3.5 Stars

Brian and Sarah are both down on their luck after he loses his job (amongst other life changing curveballs), and she’s proposed to out of the blue and says no. With their plans suddenly changing, they both take refuge with Jess, Sarah’s best friend and Brian’s little sister. There are only two problems here: she only has one guest room, and Sarah and Brian don’t get along.

On paper, this book has everything I’m looking for: best friends brother, a thoughtful love interest, suspense from hiding their romance, sexual tension. In actuality, this book didn’t quite do it for me and I’m not sure why. The beginning dragged a bit for me and it didn’t really pick up until the 50% mark. I also expected there to be a bit more mischief in their relationship as the book description says they “pull pranks and place wagers over who can lay claim to the bed”. I’m not saying that’s not true but it wasn’t what I was expecting and I would be liked to see more of that plot point.

That being said, the middle section was really fun and I did enjoy the characters. I also liked the rationale behind why Jess didn’t want her best friend and her brother to date. It’s important to me in books that I read that the reasoning for something happening is valuable, and/or furthers the story/character relationships and this did just that.

If you’re looking for a cute, best friend’s brother/fake dating/“enemies” to lovers romance, you might like this! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Best friend's brother, only one bed, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, dual POV. This book had all of my favorite ingredients in a story.

I don't LOVE the third act plot point. I feel like I cannot fault it because it happens in 90% of romcoms, but I really appreciate when it doesn't.

I received this ARC thanks to Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Cute romance story that is predictable but very enjoyable.

The characters are multidimensional with individual side stories that make it interesting. I had no problem getting through this book in two days, so bring some extra reading material if you are planning to bring Get a Room on vacation.

Get a Room- Casey Dembowski ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sarah is going through the worst time of her life when she is left without a place to live after rejecting her boyfriend's engagement. Brian isn't in a better place in his life either. He moves to Philadelphia to refresh his head after a hard breakup and the problem with discovering a further career path. The fact that he will have to share an apartment not only with his sister but also with her best friend does not make things any easier for him.

Tropes
🌸best friend’s brother
🌸one bed
🌸fake dating
🌸enemies to lovers
🌸forced proximity
🌸one bed

I have a bit of a hard time giving this book an unambiguous rating because it had a lot of pros and cons for me. Starting with the pros: I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked the characters, and it was fun to move to the place depicted in the book. However, I think that the book would be better for me if it was a YA book because my main downside was the dialogues, in which I had the impression that teenagers were talking to each other, not adults. In addition, I know that they fell in love because that's how it was written, but I didn't quite feel it, and I didn't catch the moment when it started. And I don't even want to start the subject of Jess. Theoretically, she should be a likeable character, but she really got on my nerves. She was not only selfish but also a hypocrite, and honestly, I wouldn't want a friend like that.

However, despite these few shortcomings in the overall summary, I recommend reading this book! ♥️ Plus, the ending is wonderful⭐️. And I know that I will definitely read other books by this author.

Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

Pub Date: 18 Jul 2023

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Sarah właśnie przeżywa najgorszy okres w swoim życiu gdy zostaje bez miejsca do życia po odrzuceniu zaręczyn swojego chłopaka, który delikatnie mówiąc: nie przyjął odmowy zbyt dobrze. Brian też nie jest w lepszym miejscu swojego życia. Przeprowadza się do Filadelfii, aby odświeżyć głowę po ciężkim rozstaniu i problem z odkryciem dalszej drogi kariery. Fakt, że będzie musiał dzielić mieszkanie nie tylko z siostrą, ale też z jej najlepsza przyjaciółka wcale nie ułatwia mu sprawy.

Mam trochę problem z jednoznaczną oceną tej książki, ponieważ posiadała dla mnie mnóstwo plusów, ale też minusów. Zaczynając od plusów: naprawdę miło spędziłam czas, czytając tę książkę. Polubiłam bohaterów i fajnie było się przenieść do przedstawionego w książce miejsca. Natomiast uważam, że książka byłaby dla mnie lepsza w odbiorze gdyby była książka YA, ponieważ moim główny minusem były dialogi, w których miałam wrażenie, że rozmawiają ze sobą nastolatkowie, a nie dorośli ludzie. Dodatkowo wiem, że się zakochali, bo tak było to napisane, ale nie do końca ja to czułam i nie wyłapałam momentu, w którym się zaczęło. I nawet nie chce rozpoczynać tematu Jess. Teoretycznie powinna być postacią, która się lubi, ale strasznie działała mi na nerwy. Była nie tylko egoistka, ale tez hipokrytka i szczerze mówiąc, ja bym nie chciała mieć takiej przyjaciółki.

Jednak mimo tych kilku wad w ogólnym podsumowaniu polecam sięgnąć po tą książkę♥️! I zakończenie jest cudowne⭐️. Wiem, że ja na pewno przeczytam pozostałe książki tej autorki.

Dzięki NetGalley za ARC!

Data publikacji: 18 lipca 2023 r

In all honesty this was an okay book. It was hard to follow the first half of the story since events switched quickly with a lack of transition to the new setting. I also had a hard time remembering who was the main character and who was the sister. It had a cute ending but seemed like the safe choice.

SUUUCH A CUTE ENEMIES TO LOVERS ROMCOM!

I loved the plot and the characters!

Tropes include:
My sister's best friend
Enemies to lovers

This would be a fantastic summer beach read!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book is still living rent free in my brain and I’m not mad about it.

This is my introduction to Casey Dembowski and what a fantastic introduction it was. It was good that I ran to Amazon and not only purchased the physical copy of this book, but her other two novels as well.

This book had some of my favorite tropes including: forced proximity, frenemies to lovers, and fake dating. There was enough spice to keep things heated and the banter and chemistry was *chefs kiss*. This will probably be a top book for me this year.

If you’re looking for a light rom-com, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by Get a Room.

Get a Room....

At first I was wondering how this book was going to go, it did make me curious. I was so upset with how Sarah was getting treated right from the start by her ex-boyfriend. Plus the break up had just happened so I was wondering how this story would pan out.
I can tell you that it did not disappoint. We have Sarah and Brian, our two main characters. We also have Jess who is a close secondary character who is Brian's sister and Sarah's best friend. Sarah and Brian are enemies. They have just never been friends. Now both of them find themselves needing a place to stay, which leads to Jess's small apartment! You can sense that Sarah and Brian are maybe starting to become friends after living in close quarters. Things get a little tricky when Sarah finds herself needing a little help to not look dateless, Brian steps in to help. From there the story keeps going. We have the typical ups and downs that come along the way from any enemies and fake dating situation but ends with what we call love.
Pick up Get a Room for a good, funny, sweet, sexy read. You won't be disappointed.

Great book! This is my first Casey Dembowski book—sort of important as while this is a standalone and I didn’t see anything about it being a series or connected to other published works, it is her third book and interconnected with characters from her first two—both of which I will read but the information included in this one gives plenty of spoilers for the other two. This aside I enjoyed the characters, the writing style, the pacing, the short chapters, the banter, and the entire storyline and even with the spoilers from the other books I have order both so I can spend more time with Dembowski’s work.

Can’t wait to finish these and see what comes next!

this book started off super strong. i liked the plot, I liked their banter, I liked the pranks they pulled on each other. then all of a sudden, the banter and the pranks just stopped. and then they clearly liked each other but were "faking".
it just felt like we skipped a whole chunk where they slowly started to realise they could be friends and didn't have to fight all the time. Plus I don't even get why they hated each other? like it was basically, "I think you're hot but I cant do anything about it because you're my sister's best friend, so I'll just hate you instead when really I'm imagining dirty things."
I also really did not like the whole third act break up and fight the fmc had with her best friend.
they fully lied to her best friend and expected her to not be mad? that's not how it works lmao.


"Sarah Webb, the bane of his existence for the last eight years, fit perfectly."

the things I did like:
- the couple itself was pretty cute
- I loved the scene where they were making her ex jealous
- I loved the fact that the mmc brought her coffee everyday, and different drinks so she could try them. i LOVED that as a coffee girly myself.
- I loved that he bought her favourite candy for her even when they were supposedly hating each other.
- there were some pretty cute quotes in there as well.

“And what do I get if I win?”
“Forever.” “And if I lose?” she asked. “Forever.”

overall, strong 3 stars.

This book was cute and lighthearted and fun to read. All of the tropes were fun and worked well together - Best friends brother, forced proximity, and fake dating, only one bed. And I loved the silly antics and the chemistry between the two main characters.
The third act drama went on for a little longer than I prefer, and the sisters feelings seemed to overshadow the couple’s feelings for a bit, but I appreciated all the conversations that it brought up. And I loved the ending.

Get a Room combines some of my favorite romance tropes; enemies to lovers, best friend's sibling and fake relationship. Sarah and Brian try to hide their evolving feelings, but their personalities fit so perfectly together. Their antics had me laughing out loud and their relationship takes you through all the emotions of a true love story. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you netgalley and red adept publishing for the arc in exchange for a review! This was such a fun book to read and I will definitely be reading it again. This book was very entertaining and I love all of the tropes that were included in the book (listed below).

tropes included:
one bed (forced proximity)
fake dating
rivals to lovers
brother’s best friend
dual pov

This was cute and sweet but mostly just okay. I never got the chemistry between Brian and Sarah. Even their "enemies" arc never landed for me. The story was predictable and moved slowly despite being chock full of some of my favorite tropes.

Spice rating: 3/5
(Spice scale: 1 Kissing, no sex implied or stated, 2 Closed door (sex implied or stated but reader not present), 3 Open door (on page sex), euphemistic language, 4 Explicit 1-3x, 5 Explicit and repeated > 3x or; on page kink)


Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy of this e-book provided in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun rom com! While I love a good enemies to lovers romance, I think I enjoyed the fake dating aspect of this book best. In the beginning, I really didn’t like Sarah. I found her to be selfish and judgmental. But once the fake dating storyline came into play, it really warmed me up to her. By the end of the novel I can say I liked the growth her character made. The only character I didn’t like the entire time was Jess but I imagine most people probably don’t like her. Obviously the best character in the entire book was Brian. He’s sweet, thoughtful and confident in who he is. I loved that he didn’t take any crap for enjoying Star Wars and video games.

If you’re looking for a fun, quick read, this is the book for you!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC to review!

Best friend’s brother/sister’s best friend. Fake dating. Forced proximity. Forbidden romance. Enemies-ish to lovers? One bed. Dual, 3rd POV. Open door.

Characters are well fleshed out. Flawed and layered and passionate and interesting to read about. Their growth is great and realistic to see too. It felt age appropriate and refreshing to see how the characters worked through their problems with each other, minor characters, and their jobs. The MMC tears up and cries a few times at the end!

I love the arc FMC and her ex took. That was lovely to see. I wasn’t expecting any sort of mea culpa or redemption of sorts in that relationship, so to see them acknowledge the hurt they both caused and move past it like mature adults was chef’s kiss.

The banter in this book is top tier. They both give as well as they take. They’re both confident (but I wouldn’t call them Alphas at all) and competent. No one is a fragile, blushing, embarrassed goober.

Sister is annoying. Obviously hiding something the entire story but has the Gaul to get mad that they hide their relationship. She’s very immature and never really grovels. She just comes back, sad, and is willing to help them get together.

Pacing with their back and forth almost felt off? Like, I enjoyed reading all of their scenes, but there were a few I felt like probably could’ve been cut and the story wouldn’t have suffered. I think this might be a result of the publishing house it came from. I actually thought it was a really, really good self-pubbed titled until I dug a little. But the publisher is traditional and much smaller and allows for direct submissions. I love those publishers and what they do for authors! But I’ve also found that they usually have slightly different pacing requirements than bigger trad houses, so to me it made sense. (Also the author has a degree in writing, and I find that those authors usually have slightly different styles than other mainstream counterparts who don't hold those degrees.)

The 3rd act break up was way OTT and dramatic. And stupid because they’re all how old and the sister is still worried about being dumped and replaced for her brother?

Brian’s job is not consistent throughout the book. In the beginning, he’s a “full stack engineer” but then later he’s being offered a “senior systems engineer” job. Which Hubs, who knows that world way more than I do, says those are two different jobs, and he wouldn’t necessarily be qualified to do the second. Also, he’s a freaking software engineer who can’t get hired??? Red flag if that’s true. But it wouldn’t be. Hubs also said experience in a start up would be A) off the book nor B) undesirable for other companies. Also that he was in NYC would’ve yielded many many offers over night. I know the author needed a job that fit what she wanted to do, but like, google exists. Reddit exists. Ask around with some questions.

The actual romance in the book was done almost flawlessly. Very subtle and small changes that felt realistic as opposed to plot devices. They have some back-and-forth which was nice because they have their lusty awakening, I guess I’d call it, pretty early in the story. But then they don’t act on it immediately. And even when they first do, they pull back and don’t dive head first into what would’ve felt like instal love to me.

This is a devour book. I kept having to put it down and *wanting* to come back to it. It was easy to get drawn into and be excited to flip the page. It was engaging, compelling, and the right amount of dialogue and inner monologue for me. The banter, the characters, they way they were subtly and obviously drawn together, even the ways the B and C plots were woven together with the A in ways that were natural, non-segmented, and not boring. It was a great read. Enjoyable and fun. Escapism at its best.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was such a good enemies to lovers, best friends brother, and fake dating trope. Honestly, a perfect mixture of the three!!

Jess is already having a bad day when she turns down her boyfriends proposal. But it gets even worse when she shows back up at her best friend Jess’ house to see if she can have her old room back. She finds out the room and bed is already being taken by Jess’ brother Brian, who she does not get along with. But without nowhere else to go, she’s forced to share it all with Brian.

Soon after moving in, Brian agrees to be Sarah’s date for a work Gala as her fake boyfriend, to show off to her ex. But before they know what’s happening, they share a kiss and it all turns real too quickly. Are these feelings here to stay? And what will happen if Jess finds out about them dating, after making Sarah promise she would never date her brother.

Jess was a pretty unlikeable character, but she did redeem herself a bit in the end. Watching Sarah and Brian’s friendship sizzle into a relationship, was so fun and sweet. And the epilogue was absolutely perfect!!

I received a copy of this to read for providing my honest review. This was a very cute Rom-com with a sprinkle of spice. it includes a lot of favorite tropes: best friend's brother, fake dating and forced proximity.

This classic romcom was a sweet twist on the "brother's best friend" trope where Sarah and Brian have to navigate a relationship that was forbidden by Brian's sister Jess. One bed, fake dating, forced proximity, it's got it all!

So good! I love a best friends brother/ fake date book. This book was simply wonderful. The characters the story line. Just perfect. I couldn't read this fast enough. Love it!
I just reviewed Get a Room by Casey Dembowski. #GetaRoom #NetGalley
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