I loved being able to revisit these characters. Funny, heartwarming, and smart relationships. Great banter. Adorable characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Adams books truly never disappoint. Every book of hers I read gets better and better. Emily and Jackson were both flawed characters but were perfect together. If you enjoy a slow burn, you're definitely going to enjoy this. That first hint of a spicy scene??? THE TENSION. *chef's kiss*. Sarah has a way of making you invested in her characters and I absolutely could not put this book down.

I was so honored to not only receive this arc but have the opportunity to listen to the audiobook thanks to Penguin Random House Audio!

SHE NEVER MISSES!!!!
this was seriously on par with my love for Practice Makes Perfect and you all know how I feel about Will Griffin! But JACK BENNET?!! The man that you are 😭😭😭😭😭

Obsessed. I am Emily. Emily is me. I felt so connected to her overprotective big sister vibes and perfectionism personality. I literally don’t know what to do with myself? I am going to reread this with my eyeballs later on but my god, the audio?!!? IMPECCABLE!

Chapter 16?! Holy hell🥵😮‍💨🫠 I’ve never been edged so hard in my life! Go Sarahhhh! GET IT GIRL👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Super cute and fun read! I love a good rivals to lovers and this delivered on that perfectly! T was easy to read and the characters were charming had great chemistry and were likeable! Would for sure recommend this for a fun easy romance read and can’t wait to add to our library!

I loved heading back to Rome, Kentucky in Sarah Adams' Beg, Borrow, or Steal.
The rivalry between Emily and Jack was so fun to read and the perfect banter that Sarah writes made this such a fun read. I laughed out loud multiple times with this and couldn't put it down.
If you love rivalry to lovers and small-town romance, then you are going to thoroughly enjoy this one.

thank you for the ARC!!
loved the book & the banter between the characters, this book is an enemies to lovers trope with dual pov! sarah writes about grief in this novel and does it pretty authentically more than others i have read and i genuinely enjoyed this read. Emily being the middle child made me feel seen in a way because i resonated with the way sarah decided to portray emily. the banter made this book pretty enjoyable due to the fact that it was more witty however i do think the banter was prolonged. genuinely enojoyed the read and i would re-read if i wanted a quick romance read ! 3.5 for me

Oh my goodness this was such a super cute, fun, and funny romance story! I absolutely LOVED their banter, oh my gosh. Perfect! And their chemistry was insane! I loved this one from the very beginning.

✨Book Review✨

Beg, Borrow, or Steal - Sarah Adams

📖 We’re back in Rome, Kentucky with Emily Walker, oldest sister, 2nd grade teacher, and secret romance writer. When her arch-nemesis, Jack Bennett moves back to town after a cancelled wedding he starts to disrupt her carefully crafted world. He’s here to stay, as her colleague again and also as her new neighbor.

📚 Okkkaaaay Sarah Adams is just too good at romance. These characters are fun and relatable and swoony, but also awkward and cringy in the best ways possible. She has added some smut into her story, but you can easily skip those chapters if you’re not interested in spicy reading. Emily has internal dialogue that felt close to home and I absolutely loved her as a character. I appreciate that Sarah Adams makes character with depth and baggage without also making them red flags. The way she allows characters to develop and grow over the course of a novel is pure sunshine.

🌟 If you’ve read When In Rome and Practice Makes Perfect then you’ll want to preorder Beg, Borrow, or Steal from your local library immediately!

Special shoutout to @NetGalley and @authorSarahAdams for the advanced copy of this book! I loved being able to read it ahead of the publishing date of January 7th. Thank you!

#BookReview #BookRecommendation #RomeKentucky #BegBorrowOrSteal #EmilyAndJack #Bookish #BookLover

I love them!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🧡 Enemies to lovers
🧡 They’re both teachers
~ + secret identities
🧡 Looved the banter between them!! It made me lol so many times
• Chapter 16 🔥 (enough said!)
“I love a woman who’s selfish” deceased!!
🧡 Neighbors ~ forced proximity
🧡 Small town

“Just how often do you picture me, Jackson?”
“More than either of us is comfortable

While being heartwarming and swoon worthy there is still so much depth to Jackson and Emily.
I relate to Emily in some ways feeling like you have to hold in your emotions, because it’s hard to show them to those closest around you.

Small side note too: I love how Sarah wrote the spice, even though it was very minimal. It wasn’t too much even though it was still open door in one chapter.

When in Rome: TBR
Practice Makes Perfect: 4 ⭐️
Beg, Borrow and Steal: (my fav, so far) 5 ⭐️

Thank you Dell for an arc in exchange for an honest review 🫶🏽

5⭐️ Sarah Adams is my ultimate comfort-read author and this book delivered! It was everything I wanted in a cozy romance, and it was so wonderful to be back in Rome, KY with all the characters I’ve grown to love. I loved the depth of Emily and Jackson, and thought their personal development was phenomenal. I also appreciated that there wasn’t any miscommunication plot lines and that they both spoke honestly.

Love love loved. Laughed out loud so many times. A lil’ spicy in the best way!!

As a fan of the When in Rome series, I was excited to receive an ARC for Beg, Borrow, or Steal and be reunited with the Walker siblings and their little town called Rome. For the record, you don't need to read the other books as this one can be read as a standalone. An enemies to lovers trope with a dual point of view, it's a beautiful story that tackles grief from the death of family members in a very authentic way. Emily's character totally resonated with me as I'm the 2nd of 4 siblings too, was a teacher, and have also had to deal with the same grief. I found the her role in the sibling line up and how her personality matched how she dealt with life was super relatable. Jack's character was also super layered and complex. I found him to be so sweet, charismatic, but also able to work through his own issues. Their banter and interactions were fun and enjoyable to witness especially given you can totally picture all the stuff happening while they are living in a small town. Loved the banter and how their secrets intersected. This is one of those stories that continues to have twists and surprises all the way to the end which makes just ache for the next installment to come sooner.

Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Tropes: enemies to lovers, small town, forced proximity

Sarah Adams takes us back to Rome, KY to tell Emily’s story. Emily is the eldest of the Walker sisters and the family’s rock. Until everyone leaves her. If she wasn’t already lonely enough, it turns out her new next door neighbor is her arch nemesis, Jack, and she just doesn’t know what to do with that other than attempt to make his life miserable.

Both characters are dynamic, secretly a bit messy, and so so sassy. Emily and Jack have spent the last 10 years competing with and hating each other. And Emily has spent the last year reeling from her two younger sisters seemingly moving on with their lives while she remains in their childhood home. Their paths cross now more than ever, but can they find a way to be civil to one another?

Another great Sarah Adams read😍😍 I know that when I start a Sarah Adams it’s going to feel a little like coming home and snuggling up with a cozy blanket.

I’ve loved each of these books in this series but I think this one is my favorite. There’s just something about enemies-to-lovers that just works for me. The banter, the tension, the oh maybe I didn’t really hate you. It just worked here with Jack and Emily. I loved their vulnerability but also their honesty with each other. They were a breath of fresh air and I didn’t want to put this one down.

Of course, you can’t forget about the town in this series! I love how much they rallied behind Emily and all their antics!

This one is out January 7th and you should absolutely be picking this one up. It is book 3 and can be read as a standalone but I recommend reading the other two first! Thank you netgalley, the publisher and the author for my gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

Sarah Adams delivers! I love her Audrey Hepburn film inspirations in each book in this series and my god--the emails! She made me squeal in delight reading this!

5/5 stars

Trigger Warnings: gaslighting, emotional abuse, toxic relationships, death of a parent and grief.

I was so excited when I got the approval for this book! Sarah Adams is one of my favorite authors and her books keep getting better and better.

You don't have to read the 'When in Rome' series in order but I highly recommend it.

Emily and Jack are truly amazing main characters. They are both relatable, filled with depth and have lots of growth throughout the book. Sarah writes mental health so well and I felt understood by these characters. Her books contain grief and heartbreak but she handles it with such grace.

I loved the childhood friends/enemies to lovers aspect of this book. The teacher profession and secret writer was such a fun aspect to read about. So many scenes had me laughing out loud and I could picture what was happening. Rome is an incredible small town and it is definitely another character in this series.

I am so so excited for the next book in this series and I have a good feeling which two characters are going to be our main characters.

Thank you Netgalley, Dell Romance and Sarah for this arc!

Beg, Borrow, or Steal
Sarah Adams
Publication date: January 7, 2025
5/5 stars

I loved this book! Emily and Jack have been rivals through college and now are working side by side as elementary school teachers. When Jack calls off his wedding and becomes Emily neighbor, they both get more than they bargained for.

I was so excited to receive an ARC and it didn’t disappoint. I loved the banter throughout the story and the character development. This book is deeper than the other books in the When in Rome Series and goes into heavier topics, but it is also uplifting in true Sarah Adams’ fashion. I appreciated the author’s note at the beginning of the book for closed door modification, but I felt like two more chapters should have been included (easy to skip though without missing out on plot).

I highly recommend this book and I can’t wait for Maddie’s story! Thank you to Sarah Adams, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, but I’ve seen good things about the author. So when I got the ARC from NetGalley, I figured I’d start here and see if I feel like diving in further. Plus, the FMC is a control freak perfectionist older sister? OK, now you’re speaking my language.

It’s “enemies” to lovers, which isn’t one of my favorite tropes. Mostly because it means a lot of immature bitching at each other and stupid games and it’s generally annoying. But that part was alright - still not great, and went on too long, but ok.

And in general, it was very good. Not amazing, not drop-everything-and-read-all-her-stuff great… but I’ll queue it all up, for sure. Solid 3.5 rom com.

This is my favorite series by Sarah Adams.
Thank you to Sarah Adams, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The Plot:
Emily Walker is an organized, routine oriented, second grade teacher starting her summer break. Everything is going as planned until she notices that someone took her Saturday corner table at the cafe. Jack Bennett is back in town after breaking off his engagement in Nebraska. Him and Emily are enemies since college and she is not happy to see him. To make matters worse, she discovers that he plans to stay in town, continue teaching at her school, and worst of all, move in to the house next door to her.
Their summer is now filled with pranks, shenanigans, and other challenges that slowly make them ask the question: are we really enemies or is there something more?

My Thoughts:
I've read a few enemies-to-lovers tropes and thought I was getting sick of it. I was wrong. This book was great. The slow build-up was perfect. I do not agree with Annie that you should just jump into the steam. I was pleasantly surprised that this installation wasn't closed door romance like the others. For those who that worries, it's alright. It's still not super descriptive and is just perfect to still make you swoon. It seems like there was hinting at a fourth book, and that would be amazing! We still have one more Walker sibling that needs to find their person.

These characters had great development throughout the book and I appreciated that it wasn't just
a "walls are down, we're in love now" type of read. I enjoyed watching both characters work through their own problems-either together or on their own-and I loved how they slowly gained each other's trust.

Can't wait for the next book!

5 Stars Beg, Borrow, or Steal is the third book in Sarah Adams’ When in Rome series and is hands down my favorite in the series so far!

Emily Walker has been feuding with Jack Bennett since their first day of college over a decade ago and continued as they taught at the same elementary school. Their feud is about to reach a new level when Jack moves in next door to Emily. After breaking off his engagement, Jack moves to Emily’s small town of Rome, Kentucky. Jack constantly disrupts Emily’s carefully crafted world with his charm and antagonism. So like any mature adult would, Emily sets out to sabotage Jack’s move to Rome and Jack is only too happy to engage in this petty warfare. The close proximity leads Emily and Jack to find that they are more similar than they realized, including shared secret literary side hustles. Jack is a published mystery novelist using a pen name and Emily has just finished her first novel. When Emily accidentally sends her manuscript to their principal instead of a literary agent, she’ll need Jack’s help to steal it back and an unexpected alliance is formed. Could this be the end of their rivalry and the start of a romantic plot twist?

Beg, Borrow, or Steal has been one of my most anticipated 2025 releases and it did not disappoint! It was honestly the perfect read! The banter and petty antics, the slow burn and building tension between the characters, and the vulnerability Emily and Jack share with each other were sooooo good. Everything from the plot, to the pacing, to the character development was spot on. I’m already ready for a re-read!

Thank you Sarah Adams and Dell for the ARC! Beg, Borrow, or Steal releases January 7th!

Sarah Adams ability to make you laugh out loud and swoon during every page is unmatched. We always look forward to Sarah’s novels and Beg, Borrow, or Steal did not disappoint. It’ll be the book we think about at least once a day!