The Neighbor Wager is a re-telling of Sabrina but with gender reversal. It involves Deanna, Lexi, and River. The troupe of a love triangle is introduced, and that is normally not a troupe I go to. Overall, this book fell short. I liked the way Deanna was portrayed as a smart woman in STEM, but I thought River was somewhat creepy with his infatuation. This book was good, not great. I found myself enjoying it more often than not, but I don't think I'd grab it off the shelf.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. It seemed like a great concept, and I was very excited for it, but after a few chapters I still couldn't get into the story and ended up stopping reading. I just could not connect with the characters at all.

I found this one a little hard going - I love the premise but I think there needed to be a bit more character development on page before Deanna and River could get together. Lexi and Jake also felt very two dimensional which may not have helped.

It was unclear why the sisters were running a dating app to begin with, outside of the conflict between Deanna and River towards the end of the book, as both claimed not to believe in love, while also chasing it for themselves.

I'll definitely read more by this author, but this one wasn't quite on the mark for me

I didn't end up finishing this book. I had a really hard time getting into it and I was surprised because I've read a Crystal Kaswell book before and really enjoyed it! Just goes to show you that not every story is for every person. This will not stop me from reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you for the ARC for my honest review.

This was a good book. It didn’t move me like I had hoped a cute rom com would, however it did have its good moments! It was a little slow for me and i think that’s what made it just “okay” for me. I’m not much for science or magic, and think that if you enjoy this stuff- you might fall in love with this book. The characters are really cute and the overall plot is unique. 3 Stars for me!

Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for this arc in exchange of my honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book. It took me a little to get into but I loved River (MMC) but Deanna was a little too prickly for me. The premise of River having had a crush for most of his life on Deanna's sister, Lexi, was completely believable. Deanna's problems with past dates were also really fun but I found Lexi's boyfriend a bit weird. Also, who requires a relationship to prove the business success of a dating app? That bit was too much.

Big thanks to Netgalley, Entangled Publishing and Crystal Kaswell for this early release copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a really fun book to jump into especially if you’re looking for a feel good story. The back and forth banter was really funny, I loved the slow burn build and it had the perfect amount of spice when I it showed up! I really enjoyed the modernized take of the classic movie “Sabrina”. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author

Slow, basic characters. The concept sounded like it could work but it failed in the execution by just being typical repeat of what we've seen before

It was the writing of this one that caused me not to finish it. From the first chapter, it had cringey thoughts from the MMC and some oddly obsessive ideas. The concept was nice, but the execution was not it. Most of the dialogue felt immature or repetitive. The FMC often talked about casual sex to the point of it being annoying. I was finished with this book almost from the beginning.

I liked the synopsis and I was happy to get into reading, but all in all, it was just an ok story for me. I will look into other author books because I believe that there are good stories to read.

It was a great book, the story is amazing! I cant wait to read more from this author! I gave this book 4/5 stars, it was very well written and i just fell in love with the characters. I want to keep this spoiler free so i wont same much else but it was very enjoyable and i highly recommend

This was a cute and fun rom-com! I was definitely attracted to the girl-boss vibes of the FMC Deanna as the founder of a social media app with her sister. River, their childhood neighbor, has always had a huge crush/infatuation to Lexi, and when he comes back to town, Deanna and him strike up a wager over the merits of love. If Deanna can prove what he’s feeling for Lexi isn’t love, he will stop pursuing her. The only problem will be if these two can avoid catching feelings for each other in the process. I was worried about having River switch from one sister to the other, but it was done well and was very believable!

Readers can expect:
💙Girl(s) Next Door
🩷Bet Against Love
💙STEMinist FMC (developer of dating app); Boss lady!
🩷Artist MMC
💙Opposites Attract
🩷Transfer of Interest (childhood crush on one sister, falls for the other)
💙Dual POV
🩷On-page Steamy scenes/k!nk exploration
💙SoCal setting/scenery

Really cute story with the perfect amount of spice. Loved the main characters and the way they played off of each other. It's a little more dialogue heavy then I like which led to some confusion over which character was speaking. Overall a really good read.

This book was harder to get into than I was expecting. The cover and description made me think of a rom-com. But nothing made me laugh. The story begins with an odd dynamic. Two sisters love each other dearly. They are both smart in their own way but the younger one Lexi just naturally outshines Deanna. Lexi is a California blonde who loves to dress in pink and is sex positive to the max. But she has never been in a relationship till now. Deanna is driven and has started her own dating app and is courting a new investor. River grew up next door while he lived with his grandmother. He was obsessed with Lexi as a teen and returning from his life in NYC he still is drawn to her. River has matured well and has the sexy artist with tattoos going for him. Slowly he begins to share things with Deanna. She’s a relationship type person and has been closed off since her last breakup.

You know where this is going. But the beginning setup didn’t draw me in. It wasn’t icky but close to it. This is open door with steamy times and a little kink thrown in as well. River is more broody and serious than I expected. And some serious topics are covered like death of a parent and parental abandonment. But I was turned off at the idea that Lexi wanted to be on a break with her love so that she could hook up elsewhere. And Deanna was willing to step aside for the sake of her business venture. That doesn’t scream love and HEAs to me.

3 stars.

"The Neighbor Wager" by Crystal Kaswell is... fine. That's not much of a compliment, but I don't have a lot to say about this book one way or the other. It isn't inherently *bad,* it's just a little... I don't know. Boring? Familiar? Lacking? All of the above? It lacks the "oomph" I look for in a romance novel, one that will get me invested and keep me there until the very last page. This one didn't do that for me, and I felt a little "yeah, yeah, hurry it on up" while reading it. Never a good thing. Still, this book is spicier than its innocent-looking cover would have you believe. That's a good thing for people like me who believe in the philosophy "the spicier, the better." Unfortunately, there isn't a significant spark between the main characters, Deanna and River, so the spice is essentially wasted. Still, A+++ effort when it comes to characters discussing k1nks, having frank discussions about bedroom wants and likes and desires, and the un-shaming nature of these topics. While the acts were pretty vanilla in execution, I appreciate the effort to include such discussions to a wide audience of readers.

This is the author's modern take on the story of "Sabrina," which I absolutely love (and hey, don't knock the remake, it's excellent, too!), so I was looking forward to this. The first 35-40% of the story is very slowly paced. I do like the idea of pitting River's idea of life (knowing love when you see it) against Deanna's outlook (a cold hard facts-and-algorithm-and-data-driven assessment of the world around her, including love). Since River spent so much time obsessed with Deanna's sister, Lexi, in the past and the present, I think the shift from Lexi to Deanna felt a little unearned and unnatural to me. His like (and eventual love) of Deanna sort of comes out of nowhere. The build-up between them is attempted but is not strong enough to erase just how long he pined and yearned for Lexi. Another big dislike for me was just how stereotypical Deanna is portrayed as a character. She is the "cold" type of high-powered, has-it-all, boss-B woman who only cares about facts and logic and the bottom line, but hates being treated as such and has her wants and needs misunderstood and ignored. Even though we *hear* how misunderstood she is, we don't get to see a lot of this side of her. I would have liked more of that.

All in all, I hate to say it, but I likely won't remember this book in a month or so. I wish it had been better, but here we are. It is a quick read despite its initial slowness.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crystal Kaswell, Entangled Publishing, LLC, and Entangled: Amara for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn't influence my review. This was a good read, but I have some problems with the male MMC. If he has been "obsessed" with her sister from the start, why is he lusting after her from the beginning of his POV after meeting them after a long time? This didn't make sense to me at all, like if you like a specific girl, why would you just instantly obsess after her polar opposite sister, while barely displaying affection for the one you allegedly have always liked? That confused me while reading the book.

Life has been crazy so it took me a little longer to get through this book but what a delightful read. I’m not one for love triangle, I usually stick away from the trope, but I definitely didn’t bother me in this book. It was a slow start but the characters really getting a groove in the story picks up 30%.
Even though I’m not one for love triangles, I am one for the stories that have the hero coming back in town and has a lot more swagger than he did when he was younger. River, Deanna, and Lexi Go through a lot of craziness in this book. Such an easy read.

River has always had a crush on Lexi, the gorgeous girl next door. As adults, they are both back home. Lexi is as stunning as ever and has finally noticed River now that he’s all grown up. There’s one problem. Lexi is dating someone else, and the future of the dating app she runs with her sister, Deanna, is dependent on her staying with him. Deanna is forced to prove to River that he doesn’t actually love Lexi.

This book started a little slow for me, but the last half went by much faster. There wasn’t anything in particular that I didn’t enjoy about this book, but it just didn’t quite hit right for me. I think the pacing was a bit off and it was longer than expected with too much backstory. It also didn’t give off the lighthearted romcom vibes that I was expecting. I didn’t really love the love triangle with the two sisters. It felt like River was stuck on Lexi but then moved on to Deanna so quickly that it was unrealistic. I did enjoy that Deanna was a career driven woman and liked the sisterly bond she had with Lexi.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the ARC.

This book let me down. There was just nothing interesting about the characters. No romance. No spark. Just a waste of my time.

I'm not sure why, but this book wasn't hitting the spot for me. I feel like some of the situations ABC explanations were a bit lengthy and unnecessary, making the book drag. By the 35% mark, I still wasn't into it so I skipped forward a bit. And I still felt the same. I'm also a huge mood reader, so I might try to read it again sometime in the future.