**Rating:** 4.75 ⭐️ | 🌶️

- Forced Proximity
- Rivals to Lovers
- Hidden Identity
- He Falls First/Harder

**My Review:**
Emily and Jack are feisty with each other and their banter is great. I found myself laughing quite a bit at their antics.

What I loved:
I loved the emails that were shared (or not) between the MCs and how that provided an understanding to their past.

What I did not love:
I quite loved this book, but I can say one thing that I did not love was Emily’s slight mean streak. I respect her wanting to protect her peace & space, but it was quickly approaching mean girl territory.

Overall I really enjoyed the book, and the continued character development of Emily’s siblings (Noah & Annie from previous books + Madison, no book…yet?). I cannot wait for the next book in Rome! (I’m hoping is Madison’s Book!!)

**Thank you to Netgalley and Dell/Random House Publishing Group for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll always love a good friends to lovers! Returning to Rome, we’re getting the third Walker sibling’s story, Emily. Her second grade class is out for the summer and she’s about to enjoy this break made even sweeter after her years-long nemesis Jack moves away to be with his fiancée. This is about to be a dream summer focusing on writing her secret romance novel…and it’s all put through the ringer when none other than Jack is in HER writing spot at her cafe…back in town, newly single, and not only returning to his old job as the other second grade teacher, but moving in next door to Emily. Plenty of thwarting and sabotage ensues with the animosity at an all time high, but some common ground may help them realize they might be better off as friends instead of enemies…and maybe a tad bit more.
This was another fun and cute romcom by Sarah Adams, made all the more special by my favorite trope. The character development for both Emily & Jackson made the story all the more impactful and deep. I also love that Sarah left some loose ends (so hopefully we get the fourth sibling’s story soon?)
Thank you to Random House Ballantine for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal is a rivals-to-lovers romance with sharp banter and undeniable chemistry. The two main characters initially can’t stand each other, but always find themselves drawn together, turning their rivalry into a slow-burn filled with humor and emotional depth.
Adams’ writing is fast-paced, with plenty of snappy dialogue that makes their transition from rivals to lovers feel both earned and fun without feeling like there was never any animosity between them. The book also finds a good balance of lighthearted moments with themes of trust, vulnerability, and personal growth making this a must read contemporary romance for 2025.

So this was so cute that I finished it in one day. I enjoyed this a little more than the second book of the series, Practice Makes Perfect. Emily and Jack’s banter is GREAT! There are times where I found myself thinking how unrealistic a detail is but if you’re going into this series for some escapism, then I think that it’s perfectly fine and it didn’t deter me from enjoying this book one bit. It was a little bit of a slower burn than I wanted but it still slow burned very well. And I thought the discussion surrounding grief and parents was thoughtful, as was author’s notification for it and the spicier scenes at the beginning of the book. Easy and fun to read! I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a mostly lighthearted enemies to lovers!

Thank you again to Sarah Adams, Random House Oublishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for the eARC!

I absolutely LOVED this!!! Couldn’t put it down and I loved the timeline of their relationship. This is probably my favorite one from this series hands down!

A true honor to receive an electronic ARC and then get my hands on a physical ARC. Sarah Adams books hold a very special place in my heart and this book was no exception.

This book follows another Walkers sibling journey to love. This time following Emily and her nemesis Jack. I absolutely loved the fighting, bickering and banter. I thought the enemies to lovers was done beautifully in this instance.

What really stood out to me and where I connected, was the idea of how hard it is to let people in and love people after great loss due to the fear of losing them again. It’s so easy to feel like everyone is always going to leave and you are not needed and Emily’s character had me crying quite a few times.

The only reason this isn’t a five star for me is I think some of the character traits were quite a bit forced and I think there could have been more resolution with some mental health aspects and some plot aspects honestly.

My absolute favorite part of this series will always be Rome Kentucky and this book is no exception. Sarah Adams has built a beautiful and hilarious town. I cannot wait to see Madison and James epic love story that we all know MUST BE COMING since book one.

My first Sarah Adams book and definitely not my last. I love their blatant chemistry, even as they were rivals. I love how Jack and Emily both came to trust eachother and lean on eachother. This was a semi slow burn and so so so good. It was funny, emotional, and just what I needed to start off the year.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own..

Forgive me for I have a lot of confessions to make.

One: When I requested this book, it was based on the fact that I have seen RAVE reviews for Sarah Adams and I wanted in. I didn't know Ms. Adams was a closed door romance writer.
Two: I hadn't read When in Rome or Practice Makes Perfect, but I was using this as an excuse to finally read both.
Three: When I finished Practice Makes Perfect (Which was literally perfect, FYI. I could read about Will and Anna forever) I was SO EXCITED to read about Maddie and James. So when I opened this book to EMILY. Stick up her butt, Emily. UGH. This is where I ask for forgiveness.

5 Stars. This book was delicious. I did not want to read about Emily. In fact, I considered skipping Emily's book (after reading the first 2), because I wasn't ready to read about someone I do not strive to be. But Ms. Adams, oh how you have changed me. Emily and Jackson were so good together. I couldn't get enough of these rivals to friends to lovers. The tension, the STEAM, oh the steaminess of this book, that has no graphic on page sex. So, so good. I enjoyed the character growth of both MCs and loved the side additions and peeks we got into the former MCs and (hopefully) the future MCs.

I can't wait to read more of Sarah Adams. She writes exactly what romance should be and gets into the head of these characters SO WELL.

*Beg, Borrow, or Steal* took me on an emotional rollercoaster filled with humor, steam, and so much unexpected sweetness. If you're looking for a fun, charming read, this one is a must!

At the heart of the story are Emily Walker and Jack Bennett, two characters with sizzling chemistry and an unforgettable dynamic that dates back to their first day of college. Emily is delightfully uptight and somewhat prickly, especially when it comes to Jack. Jack, on the other hand, is charming, cheeky, and universally liked. When Jack calls off his wedding and ends up moving next door to Emily, their long time feud ramps up. Their enemies-to-lovers arc is perfection, filled with sharp banter, moments of vulnerability, and tension that will keep you hooked from the very first page.

I adored the development of their relationship. When Emily gets herself into a precarious situation, she’s forced to team up with Jack and their reluctant alliance blooms into something far more complicated. Sarah Adams masterfully navigates their slow-burn romance. The push and pull between them is so satisfying, and you’ll be rooting for them to finally give in to their undeniable connection.

The characters are flawed but relatable, and their growth throughout the book is touching. The pacing is spot-on and the small-town setting of Rome, Kentucky, adds a layer of warmth to the story. It feels like a place you’d want to visit—full of quirky characters and cozy charm. The secondary characters are a joy as well, adding depth to the community and giving the story a rich, well-rounded feel.

Overall, *Beg, Borrow, or Steal* is a fantastic read that combines all the elements of a great rom-com—great banter, emotional depth, and a romance that will make your heart race.

ARC provided by NetGalley

You know how a really great kiss can make you feel a little day-dreamy haze, and love drunk, while also giddy. That is what reading BBS feels like. Prepare to walk around love drunk from this book!

Sarah Adams giftedly absorbs you into Rome. You’ll be invested from go at the well-written character development, the humor, the attraction - in the BEST of ways. You can’t help but want the best for these characters. Their relationship is built beautifully! And it’s just such a fun read all around! Life is rough, go spend some time in Rome, KY and remember there’s good too.

Both Emily and Jack have personal accomplishments and goals. They are well-established, independent, and capable on their own. When they first met outside influences forced them into the role of competitive enemies. But years later, they are going through transitional seasons that cast a new light on each other. Watching them become one another’s safe space, biggest encourager, sidekick, and give-in to their attraction with a slow-burn that hurts sooo good was an ABSOLUTE DELIGHT. There’s a reason you see “Sarah-tonin” jokes! The impact is REAL.


“You think you’re unlovable, but I think I’ve never known how to love until knowing you.” *sobs into my Kindle*

“We stand here like this for a while — Jack holding me. His body like sheets fresh out of the dryer.” I could keep going, but I’ll not ruin any more first-read fun for you! Just know the metaphor in this book is delicious!!

***I kindly received an ARC. This is my (enthusiastically delighted) honest review. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the publisher for giving me the gift of BBS! I can’t wait to see you back in Rome soon!***

Omg Sarah Adams does it again!! I absolutely adore this little town she has created. It feels so warm and welcoming. I absolutely loved this book! There was an insane amount of chemistry between Emily and Jack and I loved the added angst of them both being writers and going through their own struggles. I can’t wait for the next book. I’m foaming at the mouth for it

Wow, what a great start to 2025! 🎆 This was such a cute, witty, heartwarming story. I found myself laughing and crying at different points. Jackson and Emily’s story felt so realistic, and their characters really grew as they aged throughout their relationship from enemies to lovers. Both characters went on a self growth journey that was uplifting and relatable, showing vulnerability as they learned to deal with their emotions, how to ask for help when struggling and accepting themselves as they are. The story arc was so beautiful. I have loved every Sarah Adam’s book I have read, but this one was something special 💙 5 ⭐️’s doesn’t feel like enough.

I am physically sick—<I>sick</i> with how much I love this book. I can’t even explain the intensity of it without feeling like my heart is going to explode. I want to scream from the rooftops, but also curl up into a ball because, oh my god, this book wrecked me in the best way possible. No one, and I mean <I>no one</i>, on this entire planet will ever understand how deeply I get to these two characters—Emily and Jack—like I do. I can’t even articulate the connection I felt with them without feeling like it’s deeply personal, something I don’t want to share. But trust me, when I say that they belong to me, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve never had a book affect me like this. I literally highlighted <b>every single page</b>. And if you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to fall in love with a book so hard that it feels like you’ve lived it? This is that book. I can’t wait to get my physical copy so I can move my annotations to it 😭 so I’m warning you bc this review is very long and very passionate.

This is a classic enemies to friends to lovers. This is a quick, fun, and relatively light hearted read. There are a few heavier topics, such as parental neglect, and the trauma of losing your parents at a young age. The author does a great job at tackling these, without making this romance too heavy.

Emily is the classic eldest daughter, always care taking and setting her own needs/desires aside. Jack has been a thorn in her side since college, and she could count on that until he moved away to marry Zoe. When he suddenly turns back up in ROME and in her favorite writing spot.

She is determined that he will want to leave town, Soon things take on a life of their own when she decides that maybe, just maybe, she might want to be friends with Jack after all. That maybe he's not such a bad guy after all.

Together they both work through their past traumas (her parents dying and his lack of caring) and find themselves and each other. I feel that some of the story felt a bit rushed, and that left me wanting to know more details than were provided. However, overall I really enjoyed the third book in the series.

Two things of note. The first is that there is a bit more spice, while I personally prefer more closed door romances. I appreciate that the author gives a heads up where to expect those scenes, so a reader is prepared. The other element was I loved the way that she set up the next Walker sibling for her time to find romance. Maddie is One of the most interesting plot points was that the author has set up the next novel in the Walker family, and she does is nicely. I can't wait to read the next installment of the walker siblings.

🤍Thank you Dell Romance and PRHA for the arc🤍

The Rome, Kentucky series has been such a delight, and my love for it only grew with this book!

Sure! Here’s the text transcribed:

Emily’s character resonated with me on so many levels. She embodies the struggle of bearing immense burdens while believing she must face them alone, convinced that her strength means she’s not “soft enough” to be worthy of love.

Then there’s Jack—his dynamic with Emily adds a delightful spark to the story. Their banter is perfection, and the chemistry between them is 🔥.

By far my favorite aspect is how well they understood each other. Rather than attempting to change or fix each other, they realize that sometimes all the other person needs is to not face all the things alone.

“Beg, Borrow, or Steal” is deceptive from the get go. The title is ill fitting and the cover is clearly made by someone who did not read the book. At best character descriptions were skimmed and are still wrong. This is a light enemies/rivals to lovers contemporary romance about two elementary school teachers during summer break. I read it in one day. The FMC is Emily and the MMC is Jack.



I’m not even going to talk about Emily. Someone else can.



The character development of Jack has a lot of issues that should’ve been noticed and changed entirely or tweeked. You can tell the author wanted Jack to be a certain kind of person and didn’t know where to put him in the story to make him fit and be in the FMC’s life.



Jack is a second grade teacher. In reality 11% of elementary school teachers are male. Male general classroom teachers are super rare compared to P.E., music, art/ specials teachers. Many kids have all female teachers until middle school. It is practically unheard of to have a male general classroom teacher before grade 3. I’m not saying I agree with this. I’m saying, does Sarah Adams know this and she’s making some kind of social commentary or did she not know where to put a character?



He has many tattoos that resemble children’s school stickers. Like the ones your teacher will put on your worksheet to show you’ve done a good job. We can unpack that as Jack telling himself he’s done a good job via tattoo choice over and over again, which is crushing and a bit pathetic. He wears necklaces that resemble candy necklaces the whole book (I see you editing that out cover artist and I’m intrigued). We find out it’s not a candy necklace, rather a few plastic beaded ones gifted to him by students- even though Emily refers to it as a candy necklace multiple times. 



So he is covered in sticker tattoos and wears a “candy” necklace and he’s a second grade teacher; and if you say this to any grandparents they will say this dude sounds like a pedophile. He sounds like red flags and schools would not hire that no matter how charismatic he is. He comes off like the author wanted to make “the perfect male elementary school teacher” that would “appeal to kids”. Danger, danger! But making a grown man seem like <i>he’s trying</i> to appeal to kids makes him veer too close to predatory. Is he trying? Is the author trying? Someone is trying too much. Sticker tattoos and a candy necklace, like, you are killing me Sarah Adams. The combo is an ick. What is this guy and how come the guy on the cover looks nothing like him? 



I love that someone wrote in a review that the author gave Jack tattoos and a motorcycle to distract the readers from how ”white bread” his character actually is. I think having tattoos is now more common than not. Almost everyone has at least one so it isn’t really the symbol of edgyness or rebellion it once was. So many “white bread” people have tattoos. This was actually something I liked about his character, the having of tattoos and it not fitting his personality, as is the case for many people. 



Imagine poor Jack over here wanting to be edgy and rebellious, sitting down at a tattoo parlor not really knowing what to get. He’s doing it to stick it to his garbage dad; and what is he never going to be? Good enough. So he’s going to give himself all the stickers and gold stars his dad never gave him. Over and over again. Make them permanent. He is like this successful confident man with a lonely broken boy living inside him; and it is like, done so sloppily.



Listen up, it’s a third book in a series and they can pretty much all be treated like standalones if you want so no hard feelings. I’m still going to read the fourth one if she writes it. Hopefully she won’t do the last book in the series thing where they waste so much time on the side characters to tie up their past stories at the expense of the current one. The best was “Practice Makes Perfect”, the second one, hands down. If you only read one, that’s the one.

<b>4 🌟</b>

<i>: ̗̀➛ started on 1/01/25
: ̗̀➛ finished on 1/02/25</i>

my first book of 2025!!

this book was heartbreakingly beautiful. i was crying, giggling, and smiling all at once. this is probably sarah's most emotional book yet and it really hit home. i related so much to emily, and it made my reading experience worse. (hear me out)

as someone who is/was a people pleaser and puts everyone before themselves, it was tough to read about emily's struggles and think about how hard i used to struggle just like her. i went into this expecting a cute little rom-com. and it was cute, but it was tough to read about and sympathize with emily through past experiences.

that being said, i still did enjoy this book A LOT! the banter, the teasing, the tension?? sarah adams knows how to write a book 🤭 i was sobbing because i wanted someone like jack, but i don't want jack because him and emily are absolutely perfect together 🥲

<i>thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc an exchange for an honest review! </i>

--

take #2 of my first read of 2025 😂 nothing better than to start with sarah adams!!

I always forget there is no real spice in Sarah Adams books, which with most authors I would find disappointing but here I somehow do not mind at all. Watching these two work out their complicated history and fall in love was SO perfect. More, please.

I mean rivals to lovers always brings out the best banter! I have read a couple others by Sarah Adam's and this one definitely lived up to my love for her writing. I was laughing and crying and just so hooked that I started and finished this one on the same day. It takes a special kind of writing to make me hooked from the very beginning and these twos story was it. Definitely fits so well in the series and I mean who doesn't love when the build up leads to that explosive revaluation between the two characters?

Thank you Net Galley for this e-arc!

I read and loved Practice Makes Perfect and thought, there is literally nothing else that Sarah Adam’s could write that will make me love anything more than this book… Well, I was terribly WRONG! I absolutely loved Beg, Borrow, or Steal so much more. Being in Rome, KY just makes me feel like life is fun and backroads and love and gossip in the best way and supportive and everything I would want my hometown to be.

I cried, laughed, swooned, and kicked my feet while reading this ARC. The banter was to die for, OMG! I highlighted like I’ve never highlighted before because this book had the best moments and lessons. I felt so connected to Emily and Jackson as I should, but how Mrs. Adam’s managed to make me feel connected to the side characters was like nothing I’ve experienced before! I mean there isn’t a comment or review that could do this book justice. What I love most about this book was its ability to transport me to the passenger seat of every truck, at the table of every kitchen, and on the streets of Rome in June. I loved the romance, but the deep emotional topics and lessons you leave with are unmatched. You see raw vulnerability and emotions from the characters and how they overcome a lot of the issues any real person would go through. I long to be supportive and able to communicate my feelings and thoughts the way Jackson can… “That’s a good man Savanah”!

5 million ✨♾️
Read it, Buy it, Love it! 🩷🩷🩷🩷