When I started this book, I felt like it was going in one direction and then I got more and more lost as it went on. I didn’t especially connect with any of the characters and I wasn’t invested enough to read more than about halfway through.

So, even if it isn't a book that will stay in my mind for ever, I enjoyed it - the plot was interesting and while it focused on the same things Portia McIntosh writes about, it did feel a bit different and fresh. I only missed a little bit more of the houseshare - wars, was verrrry curious how far the characters will go (though starting is a fire is, theoretically, rather high when it comes to ideas how to evict the other one from the house) and it disappointed me a bit that we didn't get anything specially hilarious there - though it started really promising.

I liked the characters, they were quirky and they knew what they want, even if I not always agreed with them and the way they tried to solve their problems. I liked their banter and I also liked their character development. I am not a fan of the enemies to lovers stories, however I must say that the author has pulled it off really well, it didn't feel to forced like it usually feels, no, it went somehow straight - forward and naturally.

There was a lot going on in this book but everything was really well organized and I could easily keep up with all the subplots. It was fun, it was easy to read, written in this light and smart Portia McIntosh's way.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Portia MacIntosh for this eARC.

I feel like the synopsis of this book is quite misleading. From reading it, you would think that this book centres around the FMC and MMC sharing a house together while their friends are away, after they both find themselves without a place to live, and eventually falling for each other.

While some of this book does focus on this, other plot lines take precedence. The plot line of Serena and Ziggy sharing a house really felt like the least important part of this story - like it was just added in after all of the other plot lines. For this reason, I really didn’t buy the chemistry between the characters and there was no tension between them, as we just didn’t see enough of them together. From some of the other themes in this book, I was expecting some spice, but it was unfortunately closed door.

I also didn’t really like the characters that much. Neither of them seemed particularly well fleshed out and they were both so immature for people in their thirties. They reminded me a bit of Lucy and Josh from The Hating Game (a book which I ironically hated!). I also thought the FMC made some really misguided decisions, which I just don’t think a normal person would make.

There were a few funny moments, but overall this book really lacked the rom and the com for me, and it’s not a book I would read again.

Funny and sexy. The perfect rom-com for fans of Sophia Kinsella.

This was the first book I've read by Portia MacIntosh, and I loved it.

The book took a little while to set up, but once Ziggy and Serena met, it was on. The pair had never met, even with mutual friends, and ended up house-sitting together after unfortunate events in their personal lives. Both begin to act like terrible roommates to try and get the other to move out. Ziggy and Serena were petty and hilarious.

When I was reflecting on the book, I realized how much Serena was like her mentor Diana. Once everything started happening, she started to come into her own. She went back to how she used to do her hair, her make-up, and the clothes she wore. Almost like she, too, was living a secret life and holding back a part of herself that she felt no one would understand except for Ziggy. He saw who she really was.



Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC copy of this book.

Thankyou so much to Netgalley for the ARC. Even though I liked this overall and it was just what I was in the mood for I did find it bizarre that the plot summary was just a side piece of the story? The main story seemed to be where a main character is knowingly continuing a relstionship with an engaged man and instead of telling the fiancé when she finds out she works to make her find out in other ways instead of just telling her with words? A bit weird if you ask me. However, it did read great and would make for a great romance movie.

This was such a lovely and light-hearted read. Having lived around Leeds, it was really nice to feel so connected to the setting of a book - I really felt how authentically important it was to the characters and the author. The story itself was good although I didn't feel 100% convinced by the development of romance between the two main characters. But overall I really enjoyed it, the characters were easy to love and the plot kept me reading. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the advance copy!

I have a thing for when a couple of friends get together. It is something I wish would happen in my life with my husband and my friends so we could go on double dates! Anyway, it was something that sounded similar to another book that I had read but it was different enough that I was able to still enjoy the book. It is not a new concept, but it was done well. I would recommend!

Your Place or Mine by @portiamacintoshauthor I loved this book!! This is released on 1/17/23. The main character Serena faces a loss of a loved one which changes up her living situation. She is able to rent from her best friend who is on vacation. But the house has another guest Serena can’t stand. Will they learn to live together?? This is a quick read! It felt like there was a lot of surprises too!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the description of this book, but felt that the story didn't hold true to that promise. This book was a little all over the place and made it hard to feel invested in the storylines. The chemistry between the main characters was seriously lacking and many of their choices were frustrating and alarmingly immature for 30-somethings. There was definitely a lot of potential here, but unfortunately, it fell flat for me.

The book started off great; filled with hilarious situations & scenes. But as it went along it was hard for me to focus as it delt pretty boring to me.
This was the first book by the author that I didn't really connect with or like it. Romance too kinda felt flat for me.

But I really enjoyed the prank shenanigans, plotting & planning revenge schemes.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to netgalley for approving me for this arc!

Overall I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. At about 75% I was just kind of skimming and wasn’t massively interested in the main love interest and just wanted to find out what happened in one aspect of the story.

I did like Serena, and some of the scenes to do with the house and with Dean were funny and interesting but it just all fell a bit flat. The synopsis says it’s about her & Ziggy in the house together but there’s not really much of them and at 57% they’d barely even had any moments together which could mean there would be something between then.

I did get more on board with them as the story went on but I just didn’t feel the chemistry very much and I only really kept going to see if it got any better and to see how one thing played out.

I wouldn’t read this again and it just wasn’t what I was expecting so 2.5 stars to this

TW// death (of maternal figures), cheating

I was really hoping to start 2023 off with a new favorite… but unfortunately it looks like the universe had others plans for me.

Your Place or Mine? involves two different plotlines. One of them centers around Serena and Ziggy, who are two strangers that are forced into living in the same house while their friends are on vacation. They hate each other right off the bat, but some feelings rise up that start to change things. The other plot involves Serena trying to expose a cheater for the cheat that he is.

These two plotlines made the story a little messy. The plots didn’t combine until the very end, so it was like I was reading two different stories combined into one. The hate-to-lovers plot is the one that’s mentioned in the synopsis, so the cheating plot was shocking and I honestly wouldn’t have requested this book off of NetGalley if I was aware of the cheating plot. I was debating whether or not I wanted to mention the cheating element in my review, but it takes up at least 50% (if not more) of the book so readers should be aware of it. The cheating plotline wasn’t even resolved well. I was hoping for some epic reveal of the cheating, but the resolution ended up being awkward and annoying.

The characters in this book were a massive problem for me. Serena had a bland personality and she often solved her problems in terrible ways. Ziggy was annoying and honestly sort of gross. I was confused how we’re honestly supposed to believe that someone would fall in love with a sweaty, smelly manbaby like Ziggy. Dean was bad, too, but at least the plot was purposefully set up so that he was somewhat of the bad guy. The other minor characters were awful, but I won’t get into that here.

I was hoping that the romance would somehow make the characters more redeemable to me, but it didn’t at all. All of the romances in this book seemed to be purely physical. Most of the characters don’t talk to each other like normal functioning adults, and the only thing the characters cared about was banging each other. None of the characters had chemistry with each other, too, which made every romantic scene really uncomfortable for me. It was disappointing.

The humor in this book wasn’t great either. The author tried too hard to make this book funny, which went so far as to make this book extremely unfunny. I was rolling my eyes and cringing nonstop at the “funny” scenes.

I also had an issue with the author’s writing style. I’m sure some people will like it, but it felt like there was a lot of quirks to the writing that I wasn’t fond of. For example, there was an excessive use of ellipses at the end of chapters and there were forced moments where the narrator seemed to attempt to talk to the audience.

There was a Marilyn Manson mention in here, too, which wasn’t my biggest issue with the book but it’s still not great. I don’t understand why someone as problematic as Marilyn would be mentioned in any book.

It’s probably obvious by now but I hated this book and I couldn’t wait to be done with it. Here’s to hoping that my next reads in 2023 are better.

Great first line that piqued my interest right away. I really liked the sound of the synopsis, but got bored by how it was executed.

I was not the biggest fan of the characters. I found both of them quite annoying and hard to like.

By around 40% she was still in a relationship with someone else. that made it hard to like her and see the story believable.

The pacing in this book could use a lot of work

Final Rating : 3.5

So, in general, I can resume this book in two words, cute and fun.
I thought the book vibes where identical to " Flat Share" ( that I simply Loved ), although there was obviasly differences in the twists and the main story.
If you like Enemies to Lovers and Forced Proximity this might be just the book for you !
I couldn't give more stars because i really wanted to read more about the business and the relation of Serena and Ziggy.
It was a good book and it gave me desire to read more of the author.

This book was provided byt NetGalley as an ARC and this review is completely honest.

Where to start? The storyline follows two young adults who are let's say crashing their way through life with little to no money and have relied on their mutual friends for a spare place to live. In doing so, they have a little roommate war, it also follows a little heist and an adult toy shop.
I liked both protagonists, probably Ziggy a bit more than Serena. The side characters were well thought out aswell. It is a very PG relationship so I'd say it's more accessible! The only thing I'd say extra is it was very slow paced at the first 3/4 of the book and but then the last quarter of the book was my favourite.
A very solid romance to start 2023 off right!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

The book is about Serena and Ziggy, as their friends are going travelling for a while they move into their house to look after it in their absence.

The place where Serena lived she had to leave as well as where she worked, due to the owner of both, Diana passing away. As for Ziggy who is a frontman for a band, lived in a place shared by others, but as he didn’t get on, left. Now, needing a place to live, they have no option, but to get along.

Both characters were well written, and I loved the chemistry, the jokes they played on each other as they want the other to leave. It was nice to read about Diane and what she meant to Serena.

I recommend this book.

Great Read ❣️

Another great, light hearted read from Portia Macintosh following two strangers thrown together in a house share by accident. Can they make it work sharing their friends home?…

This was a cute rom com with some funny moments however overall I just found that I didn’t connect fully with the characters.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this Arc

. I’m sorry, I’m supposed to believe that she falls for this guy? And that she doesn’t dump the boyfriend when she finds out he’s engaged? AND FALLS FOR ZIGGY?

This book is absolutely non sensical. If you told me you inputted every single romance trope into a computer, gave it a fake scenario, and hit generate, I would believe you. I have a note on almost every page of this ARC because of how ridiculous it is. This is pure trash, it’s like a bad version of that roommate book that was popular last year.

2.5 stars

Serena and Ziggy find themselves between places to live and are separately offered to house-sit a fixer-upper (with only one good bedroom/bathroom) while their friends are traveling. The blurb for this book sounded like it was going to be a fun romp. Instead, Ziggy was an annoying jerk who cheated to get the good room and Serena was in a dysfunctional relationship with another man for most of the book. There wasn’t really any rom or com in this one.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood books for this advance reader’s copy.