He's hard to crack...

Justin is a tough nut to crack. He and Amelia were friends. She broke his heart, now they are enemies and roommates ten years later when her nana leaves her house to the both of them. But Justin is not single. Justin was not likable. At all. They eventually reach a truce stage and then go their separate ways again and then reconnect almost a year later. Interesting pacing and the relationships are messy.

Amelia and Justin met as kids, they clicked right away and became best friends. They both had hard home lives and took solace in their friendship. They lived on either side of Amelia's Nana's house and her Nana was the one to take care of them. They had a falling out and haven't seen or spoken to each other in a decade. So when Nana dies and leaves the house to both Justin and Amelia, they need to put aside their difference and get along because they are stuck being roommates for the summer.

I wanted to love this one, or even like it but this was not the book for me. It has nothing to do with the skill of the author. This book had the perfect set up for me, childhood best friend's reconnecting with so much tension between them, but there was a trope in this one that was a huge part of a plot that is very rarely a hit for me. If i had known going in I would have skipped it, as it was set up to be a fail for me no matter what.

This was a childhood best friends to slow burn, forced proximity, single mom x musician romance that I absolutely became OBSESSED with. It was good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Meghan Quinn or Melanie Harlow. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book was fun for those who enjoy a really grumpy mmc and enemies to lovers with some tension. I’m finding these things aren’t really my jam personally but I don’t fault the book for that. It was ok.

This was my first ready by Penelope Ward. Perfect for second chance romances with lots of angst! A little enemies to lovers and had lots of emotions with the added spice.

With Roomhate by Penelope Ward, you get friends to lovers, enemies to lovers and forced priximity tropes. A cute and easy read. I got the ARC from SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books | Bloom Books via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are mine

This was the perfect book to get out of my big reading slump. I adored Amelia’s character and loved Justin! I was surprised how many tropes were in this one book. I loved them all! Perfect amount of spice and the chemistry was truly spectacular.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for the arc of this book.

Roomhate had me hooked from the very first page and I couldn't put it down. Fans of Emily Henry will enjoy. I can't wait to read more by Penelope Ward.

Why did I wait so long to read this amazing story? Justin and Amelia’s journey…OMG I’m in love! This story hooked me right away because I had to know what happened. I needed all the pieces of the puzzle and when I got them, STUNNED!

Do not get me wrong, there are some fine lines in this story but they were never fully crossed and no one did anything wrong. Was it hard to read about Justin’s well…boyfriendly duties, yes but I loved how raw and real it was for Amelia and I respected her for not crossing the line!

These two are stubborn as heck but I loved them for it. I loved their push and pull. They were explosive when they needed to be and I enjoyed their banter and friendship!

I actually enjoyed this story despite having a few issues with the execution. I felt like the pacing was a bit off— it moved fast, then had parts that felt very slow. It lacked some tension, and I didn’t care for the MMC for most of the book. I am used to reading books with grumpy male leads, but he was kind of obnoxious. The writing did a lot of telling instead of showing.

the classic penelope ward book and i finally got my hands on it!! this was the enemies to lovers book back in the day and ive heard nothing but good things about it- spoiler it did not let me down! is it a little bit cringey in hindsight? potentially, but i still ate it up! i will certainly be recommending this to fans or people who love enemies to lovers

Cute and quirky are how I'd describe roomhate to a friend. I would love to listen to this one on audio. The humor in this will have you crying and the romance will get you kicking your feet

This is a first person POV former friends now enemies to lovers, second chance romance trope. The plot is fast moving with some unpredictable twists. The male MC is really unlikable at first and then improves.

This story blew me away. A book I could not put down. I loved the way Ward explores friendship, romance, grief, and overall relationships. I felt satisfied reading and want more of her stories. These characters will remain in my heart for a long time. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I love Amelia & Justin's story just as much now as I did back in 2017 when I first read it. I love the gorgeous new cover too!
ROOMHATE is angsty and super swoony - just the perfect romance book.

Thank you to Penelope Ward, Bloom Books, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of Roomhate in exchange for my honest review.

Recently I have been getting into new tropes in the romance genre that I once thought I hated. For example: friends to lovers or friends to enemies to lovers (cough Roomhate cough). I had hopes that I would enjoy this book, but I was not 100% positive as I am just getting into some popular romance tropes. From the very beginning I fell in love with Amelia and Justin. Their situation in unique in so many ways, though something that I could see many grandparents doing, though maybe without the enemies portion of it all. While it is no secret that these two will fall in love given that it is a romance book and all, I like how the relationship progressed gradually. Even though they had a history, as readers we could see the tension SLOWLY building between them. Even after the reconnected, their romance was not instant. In fact, Justin was in a relationship. Rather, they reconnected and came to a tenuous peace, before they went their separate ways for another 10 months. In those months Amelia's life changes, and with that so does the course of their relationship. I honestly loved them together, and loved the addition of Bea. Everything about their relationship and how it developed felt real and that is what I appreciated more than anything about this book, that while it was a romance and utilized popular tropes, it also still maintained a feel of being realistic, like this could happen to anyone. I loved seeing the character development in Amelia and Justin, both as individuals and as a couple. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to all romance lovers out there! Give it a chance. The beginning is somewhat slow but it is needed trust me!

I love this author! The books always grab me right from the beginning, so good! I couldn't put this book down! Thank you for the ARC!

While it took me a bit of time to warm up to Justin and Amelia, I still really enjoyed this forced proximity romance. The plot twist was something I didn’t see coming at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book. This is my first read of a book by this author and I absolutely loved this book. Justin and Amelia were best friends growing up, but when Amelia was fifteen she moved away. We don’t know all the details but know that this move destroyed their friendship. It’s been years and now they are brought back together when Amelia’s grandmother passes away. Together they inherit her beachfront home on the island they grew up on. This story is told from Amelia's point of view. It is a slow reveal of what destroyed their friendship and when it was revealed it was very unexpected. This book had a few shocking twists. Additionally, Amelia is a very relatable female main character. Once I started this book I refused to put it down until I finished it. If you like second chance romances I highly recommend this book.

I was really hoping to like this one, I've loved other Penelope Ward books but sadly this one was not for me.

The writing was decent and the pacing was fine but honestly I just could not vibe with the characters. Justin and Amelia met when they were kids and because best friends but as they grew older together feelings started to bubble to the surface until one night Amelia discovers Just had been keeping a secret about their parents from her. She overreacts and actually moves to a different city. 10 years later they each own half of her grandmother's beach house and things are not exactly cool between them.

I really felt like Justin was too mean. I'm all for enemies to lovers but the hate was all one sided. Amelia was trying to reconcile the relationship and apologize for how she left things but he was just unrelenting in his hurtful comments and behavior. Even while she's trying to reconcile her FRIENDSHIP with Justin, Amelia is CONSTANTLY making comments about how hot he is and how much she wants to get with him when his GIRLFRIEND is right there befriending her and shopping with her and working with her. Eww Amelia. These few things were just the most obvious reasons I didn't care for this one. I won't go into detail about the breast milk coffee creamer situation or the almost period sex. Ugh. I'll still continue to try Penelope Ward, since I have had luck with her in the past but I wouldn't be able to recommend this one to anyone.

Thanks so much to Bloom Books for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review!