Thank you to the publisher for the gifted e-copy.

The premise of this book had me excited, but sadly it just didn't work for me. The writing was just okay and I hated all of the characters.

River spent his entire teen years in love with the girl next door, but she barely knew who he was. Years later he's home visiting and *SURPRISE* he's hot now, and guess who notices him? Except Lexi has a boyfriend (who she promptly breaks up with because she wants to bang River), and her sister is like "oh noooo, not a good idea! because my app says you need to be with the boyfriend!" So Deanna (the sister) tries to keep them separated, but somehow River decides now he's into Deanna and they start sleeping together.

How does he go from YEARS of loving Lexi to all of a sudden thinking "oh Deanna is hot, I love her now"?

Also, the book is supposed to be about a wager between River and Deanna, yet it's barely mentioned.

I do think this author has a lot of potential, but the execution needs to be better.

An interesting story that delves into the science of attraction. However, I wanted more depth in the characters, more emotion..Overall the book was lighthearted and engaging.
Many thanks to Entangled and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to Netgally for this ARC, all opinions are my own. This book really let me down. I was so looking forward to it, but it just lacked so much. I just really didn't feel anything for the characters or their relationship. There wasn't really any true connection between them. I'm just so sad about this one.

Love that River enters a wager with Deanna to make her realise love is a real thing. Love their connection and how unique they are. Love can be truly magical.

This was such a fun read! I absolutely enjoyed every second of it, I really enjoyed all the characters and I loved the storyline. It was a great mix of sweet and spicy, however to me the ending felt a little rushed, I really would have loved a few more chapters at the end! I absolutely loved this and rated it four stars.

I've got mixed feelings on this one, I won't lie. I really enjoyed the boss-babe vibes, the real go-getter attitude and honestly just the authority power that Deanna holds but the whole "I don't believe in love" cynical attitude and almost pitty on herself for being a woman just grated on me. I get it, people carry that trauma of heartbreak or whatever. Some people don't believe in a romantic relationship for themselves and that's fine. It just feels wildly out of place for what should be a romantic comedy. It just gets frustrating and almost left me rooting for River to go fall in love with literally anyone else.

With that being said, get past the first 40% or so and it really picks up and turns into something more relatable to what was marketed. I really appreciated some of those awkward bits because that's relatable and real to relationships. Concept was nice, the idea of this app was really fun and interesting, and there were some bits that really hit home.

2.5⭐
2 🌶️

As a teen River was absolutely in love with his next-door neighbor and blonde bombshell, Lexi. The problem is Lexi never gave him the time of day. When they all grew up, Lexi and her sister Deanna created a dating app together that has helped match Lexi with her boyfriend Jake. But when all-grown-up River comes back home to see his grandmother and reconnects with Lexi, she's now completely intrigued by him now that he's tall, dark, tattooed and handsome.

She's not the only one interested in River - Lexi's older sister Deanna is interested. In order to make sure Lexi doesn't make any mistakes and put their joint business in jeopardy, Deanna works to get close to River to keep his attention. Too bad she ends up making a wager with him and falling for him in the process.

This was such a fast, fun read. I enjoyed it, but it was almost all fluff. River and Deanna are so horny for each other. Seriously the first 50% is just them wanting to f*ck. I appreciate a steamy novel, but honestly I needed something else
I didn't feel connected to the romance, their background, any characters or anything really. I'm glad I listened to the audio because I sped that up to 2.5x.


💙 Boy Next Door
💙 Second Chance Romance
💙 Dual POV
💙 Emotional family drama
💙 Hot, charming nerds
💙 STEAMY

CW: Cancer, parents with addiction

Thank you to NetGalley & Entangled: Amara for an eARC of The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell.

I loved this book. It goes to show how your outlook on certain things can change when you grow up. The wager between River and Deanna sparks a story that is beautiful and sweet. I adored River and could relate to Deanna in certain aspects. You should definitely give it a read!

This was definitely not what I was expecting. The romance between River and Lexi was definitely cute, but I wasn’t expecting the book to be this spicy. Several of the characters were pretty open about their sex lives and stuff so I shouldn’t have been that surprised, but I feel like the two main characters thought about sleeping together more than they had feelings for each other. It was still enjoyable and cute, but definitely a lot more focused on spice than I was expecting.

Thank you Entangled for the ARC in exchange for a review. This was an easy, cute as well as a fast read.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC.

I definitely felt the Sabrina vibes flipped in this one! The neighbor who is in love with one sibling until another starts to emerge as the actual love interest. Unfortunately I found myself not actually rooting for the love story and annoyed with the characters. In the end I decided not to finish this one.

Thank you Entangled for the ARC in exchange for a review. I love a romance with a dating app in it, idk. This was an easy, cute read.

This was such a fun and flirty book! I loved the main characters, and I thought they had great chemistry, You could cut the tension with a knife.

River was such a great boy next door, and I liked watching his and Deanna's relationship develop. I do wish the love triangle hadn't involved sisters, but that's my only complaint,

This was such a fun read and I'm so thankful to have gotten an early copy. I'll definitely be checking out more books by this author!

oh. my. goodness. this book was absolutely incredible!!!! i had so much fun reading this book. it was lovely and wonderful and amazing. thank you so much to netgalley for letting me read this book before the publication date!!!

I don’t know about you, but I was absolutely awkward in my teen years, just like our MMC River. River had a crush on the girl next door, Lexi, who also has a sister, Deanna. Growing up, Deanna was interested in River while beautiful, lovely Lexi wasn’t.
Now, everyone is all grown up. Deanna created a dating app to help people find their love using an algorithm (although, she’s kind of wishy washy on whether or not she believes in true love herself). Lexi meets and falls in love with her boyfriend through the app and Deanna desperately wants their relationship to work for her own, somewhat selfish, interests.
That becomes a problem when River moves back to town, no longer awkward but sexy and dang are those tattoos? Lexi takes a sudden new interest in the former boy next door, jeopardizing everything that Deanna is working for.
And Deanna may still have a thing for River. When she and River make a deal… Deanna is forced to see that maybe love isn’t all in an algorithm. Who ends up with who? Read this to find out!
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for a DRC of this romance!!

This was definitely not what I was expecting. The romance between River and Lexi was definitely cute, but I wasn’t expecting the book to be this spicy. Several of the characters were pretty open about their sex lives and stuff so I shouldn’t have been that surprised, but I feel like the two main characters thought about sleeping together more than they had feelings for each other. It was still enjoyable and cute, but definitely a lot more focused on spice than I was expecting.

I liked the concept but it wasn't executed well. I couldn't really connect with the characters. DNFed almost 70% in because I couldn't bear Lexi.

3.5 rounded up to 4

please note that the trigger warnings and topes/themes may contain spoilers
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
HEA: yes
spice: a couple open-door spicy scenes
TWs: addiction, cancer, death of a parent (recounted), OW drama, parental abandonment
standalone: yes
final thoughts: this book was fun, easy to read, and had interesting characters. I had such a great time reading it and seeing River and Deanna’s relationship evolve but I wish we saw MORE. I wanted to see more from River and I wanted to hear much less from Lexi. I didn’t enjoy Lexi’s character at all and I didn’t understand River’s infatuation with her and it kept taking me out of the book. Luckily I liked Deanna enough to see how she was going to react to all her situations.

read this book if you love

😬 angst
🏝️ forced proximity
🔀 opposites attract
💓 slowburn
🏡 small town
💞 neighbors-to-lovers
⛓️ BDSM (mild)

This was absolutely NOT the book for me. I should have DNFd this one and very much regret not doing so!

Sorry- I won’t be recommending this book