits were 21 credits (if you play everytime you read "21 credits", drink with this, you'll be drunk by page 50), yoga and "not like other girls" syndrome. Although I can appreciate her focusing on her studies and caring about people's well beings (Sarah), she was boring.

There was absolutely no character development in this godforsaken book. No one changed.

80% of the time, the housemates were drinking, puking, or passing out in not ideal places. No one treated it seriously, except Randi at times. But I felt like it was never really addressed and no one had any real consequences.
Angie is the absolute fucking worst. She abuses Hugh and then drugs Buck, and neither of these are taken seriously either and she's just ignored until they just kick her out.
There's also a random attempted rape scene that is then just lowkey ignored.
Is the author trying to be controversial?

Absolutely hated the ending. The proposal scene was my nightmare.

Overall, not for me and I don't recommend this to anyone.

Thank-you NetGalley and Water’s Edge Publishing for the chance to review this ARC

This was kind of a miss for me.

I just didnt really vibe with the characters to the level I would of wanted. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind at the time but I would be willing to give this author another chance. It had promise.

DNF. This book wasn’t for me. I normally don’t give this vague of detail on books, especially arc reviews, but I don’t have many positive thoughts on this book, or any thoughts at all. I didn’t get that far into it to give an honest rating. I have seen other ratings, that have finish the book, say some of the content rating in it, and it was probably better that I didn’t get into it…

Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope, this is why i immediately got the book after i read the synopsis. I didn't falled in love with the characters, though. What is something really rare for me.

I only read few romance books in the past and really want found new favorites when I saw this book. The cover looks so cute and the premise about opposites attraction between serious girl match with popular cowboy is rich with potential. Sadly this book not delivered all those promising premise to my expectations level.

First the writing isnt my fave, but the plot itself is solid to the end. It is very difficult to enjoy one book when the characters not appealing to me. They are too dimensional and lack depth.
I dont really feel any connection with our main and supporting characters. Their personalities issues so many toxic contents. The romance take times so long to build up and the chemistry not strong enough to make me believe it.
Sorry, it is not my cup of tea.

Thank you Netgalley and Water's Edge Publishing for let me read this copy. My thoughts are my own.

I did not finish this book and have decided I won't because of the slut shaming and use of r word. I haven't checked if it is fixed since published but hopefully you will do better.

For me the tropes in this book are enemies to lover, grumpy female x sunshine male (i wouldn't describe buck as sunshine but he was way happier camper than her) and college love story. there is a push and pull between the characters, i wish they were more developed in order to understand completely what the author was trying to pull with them as leads. it was interesting and definitely would read something else from her,

(First of all, thank you so much NetGalley, Water's Edge Publishing, and Anna Alkire, for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review)

Synopsis: A self-contained college girl, Randi Becker just needed one thing: a room. Somewhere she could study, and keep away from the things that most confuse and frighten her: people. Unfortunately, the “nice quiet place” she reserved turns out to be a room in the campus’ most raucous house. A place seemingly designed to make studying impossible, made even worse by the other girls’ non-stop drama.
But then Buck, a fun-loving cowboy whom all the ladies love, shows up…and everything gets much worse.
Buck seems to have it all: friends, fun, and a never-ending line of admirers. So he figures Randi is a perfect decoy: he can play up a “crush” on her that will take him off the market; buy him some breathing room. And if he can tease her a bit, and get under the skin of the uptight busybody? Well, that’s just gravy.

First, I wanted to read this book for two reasons: 1. the synopsis and 2. the cover. It is so gorgeous I could not request the book because it seemed to be a nice story.
However, i did not like it. There were some sentences that took me out of the book and it was difficult to enjoy the moments I was reading it. I did not have a conexion with the characters and I could not enjoy either the writing style.
So you can give it a try and maybe is the right book for you, but it was not for me.

it was a fine read for me. It had it moments and I liked what I read. Will try to read more from this writer. Kind of a slow build of romance for me.

When I saw the cover of this book, I immediately requested a copy. It's just too adorable. Unfortunately, that is where it ends. I believe this book had a lot of room to grow, but there were times when I desperately wish it was over. I didn't like how some of the comments made me feel uneasy.

None of the characters in the book appealed to me. The characters were foolish and uninteresting. As a result, pushing through was extremely difficult.   There were some words that were inappropriate. It was difficult for me to get through.

I disliked the writing style. There were also a few uncomfortable racial comments, and the author used the r word when it wasn't necessary. There was no character development. Nothing has changed. 

Thank you NetGalley for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

NetGalley and Water’s Edge Publishing provided an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3⭐️

If it’s enemies to lovers, 9.5 chances out of 10, I will devour it.

Our MC is Randi, who is all about school, her business, and doesn’t drink (AKA uptight to other people). In comes our sexy cowboy, Buck, who turns her inside out (literally and figuratively 😉). She gets deceived into moving into a house she thinks is full of Christian school girls, but is actually a party house. Her and Buck grow closer as she plays Mom to everyone in the house, including cleaning up after everyone and taking care of them when they’re drunk.

Randi is relatable in that I understand everyone thinking you’re uptight and boring because you don’t drink. The thing that bothered me is that it seemed to be the only thing everyone else in this book was doing. She takes care of everyone, including her able-bodied aunt, and I just don’t feel the ending was enough for me with everything she had to go through

Unfortunately, I just wasn't cut out for this one. The plot was interesting at first but in the middle it became a bit boring. The characters and I weren't clicking as well as I would have wanted. I was unable to finish the book as a result. I appreciate Net Galley and the author providing a copy for me to read and review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

The premise of this book was great but I think that is the only great thing about this book. At first, I liked Randi because while she wasn't exactly likeable, she was interesting but then I found her quite annoying. While she does seem to have some mental health issues, it doesn't make her actions excusable. I also liked Buck at first because he seem like a nice cowboy but wow the red flags they both had was astounding.

There was slut shaming, the use of the r word, Randi kept reffering to herself as 'crazy', pretty much every girl that she meets is awful to her for no reason, Buck is mysognistic and never listens to Randi, and there is so much more wrong with it.

The book honestly felt like it was published a good ten years ago as it has outdated stereotypes and 'views'.

Sadly, this one just wasn't for me. I wasn't connecting with the characters like I would've liked. Therefore, I couldn't finish the book. I would like to thank Net Galley and the Author for the copy to read and review.

Remember, just because a book isn't for someone doesn't mean it isn't for everyone.

Uhmm... what did I just read? This is one hot mess of a book. Sorry but this is probably the worst I've read so far this year. The only thing that I liked about this book is the cover. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher by the way for providing access to the digital ARC but... I really didn't like this book. Slut shaming, unacceptable language, flat characters, writing style was all over the place. Read at your own risk.

A fun read, with some fairly serious plot points. This book managed to hit quite a lot of young adult issues in a typical rom-com. I applaud the author for weaving in more serious topics in way that was accessible for what was advertised as a pretty typical romance. Enjoyable read with more meat than expected or advertised.

This book is a hot mess. It’s 2022 and we’re gonna use r*etard*d as a joke?? Come ON.

Good parts first: there’s a happy ending and the sex scenes are ok. That’s it, that’s the list.

Randi is completely unlikeable. As the reader you know what her deal is, but not once in the whole book does she (or anyone for that matter) explain her poor behavior. She has the potential to have so much depth and growth but she literally just stays a judgmental asshole for the entire book. Her entire existence is about finishing her degree but I’ll be damned if I remembered what it was until I was reminded. Why does she love it? Is she even good at it?

And Buck. I want to love him. I’m tempted. But he honestly treats Randi like absolute shit. HE DOES NOT ONCE CALL HER BY HER NAME IN THE ENTIRE BOOK. Not even when he introduces her to his mother. How demeaning. He also disregards Randi’s boundaries over and over again. Just because he’s understanding of her trauma doesn’t negate the fact that he’s a manipulative bastard.

Every single side character in the book except for Hugh and Carter are also absolute jackasses. Randi IS mean to them, but they also never bother to communicate with her, they just continually attack her for wanting to study in peace?

I just really don’t understand this book.

I was hoping to enjoy this book, but it was a total miss for me. I did not like the main character or the plot. Based on the blurb, I expected so much more.

This book was hard to take at times, the characters were really different from what I normally read and I did not find it very funny at all. Randi going back to school and taking a full load after some time working in South America thinks she is going to live in a place where they are serious about studying this is not going to happen. Her first night and many nights after the party. I get that SHE Handled it wrong but everyone was at fault and from the others, girls from the house just became mean over the top mean, maybe that stuff goes on but after a while, it just got too much in the story.
Buck tried at times to be nice to her and even went out of his way to give rides when it was raining so she did not have to ride her bike it just took her a long time to accept any help, but even that fell apart. The ending was really the only saving grace for me with this book.

I had high hopes for this book, the cover seemed cute and the synopsis drew me in. Unfortunately, it was kind of disappointing. Randi is a Type A, up tight, loner college student just trying to get through her party school until graduation. With limited options for housing, she moves into a party house and immediately clashes with her housemates. One is particularly violent, which I find disturbing. The night she moves in Randi meets Buck, an older graduate student living out of a mobile home parked in the pasture behind her house. Buck is immediately attracted to Randi, but Randi fights her attraction to Buck at every turn. My issue with this book: Randi goes from “I hate Buck” to “I like Buck” to “Get away from me, Buck” to “I love and want to marry Buck” in a weird, uncoordinated, disjointed turn of events. You read her feelings, but you don’t feel how her emotions change. There’s more focus on the drama with the partying housemates than Buck. Even when she’s in love, Randi comes off as a cold shrew. It’s unfortunate, because this storyline had potential. ⭐️⭐️