I'll be honest, this book took until about 25% in to really hook me. I didn't think Collins was going to be likable at first, but I quite enjoyed her development as the book went on. I loved the importance of strong female characters and the strong female friendships that came out of that. The hometown rivalry was a delight and I loved the transition from childhood friends to enemies to lovers between Collins and Nate. I thought all the HOA details were hilarious and they really added to the story. Also Nate was a dream let's be clear about that. This book ended up being so much fun and so heartwarming, I couldn't help but love it. Thank you to Berkley for providing me with an e-ARC to read and review!

After a viral video drives Collins out of Hollywood and back to her parents house in Ohio, she encounters none other than her childhood best friend turned nemesis, Nate, who is now on the HOA board. Hijinks ensure and Collins ends up running against Nate for HOA board president.

While there are plenty of home renovation romances out there, this is the first HOA romance I've encountered. And it works! It's super cute with some big characters and lots of heart. Once the sexual tension ramps up... boy does it ever. The best friend to enemy to lover arc is also really nicely executed. 3.5 stars.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

ARC Review

This is the first book I have read by Alexa Martin and it will definitely not be the last! Next-Door Nemesis had me laughing out loud and also getting emotional! It was the perfect romcom

Every supporting character was perfection! And sometimes I feel like that is a difficult thing to accomplish! I wanted to be friends with Ruby, Ashleigh, and Collins. I wanted to garden and bake with the Carters! The shenanigans they all got up to in the campaign for HOA president had me cackling!

I hope there is a second book to this with Ruby as the lead! I would read it in a heartbeat.

Thank you to the publisher, and Good Girls PR for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin is an enemies-to-lovers romance, and I loved every minute of it. This second-chance romance captured my heart, and I was sad when it ended!

I am a sucker for good banter and the back-and-forth between the main characters; being mean is a love language! Collins Carter and Nate Adams used to be best friends, and after ten years of being apart, they are trusted back into each other's path when Collins is forced to move back home after a crazy backup. I love the revenge setting, which is foreplay for Collins and Nate's relationship!

This is my second novel by Alexa Martin, and I enjoy her writing style and the stories she creates with passion, humor, and a chance to find love! Also, the inception of her writing a romcom in a romcom is brilliant!

I recommend this cute rom-com to anyone looking for a cute read that will have you laughing, crying, and begging for these two characters to make it work!

This is one of those stories that is witty and smart and will have you laughing out loud while also tugging at your heart strings. I absolutely loved it!!  Collins' internal dialogue and sassy comments had me smiling through this entire book. The grudges and petty smear campaigns were hilarious. She and Nate clearly had chemistry from their first run in at the coffee shop.  They had both been so hurt as kids they couldn't see past that to try and repair their relationship, at least until the campaign definitely forced them to spend time together.  Collins' struggle with not feeling good enough and not belonging will really resonate with a lot of people, I know it did with me.

I loved Collins' BFF Ruby and new friend Ashleigh.  When the three of them got together it was so funny. I loved their night out on the town in C-Bus!! I highly recommend this book!

Such a good book!! With a friends to enemies to lovers trope, set in a small town, what’s not to love?!
Nate and Collins have fantastic banter, and undeniable chemistry. I will admit, I did not like Nate at all in the beginning (I’m pretty sure that was intended), but by the end my feelings changed a lot.
This wasn’t really much of a slow burn book, with the switch from enemies to lovers being really sudden and unexpected, but there was still enough of the plot left for the story to continue in an interesting way.
There was some really great side characters such as Ruby and Ashleigh, and Collins’ parents.
Overall, a really enjoyable book!!

"Sorry Adams" I say once Ruby loosens her grip on my cheeks. "But you're going down."
And then maybe later, he can go down again...

-enemies to lovers
-small town

I'm a sucker for the enemies to lovers trope so there was no doubt that I was going to love this one. Collins and Nate have a history that they can't seem to shake as they become neighbors in this new rom-com. Will they stay rivals or form a new type of bond?

Who would have thought that an HOA could be so sexy, competitive, and so fun? Alexa Martin nailed it with Next-Door Nemesis. Martin brought to life characters that were authentic and real. The character growth of Collins Carter was the feel-good moment I needed. Collins was a fantastic main character.. and the side characters, particularly her two friends, were a joy.. I'd love a book from Ruby's pov.
If you love a return to a hometown, a friends to enemies to lovers rom-com, you will not be disappointed with Next-Door Nemesis.

I read and reviewed a complementary digital copy provided by netgalley and the publisher. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

The premise of this sounds a bit bananas. Two ex best friends, current enemies, are in a battle in a heated HOA election. Does this sound completely like fiction to you!? Well let me tell you I live in the suburbs and I could see a highly contentious HOA battle happening irl! Anyway, I loved so much more about this book.
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Collins comes home from LA after losing her career, her boyfriend and her home. Here are the things I love. I simply adore her parents who she returns to. They love her. They support her. They push her and they just want her happy. I adore her best friend Ruby who is 100% there for her in the good, the bad and the ugly. I love her new friend Ashleigh and her unwavering support and I love Nate her arch nemesis/ love.
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I love the way Martin writes. She writes with so much humor and so much heart! This one really worked for me !
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Thank you @berkleypub #berkleybesties and @netgalley
for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun, fast read!

Collins and Nate were very good friends as kids and had a falling out which caused Collins to hate him from that point on. She got out of their small town and went off to LA to become a screenwriter. After her life implodes from a viral video gone wrong, she's forced to head back home and lick her wounds in that very same small town she vowed never to return to. She's not surprised to see Nate still living there, but she takes issue with him being Mr. Popularity and a beloved member of the HOA in their neighborhood especially when she thinks he's the worst. She decides then and there to do everything in her power to get revenge, even if it means running against him for HOA president when she had no intentions of staying home to begin with.

Collins was a really entertaining character and Nate was actually quite sweet after they came clean to each other. Their banter throughout the book and the chaos they created together was hilarious. I loved Collins' parents and her friends as well.

If you like enemies to lovers rom coms in a small town setting, this is right up your alley! This was my first Alexa Martin read and I'll definitely be checking out more of her work! Thanks to Good Girls PR and Berkeley Romance for the early copy!

This is Alexa's best work honestly. It is funny, it's deep, complex. Asks you to question how you treat others and how you treat yourself. How you can build your confidence back up. And it's dirty with a FILTHY hot talking nerd who backs up that nerdiness with khakis and vests. I am obsessed with him. Both characters feel fleshed out. I wanted them to succeed - both in their lives and in their loves together. Plus the backdrop of small town shenanigans and a HOA president battle was SO FUN. Really a great enemies to lovers.

Let me start by saying I devoured playbook series during covid (shout out my girl Brynn) and you should read that if you love sports romance. anyway, next door nemesis was cute. makes me feel exactly my 33 years bc I related hard to the hoa although my hoa is pretty low key but let me tell you when the hoa bought new pool furniture I was like a kid at Christmas. The book started a little slow for me but picked up at like 40-50%. I was dying to know what happened between Collins (love that name) and Nate and Collins and Peter like what was this sudden exodus from LA all about anyway!? But Nate is so sweet and the banter between him and Collins was hilarious. Also Collins inner monologue so good. I also thought the book wrapped up a little quickly but it was cute.

-3.75 stars

Collins is the type of heroine that makes reading rom-coms FUN. She is smart, witty, slightly flawed, comfortable with herself, and not afraid to sprinkle truth bombs. After her boyfriend pirates her screenplay and then an embarrassing video goes viral, Collins is forced to flee LA. She lands back in her childhood bedroom with her parents in the burbs of Ohio, and thinks things can’t possibly get much worse, until she learns her childhood best friend turned nemesis, Nate, has bought a house down the street, is on the HOA board, and slaps her with a fine for planting a tree in her parent’s yard. This launches Collins to start her own crusade to run for the HOA president to thwart her nemesis from his ‘tyranny’ forcing them both to get reacquainted whether they want to or not. LUST enters the chat 😂 and Collins’ attempt at a smear campaign becomes increasingly difficult to manage when Nate makes khakis look so darn good AND he seems to truly love and care about his neighbors.

I’m going to level with you; I almost DNF’d this book around 30% in, due to Collins’ second hand embarrassment and to how Nate treated Collins in the past (seriously, MEAN) and how immature Collins responded to Nate’s current life status as a suburban home owner (let the man live, Collins!). BUT, I’m such a glutton for hate forking that I decided to push forward and phew was it worth it! Also, as more was revealed about each character’s backstory during the years they spent apart it become easier to root for them to stop thwarting each other and get on with loving one another. I think rom-com readers will have strong feelings about this book, but I can comfortably say that any reader who relishes in spiteful enemies to lovers books with sizzling spice will enjoy Martin’s newest release!

Thank you to Berkley publishing, NetGalley, and Good Girls PR for my e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Collins is living the hustler's nightmare. She is blocked, with writing, relationships, and independence. Moving home to her parents to hide out was not where she ever saw life headed. Luckily, she finds inspiration and the will to get out of bed when she crosses paths with her long ago nemesis, Nathanial. Collins would just love to one-up him one more time and what better way than to steal his glory with the HOA.
This started out with such a funny hook: "If I hear live, laugh, love one more time, I'm going to die, scream, rage." What followed lived up to the beginning and this childhood nemeses to lovers brought me that Alexa joy I loved in her Playbook series (which I'm still not so subtly wishing for a spin-off of). I'll never say no to Alexa's sense of humor.
Thank you to Berkley Besties and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Quick Synopsis:
I’m guilty of hating the idea of HOAs, and I thought I would enjoy this one for that reason alone. The quick synopsis is that the MC, Collins Carter, is forced to move back home with her parents after an embarrassing video went viral. Upon returning home to Ohio, her previous best friend, now nemesis, Nate, confronts her with an HOA issue. This complaint infuriates Collins and forces her hand to run against Nate for HOA president.

Characters:
Every archetype of an Ohio suburbanite seems to be included in the seventh novel Next Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin. The characters are 100% likable. I adored the way Alexa Martin portrayed Collins’ best friend, Ruby. I also loved her relationships with her parents.

Storyline/Pacing:
Next Door Nemesis is a fast-paced, character-driven romance. This is both an enemies-to-lovers trope while also being a second-chance romance. I seem to be finding a lot of these lately, and I’m starting to think the enemies to lovers trope might not be for me, anymore.

Author:
Alexa Martin’s Next Door Nemesis has several sarcastic one-liners that I loved. Her dry wit was a welcome addition to the book.

Overall:
I recommend this to anyone who loves enemies to lovers or second chance romance tropes. Ohioans may find this a fun read as its setting is Columbus.
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫stars

Disclosure:
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkeley Publishing for the Digital Review Copy of Next Door Nemesis. All opinions are my own.

Next-Door Nemesis is a lovely, fun contemporary romance that will put a smile on your face and provide a few hours of escape from the stress inspired by the oncoming holidays.

They were once best friends. Collins Carter and Nate (Nathaniel) Adams were nearly inseparable during their elementary school years, but high school saw a rift form in their relationship when Nate became popular and essentially ghosted Collins. That was just one of the many reasons she was thrilled to leave her suburban Ohio town and become a writer in California. But after going viral for having a screaming tantrum where she threatens to bury her lying, thieving ex while wearing nothing but stilettos and a silk robe, her years of screenwriting experience mean zilch. She’s jobless and with LA prices as they are, rapidly homeless as a result and therefore back at her parent’s house in their saccharine sweet small midwest town. In her mind, it’s a stopgap before she moves on to better things, but a small, dark piece of her soul fears it may turn permanent. Fortunately, she’s made a new friend in former classmate-turned-next-door-neighbor Ashleigh. Unfortunately, Nate still lives there, and they still can’t stand the sight of each other. He’s now a well-known and beloved realtor in their community, as well as an HOA board member for their neighborhood. Avoidance isn’t just futile, it’s literally impossible. They run into each other everywhere.

Then Nate comes up with the genius plan to force Collins to leave town by using the subdivision bylaws against her and her family. He promises to allow her father to keep his against-the-regulations landscaping if she scoots back to California. Collins is horrified by Nate’s lack of scruples (me, too) and is determined to fight fire with fire. She already allowed one man to steal her dreams, drive her from her home, and wreck her life, so she sure as hell isn’t going to let that happen twice. Her solution? If Nate wants to use the HOA to force her out, why doesn’t she use the upcoming election to become president of that body? She can both strip the tyrannical Nate of his power and maybe smear his (unearned) goody two-shoes reputation in the bargain.

Things don’t work out quite as planned, however. The more Collins and Nate bicker their way through the campaign, the more they realize how perfectly matched they are. Could their opposition really be hiding an irresistible attraction?

As a writer, Martin does several things very well. One of them is her secondary characters, and here she does an absolutely fantastic job with Ashleigh, Collins’ other bestie, Ruby, and Collins’ parents, especially her mom, Kimberly. Each of these women has a unique, interesting personality that serves as a great foil to Collins without them in any way being simple sycophantic cheerleaders for the heroine. They all challenge her to be better, but each has a different way of doing it. They also fit naturally into the story and don’t show up only to solve some problem but are an everyday, realistic part of Collins’ life. I loved them and hope to see them all again in a sequel.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Martin depicts suburban life as well. It’s a lot more 1950s sitcom than 2023 reality, but in a good way. It showed neighborhoods as we would like them to be, gives a charming sense of community to the story and provides a reason for both Collins and Nate, who grew up there, to be as wholesome as they are.

Martin weaves some wonderful humor into the tale, too – there’s a scene involving a flamingo and an inflatable Ben Franklin that had me literally laughing out loud. The underlying emotion of the story is an effervescent cheeriness that makes it fun to peruse.

My quibbles come with the moments that clash with everything I’ve written about above. Collins and Nate, as mentioned, are wholesome, down-to-earth midwesterners who are typically amiable, well-adjusted adults. I loved them and loved their low-key everyday romance, except at the start of the story, when they both act like unhinged lunatics, and their relationship is so childish it’s almost cringe-worthy. It’s as though they suffer from multiple personality disorder that is (mostly) miraculously cured at the thirty percent mark. Typically, when a big misunderstanding such as the one that caused a rift between them in high school occurs, I feel the author blows it out of proportion. In this case, I felt it was underplayed a bit. The underlying issue of communication, which, frankly, crosses over into their interactions as adults for the first portion of the book, wasn’t addressed quite to my satisfaction. Also, if you are in the nerd zone, it’s less easy to join the popular crowd than it is made to seem here.

Martin writes that new hybrid type of narrative, which is part women’s fiction, part romance. She’s brilliant at it – the female friendships she creates are awesome, and she does a simply fabulous job of giving her female leads a life. Collins has family, friends, acquaintances, work, opinions, and hobbies. Too many romances are just about lust or about getting consumed by love, but a believable HEA requires the couple to have a life connection, which requires actually having a life. Collins is definitely given that. However, a small problem arises from that which impacts the romance – an almost absentee hero. I loved what I saw of Nate, and he seemed like he would be perfect for Collins, but for the first half of the story, Nate is essentially missing in action. Aside from the rather slap-sticky moments we see of their feud, he just isn’t present in a way that allows the reader to really get to know him and understand why he’s a mentally unbalanced jerk around Collins (in fairness, she’s a crazy bitch around him, but at least we know why). Fortunately, that problem is more or less solved in the second half of the story, but we still had too little of him for my taste.

Not being perfect doesn’t mean you aren’t pretty darn good, though, and that is certainly the case with Next-Door Nemesis. If you are a fan of the author, a fan of humorous contemporary romance, or just looking for a good book with nice vibes, this is the story for you.

Next Door Nemesis has unforgettable banter and a quick wit. Nate comes off strong in the beginning but I eventually really grew to like him. Collins made me laugh and I felt for her. I was rooting for her throughout. I am a sucker for epilogues and this one was done really well. If you’re looking for a fun read with emotions, this is going to be for you.

I discovered Alexa back in 2020 and have been excited for this release.

Collins was hilarious, and the banter in this book had me laughing so much. And I am pretty sure this is the first book I've ever read that involves a Home Owners Association. Add in her childhood friend turned enemy Nate and things are surely going to turn just a little petty and messy. You'll surely get plenty of laughs with this one. My only drawback to this story was I found the conflict of why Collins and Nate became enemies to be underwhelming. And something that could have easily been figured out with a simple conversation at some point.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my complimentary eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Next Door Nemesis was a fun steamy enemies to lovers/ second chance romance read. The animosity between Nathan and Collins was top notch. While they were able to act civil while in the company of others, boy oh boy, when it was just two of them WATCH OUT.
I actually cringed when they were hurling insults back and forth.

The race for HOA President was a fun and new concept for a book and I really enjoyed it.

The payoff when they finally gave in was worth it. Once I finally heard the reasoning for Nathan’s ghosting I felt so bad for him. I really liked the ending.

Perfect if you enjoy
Steam
Enemies to Lovers
Second Chance

I never thought a battle for the homeowner’s association presidency could be so entertaining. But these childhood best friends turned rivals bring it! There were secrets, a smear campaign, petty battles of one-upmanship, and a blurring of the lines between love and hate.

I laughed and smiled throughout Collins and Nate’s journey from wanting to pulverize each other to admitting their hidden feelings and ultimately finding happiness together in their small Ohio suburban hometown.

Next-Door Nemesis is full of witty banter and great characters to go with a wonderful story of finding happiness where you least expect it.

Thank you to Berkley Romance for a copy of this book.